Shen Zhiyi’s eyes held a faint mockery, as if to say that if he had obediently picked up the paper and entered the writing phase earlier, he would have still had a chance to commit suicide, instead of being used as a blood bag.
“You guys…”
Killing the body and the spirit, this is it.
Lu Yiyuan’s face was deathly pale as he knelt on the ground. Blood clogged his throat, and he choked a few times. Soon, he was no longer breathing.
The moment he died, the system prompts on Zhou Qi’an’s end came in a continuous stream like a bullet curtain.
[Your lungs have undergone a small evolution for the third time, entering an intermediate evolutionary state.]
[Your stomach has undergone a small evolution for the third time, entering an advanced evolutionary state.]
[Once, twice, and now a third time. Who would dare to doubt your devouring ability now?]
Zhou Qi’an glanced at the dead Lu Yiyuan.
…Idiot, this is what true devouring is.
Gazing at Lu Yiyuan’s dead face, a moment later, the mockery in his eyes suddenly faded a little. After annihilating the Whalers’ Association and personally sending off the people he once knew one by one, with everything settled, Zhou Qi’an briefly felt a sense of emptiness.
The fragmented memories brought too much burden.
Emptiness, incomprehension, and a little bit of melancholy.
After a brief silence, when he raised his eyes again, his gaze met Shen Zhiyi’s in mid-air.
With just one look, the complex emotions brought by the Whalers’ Association faded quite a bit.
Shen Zhiyi suddenly took the initiative to reach out and pull him away from Lu Yiyuan’s remains.
The university student, Ying Yu… and the teammates who had come together, all stood to one side. Although they didn’t speak, their gazes towards him carried a bit of worry. Even his superior, seeing his employee’s paper-white face, frowned.
Under these gazes, Zhou Qi’an’s eyelashes trembled, and he inexplicably felt a sense of relief.
What he and Lu Yiyuan pursued were different from the very beginning.
He wanted to return to the human world.
With friends and family by his side, a small fortune and a peaceful life.
————
After the rain, the sky cleared. The sheep cart returned to the Silent Museum.
The sheep-headed man was entirely focused on pulling the blood coffin, to prevent anyone from getting any funny ideas about breaking the seal again.
For some unknown purpose, Shen Zhiyi also threw Lu Yiyuan’s corpse onto the cart, seeming to prepare to bring it back to the museum. Before Zhou Qi’an could cast an inquisitive glance, he first spoke of the matter the other cared about most: “The mission for the Ridie Pavilion is over.”
Everyone had collected a ghost once.
Jin Zhi, the ghost baby, the newspaper zombie, the female patient, and the soul devoured by Lu Yiyuan were all brought out. In addition, they had also collected a monster from the world of the Gilt Bronze Disc. This last one was purely to complete the ghost collection mission.
Shen Zhiyi did not immediately release the souls. He knew Zhou Qi’an would have a more appropriate way to handle it.
As expected, Zhou Qi’an just sighed in slight relief and did not make any further requests.
To collect and then immediately release would be provoking the game.
Because he had to personally watch the blood coffin return to its original position, the sheep cart drove directly into the courtyard this time.
Large amounts of blood dripped from the edges of the cart. The moment the cart, carrying a coffin and a fresh corpse, entered, the faces of the players in the courtyard all changed. What is this setup?
A funeral procession?
The sheep-headed man paid no attention to these players at all, its eyes fixed on Zhou Qi’an the whole time, to prevent him from pulling any more tricks.
Zhou Qi’an, on the other hand, looked at Red Hood. The latter jumped off the sheep cart first and swept her gaze over everyone in the courtyard.
In the instance, she hadn’t wasted healing props on the wound on her face. Under the scar, her eyes looked cold, giving her words a deterrent force of a desperate person:
“We have already completed the viewing requirements for the three pavilions.”
As soon as these words were spoken, they instantly attracted everyone’s attention.
Some players inside the pavilions even came out directly after being contacted by their teammates, sparking a lot of discussion for a while.
Some players wanted to ask something, but when they thought of how this team had fought their way out when they were surrounded yesterday, no one was willing to be the one to stick their neck out.
Not surprised at all by the current situation, Red Hood continued, “In the next competition for the limited-edition copper coin, I hope everyone can yield to our team of the old, weak, sick, and disabled.”
Except for ‘old,’ they currently pretty much had all the elements covered.
Little did she know, they actually had the first element too, and an outstanding one at that.
The crowd’s faces were a colorful spectacle. Someone wanted to say, ‘Have some shame,’ but swallowed the words back after seeing Red Hood’s face. Finally, a player couldn’t hold it in anymore. His questioning words became slightly more euphemistic when he saw the coffin and corpse on the sheep cart: “You can’t expect us to just hand over the opportunity.”
As his voice fell, the atmosphere invisibly tensed up.
Although the chances of winning the limited-edition copper coin were slim, no one was willing to miss it for nothing.
Hearing this, Red Hood smiled and said meaningfully, “At this time, you can do something else. If you need to do missions in the small town, now is the most suitable opportunity. Something has happened in the town. On this point, I can use a contract prop to promise I’m not lying.”
Many people exchanged glances, asking her to speak clearly.
But there were still a few who, after Red Hood used a prop to prove she wasn’t lying, hurriedly returned to the small town.
“Hey, I said…”
“Get lost,” Red Hood pressed her hand on the scimitar at her waist and gave the speaker a cold glance.
