Chapter 125.2

Zhao Yi immediately looked at the woman sprawled over Zhao Xilu. Sure enough, she had slowed down. Using her fingernails, she began tearing off strips of flesh from Zhao Xilu bit by bit and stuffing them into her mouth.

He was talking to that woman!

No, he was controlling that woman!

In that instant, Zhao Yi’s hands and feet turned ice-cold. The Zhao family of Jiujiang naturally possessed an extensive collection of ancient texts, and given his status, no restrictions had ever been placed on him. He could browse them as he pleased.

But he had truly never seen anything like this—someone could simply stand here and seize control of what another person had already mastered, making it his own. What kind of demonic art was this?

And it carried a chilling, sinister aura that made one’s skin crawl.

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Don’t let him die too quickly. Let him enjoy it slowly. Have your two children agitate his mind, control the force, keep him barely hanging on, and make sure he stays conscious so he can clearly feel the pain.”

Zhao Xilu, who had already been weakening, suddenly heard a shrill scream ring by his ear. The cloudiness in his eyes cleared once more.

What came with it was pain in sharp relief, and terror made tangible.

He was watching with his own eyes as he was cut to pieces, as his flesh was eaten.

Even now, he still didn’t know what had happened or why things had turned out this way. The woman he had controlled, the one who had always obeyed him without question—why had she turned on him at this moment?

Li Zhuiyuan had no idea what Zhao Xilu was thinking. If he did, he would probably only feel contempt and disdain.

Just now, he had used Wei Zhengdao’s Black Book method to try controlling the woman.

She was not a Dead Sinker, but she was even easier to control than one.

Because she had always been in a muddled, dazed state. Obeying Zhao Xilu’s orders had long since become instinctive for her, a matter of habit and inertia. In truth, Zhao Xilu had never placed any more specific restraints on her.

It could be said that Zhao Xilu was an unbelievably lucky madman and fool.

He had been sitting atop a volcano all this time, smugly thinking he had cultivated some incredible cursed object. In reality, the only reason he had not been bitten back to death yet was sheer dumb luck.

All Li Zhuiyuan had done was give the woman’s memory a light nudge. He did not need to alter her memories. He only needed to wipe away the “fog” obscuring the memory of how Zhao Xilu had forced her to eat her own dead infant, and she awakened.

She had been driven mad by torment and had been hiding from reality. Once she began facing it again, she naturally knew exactly what she had to do.

Li Zhuiyuan ended his shade-walking.

In his heart came the piercing cries of two infants and the crazed laughter of the woman.

None of it was pleasant emotion, but he was indeed savoring it carefully.

This was the backlash of Wei Zhengdao’s Black Book.

That one buried beneath the peach grove back home had been twisted into something neither human nor ghost, tormented to this day, and was still cursing Wei Zhengdao even now.

Li Zhuiyuan, however, was enjoying the sensation of that backlash, like a barren desert greedily drawing in the tiny bit of rain it had so desperately awaited.

The split-open seam of flesh on Zhao Yi’s forehead was now writhing in an exaggerated, rapid motion. No, writhing was not the right word. It was tearing!

He looked at the boy before him

as though he were looking at a ghost!

Through the crack between his Gate of Life, he seemed to hear a demon chewing on souls, savoring their taste piece by piece.

The boy before him was that demon. Mortal souls were his tribute.

“Ow…”

Zhao Yi’s foot slipped. If Tan Wenbin had not reacted quickly and grabbed him, he would have fallen.

Tan Wenbin cursed, “Hostage Bro, are you crazy? You trying to tear up your own ransom?”

At that moment, Li Zhuiyuan opened his eyes again, his gaze returning to calm.

That one beneath the peach grove had covered himself in human faces, yet for Li Zhuiyuan, it was enough for only a brief aftertaste.

The boy’s gaze fell on Zhao Yi, and Zhao Yi shrank straight back into Tan Wenbin’s arms.

Li Zhuiyuan ignored him and looked at Tan Wenbin instead. “You want to do it yourself, right?”

Tan Wenbin rubbed his hands together with fake bashfulness. “Aw, how embarrassing…”

Li Zhuiyuan said, “I could tell.”

