Chapter 117

Behind tightly drawn curtains, the room was filled with a faint gloom; the mottled old bulb on the ceiling flickered unsteadily like a heartbeat, its light wavering between bright and dim, reflecting a face ruined by flames, making it look all the more horrifying.

He sat in the spot nearest the door, the clatter of keyboard strikes rising and falling before the computer screen as he sent an encrypted email to a certain address.

On the wooden bed opposite the doorway, No. 2 sat cross-legged, his dark face lowered, wholly absorbed in fiddling with an ant stick.

Around him, a thin layer of ant corpses mashed into paste was spread in a circle by the pillow; he would dip a fingertip in it from time to time, then put it in his mouth with a sucking sound.

The crackling of keyboard taps and the sucking of fingers rose and fell in turn.

In the email window, text was being entered like this:

First, the courier had silently infiltrated No. 47 Middle School in recent days and cleverly stolen the information of those students who had not yet been formally "deregistered."

【Feng Mu: Male

ID Photo: Feng Mu. jpg

Age: 17

Bone Quality: 49 (entrance examination)

Scores: Cultural Score 521, Martial Score 236, Total Score 757. (Grade 12 First Mock Exam)

Home Address: Ninth District, xxx Street, xxx Residential Compound

Current Status: Dropped out, graduated early. (Time: Year 233, 3.18)

Citizen Grade: Blank Citizen

Father: Feng Ju

Occupation: Patrol Bureau Chief Constable

Citizen Grade: D

Mother: Wang Xiuli

Occupation: None

Citizen Grade: Blank Citizen

Younger Sister: Feng Yuhuai

Occupation: Grade 10 Student

Citizen Grade: Unfiled, has not yet taken the College Entrance Exam.】

After the basic file information was entered, the courier's mouth corner hooked into a cold, mocking sneer, a flash of complacency crossing his eyes, as if saying: "You can deceive others, but don't even think of deceiving me."

He then tapped lightly on the keyboard, entering the following content:

【Since dropping out, Feng Mu has been working at the incineration plant; his current cover identity is a cremation worker (note: has not appeared at his post for five consecutive days, suspected of having fled?).】

Afterward, the courier began sorting and summarizing recent major and minor events in the Nine Districts, organizing a series of intricate information into perfect order.

Immediately after, at a slow and steady pace, he typed his conclusion into the email word by word:

【The student and the cremation worker are merely roles played by Feng Mu; we strongly suspect his true identity is actually 【Mask】.】

【The Black Cores, as I have verified, have most likely all fallen into 【Mask】's hands.】

At the end, the courier's fingertips tapped lightly on the keyboard, and as text appeared on the screen, the truth of a certain incident was being restored by him:

【After my thorough investigation, Feng Mu's past record appears unremarkable, with no eye-catching anomalies.】

【But just a few days before he dropped out, a homicide case occurred at No. 47 Middle School, and behind this incident there seem to be hidden clues related to the Curse of the Evil Sacrifice.】

【The Patrol Bureau, eager to solve the case, identified the murderer as Zheng Hang (note: son of former Green Wolf Gang Boss Zheng Si).】

The courier smiled contemptuously and typed his conclusion:

【I infer that the true culprit of the Curse of the Evil Sacrifice is suspected to be Feng Mu, and the sacrificial target — the Puppet Mother.】

To support this judgment, the courier listed numerous deductive bases, among which the most critical evidence was the failed attack on the night of April 11.

【... Attack failed; Feng Mu's younger sister Feng Yuhuai was rescued by the Puppet Mother's enslaved minions who were secretly guarding her; the missing Zhang Hao was confirmed that night to have been made into a human puppet.】

Recalling that night's scene, the courier's expression turned exceptionally ugly, and he struck the keyboard with even more force.

【I can fully confirm that Feng Mu is a potential host body favored by the Puppet Mother and parasitized by a seed; he gained power by offering sacrifices to feed the Puppet Mother, and through this controls the Puppet Mother's minions, secretly protecting his younger sister.】

【The homicide case at No. 47 Middle School was Feng Mu's first offering to feed the Puppet Mother, the beginning of his degeneration into a Mask.】

Note: here the courier uses the word "degeneration"; should a person with ulterior motives glimpse between the lines of this email, they might perhaps catch a subtle, hard-to-detect clue, savoring the complex undertones behind these two words.

The E Corpse Cult is a heretical cult.

The Puppet Mother is an evil god.

Both are evil; who is more righteous to accuse the other of degeneration — is that not laughable.

But the world is just this interesting!

The E Corpse Cult regards Black Cores as everything, believing that the Puppet Mother and her minions making human puppets is a desecration of the living; the correct way is to make the living die.

Likewise, the Puppet Mother and her minions sneer at the E Corpse Cult's doctrine, feeling the cult's practice desecrates corpses; the correct way is to make the dead live forever.

