Chapter 7: The Village's Rules

Not far away, through the oil lamp Lian'er had lit at the door.

Zhang Hao could faintly make out the appearance of those figures.

Where did these look like bandits? They were clearly corpses one after another — grey, ashen faces, deathly pale and drained of color.

Their steps were stiff and uncanny, wandering aimlessly through the village.

"Just as I guessed, then?"

Zhang Hao stared at the figures below.

If these bandits are Ghost Slaves, then when they raided the village for women — if it wasn't for killing, it must have been to complete the Puzzle, right?

"Bang bang bang!"

At that moment, the door was knocked again.

"Young man, those bandits have entered the village. I'm a little scared on my own — could I stay with you for a while?"

Although Li Chun was already in her thirties, she was quite good-looking.

Right now her face wore a pitiful, touching expression, one that easily stirred all sorts of thoughts.

Zhang Hao didn't answer right away. He looked at Li Chun for a good while before speaking.

"Alright."

Ever since he had entered the village, the women of the village seemed to want to gather near him.

After confirming at night that those bandits weren't living people but Ghosts, Zhang Hao wanted to see what was really going on with the village's women.

After all, any normal person could tell that Zhang Hao and the Dry Corpse Bride were not ordinary people.

Zhang Hao's deathly pale face and the Dry Corpse Bride's withered hands could both inspire intense fear.

Yet the village's women seemed to have completely failed to notice this — enough to prove they were not normal people.

But if they weren't normal people, then they shouldn't have any desire between men and women either.

So why would they want to get close to him? Li Chun, meanwhile, paid no attention to Zhang Hao's thoughts. Once she got permission, she cheerfully walked into the room and sat down on a chair.

The Dry Corpse Bride showed no reaction to Li Chun's approach either, still sitting where she was.

Not being attacked by the Bride further deepened Zhang Hao's suspicion about Li Chun's identity.

"Bang bang bang!"

The bandits outside seemed to have discovered something — the sound of a heavy object striking a wooden board rang out.

Those bandits seemed to be attacking something.

Li Chun seemed to think of something when she heard the sound.

Li Chun hurriedly stood up and walked to the window where Zhang Hao was.

"Young man, close the window quickly."

"We can't go out at night, and we can't leave any openings in the house either."

Li Chun's expression was somewhat panicked. She, who had always behaved so properly, didn't even wait for Zhang Hao's response this time and slammed the window shut in one motion.

Seeing this, Zhang Hao had doubts inside, but said nothing on his face.

Just as the window was about to close, Zhang Hao keenly caught that one of the bandits at Lian'er's doorway seemed to glance this way.

"Closing the window — so I've violated some kind of rule?"

Zhang Hao was certain that thing had definitely looked toward him.

"Li Chun, is there any taboo — or rule — about closing the window?"

Zhang Hao looked at Li Chun, wanting to ask something, but at this moment Li Chun's face was completely expressionless.

Li Chun's state seemed to have undergone some change.

"Something's wrong."

Zhang Hao quickly moved away from Li Chun and came to the Bride's side.

At this moment, a cold, eerie Supernatural Aura was emanating from Li Chun's body, and her facial expression had gone stiff.

Just as Zhang Hao reached the Bride's side, Li Chun also turned her head stiffly to look at Zhang Hao.

"This thing has its eyes on me."

"No warning at all — it seems like it was just that one bandit glancing this way." Zhang Hao wondered inside — could it be that just because the window wasn't closed, the Balance on Li Chun's body was broken?

But from the moment he arrived, the room's window had been open the whole time, and he hadn't seen any change in Li Chun before either.

It was only after Li Chun went and closed the window that she showed this kind of change.

"Could it be because that bandit looked this way?"

Zhang Hao recalled that just as the window was about to close, a bandit had glanced this way.

So in this village, there are actually other rules as well.

"Perhaps the reason the windows must be closed at night is actually to stop the village's women from meeting those bandits?"

Zhang Hao had a vague guess forming in his mind.

After being glanced at, Li Chun lost the living-person quality she'd had before, becoming like a Fierce Ghost.

But at this point, there was no time left for Zhang Hao to think.

Because the Li Chun in the room had begun to move.

Even though Zhang Hao was now a dead man — a Ghost Slave — Li Chun was still approaching him.

"When did I trigger her Killing Rule?"

Zhang Hao stepped back, and a sudden wave of cold, eerie aura burst from his body.

The Ghost Mourning Clothes began to take effect — the supernatural force caused Li Chun, who was walking toward Zhang Hao, to start bending at the knees.

But even so, Li Chun kept approaching Zhang Hao.

With every step Li Chun took closer, the angle her knees bent grew by several degrees.

When Li Chun was less than a metre from Zhang Hao, she dropped to her knees.

The Spirit Phenomenon of Kneeling Death triggered; Li Chun's face turned ashen, and she collapsed to the ground.

Strangely, after Li Chun fell, her corpse did not begin to rot. Apart from turning ashen, there was not much change.

"Can't be killed, only temporarily suppressed."

Zhang Hao stared at Li Chun. He hadn't expected this Li Chun to actually be a ghost — a ghost that couldn't be killed.

Based on his earlier assumptions, Li Chun should have been some kind of Spirit Phenomenon, a Fierce Ghost's avatar or a Ghost Slave or something like that.

But everything happening in the room now was clearly telling him that Li Chun was a true ghost.

This was absurd. One had to know there were several dozen women in the Village — did that mean every woman in the entire Village was a Fierce Ghost? "And those bandits outside — if the women in the Village are ghosts, then these bandits clearly wouldn't be some kind of Ghost Slave either."

Zhang Hao increasingly felt that this Village was no simple matter.

"Bang bang bang!"

Suddenly, the sound of someone pounding on the door came from the first floor.

Zhang Hao walked to the window and saw that the figures wandering the Village had, at some unknown point, gathered outside the house and surrounded it.

"Have they set their sights on me? Or did they come for Li Chun?"

"Didn't Li Chun say before that these bandits wouldn't break into houses to rob?"

Zhang Hao recalled that earlier there seemed to have been the sound of pounding on doors from within the Village as well.

After a brief hesitation, Zhang Hao walked over to Li Chun's corpse.

He dragged Li Chun's corpse to the window and forcefully threw it down toward the first floor.

"I'm going to see whether you've come for me or for Li Chun."

Zhang Hao opened the window, paying no heed to what Li Chun had said before about not opening windows.

He simply watched Li Chun's corpse fall to the first floor.

Sure enough, as Li Chun's corpse landed, the figures pounding on the door stopped.

They seemed to be tearing at and devouring Li Chun's corpse. Successfully signed the contract, but the new-book period has data requirements for updates, so the update speed is limited.

Let's set some rules for extra updates during the new-book period.

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(End of this chapter)