“Ah, hahaha.” Tan Wenbin scratched his head the way Lin Shuyou often did. “I did already tell them.”

Beforehand, Tan Wenbin had told his companions that Zhao Mengyao was to be left for him to kill.

Li Zhuiyuan nodded. “Go.”

“Alright.”

Tan Wenbin tossed Zhao Yi aside, turned around, backed himself off the edge, grabbed the ledge with both hands, swung himself, and dropped down.

For an ordinary one-story house, getting down like that really would not have been a problem.

The problem was that the Zhao family house in Shitou Table had been built taller than usual.

When Tan Wenbin landed, his heels jolted as though shocked by electricity, and he tumbled backward in a roll. Luckily, he quickly got back to his feet, so at least the movement looked smooth enough.

Over on the other side, Runsheng and White Crane Child had also stopped fighting.

Zhao Juanhua had been beaten into a huge black lump of flesh, but she was still alive, barely holding onto one last breath.

It could not be helped. People good at cursing were, by nature, the sort who schemed and exerted force in the shadows. When had anyone ever seen an old woman who specialized in beating straw effigies rush into the street with a knife to hack people down?

Zhao Juanhua had only been clinging to life all along with a rotten, broken existence. If one were to speak of actual fighting ability, she was not even as capable as her dead eldest son.

If the array at home were still intact, if the stockpile of cursed objects in the ancestral hall could still be used, she might have been able to hold out a little longer. But now, it was as if a snail’s shell had been smashed, leaving it exposed while two roosters pecked at it without mercy.

Even so, she still wanted to live. She looked up at the boy standing on the eaves. She knew he was the leader of this group.

“Spare me… spare me… spare me… I’ll do anything. I’ll curse whoever you want!”

“Cough, cough… cough, cough…” Hearing that, Zhao Yi, sitting nearby, felt both fear and absurdity. The two emotions tangled in his chest and made him cough violently.

Who would he need her to curse for him?

For all she knew, he might be better at cursing than she was.

Li Zhuiyuan did not even glance at Zhao Juanhua. Most of his attention was focused on White Crane Child.

Things had gone a bit awry on Old Tian’s side because of that woman, but with Zhao Juanhua, the whole thing had actually maintained a single tone throughout: she had been beaten from start to finish.

But there was one detail here that was very interesting: White Crane Child, who normally only killed and never saved, had actually cooperated wordlessly with Runsheng, torturing without killing.

Last time, Lin Shuyou had invoked the spirit three times in a row, yet still managed to come back lively and kicking, carrying a severed head on his own. Add this time to that.

That meant that the Child, usually impartial and iron-faced in enforcing the rules, had actually started to understand human relationships and social grace.

It was currying favor with him.

He could threaten its status and even alter the structure of Yin gods within the Officers of the Command Banner system. But at the same time, it seemed to have realized that if this spirit medium followed Li Zhuiyuan, the speed at which merit could be accumulated would be extraordinarily fast.

Since the founding of this lineage, what member of the Officers of the Command Banner had ever been able to follow a Dragon King on a river walk?

A carrot in one hand and a stick in the other—the Child had learned how to offer a toast as well.

Of course, that made things hard for Lin Shuyou.

Here he was, huffing and puffing, working desperately to squeeze into this team, diligently showing his worth, all so he could lead the Officers of the Command Banner system to a new height… and he had never imagined that his own Yin god had started competing with him for favor!

Li Zhuiyuan’s gaze rested on the Child as he stepped forward.

One foot landed on empty air, and he fell.

Runsheng hurried forward to catch him, but White Crane Child was faster, raising its right hand high.

Li Zhuiyuan stepped onto White Crane Child’s palm and was held aloft by it.

The Child drew its arm back and slowly lowered him. When he was close enough to the ground, Li Zhuiyuan stepped down.

Behind him, White Crane Child straightened again, and wisps of white vapor burst from its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

Even with its face painted, it could not conceal the furious redness beneath.

Li Zhuiyuan stopped and glanced back slightly.

White Crane Child held back the white vapor.

Li Zhuiyuan pointed toward Zhao Juanhua ahead.

White Crane Child erupted in a frenzy of white vapor, gripped its trident, and lunged forward, stabbing into Zhao Juanhua’s chest—once, twice, three times…

Six strikes in a single second. The trident moved so fast it left afterimages.

