Tap, tap, tap.

Accompanied by slight footsteps, a tall and thin figure slowly emerged from the shadows of the first floor of the mansion.

It was a man in a kimono, standing two meters tall, with cloudy, decayed eyes, and a jaw with broken bones, his entire mouth along with the skin and muscle of his chin hung down to his chest.

His arms, on the other hand, were extremely long, like a gorilla’s, dragging on the ground.

The newly appeared giant-mouthed monster seemed attracted by the flesh by the well,

It descended the steps, its cloudy eyes fixed on the torn limbs left by the Black Hairy Monster. It slowly took a step, paused for a moment, and then took another step.

Did it seem... afraid of that black-haired creature?

The two players did not remain puzzled for long,

For when the tall and thin giant-mouthed monster was ten meters from the well, it suddenly leaped forward, extending its hands to grasp a piece of the limb from the extreme distance, and then quickly turned to flee.

However,

The Black Hairy Monster, which had been pacing around the well as if it was unaware of the outside world, suddenly vanished without a trace, intercepting the tall and thin giant-mouthed monster on its escape path, gazing up at the creature and once again muttering, "No..." to itself.

Seeing no way to escape, the giant-mouthed monster, its mouth already hanging down to its chin, opened it further, wide enough to swallow a person whole, and aimed at the Black Hairy Monster.

The latter merely raised its arms, grabbing hold of the monster’s upper and lower jaws, and slowly ripped them apart.

Blood splattered, the head fell to the ground.

Li Ang’s eyelids twitched. Even from a distance, he could feel the power emanating from the Black Hairy Monster.

After killing the giant-mouthed monster, the Black Hairy Monster once again returned to aimlessly wandering, going back to the edge of the dried-up well to pace in circles.

"Hmm...is the System hinting that we shouldn’t get too close, or we’ll be attacked?"

Li Ang squinted his eyes; the dried-up well called "Guiquan," depicted in Ogashira Tetsuya’s painting, was clearly an important clue for clearing the game.

But with monsters crawling out of the well and the Black Hairy Monster guarding outside, how could they get through...

As the two players pondered, a gust of cold wind blew in their faces, and the Black Hairy Monster had silently crossed half of the courtyard to appear directly before them.

"No..."

It murmured as it raised its furry arm abruptly, swinging it towards Li Ang.

Bang!

Beside him, Wang Congshan decisively pulled the trigger, and the enchanted bullet spiraled into the head of the Black Hairy Monster.

Its head tilted to the side, with a crunching sound from its neck.

Meanwhile, its swinging right arm was barely blocked by the Heart Monkey Staff.

The force was immense.

Li Ang had already cast the Self-sculpting System’s "Aura Technique" on himself to slightly enhance his physique, yet he still needed to hold the Heart Monkey with both hands to contend with the opponent’s single-handed strike.

It was not the time to spare Spiritual Power. Li Ang gathered spiritual energy from the Ocean of Consciousness,

with "Burn a Finger," "Stun Spell," "Bioelectricity," and "Paralysis Hint" ready to release,

when the opponent suddenly recoiled its palm as if electrocuted.

"Yes...no...yes..."

The Black Hairy Monster stood still, muttering to itself for a moment, then fell silent, ceasing its attack.

Li Ang tentatively asked, "What is it?"

"...Masumi...Ryosuke...Yangyi..."

The Black Hairy Monster repeatedly uttered these words, lowered its head, slowly turned, and walked towards the Stone Well.

"Are you looking for Fujimura Masumi? Are you Fujimura Xiuping?"

Li Ang attempted to inquire further, taking a few steps forward,

but the Black Hairy Monster suddenly turned its head, its forehead hair fluttering to reveal fierce, glowing red eyes.

The message was clear: do not come any closer.

Li Ang stopped in his tracks and continued to question from where he stood, "What happened to the Fujimura and Hiratsuka Families and the Fate Carving Village? Are the two children from the Fujimura Family missing? Why are you here? Do you recognize this metal box, these two Noh masks, or this lantern?"

He took the metal box obtained from the Fujimura house out of his backpack and shook it,

but the creature showed no reaction, continuing to circle around the well.

"..."

Standing still, Li Ang released spiritual energy, but even the "Lesser Heart Connect Technique" fell into a void without any response. He gave up and put the metal box and masks back in his backpack.

Wang Congshan hesitated, "What do we do now?"

"Hmm...it seems we’re unable to interact right now."

Li Ang said, "If he truly is the Noh Mask Maker Fujimura Xiuping, and neither the metal box nor the masks from the Fujimura house can elicit a reaction from him,

we might need something else.

Like that child we saw hiding in the shoe cabinet at the Fujimura house, who might be Fujimura Ryosuke or Fujimura Yangyi.

But what’s strange is why Fujimura Xiuping would appear at the Hiratsuka house and guard by the well. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Could it be another tale of aristocratic grudges?"

This question remained unanswered for now. After some contemplation, Li Ang and Wang Congshan decided to bypass the well area and return to the main building of the Hiratsuka mansion.

During this time, Li Ang used the Heart Monkey Staff to pole vault onto the second floor, standing on the eaves extending outwards to look down below,

and caught a glimpse of the inside of the Guiquan Well, which held normal, accumulated well water, showing no abnormalities.

Li Ang climbed down from the eaves, walked back into the main building with Wang Congshan, and following the map’s guidance, ascended to the second floor, heading towards the direction of the Rope Corridor.

Soon, the two once again saw the L-shaped corridor filled with hemp ropes.

Due to the building’s design, the end of the Rope Corridor leading to the atrium was longer, with dense hemp ropes blocking the view but faintly visible in the middle of the corridor was a wooden sliding door with a huge flat, closed-eyed human face pasted on it.

According to the map, that should be the Knotting Room where the Hiratsuka Family made Shimenawa.

Just like last time, the hemp ropes in the Rope Corridor would fiercely attack any object entering the corridor,

Li Ang first tried lying on the floor to move forward, which was ineffective.

He then attempted to bring tables, chairs, stools, and other objects from other rooms and throw them into the corridor, intending for all the hemp ropes to have a target, but that failed too—the strangling force of the ropes was too great, causing the objects to break easily.

"Could it be..."

Li Ang pondered as he took out the Human Head Lantern and shone it down the corridor,

wherever the light touched, all the shadows of the hemp ropes came to life, entangling their main bodies,

each hemp rope, like an Ouroboros, wound itself into a ball, unable to attack, leaving the entire corridor unblocked.

"Alright, it really works."

Li Ang sighed, carrying the lantern with Wang Congshan into the corridor, standing before the human face on the door of the Knotting Room.