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Ch56 - The Old Woman Came Back
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Zong Jiu felt refreshed, completely and utterly refreshed.
This time, the one holding the Yin walking lamp and humming a song became him.
Although Grandma Yin was only an NPC acted out by the Devil, when he thought of the other’s stunned gaze as well as the refreshing feeling from that kick, Zong Jiu wanted to laugh out loud to express the joy of getting his revenge.
His mood was very good. The ghost servants were also each given quite a lot of money, so they all steadily and extremely respectfully sent him to the boundary of the nether world.
“There’s no need to worry. Grandma Yin’s soul has been destroyed, so her body in the mortal world will turn into a corpse.”
The ghost servants told Zong Jiu that he only needed to recite the spell taught to them by Grandma Yin to return to the mortal world. Thus, Zong Jiu did so.
In the gloomy hall, the white-haired young man abruptly opened his eyes.
Zong Jiu was a bit unable to fully take everything in.
This was because it was truly too noisy in the temple, so noisy that he, someone who had just gone down for a trip around hell and hadn’t completely recovered, felt his ears ringing. The only thing he could clearly hear was Xu Sen excitedly yelling, “Senior Zhuge! Brother Jiu has woken up! Brother Jiu has finally woken up!”
Zong Jiu thought, Okay, okay, be quieter. If you guys continue yelling, I’ll fall unconscious again.
The live broadcast chat was also in an uproar.
[Ahhhhhhh! The Magician has finally come back!]
[What happened just now? Why did Grandma Yin suddenly die? I thought it was also over for the Magician. I didn’t expect that he would actually come back.]
[It’s normal for him to return, right? Otherwise, when Cao Hongtao was identifying the mole, the system would have announced that the normal cards’ additional task was completed.]
[That’s right. To be honest, now that things have progressed to this point, who would’ve guessed this? Clearly, just now, when the Magician was unconscious, was the best opportunity to do something. The system had already confirmed it, yet there are actually so many people protecting him.]
[+1. When I saw it, I was also very shocked.]
[If nothing else, the Magician is truly a good person. Has everyone forgotten what he said? He even gave all the newcomers fruits to eat for free. In the infinite loop, these kinds of people are pretty rare.]
……
Zong Jiu sat there for a long time before he rubbed his temple, “What happened just now?”
Maybe it was because his soul had left his body for a while, but he felt that his five senses were dull. He could only hear Xu Sen babbling away by his ear.
“Brother Jiu, Brother Jiu, we were all reciting the spell in the temple, and then Grandma Yin went down into the nether world. But when we looked around, we found out that Brother Jiu, you also had your soul leave your body as well. Your body was cold, and no matter how much we yelled, there wasn’t the slightest reaction. Plus, Master Zhuge said that your soul wasn’t in the temple. It really made us all so worried.”
At that time, they had come up with a few guesses. They felt that since the soul wasn’t in the temple, then there was a great possibility that a mistake had happened during one of the steps. The worst possible case was that he was taken down into the nether world as well.
However, there was no way to confirm it, and no one knew if this guess was correct. Everyone could only anxiously wait and wait some more.
The light of the Yin walking lamp was gloomy, seeming to stain the crimson coffin with a layer of blood.
The warning from Grandma Yin earlier made everyone vigilant.
No one dared to stand up before the Yin walking lamp was extinguished. In fact, they didn’t even dare to talk. They could only exchange glances with one another.
It was so quiet within the temple that only the sound of the little boy’s snoring could be heard.
This lasted until the body sitting in the center abruptly fell to the ground.
What happened?!
Everyone looked at each other back and forth. Finally, a trainee boldly scooted over and shakily stretched out a hand to check.
“De-dead!”
Instantly the temple descended into chaos.
Someone couldn’t hold back and loudly said, “What are you guys creating a fuss about?! Entering the nether world is through using the soul to enter. Naturally, the body left in the mortal world would be like a corpse.”
“You’re talking bullshit!” Xu Sen directly jumped up from the ground, “Brother Jiu is clearly still breathing.”
Ah? Could it be that Grandma Yin died?
Everything glanced at each other. Only Zhuge An was unmoved and calm. He had actually entered meditation, like an old monk.
“We are still waiting for Grandma Yin to bring back clues so that we can figure out exactly what is strange about this deserted village. How could she just die like this?”
