Feng Yi naturally did not take those words to heart. Did he not already know Mu Li’s combat prowess?
Yet who would have thought that a figure would suddenly rush out, startling him so much that his breath hitched.
“Don’t do anything foolish!”
However, the player did not listen.
Just as Feng Yi was about to step forward and pull the youth back, he witnessed a shocking sight.
With a swift knee-kick, the youth sent a green-faced, fanged corpse flying, knocking down a large swath of them.
“Mu Li?” Feng Yi froze in his tracks, staring blankly at the scene.
Agilely weaving through the horde of corpses, the youth brandished a sharp blade in his hand, his face radiating detachment and indifference.
A chilling aura and murderous intent radiated from his entire body, his figure flickering in and out of view amidst the mist, looking utterly ghostly.
“Oh my god!”
Shu Lan was equally stunned by the scene before her, covering her mouth with both hands as she nearly screamed out.
Hand falls and blade drops, every single strike fatal. Those ferocious corpses were harvested one after another like fragile pieces of paper.
Mu Li opened his mini-map, tracked down the red dots, and wiped out all the remaining mobs without leaving a single one behind.
At that moment, the system prompt rang out.
[The player successfully cleared Controlled Corpse, HP +40.]
“Job done!”
Patting the dust off his clothes, he walked toward the three of them.
The youth slowly materialized within the mist, leaving a ground full of hideous-looking corpses in his wake, creating a massive visual impact.
Everything about this felt utterly bizarre.
Feng Yi stood rooted to the spot at a complete loss, unable to understand why Mu Li had suddenly changed into a completely different person. He felt so unfamiliar, so…
Terrifying.
“You, you…” Feng Yi’s lips trembled as he looked at that familiar face, unable to squeeze out a single complete sentence.
Mu Li looked up.
His teammate was staring at him in utter shock, eyes filled with incomprehension, bewilderment, and even a hint of wariness.
Oh no, we’re done for.
Mu Li’s heart skipped a beat.
He had gotten a bit carried away earlier and accidentally cleared out all the mobs. Surely Feng Yi wouldn’t think the player had tricked him and refuse to help kill ghosts anymore?
“Wuwah!”
An earth-shattering wail suddenly rang out, sounding extremely jarring in the quiet graveyard.
They all turned to look at the bespectacled young man.
“Mu Li, you couldn’t possibly be possessed by a ghost!” The bespectacled young man wiped away his tears while shaking the youth’s shoulders.
“It must have been at the hospital earlier today. There were so many ghosts there, who knows when you got caught? You can’t scare me like this.”
So that was why…
Feng Yi gave a start as realization slammed into him.
“Ah?”
Mu Li was shaken into a daze.
Are you even listening to the nonsense coming out of your mouth?
Stepping forward, Feng Yi retrieved the youth’s doll and weighed his phrasing carefully: “While I appreciate you helping us, this is Mu Li’s body. Please get out.”
He actually believed it!
Mu Li himself: “…”
He glanced at the bespectacled young man.
How exactly does he expect the player to get out, pray tell?
Pei Kanyan’s gaze drifted away, looking at the sky and the ground, refusing to meet his eyes.
Turning his attention back to the doll, Mu Li wondered if Feng Yi was being a bit dim: “If you hurt me, aren’t you just hurting this body?”
And wouldn’t that still be hurting him?
Mu Li wanted to placate Feng Yi first to prevent him from accidentally inflicting friendly fire. How unjustly wronged would he be then?
Yet in Feng Yi’s ears, the possessing ghost was acting completely unbothered, emboldened by its seizure of the youth’s shell, and was now using that very body to threaten him:
“If you don’t leave right now, I won’t be polite.”
“Calm down, I can explain,” Mu Li tried to reason with him.
“Get out!” Feng Yi gripped the doll tightly.
Mu Li felt a drop of health drain away.
Good grief.
Feng Yi could actually bypass the physical body and directly strike the soul.
No wonder he could kill those ghosts.
With no other choice, Mu Li realized he couldn’t get through to this player right now.
