Finally, Gu Mian planted fifty Ghost Seeds in the Jinche Room.

To avoid confusing the cultivators with the ghosts, Gu Mian personally dug all fifty pits and planted each of the fifty seeds himself.

The soil in the Jinche Room was difficult to dig. Gu Mian took more than two hours to dig fifty pits—timed by Fatty with an electronic stopwatch.

As he watched Gu Mian bury the last seed, he asked doubtfully, "Doctor, have you figured out why the Evil God let you enter this instance? If you haven’t figured it out, what if after you water them, the seeds suddenly grow with a ’swish’, then run up to the exhibition platform to score themselves?"

"No problem," Gu Mian said as he picked up the watering can full of water, "I will catch them."

Fatty silently looked back; the greenhouse door behind him was wide open, with a mattress placed at the entrance.

Gu Mian had brought it down from the second floor, deciding to guard the greenhouse door immediately after sowing to prevent the ghosts from sneaking onto the exhibition platform when they matured.

"Actually, Doctor, I think you only need to plant one." Fatty said, glancing at the scorer outside the door, "Even if you only manage to plant one ghost, surely the scorer would be impressed by your care and persistence, and give you full marks."

The scorer eagerly nodded: "That’s right."

"There’s no food here." As Gu Mian watered the seeds, he spoke, "If, unfortunately, we plant a ghost that takes ten or even several dozen days to mature, the four of you will end up starving to death."

"No, that won’t happen!" The scorer immediately retorted, "You can check the ghost models and descriptions in the hall. The longest any ghost takes to grow here is seven to eight days with proper care, or ten days at most with poor care. At worst, they’d only be half-starved."

Fatty scratched his head: "Being half-starved doesn’t sound good. You make it sound like we should thank you for starving us half to death."

The scorer’s face turned red and green in patches, choosing not to speak further.

"I have great faith in my luck." By now, Gu Mian had finished watering. He placed down the watering can and looked at Fatty, "I believe my chance of getting a rare ’blind box’ is quite high. Those rare blind boxes lack description in the hall, so we’re unsure of their growth time;

"If I plant just a few seeds, I’m likely to end up with a batch of extremely rare ghosts that take half a year to mature, so planting more is safer."

"Speaking of which..." Gu Mian looked towards the scorer outside, "Have you ever seen anyone cultivate a rare ghost type?"

"Only once, and it was just before this instance closed, cultivated by the last team to enter." The scorer replied glumly, "They too adopted the method of single planting—taking turns to plant seeds to minimize the death rate;

"Three people died using that method; the first three couldn’t get full marks. When it was the fourth person’s turn, he successfully cultivated five ghosts, fortunate that three of them were of the same type, the ’Hide and Seek Ghost.’"

Hide and Seek Ghost?

Gu Mian had just read its description in the hall.

It’s a ghost without features, with a large eye occupying almost its entire face, and it lacks touch, hearing, or smell, using its lone eye to perceive the surroundings.

Once matured, the Hide and Seek Ghost plays a hide-and-seek game with its cultivator.

It closes its eye, allowing the cultivator to hide in the building. After a minute, it opens its eye to find the hiding cultivator.

Searching lasts ten minutes. If the Hide and Seek Ghost finds the cultivator within ten minutes, the cultivator dies. If not, the Ghost willingly goes on display.

"There’s a trick to hiding from the Hide and Seek Ghost." The scorer raised his voice while speaking, stealing a quick glance at Gu Mian, fearing the latter might not hear the trick, "The Hide and Seek Ghost can only use its big eye; it doesn’t have touch, hearing, or smell;

"The fourth one from that team stayed tightly on the Ghost’s back during the minute it closed its eye. The Hide and Seek Ghost couldn’t see its own back with just one eye, nor could it feel someone on it, so it could never find the cultivator stuck to its back;

"Both lucky and wise people," the scorer mused, "once you master the hiding trick of the Hide and Seek Ghost, the game is simple. He used the same method on the other two Hide and Seek Ghosts, earning almost three hundred points from them alone;

"Also, he cleared two fifty-point ghost games. Before cultivating the sixth ghost, he was just fifteen points shy of a perfect score. I almost thought he would score full marks."