Now, no one continued to sit on the ground. They all anxiously went forward to investigate.
The only ones who were still able to calmly sit on the ground were the two S-ranks.
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The trainees carefully investigated Grandma Yin’s corpse and found out that not only had she died, but her body and face were also unrecognizable and had become completely different, like she was ripped apart by an extremely scary evil beast, absolutely terrifying.
Black-Robed Azan subconsciously frowned, “There’s strong resentment on her corpse. Most likely, she died violently.”
“There’s extremely dense Yin energy here. It’s for the best if we place it outside. Put it in the coffin.”
The master who specialized in raising ghosts had already spoken. Naturally, the other people wouldn’t ignore it.
Thus, everyone huffed and puffed, busying around for a while, afraid that if they were slow, something horrific like zombifying or corpse reanimation might happen.
Once everyone worked together to push open the heavy coffin lid, place the corpse in, and then cover it up tightly, only then did they all breathe out in relief.
“Wait!”
After resting, Cao Hongtao suddenly had an epiphany.
“Didn’t the Magician go down with Grandma Yin? The Yin walking lamp hasn’t been extinguished yet. This means that there’s definitely still someone in the nether world who hasn’t come up yet. Plus, the lamp is still lit. How could Grandma Yin die all of a sudden?! Unless someone…”
He hadn’t finished talking, but everyone knew what he wanted to say.
Anthony’s eyes flashed.
The newcomers were the first to voice out their disagreement.
“What are you saying? How could Brother Jiu be the mole?!”
“That’s right. You bunch of ingrates. If Brother Jiu was the mole, would he give you guys fruits to eat?”
If they didn’t mention eating fruits, then it was still fine. As soon as they talked about eating fruits, the veterans all exploded.
“One apple for one thousand survival points! That’s a profiteer! Robbing money in broad daylight!”
“From what I see, the possibility of him being the mole is extremely high. How could someone just happen to have this prop and ask for such a high price?”
A C-rank trainee could only get two thousand survival points after passing an instance. Even for the veterans, it wasn’t an amount that could be casually splurged.
Earlier, when the Magician was still conscious, everyone was afraid to offend this big shot, and no one dared to say anything too harsh.
Now that they didn’t even know where his soul had flown off to, naturally, they started to curse him out, voicing their feelings over being ripped off.
“Why can’t we suspect him?” Cao Hongtao sneered, “Are there any brothers willing to check with me? Even if the identification is wrong, it’s only a penalty of three thousand survival points anyway. I just can’t let it go like this!”
As soon as he said this, the veterans became impassioned.
It was undeniable that Zong Jiu incurred a wave of hatred. At the very least, the trainees who had been extorted by him hated him so much that they wanted to strangle him. Out of the over ten veterans, half of them raised their hands.
Soon, this suggestion was able to gather the five people needed.
Black-Robed Azan raised his eyes, slightly surprised.
He didn’t know why, but when he saw this scene, even though he clearly had no ill-will towards the Magician and even somewhat acknowledged him, other than surprise, he subconsciously felt some schadenfreude.
Cao Hongtao didn’t drag it out. As soon as they had enough people, he directly submitted the request.
“System, we request to identify the C-rank trainee Zong Jiu as the mole of this instance.”
Everyone held their breaths, waiting for the system’s results.
After half a minute, a cold, mechanical sound rang by the trainees’ ears.
[Identification is correct. There is only one mole in this game.]
[The hostile factions mode has been turned on. The rule “not allowed to attack one another” is temporarily lifted.]
The veterans froze for a moment. Then they were ecstatic.
They didn’t expect that they would really pull out the only mole!
As long as they killed the mole, they would directly get double the reward when this was over. Moreover, the person in question was currently unconscious. They could earn it without any effort!
Their gazes all fell on that unconscious white-haired young man’s body, and they all attacked.
Xu Sen scratched his head, embarrassed, “Brother Jiu, you know what happened after that.”
Now, there were two groups of people currently facing off, the atmosphere tense. The trainees who were extorted wanted to take off Zong Jiu’s head right this instant.
