In the small basement, the walls were covered with a layer of cold light.
“Xiao Fu, your proposal this year is a bit tougher.”
The chubby Zhou Gong took a bite of an egg cake in the face of the rotten and swollen corpse on the autopsy table.
It was nearly naked; a male corpse. He was left with only decaying rags, barely resembling an ancient-style outfit. Twisted and circling roots drilled out of the corpse’s eyes, nose, and mouth, and the head was propped up and deformed.
“The ‘corpse cage’ is very precious.” Qiao Shang, who was known as a “Priestess”, agreed.
Fu Xingchuan smiled and said nothing.
The corpse cage technique was a special ability of Fu Wuya. This ancient “Charon” was strong enough to disturb space, causing small-scale spatial disruption. He couldn’t turn beans into soldiers, but he could shrink people down to the size of a sesame seed.
However, just like other special abilities, Fu Wuya’s ability was limited. He could only create spatial chaos with dead bodies full of evil qi, and the right corpse had to be prepared in advance, like preparing a spirit weapon, then they had to set up magic arrays to pull people into the corpse.
This was where the “corpse cage” came from.
Long ago, the corpse cage could contain thousands of troops within a dead body. When the time came, whether it was to use fire to cremate those people or release them, it all depended on the former director, Fu Wuya.
After Fu Wuya turned into an evil tree, hundreds of well-preserved corpse cages were still stored in his trunk. He originally wanted to use it as a valuable weapon to protect his children and grandchildren, but unfortunately, modern humans preferred to fight with hot weapons, and there were rarely any real battles where thousands of troops and horses would appear on the battlefield any longer.
Nowadays, it had more research value instead.
“Such a corpse cage alone can fetch up to eight figures.”
Since the “Evil Smith” included the corpse servant profession, Zhou Gong wasn’t shy about the smell of corpses. He swallowed the remainder of his egg cake in two bites and turned to Fu Xingchuan curiously.
“I heard that Shian won’t reimburse for this kind of thing… yet you’re using it to scare these kids. Is there any consideration?”
“Isn’t this good? It’s all under our noses. Even if Sunken Society wants to do something, they won’t even be able to watch them.” Fu Xingchuan guarded the corpse as he reclined on an ergonomic chair.
Zhou Gong was taken aback. “You’re saying someone is watching these kids?”
“Intuition.” Fu Xingchuan smiled. “Let’s just say it’s my imagination. Anyway, there are two big shots here, so nothing will happen to this group of little brats.”
In the Bai Yongji case, Yin Ren was attacked by an unknown sniper in an abandoned amusement park. In the Guo Laifu case, while in the Archive, Yin Ren went out of control and an unconventional sense of peeping appeared. In Gengsheng Town, Qi Xin, whose origin was unknown, also confronted Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo.
Knowing that Yin Ren was most likely Zhong Yi, the series of events couldn’t be summed up to simply “bad luck”.
There was a force that was watching Yin Ren.
Fu Xingchuan didn’t know how much that force was paying attention to him—if he pretended nothing happened and let this guy wander around the city, it was hard to say if something would happen.
“Rarely confused” wasn’t his style.
The Fu residence on Dongshan was guarded by Fu Wuya in addition to himself and two other top masters. The scope of activity was in such a small room underground.
Regardless of whether that force would make a move or not, he could test it.
Two steps away from Fu Xingchuan, Qiao Shang crossed her arms tightly and was silent.
She looked at the muddy and collapsed face of the corpse and occasionally moved her gaze to Fu Xingchuan, showing a contemplative expression.
“Protective custody and prohibition?” She mumbled without asking further questions.
…..
“Okay, Fu Xingchuan.”
Yin Ren looked at the writhing, white, and fat thing in front of him expressionlessly as his red eyes turned gray.
He was willing to call it a fly larva in the modern way with respect to circumventing its more common name.
“Judging from the touch, texture, smell, and current situation, we’re in a human corpse.” Zhong Chengshuo’s voice drifted a bit.
He was also a bit erratic.
A few minutes ago, seeing Comrade Xiao Zhong jump step by step, Yin Ren couldn’t help but recall the modern fairy tale <The Little Mermaid>—the so-called knife-like pain of every step probably referred to this situation*.
