Chapter 473 - 240: The Pillar Cat Strikes

Chapter 473: Chapter 240: The Pillar Cat Strikes

Zheng Xiu was actually pondering the same question as Xi’er.

’A man... How could he possibly give birth?’

It wasn’t a matter of desire; his biological structure simply made it impossible.

’But... could he really be pregnant?’

’In Mo Kuang’s case, at the very least, he still had one orifice the baby could come out of.’

’But wouldn’t that be too cruel?’

"Ahem."

Zheng Xiu cleared his throat, interrupting the tide of wild thoughts surging through Xi’er’s mind. "What exactly is the situation right now?"

Xi’er’s small mouth opened slightly, but she didn’t know what to say. Finally, she spread her hands helplessly as the view shifted to the young man.

They were still in the same inn, where a young man lay screaming on the bed. His belly was swollen to a grotesque size, the skin stretched so taut it looked like it could burst. Pale blue veins were clearly visible beneath the surface. With every one of the young man’s cries, his swollen belly expanded and contracted with his breath, like a balloon about to pop.

"Could it be that he was just... struck by Magic, and his belly swelled up?"

Zheng Xiu speculated.

"Not quite," Jun Buxiao said. He tapped on the Eternal World Painting, wearing his "Smile" mask, then slowly walked to the bedside carrying his weapon—a large pair of scissors. He gave the "pregnant man’s" belly a light pat.

A ripple went through the thin skin of the belly. From within Mo Kuang’s stomach, a newly formed "child’s hand" struggled to push outward, pressing the shape of five small fingers against the skin as if about to burst out at any moment.

Jun Buxiao’s action seemed to have startled "that thing" inside Mo Kuang’s belly. The intense pain made Mo Kuang scream his lungs out.

"See, Prince? Heh heh, it’s the genuine article."

Jun Buxiao was holding the scissors purely as a precaution, afraid that the thing would burst out of the body; he had no real intention of cutting open Mo Kuang’s belly. The fact that the situation had made a former Upper Four member this vigilant showed that the strangeness of the case was far beyond their imagination.

"Wait, something isn’t right. His belly... it’s getting bigger too quickly."

Xi’er was taken aback.

She hadn’t expected the Red King to focus on that.

So she replied dazedly, "It is."

Jun Buxiao, holding his scissors, put a hand to his forehead as if in deep thought. "It is."

"Are the other pregnant women like this too?"

Xi’er shook her head.

She explained that for the other pregnant women in Lu Town who had prayed at the Five Passes Temple, everything was normal—aside from their husbands dying suddenly and inexplicably.

"At the very least, they’re all beautiful young women."

Xi’er concluded, her expression strange.

Zheng Xiu lowered his head in thought. He felt something was off. Why, of all people, did Mo Kuang have to land himself in such a mess?

’Could it be that some people are just destined for a life of misfortune, just exceptionally unlucky?’

To understand the full sequence of events, Zheng Xiu asked for the details of what happened before and after Mo Kuang was afflicted.

"Well..." In the image within the Eternal World Painting, the corner of Xi’er’s mouth twitched. She glanced back at the whimpering, screaming young man on the bed before briefly recounting how Mo Kuang had investigated the case.

"He thought someone was hiding inside, so he went in holding his book."

"After he went inside, we heard a voice coming from within."

"He shouted, ’What foul demon dares to be so audacious! To commit your crimes in broad daylight! Show yourself to this young master at once!’"

"Then he yelled, ’Get out here!’"

"And a figure came tumbling out of the temple."

"The person who came tumbling out was none other than our favorite little disaster himself."

Zheng Xiu was speechless.

’He just charged in and provoked it like that, in broad daylight?’

After hearing the story, Zheng Xiu pretty much understood why Mo Kuang’s fate was so exceptionally miserable. As usual, it was all because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

He turned to Jun Buxiao, who had deliberately switched to his "Sorrow" mask—it was impossible to tell if he was genuinely sad or just pretending. "What did you tell him?"

"Hee hee hee..." Jun Buxiao was practically dying of laughter. "I told him the temple was bizarre and there was surely a major case to be solved. If he cracked it, he would become one of the ’Eight People’ beneath the four humans and one cat, and become a Commander of the Dawn Department. But I also told him he absolutely must be careful and not act impulsively."

Zheng Xiu asked, "Did he listen to all of it?"

"To answer the Prince, no, he did not. The moment that kid heard ’Commander of the Dawn Department,’ he whipped out his book and charged right in. Your subordinate was careless and failed to stop him." Jun Buxiao knew Zheng Xiu’s tone held a hint of blame, and he didn’t deny it. Seeing Zheng Xiu’s stormy expression, Jun Buxiao gave a cunning smile. "Prince, Mo Kuang’s actions were not entirely without merit."

"Oh?"

Sometimes, a leader must be sparing with his words—saying half a sentence, or nothing at all—and let others guess his intentions. Whether they guessed correctly didn’t matter; what mattered was appearing unfathomable. When Zheng Xiu let out a soft grunt, Jun Buxiao indeed grew wary. Thinking the Red King was furious, he shook his head, and his mask seemed to change with the motion, replaced by a stern, black one. He lowered his voice.

"Prince, you should know that he and I arrived in Lu Town some time ago. It was six days ago that he was afflicted by the Magic in the temple. We kept things quiet. In the days that followed, a few couples from out of town, unaware of the danger, ignored the Government Office’s prohibition and entered the temple to make offerings."

"As for me, I disguised myself as a street Actor and asked them a few questions. They said there used to be a ’strange thing’ in the temple, which looked like five fleshy pillars all squeezed together." As he spoke, Jun Buxiao held up his hand and squeezed his five fingers together into a twisted, bizarre shape, giving the Red King a visual representation of the "Wutong God." Seeing this, Zheng Xiu felt his temples throb. ’What the fuck,’ he thought. ’Isn’t that just five dicks pressed together for a sword fight?’

How could someone carve such a ghastly thing—something he, as a Human, wouldn’t even dare to draw—into a statue of a god and place it in a temple to be worshipped?

As an [Actor], Jun Buxiao’s fingers were unnaturally flexible, as if boneless. He manipulated them for a moment, then his five joined fingers split apart from the middle. With a rare tone of seriousness, Jun Buxiao said, "It cracked."