The No. 1 Hunfen King in the Entire Server [Interstellar] Chapter 12

During dinner, the village chief was so angry that his hands shook while holding his chopsticks.

Lin Jing, recovering from his hospitalization, was both easily tired and perpetually hungry. The village chief didn’t pursue the matter, so Lin Jing focused wholeheartedly on eating. 

But as he ate, he felt two odd gazes fixed on him. Looking up, he met the complicated stares of Feng Haozhong and Liu Cheng.

Their eyes met. Liu Cheng averted his gaze, while Feng Haozhong gave a sarcastic smirk.

Lin Jing: “…” Is the food not good? Why are they staring at me instead of eating?

The village chief, meanwhile, looked like he was suffering from Parkinson’s—his breath was shallow, his face twitching as if holding back a flood of rage. He seemed on the verge of fainting from anger. Yet somehow, he managed to finish the meal. The previously stubborn and unpleasant village chief now seemed unusually dejected. After eating, he silently turned and went upstairs.

Everyone watched his retreating figure in stunned silence, eyes full of questions.

“What’s wrong with the village chief?” Xiao Xu asked.

“Yeah,” Xixi frowned. “He seems to be in a really bad mood.”

“Did he get beaten up while herding cattle?” Blondie speculated.

Feng Haozhong snorted, “He came home and found the second floor on fire—how could he be in a good mood?”

Lin Jing was the only one who had mentioned going to the second floor earlier.

Blondie almost dropped his chopsticks. “D*mn! Brother Lin, you’re that hardcore?!”

Lin Jing sighed helplessly. “I didn’t set the fire; I was running for my life. Let’s not dwell on it. What clues did you find today?”

Mentioning clues, Feng Haozhong stiffened, putting down his chopsticks and pretending, “What’s the rush? We’ve had discussions before and got nowhere. Let’s focus on finding more clues first.”

Lin Jing: “Got it. You found nothing today.”

Feng Haozhong: “…”

Blondie wanted to laugh but suppressed it, covering his mouth under Feng Haozhong’s intimidating glare.

Xiao Xu chimed in, “We planned to leave the village today, but we were stopped at the gate by the station chief. He said we weren’t allowed to leave. Didn’t explain why—just said it’s prohibited.”

She looked a little defeated, clearly having made little progress.

She frowned. “In my last match, my average score was higher than this one, but the difficulty was much lower. I’ve never faced such a dead-end situation.”

Feng Haozhong, still nursing his bruised ego, seized the chance to retort, “And you? I doubt you two stayed behind to search for clues, huh.”

Blondie: “???”

Xiao Xu: “???”

Xixi: “???”

Lin Jing swallowed the words he was about to say, forcing a polite yet awkward smile.

Xu Wanzhi lifted his gaze slightly, giving Feng Haozhong a cold look.

The latter, about to continue, instantly wilted under the icy stare.

Lin Jing thought Feng Haozhong’s logic was bizarre. Why wouldn’t they search for clues? Sleep instead? He wasn’t Xu Wanzhi; he wanted to win, earn points, break into the top ten, get his S-level certification, and go to school!

Ignoring Feng Haozhong’s nonsense, Lin Jing said, “I saw the old man on the second floor today. If I’m not mistaken, he’s the same one you all saw at the police station on the first day.”

Blondie dropped his chopsticks, eyes wide. “That’s impossible! That guy was dead—he stopped breathing on the spot! How could he still be alive?”

Xixi was equally shocked. “Yeah, we all confirmed he was dead.”

Lin Jing said casually, “He wasn’t. He’s alive and well—even showed me some dance moves.”

Everyone froze at the thought of an old man dancing eerily in the sinister second-floor hallway.

Lin Jing turned to Xiao Xu. “You mentioned red lettering on the tombstones last time. It reminded me—there was a tradition in this era of engraving tombstones with red characters. These marked ‘the living.’ The idea was to prepare a gravestone in advance, painting the lettering black after burial.”

“Wh-what?” Xiao Xu turned pale.

Lin Jing continued, “In other words, those people aren’t dead. On the first day, did you notice if most of the tombs had the surname Xu?”

Xiao Xu thought back, her expression suddenly changing. “Yes! There were so many with the surname Xu!”

“Then that makes sense.”

Lin Jing had an unconventional playstyle but wasn’t the type to lord over others.

For him, though the game wasn’t particularly difficult, teammates were still teammates and deserved respect. There was no need to treat them like fools and save all revelations for the end to show off.

He recounted his discoveries meticulously while drawing briefly on the table with his finger.

Lin Jing said, “Last time in the woods, the girl I caught had the surname Xu. Today, I also found out that the village chief’s surname is Xu.”

After a pause, he directly shared what he had learned during the day: “The old man on the second floor told me about a legend in the village. The mountain where coffins are placed is called Spirit Mountain. According to legend, there’s a cave within the mountain that holds the secret to immortality. Many outsiders come here in search of it. Naturally, the villagers are wary of us, so we can’t get any useful answers.”

“As for that old man on the second floor, I believe everything you said. His state of being, whether dead or alive, is ambiguous. I’m more inclined to believe that he lives in a different way—’not dying’ is still living. The secret of immortality on Spirit Mountain may already have been discovered by the villagers of Qinghe.”

