“I guess it’s An Qing,” Sun Yiyi answered without hesitation.
“An Qing + 1,” Qin Hao echoed.
“Uncle Chang, it must be him!” Huo Sichun insisted.
“None of you are right.”
Fang Yuan shook his head, feigning mystery, “You all overlooked one person.”
“Who?”
“The Old Lady.”
“Impossible! She just reminded us, she’s clearly a good person.” The three of them retorted simultaneously.
“None of you paid attention to the details. The painting on the wall earlier was precisely of that Old Lady!”
“Hmph, that doesn’t prove anything,” Sun Yiyi scoffed.
“Old Bai, what about you?” Fang Yuan threw the question to Li Taibai.
“I don’t know,” Li Taibai shook his head slightly.
“Oh, thinking is so annoying. Let’s just burn this place down. We’ll know if it’s a human or a ghost at a glance,” Sun Yiyi grumbled impatiently.
“That makes sense,” Qin Hao agreed with both hands.
“Young people shouldn’t be so impetuous. You need to calm down,” Fang Yuan feigned maturity, appearing like an elder lecturing a junior.
“If you keep acting smug, we’ll beat you to death!”
Sun Yiyi and the other two drew their weapons and placed them against Fang Yuan’s neck.
“Look at how impatient you all are…”
Just as they were bickering, the candlelight suddenly extinguished, and a gray mist permeated the room from outside.
“Such dense Corpse Qi.”
“Not good, this Corpse Qi can corrode the primordial spirit. Quickly hold your breath and focus your mind!”
The five of them quickly circulated their cultivation techniques to protect their primordial spirits.
“The spiritual energy nearby has been sealed off. We are very likely inside a large formation.”
Li Taibai took out a compass from his Arms. The needle on it trembled non-stop.
“Let’s go, let’s go out and see.”
Fang Yuan strode out, opened the door, and walked outside.
It was a hazy gray outside, with visibility only about one meter.
Along the corridors on both sides of the wing rooms, faint red lights flickered, looking like moving ghost fires from a distance.
“Sister Sichun, go see if Zhao Mubai and the others are alright.”
“The rest of you split up and look for suspicious individuals. If you can’t find them, blow this place up!”
Fang Yuan quickly made a decision and was the first to rush into the gray mist.
The others also walked off in different directions.
Qin Hao strolled leisurely in the courtyard. It was completely silent around him, with only his footsteps echoing.
Just then, a slight sound came from his ear, like the chopping of meat with a cleaver.
He quickly walked along the source of the sound, finally stopping outside the kitchen.
Under the dim red light, three servants hung their heads low, wielding large knives continuously, one after another, with a very rhythmic beat.
Qin Hao’s gaze moved downwards, only to see pale white corpses laid out on wooden planks, their internal organs already gone from their chests, haphazardly thrown onto the ground.
Crack, crack—
Blood splattered, and minced meat flew.
Even Qin Hao, who was accustomed to seeing dead people, was disgusted by the scene before him.
Especially the sight of one of them stuffing an eyeball into their mouth and chewing, which made his stomach churn with acid.
“Damn it, those meals before were actually made of human flesh, screw this!”
Thinking that he had almost eaten human flesh, an unnamed fire ignited in Qin Hao’s eyes. Without another word, he drew his long saber and chopped off the heads of the three servants with one strike.
Thump, the bodies fell to the ground.
Pffft, pffft—
Just as Qin Hao was about to turn and leave, the three corpses suddenly split in half, and an ugly creature, covered in bloodstains and resembling a human, crawled out from within.
Red light gleamed in the eyes of the three monsters, their mouths stretched to their ears, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
“What kind of ghostly thing is this again? So ugly?”
Qin Hao showed a look of disgust. He condensed a ball of flame in his hand and simultaneously shot it towards the three monsters.
Sizzle, sizzle—
As soon as the flame touched the monsters’ bodies, it immediately made sizzling sounds.
Sharp screams echoed in the room for a long time. In a short while, all three monsters turned into ashes.
……
At the same time, on the other side.
When Huo Sichun arrived at Zhao Mubai and the others’ room, she happened to encounter Uncle Chang and two maids.
