Chapter 61

Chapter 61

Shen Yubi emerged from another room, bringing news.

“The statue you mentioned isn’t there, but there is a skinned corpse tossed on the floor. Based on its condition, the time of death was no more than two hours ago.”

Chu Yue pulled over a stool and sat down. He looked at Zhou Chun and flashed him a smile. “Tell us, where did you put that small statue I saw yesterday?”

“What statue? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Tsk.” Guan Doujin hoisted him up. With a flash of his blade, he nicked the skin on the man’s neck. “Are you going to talk or not?”

Sweat immediately broke out on Zhou Chun’s forehead. “Masters, sirs, please spare my life! I really can’t say. If I do, that entity will kill me.”

“Does it make a difference?” Chu Yue arched an eyebrow. “If you don’t talk, we’ll kill you right now. But if you do, we might be able to deal with it, and you won’t have to worry about your life anymore. Besides, the money you’ve made these past few years should be enough for you to live in luxury for the rest of your days, right?”

The man’s expression shifted. After a long silence, he said timidly, “I’ll go get it for you.”

“Just tell us where it is. We’ll get it ourselves.”

Zhou Chun gave them a location. Shen Yubi returned a moment later with something in his hand.

He handed it to Chu Yue, who examined it closely. It was indeed the one he had seen yesterday.

Chu Yue looked up and gave Guan Doujin a meaningful glance.

Guan Doujin immediately adopted a menacing tone. “Speak. How many more of these statues are there in town?”

“None… there are no more. Just this one. Zhao Shi brought it back,” Zhou Chun stammered. “Zhao Shi handled everything; we didn’t know anything. We just took turns giving her blood every month, and she would give us the corresponding amount of money. I really don’t know anything else.”

When Zhao Shi first approached him, he thought it was a windfall from the heavens. Getting paid just for giving a little blood? It was the deal of a lifetime.

It wasn’t until he caught Zhao Shi worshipping the statue that she was forced to bring him into the fold, and the share he received increased.

So, as soon as Zhao Shi died, he couldn’t wait to welcome the object into his own home.

Who could have guessed that only one night after it entered his house, the thing would kill someone right in his courtyard the very next day?

He had watched with his own eyes as a paper puppet skinned the person. Then, a cloud of mist drifted out from the statue and entered the skin. In the blink of an eye, it became a living person.

Witnessing this scene so abruptly, he had nearly collapsed from terror. He had sat dazed in his room for a long time, only snapping out of it when Chu Yue and the others dragged him out.

His none-too-bright brain finally understood that the money they had received wasn’t a gift from the Buddha, but the spoils of murder.

The reason the town had been declining over the past few years was linked to Zhao Shi.

They were the culprits behind the town’s strange rumors!

“Where did that thing go? The one from the room who was skinned-where did the thing wearing her skin go?” Shen Yubi asked.

Zhou Chun’s voice trembled. “I don’t know where it went. An hour ago, it put on a skin and went out. I really don’t know where it went.”

Chu Yue looked at him. “Then you at least know whose skin it’s wearing, right?”

“It’s one of the ladies with you. I saw her at the celebration before. Tall and thin, quite good-looking.”

Chu Yue was stunned. Among the remaining Players, there were three women: Zhang Duo and two newbies.

No matter how one looked at it, the two newbies were quite ordinary-looking. The only one who could be called good-looking was Zhang Duo.

Could Zhang Duo be dead?

With this doubt in his heart, Chu Yue looked at Zhou Chun, his eyes instantly turning dark and heavy. He opened his lips and asked, “Tell me, were you lying just now?”

Zhou Chun’s eyes went dull. “No.”

Chu Yue: “Do you know how to get rid of the evil god?”

Zhou Chun: “…”

Guan Doujin narrowed his eyes. “No answer? Is his willpower that strong?”

The skill had only trapped Zhou Chun for a few short seconds. Before Chu Yue could ask the next question, the man regained consciousness.