*Clarity: In the story, written by Hans Christian Andersen, when the Little Mermaid got her feet, they caused her excruciating pain whenever she moved, as if she were walking on two sharp knives.
Stepping on the sticky and smelly ground, Zhong Chengshuo’s face was wrinkled like an orange.
This person could selectively forget about cleanliness when fighting, but unfortunately, Shian’s game wasn’t considered a “battle” no matter how he thought about it. The sense of the existence of the dirty environment had become particularly strong.
Yin Ren raised his hand and cast a levitation spell. He then grabbed Zhong Chengshuo’s nylon straps and let him float behind him for the time being.
Just looking at this scene, it was difficult to tell who the science post was.
With rich life experience, Yin Ren had a general judgment of their environment. When he saw the group of fly larvae drilling everywhere, his judgment was clouded.
Wow, this enemy doesn’t even want to fight.
Lord Ghost King politely changed his route.
“This may be some kind of spatial dislocation.” Zhong Chengshuo took out his cellphone. He turned his body around and tried to photograph the… small animals crawling not far away.
It seemed that this person’s cleanliness was only effective by contact as Yin Ren couldn’t bear to look at it.
“The decay isn’t so serious yet. I suspect this is an escape mission by trying to find a safe route to escape,” Yin Ren said. “As time goes by, they may artificially increase the difficulty.”
“Nn.”
“Well, look on the bright side. Didn’t Qi Xin tell us to be careful?” Yin Ren tried to comfort himself amidst the smoky smell. “Looking at the decay of the corpse, it must be in a low-temperature environment and not in open air. Since we’re here, it’ll be hard for the sniper to attack us like last time.”
“Mm.”
“…Don’t ‘Mm’, brother. Don’t you usually like these inferences the most?” His boyfriend didn’t want to brew a serious atmosphere with him, so Yin Ren’s plan to distract himself completely failed.
Zhong Chengshuo: “I was just thinking, ‘It’s suitable for couples to take pictures together in special places’… The sight just now was very impactful. I just didn’t find the right angle.”
Yin Ren: “……”
Thank god. Otherwise, they probably would have a conflict over the topic of “why you need to delete those precious photos”.
Based on Zhong Chengshuo’s straightforward personality, wouldn’t it be fun if he set that photo as the wallpaper for his phone? Yin Ren sighed and walked in the direction of human breath, while Yellow Millet also followed suit.
Dog Thing suddenly shook.
Yin Ren stopped and checked his phone curiously.
[Siren: Don’t go further.]
Yin Ren: “Oh, it’s rare for you to speak up.”
[Siren: The aura of the house in front is getting stronger.]
[Siren: But this isn’t home.]
This line looked familiar. Why did everything look like a home to it? Yin Ren groaned but still obeyed Dog Thing’s warning. While this thing was stupid, Qi Xin’s incident fully proved that its ability to judge crises was still good.
Yin Ren only thought for half a second before, at the next moment, two black shadows full of cold air appeared beside him.
“Hua Tao, Lu Tanfei, proceed carefully. I’ll see how your evil qi changes.”
He didn’t want them to risk their lives. In any situation where something was wrong, the influence on ghosts was much more obvious than living creatures with entities.
It was fine for Lu Tanfei. His mind was full of his grandson, and he didn’t care about the surrounding situation. Yin Ren suspected that even if he called Grandpa Lu to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, the old man wouldn’t even blink.
Hu Tao turned around, and a question mark appeared on her face—in order to fully express her shock, Comrade Hu Tao moved her eyes, nose, mouth, and brows fully and formed them into a question mark.
The scene was filled with gloom for a while.
Yin Ren consciously explained, “This is a joint exercise competition of Shian.”
“Isn’t Shian a regular institution? Can’t this game be played under the sun? I thought you had defected to Sunken Society.” Hu Tao covered her chest. “I was watching a food romance drama, and now that title has been tainted by the smell of maggots.”
She stubbornly stood still and didn’t move while also holding Grandpa Lu from moving forward.
Yin Ren was helpless. He carefully divided a little evil qi and stuffed it to the two ghosts. Hu Tao sniffed the evil qi while her mouth continued to act as the dot of the question mark. “What about the last time? This concentration is strange and tasteless.”
“Shian is watching.” It wasn’t appropriate to directly use Evil Force. Let alone Fu Xingchuan, there were two other “number ones” watching.
