Chapter 96 - 95: You Just Touched a Corpse, You Know

Chapter 96: Chapter 95: You Just Touched a Corpse, You Know

Huo Xingchen leaped back in an instant, frantically rubbing his arms to get rid of the strange sensation.

Beside him, Gu Qingyin coolly reminded him, "Your hands just touched the corpse, you know."

Huo Xingchen froze. He glanced down at his hands, then shrieked, thrusting them away from his body as if he desperately wanted a new pair.

Seeing this, Mao Mao stood on the corpse’s stomach, rolling with laughter.

Huo Xingchen knew the monkey was laughing at him. He wanted to act tough, march over, toss the monkey aside, and get on with examining the corpse. But it was just too damn creepy!

Gu Qingyin sighed to herself. She stepped forward and took the very hand Huo Xingchen had just used to touch the corpse.

Her warm, dry touch instantly soothed his panic.

"Son, you need to think carefully. Do you really want to become a true Heavenly Master or not?" Gu Qingyin’s expression was serious. "If you don’t, I’ll send you out of here right now. If you do, this is a trial you must overcome."

"I..." Huo Xingchen hesitated for two seconds, then looked down at the corpse again. He gritted his teeth. "I do!"

Gu Qingyin smiled and patted his hand. "You can do it."

Mao Mao looked around. Though it didn’t quite understand what was happening, it instinctively scrambled off the corpse and, out of habit, started to climb up Gu Qingyin.

Meanwhile, Huo Xingchen forced himself to squat beside the corpse. He reached out with both hands to turn the corpse’s head.

Over here, Gu Qingyin picked Mao Mao up with a disgusted look on her face, wiped its paws and fur, and then cleaned herself up as well.

’Who isn’t grossed out by a corpse? You just have to endure it for the job. And you definitely have to clean up afterward! If I wasn’t trying to teach my son a lesson and help him overcome this mental block, I’d never go this far!’

Huo Xingchen’s body instinctively recoiled, his head pulling back, but his brain forced his hands forward. They finally landed on the dead man’s head, and then, he twisted it forcefully.

He didn’t turn the head much, but it was enough to see the wounds. The fatal injuries were on the throat, near the left artery. There were three gashes in total, their edges ragged and brutal, as if they’d been ripped open by bare fingers.

So much blood had poured out onto the floor.

"This is too brutal," Huo Xingchen said, scrambling to his feet and backing away after his inspection. "His throat was torn right out. What kind of deep-seated hatred would drive someone to do that?"

Gu Qingyin actually laughed at his words. "Monsters don’t usually need a reason to kill," she said. "They kill because they feel like it. If you run into one, you can only blame your own bad luck."

"Can’t you run?" Huo Xingchen asked with a frown.

Gu Qingyin shook her head. "The more you run, the more excited the monster gets. If you don’t run, it’ll one-shot you."

"So it’s a no-win situation," Huo Xingchen asked. "Isn’t there any way to survive?"

"Pray a Heavenly Master shows up fast," Gu Qingyin mused, "or hope you’re wearing an Amulet or something. That might give you a chance to survive." Speaking of Amulets, Gu Qingyin suddenly remembered that she still hadn’t given him the Protective Jade Pendant she’d made.

She rummaged in her satchel and pulled out a palm-sized wooden box. Inside was the Jade Pendant.

"There’s one for each of you three brothers. It’s for protection," Gu Qingyin said, handing it over. "This one won’t be very effective for you, though. I’ll make you a new one when we get back."

This Jade Pendant was more than enough for an ordinary person, but for a Heavenly Master who was constantly exposed to Evil Qi, it would be worn out in no time.

Huo Xingchen took it and glanced at it. A cord was already tied to the pendant. He immediately took it out and hung it around his neck. The cool touch of the jade against his skin made him feel much more at ease.

Gu Qingyin was beaming at him. "Go on, take another look."

Huo Xingchen squeezed the Jade Pendant through his shirt, squatted down again, and tried to recall the forensic crime dramas he had watched, attempting to replicate the steps of an ME’s autopsy.

First, he pried open the eyelids to check the eyes, then the mouth, followed by the limbs. Finally, he found something unusual under the corpse’s fingernails.

"There’s something black under his nails," Huo Xingchen noted. He specifically compared the left hand to the right, ruling out the possibility that it was just dirt. He leaned in for a sniff, then immediately recoiled and gagged.

"It stinks!" Huo Xingchen dropped the corpse’s hand and scrambled away.

’It was an indescribable stench. A little acrid, a little rotten... like... the smell of a decaying corpse? But that can’t be right. He just died.’

"That’s Feng Xia’s scent," Gu Qingyin said. "The scent of his killer."

"Feng Xia?" Huo Xingchen had binge-watched *Happy Family*, so the name was familiar. What puzzled him was the implication. "She’s not human?"

"She was human before the show," Gu Qingyin explained. "By the time it ended, she was a half-human, half-ghost creature that had merged with Evil Qi. Now, it seems she’s become a full-blown monster."

Gu Qingyin sighed. ’Feng Xia really was fertile ground for nurturing evil. And it had only been such a short time.’

"Is Feng Xia dead?" Huo Xingchen was still confused. "Why else would there be a stench of decay?"

"To be precise, she’s one of the living dead," Gu Qingyin corrected. "They’re not easy to kill, so be careful. Mao Mao, protect him."

Mao Mao chirped, then kicked off with its hind legs and landed on Huo Xingchen’s head.

’I need *its* protection?’ was Huo Xingchen’s first thought. But before he could object, he remembered Mao Mao’s astonishing speed and swallowed his words.

His second reaction, however, nearly shattered his composure—’Mao Mao was squatting in this exact same pose on the corpse just now!’

’Never mind whether it was clean or not—the point was, it was incredibly bad luck!’

Huo Xingchen quickly snatched Mao Mao off his head and placed it on his shoulder, inventing a noble-sounding excuse. "My head moves around a lot, I’m afraid I’ll fling you off. It’s more stable on my shoulder, so hold on tight."

Mao Mao actually fell for it, nuzzling against his neck affectionately.

Huo Xingchen’s face fell. He held his breath. ’He remembered that Mao Mao had been ROLLING AROUND on that corpse! AHHHHH!’

Gu Qingyin saw it all, but with a wicked sense of humor, she didn’t say a thing to enlighten him. She cleared her throat and said in a mock-serious tone, "Let’s keep going up. If nothing unexpected happened, your dad should have forced Feng Xia to the rooftop by now."

Huo Xingchen, struggling on the verge of a breakdown, said, "I need to restock my inventory first."

Gu Qingyin nodded. "Fine. Five minutes."

Time was tight, so Huo Xingchen couldn’t afford to break down. He found a relatively clean spot and began to draw his talismans.

Five minutes isn’t a long time, but it’s not short, either. When he was full of energy, he could churn out dozens of low-quality talismans, or ten to twenty decent ones if he was being more careful.

But he had already drawn quite a few talismans outside, and the shock he’d received inside had taken a serious toll on his stamina.

In five minutes, he only managed to draw five talismans—and poor-quality ones at that.

Huo Xingchen was deeply unsatisfied with his work. He didn’t even dare to look up at Gu Qingyin, fearing her disdain.

But Gu Qingyin simply said, "Lead the way."

Huo Xingchen let out an imperceptible sigh of relief and resumed his role as the path-clearer.

Gu Qingyin followed behind, a tempting thought crossing her mind. ’I really want to just lock him up and use him as a personal talisman-drawing machine.’