Zong Jiu first looked for Black-Robed Azan and found out that the other didn’t get involved in this turmoil, only watching from afar. The second person he looked towards was Anthony. As a result, he found that Anthony was standing in front of him, not far from him. The problem was that he was standing with his back facing him???
“Ah, that’s right.” It looked like Xu Sen suddenly remembered something. He quietly told him, “Earlier, after the confirmation of the system, I didn’t expect that Senior Anthony would be the first to… um, lend a hand.”
This lending a hand was truly lending a hand, without any overstatement or exaggeration.
After the system confirmed that Zong Jiu was the mole, the veterans, led by Cao Hongtao, were like evil mice who saw meat. They all wanted to rush forward and bite Zong Jiu a few times to get some points.
The speed of narration couldn’t keep up with the speed of the events. At the most critical moment, Anthony instantly completed the transformation to turn into a half-vampire and sent those people flying with a kick.
Not only was Xu Sen stunned, everyone present was also stunned.
Thinking of this, Xu Sen said, “Senior Anthony also said… Whoever dared to make a move against you was making an enemy out of the entire Night Clan.”
The weight contained in this sentence was self-evident.
Recognized as one of the unshakeable large forces by the entire infinite loop, the Night Clan’s influence could be described as very powerful. Many people would kill to get in and become one of the half-vampires. After all, a half-vampire’s strength didn’t lose to a special prop, and it could significantly increase their physical fitness.
Anthony was a high-ranking member of the Night Clan. After hearing his words, many low-ranked newcomers on the other side immediately withdrew.
Forget about Xu Sen. Even Zong Jiu was a bit stunned, stunned by the other’s completely different attitude compared to before, and also stunned by the development of the situation.
But now wasn’t the time to be stunned.
Zong Jiu might have gotten rid of Grandma Yin’s soul in the nether world, but his task wasn’t completed yet.
If he wanted to complete the mole card task, he had to get close to the corpse.
However, there was a problem. Zong Jiu looked to the left and glanced to the right, his gaze scanning around multiple times under Zhuge An’s watch. However, he wasn’t able to find Grandma Yin’s corpse.
Unable to find it, he could only meet Zhuge An’s gaze. But when he was about to open his mouth and ask where Grandma Yin’s corpse went, the other person concisely said,
“It was placed into the coffin.”
The bullet chat had gone crazy from laughter.
[Fuck, hahahahahahaha]
[What to do? The mole finally managed to come back. However, he needs to touch the corpse, but the corpse is in the coffin.]
[Unlucky. The Magician is too unlucky. I saw that they needed three or four people to close the coffin lid just now. What can he do by himself?]
Zong Jiu: “……”
He silently looked at the tightly shut crimson coffin in the middle of the temple.
Zong Jiu, “Who said to do this?”
Zhuge An indifferently said, “Black-Robed Azan.”
Zong Jiu really wanted to say, What is with your bystander attitude? I told you that there’s a problem with Black-Robed Azan. Can’t you have a tiny bit of comradeship and use that smart little head of yours to help a bit?!
At that moment, on the other side, the sound of their talking and fighting might have been too loud and accidentally woke up the little boy who was sleeping soundly.
The little boy rubbed his eyes and climbed up from the ground, his stomach so hungry that it was growling. So he ran with his tiny legs to the door, crying and yelling for his dad.
The villagers guarding outside became anxious.
What was ironic was that although Wang Shou didn’t care about females and sold his daughter without a care, he treated his only son as a treasure. He treated him so much that he didn’t know what to do.
As soon as his son cried, Wang Shou was so anxious that both his eyes were red, and he didn’t care about the agreement with Grandma Yin. He directly commanded the villagers to use hoes and smash.
“Smash it. Smash it!”
Earlier, everything was all an act. If they truly tried, how could that thin layer of wood withstand it?
It basically only took a few hits for the villagers to smash it to pieces.
Under the scattered moonlight, black figures rushed in with hunched backs, their expressions twisted and their eyes charcoal black, giving off an extremely ominous feel.
Wang Shou, who was in the front, was even more horrifying. His hand was covered with fresh blood from when he hacked trainees to death with strike after strike from his hoe, their blood splattering in the process.
The trainees, who were facing off in the temple, were shocked.
The villagers who came in from the outside could no longer be called humans. Rather, they were evil ghosts wearing human skin!