“Tsk.”
Hu Tao returned to her normal facial features. She passed Lu Tanfei and flew a few steps in the direction Yin Ren had just moved towards. “So?”
Yin Ren hissed.
Zhong Chengshuo couldn’t see the ghost, so he could only poke Yin Ren’s shoulder curiously.
“It’s interesting. They have become smaller.” Yin Ren clapped his hands and told the two ghosts to fly back. “This isn’t a simple corpse cage—if you go in the wrong direction, you will continue to get smaller.”
The so-called “right direction” may not necessarily lead to a path.
Shian had a few tricks, and it seemed that it wasn’t possible to get out of this place by distinguishing the internal structure of the corpse. If they kept going in the wrong direction, this corpse would eventually become an “infinite labyrinth”.
Yin Ren quickly squeezed the talisman in his hand. A red light flashed, and a hole was cut in the wall in the distance. The corrupted tissue fluid and odor gushed out in large quantities, revealing almost liquefied stinky flesh.
“Stop attacking.”
Zhong Chengshuo struggled to move his body as he grabbed Yin Ren’s wrist.
“If you use your full strength, you’ll definitely be able to blast it away. But if the corpse is deformed, it’s hard to say what will happen to the others.” Zhong Chengshuo pushed up his glasses. “Based on Shian’s style, not to mention not getting a high score, this may lead to being disqualified.”
“Okay, I’ll give it a try.”
Yin Ren cracked his joints and finally regained some brilliance in his eyes.
“Zhong Ge, this game is getting fun.”
Five centimeters away from the depths of the rotten flesh that Yin Ren had cleaved into…
Something gathered up the dark silk floss that was stuck to the rotting flesh, and it struggled a few times between the sticky flesh. In the darkness, a dozen crimson eyes instantly lit up.
“Ah… Ah….”
In the darkness, there was a small murmur. A little bit of Evil Force seeped out of the gaps in the carrion, and slowly dissipated in the cavity.
The mycelium-like limbs tore apart the carrion and squeezed in the direction where Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were.
“Ahhh… Ah… Don’t want… to die…”
The thing let out a thin cry in human-like language.
In the small basement, the walls were covered with a layer of cold light.
“Xiao Fu, your proposal this year is a bit tougher.”
The chubby Zhou Gong took a bite of an egg cake in the face of the rotten and swollen corpse on the autopsy table.
It was nearly naked; a male corpse. He was left with only decaying rags, barely resembling an ancient-style outfit. Twisted and circling roots drilled out of the corpse’s eyes, nose, and mouth, and the head was propped up and deformed.
“The ‘corpse cage’ is very precious.” Qiao Shang, who was known as a “Priestess”, agreed.
Fu Xingchuan smiled and said nothing.
The corpse cage technique was a special ability of Fu Wuya. This ancient “Charon” was strong enough to disturb space, causing small-scale spatial disruption. He couldn’t turn beans into soldiers, but he could shrink people down to the size of a sesame seed.
However, just like other special abilities, Fu Wuya’s ability was limited. He could only create spatial chaos with dead bodies full of evil qi, and the right corpse had to be prepared in advance, like preparing a spirit weapon, then they had to set up magic arrays to pull people into the corpse.
This was where the “corpse cage” came from.
Long ago, the corpse cage could contain thousands of troops within a dead body. When the time came, whether it was to use fire to cremate those people or release them, it all depended on the former director, Fu Wuya.
After Fu Wuya turned into an evil tree, hundreds of well-preserved corpse cages were still stored in his trunk. He originally wanted to use it as a valuable weapon to protect his children and grandchildren, but unfortunately, modern humans preferred to fight with hot weapons, and there were rarely any real battles where thousands of troops and horses would appear on the battlefield any longer.
Nowadays, it had more research value instead.
“Such a corpse cage alone can fetch up to eight figures.”
Since the “Evil Smith” included the corpse servant profession, Zhou Gong wasn’t shy about the smell of corpses. He swallowed the remainder of his egg cake in two bites and turned to Fu Xingchuan curiously.
“I heard that Shian won’t reimburse for this kind of thing… yet you’re using it to scare these kids. Is there any consideration?”
“Isn’t this good? It’s all under our noses. Even if Sunken Society wants to do something, they won’t even be able to watch them.” Fu Xingchuan guarded the corpse as he reclined on an ergonomic chair.
