Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 122: Attachment
Yin Ren felt the remaining Evil Force in the corpse. Something was swimming in the depths of the carrion, exuding a slight hostility. The good news was that it was still far away from them for the time being and obviously didn’t have the ability to act quickly.
…So it had nothing to do with them.
Shian’s idea was good. Whether it was an ordinary creature or a small evil, after everyone “shrank”, the threat wasn’t the same. It was just that 99% of the current seriousness from Lord Ghost King stemmed from “I don’t want to eat in a hellhole like this”.
“We’re in the main vein.”
Zhong Chengshuo carefully observed the remaining “mud” on the wall.
“When looking for our colleagues as we explore, we can figure out the placement of the body and try to find the exit from the esophagus or near the respiratory tract.”
He automatically avoided the option of the “intestine”.
Those medical terms were hard for Yin Ren to understand, but he generally knew what Zhong Chengshuo was saying.
“It’s a pity that we have to be more careful in finding people.” Yin Ren sighed.
Right now, he could only give orders like a ghost master. “Hu Tao, you take Grandpa Lu to look for the living—mainly Lu Xiaohe, Ge Tingting, and Huang Jin. Don’t bother with the others.”
“It’s not over yet?” Hu Tao pulled on her eyelids in despair. “An abandoned amusement park, then an abandoned mine. This time, you finally started to explore an abandoned corpse? Can you adjust to a normal place next time…”
“Find three dolls. I remember.” Lu Tanfei didn’t say much. He was anxious to go back to accompany his grandson. “Hu Jie and I will split up, so it’ll be faster.”
……
The first one to be found was Lu Xiaohe.
When Lu Tanfei followed her aura, Lu Xiaohe was carrying a bag full of investigation machinery on her back while wearing indoor slippers.
She quickly found a small space where she piled the detection machines crookedly on the dry flesh film. Lu Xiaohe sprayed the surroundings with potions to eliminate the odors and repel insects, then sat crossed-legged and turned on the computer.
She didn’t seem to have the slightest intention of finding a way out, but just explored and searched to her content.
“The distance is only 20 centimeters? …Have we shrunk? Well, the machines can still operate normally, so it’s not shrinking proportionally, and the possibility of space disorder is higher…” She took out a clip from her pocket on her pajamas and clipped her bangs together while muttering, “No wonder the location is still in the Fu residence, but the environment has changed so much.”
In the dim corpse cavity, the shimmer of the screen illuminated her solemn face. For some reason, Lu Tanfei sensed a feeling of déjà vu in this girl.
Lu Xiaohe tapped on the keyboard as she muttered “prize money”.
Suddenly, there was a loud rubbing sound nearby. Something seemed to be crawling from the outside. The machinery in the meat cavity rattled and vibrated, and the stench in the air became more intense.
Lu Xiaohe narrowed her eyes and stopped her fingers.
A dazzling metallic blue was exposed from the gap in the meat cavity, and there were also pitted shadows embedded in it. Saw-toothed and hairy worm legs slid across the shadows, making a clear sound. It stopped suspiciously when passing by Lu Xiaohe, but fortunately, it didn’t do anything.
A huge hard-shelled beetle. Considering the environment here, that thing was probably a species of beetle in the Histeridae family.
Shian’s insect repellent was still useful. Lu Xiaohe solemnly put the spray at hand. Although the original intention of this potion was to get rid of poisonous insects in an unknown environment… using it like this wasn’t bad either.
Lu Xiaohe’s expression didn’t fluctuate.
In view of the inability to communicate with the science post, Lu Tanfei planned to leave. Lu Xiaohe’s mentality was good. Given a certain amount of time, she would certainly contact her teammates directly.
“Prize money… Prize…” Lu Xiaohe stopped suddenly halfway through her words.
Thinking that something unexpected had happened, Lu Tanfei hurriedly turned around.
He saw Lu Xiaohe stretch her body and take out two cans of energy drinks and a mask from the bottom of her backpack. Comrade Lu Xiaohe first drank the drinks, then patted her face and applied the face mask.
“Alright!” Facing darkness in all directions, she cheered herself up.
Lu Tanfei: “……”
Do young people work so hard nowadays that they’re incomprehensible?
Well, it didn’t matter. He would go back and report as soon as possible. As a newly dead ghost, he wanted to maintain his sanity for as long as possible, so he had to maintain a good relationship with the ghost master.
