Chapter 41
Chapter 41
Li Cheng had realized there were no opposing factions as soon as the yellow-haired pair broke into the Chang Residence. He raised no objection now. Reaching beneath his collar, he touched a hidden necklace, and a stack of yellow talismans appeared in his hand.
Cheng Miao accepted them and gave half to Lin Zhu. She instructed him to hand their spare musk to Li Cheng, then stored her own talismans in her ring. Ignoring the envy and surprise on Jiang Qi and the others’ faces, she continued, “You have the musk, but you’ll need to decide how to use it yourselves.”
After saying this, Cheng Miao fell silent and fixed her gaze on Li Cheng.
Li Cheng exhaled and stopped withholding information. “Jiang Qi and I must discover why servants at the Chang Residence keep vanishing for no reason. Zhang Hui’s pair must keep Second Master Chang alive. It seems all four of us need to kill Madam Chang and the Second Madam to complete our missions.”
Li Cheng stretched his limbs. He was a veteran of the Survival Inn. His role had kept him away from the Chang Residence at first, limiting his ability to investigate the setting, but he was a formidable player in his own right.
“After your reminder, we discovered that a jade pendant in our bundle can reveal traces left by ghosts and demons. It led us to the two women. Jiang Qi and I obtained their blood, so we can use a formation to trap them.”
Zhang Hui and Jiang Hao moved closer. Jiang Hao took out a packet of pills. “These can temporarily erase a human’s presence.”
Cheng Miao’s eyes brightened. “For how long?”
Jiang Hao scratched through his hair with his free hand. “We tested them that day. At least ten minutes.”
Cheng Miao nodded. At Li Cheng’s signal, Jiang Hao handed her two pills. She sniffed them. They smelled like ordinary Chinese medicine, with nothing remarkable about them.
Li Cheng’s group had the hardest missions, but they had also received the most useful tools. The yellow-haired pair had been given a simple task, yet once they stepped into the instance’s trap, not even the greatest immortal could have saved them.
“Our mission is to save Young Master Chang,” Cheng Miao said slowly beneath the four men’s stares.
“No problem. Follow us when the time comes. Once we find the two demons, we’ll find Young Master Chang too.” Jiang Qi now thought highly of Cheng Miao and thumped his chest in assurance.
Cheng Miao did not look at him. Her gaze shifted toward the garden, and an unreadable smile curved her lips. “I need you to trap the two flower demons for me. The longer, the better.”
Li Cheng started to object, but swallowed his words when he saw the confidence in her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re planning, but this is dangerous. It would be safer for all of us to fight them together.”
Cheng Miao shook her head. “Even together, we can’t kill them. They’re flower demons. Destroying the peonies in the garden may be the only way to kill them.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Jiang Qi stamped a foot. “Let’s all go. One fire and it’s over!”
Everyone looked at him with the patient concern reserved for an idiot. Jiang Qi swallowed and shrank his neck. “What? Did I say something wrong? Why are you all staring at me?”
Li Cheng rubbed between his brows. “If the peonies really are their fatal weakness, going together will only alert them. Once they fight desperately, there’s no telling who will survive.”
“Then we…” Jiang Qi looked blankly at Li Cheng as his brain gave up entirely.
Li Cheng’s face darkened. Ignoring his foolish teammate, he turned toward the cool and solitary Cheng Miao and the little shadow standing behind her.
“There’s still a ghost…”
“Don’t worry about him. The Steward won’t leave the garden. We’ll handle him. You only need to hold off the two flower demons until we set the garden on fire.”
Li Cheng fell silent and ran through the plan in his head. Then he looked up and took a deep breath. “Deal.”
“Draw the Steward as far away as you can. Use the snap poppers if possible. If they don’t work, use this.”
Cheng Miao took out Liu Xue’s Jump Rope and handed it to Lin Zhu. “It can restrain a ghost for a while. I don’t know exactly how long, but it has four uses left. Once he’s immobilized, cover him in talismans.”
Lin Zhu accepted the jump rope. He knew how valuable the Item was, especially with four uses remaining. Seeing Cheng Miao hand it over without hesitation left him wanting to protest.
“The Steward only reacts to the peonies. The moment you start digging them up, he’ll attack you. If you give this Item to me…”
“We’re a team. I trust you to hold him back, and you need to trust yourself.” Cheng Miao offered no grand speech. She simply looked at Lin Zhu with clear eyes full of encouragement.
He met her gaze, unable to name the feeling rising in his chest. Then he nodded and promised solemnly.
In the garden, the Steward stood beside the peony bed like a walking corpse. His eyes were vacant, and corpse spots had begun to show faintly through his skin.
Cheng Miao swallowed one of Zhang Hui’s pills, patted Lin Zhu’s shoulder, and darted to the other side.
Lin Zhu stared at the corpse-like Steward and silently encouraged himself. Then he sprang up and shouted, “Steward, is there something wrong with the peonies? Why are you always guarding them?”
At the word “peonies,” the Steward slowly turned until his back faced Lin Zhu. The boy stared at him, swallowed, and clenched the hem of his robe in one hand.
With his back still turned, the Steward beckoned using the back of one hand.
It was Granny Sang. She had fully emerged across the Steward’s back. They shared one body, with Granny Sang forming the rear and the Steward the front.
The body belonged to a corpse, moving backward according to the will of the ghost on its back.
“Hey… what are you looking at?” Granny Sang’s lips moved, but the voice came from the Steward’s purple mouth. His back still facing Lin Zhu, he charged toward the boy in a posture both absurd and horrifying.
Lin Zhu did not dare blink. He lifted his hand and hurled snap poppers all around the Steward.
Watching from the side, Cheng Miao seized the opening and sprinted toward the peony bed. Without looking back, she dropped to her knees and began digging with her bare hands beneath the two unusual plants.
The charging figure suddenly froze. Delight surged through Lin Zhu. It worked!
He rushed forward, but before he could press a yellow talisman onto the Steward, Granny Sang’s eyes rolled eerily toward the intruder beside the peonies.
Abandoning Lin Zhu, the Steward prepared to run toward Cheng Miao. Unable to stop him, Lin Zhu drew the jump rope and lashed it in his direction. The figure poised to charge halted just in time.
Lin Zhu did not risk calculating how long the Item would last. He plastered every talisman he had over the Steward’s body in one frantic burst.
A piercing, ghostly shriek erupted toward the sky, like countless wronged spirits scraping their nails across a wall. The noise struck Lin Zhu at point-blank range and blurred his vision.
The deafening scream startled Cheng Miao, but she did not turn. Gritting her teeth, she dug harder. The white stones had torn her hands bloody, and the once-lush peonies now sagged lifelessly to one side.
At last, her fingers struck a hard box. Icy clarity flooded her brain as if someone had poured menthol oil through it.
Found it!