Zhou Gong was taken aback. “You’re saying someone is watching these kids?”
“Intuition.” Fu Xingchuan smiled. “Let’s just say it’s my imagination. Anyway, there are two big shots here, so nothing will happen to this group of little brats.”
In the Bai Yongji case, Yin Ren was attacked by an unknown sniper in an abandoned amusement park. In the Guo Laifu case, while in the Archive, Yin Ren went out of control and an unconventional sense of peeping appeared. In Gengsheng Town, Qi Xin, whose origin was unknown, also confronted Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo.
Knowing that Yin Ren was most likely Zhong Yi, the series of events couldn’t be summed up to simply “bad luck”.
There was a force that was watching Yin Ren.
Fu Xingchuan didn’t know how much that force was paying attention to him—if he pretended nothing happened and let this guy wander around the city, it was hard to say if something would happen.
“Rarely confused” wasn’t his style.
The Fu residence on Dongshan was guarded by Fu Wuya in addition to himself and two other top masters. The scope of activity was in such a small room underground.
Regardless of whether that force would make a move or not, he could test it.
Two steps away from Fu Xingchuan, Qiao Shang crossed her arms tightly and was silent.
She looked at the muddy and collapsed face of the corpse and occasionally moved her gaze to Fu Xingchuan, showing a contemplative expression.
“Protective custody and prohibition?” She mumbled without asking further questions.
…..
“Okay, Fu Xingchuan.”
Yin Ren looked at the writhing, white, and fat thing in front of him expressionlessly as his red eyes turned gray.
He was willing to call it a fly larva in the modern way with respect to circumventing its more common name.
“Judging from the touch, texture, smell, and current situation, we’re in a human corpse.” Zhong Chengshuo’s voice drifted a bit.
He was also a bit erratic.
A few minutes ago, seeing Comrade Xiao Zhong jump step by step, Yin Ren couldn’t help but recall the modern fairy tale <The Little Mermaid>—the so-called knife-like pain of every step probably referred to this situation*.
*Clarity: In the story, written by Hans Christian Andersen, when the Little Mermaid got her feet, they caused her excruciating pain whenever she moved, as if she were walking on two sharp knives.
Stepping on the sticky and smelly ground, Zhong Chengshuo’s face was wrinkled like an orange.
This person could selectively forget about cleanliness when fighting, but unfortunately, Shian’s game wasn’t considered a “battle” no matter how he thought about it. The sense of the existence of the dirty environment had become particularly strong.
Yin Ren raised his hand and cast a levitation spell. He then grabbed Zhong Chengshuo’s nylon straps and let him float behind him for the time being.
Just looking at this scene, it was difficult to tell who the science post was.
With rich life experience, Yin Ren had a general judgment of their environment. When he saw the group of fly larvae drilling everywhere, his judgment was clouded.
Wow, this enemy doesn’t even want to fight.
Lord Ghost King politely changed his route.
“This may be some kind of spatial dislocation.” Zhong Chengshuo took out his cellphone. He turned his body around and tried to photograph the… small animals crawling not far away.
It seemed that this person’s cleanliness was only effective by contact as Yin Ren couldn’t bear to look at it.
“The decay isn’t so serious yet. I suspect this is an escape mission by trying to find a safe route to escape,” Yin Ren said. “As time goes by, they may artificially increase the difficulty.”
“Nn.”
“Well, look on the bright side. Didn’t Qi Xin tell us to be careful?” Yin Ren tried to comfort himself amidst the smoky smell. “Looking at the decay of the corpse, it must be in a low-temperature environment and not in open air. Since we’re here, it’ll be hard for the sniper to attack us like last time.”
“Mm.”
“…Don’t ‘Mm’, brother. Don’t you usually like these inferences the most?” His boyfriend didn’t want to brew a serious atmosphere with him, so Yin Ren’s plan to distract himself completely failed.
Zhong Chengshuo: “I was just thinking, ‘It’s suitable for couples to take pictures together in special places’… The sight just now was very impactful. I just didn’t find the right angle.”
Yin Ren: “……”
Thank god. Otherwise, they probably would have a conflict over the topic of “why you need to delete those precious photos”.
