…Beg me.
The two words were spoken with a light and breezy air.
However, when they fell on the sheep-headed man’s fan-like ears, the sharpness they carried was no less than that of a needle piercing through.
It stared intently at Zhou Qi’an, its eyes looking as if they wanted to eat him alive:
“Your teammates are still in the small town.”
But Zhou Qi’an smiled, like an emotionless monster. “So what?”
In fact, he was very anxious.
But not about the matters in the small town.
The Whalers’ Association’s relic worlds were now a warm harbor for Shen Zhiyi and the others, a temporary refuge from the powerful ghost’s attack.
The urgent matter at hand was something else.
Zhou Qi’an glanced at the blood-red sky in the distance, his eyelid twitching slightly, but he showed nothing on the surface.
This indifference successfully made the sheep-headed man waver.
The system’s warning messages came one after another. In the end, the sheep-headed man only gave Zhou Qi’an a cold glance and turned, seemingly wanting to return to the small town alone to suppress the powerful ghost first.
“Stop pretending,” Zhou Qi’an sneered. “If you had that ability, you wouldn’t be coveting the thing inside my body.”
This sheep-headed man’s strength must be inferior to other staff members. He even suspected this one had gotten in through the back door. Mr. Si and the Minotaur had never shown too much interest in the thing inside his body.
Head-on, the sheep-headed man could definitely deal with the powerful ghost from the back mountain, but it would inevitably be injured. That was a small matter. Once the two of them went all out, the entire town would probably be reduced to dust.
Zhou Qi’an squinted at the increasingly thick blood clouds floating over. “Making a deal with me is not a loss.”
The sheep-headed man’s footsteps halted.
The initial anger had subsided somewhat.
Ignoring the latter part of the sentence that asked it to kneel and beg, the sheep-headed man’s focus began to shift to the first half… benefits.
“There are some thieves who have transplanted relics hidden in the small town. Who is their leader?” With the groundwork laid, Zhou Qi’an asked directly. “I already have the list of remaining transplants. Even if you don’t tell me, I’ll find out sooner or later.”
It was just that the efficiency was too low. Using the process of elimination, it was unknown when each person would come out of their relic world.
The sheep-headed man was silent for a moment, but ultimately bowed its sheep horns in this self-serving deal.
Seeing its interest, Zhou Qi’an timed it perfectly and proactively handed over the fake relic catalog.
This morning, they had already finished updating all the transplanted relic information. It was a choice of one out of six. A simple glance of a hint would be enough.
The sheep-headed man glanced at the ferocious lines in the catalog. “Why did you draw so many maggots?”
“…”
“I heard that in the real world, gold is very expensive,” the sheep-headed man suddenly said just as the corner of Zhou Qi’an’s mouth was twitching.
Zhou Qi’an was startled.
That meant the relic transplanted by the leader of the Whalers’ Association was one of two choices: the Gilt Bronze Buckle or the Divine Bird Golden Mask.
He did not press for the specific one. This should be the limit of what the sheep-headed man could reveal.
Finally one step closer to cursing the leader of the Whalers’ Association to death, Zhou Qi’an did not show the excitement he should have. He spoke rapidly, “Let’s sign a contract to prove you’re not lying, and I also promise to write Zhao Mo’s name on the Death Cursing Bone.”
He and Mr. Si had used a contract prop at the school. It should work with this stupid sheep as well.
The sheep-headed man did not refuse this. It also did not have much trust in Zhou Qi’an.
The two sides hit it off immediately on this matter.
The moment the contract prop took effect, Zhou Qi’an turned around almost in the same second and bolted towards the Ridie Pavilion.
This strange behavior successfully stunned the sheep-headed man for a moment.
In the distance, the blood clouds in the sky were already on the verge of approaching the museum.
Before the sheep-headed man could react, it saw that there was clearly something else in the blood clouds. In less than half a minute, a blood coffin came flying through the air.
The sheep-headed man thought of something and abruptly looked in the direction Zhou Qi’an was running.
“Move, get out of the way!” Just after rushing into the courtyard, Zhou Qi’an roared at some players by the well. “Don’t blame me if you get hit and die.”