Lin Jing slowly worked through his thoughts, piecing everything together. “That girl also mentioned a curse. Is it possible that immortality is actually a curse? Or…” Lin Jing lowered his voice, “…a punishment for mortals trespassing on the sacred grounds of the gods.”

He concluded, “My current guess is that the legend of Spirit Mountain is real. Two hundred years ago, the Xu family discovered this secret. They gained ‘immortality,’ but it brought a curse upon the village. Those cursed were sealed away using special methods.”

“After all, the village is peaceful now. The villagers seem completely unaware of the curse’s existence.”

As Lin Jing spoke, Feng Haozhong’s face grew darker. He was clearly annoyed by Lin Jing’s commanding presence but couldn’t help but listen attentively.

Xiao Xu, on the other hand, was shocked. “The name of our scenario is The Door of Life and Death! This legend about immortality feels like the key!”

Blondie shivered. “Immortality… Brother Lin, you said the people on those tombstones in the forest aren’t dead. Then where are they now?”

Xixi’s eyes widened in sudden realization. “Right, if they’re not dead, where could they be?”

Lin Jing lowered his gaze and replied softly, “Two possibilities: either underground or on the cliffside.”

Finally, the strange atmosphere they’d felt while climbing the mountain started to make sense.

Lin Jing tapped the table thoughtfully. “What we need to figure out now is the original burial customs of this village. Burial practices are deeply rooted in history and ancestors’ beliefs. A community usually chooses either burial in the ground or placement closer to the heavens. These two views shouldn’t coexist, especially in a small, remote village like this.”

His mind flashed to the notebook of recorded names and the blurry map he’d seen in the village chief’s room.

Lin Jing’s expression froze slightly.

Blondie sighed. “Staying in this creepy village is going to kill me from fear. The clue for clearing this level is ‘the door,’ right? I bet it’s the cave door from the legend. Let’s just go straight to find it!”

Lin Jing glanced at him. “We have seven days. The mountain is huge. If we don’t force something out of the village chief, we won’t find anything.”

Blondie gritted his teeth. “Then can’t we just tie him up and interrogate him?”

Lin Jing sighed. “Do you think the village chief is defenseless?” With all the strange things in his house, messing with him might just get us killed.

The group around the table fell into deep thought.

Lin Jing suddenly turned to look at Xu Wanzhi, who sat quietly on the side, completely out of place in the discussion. “What do you think?”

Xu Wanzhi met his gaze, smiled faintly, and said, “I think what you said makes sense.”

Lin Jing smiled back, his tone laced with meaning. “Good. If you think I’m right, then I must be.”

In the middle of the night, under the high-hanging moon, Qinghe Village.

Xu Wanzhi stood outside the cowshed, his expression strange.

Tall and slender, the young man’s face was cold and elegant under the moonlight. Lin Jing had dragged him out here.

Lin Jing’s tone was blunt and efficient. “Stop sitting around and at least act like you’re doing something. Otherwise, you’ll be reported.”

Xu Wanzhi raised a brow. “Reported by whom?”

Lin Jing shot him a glance. “Me.”

“…”

Xu Wanzhi stared at him with frosty eyes for a long moment before chuckling softly. “Fine.”

Lin Jing said, “Tonight, you’re coming with me somewhere. If you’re going to slack off, at least put on a show.”

And so, to avoid being “reported” by a teammate, Xu Wanzhi found himself dragged into a midnight cow theft. Strangely, the absurdity of it piqued his curiosity.

The village chief was already sound asleep, and Lin Jing had been eyeing the big black cow for days. Now was the perfect time to act.

With his flashlight broken, Lin Jing had only a box of matches for light. The village chief’s house had been repeatedly looted in recent days—flashlights, axes, and even garlic had gone missing. Everything was now locked away tightly, leaving Lin Jing with only the matches.

“Do you know the way? Big Black, don’t mess with me—thanks in advance.”

Holding a torch in one hand and the cow’s lead rope in the other, Lin Jing led the black cow out.

Xu Wanzhi, fully rested from sleeping all day, was alert and found the situation amusing. “Where are you taking me?”

Lin Jing replied, “To test my theory.”

According to Xiao Xu, the village gate was guarded during the day, but at night, they had a chance to sneak out—and now they could even steal the village chief’s cow. It was the perfect opportunity.

The big black cow had just woken up, still groggy and confused—Lin Jing really did manage to fool it into walking out of the village entrance. The lights at the police station had already dimmed, and Brother Scar wasn’t there. Leading the cow, Lin Jing smoothly made his way out of the village.

Going up the mountain and coming back down were completely different experiences. The mountain path was narrow, and the night was pitch dark. Lin Jing didn’t dare ride the cow—if the animal misstepped in the darkness, he’d end up losing his life right then and there.

He held the torch high as he walked. The mountains undulated, dense with lush vegetation. If he ignored the eerie coffins hanging on the cliffside, bathed in cold moonlight, the scene might almost be considered romantic.

Qinghe Village was always like this—sparse stars and a bright moon in the sky.

The two of them walked in an unsettling silence.

Having been indirectly lectured by Lin Jing, Xu Wanzhi finally started to get the hang of ‘going with the flow.’ “So how exactly do I help you?”

Lin Jing gazed at the cliffside ahead and said softly, “You’ll know when the time comes.”

Finally, they descended the slope.

At the foot of the mountain lay a dense forest. When Lin Jing had arrived earlier that afternoon, the mist had already been heavy. Now, at night, the fog was even thicker.