Recalling those Puppet Mother lackeys, a dense killing intent flashed in the courier's eyes as he continued typing:

【In the past, our E Corpse Cult and the Puppet Mother also clashed, but those conflicts remained on the surface; our core was never coveted.】

【But this time is different; Mask stole the Black Cores — this is an extremely dangerous signal.】

【The Puppet Mother, this evil god who once only desecrated and toyed with corpses, seems no longer satisfied with past deeds. He is secretly manipulating his minions, cleverly winding tentacles past corpses to reach for Black Cores.】

【The Puppet Mother has shown a brand-new covetousness for Black Cores utterly unlike before; for our E Corpse Cult, this is extremely dangerous and unfavorable.】

【Black Cores absolutely must not be coveted!!!】

【Compared to losing a crate of Black Cores, I feel the more severe issue is that we must determine whether Mask's theft of Black Cores was his personal act, or was done on the Puppet Mother's orders.】

【This decides whether our E Corpse Cult must next prepare to launch a life-and-death war with the Puppet Mother and her minions.】

The courier personally holds the second view; he does not believe the Puppet Mother's minions have the guts to covet and snatch the E Corpse Cult's property on their own initiative.

The courier's typing fingers grew heavy, his ruined face increasingly haze-shrouded.

Finally, he typed the final conclusion:

【Danger! Danger! Danger!】

【This matter is no small thing; I dare not make a hasty judgment. The situation in the Nine Districts is tense, with crises lurking everywhere; every step must be taken with caution. I request that the Teaching Organization dispatch more Brothers and Sisters as reinforcements as soon as possible, so that we may work together to sever the Puppet Mother's tentacles crossing the border.】

By this point, the Receiver had finished writing his work results and report for this period.

He moved the Mouse to the 【Send】 key, hesitated slightly, then moved it away again.

He knew well that as an Elite disciple of the E Corpse Teaching, merely submitting a work summary was far from enough.

"If I want to gain promotion within the Teaching, besides reporting work results, I also need to propose action strategies or suggestions for the next phase; only then can I 'get a promotion and a raise,'" the Receiver thought to himself.

He pondered for a moment, then struck the keyboard again, beginning to input new content.

【I investigated the family relations of Jia Mian·Feng Mu.】

【Feng Ju's arm was broken and he was hospitalized, suspected to be the work of Jia Mian; I draw the following conclusion: Feng Mu is on bad terms with his father, which is why he could strike so ruthlessly.】

【Feng Ju does not know Feng Mu's true face.】

【But it cannot be ruled out that this is Jia Mian's meticulous plan, a self-directed and self-acted scheme of self-inflicted injury, aimed at clearing his own suspicion on the official side.】

【And, on 4.11 Feng Yuhuai was ambushed; the Puppet Mother's claws did not hesitate to expose their identities to save her.】

【Comparing the two, Feng Yuhuai's status in Feng Mu's heart must be far higher than that of his father.】

【Considering that Feng Mu has gone missing recently, suspected of fleeing, and a thorough search yielded no results.】

【I believe the next action plan should focus on Feng Yuhuai. By acting around Feng Yuhuai, we can force Feng Mu to appear, try to capture him alive, interrogate him about the whole matter, and find out whether it was entirely his personal doing or...】

The Receiver's typing suddenly stopped; his ears twitched slightly, capturing the faint and dense sounds coming from the corridor.

Bang!

Before he could make a judgment, the corner of his eye caught the security door suddenly bulging inward, twisting and deforming, the central axis squeezed and fractured, the wall plaster on one side of the door frame also exploding in response, shattered bricks flying everywhere.

A pair of terrifying hands actually tore the door panel into two halves by sheer force; immediately after, a hideous monster's head, like the head of a fierce tiger, poked out from inside the door.

Under the dim yellow light, the huge shadow seemed to instantly cover the whole house, and the air was frozen.

The Receiver's ugly face froze; he jumped up abruptly, and the alarm bell in his heart rang sharply like an alarm in a storm: "The Puppet Mother's claws are here?!!"

He nervously reached for the Mouse, moving toward the 【Send】 button.

Hiss—

A Snake-Faced humanoid monster silently emerged from behind the fierce tiger; in an instant it appeared beside the Receiver. His two arms waved about, like two flexible snake tails, whipping through the air, emitting a hissing sound like a poisonous snake flicking its tongue.

The Receiver felt the hairs on his neck stand up instantly; facing the hissing Snake Hand, he decisively let go of the Mouse and leaped backward.

The table was whipped by the "snake tail" and fractured instantly; the cracked patterns were spiral-shaped and strange, reminding one of the marks left by a giant python tightly constricting its prey.

The table shattered, but the "snake tail" stopped abruptly; with a turn of the wrist, it picked up the Laptop and sent it behind him; he even had enough scruples not to peek at the contents of the emails.

At the same time, from beneath the gloomy Snake-Faced Mask came Fifth Senior Brother Gong Qi's low voice: "Junior Brother, why not take a look at the contents on the computer?"

"Thank you, Fifth Senior Brother!"

Feng Mu, wearing a Goat Mask, took the Laptop and carefully browsed the contents of the email; under the cover of the mask, the corner of his mouth curled slightly, revealing a thought-provoking arc.

Feng Mu's Nao Hai spun wildly; he roughly understood the Receiver's line of reasoning—its logic was rigorous, its evidence sufficient, simply flawless.

