[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit":3,"chapter-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-27":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","There Is a Malevolent Spirit",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2263133,4416,"Chapter 27","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-27",27,"\u003Cp>26, Bone Thumb Ring, Ao Duoji\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Night fell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang lay on a crude wooden bed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thick bedding pressed down on him, his body trembling faintly beneath it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thin, pale-translucent threads sealed the corpse’s mouth and nose, preventing any sound; from its brow, strands of Zhou Chang’s blood-mental threads now moved methodically—some withdrawing from its husk, others reinserting into it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—Zhou Chang was reorganizing the blood-mental threads within him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following the corpse’s vascular layout, he wound each thread around its major blood vessels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His accumulated ordinary mental threads that day were insufficient to pierce the corpse’s flesh, so he temporarily used them to cover its surface, mouth, and nose, suppressing its frantic struggles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since returning home today, he had sought every opportunity to approach Miss Bai.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps because Miss Bai’s emotions had been unusually volatile today, he gathered a considerable number of mental threads—enough, from today’s haul alone, to cover both arms and the front of his chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mental threads were his only reliance; naturally, he tended to them carefully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s initial plan was to replace the corpse’s entire vascular network with mental threads; as the threads absorbed the delusion mycelia and grew stronger, he intended to twist them into steel cables to replace the corpse’s bones—and ultimately fill its flesh entirely with mental threads!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid the corpse’s trembling, Zhou Chang wound all his blood-mental threads around the vessels of his body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He extended his arms from beneath the covers, flexing each joint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—Even without activating the ordinary mental threads covering his skin, his control over this husk had significantly improved through this “mental-thread vascular network.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he returned from the distillery, he could barely make the husk walk; now he was confident he moved no differently than a living man!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Looks like I didn’t take the wrong path…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang smiled. The feedback from this husk confirmed he had made the right move—replacing his body’s vascular network with blood-mental threads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He moved his limbs for a while, then his gaze fell upon the red cord around his right wrist—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang suddenly realized something, pulled his arm back, and fumbled beneath his pillow until he pulled out a cylindrical object thicker than a thumb and over a knuckle tall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cylinder was made of bone, hollow, polished into the shape of a thumb ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its surface was stained yellowish from fire and crisscrossed with black, crackle patterns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among these cracks were seven manually carved holes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The seven holes were not fully pierced; when Zhou Chang gazed at them, he felt a strange sensation—as if his gaze was being “absorbed” by the seven holes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This bone thumb ring shared the same origin as the mental threads.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a burial artifact he had taken from the coffin before Yinsheng Laomu’s grave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally, the red cord showed no interest in the delusion mycelia in the wine cellar, so he could not accumulate its power there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when he left the cellar and passed through the distillery’s entrance hall, he saw many sealed jars of wine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So while the overseer was talking with Yang Rui and his apprentice, he sent the red cord into those jars and drank deeply, filling it with power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This allowed him to drag the coffin of a deceased man named Zhou Chang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the coffin, he retrieved this bone thumb ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The red cord then fell silent, its next activation unknown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The seven holes in the thumb ring, crisscrossed by cracks, ceased absorbing Zhou Chang’s gaze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The seven holes were black and gleaming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang leaned close, saw nothing unusual, but heard a desolate wind howling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whaa—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The desolate wind emerged sequentially from the seven holes, carrying a boy’s young, frantic cry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ao Duoji!” the first hole cried.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ao Bai Ma!” the second hole called out another dog’s name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Qiu Yang Qie!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Dun Zhu, Dun Zhu!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A Deng!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ao Niu, Da Niu!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hu! Hu! Hu!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang listened to the voices from the seven holes, his expression changing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This bone thumb ring seemed infused with the “thoughts” of a boy named Zhou Chang—his thoughts trapped in the seven holes, endlessly calling out the names of his seven beloved pets, or perhaps seven companions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what use was this bone thumb ring to him?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang turned the thought over in his mind; the holes gradually fell silent, the boy’s cries ceased, and all returned to stillness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He waited a while, sensed no further anomalies from the ring, then slipped it onto his left thumb, closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as he was drifting off, a whimpering sound of a puppy begging for food reached his ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hnng, hnng~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang snapped his eyes open and pressed his ear close to the seven holes of the ring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The whimpering vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whaa…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind outside sounded bitterly cold; staying inside made one feel safer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Xiue curled up beside an oil lamp, softly humming a childhood nursery rhyme she once heard, translucent pale threads weaving through tiny insects, peeling off their shells intact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One by one, the insect shells stitched together in her palm—first imperceptibly, then growing to the size of a fingernail, continuing to assemble and expand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She worked with meticulous care, her face lit with joy, never feeling fatigue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside her lay layers of rat pelts, cloth woven from bird feathers, and insect shells.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Born to be a servant!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, “Paper Face” reappeared on half her cheek, sneering at her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The alluring, affectionate face now brimmed with revulsion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Xiue sighed, set down her needlework, and stared blankly at the flickering flame before her. After a long silence, she hesitated: “I… I just want to repay them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Repay?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Have we ever owed them anything?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Without us, they’d have died long ago in that mass grave!” Paper Face feigned astonishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Xiue lowered her head, saying nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Paper Face said, she and the Zhou family’s grandfather and grandson owed each other nothing—how could she possibly repay them?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Where did this desire to repay even come from?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps because here, she could feel like a real person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Worthless girl!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Bai Xiue’s expression, Paper Face’s revulsion deepened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly, her expression turned grave. “Your dead husband has come for you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crash!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No sooner had Paper Face spoken than the paper-covered window, tightly latched with bolts, was ripped open by a vicious wind!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Icy, chilling wind flooded Bai Xiue’s bedroom in an instant!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sense of safety vanished completely.\u003C\u002Fp>",1076,"2026-06-19T18:47:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","a294eaefa64ceaadb3b3b2a2a10a5cc594b64633e6b5ba01e726fdcc32d8643e","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-28","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-26",209,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthere-is-a-malevolent-spirit-cover.jpg"]