Judging by the scorer’s last sentence, it seemed the fourth ghost seeder didn’t successfully clear it.

"So what happened afterward?" Fatty asked curiously.

"He died." The scorer shook his head regretfully, "Maybe he exhausted his luck producing those three Hide and Seek Ghosts, because his sixth was an extremely dangerous rare ghost."

Ah, of course.

That should have been Fatty’s first realization, given that the doctor asked about rare ghosts, prompting the scorer to tell them this story.

"Was he killed by the rare ghost?" Fatty felt it was a great pity, knowing the seed sower was just 15 points from a perfect score.

"No," the scorer shook his head again, "he killed himself."

"The criteria for ghosts to voluntarily display is the cultivator’s death?" Gu Mian guessed.

"Yes, and who can say if it was fortune or misfortune, but the fourth ghost seeder was just fifteen points from clearing when he cultivated a ’Sacrificial Ghost’. It is the most normal-looking type of ghost;

"It scores 500 display points, but demands the cultivator’s death;

"If the first ghost seeder cultivates a Sacrificial Ghost, it’s a win-win; if they willingly sacrifice, the remaining four can all leave;

"If it’s the second seeder, it wouldn’t be a loss. They die, three remain, and leave; any subsequent Sacrificial Ghost would not be worth it;

"He was the fourth, and teams using a single sacrifice method often place the most valuable and the silly ones last because the valuable must be protected, the silly ones are of no use but to sacrifice;

"The fifth ghost seeder was the dullest, and the fourth knew the fifth couldn’t hit a full score, so he sacrificed, completing the instance."

"So only the silliest fifth survived?" Fatty was moved, wiping tears from his face.

"Yes, only the fifth left this instance alive." The scorer’s head tilted back slightly, as if reminiscing those moments, "That team was the only successful one to implement the single sacrifice method, leaving a deep impression on me."

"Because of the instance’s trigger conditions, most teams arriving here before it closed were friends or relatives. Many fall out here; no one wants to die. One case even had someone killing another over claiming the greenhouse;

"But that team seemed indifferent to self-preservation, aiming only to leave the instance. As long as one left, it counted as victory, and in the end, they did."

Then Fatty, tears dry, asked the scorer, "By the way, what does the Sacrificial Ghost look like?" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"It’s a normal human appearance, but here it’s different. Most ghosts here look bizarre, so a normal-looking ghost stands out as anomalous."

The scorer glanced at the array of peculiar ghost models in the hall, aware of their odd appearances. When the instance halted, he considered binning the models, fearing that one day it might reopen, forcing him to work like Coach Che to buy them back.

"Why ask?" the scorer looked at Fatty, "Afraid he might cultivate a Sacrificial Ghost too?"

"He" referred to Gu Mian.

Before Fatty could answer, the scorer continued, "No need to worry, Sacrificial Ghosts are exceedingly rare, with almost zero planting probability. Besides, your doctor’s fierce enough to scare them off."

"Given his ’kill first, ask questions later’ demeanor, him sacrificing? If the Sacrificial Ghost truly appeared, who knows who’d get sacrificed..." the scorer added softly.

Fatty continued, "But does the Sacrificial Ghost sprout—a tiny man emerging from the soil, with two arms and legs—like a Ginsengfruit in Journey to the West?"

"Right." The scorer asked puzzlingly, "How did you know?"

"I saw it." Fatty replied.

What?

The scorer’s eyes widened, following Fatty’s gaze.

Gu Mian had just sown seeds, and one was already sprouting—a tiny man with arms and legs, just like the Ginsengfruit Fatty described.