Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Lin Zhu asked no questions. He obediently carried the oiled packet from person to person. Li Cheng had been less affected than the others and woke as soon as he smelled the musk.
Seeing Lin Zhu busy reviving his teammates, Li Cheng did not stand. He lay back on the floor, covered his eyes with one hand, and released a long breath.
“I owe you a favor,” he said from beneath his palm, voice muffled.
When Lin Zhu finished, he immediately returned to Cheng Miao’s side without joining the conversation. Li Cheng gave him another look. The young man was obedient, calm, seemingly intelligent, and did not act on his own. Such a promising recruit…
Li Cheng glanced at Cheng Miao speaking quietly with Lin Zhu and sighed inwardly. It seemed he had no chance.
After a brief rest, strength returned to Cheng Miao’s limbs. She prepared to enter the inner room.
“Zhang Hui, you two go.” Noticing that Cheng Miao lacked fighting skills, Li Cheng sent the newly awakened Zhang Hui and Jiang Hao to search for the yellow-haired pair. Cheng Miao did not object and watched them disappear inside.
“What did you make us smell?” Jiang Qi had been affected worst of all. His face was so pale he looked three days dead, and his voice still trembled.
“Musk. It drives out evil, removes ghostly qi, and breaks nightmares,” Lin Zhu answered because Cheng Miao still appeared listless.
“Damn, that’s good stuff! Where did you find it?” Jiang Qi’s eyes lit up. Ghosts terrified him. With this, he would at least have some protection inside the instance.
“A pharmacy.” Lin Zhu never used two words with strangers when one would suffice. His reply was perfectly stiff.
“A pharmacy…” Jiang Qi stared. He suddenly remembered that Cheng Miao and Lin Zhu had looked as though they were shopping when the groups first met. “How did you know to buy musk? Wait, how did you even know there were ghosts back then? We only knew about something like the Black Mountain Demon!”
Lin Zhu shrugged, his expression saying that there was nothing he could do about Jiang Qi’s intelligence. The pride in his eyes when he glanced at Cheng Miao was impossible to hide.
Li Cheng stopped Jiang Qi from asking more. His gaze deepened as he studied Cheng Miao. This fair-skinned, quiet young woman concealed far more than anyone would expect.
“Can you spare us some musk? We can trade you something for it.”
Cheng Miao looked from Li Cheng to Jiang Qi, who was fidgeting beside him, and smiled at them for the first time. “Of course.”
“Talismans? We do have some in our bundle, but they obviously don’t work. Without your musk, who knows how long it would’ve taken us to wake up?” Jiang Qi had recovered and now bounced around like a monkey, irritating Li Cheng until the man’s brows knotted.
“Talismans should work on actual ghosts. We were trapped in an illusion just now, so they were useless.” Cheng Miao found two clean cups, poured tea, and gave one to Lin Zhu.
“I assume your mission concerns the strange events at the Chang Residence.” Li Cheng and Jiang Qi’s expressions shifted, but Cheng Miao acted as if she had not noticed. “I have more relevant clues. If the yellow-haired pair really are dead, I’m the only person you can rely on.”
Li Cheng and Jiang Qi shared the same thought: this girl looked terrifying when she smiled.
Frowning, Li Cheng unconsciously touched his collar. He was about to answer when Zhang Hui and Jiang Hao shouted from inside.
Li Cheng shot to his feet. “What happened?”
Jiang Hao ran out with a grim expression. “The yellow-haired guy… Both of them are dead.”
The yellow-haired man and muscular man had died while everyone was lost in the fragrance-induced illusion. When the yellow-haired man regained consciousness, he and his partner were bound in the bedroom by countless dead vines and branches.
“Fuck! What the hell is this?” he cursed, only to notice the muscular man trembling beside him. The man’s teeth chattered so hard their clicking was audible.
“What did you see to scare you this badly? Hurry up and break these dead branches so you can help me!”
The muscular man ignored his partner’s incessant chatter. His bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the inner room’s door as if some savage beast waited beyond it.
“G-ghost… Monster!”
Hearing footsteps, the yellow-haired man turned. Madam Chang and her younger sister approached with graceful steps.
“Well, hello, beauties.” Their appearance completely bewitched him. He failed to notice the danger of his situation.
Beside him, the muscular man’s eyes bulged. He desperately tried to retreat, but the living branches tightened around him, allowing no escape.
“You’re merely a fool, so I’ll give you a quick death.” The Second Madam covered her lips with a soft laugh. Before the muscular man could react, a branch wound up his body and around his neck. It cinched once, and his head sagged loosely to one side.
Only an almost transparent strip of flesh still connected his head to his neck. At last, the yellow-haired man sobered. Face flushing dark red, he struggled to reach into his pocket as the two women drew closer.
“Are you… looking for this?”
He raised his head in despair. Madam Chang held a glass marble between her fingers, the life-saving object he had been trying to retrieve.
Defeat drained the color from his face. “Please… Please let us go. We only wanted to steal a few things…” His voice dwindled until it was barely audible.
The sharp stench of urine rose from his pants. Madam Chang frowned and covered her nose. “You dared come here to steal what belongs to me?”
She lightly waved one delicate hand. The branches around him tightened, then tightened again…
Cheng Miao’s group silently regarded the two bodies. The muscular man did not appear to have suffered much. As for his partner…
The branches had crushed his body into several sections while he was still alive. Extreme agony and despair remained frozen on his face.
“There’s no one left. The entire Chang Residence is empty.” Zhang Hui ran in from outside, panting. Jiang Hao followed and added, “We can’t get through the main gate. A white fog is visible outside, and it smells exactly like the fragrance from before.”
Cheng Miao turned toward them, her expression grave. “Were Master Chang and Second Master Chang still here when you went out?”
The two men thought back, then answered together. “No.”
“This ends by tomorrow at the latest, perhaps as early as tonight,” Li Cheng said grimly. “Qi, did you find anything?”
Jiang Qi was searching the room. He turned with a miserable expression and shook his head. “Nothing. This room is as empty as my pockets after I hand my salary to my wife.”
“Let’s talk outside.” Cheng Miao glanced at the roomful of corpses, then at Lin Zhu, whose body was rapidly becoming just as stiff, and led everyone away.
They gathered in the main hall. Cheng Miao kept her explanation brief. “Madam Chang and the Second Madam are peony demons. The Steward is a ghost. The flower demons can attack directly or trap people in ghostly illusions. The Steward won’t reveal his ghost form unless you touch a rule.”
Li Cheng’s entire group stared at her. Cheng Miao had entered the instance less than two days ago, just like them. Even without the yellow-haired pair’s information, she had already uncovered nearly everything about the instance’s bosses.
“You don’t need to worry about the Steward unless we threaten the peonies in the garden. We do have to enter that garden, but I can’t handle a ghost and two flower demons at the same time. We need to help each other.”