Compared to the conscientious Lu Tanfei, Miss Hu Tao wasn’t so lucky.
She did run to a place with a strong living aura, but before her feet stood still, her body was bound by a paper chain…
“A ghost.” Fu Tianyi’s face was pale.
His pajamas were dirty, his slightly long hair was scattered, and he wasn’t wearing a mask. However, as a ghost, Hu Tao was able to see through the darkness. She saw a handsome young man with a human face on the other side, which made her anger fall from 9 points to 7.
A woman in her 40s or 50s was standing next to this person, but her face wasn’t very good-looking. Only then did Hu Tao see a normal person—it turned out that people would panic if they were suddenly thrown into such a place.
She almost forgot.
“Let me go. I’m a registered ghost of Shian!” Hu Tao tried to be reasonable.
“Not a spirit that a shaman can control. From Haigu?” Fu Tianyi’s voice was a bit hoarse.
Hu Tao: “I’m a ghost who was born, raised, and died in Haigu. I have a registered ghost ID number. Where’s your rear commander? I’m sure they can check it.”
Fu Tianyi’s face became paler. “Unfortunately, they haven’t contacted us yet.”
This was the first time he had lost contact with the rear commander.
“Forget it. I’m not looking for you anyway. Let me go. I have urgent things to do,” Hu Tao said loudly. “Bye bye!”
As soon as her voice fell, the paper chain became scorching hot, causing her to frown.
In the darkness and stench, Hu Tao turned to Fu Tianyi again. She opened her eyes wide, and bloodstains gradually appeared on her body—she gradually returned to her “unfriendly appearance”.
“…What is your intention?”
“We lack combat power.” Fu Tianyi sighed.
‘Things are bad,’ he thought.
He studied under Zhou Gong—simultaneously studying two profession branches of the corpse servant and spirit smith. As a result, there were no corpses and few spirit weapons, so the situation was overwhelmingly unfavorable.
This was completely different from the competition he expected.
If Fu Xingchuan was the first genius of the “Xing” generation of the Fu family, Fu Tianyi was the first genius of the “Tianyi” generation. The elders of the Fu family named him “Tianyi”, which meant they expected him to be on par with Zhong Yi*.
*Clarity: His name [Tian] (天) means heaven/god/divine (etc..) and the [Yi] (异) is the same character in Zhong Yi. Since Zhong Yi is revered (like a god), that’s why they combined Tian + Yi and named him Tianyi.
Fu Tianyi was also capable and ambitious. Unlike Fu Xingchuan, who was running around during the “Divine Descent” era, he had smooth sailing from childhood to adulthood. His abilities were flawless, and he always achieved the best results, ranking first in all simulations and real battles.
There were also cases of disconnection from the rear commander in simulated battles, but experiencing it in real life was a completely different state of mind.
Indeed, Shian wouldn’t kill anyone, but in this kind of competition, the competitors—especially the non-science posts who were responsible for offense—were extremely vulnerable to injury.
Fu Tianyi became more irritable. If he was seriously injured in a match while in the Fu residence, he would truly lose face. Since Haigu had leeway to allow ghosts to come out, then “expropriation” was definitely not a violation of the rules.
After all, “ghosts” were the same as “spirit weapons”. Bluntly put, they were all weapons.
“Sorry, I still have tasks to do!” Hu Tao said sternly. Her goodwill that was aroused by this person’s appearance had disappeared without a trace. “I’m going to tell Yin Ren!”
“You know, we’re currently in a competitive relationship.” Fu Tianyi rolled his eyes. “According to the ‘Regulations on the Behavior of Ghosts Registered by Shian’, Shian will protect you, and in case of an emergency, you also have an obligation to obey Shian employees. Aren’t you breaking the rules?”
With blood-stained hair, Hu Tao stared at Fu Tianyi with one eye and snorted bitterly.
“Before getting in touch with Professor Cat, you have to act as a guard.” Fu Tianyi pulled on the paper chain. “Ghost, take us to the direction where the evil qi is weakest.”
“Tsk.” Hu Tao clicked her tongue loudly.
But she kept her wits about her, knowing she could choose her own path. Even if she couldn’t rebel against this kid, she would still make him suffer a bit.
Just because a place had the weakest evil qi didn’t mean it would be less hostile.
……
At the same time.
