After making sure there was no movement inside the door, he said to the door of the shrine: "Sorry for disturbing you late at night."

After saying that, a sudden "creak" sound sounded in the dead silence, and he pushed the door open and entered.

The air that had been dusty for a long time began to flow again. Qi Qiu moved his nose, and the familiar burning smell filled the confined space.

But the old lady at the hot spring said that this shrine had never suffered a fire, so why did it have the same burning smell as the hotel?

Is it because there was no shrine when the fire broke out? Instead, it was the "Unoya" that stood on the street and was used to entertain guests?

To be on the safe side, Qi Qiu followed the advice of the old lady at the hot spring and placed his will-o'-the-wisp bamboo lantern in the torii gate outside the shrine, and bought two flashlights from the item bar for lighting.

"Qi Qiu, look at this." Qin Rang had already mastered the skill of finding clues. He held up his flashlight and headed towards the stone license plate on the right side of the shrine gate.

Qi Ku followed the light of the flashlight and noticed the "Rules of the Shrine" engraved on the stone plate——

1. Please bow before passing each torii gate;

2. Open fires are prohibited in this shrine. Please do not smoke or burn incense here;

3. The shrine provides ema to visitors. After entering the shrine, visitors should take the ema and write down their wishes and leave their names;

4. Please write the price you are willing to pay on the back of the Ema, and hang the Ema with your wishes and price on the prayer stand;

The second rule once again supports Qi Kui’s conjecture that the original site of the shrine was burned.

But the third and fourth rules are a bit tricky. In short, the shrine forces visitors to use ema to pray and make wishes, and they have to pay a certain price for their wishes.

Qin Rang subconsciously looked at the "Ema Pick-up Place" on the side. When he saw clearly the ema provided to tourists, he immediately took a breath.

The ema provided by the shrine are all black, which is the ema that the old lady at the hot spring warned was contaminated by the resentment of the evil spirit.

"This... what are we going to do?" Qin Rang looked at Qi Qiu at a loss, "The rules of the shrine say that visitors who come in must write down their wishes and prices on the Ema, but this Ema is obviously someone who has been criticized.

Spiritually polluted…”

Qi Kui did not stick to the rules, but walked to the prayer stand, his eyes quickly lingering on the ema that had already written his wishes: "Don't worry about the "Shrine Rules" first, let's find Xiaomi's ema first.

clue."

Qin Rang was stunned for a moment: "Xiao Mi's Ema? What do you mean...?"

Qi Jiu narrowed his eyes slightly and browsed the prayer rack attentively: "She must have been here on New Year's Eve before the accident."

Although their current timeline has not yet reached New Year's Eve, Qi Jiu believes that the "explosion and fire accident" in the dungeon and the "player's timeline" are related to the inner and outer worlds, and the "inner world" is the "reality" of Xiao Mi's life.

", the New Year's Eve fire accident had already occurred there, and as they were trying to break through the "Outside World", they saw the deserted and weird phenomenon of the hot spring street.

Based on the dream prompts given by the guy, Xiaomi's vague and confusing words, and the information on the radio, Qi Ku concluded that the "shrine" is a space that connects the outside and inside worlds, and is also a rope that connects the fragmented clues.

Qin Rang was confused after what he heard, but after many times of cooperation, he had become accustomed to Qi Zu's style, and he was also used to not thinking deeply about the reasons, but completing Qi Zu's plan with the highest efficiency. After all, he knew that he would never be able to keep up with that.

The guy's brain was spinning so fast that he would probably be confused if he asked, so he might as well roll up his sleeves and do it.

After a copy of the "burglary" training, coupled with the blessing of Ou Huang's physique, Qin Rang can find things at a speed that ordinary people can't match.

"Found it! This should be the right one!"

Soon, Qin Rang keenly found the black Ema signed Xiaomi from among the thousands of Ema with wishes written on it on the prayer rack.

"I'm offended." Although he was a little resistant in his heart, Qin Rang still stood on tiptoes and took off other people's Ema signs.

