The class monitor meticulously sorted out the dinner waste produced by everyone, packed it up, and threw it outside the mansion. When she returned, she found that everyone was already locked in a battle with their eyelids.

"Everyone seems so tired~ How about this? We'll take turns standing guard, two hours each, so everyone can get six hours of rest."

"Rody contributed the most today and worked the hardest, so he earns the right to sleep on the bed."

"I'll take the first shift tonight. Maybe it's because I didn't exert myself much, but I'm not tired at all."

Almost as soon as the monitor finished speaking, Rody had already collapsed onto a wicker chair and fallen asleep, faint snores audible in the quiet room.

Gao Yuxuan laid out a moisture-proof mat on the floor as his makeshift bed, leaving the large bed entirely for Anna.

It made sense—someone of Anna's stature really couldn't sleep anywhere else.

In this dilapidated old house where someone had died, the bedding was, of course, unusable. Anna stripped the bed down to its bare frame, laid her own moisture-proof mat over it, and reluctantly settled down to sleep.

"Ah, youth—able to fall asleep the moment they lie down~"

The monitor gazed at the three sleeping figures in the bedroom with a look of satisfaction. Strangely, there was no trace of fatigue on her face.

The sound of heavy rain battering against the mansion created a natural white noise, masking any other sounds.

The monitor, moving with the grace of a ballet dancer, began to twirl and spin lightly across the room.

After finishing her impromptu dance, she approached the old dressing table in the master bedroom. She wiped the dust off the mirror and then used a tissue to clean an antique wooden comb.

Loosening her ponytail, she applied some kind of ointment onto the comb and began to slowly brush her hair in front of the mirror.

The reflection in the mirror showed her face, always smiling. From the start of the fieldwork until now, she hadn't displayed a shred of nervousness.

...

Night fell.

Unlike cities, which remain brightly lit under ample artificial light, this small hill in the outskirts was now shrouded in complete darkness.

The wall lamps that the group had preemptively placed around the mansion were doing their job, keeping the entire building illuminated.

**[9:00 PM]**

Assigned to the last watch, Rody woke up as if he had set an internal alarm clock. He expected someone to come and switch shifts with him, but instead, three pairs of eyes were staring at him intently.

"You're awake?" The monitor asked excitedly.

"What are you all doing?"

"Come quickly~ Gao Yuxuan discovered a secret about this mansion during his watch, so he woke us all up. Considering how exhausted you were today, we decided to wait an extra half hour for you."

"A secret? What kind of secret?"

The monitor, feigning mystery, stood by the wall and knocked on it. A clear, hollow sound echoed back.

"Gao Yuxuan measured the length of the hallway and compared it to the width of the master bedroom and the adjacent room. He found a significant gap between the two rooms—large enough to fit a hidden compartment."

"There's likely a secret chamber here. We just haven't found the switch. Perhaps the owner of the house removed it beforehand."

Rody also tapped on the wall with his fingers. "It doesn’t sound very thick. We should be able to break through it, right?"

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Exactly~ But we were worried about waking you up."

The monitor turned gracefully, spreading her arms to the left to reveal her close friend.

Anna, holding a masonry hammer, was already prepared to break through the wall. Judging by the hammer's worn condition, it was likely something they had found inside the mansion.

With a burst of strength, she twisted her waist and swung her arms, delivering a powerful blow.

*Bang!*

The force was astonishing. One swing created several cracks in the wall, with the impact point completely caved in.

Without pause, she swung again.

*Boom!*

The second blow created a fist-sized hole, allowing a glimpse into the pitch-black interior.

The darkness inside made everyone uncomfortable. Growing up in the city, they were unaccustomed to such complete darkness; even the most remote alleys were lit to some degree.

Seeing the unsettling blackness, the monitor quickly threw a touch-activated light ball inside.

*Pop!*

The ball activated upon impact, emitting a white light. Strangely, the reflected light turned red.

The wall-breaking continued.

*Boom!* With the third blow, a large section of bricks collapsed. As the secret chamber was fully revealed, a distinct, overpowering stench wafted out.

Unlike the pure decay from the backyard, this stench was mixed with the scent of incense.

The floor was littered with the corpses of crows. The light ball they had thrown in earlier now rested among the dead birds. The cramped chamber offered no suitable place to step.

The walls of the chamber were painted deep red with crow blood.

At the far end of the chamber stood an altar draped in yellow cloth. On it were a metal oil lamp, rotting fruit offerings, burnt incense sticks, unused yellow talismans, and a family photo.

This was the first time they had found a photo of the family who once lived in this mansion.

However, the main ritual items seemed to have been removed.

One other detail stood out in the chamber: four hooks were mounted on the ceiling, one at each corner of the rectangular room, seemingly meant to suspend something.

Drawing on both textbook and extracurricular knowledge, Gao Yuxuan began to analyze. "Perhaps someone was conducting corpse refinement here... If I'm not mistaken, these hooks were likely used to suspend a coffin."

"Corpse refinement?"

The first thought that came to everyone's mind was the four bodies hanging from the locust tree in the backyard, especially the elderly man's body, which had been the hardest to burn.

Rody's sharp eyes noticed something odd about the photo on the altar.

Wrapping his shoes in plastic bags, he carefully stepped over the crow corpses to retrieve the black-and-white photo.

"This is—!"

Everyone froze upon seeing the photo.

It depicted five people.

The young man and woman, the middle-aged woman, and the elderly man were the four bodies they had already dealt with.

But there was a fifth person—a middle-aged man in a wheelchair, dressed in plain clothes.

Although the old-fashioned black-and-white photo was somewhat blurry, it was clear that this man was in poor health, likely suffering from a severe illness.

Standing behind him, pushing the wheelchair, was the elderly man who had been hanging highest in the tree—the one hardest to deal with.

The monitor immediately pieced everything together. "I knew it! The age gap between the old man and the middle-aged woman was too large for them to be a couple. It turns out the old man was the housekeeper.

This sickly man was the master of the house!

He must have been skilled in some form of Taoist magic. Gravely ill and nearing death, he decided to refine his own corpse, with his entire family as crucial participants.

The family was likely controlled by talismans or had their minds altered, and they were taught the steps of corpse refinement in advance.

The first stage of the process took place in this secret chamber.

The bodies were placed in a coffin suspended in the chamber, absorbing yin energy through the dense crow blood. Once enough was absorbed, the family would carry the coffin to the actual site for corpse refinement.

Most likely, a hidden cave.

Afterward, the family would decorate the mansion with funeral arrangements, slaughter all the pigs and cows in the backyard, and finally hang themselves.

The animal carcasses and the hanged bodies nourished the locust tree in the backyard. The yin energy gathered at the tree roots and transmitted downward, completing the final stage of corpse refinement.

Unfortunately, we interrupted the process.

All their careful preparations were ruined, and the man in the photo may have climbed out of his coffin early due to the disrupted ritual. He might have already returned to the mansion."

The monitor's words sent a chill through everyone, freezing their breath. Their heads turned in unison toward the paper-covered bedroom door, motionless.

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