So he would just…
Leave, then.
The youth in front of them suddenly clutched his chest, closed his eyes, swayed, and collapsed powerlessly into the bespectacled young man’s arms.
Feng Yi rushed forward anxiously, his eyes overflowing with worry: “Are you alright?”
The youth opened his eyes, his demeanor softening, his face filled with utter confusion and a weak voice: “What just happened?”
An unnoticeable curve of triumph touched the corner of the bespectacled young man’s lips.
He felt that the youth’s injuries had healed a little. Could energy from corpses be absorbed as well?
Seeing that the normal Mu Li had returned, Feng Yi exhaled a breath, then said with a stern expression: “You were possessed by a ghost!”
The youth in front of him looked startled: “How could that be?”
Feng Yi: “How are you feeling right now?”
“I’m fine,” Mu Li shook his head, not forgetting to cover for himself: “Though I think that ghost probably meant no harm. Look, he helped us kill so many enemies, he saved us.”
Feng Yi paused, looking around at the sea of dead-as-a-doornail corpses on the ground, enemies that even he found difficult to deal with.
Yet that ghost had moved among them with ease, looking almost unsatisfied, showcasing strength that could not be underestimated.
“…Although he helped us, he possessed your body. We can’t let our guard down.”
Fine.
Helpless, Mu Li propped himself up with the bespectacled young man’s hand and stood up: “I’m fine now. The most important thing for us right now is to find the truth. Let’s go.”
Moving further ahead past the graveyard, a funeral parlor stood not far away.
Finally seeing light, their tense nerves relaxed a little, but the sight of so many coffins and white candles lined up inside made Shu Lan freeze in her tracks.
A chill rushed straight from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, and she grabbed the youth’s arm: “How about we wait until daylight to look for people?”
Mu Li looked at the reporter with an inscrutable expression: “You shouldn’t be the one scared.”
“Stop joking around,” Shu Lan shrank behind the youth, pressing her entire body against him.
She had been scared out of her wits by those corpses earlier; only a youth who could slaughter everything in sight could give her a shred of security.
The bespectacled young man stared at the two of them standing intimately close, his lips pressed into a thin line.
He stepped forward, grabbed the youth’s other arm, leaned against his shoulder, and whimpered softly: “Wuwuwu, it’s so spooky here, I’m scared too.”
Mu Li pulled his arm out of Shu Lan’s grip and patted the bespectacled young man’s back: “Don’t be scared.”
Feng Yi rolled his eyes and yanked the bespectacled young man away from the youth: “Aren’t you ashamed, acting like this as a grown man?”
It was so late, yet a mortician was still working inside the funeral parlor.
Stepping forward, Feng Yi asked, “Master, do you know who the person in charge of the crematorium is?”
Holding an eyebrow pencil, the mortician was in the middle of applying makeup to a corpse. His voice was deep and hoarse, sounding as if a piece of rotted wood was stuck in his throat: “The crematorium? Uncle Liu.”
Noticing many cyan ceramic jars arranged here, all sealed with wax, Mu Li squatted down and poked them with his finger a few times.
“What are these jars?”
“Ashes,” the mortician flashed them a stiff smile, looking especially pale under the flickering candlelight. “Would you like to take a look?”
Shu Lan stepped back in fright: “I don’t!”
She hid behind the youth again: “I think he looks pretty creepy, let’s just leave.”
Yet Mu Li fell deep into thought as he stared at those ceramic jars. Suddenly, he lifted one of the jars, weighed it in his hand, and it was heavy.
Then he loosened his grip and let it crash directly onto the floor.
“Clatter!”
The jar shattered into pieces, and broken shards of porcelain scattered everywhere. But the inside was empty, devoid of the ashes the mortician had mentioned, completely empty.
“Ah!”
Shu Lan jumped in fright, quickly retreating away from the broken porcelain shards at her feet.
Feng Yi stared at the shattered jar and asked the youth: “Did you discover something?”
Mu Li shook his head: “I just felt like there was something inside.”
