Chapter 186 - 172: No One Is More Ruthless Than Her

Yin Zhen returned to the stage. Song Yingshu took one last look at Zhou Ji’s corpse, observed a second of silence, and then turned to follow Yin Zhen. She still needed to find Jiang Xiyin in the restroom.

"What is your team’s mission?" Yin Zhen asked.

Song Yingshu replied, "Between midnight and dawn, light four red candles at the four corners of the stage and perform a puppet show."

Yin Zhen paused in her steps. "The team Event Card you drew when logging in?" She had never seen an Event Card so specific and suicidal. It was practically saying, "Commit suicide on the spot."

Song Yingshu shook her head. "No, this was additionally triggered by my teammate in Sanmen Town. The rewards are quite good. The one from logging in was a beginner’s guide event; it wasn’t too difficult."

Yin Zhen asked no more. The two entered through the small door in the backyard. Just as they turned the corner, they froze in their tracks. Song Yingshu immediately covered her mouth.

The dim corridor was filled with hanged people!

Yin Zhen observed carefully and realized they were the film crew from outside. She saw the director, Li Chenglin, and Chen Lei. Over a dozen corpses hung with eyes wide open and tongues protruding, their toes pointing to the ground, bodies swaying slightly. There were no signs of a struggle around them, nor had she heard any sounds. These people had been instantly hanged without the slightest ability to resist.

"The restroom is at the end of the back corridor," Yin Zhen said in a low voice.

Song Yingshu understood. She took two steps back, preparing to find Jiang Xiyin, but suddenly doubled back. Taking a small cloth bag from her pocket, she grabbed a handful of red rice from it, put it back into her own pocket, and then handed the entire bag to Yin Zhen.

"Expert, I made this myself. It can have a deterrent effect on ghosts. Keep it."

Yin Zhen didn’t refuse. After Song Yingshu left, she activated Shadow Instant Teleportation, directly bypassing the corpses.

Returning to the storage room beneath the stage, Yin Zhen immediately spotted Guan Lan and Guan Xing standing by the dirt pit.

Guan Lan’s clothes were covered in dirt and stains, clearly having just crawled out of the pit. In her hands, she held a dark, square wooden box, the edge of its lid sealed with a somewhat faded yellow talisman paper. Guan Xing leaned against Guan Lan’s leg, holding a flashlight and staring at the box in her mother’s hands with a mix of curiosity and nervousness.

Yin Zhen found it utterly absurd. After going around in such a huge circle, clashing with Chunhua’s vengeful spirit multiple times and braving so much danger, she wondered how the item she hadn’t been able to find could have fallen into the protagonist’s hands so easily.

She thought, "Damned system, is this even reasonable? The small coffin Zhang Hai dug up earlier must be some sort of supernatural illusion. The item inside this box is the actual ’goods’ the incense master wants."

Yin Zhen teleported over without hesitation, reaching out to grab the box in Guan Lan’s hands.

Guan Lan reacted extremely quickly. The instant Yin Zhen made her move, she shoved the wooden box into Guan Xing’s arms and shielded her daughter tightly behind her back, blocking Yin Zhen’s hand.

"Run!" Guan Lan shouted.

Guan Xing was very clever. Seeing that the doorway was blocked, she immediately hugged the box and ran deeper into the room.

Yin Zhen executed a precise knife-hand strike, chopping right onto the funny bone of Guan Lan’s blocking arm. At the same time, she shifted her footwork and slammed her shoulder fiercely into Guan Lan’s chest. Guan Lan let out a muffled groan. Her arm instantly went numb and limp. Knocked away by Yin Zhen, she stumbled backward uncontrollably until her back slammed against the wall.

CLACK... CLACK...

The sound of a puppet’s joints moving came from the ceiling right above Guan Xing’s head. Yin Zhen and Guan Lan snapped their heads up, their pupils shrinking sharply.

The puppet, its face painted with mottled greasepaint and its body damaged in multiple places, hung upside down silently. Its pitch-black eye sockets were staring straight at the box in Guan Xing’s hands. In the split second before either Yin Zhen or Guan Lan could make any effective reaction, several puppet silk threads dangled from the Puppet Ghost’s joints, accurately taking control of Guan Xing.

Guan Xing’s body stiffened, and the flashlight dropped to the ground. Under the control of the threads, she tore off the talisman paper on the box with lightning speed. A handful of red rice rained down from above. The threads controlling Guan Xing began smoking and then snapped, but Guan Xing’s hands were too small to maintain a firm grip on the box.