Ge Tingting and Huang Jin were running desperately. They panted as if they were going to die at any moment, and the slippers they were wearing had been long lost. The cockroach rustled after the two of them; its thick and long tentacles flicked back and forth, and the tip brushed against Huang Jin’s lower back.
Suddenly, three catties of goosebumps appeared on Huang Jin’s skin.
I can’t wear this anymore!
The two of them didn’t care about whether the corpse was decomposing or not. They buried their heads and ran, stepping on the sticky, rotten flesh with a squelching sound under their feet. Although the cockroach didn’t seem to be an adult, and they could probably still handle it if they worked together… But who would want to engage in hand-to-hand combat with a cockroach as tough as a boxing champion!
Ge Tingting: “Ahhhhh—”
She waved her hands as hard as she could, trying to direct the surrounding carrion to gather so as to trap the cockroach behind them. Unfortunately, she lost her concentration while running and the little bumps on the ground became useless.
Tsk!
Huang Jin gritted his teeth. He made his best effort to rip off his t-shirt, bit his finger, and put a blood symbol on it. Then he used the t-shirt to wipe over the corpse wall so that it was stained with the smell of the dead.
“Stop for me!”
The cursed spirit weapon that was made in a hurry was stuck on the cockroach’s head, causing it to suddenly stop in its tracks.
Huang Jin panted for breath. His heart was slamming against his ribs frantically. Amid the buzzing tinnitus, he turned his face and tried to speak to Ge Tingting. “No… It’s okay…”
Before “okay” was finished, it was interrupted by another wave of meaningless shouts from Ge Tingting.
Huang Jin turned his head stiffly…
Crack, crack, crack. The cursed cloth was slowly disappearing into the cockroach’s mouth.
Ah, yes. Shian’s uniform was made of pure cotton. Thanks to this, he would be sure to propose to Shian to use chemical fiber instead.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” This time, Huang Jin yelled louder than Ge Tingting.
What was this? What? A nightmare?
When he was chased by Yellow Millet, Huang Jin never felt so powerless and ridiculous. An unknown fire rose from the bottom of his heart, and the next moment, a light flashed in his chaotic mind.
With his fingers still bleeding, Huang Jin gritted his teeth and wrote a mirrored rune on his palm. He stumbled and took a few steps forward, slapping his palm hard against the flesh wall.
Blood-written spells could use human corpses as talismans. Spiritual weapons should have countless forms. Right now, they were just materials that have been enlarged!
Before the blood was dry, Huang Jin did a few more slaps on the “wall”.
In the shaking phone light, Ge Tingting scanned the corpse wall printed with runes.
“It’s what you’re thinking.” Huang Jin saw through Ge Tingting’s chaotic thoughts. “Do whatever you want!”
Ge Tingting stopped.
She turned around, put her hands on the wall of flesh closest to her, and closed her eyes. She was short of breath, and her thin body fluctuated violently.
Huang Jin subconsciously slowed down. He hesitated for half a second…
“Damn it!” He stomped his feet, turned his head, and ran to Ge Tingting’s side.
Under the light of the phone, the cockroach rushed towards them with its mouth quickly twitching.
Huang Jin endured the nausea and forcibly opened his eyes. “One, two, go!”
At this moment, Ge Tingting didn’t need a translator. She could understand the meaning of that roar.
Black and red blood needles pierced out of the bloody handprints and pierced straight into the cockroach. Unfortunately, the cockroach’s body was stained with a layer of corpse fluid and was about to slide past the tip of the needle.
The “wall” moved.
The evil qi around Ge Tingting exploded, and all the nearby flesh walls concave into a bowl shape under her command, semi-fixing the cockroach in place. In just a moment, four sharp blood needles pierced the cockroach’s body, nailing it to the carrion like a specimen.
The cockroach’s legs were still moving, but its body stayed in place.
Ge Tingting swayed. She looked like she was about to sit down on the ground. Perhaps considering the materials of the ground, she staggered a few steps but managed to stay upright with determination. Huang Jin finally let out a sigh of relief and gave her a forced smile.
In the next second, the two of them hung their heads to one side and vomited.
As soon as Hu Tao turned the corner with the Yandu pair, she witnessed this scene of “a man and woman vomiting in front of a cockroach specimen”.
Hu Tao: “…Fuck!”
It turned out the hostility had been resolved. What a pity.