Qi Jiu shined his flashlight over it and saw that there was a girl's immature handwriting on the painting——

"I want to forget that my mother has left and let her live again, or let me return to my mother's side."

"Prayer: Xiaomi"

It turns out that my wife left Xiaomi before the explosion.

In this way, it can be explained that when Qi Gu asked Xiao Mi what "thing" he wanted to ask for at the shrine, Xiao Mi said two words with a blank look in his eyes - mother.

Qin Rang was shocked and quickly turned to the back where the price of making a wish was written -

"I am willing to give everything I have for this, including the rest of my life."

Qin Rang held Xiaomi's Ema and his lips trembled: "This...?"

"We can probably figure it out clearly. In order to return to her mother, Xiaomi made a deal with the evil spirit in the shrine. This is probably the cause of the explosion and fire accident," Qi Jiu said with a clear look, "Put it away

Let’s take this Ema back to Xiaomi.”

Qi Jiu guessed that his wife probably died in an accident. On New Year's Eve, Xiaomi, who lost his mother, would come to this shrine to make a wish.

Xiaomi mentioned in her wish that she wanted to forget that her mother had left, so she would forget the fact that her wife had passed away, the black painted horse's deal with the evil spirit, and even the disaster caused by it.

Xiaomi is most likely the "starting point" of this accident and the "solution" to the dungeon.

As for why Xiaomi and his wife live in the dungeon as players... the truth will probably be known after Xiaomi recovers his memory.

Qi Qiu looked at the thousands of black pieces of ema on the shelf again, and also noticed that each piece of ema was tied with a red rope and a small bell.

After he removed the "front desk call button" last night, he found a bunch of cursed hair in the hole in the wall with the same red string bell tied to it.

The sound of the bell is a signal that ghosts can attack tourists.

Qi Gu speculated that the resentful spirits who died in the hotel accident were being controlled by the powerful evil spirits in the shrine, and were probably similar to ghost-like existences.

If that's the case, the witch's plan to free the ghosts in the hotel may be ineffective.

The ghosts in the hotel are probably just confusing options, because these ghosts with red rope bells are just the ghosts of evil spirits. Even if all the ghosts in the hotel are successfully put to rest, there is no way to really break the energy of the evil spirits and leave this instance.

.

The burning smell that filled the shrine showed that the powerful evil spirit hiding behind the ghost was also burned to death, and for some reason, it is now trapped in the shrine, and its power has not been truly released.

After successfully obtaining Xiaoya's Ema, the two began to try to leave the shrine.

But something strange happened after all. The interior of the shrine is not big. They returned along the original route, but they could not find the main gate of the shrine leading to the hot spring street, nor could they see the torii gate when they arrived.

The white fog became thicker and thicker, so thick that it almost swallowed up the light of Qi Zu's flashlight.

The two of them circled the courtyard and the prayer stand several times, and the chained door really disappeared into the thick fog.

"This...what exactly is going on?" Qin Rang crossed his arms and trembled slightly. He couldn't tell whether he was scared or feeling clammy and unbearable at the moment.

Qi Jiu: "Are you trying to beat the wall? Why don't you try Xiaomi's method?"

Qin Rang: "Ah...are you talking about hot urine showering your head? I can't pee now."

Qi Jiu: "Just kidding, we can't get out, most likely because we didn't fulfill the rules set by the shrine for travelers."

Qin Rang suddenly realized: "You mean...because we didn't make a wish?"

"But the hot spring mother-in-law told me that black ema is contaminated by evil spirits, so try not to use it..." Looking at Qi Gu's thoughtful look, Qin Rang suddenly had an ominous premonition.

Qi Jiu: "But if we don't use it, we may be trapped in the shrine until we die, and we won't be able to get out, and..."

Halfway through his words, he walked straight towards the table where the ema was placed.

Qin Rang was stunned for a moment and hurriedly followed him: "And what?"

"Since we can't change the rules of the shrine, and we can't change the color of the ema, then we can control our wishes."

As he said that, Qi Jiu had already picked up a piece of black Ema and wrote his wish on the front of the Ema——
Chapter completed!