Zhao Juanhua died. The instant her life fully vanished, waves of foul stench poured out from the already shredded husk of her body.

She had been a rotting corpse all along, only forcibly lingering on until now.

Li Zhuiyuan took out a Dissolution of Evil Talisman and flicked it casually.

With a sharp pop, the talisman ignited, and Zhao Juanhua’s corpse caught fire along with it. The scene resembled tossing a small firecracker into a methane pit.

But as it burned, a white wooden slip appeared within the flames. Carved into it were the words: Borrow Life, Return Soul.

When Zhao Juanhua’s body had burned down almost entirely and most of the stench had faded, that white wooden slip also began to burn, releasing wave after wave of strangely alluring fragrance.

Li Zhuiyuan stood where he was. He made no move to pick it up, nor did he tell anyone else to do so.

However, Lin Shuyou, who had just exited his spirit-medium state, stepped forward of his own accord and asked, “Lit… Big Brother, should I go pick it up for you?”

A snort of laughter came from Yin Meng in the distance.

In Lin Shuyou, she seemed to see herself when she had first joined the team. But at most, she herself had only talked too much. She had not been this dense.

Li Zhuiyuan glanced at Lin Shuyou.

Lin Shuyou silently backed away two steps and scratched his head, imitating the way Tan Wenbin had earlier imitated him.

Perhaps because wanting to be an ordinary person had always been an unattainable dream for Li Zhuiyuan, he truly could not understand why people like Daoist Yuxuzi before, and this old hag now, would willingly turn themselves into something neither human nor ghost for the sake of so-called lifespan.

Could they not simply live properly as human beings?

Since no one went to pick it up, the white wooden slip gradually charred black, then cracked, and finally crumbled into ash.

Tan Wenbin walked up to Zhao Mengyao.

Because she had once been tormented by Aunt Liu, Mengmeng knew how to torment people.

She had lashed Zhao Mengyao until she was covered in wounds, yet without damaging anything vital.

Zhao Mengyao had seen Li Zhuiyuan and Lin Shuyou before. Back when Li Zhuiyuan had come to the dormitory with the police and pointed out that she had hidden the cursed object inside a laundry soap bar, he had startled her badly. On top of that, Li Zhuiyuan had claimed to be Zhou Yunyun’s cousin, so even though she had never gone to the meeting, she had more or less guessed that Li Zhuiyuan might be that corpse retriever Li from Nantong.

Because of that, she had no hopes toward Li Zhuiyuan or Lin Shuyou. But when she saw Tan Wenbin appear, it was as though she had spotted a savior.

“Classmate, you’ve seen me before, in Yunyun’s hospital room. I went to visit Yunyun. You remember, don’t you?”

Tan Wenbin nodded while taking deep breaths.

He had killed people before, and he had killed evil things too, but those had all been when the other side was crazed. Asking him to kill someone who was not in a frenzy right now… well, it was not that he could not do it, but he did need a little mental preparation.

“Classmate, please save me. Please speak up for me. I’ve always been controlled and suppressed by my great-grandmother. I hate this family. I can’t breathe in this family. I originally thought that once I went away for college, I could escape this place and cut myself off from my toxic family.

“But I never expected my great-grandmother would drag me back. Now she’s dead—good, she deserved to die, thank you for coming to save me. Please talk to them for me. I’m innocent. I was forced. Yunyun and I are good friends. We were dormmates. I’m her best friend!”

Everyone else present looked at Zhao Mengyao with some confusion. Granted, it was normal for a person facing death to erupt with powerful survival instinct, but they really had not heard of anyone erupting with such an overwhelming aura of stupidity in a life-or-death moment.

Yin Meng could not help asking, “Did you really get into college by your own ability?”

Zhao Mengyao immediately said, “My great-grandmother arranged it. She had an orphan she kept by her side take the exam in my place.”

Yin Meng nodded, feeling much better. If a fool like this could also get into college, she really would have felt a little resentful.

Tan Wenbin asked, “What happened to the person who took the exam for you?”