The crowd looked at him warily, exchanging glances, until they saw a coffin fly in. The players’ faces changed dramatically—
“Holy crap!”
What’s going on?
…Zhou Qi’an was paying the price for entering the code of a real relic.
Without the need to seal the powerful ghost, the Blood Coffin had regained its ‘freedom.’ The relic’s retaliation was late, but it had arrived.
He ran at the speed of wind without looking back, but he could feel something constantly getting closer from behind. Light shone into the first floor of the Ridie Pavilion. Through the reflection of a coin sword in front, Zhou Qi’an could vaguely see the front edge of a coffin almost touching him.
The coffin came with its own chains. The metal chains scraped against the ground, extending like the roots of a tree, nearly catching his ankles several times.
“This is killing me!”
Amidst the clanging sounds, Zhou Qi’an ran up to the second floor, drenched in sweat.
As he stepped over the last step, he suddenly ducked. The iron chain passed over his head. Half a beat later, and his head would have likely been pierced.
The cold iron chain didn’t make a return strike. It went straight ahead and stopped in front of the window, blocking Zhou Qi’an’s possibility of jumping out.
Attacked from both front and back, the blood coffin charged towards its target again.
The space on the second floor was limited. At this extremely critical moment, Zhou Qi’an suddenly stopped running, his footsteps halting at an empty spot.
The blood coffin followed to this area. The moment it was about to hit, he suddenly shouted, “I want to rent the Blood Coffin!”
There were no staff members in the museum, and no rental registration office was seen on these two floors. The rental method should be similar to viewing a relic; approaching the vicinity of the relic could automatically trigger a rental mission.
As expected, the rampaging blood coffin stopped in mid-air.
The system prompt sounded accordingly—
“Special Side Quest–Ghost Collection has been activated.”
[Quest Content: You have rented the Blood Coffin. Please seal the powerful ghost in the golden thread blood garment from the back mountain within twelve hours.
Quest Reward: Qualification to purchase the popular cultural and creative products of the Ridie Pavilion *1.]
Zhou Qi’an wiped the thin sweat from his forehead. After confirming that the coffin was no longer moving, he let out a long sigh of relief.
First, release the sealed powerful ghost and give the small town NPCs a big gift package. Then, use the Death Cursing Bone to deal with the powerful ghost. Finally, throw the powerful ghost’s remains back into the coffin to complete the Ridie Pavilion’s viewing mission.
A perfect closed loop.
Now there was only one thing left. He looked at the heavy and cumbersome blood coffin wrapped in iron chains. It would be a bit difficult to transport it with his personal strength.
Zhou Qi’an quickly walked to the window and took out a megaphone to give orders to the sheep-headed man. “Quick, drive me to save the small town.”
Your savior has arrived!
——————
Mo Town was now completely unrelated to the word ‘silent.’ It could be renamed Noisy Town.
After discovering that dispersing led to faster deaths, the small town residents briefly gathered together to try and resist the golden-threaded figure. However, this cohesion was quickly broken by the army of skeletons.
While even the crows wanted to fly out of the town, someone was proactively heading towards the center of the disaster.
The cultural and creative products on the sheep cart had been temporarily put away by the sheep-headed man.
Under the blood-red clouds, Zhou Qi’an sat on the sheep cart, leaning against the blood coffin. The sheep-headed man was less than a meter away from him.
Amidst the sheep-headed man’s murderous gaze, Zhou Qi’an spoke, “When we reach the small town, I will naturally fulfill my promise.”
He couldn’t let the powerful ghost’s corpse be devoured by other monsters. He had to go to the scene himself, collect the remains, and put them in the coffin.
The sheep cart rushed into the small town at full speed. Many of the courtyard gates on the street that were originally closed were now all open. Violent fights were happening everywhere. Four or five skeletons came towards the sheep cart, only to be kicked away by one of the sheep’s hooves.
Speeding over the bloody water, they were surrounded by all sorts of monsters.
