Chapter 360: Chen Ping's Pawn

After that heavy footstep sound rang out, around it immediately came chaotic, lighter footsteps, and the cries of azure hawks.

Hearing the hawks' cries, my whole body tensed up.

How come there are still more?

The footsteps moved bit by bit toward the pawnshop's direction, each step seeming extremely difficult.

Accompanied by a woman's sharp scream, I seemed to hear the sound of azure hawks flapping their wings and swooping down; I could hardly bear it, so I hurried to the door of Nan Shu Fang, tiptoed and poked my head out to look west.

What I first saw was a scene of seven or eight azure hawks simultaneously swooping down toward the same direction.

Those hawks were each plump and sturdy, their cries rising and falling.

Their target was a tall……body covered in blood……person?

Around this person were those eight female corpses.

The eight female corpses shielded him in the center, resisting the hawks' attacks.

After several missed attacks, the hawks grew furious; their hard beaks mercilessly pierced the female corpses' bodies, tearing at their flesh.

Seven or eight azure hawks kept circling, swooping, and tearing; the female corpses screamed, and the clanking of iron chains rang out continuously, making the scene both bloody and chaotic……

Only the skinless, blood-soaked figure in the middle, with a clear target, slowly moved toward the pawnshop.

I silently retreated into the pawnshop, plopping down on the chair behind the counter, feeling somewhat at a loss.

This is the true blood corpse!

The moment I saw that blood corpse, everything I had previously speculated turned out to be correct.

On the throne of the Ghost Opera Stage sat a skin puppet that absorbs vital energy—it was Chen Ping.

And this blood corpse is the flayed corpse of Chen Ping.

The blood corpse was sealed inside a black coffin and sunk to the bottom of the Zhu Pan River.

Those eight female corpses were raised by Chen Ping to ward off disaster for him.

I almost became the ninth one.

Actually, it's not hard to imagine that a formation of nine fully yin-bodied female corpses could largely resist, even counterattack, these azure hawks.

Unfortunately, lacking the ninth, Chen Ping's plan fell short at the last moment.

Back then, we expended great effort to suppress Chen Ping's black coffin; the grand scene of Liu Junyan activating the suppression formation array is still vivid in my memory.

With such a powerful suppression, Liu Junyan still guards the Zhu Pan River; as long as he wishes, Chen Ping's blood corpse cannot emerge from that black coffin.

But he came out anyway……This shows that Liu Junyan tacitly allowed it.

So, Chen Ping is tonight's business at the pawnshop.

And it is an existence I must face.

Chen Ping has long been dead; if his blood corpse comes to pawn, it counts as a yin pawn.

Yin pawns cannot be refused.

I don't know what Chen Ping wants to pawn.

But I can guess what collateral he wants……He previously drove the eight female corpses to test the waters.

My guess back then was that Chen Ping wanted to use the eight female corpses to overturn the pawnshop's rules in one fell swoop, thereby achieving his aim of taking whatever he wanted from the pawnshop.

The eight female corpses wanted to redeem the pawn tickets from when they were dead-pawned into the pawnshop; then Chen Ping should be the same.

Otherwise, I can't imagine how someone like him—capable of conquest and good in battle, with a half-dragon body protecting him—could end up like this!

Unless he was already helpless back then.

The footsteps gradually drew nearer.

In my mind, a heavenly-human struggle still raged.

I had no pawn ticket for Chen Ping in my hand; my next options were only two.

One, stop Chen Ping from entering the pawnshop to solve the problem at its source.

But Liu Junyan wants me to wait for business at the pawnshop tonight, which means this option must be abandoned.

Then only the second choice remains—refuse the yin pawn, using the merit in the Hexagonal Palace Lamp as payment, and summon Black and White Impermanence to apprehend Chen Ping.

Just as I dealt with the White Old Lady before, I will deal with Chen Ping!

I clearly remember that when I summoned Black and White Impermance before, the merit in the Hexagonal Palace Lamp instantly dropped to zero.

At the same time, when I liberated the resentful spirits borrowed by the White Old Lady using yin longevity, the merit was replenished again.

And the reward for helping the Nether Realm apprehend the White Old Lady is to be paid out only after accumulating until New Year's Eve.

Nowadays, the filthy things in the Eight Trigrams Well are being suppressed by the Hexagonal Palace Lamp.

If the merit in the Hexagonal Palace Lamp were to vanish instantly, apprehending a Chen Ping blood corpse would instead invite more trouble.

This path, if avoidable, had better not be taken.

Of course, even if I now know where Chen Ping's pawn ticket is, even if that ticket is already pinched in my hand, I could never hand it over to Chen Ping.

He has committed countless evils; I don't know how many people he harmed; apprehending him and sending him down to the eighteenth level of hell would still not wash away his crimes.

I weighed it over and over in my heart, yet I missed one point——what if the item Chen Ping brings in is enough to sway me, making refusal impossible?

The footsteps grew closer and closer……

By the time that heavy footstep stepped onto the pawnshop's stairs, outside, the female corpses' painful cries had already ceased.

The eight female corpses were all devoured by the azure hawks!

The blood corpse had already arrived outside the door of Nan Shu Fang; a strong bloody smell assailed my face, that odor pungent and eye‑stinging, making my eyes barely able to stay open.

I inconspicuously took deep breaths, striving to adjust my condition, and rose to my feet.

The blood corpse lifted its foot and stepped inside.

He was covered in blood, yet he wore a pair of tall leather boots, the boots covered in dried black blood, as if they had long since fused with the blood corpse.

As soon as he entered the pawnshop, he couldn't wait to open his mouth, making a hoarse sound from his throat like an old man clearing phlegm; he hohed for a while, and finally he spoke.

His blood-drenched mouth writhed as he said, "I want to pawn, to exchange goods for goods."

Although I had steeled myself, the moment those eight words drilled into my ears, my heart still thudded and sank.

I forced myself to ask in a businesslike manner: "May I ask what you wish to pawn? A living pawn or a dead pawn? Or perhaps gold?"

"Dead pawn." The blood corpse said, "To exchange goods for goods, I want to exchange……"

Without letting the blood corpse finish his words, I immediately interrupted, reminding him: "First, as the current proprietor of Wufu Town Pawnshop, I must make clear to the customer that in a goods-for-goods exchange, what is exchanged must be something we actually have in the pawnshop, not empty talk—you can't just exchange whatever you want."

This is indeed the rule of goods-for-goods exchange.

Otherwise, customers would open their mouths like lions, demanding all sorts of things that exist nowhere, and where would I go to find them for them?

But this is also my probe.

I want to first probe from Chen Ping's mouth whether his pawn ticket is still in the pawnshop.

If it isn't, then this deal can't be done.

If it is……then that's another matter.

"It is." The blood corpse said firmly, "It is right……"

"That's good." I deliberately interrupted him again, asking, "Then tell me, what did you come in today to pawn as a dead pawn?"

The blood corpse said, "I want to pawn my half of the Dragon Qi."