Zhao Mengyao pointed at the pile of ashes that had been her great-grandmother. “She killed her. Boohoohoohoo. She was my best friend since childhood. Boohoohoo…”

Tan Wenbin tightened his grip on the Yellow River Spade and raised it.

Seeing that, Zhao Mengyao immediately shouted,

“No, no, you can’t do this. Yunyun and I are good friends. If Yunyun finds out I died, she’ll be heartbroken. If she finds out you killed me, she’ll never speak to you again for the rest of her life!

Do you like Yunyun?

“Let me go. Save me, and when I go back to school, I’ll help you pursue Yunyun. I’ll intercept every love letter she receives and create chances only for you.”

“Heh…”

Tan Wenbin laughed, thoroughly amused, and lifted the spade fully.

“You were the one who cursed Yunyun and drove her almost to the point of jumping off a building. There’s no logic in a world where you’re allowed to harm others but others aren’t allowed to strike back at you. This is what you deserve.”

Zhao Mengyao screamed, “I did it for your sake! I’m telling you, Zhou Yunyun is a slut. She’s been sneaking around behind your back with who knows how many men. Who knows how many times she’s secretly gone out and sold herself? And you still truly like her. I was helping you. I didn’t want you to be fooled by her. Zhou Yunyun is a whore!”

“Thank you.”

Tan Wenbin pulled a CaCalming Talisman from his pocket and slapped it onto Zhao Mengyao’s forehead.

Then

he swung with all his strength!

The hard Yellow River Spade slammed viciously down onto her body.

Bang! Bang!

Idiot, that’s for cursing people!

Bang! Bang!

Bitch, that’s for twisting black into white!

Bang! Bang!

Calling yourself innocent, calling yourself wronged!

“Ahhhh!!!”

Zhao Mengyao writhed on the ground in a posture too grotesque to seem human.

Because of the effect of the CaCalming Talisman, she could not even faint from the pain.

Tan Wenbin leaned on the spade with his left hand and took a cigarette pack from his pocket with his right.

Whenever he went out with Little Yuanhou, he always brought cigarettes. When talking to people, getting close, and fishing for information, it helped to offer one.

He stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it.

He took a deep drag. The glowing ember burned inward in a bright ring, and then he slowly exhaled through his nose.

Beside him, Zhao Mengyao was still screaming in agony, serving as background music.

Tan Wenbin flicked away some ash and pointed at her with a grin as he said to the others around him, “Damn it, I was going to have her help me mentally prepare. Who knew she’d do too good a job.”

He took another hard drag, threw the cigarette butt to the ground, and crushed it beneath his shoe.

Then he swung the Yellow River Spade and brought it down on Zhao Mengyao’s head!

Bang!

The world fell silent.

Tan Wenbin raised a hand in apology. “Sorry, everyone. Didn’t mean to make so much noise.”

This side had just wrapped up, and the other side should have been nearing its end as well.

But then Old Tian shouted, “Careful, she’s out!”

That woman had run out through the arched doorway and into the courtyard before the hall.

Old Tian had just injured himself and only recently bandaged his wounds, so he had not been able to stop her in time. He could only chase after her with two daggers hanging downward from his hands.

Yin Meng drew her whip. Lin Shuyou hurried to Li Zhuiyuan’s side, only to have his vision suddenly go dark as Runsheng stepped in front of him.

Tan Wenbin too came striding over, carrying the blood-soaked spade.

Zhuangzhuang now felt as though his whole body was overflowing with power. No matter how strong an evil thing was, he felt he could go up and test himself against it!

“Move aside. It’s fine.”

Li Zhuiyuan’s voice extinguished his companions’ agitation, and Runsheng and Lin Shuyou both stepped aside.

The woman indeed did not attack. She stood before Li Zhuiyuan, meaningless syllables coming from her throat, as though begging.

At that moment, wisps of black smoke rose from the former site of the ancestral hall. Their owner was dead, and the curse’s resentment was dispersing with it. This too was a kind of release.

The woman was also a cursed object. She was not dead yet, because she still had not killed Zhao Xilu. She had tortured Zhao Xilu for a long time, but had not yet made him breathe his last.

Leaving aside her greatest enemy instead of finishing him off, she had run over here to beg the boy.

The woman placed her bloody hands on her own shoulders and kept patting them hard.