"I am the Host Body parasitized by the Puppet Mother, commanding the Puppet Mother's claws to save Feng Yuhuai; I am the good older brother who loves and protects his sister in the darkness?"

"Next, when the E Corpse Teaching comes to reinforce, we can make an issue around Feng Yuhuai, forcing me, this good older brother, to appear?"

"Wonderful; I didn't even expect that the next script could be written like this; as long as I make a slight change, I can copy the homework."

Feng Mu half-closed the Laptop lid, withdrew his gaze from the Screen, looked at the Receiver with a complex gaze, and said with a hint of indescribable depth in his tone: "I didn't expect that my deeply hidden secrets have all been dug up by you."

He sighed faintly: "You are a rare talent; I almost can't bear to kill you. If you are willing to turn from darkness to light, kill that black-faced Fool beside you, and I can spare your life. How about it?"

Before the Receiver could reply, the Swarthy Area 2 could no longer bear it; he kicked off the wall with his foot and pounced forward to kill.

"Feng Mu, liar!" the Swarthy Area 2 roared angrily; the voice was filled with uncontrollable anger and deep grievance.

Snake-Faced Gong Qi was slightly stunned and involuntarily glanced sideways at the Goat Face beside him; his eyes showed a hint of surprise, as if silently asking: "Junior Brother, what exactly did you do to make this black-faced fellow lose his mind so much?"

Li Bashan stood motionless where he was; the eyes under the Tiger Mask were calm as still water, not a trace of Killing Intent revealed; he only said in a muffled voice: "Junior Brother, should this person live or die?"

Feng Mu had originally wanted to do it himself, but seeing that there were only two people in the room, he immediately understood that there weren't enough heads to go around.

The Senior Brothers kindly brought him here for Team Building; he certainly couldn't let them return empty-handed.

Forget it; no need to do it himself; just paddling a bit on the side, wiping out the enemy would also be a kind of refreshing feeling~

Feng Mu sighed and said mercifully: "Consider him an old friend; please, Senior Brother, give him a quick death."

"Good!"

Li Bashan spat out a single word; his restrained aura suddenly burst forth; the sticky and terrifying Killing Intent seemed to have substance, filling the air, as if the entire interior of the house had been painted with a coat of bloody paint in an instant.

A pungent and rich fishy smell permeated the air, making one dizzy; as if every breath carried the taste of blood.

The Swarthy Area 2's charging steps suddenly paused; he felt the air around him seem to turn into a bloody mud swamp; the sticky texture, like countless tiny tentacles, tightly wrapped around his steps and fists, making his body stiff and slow.

His temples on both sides seemed to be struck by iron hammers, throbbing and swelling; veins bulged on his forehead; his blood vessels seemed ready to burst at any moment from being unable to withstand the pressure.

The Swarthy Area 2 let out a strange howl of "ah ah ah," stomped heavily on the ground, accompanied by a loud thud; his monstrous hand, with muscles and bones intertwined and knotted, rose fiercely; rotting Corpse Fluid splashed everywhere, and a nauseating stench permeated the air.

Li Bashan stood motionless where he was, indifferently watching the Swarthy Area 2 rush to his front and throw a punch; under the mask, neither joy nor sorrow; he only lightly raised his hand.

In an instant, the bloody aura permeating the whole house seemed to have life; like swallows returning to their nest, it quickly gathered, turning into rings of circulating liquid, tightly winding around Li Bashan's thick arm, which was like cast Steel.

Li Bashan had no fancy moves; he simply pressed his arm down naturally, soundlessly, yet carrying an unrivaled might.

Making it impossible to block or avoid.

No one knew what the Swarthy Area 2, who bore the brunt first, was feeling in his Nei Xin at this moment.

Anyway, under the Goat Mask, Feng Mu's pupils shrank to needle points as he truly witnessed Eldest Senior Brother Li Bashan take action for the first time.

Even knowing that Eldest Senior Brother was on their side, he still felt a chill rise from his spine, and his scalp involuntarily went numb in waves.

Feng Mu stared unblinkingly at the Swarthy Area 2's disgusting pitch-black monstrous hand, watching with his own eyes; in the instant it touched Eldest Senior Brother's palm, that monstrous hand collapsed and disintegrated bit by bit like ice and snow meeting the scorching sun.

Whether muscle or bone, they were like burning wax liquid, patted flat effortlessly by a ladle falling from the sky, dripping drop by drop onto the ground, melting into a puddle of mud.

The hospital examination results are out.

It wasn't very good, but not particularly bad either; he let out a long sigh of relief.

Following the doctor's advice, he was hospitalized at ease.

Probably staying 7-10 days; the doctor didn't say exactly how long, sigh.

Old Tree's book results are still decent; I can only say that I will lie in the hospital, and even typing on my phone I will type out chapters every day, doing my best to persist in continuous updates.

Unless one day after the minimally invasive surgery it's truly too hard to bear, but as long as I can bear it, I will keep updating continuously.

Typing on my phone; if everyone sees typos, please remind me.

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End of Chapter