“Esteemed guests, are you still not resting at this late hour?” Uncle Chang’s expression was normal, still maintaining a respectful demeanor.
It seemed the surrounding gray mist had no effect on him at all.
“I came to find my junior sister. What about you?” Huo Sichun walked up to Uncle Chang, not bothering to hide the hostility in her eyes.
“The master was afraid that you might be hungry and unable to sleep, so he ordered this old servant to guard here and await instructions.”
Huo Sichun scrutinized Uncle Chang from head to toe, then swept her gaze over the two maids behind him, and said indifferently, “No need, you may withdraw.”
As soon as her words fell, an ear-piercing scream suddenly rang out not far away.
Huo Sichun’s expression changed, and she looked towards the source of the sound.
It was then that Uncle Chang, who had been bowing, suddenly erupted, his sharp claws reaching for Huo Sichun’s chest.
“Hmph, I already knew you weren’t human!”
Huo Sichun, who had been on high alert, quickly retreated and pointed her fingers like a sword: “Go!”
The spiritual sword flew out from its scabbard, directly piercing towards Uncle Chang.
Clang, clang—
Ten sharp claws grew from Uncle Chang’s hands, and he strenuously resisted the spiritual sword’s attack.
Behind him, the two maids suddenly split open, and two deformed monsters emerged from within, viscous blood clinging to their skin, disgusting and foul-smelling.
“Ugh…”
Huo Sichun almost vomited from disgust, a hint of fear flashing in her eyes.
This was her first time facing such an ugly creature, even more terrifying than the female ghosts in horror movies!
In her fright, she immediately unleashed her full cultivation and slashed down with a sword.
“Golden Core cultivator!”
Uncle Chang shrieked in disbelief, quickly grabbed the two monsters beside him, shielded himself with them, and then fled desperately.
Pffft—
The two monsters were cut in half and fell to the ground.
“Don’t run!”
Huo Sichun transformed into an afterimage and chased after him.
……
At the same time, Fang Yuan, with light steps, cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone, softly calling out, “Old baby, where are you? Come out and play.”
After calling for a while with no response, Fang Yuan couldn’t help but feel a bit angry, humming, “Don’t let me find you, or you’ll be in big trouble.”
Creak, creak—
Suddenly, the sound of bones breaking echoed around him.
Fang Yuan stretched out his hand, propped open his eyelids, dilated his pupils, and looked around.
He saw guards and maids with drooping bodies approaching him.
From their mouths and noses, thick Corpse Qi occasionally exhaled.
“This is… a zombie?” Fang Yuan let out a light ‘eh,’ then shook his head and murmured, “No, it’s more like the Corpse Control Art of those idiots from the Lian Shi Sect.”
He walked forward with some curiosity, put his arm around the head of the guard at the very front, and muttered to himself, “Brother, we haven’t seen each other for only two hours, how did you end up like this?”
“Don’t be afraid, I’ll help you get revenge now.”
Saying that, he swung the guard’s body and smashed it hard around him.
Bang, bang—
The surrounding guards and maids were smashed to and fro, their flesh and blood a blur.
The next second, these corpses, which had just been lying on the ground, suddenly trembled violently. Bloody monsters crawled out from inside the corpses, roaring at Fang Yuan.
Rip—
From the guard in his hands, a monster also crawled out, baring its fangs and pouncing.
“Holy crap, that’s disgusting.”
Fang Yuan cursed under his breath, quickly retreating.
Whoosh—
Just as Fang Yuan was about to kill the monsters, a figure suddenly rushed out of the gray mist, grabbed him without a word, and ran.
“Old baby?”
Seeing who it was, Fang Yuan’s face lit up with joy.
“Cough… Get out of here quickly… cough…”
The Old Lady’s body was hunched, and she coughed violently from time to time, but her speed was not slow.
Fang Yuan paid no mind to this. He leaped, directly jumping onto the Old Lady’s back.
The Old Lady stumbled, almost falling to the ground, and roared, “Get down!”
“I’m scared!” Fang Yuan averted his head, pretending not to see.
Do you even hear what you’re saying?
In what way do you look scared?
The Old Lady was furious, twisting her body non-stop, but the more she did, the tighter Fang Yuan hugged her.
In desperation, she could only carry Fang Yuan and dart around the courtyard.
