Upon seeing the surging waves sweep Ye Ming away, Jiang Xiuxiu's heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Once she realized what had happened, she quickly broke into a run, heading toward the riverbank.
"Ye Ming, are you okay? Will you survive, Ye Ming?"
She dashed to the edge of the river and then took large steps into the water.
She felt the icy cold water engulf her ankles, a chilling sensation spreading through her limbs.
She struggled to move her legs in the water, her feet almost completely numb from the cold.
The whole environment was eerily silent. Neither the village chief nor Ye Ming was anywhere to be seen, as if they had vanished into thin air.
The dark waters seemed like the gaping maw of a beast, swallowing all sound.
"Ye Ming..."
Jiang Xiuxiu's face grew increasingly pale, and her lips pressed into a thin line.
What's going on? Is Xu Bai doing this on purpose?
She had just started dating her boyfriend, and now Xu Bai had killed him?
She hadn't even had the chance to hold Ye Ming's hand properly! Couldn't she have just one chance to enjoy her relationship?
The resistance of the flowing water made it almost impossible for her to move. Inside her heart, aside from confusion, there was only maddening frustration.
At the same time, a chaotic swirl of thoughts flashed through her mind, intertwining like a tangled mess.
What exactly is Xu Bai trying to do?
Ever since she realized she had been deceived, and from the moment she saw that sudden giant wave, Jiang Xiuxiu had been pondering this question.
This was something she had to figure out, the starting point for all her actions to follow.
It was undeniable that Xu Bai was using her to kill the village chief.
That wave that swallowed both the old man and Ye Ming was definitely Xu Bai's doing.
But what puzzled her was that Xu Bai had no reason to do this.
In this game, the old man in the black robe was Xu Bai's right-hand man, his most loyal follower, who worked tirelessly for him, capturing players and killing them for him.
But what had Xu Bai been doing since the game started?
He had been using the players, step by step, to disrupt the villagers, making a mess of his followers' homes.
He killed the village chief, his most capable assistant, by drowning him.
These were his most important allies, yet he was cutting them off one by one.
What was his goal?
Was there a "mole" among the players?
Yes, after piecing together all these details, Jiang Xiuxiu realized that there had to be a mole among the players.
The reason was simple: she noticed that the other players' actions seemed to be "assisting" her. Whenever she came up with a plan, the players would help carry it out, almost never getting in the way.
Some instances were more subtle, but the incident with the burning house was too much of a coincidence.
Just when she was captured and in danger, the players happened to collectively decide to burn the house.
Before, the players had been too scared to speak out against the villagers. Although there had been a food-snatching incident, that was only because they had no food to eat.
To survive, they were incited by Jiang Xiuxiu to decide to rob the food. It was more out of desperation than initiative.
But how had they suddenly become so brave overnight?
Who led them to do this? It couldn't be that everyone simultaneously thought of burning the house.
Especially since the number of players had significantly decreased by then, reducing their overall strength.
Of course, these were just factors that pushed Jiang Xiuxiu to consider the possibility of a mole.
The real reason that confirmed the existence of a mole was what she heard from the players earlier today when she woke up.
"So what? You should all know that we have a way to deal with the river god."
"If you dare continue, we'll dare to keep messing with you."
When she heard this, Jiang Xiuxiu initially thought that the players had their own ways of gathering information and didn't pay much attention to it.
After all, at that time, her mind was entirely focused on how to seize this rare opportunity to drive a wedge between the villagers and the village chief.
But now, after noticing the odd details, Jiang Xiuxiu recalled this experience and felt something was off.
It wasn't surprising that the players knew that they had a way to deal with the river god.
But why did they find out at that particular moment?
Did Wang Xiaoyun go to them?
Or did someone decide the time was right and privately told them?
As Jiang Xiuxiu thought about this, her heart sank.
The answers to these questions were now painfully clear.
For so many "coincidences" to occur, they couldn't have been mere accidents.
Someone had infiltrated the group of players, deliberately guiding their actions.
Who could this person be?
Perhaps due to her overwhelming concern for Ye Ming, the first person to come to Jiang Xiuxiu's mind was Ye Ming himself.
Realizing this, Jiang Xiuxiu was momentarily stunned.
Then, to her astonishment, she realized that, considering everything, Ye Ming was indeed a very likely suspect.
First, he had ample time and opportunity to interact with the other players.