“Hu Tao?” Seeing the familiar ghost, Huang Jin’s eyes lit up, and he raised his voice. “…Yin Ren? Zhong Chengshuo?”
If those two were there, the cockroach definitely wouldn’t survive for over five seconds. Regardless of whether it was an evil or King Yama, at least those two didn’t have cockroach tentacles, so they wouldn’t cause such great mental damage.
However, the next moment, he noticed a paper chain on Hu Tao’s body.
Huang Jin staggered and took… a half step back. The cockroach behind him was still kicking its legs, so he had to retreat with great restraint.
“Haigu’s supplementary combat force,” Auntie Tao said indifferently. “They are not the core partners. One is too young, and the other has a criminal monitoring anklet. Both of them should have criminal files.”
Ge Tingting wiped her mouth and took a step back.
“We’re not very lucky.” Fu Tianyi looked around gloomily and said, “A spirit smith without a shirt and a corpse servant who can’t speak. I know all their techniques. Whether they come or not makes no difference.”
“It sounds like you’re choosing vegetables at a farmer’s market,” Huang Jin muttered.
“We want to act with you.” Ge Tingting’s AI voice sounded first. “The two of us can take care of each other, and you’ll also have more combat power.”
The benefits of AI were highlighted. Though Ge Tingting’s face was sweaty, causing her hair to stick to her face, and she hadn’t caught her breath, her AI voice was gentle and calm, with plenty of confidence.
Fu Tianyi glanced at her lightly. “That’s fine.”
Are you scared?
Huang Jin subconsciously turned his head and read her thoughts.
[Fu Tianyi is a master of the Fu family and also an excellent member of the special investigation team of the Yandu branch. He’s definitely a strong combat force, so it’s safer to act together.]
Ge Tingting turned her face toward Huang Jin, and her thoughts were turning steadily.
[Their attitude towards Miss Hu Tao isn’t good. They are probably forcing her. Once she has an opportunity, she can take us to Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo.]
[In summary, I think it’s better to temporarily act together.]
Just after killing the cockroach, the blue veins on Huang Jin’s head were still pulsating. Seeing this bunch of rational thinking, he was a little stunned. “You don’t care…”
Don’t you care about their contempt?
[I know what you want to ask. I have been working outside for some time, and I’m used to this attitude.]
Ge Tingting’s thoughts remained stable.
……
34 centimeters away.
Messages in the Coffin Nail app flashed frantically.
[Hu Tao: @Yin Ren, @Yin Ren, @Yin Ren]
[Hu Tao: Fu Tianyi is too much!!!]
[Yin Ren: Were you intercepted by him?]
Finding that Hu Tao hadn’t returned for a while, Yin Ren quickly had a guess.
[Hu Tao: Yes, but I found Xiao Ge and Da Huang, and now we’re acting together.] Although she also ran into the cockroach, it wasn’t easy to tell the boss this kind of thing.
[Yin Ren: That’s enough. Take good care of Ge Tingting and Huang Jin. We’re not in a hurry here.]
[Hu Tao: Where’s Xiao Lu?]
[Yin Ren: Grandpa Lu has gone back to see his grandson.]
[Hu Tao: …I hate this so much!]
Yin Ren empathized with Ms. Hu Tao’s failure to get off work, but she could only endure her grievances for a while longer.
Lu Xiaohe found a stronghold for herself. Considering her physical condition, this decision was quite wise. Ge Tingting and Huang Jin were acting with the people from the Yandu branch for the time being. Even if the sky was falling, with Fu Tianyi there, things should be safe.
Yin Ren turned off his phone and felt a sense of emptiness in his stomach.
Lord Ghost King was now in a very mysterious state—hungry but without appetite.
He approached Zhong Chengshuo and sniffed the refreshing scent on him, as if trying to revive his numb sense of smell. If Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t here, he would have wished his nostrils would simply die.
“You better call the other ghost back,” Zhong Chengshuo said as he floated beside him.
Yin Ren: “Then won’t our two-person world be gone?”
“Oh, yes.” Zhong Chengshuo contemplated for half a minute. “…But it’s more appropriate to call it back. Fu Xingchuan stuffing us in here isn’t just so we can ‘win the game’.”
“Mm, he’s testing us, or is using us to test something.” Yin Ren had thought about Fu Xingchuan’s motives earlier.