At first, it was just the skeletons attacking. Some of the small town residents, upon seeing the sheep cart, especially Zhou Qi’an sitting on it, their eyes filled with undisguised greed.
“Fragrant…”
A strange face gave up on escaping. Half an arm turned into a long whip, curling towards the target.
Zhou Qi’an realized he had underestimated the greed of the monsters. Even on the brink of life and death, they were still thinking of eating him!
He was also not polite. With a wave of his cane, the already injured monster was knocked off the cart. He then immediately entered the mall and searched for any props that could reduce his presence.
[Divine Concealment: Can reduce the player’s own presence
Usage Guide: Duration does not exceed two minutes, limited to one use per instance
Quality: Three and a half stars]
A three-and-a-half-star quality, with extremely poor endurance, yet it was sold at almost the price of a luck-based prop, costing eighteen thousand points.
But Zhou Qi’an couldn’t be bothered with that right now. He bought it directly, preparing to use it at a critical moment.
The blood and mud on the ground did not bring much emotional fluctuation.
Many players had died at the hands of relics. The two sides were already in a life-or-death opposition.
As for the fleeing small town residents, unless they were foolishly trying to climb onto the sheep cart, Zhou Qi’an didn’t even give them a second look. He was mainly looking for those who were standing still.
These must be the association members.
Of the two options the sheep-headed man had given, the mask was a relatively special item. The person who had transplanted the Divine Bird Golden Mask could most likely be identified by their appearance.
As he was thinking, Zhou Qi’an’s gaze fixed on a young man by the roadside.
Neither the skeletons nor the fleeing town residents could get close to him.
The young man stood motionless, his gloomy and strange half-face covered by a faint golden mask, clearly in the process of being ‘viewed.’
This was very close to the town’s exit, indicating that when the disaster struck, the masked young man had first chosen to run out of the town.
He lacked the ability to handle crises and had cleverly pulled someone into a relic world.
Based on this alone, he couldn’t be the leader of the Whalers’ Association.
Zhou Qi’an’s eyes darkened.
Then there was only one choice left: the transplanter of the Gilt Bronze Buckle.
This morning, except for the Iron Armor, all the other information had been updated. He clearly remembered the translated name of the corresponding relic—
Lu Yiyuan.
Delays breed trouble.
Zhou Qi’an never procrastinated. After confirming, he chose to deal with the association leader first. He casually wiped his hand on the bloodstains on the brick wall and placed the Death Cursing Bone on his knee with his other hand.
With blood as ink, when the first stroke fell, a bone-chilling coldness drilled into the gaps of his fingers. The electric-shock-like pain almost made him withdraw his hand.
In just a few short strokes, Zhou Qi’an felt his heartbeat stop for half a beat.
The sheep cart was very bumpy.
The sheep-headed man was no philanthropist either. After entering the town, it did not speak again and secretly manipulated the sheep cart towards the place with the heaviest yin energy—
The powerful ghost was there.
Once in front of the powerful ghost, this bastard would no longer be able to delay.
Knowing what the sheep-headed man was up to, Zhou Qi’an tried to speed up.
Unfortunately, the sensation of cold was difficult to overcome. His writing speed was uncontrollably slowed down. The Death Cursing Bone was simply too malevolent.
If he continued writing at this speed, the advantage would turn into a disadvantage.
A thought stirred in Zhou Qi’an’s mind. He directly took out his fishing spear. Engraving was more suitable for him after all.
The Death Cursing Bone: …
When carving the second character, Zhou Qi’an took a deep breath. When you came up with such a complicated name, did you ever consider the difficulty for others writing it?
Isn’t this just making trouble for me?
One thing conquers another.
With the Holy Relic carving the characters, the blood threads on the Death Cursing Bone seemed to have been cut open, becoming much more docile.
The sheep cart, under the malicious control of the sheep-headed man, sped along and soon arrived at an area where the bloody light was at its peak. The hard-at-work Zhou Qi’an caught a glimpse of something, and his hand holding the spear almost wavered.
At the end of the road stood a blood-red figure. At the golden-threaded figure’s feet was a corpse that had been chopped in two by a horizontal blade. The sticky sound of eating mixed with the sound of crushed bones was terrifyingly loud.