Every time the players were up to something, discussing and planning, Ye Ming was never by Jiang Xiuxiu's side but instead with the other players, satisfying the most basic conditions for suspicion.
Second, Jiang Xiuxiu wasn't sure how the other players obtained their information.
But Ye Ming could easily learn a lot from her, such as how to deal with the river god.
Most importantly, Ye Ming had been by her side all along, saving her, assisting her, helping her achieve her goals step by step.
It’s crucial to understand that the players' actions almost always paved the way for her.
As the one who pieced together all the clues, she was the key tool in Xu Bai's plan.
So, there had to be someone who had been quietly observing her all along.
This person would use her movements and circumstances to influence the other players, creating the most convenient environment for her.
Thus, the most likely person was Ye Ming.
Either him, or the player Ye Ming was closest to when he was with the group.
However, after figuring all this out, Jiang Xiuxiu quickly dismissed the possibility of Ye Ming being the mole.
After all, they had known each other since the last game, and Ye Ming had saved her multiple times, even sacrificing himself in the end.
Although Jiang Xiuxiu wasn't particularly perceptive when it came to emotions, she could tell that whether it was his initial desire to befriend her or his later confession, Ye Ming had been sincere.
Aside from these points, Ye Ming also had no motive. There was no reason for him to collude with Xu Bai.
He had always been kind and straightforward, and from their interactions over the past few days, Jiang Xiuxiu could sense that he wasn't particularly obsessed with the five million yuan prize.
Not just in terms of money, but in many other matters, his attitude seemed almost indifferent.
His participation in the game felt more like he was just there to play or to experience something new.
It was slightly possible that other players might be tempted by Xu Bai in their dreams and start "betraying" the group.
But Ye Ming just had an accident!
She thought that if Ye Ming managed to survive, he might be slightly suspicious.
The fact that he was eliminated so quickly only proved that Xu Bai's chosen accomplice wasn't him.
But what use is it for her to think about this now?
Ye Ming had fallen into the water; it must have been seven or eight minutes by now. Could he still be alive?
Jiang Xiuxiu thought about it, tugging at the corner of her mouth, not even knowing what kind of expression she should have.
She could only feel that her once lively and hopeful heart was gradually turning numb.
Standing in the water, Jiang Xiuxiu felt that her shoes and pant legs were soaked.
The river water at night was exceptionally cold. She shivered all over, and each gust of wind made her involuntarily flinch.
After a while, she stopped her difficult walk through the water.
Staring at the vast, endless river, she was in a daze for a moment before finally looking away.
It had been so long, Ye Ming was probably really gone by now.
Xu Bai would surely make his next move soon, and she needed to hurry back to the village and take a look. What was the point of wasting time here?
Jiang Xiuxiu turned and slowly began to make her way back to the shore.
She had given up.
However, just as she reached the shore, a faint, strange noise suddenly came from the river.
Gurgle, gurgle.
It was as if something was bubbling up from the depths.
Jiang Xiuxiu noticed this, and her motion to leave came to an abrupt halt.
The next second, she felt the current behind her suddenly grow stronger. The water began churning as if something was thrashing about beneath the surface.
Splash! Splash!
Accompanied by a loud splash, the entire surface of the river began to boil.
Clouds started gathering thickly in the sky, layer upon layer, obscuring the moon that had been hanging in the air.
The air became increasingly oppressive, with faint streaks of white light flashing across the sky.
The wind picked up rapidly, and soon Jiang Xiuxiu felt tiny raindrops falling on her face.
It was raining.
Jiang Xiuxiu froze for a moment, then quickly came to her senses.
This isn't good. Xu Bai has started to make his move.
After meticulously setting up numerous traps, Xu Bai, who had been holding back for three whole days, was finally baring his fangs.
Without a second thought, Jiang Xiuxiu turned and ran toward the village at the fastest speed she could muster.
This time, Jiang Xiuxiu didn’t head back to the village but instead ran toward the mountain on the west side of the village.
She wanted to check out the temple dedicated to Xu Bai, the evil god. Her intuition told her that something was definitely going to happen there.
Perhaps the rain had startled the villagers, as Jiang Xiuxiu encountered no attacks on her way.
The villagers were just wandering around in fear, and as she passed, she could hear many of them whispering among themselves.
“The River God is angry. Has the River God abandoned us?”
“The River God is fake. How can you still believe that? It’s all a lie.”