Based on Zhong Chengshuo’s straightforward personality, wouldn’t it be fun if he set that photo as the wallpaper for his phone? Yin Ren sighed and walked in the direction of human breath, while Yellow Millet also followed suit.
Dog Thing suddenly shook.
Yin Ren stopped and checked his phone curiously.
[Siren: Don’t go further.]
Yin Ren: “Oh, it’s rare for you to speak up.”
[Siren: The aura of the house in front is getting stronger.]
[Siren: But this isn’t home.]
This line looked familiar. Why did everything look like a home to it? Yin Ren groaned but still obeyed Dog Thing’s warning. While this thing was stupid, Qi Xin’s incident fully proved that its ability to judge crises was still good.
Yin Ren only thought for half a second before, at the next moment, two black shadows full of cold air appeared beside him.
“Hua Tao, Lu Tanfei, proceed carefully. I’ll see how your evil qi changes.”
He didn’t want them to risk their lives. In any situation where something was wrong, the influence on ghosts was much more obvious than living creatures with entities.
It was fine for Lu Tanfei. His mind was full of his grandson, and he didn’t care about the surrounding situation. Yin Ren suspected that even if he called Grandpa Lu to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, the old man wouldn’t even blink.
Hu Tao turned around, and a question mark appeared on her face—in order to fully express her shock, Comrade Hu Tao moved her eyes, nose, mouth, and brows fully and formed them into a question mark.
The scene was filled with gloom for a while.
Yin Ren consciously explained, “This is a joint exercise competition of Shian.”
“Isn’t Shian a regular institution? Can’t this game be played under the sun? I thought you had defected to Sunken Society.” Hu Tao covered her chest. “I was watching a food romance drama, and now that title has been tainted by the smell of maggots.”
She stubbornly stood still and didn’t move while also holding Grandpa Lu from moving forward.
Yin Ren was helpless. He carefully divided a little evil qi and stuffed it to the two ghosts. Hu Tao sniffed the evil qi while her mouth continued to act as the dot of the question mark. “What about the last time? This concentration is strange and tasteless.”
“Shian is watching.” It wasn’t appropriate to directly use Evil Force. Let alone Fu Xingchuan, there were two other “number ones” watching.
“Tsk.”
Hu Tao returned to her normal facial features. She passed Lu Tanfei and flew a few steps in the direction Yin Ren had just moved towards. “So?”
Yin Ren hissed.
Zhong Chengshuo couldn’t see the ghost, so he could only poke Yin Ren’s shoulder curiously.
“It’s interesting. They have become smaller.” Yin Ren clapped his hands and told the two ghosts to fly back. “This isn’t a simple corpse cage—if you go in the wrong direction, you will continue to get smaller.”
The so-called “right direction” may not necessarily lead to a path.
Shian had a few tricks, and it seemed that it wasn’t possible to get out of this place by distinguishing the internal structure of the corpse. If they kept going in the wrong direction, this corpse would eventually become an “infinite labyrinth”.
Yin Ren quickly squeezed the talisman in his hand. A red light flashed, and a hole was cut in the wall in the distance. The corrupted tissue fluid and odor gushed out in large quantities, revealing almost liquefied stinky flesh.
“Stop attacking.”
Zhong Chengshuo struggled to move his body as he grabbed Yin Ren’s wrist.
“If you use your full strength, you’ll definitely be able to blast it away. But if the corpse is deformed, it’s hard to say what will happen to the others.” Zhong Chengshuo pushed up his glasses. “Based on Shian’s style, not to mention not getting a high score, this may lead to being disqualified.”
“Okay, I’ll give it a try.”
Yin Ren cracked his joints and finally regained some brilliance in his eyes.
“Zhong Ge, this game is getting fun.”
Five centimeters away from the depths of the rotten flesh that Yin Ren had cleaved into…
Something gathered up the dark silk floss that was stuck to the rotting flesh, and it struggled a few times between the sticky flesh. In the darkness, a dozen crimson eyes instantly lit up.
“Ah… Ah….”
In the darkness, there was a small murmur. A little bit of Evil Force seeped out of the gaps in the carrion, and slowly dissipated in the cavity.
The mycelium-like limbs tore apart the carrion and squeezed in the direction where Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo were.
“Ahhh… Ah… Don’t want… to die…”
The thing let out a thin cry in human-like language.
