“So, what’s your name?” Li Muyang asked, finding the disappearance of the little girl’s hostility both amusing and a relief.

    Now that the little girl had no hostility towards him, that was a good thing.

    It seemed he was one step closer to clearing the game.

    Li Muyang immediately seized the opportunity to get closer to the little girl, chatting and sharing stories, hoping to find out where she came from.

    But the little girl shook her head and said,

    “My parents told me that when I stepped out of that home, I no longer had a name.”

    Li Muyang raised his eyebrows at the girl’s response.

    “Oh? No name after leaving home?”

    This little girl didn’t seem to be an ordinary orphan...

    The little girl nodded obediently: “Mhm, I am a lost soul.”

    “My parents said that people like me are born calamities, monsters, and can’t live with them, so they sold me.”

    “The one who bought me called me Xiao Yecao.”

    The little girl was well-behaved and explained her experiences.

    Li Muyang nodded in realization: “So you’re a lost soul...”

    This kind of strange illness also existed in his world. It was a congenital condition.

    Those who suffered from it were said to hear voices from another world, gradually lose their sanity and consciousness at night, and periodically become bloodthirsty and violent.

    In the end, they might even go completely mad, turning into beast-like monsters that roamed the wilderness, attacking any living beings they encountered.

    For ordinary people, this disease was a disaster.

    But for demonic cultivators, those afflicted were excellent materials.

    Once lost souls went mad and became demonic, their blood would secrete a special substance.

    Once enough of this substance accumulated, extracting the demonic blood for use in refining tools or cultivation was extremely beneficial.

    At this moment, Li Muyang understood why the stronghold had bought three wandering children.

    These three wanderers were probably all lost souls, collected by the trafficker to sell to the stronghold.

    And Li Muyang was the caretaker chosen by Steward Wu.

    Apart from the three meals a day like normal people, lost souls also needed a caretaker with abundant vitality by their side, from whom the lost souls would continuously draw Yang energy.

    No wonder ‘Leng Aqi’ would rather work in the mountains than take care of Xiao Yecao.

    For ordinary people, this kind of work is purely a trap!

    Li Muyang let out a sigh of relief, his eyes brightening.

    Good, he had now understood the basic setup of the game.

    The next task was to get closer to this little girl who had been abandoned by her parents and to cultivate a relationship with her.

    Faced with the two options that appeared before him, Li Muyang thought for a moment and chose the first.

    Then his vision quickly darkened.

    Soon after...

    【You died. Game Over.】

    The sudden appearance of the blood-red dialogue box left Li Muyang dumbfounded.

    What happened that I died again?

    Didn’t I already lock that girl?

    Li Muyang was somewhat speechless, closed his eyes, and re-entered the game.

    This time, he saved his progress first and then carefully checked the chain and the well-behaved little girl before going to sleep.

    There seemed to be no issue. He was far enough away that the girl couldn’t possibly break free from the chain and attack him.

    Only then did Li Muyang choose to sleep, his vision going dark.

    And then...

    【You died. Game Over.】

    The blood-red dialogue box popped up again, and Li Muyang was forcibly returned to the main menu.

    Looking at the game system’s main menu, which depicted a mysterious small village among the mountains, Li Muyang was somewhat at a loss for words.

    “So the game has officially started, and they’ve upped the difficulty?”

    The key issue was dying inexplicably, which was just outrageous.

    Entering the game again from the saved point, this time Li Muyang did not choose to sleep but selected the second option.

    “I don’t want to be a provider... I can’t sleep.”

    So, in the hut with the extinguished candlelight, Li Muyang lay wide-eyed and motionless, ending up with insomnia.

    In the pitch-black room, there was dead silence.

    The little girl with the iron chain around her neck curled up helplessly on the bamboo bed, seemingly having a nightmare and looking pitiable.

    In the middle of the night, she suddenly struggled, emitting a low and terrifying growl like a wild beast.

    But it was just a few low growls, like talking in her sleep, and nothing else happened. She didn’t break free from the chain to kill.

    Li Muyang did not die this time.

    When the first rays of sunlight in the morning shone through the window onto him, Li Muyang was somewhat surprised to have survived the night safely.

    If it wasn’t the little girl going mad in the middle of the night... then who killed him the previous two times?

    Was there some other danger hidden in this place?

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