45. Silenced?
Faced with a furious enemy, Miss Gong made a rare, swift decision.
“Brothers and sisters—run!!!”
Yes, this wasn’t cowardice.
Feng Lili was stronger than them, and this was her home turf. The vengeful spirits in the outer area would also be her allies.
Fighting her here was suicide.
So, without a second thought, they fled, managing to pass through a thick wall of mist just before Feng Lili arrived.
After passing through, the scene before them was no longer the misty graveyard, but a series of gloomy mounds.
Each mound resembled an ancient earthen fortress, seemingly inhabited—wait, the inhabitants were probably not human.
And the aura here seemed to have calmed down, without the earlier sinister feeling. In fact, it was so quiet that it was unsettling.
“Is this the inner circle?” Gong Yiling looked around.
Without any system notification, she thought she was still in the outer area, but this place was completely different. And when she turned around, the path they had come from was gone.
This meant this was indeed the inner circle.
But this inner circle… didn’t seem as dangerous as she had imagined. In fact, it looked quite peaceful.
“This is the inner circle.” Hearing this, Yan Chuyue couldn’t help but speak.
Throughout this journey, Yan Chuyue was the one who knew the most about what was happening, but to avoid arousing suspicion, she had remained silent.
But now, if she didn’t reveal certain truths, they might not know what was happening, or rather, they wouldn’t realize what they were dealing with before it was too late.
“Um… Yiling.” She didn’t care about arousing suspicion anymore. She could just use the “I read it in a book” excuse later.
“I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“Actually, I—my chest is bigger than yours.”
Gong Yiling was dumbfounded. “…Huh?”
Although only Miss Gong heard this, it was still quite shocking.
“If we compare roughly, I think mine is a bit bigger.” Miss Gong even replied seriously. “Of course, some clothes can accentuate your figure, while others can conceal it. We won’t know for sure until we’re naked—”
Before she could finish, Yan Chuyue covered her mouth.
She didn’t even know why she had blurted that out.
She had wanted to tell Gong Yiling the truth about this place. What did her chest size have to do with anything?
And who would go around bragging about their chest size, especially to another woman? Was she crazy!?
“That’s not what I meant. I meant—Yiling, you’re really beautiful… huh?”
Gong Yiling was completely confused.
This girl was not only acting strange, but she was also saying strange things.
“I know I’m beautiful.” Gong Yiling touched Yan Chuyue’s forehead, puzzled. “You… you don’t have a fever.”
Having said something she didn’t want to say for the second time, Yan Chuyue became anxious. But first, she did an experiment on herself.
“I had a dream last night.”
Yes, this sentence was what she wanted to say, and she said it.
“I dreamed of a pig.”
Whether it was the truth or a lie, she could say it without any problem.
“Yiling, this place—it’s like my home!”
Gong Yiling: “???”
Miss Gong, bewildered, pointed at the surrounding mounds. “Your home looks like this?”
“No!”
After quickly denying it, Yan Chuyue finally understood.
She could say anything, true or false, without any problem. But whenever she tried to reveal the truth about this place, her words would become strange.
There was no other reason. Even she couldn’t understand what was going on.
“Chuyue, are you trying to say something?”
“Some things… I can’t seem to say.” Yan Chuyue touched her nose, troubled. “This is very important. It’s about the entire Hundred Ghosts Ridge—how beautiful it is.”
These last four words, so out of place, made Gong Yiling raise an eyebrow.
She quickly understood.
This girl clearly couldn’t speak, as if something were preventing her from saying certain things.
This was truly strange.
Gong Yiling first thought of the system.
“System, system, what’s wrong with her? Is this your doing?”
This strange situation, she felt, could only be the work of an extraordinary existence like the system.
“The system is only the host’s system.” The system said, “Others have no connection to the system.”
“But she…?”
“Some things that the host should discover on her own must be discovered by the host. Even if not, it won’t be her.”
For some reason, the system’s words felt strange.
It had never spoken to her in such a tone before. It just felt… wrong.
Hearing this, Gong Yiling could confirm one thing.
This Hundred Ghosts Ridge was extremely unusual, and with the system’s initial incomprehensible hint…
“Alright.” Gong Yiling said, “Although I don’t know what you’ve discovered, Chuyue, from now on, I’ll try to follow your instructions.”
“Mmm!”
“And…”
Yan Chuyue, thinking she had something else she wanted to know, immediately asked, “And what?”
“Um, Chuyue.” Miss Gong scratched her cheek and muttered seriously, “If your home is like this, then you can just live with me. My house is big enough for you.”
“Get lost…” Yan Chuyue instinctively retorted, but then, realizing something was wrong, quickly corrected herself. “Uh… we’ll see.”
“Pfft…”
This girl’s occasional inconsistency was quite interesting.
Gong Yiling chuckled, then turned her attention back to the surroundings.
While she was talking to Yan Chuyue, Gong Musheng and Feng Liqu had already scouted the area.
Their conclusion was—the inner circle was indeed not as dangerous as the outer circle.
There was nothing around, no wandering ghosts, no hidden murderous mist, and the nearby caves seemed to be empty.
Why was this place called… the inner circle?
