Chapter 41: 40

40, "Do Not Turn Back!"

Mottled flames stained the pitch-black rooms.

Zhou Chang, seeing the more than ten skin-cases roaring in the fire, spread out the illustrated magazine in his hand and propped it before the more than ten distorted human-skin faces, saying, "Yes, yes!

None of this is my doing! Your daughter brought me here; she forced me to burn your wife's human skin!"

Bai Ma in the painting had originally been composed; even upon hearing Hei Chang and Feng Si speak through human skin, her face showed no panic.

But now, hearing Zhou Chang's shameless words, her expression stiffened, and for a moment she was so furious her teeth itched.

The Xiang Qi flames leaped before her eyes, and a seductive light danced in her gaze.

Bai Ma lowered her brows and cast a submissive look, speaking softly, "How could Father blame me?

It was clearly Mother who, time and again, demanded I bring this Nie Corpse here as soon as possible, so you could kill the foreign wandering soul parasitizing within it. If I had not brought him, you would have blamed me...

Now, exhausting every trick I know, I have finally brought him—I even specially cast a spell to draw out his soul.

At that time, he was fish on a chopping block, entirely at Second Sister's mercy to slaughter as she pleased.

But Second Sister failed in her duty, allowing him to walk all the way here! Father should blame Second Sister and the idle Eldest Sister instead!

To accuse me like this, is it because I am not your and Mother's biological child, and you only see me as an outsider?"

Her words were so reasonable and well-founded that even Zhou Chang could not help but admire them.

Indeed, the paper-faced one, following Li Xiamei's instructions, had brought Zhou Chang here according to the procedure.

Looking at the entire procedure, she was completely correct.

It was only in the execution of the details that she had slightly deviated.

After Bai Ma's words fell, the flames surging from the more than ten human skins in the brazier gradually returned to normal orange-red, and the mottled Xiang Qi faded and vanished.

Whether Hei Chang and Feng Si agreed with Bai Ma's opinion, no one knew.

Zhou Chang, watching the human skins burn to ash beside him, put away the magazine and turned to leave the room.

The sky grew darker.

Everything around was dim and heavy, so dark one could not see five fingers before one's hand.

Inside the thumb-ring on his left hand, Ao Duoji, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly let out a series of low growls, reminding Zhou Chang of the hidden dangers lurking nearby.

Of the seven holes in the thumb-ring, only the thought of Ao Duoji now appeared increasingly vivid and lively.

This should be related to its absorption of the red Xiang Qi sprayed from the two women's necks.

Ao Duoji's low growls were deep and heavy, sometimes strong, sometimes weak; at one moment, the pitch suddenly rose, turning into fierce barking: "Woof! Woof! Woof!"

The barking was full of anxious emotion!

At the same time, a strange laughter rang out together with Ao Duoji's barking!

"Uh—ah—hahaha—uh—"

This sound, drawn out in pitch like a donkey's bray, clung tightly to Zhou Chang's back!

A sudden chill rose on Zhou Chang's back!

He turned his head slightly; the anxious barking from Ao Duoji inside the thumb-ring did not lessen because of this movement, but instead grew even more intense: "Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Zhou Chang's neck stiffened slightly, and he understood what Ao Duoji was trying to remind him of—

"Do not turn back!"

Suppressing the urge to turn and investigate the donkey-like laughter clinging to his back, he held his knife and walked quickly through the darkness.

That laughter sounded for a while, then fell silent.

Bai Ma's light, floating voice then reached his ears: "Worldly Gods are far more terrifying than Thought Demons.

The killing pattern of Thought Demons has traces to follow—someone can always survive a Thought Demon's slaughter. But Worldly Gods differ from Thought Demons; a Worldly God draws a line for the living. Cross this taboo line, and one inevitably contracts its 'Death Omen'.

Living people trapped within the Death Omen are almost all doomed, unless the Worldly God needs that person to live."

"You were clever just now, not turning back to find the source of that laughter." A hint of amusement entered Bai Ma's voice. "Turning back would violate Hei Chang's taboo of 'Do Not Turn Back', and you would contract the Death Omen Feng Si assigned to you."