“What about those outsiders? The village chief is gone. Should the wedding still go on?”
With all these events unfolding, the villagers were thrown into chaos and panic, just as Jiang Xiuxiu had anticipated.
Some were beginning others to lose their faith, while others, like headless chickens, were unsure of what to do next.
But the more she saw, the heavier Jiang Xiuxiu's heart became.
She noticed a group of villagers heading toward the river.
It was clear that these villagers still believed in the River God and its existence.
They thought the River God was angry because they hadn’t offered it a complete sacrifice for several days.
So, after the sudden change in the weather, they decided to take a drastic step and brought the three captive players to the river.
But their fate was unexpected.
A wave swept them all into the river.
He killed his own followers.
Whether it was the village chief or the devout villagers, they were all swallowed up by the river under Xu Bai's control.
This is madness!
Why would Xu Bai do this? How could he dare to do this?
After learning the villagers' fate, Jiang Xiuxiu was completely bewildered.
What unsettled her even more was that, in her shock, she suddenly realized she had no way of understanding Xu Bai’s strategy anymore, nor did she know how to counter it.
In the past, she could at least grasp some of Xu Bai’s weaknesses and figure out how to use the rules to restrain his actions.
For example, in this game, Xu Bai had dozens of villagers as followers.
They could hurt the players, and their collective power was significant.
But among them, only the village chief could communicate with him.
In this situation, players only needed to eliminate the village chief, and the remaining villagers would become a disorganized, leaderless group.
If they were more ruthless, the players could even brainwash the villagers, using them to turn against Xu Bai perhaps by destroying his temple and burning his incense.
This had always been Jiang Xiuxiu’s plan.
She thought it was the most logical way to clear the game.
But now, her plan was completely disrupted.
Xu Bai had drowned the village chief, his only weakness.
But he didn’t spare the villagers either.
It looked like he was courting death.
As a deity, Xu Bai’s power came partly from sacrificing players and partly from the offerings of the villagers.
By losing so many followers at once, his power would be drastically weakened, and it was all his doing.
It was practically self-destructive.
But when Jiang Xiuxiu calmed down and thought about it, she realized that she had no idea how to continue restraining Xu Bai.
Xu Bai had used blood to prove that the “River God” was real.
After witnessing their loved ones die horribly in the river, the villagers would surely be terrified of Xu Bai’s power.
Even if they no longer believed in him, they wouldn’t dare to oppose him for now.
Not to mention, most of the remaining villagers were those whose homes had been burned by the players.
In time, for the sake of food and survival, they might once again kneel before Xu Bai, begging for the god’s protection.
So, while Xu Bai might have weakened, his fatal weakness was gone.
If the players wanted to defeat him, they’d have no choice but to confront him head-on.
Moreover, Xu Bai had instinctively learned the skill of “killing the donkey after the grinding is done.”
After using the villagers to gain enough energy from sacrificing the players, he ruthlessly discarded these double-edged tools.
Throughout this whole process, it seemed like the players were working hard to target Xu Bai, but in reality, they were always under his control.
Xu Bai knew he couldn’t stop them from breaking the situation, so he simply handed them the knife.
But as he handed it over, he subtly guided the players’ actions, ultimately blocking their path entirely.
But how could this be?
Wasn’t he supposed to follow the program?
He was practically trying to break the game’s rules, to overthrow the established order that had already been written.
How could a program, an AI, see through the game’s rules and even think of breaking them?
The more Jiang Xiuxiu thought about it, the more she felt that Xu Bai’s level of calculation far exceeded the limits of any normal AI or program.
To put it bluntly, he seemed to understand the strategies and thought processes for escaping this game better than many of the players themselves.
While the players were racking their brains to counter him, he was also constantly thinking about how to break the situation.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
After walking for who knows how long, Jiang Xiuxiu, still lost in her thoughts, finally climbed the mountain.
Looking at the lush forest in front of her, she took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the speculations swirling in her mind.
Then, she stepped onto the path ahead.
Following this path up, it wasn’t long before Jiang Xiuxiu arrived outside the temple she had seen before.
And outside the temple, a person was standing quietly.
At this moment, he was standing at the edge of the cliff, looking out over the world below.
Hearing Jiang Xiuxiu’s approaching footsteps, the person seemed to sense her presence and tilted his head slightly.
“You’re here,” he said calmly.