Leaking too much information in a instance could easily attract the game’s attention. Those who could react now were all players who knew that the town residents were fakes, and understood that when the town residents were weak, it was the most suitable time to trigger some missions.
After this group of capable people left, the rest were just a disorganized mob.
Some players returned to the small town, and some were still confused, but sent people to follow. Before long, the number of people in the courtyard had decreased significantly.
With the invisible threat removed, Zhou Qi’an and Shen Zhiyi transported the blood coffin back to the second floor. The rest stayed behind to start ‘poverty alleviation,’ helping the players who had not yet finished viewing the Rìshēng Pavilion to obtain the qualification to purchase cultural and creative products.
By the time Zhou Qi’an came out of the Ridie Pavilion again, it was just getting dark outside.
Some players had obtained the cultural and creative product qualification, which meant another competition for the limited-edition copper coin was starting.
Before the sky completely darkened, Shen Zhiyi suddenly looked at Zhou Qi’an. “Qi’an, let’s give him a water burial.”
“Huh?”
Shen Zhiyi threw the corpse that the sheep cart had brought back into the well like a piece of trash.
Then, he pulled Zhou Qi’an’s hand and jumped into the well.
Zhou Qi’an did not resist. The icy well water enveloped his body. The strange schools of fish hidden in the darkness caused him to transform again. His ice-blue hair floated, once again providing its own lighting effect.
The shadow did the hard labor, dragging Lu Yiyuan’s corpse down on the other end.
The environment at the bottom of the well was as harsh as ever. Even holding his breath, he could feel the faint fishy smell of the water. The deeper into the well, the stronger the smell.
Directly below, countless bloated corpses held hands, standing on their tiptoes. Their heads were covered in tumor-like blisters. Although it wasn’t the first time he had seen this scene, Zhou Qi’an couldn’t help but get a layer of goosebumps.
Shen Zhiyi led him to a perfect spot. The shadow was still sinking, continuing to throw away the trash.
In fact, halfway down the water, Zhou Qi’an already understood Shen Zhiyi’s intention: to make Lu Yiyuan one of the submerged corpses at the bottom of the well.
However, seeing that the other was quite thoroughly dead, could he still be reanimated?
Shen Zhiyi did have this intention. A person’s death did not erase their debts. The matter of Lu Yiyuan using reanimated corpses to deal with Zhou Qi’an had not passed. Since he liked manipulating corpses so much, he shouldn’t be idle after death. Be a submerged corpse at the bottom of the well, and reanimate from time to time.
So he had specially sealed some yin energy into the corpse.
If Lu Yiyuan’s luck was ‘good’ enough to be collected by a player doing a mission, he could be forever trapped in a relic.
The shadow had no physical form. The pale submerged corpses below sensed an external object approaching and frantically extended their arms, but in the end, they only caught Lu Yiyuan’s corpse.
Like all who drowned in the water, Lu Yiyuan was forced to become one of them after death.
Following the current, the shadow gracefully bypassed the other corpses and returned to the vicinity of its main body.
Zhou Qi’an and Shen Zhiyi floated above, holding hands. His long hair brushed past the latter’s wrist several times. The light, ticklish sensation felt as if his heart had been scratched.
From Zhou Qi’an’s perspective, the flesh on the submerged corpses’ faces had long since rotted away. Lu Yiyuan’s face was also starting to bloat under the water pressure. The deformed and putrid scene was easy to get nauseous from if looked at for too long.
He gestured, meaning ‘let’s go back.’
The two began to swim back.
The moment they resurfaced, the university student heard the movement and quickly walked over.
His positioning was always clear: stay on the shore to prevent anyone from carrying out a sneak attack on his teammates as they emerged.
The sky was too dark. The university student hadn’t noticed the scene of the body being thrown. Seeing only the two of them, he said anxiously:
“Brother Zhou, the body is gone!”
Zhou Qi’an waved his hand to indicate it was fine. As he caught his breath, he said, “Your Brother Shen and I gave him a home.”
He got what he deserved. Lu Yiyuan liked to form cliques. After death, he finally got his wish and joined a big family.
Returning malice with virtue, that’s what he and Shen Zhiyi were all about.
The university student opened his mouth. “Ah?”
After getting back on shore, the air outside was refreshingly crisp for a change.
Zhou Qi’an shook the water droplets off his body and looked around.
The dark clouds had gradually dispersed. He and Shen Zhiyi had not participated in this round of the copper coin competition. The capable players had all gone to Silent Town. It would surely be a piece of cake for his superior and Ying Yu to win a copper coin.
“I’ll buy the cultural and creative products in a bit. I want to end this instance early.”
Halfway through his sentence, he glanced at the person next to him, thought for a moment, and suddenly grabbed the man’s hand again.
Shen Zhiyi’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.
The dark clouds had scattered, and the light once again shone on the young man’s skin, fine, white, and translucent.
“After this instance ends, I should be able to achieve complete evolution.”
He didn’t know if it was because the university student was next to them that he was embarrassed to say some things directly. As if he were back in the speechless Silent Town, Zhou Qi’an lowered his head, his long lashes slightly drooping, and wrote stroke by stroke: I want to remember you.
After the evolution was complete, he should be able to retrieve all his lost memories. Among those chaotic pasts filled with too many purposes, the parts about Shen Zhiyi were what he most wanted to pick up now.
His fingertips traced the lines of his palm. Every character was light and ticklish, as if a faint electric current was passing through his limbs.
In that instant, Shen Zhiyi’s grayish-white eyes seemed to have gained color.