A living person has three lamps: one on the crown of the head, and two on the shoulders.

In the two lamps on the woman’s shoulders rested her two children.

She was Zhao Xilu’s cursed object, and her two children were her cursed objects. That also meant that once Zhao Xilu died, he would take her and those two children down with him.

The woman wanted to die. She wanted revenge, and she wanted release for herself. But she did not want her two children to vanish along with her, because that kind of vanishing… meant total destruction of the soul, with not even a chance to be reborn.

One of them had not even lived a hundred days in this world. The other had not even reached a month old. They had not truly opened their eyes to this world yet.

Li Zhuiyuan looked at the woman and said, “You want your two children separated from you. You want them to be able to reincarnate?”

The woman nodded excitedly.

From the rooftop, Zhao Yi spoke. “Even if they’re separated, they still won’t be able to reincarnate. If no one takes care of them, they’ll drift outside as lonely ghosts. If someone does take care of them… then only by accumulating merit and dispelling karmic burden can they earn a chance at reincarnation. In their next life… they might be born into a good family.”

Li Zhuiyuan looked up at Zhao Yi.

This young master of the Zhao family seemed to have completed his mental preparation. When he looked at Li Zhuiyuan now, the earlier shrinking fear and terror were gone.

Li Zhuiyuan said bluntly, “Aren’t you tired of all this probing?”

Accumulate merit—wasn’t that clearly hinting at river walk?

Zhao Yi shook his head. “At first, I was probing. Now, I want to know the answer.”

He, Zhao Yi, was supposed to represent the Zhao family of Jiujiang in the river walk. But in the same era, only one Dragon King could emerge on the river.

At first, he had wanted to probe the other side’s identity and family background. Now, he wanted to determine whether he should even walk this river anymore.

Li Zhuiyuan did not answer him right away. Instead, he walked up to the woman. After forming hand seals, he placed a hand on each of her shoulders. When he withdrew them, his palms were faintly darkened, and one could almost hear the alternating giggles of two infants.

Li Zhuiyuan turned his head and looked at Lin Shuyou.

Lin Shuyou froze for a moment. What does this have to do with me?

Then he immediately realized something and said, “Methods are neither righteous nor evil. It depends only on the person using them. Even ghost-taming can be used to uphold justice and destroy evil.”

Li Zhuiyuan walked over to Tan Wenbin.

Tan Wenbin already understood what Little Yuan was about to do, so he crouched down without hesitation.

Li Zhuiyuan placed both hands upside down on Tan Wenbin’s shoulders.

“Raising ghosts shortens your lifespan.”

Tan Wenbin smiled. “I’m not afraid. Haven’t those two already shortened it before? I’ve got plenty left anyway. And it can be replenished.”

Whether it shortened his life or not did not matter much. The main thing was that he would be able to borrow ghost power again. That way, in future fights, he would not have to stay in the rear every time.

And along the way, those two could also accumulate merit with him and eventually reincarnate.

Tan Wenbin stood up and sharply inhaled. “Ooh, suddenly it’s so cold…”

“We’ll deal with it and balance it out once we get back. Endure it for now.”

“It’s fine. I can handle it.” Tan Wenbin gently touched his shoulders. “I think I can hear the kids snoring. The little guys have fallen asleep.”

The woman knelt down. She was not kneeling in thanks, because after such prolonged torment, she had already lost most of the abilities that made her human.

She bent both arms, one on each side, and began humming a terrible lullaby, as if remembering, and as if saying goodbye.

Zhao Xilu, already cut to pieces once, finally breathed his last.

Black mist rose from the woman’s body as well. Her singing grew weaker and weaker, until at last she froze there motionless, still holding the posture of cradling her two children.

It was over.

“Young master, young master, I’ll catch you down.” Old Tian raised both arms, though his hands drooped, preparing to receive his young master from the rooftop.

Zhao Yi ignored him and continued staring fixedly at Li Zhuiyuan as he asked, “Tell me. Are you up there?”

Old Tian was baffled. What had gotten into young master? Things were over. They could go home now. Could it be this group planned to silence them afterward?

Damn it, both his hands were ruined right now!

Li Zhuiyuan looked up at him again

and said:

“I’m on the river. Do you dare come down?”

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