Chapter 188 - 174: Revenge

Chen Laogun and the townsfolk were boiling with rage, all of them feeling that Sanmen Town had just lost so many people because of the two women singing on stage.

Yin Zhen slowly turned her head, her icy gaze landing on Chen Laogun, who stood at the forefront.

The main culprit who snitched to the troupe back then and led the others to hang Chunhua was none other than Chen Laogun. He was also the one who slipped the noose around Chunhua’s neck and pulled the rope to hoist her into midair.

It was also him who, out of guilt and fear, had sought out the incense master to suppress Chunhua’s soul beneath the stage.

Chen Laogun was also the man in the photograph with Chunmiao’s father. Back then, he was merely a puppet-making apprentice. Scolded by his master for his poor craftsmanship, he had drunkenly sneaked back to the theater in the middle of the night and accidentally bumped into Chunhua and Chunmiao.

He had even sought out Chunhua later, using threats and bribes to harbor improper designs, only to get his head smashed by Chunhua with a roadside brick.

All of this was within Chunhua’s memories.

Therefore, Chunhua had never blamed Chunmiao. When she had heard Chunmiao’s pleas outside her house back then, she only felt heartache and self-blame.

The ’I’m sorry’ written on the lid of the wooden box in the theater’s attic was written by Chunhua for Chunmiao.

The ones Chunhua truly hated were always those who upheld the feudal system, led by Chen Laogun.

Yin Zhen looked at Chen Laogun, and the hands that belonged to Chunhua twitched ever so slightly in the shadows.

Chen Laogun, who was jumping up and down cursing, suddenly stiffened, all sound coming to an abrupt halt.

The anger on his face instantly morphed into panic. The walking stick in his hand fell to the ground, his knees buckled, and he dropped heavily to his knees.

Immediately after, under the horrified gazes of everyone present, Chen Laogun slammed his forehead viciously into the ground. A single knock drew blood, and as he continued to kowtow, he screamed in a distorted, sobbing voice.

"It was me! I was the one who harbored malicious intentions and tried to take advantage of Chen Chunhua! When she ran away... I... I went and told the troupe leader that they broke the rules... I made everyone hang Chen Chunhua!

"I killed Chunhua! I was the one who killed her! I deserve to die! I deserve to die—"

THUD! THUD! THUD!

With every sentence he spoke, Chen Laogun kowtowed heavily, blood splattering from his forehead.

A few nearby townsfolk tried to step forward and pull him up, but the moment their hands touched Chen Laogun’s shoulders, their bodies also stiffened immediately. They fell to their knees uncontrollably, began to kowtow madly, and mumbled indistinct words of repentance.

"That bitch has come back for revenge!"

This person also fell to his knees and started kowtowing in apology. Anyone who uttered the word ’bitch’ was forced under Yin Zhen’s control to kneel and kowtow toward the stage.

"Ghost! There’s a ghost! Run!"

Watching this bizarre and terrifying scene unfold before them, the townsfolk all backed away in fear. Not a single person dared to approach the madly kowtowing people anymore.

Chen Laogun kowtowed the hardest and the heaviest, refusing to stop even when his forehead became a mangled mess of flesh and blood. Even as his eyes rolled back and he began to lose consciousness, he continued to kowtow.

On the stage, the two girls had reached the end of their singing. The two little wooden puppets stood side by side, facing Yin Zhen below the stage, as well as Su Ke, whose face was covered in tears nearby. The puppets’ hands elegantly crossed to make a pinky-swear gesture, which was the promised posture between Chunhua and Chunmiao in the attic.

"A broken thread, a lost life, an unsettled heart, let us continue our current life’s destiny in the next—"

The vocal melody came to an abrupt halt at its highest pitch. As the lingering echo of the final lyric dissipated, the two puppets held hands and took a bow.

Immediately after, Song Yingshu and Jiang Xiyin went limp, dropping the puppets in their hands onto the stage.

Below the stage, Chen Laogun kowtowed one last time and remained motionless in a kneeling posture. The wound on his forehead was so deep that bone could be seen. Blood flowed all over his face. His clouded eyes were wide open, frozen in ultimate terror and agony. He was completely devoid of breath.

The others didn’t die, but they were severely injured and remained unconscious.

The entire old theater descended into a dead silence once more.