Stepping forward, he lifted another ceramic jar.
Smash.
Still nothing.
Jar after jar was shattered, yet the mortician didn’t react in the slightest, his smile even deepening a fraction.
When Mu Li wanted to smash another one, Shu Lan grabbed his arm.
She looked on the verge of tears, her legs trembling: “It’s getting late, let’s go.”
Putting the jar down, Mu Li had no choice but to drop it.
When they walked out of the funeral parlor, Shu Lan looked back and saw the mortician quietly watching her from the doorway, even waving at her.
Startled, she whipped her head back around, not daring to look anymore.
Right behind the funeral parlor was the crematorium.
The flames had died out, plunging the area into pitch darkness. It seemed everyone had gone to sleep.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
“Who is it?” Uncle Liu was startled awake.
Waiting for a moment, no one answered outside.
Just as he was about to fall back asleep, the knocking sounded again.
Grumbling curses, he slipped into his slippers, turned on a flashlight, squinted one eye, and pulled the door open: “Who on earth is it?”
The moment the door opened, he was slammed against the wall by a red-haired guy.
“Was the murdered pregnant woman brought here? Where is her body?”
Uncle Liu grimaced in pain as he was pinned down. The moment he heard the words “pregnant woman,” he sobered up instantly and frantically denied it: “What pregnant woman? What woman? Stop spouting nonsense.”
“I advise you to think carefully before you speak. She has come back for revenge,” Mu Li stepped closer, staring directly into the man’s eyes. “Doctor Yang is already dead. Who do you think is next?”
Doctor Yang is dead?
Anyone bold enough to enter this line of work had some nerve, but that didn’t mean they weren’t afraid of dying.
Hearing this, Uncle Liu’s heart gave a violent jolt: “Why is she seeking revenge on me? I didn’t do anything!”
“Whether you did anything is your business. What the pregnant woman thinks you did, well, who knows?”
Uncle Liu hesitated, though he still seemed constrained by something: “Doctor Yang’s death is his own bad luck, but I have a master covering me.”
“What master?”
“If you don’t let me go right now, I’ll have him make you all die a violent death on the streets.” Mentioning this master suddenly gave Uncle Liu a burst of confidence.
“Spit it out!”
Mu Li pressed his pen knife against the man’s neck.
Uncle Liu gritted his teeth, still refusing to speak. A master could make them die, but he could also make him die.
Quite the stubborn mouth.
Mu Li motioned for Feng Yi to let go.
After a brief hesitation, Feng Yi released the man.
Mu Li hauled Uncle Liu up, opened the incinerator door, and shoved him inside.
Terror washed over Uncle Liu’s face as he frantically pounded on the furnace door: “What are you doing?”
“Isn’t this the job you do every day? Want to taste what it’s like to be burned?” The youth’s tone was icy cold, carrying a chilling, terrifying subtext.
Scared out of his wits this time, Uncle Liu knew better than anyone what burning felt like. Desperately clawing at the door, he screamed, “I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”
The youth asked: “Was the pregnant woman brought by Doctor Yang?”
“Yes! When that pregnant woman was brought over, she was wrapped in a body bag. I wanted to check, but Doctor Yang told me to cremate her immediately.”
“Was she burned?”
Uncle Liu stammered and stalled.
“Not talking?” The youth’s hand moved toward the button.
“I didn’t burn her!” Uncle Liu’s voice cracked. “I thought there was money to be made, so I sold her to the mortician…”
The mortician?
Don’t tell him it was that exact same guy from earlier.
Mu Li hurried back to the funeral parlor, only to find the person completely gone, the candles extinguished, leaving behind only a floor full of broken jars.
Fled?
Mu Li searched the surrounding area but found no trace of anyone. He didn’t dare venture too far; if he ran into another ghost, nobody would be around to help him.
Yet the moment he returned to the crematorium, he saw his teammate raise the doll once more, aiming it right at the player.
Feng Yi gnashed his teeth: “I knew it! You ghost hasn’t left at all.”
“Huh?”