"Why didn't you say so just now?

You wanted to murder your own husband? You are truly vicious..." Zhou Chang frowned, responding to Bai Ma while discerning his direction in the darkness.

He actually did not care much about what Bai Ma said; what the other party had actually done was the key.

The 'thought' drifting over from this Secret Realm held an ambiguous attitude toward him and had many connections with the God of Wealth, the Old Feng family, but Zhou Chang could now confirm that Bai Ma was still an object that could be won over to his side.

If she truly intended to trap and kill him, she would not need to reveal so many secrets to him.

But approaching him might also be a crucial link in the process of the figures behind her plotting his death.

Regardless, since she has come, she shall have no return.

"You should have been killed by it..." Bai Ma's face was stiff, yet her voice hid a smile.

While Zhou Chang and Bai Ma bantered, they walked along the path into a large courtyard.

The chill clinging to his back vanished at some unknown time; Ao Duoji in the thumb-ring hole fell silent, emitting only steady breathing sounds.

Everything calmed down.

In this calm atmosphere, Zhou Chang saw a gray-white human figure approaching him urgently through the hazy darkness ahead.

At the same time, a timid female voice sounded behind him: "Zhou, Zhou young master..."

That was Bai Xiue's voice.

Along with Bai Xiue's call, the strange donkey-like laughter and the anxious dog barking from Zhou Chang's thumb-ring all rang out together!

Bai Xiue's call behind him quickly turned into a cry of pain!

"She... how did she come?

How is she behind us?" Even Bai Ma, hearing Bai Xiue's voice behind her, hesitated for a moment!

Zhou Chang, however, kept his mouth tightly shut, gripped his knife, strode forward with long steps, and moved to meet that gray-white figure.

In the black night, only when he approached within three steps of that person did he clearly see the person's face and appearance.

He suddenly sped up, closed in on the person walking toward him, and thrust the knife in his hand forward!

—

"My child went missing after buying braised meat at your place—

Give my child back to me, please give him back to me!"

Before the shop on the banner that read "Li Braised Meat," a man knelt on the ground, his face streaked with tears, begging the plump woman inside the shop, repeatedly kowtowing, "My wife has gone mad and shows no sign of getting better; I rely on my child to live...

You stole him away; how can I go on living? Do you want my family ruined and my people dead!"

The last wisp of sunset gathered in the distant sky, the day gradually darkened, not a single pedestrian's shadow was seen on the street, only the thin man, as slender as a hemp stalk, whose mournful wailing echoed through every alley and street.

The plump woman inside the shop wore a leather apron; her expression was kind. After hearing the man's words, she said with difficulty, "Brother, I truly do not know where your child has gone.

Yesterday at dusk, he bought braised meat from me, and I saw him go home.

We are all neighbors; your house is right next to my shop; I would not lie to you over such matters...

Moreover, he brought braised dog meat home yesterday; did you not eat it?

If you have already eaten the braised meat, how can you say your child went missing and that it has anything to do with me?"

The plump woman spoke with reason and evidence, leaving the man unable to refute her.

The man could only cry out "Ai—ai," weeping weakly.

Perhaps taking pity on him, the plump woman chopped off a dog leg, wrapped it in paper, and handed it to him: "Brother, I still have some braised dog meat here; take it back and share it with your sister-in-law.

Once you are full, look around everywhere tomorrow; perhaps you will find your child?"

"I don't want the meat you give me!

This is not proper meat; this is human meat!" After repeated blows, the man's mind was on the verge of collapse; when he saw the dog leg the plump woman had chopped off, for an instant it seemed to transform into a braised, reddish-brown child's leg!

He acted like a madman, opening the plump woman's hand that offered the meat, then rose from the ground, and actually tried to shove past the plump woman and rush into the shop: "My child is definitely in here; last night I heard him crying through the wall; I heard him crying!

I must find him! I must find him!"

The man's thin frame, compared to the plump woman's build, could be called "too weak to withstand the wind."

The plump woman, having had her hand pushed away, already showed a trace of anger on her face; seeing him charge recklessly toward her, her expression darkened, and with her other hand she snatched up the iron knife from the chopping block!