Yin Zhen stood up, taking one last look at the two fallen puppets on the stage. She pulled down her bucket hat and turned to leave. She walked past Chen Laogun’s stiff corpse, and the townsfolk outside parted ways upon seeing her. They watched as she walked further and further away until she disappeared into the Ye Se.

On the stage, Song Yingshu and Jiang Xiyin retreated to the corner in panic. The system had already notified them that their team mission was completed.

Yin Zhen had also sent a message to Song Yingshu, telling her to let her know once she had chosen her Item. She was going out to handle some business and would trade with them when she returned.

Below the stage, the screenwriter, Su Ke, took off her glasses and wiped away her tears. She secretly made up her mind; she was going to uncover everything behind this story and write it out completely!

When the East began to pale, Yin Zhen, who had been killing people all night, returned to Zhang Hai’s car. She sat down and let out a long sigh of relief.

Many people in Sanmen Town had died. Some were killed by Chunhua, and some were killed by her on Chunhua’s behalf.

After leaving the theater, she took the information compiled by A on her phone and cross-referenced it with Chunhua’s memories, hanging everyone who had participated in murdering Chunhua and was still alive to this day in their own homes.

Most of those people had already died of illness due to old age long ago; only a few were still alive.

Yin Zhen took the Pet Machine out of her game backpack, equipped her Character Card, and slit her finger to drip a drop of blood onto it.

Inside the Pet Machine, Zoe was sleeping sprawled out on her bed. The book she hadn’t finished reading last night had fallen by the bedside. She had made a complete mess of the room, with books, discarded clothes, and snack bags scattered everywhere.

This girl was also someone who didn’t like cleaning up her room!

Yin Zhen smiled and silently refilled the snacks in Zoe’s cabinet. Just 100 word counts could be exchanged for a huge pile.

The transaction with Song Yingshu and the others had already concluded. The two had each chosen a Golden Item, and Yin Zhen had bought them from the mall and handed them over in person.

Currently, the forum only allowed for remote trading among team members. If they were only added as friends without forming a team, they wouldn’t be able to exchange items.

Yin Zhen glanced through the forum. Numerous death notification posts appeared every day lately. By the time this round ended, it was unknown if even half of the two thousand Players would remain.

Yin Zhen yawned wearily. If the passenger station operated normally today, she would take a bus back to Beiling City and get some sleep on the way.

There was still some time before the passenger station opened. Yin Zhen stretched lazily, took out Chunhua’s tool kit, and rubbed her hands together. After transforming into Li Hua, she pressed her paw onto it.

"MEOW!" Appraise!

[Chunhua’s Carving Knife]: The exclusive item of Puppet Carver Chen Chunhua. Using this set of carving knives with Hanging Willow as the raw material, one can carve a puppet in the likeness of a living person. By dotting the eyes with that person’s blood, the puppet can be used as a medium, allowing the person to block one supernatural attack for you. The more lifelike the carving, the stronger the ability to block attacks. At maximum, it can act as a substitute death puppet once. Only one substitute death puppet can be created at a time.

[Additional Ability]: A Puppet Master can carve a Faceless Puppet to contain a Fierce Ghost, and use the Fierce Ghost to substitute for their life. The limit for Fierce Ghost Puppets is 3.

After reading the appraised Item Explanation, Kitty Yin Zhen felt a surge of excitement. PURR PURR. Unable to control herself, she rubbed her head against the cloth bag on the seat to leave her scent, completely oblivious to her own feline behavior.

A Puppet Master could control Fierce Ghosts, but they could not contain them; after controlling them, they could only release or destroy them. If there were no Fierce Ghosts around during a battle with others, she would have no target to control.

With Chunhua’s Carving Knife, she could contain three Fierce Ghosts in advance. They could serve as both fighters and life substitutes. It was absolutely perfect!

"No, I have to go into the town one more time and find the old puppet-carving masters to learn the craft!"

Kitty Yin Zhen put away the carving knives and jumped straight out the car window to return to the town.

There were records in the information collected by A, so she knew where the skilled old puppet carvers in the village were located.

As for the Hanging Willow, they were just crooked willow trees growing around graveyards. These were very common in the unmarked graves of northern villages and towns, and they would be easy to find around Ancient Abyss as well.