Everyone knew how scary a supernatural being in an A-rank instance was.
At this moment, no one was still thinking about killing Zong Jiu. The moment when over thirty evil ghosts rushed in, the trainees all took several steps back and used their life-saving props. The Spirit Summoning Streamer, Eight Trigrams, and Ghost Binding Rope were all put into battle. For a while, the wind whirled, and the gauze in the temple was slashed multiple times, floating all over the place.
“You guys go protect that little boy!”
Zong Jiu frowned. Trying his best to suppress the weakness from his soul having just returned to his body, he also entered the battle, holding a card.
He was the only one there who had gone to the nether world. Additionally, he was the only one who knew what happened three years ago in this deserted village. With only a little reasoning, he knew that this little boy was the key for the normal cards to complete their main task.
The normal cards’ main task was to protect the villagers. Now that all the villagers had degraded into evil spirits, only this little boy was well. If he also became a ghost, then the normal cards’ main task would be considered to have failed.
Originally, the normal cards and Zong Jiu, a mole card, had nothing to do with each other, and it was impossible for him to be a warmhearted and enthusiastic person. Unless he figured out the ins and outs of the entire plot, otherwise, from the tasks, the two camps appeared to be opposing. Zong Jiu should make use of this advantage and trick them into a dead end.
However, when Zong Jiu went down into the nether world, these newcomers actually all chose to help him. Even though he roasted them in his mind about how easily tricked they were, in the end, he still owed them one. Thus, this could count as repayment.
Zhuge An’s reaction speed was the fastest.
After Zong Jiu said that this little boy was the key, with a wave of his long sleeves, he brought the person into the protected area, moving so fast that it made people suspect if he had already guessed this a long time ago.
Seeing his son get snatched, the ghost energy around Wang Shou became denser, and his expression was ferocious.
Seeing this, the little boy was so scared that fell to the ground, “Yo-you aren’t my dad!”
After hearing this sentence, the black color in Wang Shou’s eyes actually showed signs of fading.
“Baby, look at me. I’m your dad!”
He wanted to snatch his son back; however, someone happened on the other side.
In the fierce battle, it was unknown if it was a trainee or a ghost, but someone bumped into the coffin in the middle.
The lamp and spirit tablet placed on the coffin all shook from the collision and fell onto the ground.
“Clatter——”
The spirit tablet split into pieces.
Once the spirit tablet shattered on the ground, a thick, black mass instantly formed.
In front of the door of the temple, under the eerie moonlight, a shocking scene suddenly appeared.
A large iron pot was erected in the center with firewood burning below it, the scarlet flames burning brightly.
The entire pot was filled with a white-colored thick soup. After boiling, it bubbled with a “gurgling” sound.
Many villagers were standing by the iron pot.
They tied the unconscious old woman onto a rack while listening to Grandma Yin’s sharp voice giving out commands.
“Don’t waste the human skin. Peel it off in one piece and save it for the future. It won’t taste good boiled.”
The Wang Shou who was in the scene heard this and instructed the other people to get a bowl of mercury.
The butcher told people to hold down that old woman, used the thin tip of a knife to place a slash on top of that old woman’s shriveled skull, and forcibly poured the mercury in.
Mercury was dense, and it was a liquid. It didn’t mix with blood. After being poured under human skin, it would float on the top and then skin downward. Because of the pain from the skin being split open, people would writhe in pain, not knowing that it was this moment that caused the mercury to sink downward faster.
In the end, the person filled with mercury fainted from the pain and was stripped of a whole, bloody strip of human skin.
After being peeled off, the villagers hung the human skin off to the side and threw the bloody old woman, who was already completely unrecognizable, into the iron pot. The people surrounding the iron pot, who were all extremely hungry because of the famine, were all drooling.
“So fragrant.” They all said, revealing intoxicated expressions.
The milk-white bone soup was stained with a shocking color that could never be washed away.
This was precisely the scene of the villagers mutilating Grandma Wang three years ago!
Seeing this cruel scene, the newcomer trainees couldn’t stand it, throwing up one by one.
This time, the black color in Wang Shou’s eyes completely faded away.
It wasn’t only him. Many villagers were scared by this scene. Their eyes all became those that belonged to humans, and their expressions were one of extreme fear.
“Came back… that old woman really came back!”