“It’s not that his willpower is strong. It’s likely that he has no idea what this ‘evil god’ we’re talking about even is.”
Because he didn’t know what Chu Yue was talking about, Zhou Chun wasn’t sure if he knew the method or not.

Unable to pry any more useful clues from his mouth, they left Zhou Chun behind. The trio took the Evil God Statue and returned to the Inn.

According to Zhou Chun, the evil god was no longer inside this statue. In thirty years, the method the entity had researched to leave the statue likely involved slipping into peeled human skins.

The Innkeeper hadn’t gone out today. From early morning, he had been standing behind the counter with his ledgers spread out, his fingers clacking rapidly against the abacus.

When Chu Yue and the others returned, they made up a random excuse to call him into their room and handed him the statue.

“It’s him, it’s this thing!” The Paper-Cut Goddess took the statue, her voice certain. She held the statue, sensing it carefully. “No, the evil god isn’t inside. Destroying this thing is useless.”

“I know where he is,” Chu Yue said.

As the others gathered around, he whispered a name.

The Paper-Cut Goddess fell silent for a moment. She took off a Golden Bracelet from her wrist and placed it on the table. “Take this. I’ll have to trouble you all in a moment.”

“What do you plan to do?”

The Paper-Cut Goddess smiled, a smile filled with a weariness that didn’t match her appearance. “I’m about to vanish anyway. A little sooner or a little later makes no difference.”

Gods… they had long since stopped needing them.

Zhang Duo and her group returned toward evening.

Chu Yue and Shen Yubi watched for the right moment, closing the Inn’s main doors from both sides.

Guan Doujin rushed out from behind a screen with his sword drawn. Before anyone could react, his arm blurred, and two heads were severed by his blade.

Spraying blood splattered across the faces and heads of those nearby.

Screams erupted instantly.

Several people scrambled away, turning to look at Guan Doujin with eyes full of disbelief.

But when they saw the two limp, soggy skins floating in the blood on the floor, their expressions turned blank.

When had those two become Monsters?

The people Guan Doujin killed were none other than Zhang Duo and her man.

Since Zhou Chun said the person who died in his house that morning was Zhang Duo, then the one who died before that must have been her man.

After all, looking at it from any angle, Zhang Duo was the only one among the three women capable of tracking down Zhou Chun’s house.

And she was usually inseparable from her man. With several newbies in her hands, why would she go to Zhou Chun’s house alone?

The only possibility was that she had discovered it-discovered that the soul inside her man had been replaced. In a moment of impulse, she not only failed to avenge him but lost her own life as well.

This was also what Chu Yue had deduced when he guessed that the person dead in Zhou Chun’s house was Zhang Duo.

Thinking back carefully, when they saw the two on the hillside, the height difference between them really did seem different from what it was now.

Above the blood, two wisps of black mist slowly rose from the remains.

The Paper-Cut Goddess, who had been waiting on the side, seized the opportunity to strike.

Her form floated into mid-air, and with a wave of her hand, she showered down a layer of golden light.

That was her innate essence. Today, she intended to go down with her enemy.

Sensing her intent, the two wisps of black mist rapidly fused together, twisting into a Black Giant Snake that lunged violently at the Paper-Cut Goddess.

This situation was no longer the small-scale skirmish from before.

Chu Yue, Shen Yubi, and the others all found places to hide.

The sounds of clattering and crashing outside were incessant, punctuated by occasional roars and violent tremors.

The cacophony lasted for nearly fifteen minutes before it finally went quiet.

When everyone went out to look, there was nothing left in the Hall.

The Paper-Cut Goddess had vanished, and the Black Giant Snake was nowhere to be seen.

“What on earth is going on?” one person cried out, collapsing.

They had originally thought this was just a horror survival game. Why had it turned into a high-fantasy plot?!

The only one who had guessed even a little bit was the Veteran from the other trio.

Among those remaining, he was the one who held the most information.