Sensing something approaching, the golden-threaded figure showed a slight tendency to turn around.
Without any hesitation, Zhou Qi’an decisively activated the prop [Divine Concealment] and sped up his carving.
Screech.
The friction sound produced by the carving was drowned out in the chaos of the small town.
The last stroke was finished.
A second before the golden-threaded figure turned around, Zhou Qi’an managed to carve the last character. The three characters ‘Lu Yiyuan’ appeared on the Death Cursing Bone.
[You have successfully used the Death Cursing Bone]
[Curse Target: Lu Yiyuan]
[Remaining Uses: 1]
[Locking onto curse target…]
After a while, the system was still stuck on this prompt. Zhou Qi’an frowned. Why is it taking so long?
[Target lock in progress, please wait patiently…]
[Determining target…]
[Estimated time to determine target: three minutes…]
Zhou Qi’an narrowed his eyes, instantly raising his guard.
This determination time was clearly not right.
Before thinking about the reason, to avoid being discovered by the powerful ghost, he first manipulated the white silk sash to place explosive props in other areas. Using the loud noise to make the golden-threaded figure look in another direction, Zhou Qi’an took the opportunity to pull hard on the reins of the sheep cart.
The sheep-headed man’s patience was about to reach its limit, its gaze icy cold.
‘Four minutes,’ Zhou Qi’an gave a time limit.
There was something strange about Lu Yiyuan’s situation. The Death Cursing Bone might be less effective than imagined.
Zhou Qi’an’s mind raced. If he could make the powerful ghost and the leader of the Whalers’ Association clash, with the risk of the Death Cursing Bone and the powerful ghost combined, he could reap the rewards all at once.
The question was, how to lure the ghost over?
Just as he was pondering, a sudden change occurred.
The thick blood clouds in the sky had accumulated to a certain extent and finally began to rain. His hair stood on end slightly, and his skin felt inexplicably numb. This usually meant—
The next second, a bolt of lightning struck down horizontally.
Zhou Qi’an instinctively put the Death Cursing Bone aside.
The lightning strike was off.
His heart pounded like a drum. He belatedly realized that the Death Cursing Bone was found in a patient’s therapeutic dream. There might be a reason why this thing wasn’t directly placed in reality. For example… where it appeared, it was prone to being struck by lightning.
The sound of lightning striking the earth once again drew the golden-threaded figure’s attention back. A familiar and detestable face came into view.
It’s him!
Memories of what happened in the back mountain flashed by. At that time, this detestable young man had claimed to be a ghost, and the thing inside his body…
The golden-threaded figure still remembered that scent, and its appetite instantly whetted.
Holy sh-sh-sh-shit!
Zhou Qi’an decisively slapped the sheep’s rear, forcing it to immediately cut through a small alley.
This time, the sheep-headed man didn’t cause any trouble, mainly because it saw Zhou Qi’an finally starting to carve the powerful ghost’s name.
The golden-threaded figure was too large, and the narrow alley successfully slowed its pursuit.
Zhou Qi’an carved while looking back.
The large halberd in the golden-threaded figure’s hand was made of bronze, three or four times the size of a normal halberd. When the other party was hacking with the weapon, it would be difficult for him to get close, let alone pierce it with the Holy Relic.
The plan to kill the monster with the Holy Relic was shattered.
The blood-red figure behind was getting closer and closer. After carving only the character ‘Zhao,’ Zhou Qi’an stared at the word for a moment and suddenly stopped.
When he looked up again, he re-gripped the reins with one hand and forced the sheep cart to turn towards the south side.
When they had gathered in the morning, Shen Zhiyi had said that the leader of the Whalers’ Association lived in a place towards the end of the south road.
There was another, more crucial sentence—
“I vaguely sense some kind of restriction.”
Could the reason the Death Cursing Bone couldn’t lock onto the target immediately be related to this restriction, or something else?
Regardless, that place must be Lu Yiyuan’s main base, and the latter was highly likely to be hiding there.