Zhong Chengshuo nodded. “I’m afraid it’s more than that. He will be curious about what exactly is going on with me, the ‘Zhong Chengshuo’ who fell in love with an evil. Next, there may be special attacks capable of targeting you and me.”
“Makes sense.” Yin Ren looked away a little uncomfortably.
Not to mention anything else, this corpse was enough to target him. Standing here, Yin Ren couldn’t help being upset.
Thousands of years ago, Yin Ren had seen many human corpses. It was better to say that the only thing he could touch “during his lifetime” was human corpses. At that time, they were just the concept of “corpses” to him.
But now it was different.
Yin Ren couldn’t help but glance at Zhong Chengshuo beside him.
Healthy body, smooth skin, clean hair, good smell.
He didn’t care that Zhong Chengshuo’s face would get old or that his skin would become something else. If Zhong Chengshuo minded, he could grow old with him—for an evil, changing his appearance was easy.
But Zhong Chengshuo would eventually die.
At some point in the future, his dear partner would stop breathing and become as cold as this corpse. Zhong Chengshuo’s body would swell due to corruption, and his fair and strong skin would fester and emit a human’s least favorable stench.
Or before that, it would be burned into crumbling ashes.
How long could they live together? …Fifty years? Sixty?
Yin Ren shook his head vigorously, trying to get rid of the cobweb-like distractions—as the time when they determined their relationship became longer, these annoying thoughts appeared more frequently.
“Ah… Ah… I don’t want to… die…”
A voice whispered.
“That’s right.” Yin Ren sighed. “You don’t want to… huh?”
He instantly called out Lu Tanfei. Grandpa Lu had just returned from getting off work to take care of his grandson. When the old man appeared, he was still holding a children’s book in his hand.
Lu Tanfei looked blankly at what was in front of him.
“Those things” came from rotting flesh with a dozen or so “legs” resembling the hyphae of a sticky fungus. Some of the filaments had completely broken away from the decaying flesh, free from the contaminated fluid. The wriggling hyphae emitted a slightly translucent white color.
The human eye-like structure was embedded in the hyphae, like a vine budding. Transparent liquid dripped from those eyes and fell to the ground in drops.
“Someone… is waiting… Someone… want to see… Don’t want to die…” The thing crawled on the rotting flesh and made a thin, human-like voice seemingly from nowhere.
“Don’t want to die…”
“Don’t want to die…”
“Don’t want to die…”
More voices whispered in the darkness. Seeing Yin Ren suddenly behaving abnormally, Zhong Chengshuo turned his head curiously. Obviously, he was oblivious to those strange ravings.
[Siren: Be careful.]
[Siren: It’s the weak that can’t eat.]
Yin Ren put away the vibrating phone and moved his wrist.
These things weren’t oppressive, and they were much the same as those things crawling around in the Archive. He just had to be careful…
“Don’t want to die…”
As if seeing through his thoughts, those white monsters no longer squirmed like snails. After a brief stagnation, they suddenly rushed forward. The dirty white hyphae twisted into waves.
Ignoring Zhong Chengshuo, who was close at hand, they rushed to Yin Ren.
Yin Ren retreated instantly. Unfortunately, since this place was a hellhole, space was limited. Unless he gave up hiding his identity and transformed into an evil brand drill, he couldn’t escape the wave-like attack that was incoming.
“Shit, Fu Xingchuan, that bastard—”
A strand of hyphae touched his bare toes, causing Yin Ren’s mind to become suddenly dizzy. If the distracting thoughts he had before were just a spider’s silk, at this moment, they began to turn into an inescapable web, gradually enveloping his thoughts.
I don’t want to see Zhong Chengshuo die…
I don’t want to see Zhong Chengshuo disappear…
I don’t want Zhong Chengshuo to become such a corpse…
After just a moment’s pause, more hyphae climbed onto Yin Ren’s feet.
Yin Ren’s thoughts were as if they had been soaked in sour wine. He forgot all the words he hadn’t finished, and his heart overflowed with trance and warm fondness. His reason was still able to suppress the Evil Force, but waves of emotions washed through his heart.
Yin Ren stretched out his hand towards Zhong Chengshuo uncontrollably.
…With a hint of twisted desire.
The author has something to say:
Thanks to writing on JJ, I found a lot of knowledge that I didn’t want to know in my life (……
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