Changeling

Looking at the mummified bat corpse, Su Bai nodded.

Great. Really great.

Now they were all here.

"Main Task hasn’t begun yet, we have no choice but to follow the plot and keep going. But, please allow me to chant the Mantra of Rebirth in Pureland for these two predecessors. It won’t take long."

Seven put his palms together and started chanting with a serious look. That was a way of showing respect, even though the spirits of the two bodies were long gone.

Gyatso also stood by the monk with his eyes closed and lips moving. Must be chanting something silently.

Both monks were paying respect to their predecessors and trying to release their souls from suffering.

Su Bai looked at the monk from Central Plains and then the one from Tibetan, sighed and moved that bat corpse to between the two dead men.

"Let’s count this one in."

...

When everything was ready, they went in. In the beginning, it was a flat rocky road, which was easy for walking. However, as they continued walking, it turned into soft black soil, which felt sticky when stepped on. It felt so soft that they felt as if they would fall down any time. It was halfway up the hill or even a little higher, so they would definitely be killed if they accidentally stepped into a hollow gap.

After about twenty minutes, they came to a crossing. Seven and Gyatso were about to move on, but Su Bai raised one hand. "Wait."

They stopped and turned to Su Bai.

Su Bai crouched down and felt the ground. It was dark in the cave, but every here and there, some sunlight would leak in and roughly light up their way.

After a careful examination, Su Bai clapped his hands and stood up:

"A group of people passed by before us. There are footprints, not very clear, but I can tell that it was not long ago, and there were at least five people. They were all wearing boots, not cloth shoes or slippers like us."

Seven and Gyatso looked at each other. Seven said, "Must be the other audiences."

"And they’ve teamed up." Su Bai agreed. "Let’s slow down a little bit. We can use some pathfinders for free."

Seven nodded. They walked much slower as if they were having a spring outing; since they knew there were others in front, they were less anxious or worried.

However, such a happy trip didn’t last long. Soon, a shadowy figure appeared by the path, lying on a rock.

Gyatso closed his eyes and sensed in the distance: "A dead man. Just died not long before."

Gyatso was able to sense life from distance; it was he who had made sure that no one was alive in the hot spring pond from far away. After he had checked several times, they went on.

The dead man was in his thirties, wearing a black jacket. He had an open wound as big as a bowl as if a bulk of flesh was scooped out by a large claw, and his chest was hollowed. He must have been killed instantly.

Out of habit, Su Bai searched the man’s pockets. When he reached for his trousers' pocket, he found they were already inside out. He smiled: "His partners took everything before leaving him behind. There’s nothing left."

"Actually, it might be his partners that killed him." Gyatso examined his wound. "If he was killed by an animal, it would have to be as huge as a tiger or a leopard to cause such a large open wound. But as an audience, he should be vigilant and capable enough to keep himself safe; large animals couldn’t have hidden from his watch. Besides, there was no trace of fighting; since they were a team, it’s not possible that only one of them was killed but others didn’t even fight for a second."

"An internal conflict? They can’t be that stupid. Here, at this moment, they turned against each other and killed one of their own? What happened to them?"

"Don’t analyze all the audiences with rational thinking. I know a lot of people who will do what they want even in a story world, and yet they could survive." Seven said. Then he reached out his hand to close the dead man’s eyes and looked forward. "Since they’ve got an internal conflict, we should hurry."

Su Bai nodded. He knew what Seven was talking about. If the team in front of them was as cautious and careful as they were, it would save them a lot of trouble by walking behind them; but if their team was chaotic and even had internal conflicts, it would not be something lucky. God knew what trouble the team ahead might bring to them.

The three of them sped up. But after a while, they found another body.

This time it was a good-looking young woman in her twenties. She had been killed instantly with a bulk of flesh scooped out from her chest, her pockets were empty, and she had no earnings, though her ears were pierced. They couldn’t tell whether they were taken off by her teammates or herself before the story world began.

Su Bai examined the body and said thoughtfully, "Something’s not right."

Seven also shook his head: "Indeed, something doesn’t add up."

"It’s odd if they had two internal conflicts, killed one teammate at a time and left the bodies behind like this." Gyatso added.

"An internal conflict is not like sex; it doesn’t get better with a second time. It should have been an one-shot deal, but this is the second body; and my gut’s telling me there’s a third one." Su Bai rubbed his chin, then crouched down again and even laid on his stomach to examine the body.

Seven didn’t disturb him, just went to examine the body in his own way.

Gyatso stood where he was and kept an eye on the surroundings.

Finally, Su Bai found something, raised a hand and signaled Seven and Gyatso to come over. When it came to ghosts and supernatural stuff, they were professionals; but Su Bai was better at observation and details. After all, he had killed people and ran a murder club, and was thus more experienced than those detective fiction fans on the internet.

"Look, before and after this dead woman, the traces and numbers of footprints didn’t change. I can also remember that the footprints didn’t change around the dead man either. If they were wearing soft shoes and leaving no obvious traces, it would make sense; but I’ve been paying attention: the man was wearing climbing boots with crampons and this woman was wearing ladies’ boots with high heels. It would be impossible if they could walk on such soft dark soil without leaving any mark."

Su Bai couldn’t help but pursing his lips.

"What’s your point?" Seven asked.

Su Bai smiled: "Maybe the team in front of us didn’t have an internal conflict, but they’ve got changelings— my guess, they don’t even know that two teammates in their team were already dead!"

"You’re saying… something has secretly killed two people in the team, changed their appearance and sneaked into the team?" Seven said.

"It must be." Gyatso was a little worried. "What should we do? Catch up and warn them? Since that something chose such a method, it must be unable to kill them all through a single head-on fight. But if it continues taking them down one by one, the whole team will disappear before they even notice."

Seven agreed. "If that team is gone, we’ll become the target. It’s just a matter of time. They shouldn’t be too far from us, so we’d catch up to them soon if we hurry up. And we’ll be asking for no gratitude from them; they just survive a little longer and that’ll be good for us."

"No hurry." Su Bai suddenly said with a strange look. "Let’s put others aside and mind our own business for a minute.

"First of all…

"Shall we check our team and make sure that no one is replaced already?"