The small town was in chaos. Now that most of the relics had left their residences, it was a chance to search them one by one.
After the cart entered the south main road, Zhou Qi’an quickly observed the courtyards on both sides. Some of the main gates were only half-open, with bloodstains around the door panels, and even some rotten flesh.
The sheep-headed man kept a close eye on Zhou Qi’an, thinking that once he was close to finishing his carving, it would command the sheep cart to turn around. Then, with both sides injured, it could pick up the pieces.
Zhou Qi’an’s acting was superb. Carving with a fishing spear was not easy in itself, and he would shake his arm from time to time.
Under tense observation, he suddenly caught sight of half a shoe print.
The bloodstain was fresh, and the toe of the shoe was pointing towards the courtyard, indicating that someone had recently entered.
Zhou Qi’an subconsciously stretched his neck to get a clear view of the courtyard.
A terrifying sound of something breaking through the air came from behind.
Seeing the young man’s outstretched neck, the golden-threaded figure threw with all its might. The ancient, blood-stained bronze halberd left its master’s large hand. The weapon, already suitable for long-range combat, flew forward, aiming to take the head of the young man on the sheep cart.
Zhou Qi’an reacted extremely quickly, diving headfirst into the blood coffin and struggling to close the lid on himself.
The startled sheep cart rushed into the courtyard, almost tipping the coffin over.
The flying bronze halberd was two seconds too late. It couldn’t split the coffin and hit empty air, its two blades bouncing off and hitting the nearby wall. The next moment, the courtyard wall crumbled with a loud crash.
…The person in the house slowly turned around.
…
After Mo Town fell into chaos, the leader of the Whalers’ Association could no longer keep using his ability to hide from the monsters and could only return to his old nest.
By relying on these resentment-filled skeletons and mixing with the aura of dead things, he could completely deceive the army of skeletons outside.
The man was confident he could avoid the golden-threaded figure.
Besides the ability of the relic he had transplanted, the dragon pattern relief on the surface of the Gilt Bronze Buckle also brought some luck amplification.
Luck was often very important.
With these two factors combined, it was almost impossible for him to run into the powerful ghost.
‘Death Cursing Bone.’
Silently repeating these four words in his heart, the leader of the Whalers’ Association’s expression was indifferent. This was clearly Zhou Qi’an’s greatest reliance at present.
Fortunately, he had been prepared for a long time.
He still had one last trump card he hadn’t used. When the time came…
Bang!
A dull, loud noise emanated from behind.
Almost at the same time, a deep crack appeared on the wall behind him. The brick wall was not very stable to begin with. Under the attack of the huge force, the wall tilted and swayed. In the blink of an eye, it collapsed with a roar.
A sheep cart galloped over the bricks, dust filling the air. The man took a sharp step back.
What happened?
He looked up, and his heart instantly tightened.
At the original position of the courtyard gate, a huge shadow had appeared at some unknown time. The golden thread jade garment, almost soaked in blood, exuded a terrifying aura.
…In front, the terrifying powerful ghost was staring intently at him.
The once mysterious courtyard was now on the verge of becoming a ruin.
The golden-threaded figure’s bloodthirsty gaze fell on Lu Yiyuan. It seemed to have discovered another kind of delicious ‘meat’ and strode into the courtyard.
Everything happened in a flash. No matter how fast the man reacted, he was still half a beat too slow.
He subconsciously looked towards the culprit first.
The sheep cart had just run to another courtyard wall. Zhou Qi’an struggled to climb out of the coffin, his gaze meeting Lu Yiyuan’s.
“…”
When fellow countrymen meet, Zhou Qi’an was just short of having tears in his eyes.
No explanation was needed. Even without memories, the moment their eyes met, he knew: This is it, this must be the old nest of the Whalers’ Association leader.
Zhou Qi’an finally experienced the feeling of being able to recognize his superior even if he were reduced to ashes.
At the same time, the Death Cursing Bone’s three-minute-long search for an enemy in the void finally ended. The mechanical voice came in a business-like tone:
[Successfully locked onto the curse target.]