CLATTER!

The wooden box crashed onto the ground. The lid was jolted open, and the contents tumbled out, bouncing into the dirt pit in the middle of the room.

It was a pair of lifelike young girl’s hands!

The skin was delicate, and the knuckles were distinct. They looked as though they had just been severed from a living person, still retaining a fresh vitality. The most bizarre part was that the ten fingers of these hands were tightly bound by bright red threads in an extremely complex and agonizing manner, forming a Special Curse Seal that exuded an ominous aura.

The light of the flashlight on the ground sizzled and flickered twice before going out. A frigid aura permeated the area, causing the temperature in the entire room to plummet. Dense goosebumps broke out on everyone’s arms.

The space of the entire storage room, the entire old theater, and even the entirety of Sanmen Town seemed to violently twist and shudder!

Yin Zhen sensed a malicious hatred that made her furious, drove her to lose her reasoning, and filled her with the urge to ruin and destroy everything.

Meanwhile, the black clouds above the old theater roiled and expanded amidst silent lightning, rapidly spreading outward until they shrouded all of Sanmen Town. Deep within the black clouds, it seemed as if a pair of gigantic hands formed from resentful energy had truly materialized.

In the town, regardless of age or gender, all the sleeping villagers snapped their eyes open at the exact same time. Their gazes were hollow and numb, devoid of any vitality. As if controlled by invisible strings, they sat up and got out of bed with stiff, synchronized movements. Some walked into their kitchens, picked up cleavers, and slit their own throats. Some walked to high places, stared straight ahead, and stepped off the ledge without hesitation. Some shoved their hands into their own mouths and forcefully ripped their entire lower jaws off...

The resentment Chunhua had accumulated over decades completely broke free of its restraints at this moment. She wanted to make the whole of Sanmen Town serve as a burial sacrifice for the injustice she had suffered back then!

Yin Zhen and Guan Lan’s hands also rose uncontrollably, hooking toward their own eyes. Only Guan Xing, for some unknown reason, wasn’t manipulated into committing suicide and merely stood frozen in place.

"Ying!"

Yin Zhen manipulated her shadow and released Ying once again. A black shadow surged from beneath her feet, transforming into a massive curtain that wrapped around the inverted Puppet Ghost.

When the Puppet Ghost was seamlessly enveloped within Ying’s body, Yin Zhen stumbled, regaining her freedom as she gasped heavily for air. She saw Ying’s body trembling violently. The pain, despair, fury, and indignation originating from Chunhua were far too immense, too piercing, and too pure! Bloody cracks resembling fractured porcelain began appearing on Ying’s body. These fissures rapidly spread and deepened, as if they were going to completely burst Ying’s body apart in the next second.

Right at this moment, Yin Zhen, Guan Lan, and Guan Xing simultaneously heard the system’s notification sound.

[The Special ability "Puppet Master" has met the containment conditions. Both the protagonist and the villain possess the qualifications to contain it. The only method of containment is to chop off your hands and replace the hands of the Puppet Master.]

Guan Lan’s heart trembled. She wondered if this meant she had to chop off Xing’s hands to replace those hands, thereby letting Xing acquire the Puppet Ghost’s ability. Rationally, she knew she ought to do it. This Puppet Ghost’s ability was incredibly powerful, capable of controlling both humans and ghosts. If Xing obtained this ability, she could become a behind-the-scenes puppeteer in the future, which would greatly guarantee her safety.

But to make her hack off Xing’s hands without any anesthesia or surgical conditions...

While Guan Lan was hesitating, Yin Zhen didn’t delay for even a single second. Raising her Molecular Sharpening dagger, she ruthlessly pierced through her own left wrist and slashed downward without hesitation.

The sound of flesh and bone being severed was exceptionally ear-piercing in this dark, silent environment. Guan Lan watched in shock as Yin Zhen’s face was splattered with her own blood.

After chopping off her left hand, Yin Zhen jumped down into the dirt pit, picked up that pair of hands, and pressed its severed left wrist against her own bloody stump. She seemed completely impervious to the pain. Her eyes held only an inevitable determination and a greed for Strength. Immediately after, Yin Zhen manipulated the shadow beneath her feet to raise the dagger once more, slicing off her right hand as well!

"Mom!"

Guan Xing threw herself into Guan Lan’s arms in fear.

Guan Lan knew that they had lost. She had also already guessed who the person in front of them was. When it came to ruthlessness, no one was more ruthless than her!