Chapter 227: Mask of mour
Lu Yibei walked along the path pointed out by the old woman; it wound through old cottages like the tentacles of some kind of monster piercing through a ship. There were forks that broke into many different roads.
He could faintly hear music from a funeral, but he couldnt tell where it wasing from.
He could smell the burning of paper money, but he couldnt find the source either. Perhaps it was behind the doors of these creepy-looking cottages.
There were alleys that extended far away, and he couldnt tell where they led.
If you are somebody curious, you will forget the olddys words and go down these alleys, and perhaps youll lose yourself in this tiny suburb.
<i>Im built differently, though. You could put the prettiest stripper down this alley, and I would still walk forward. Im focused. Poised.</i>
Ten minutester, he found the ughterhouse at the foot of a mountain.
The walls surrounding the ughterhouse towered over him. Beyond the walls, he could only see the rusty iron roof of the ughterhouse.
Briefly checking information about the ughterhouse, this is not only a ughterhouse for pigs but also a breeding ground for them.
ording to some news reports, the ughterhouse seemed to employ special breeding tactics before being forcefully closed due to an urban legend incident. Before their closure, they were the winners of [Huachengs King of Pigs] every year.
Looking at it from a distance, he checked the time.
It was 14:24, but the sky seemed to darken inexplicably.
The strange thing was that the dark clouds seemed to only converge above the ughterhouse. A little further away, the afternoon sun still zed on.
Truly, this is a ce that the Night Division could only seal away. You couldnt exin this with science and coupled with its reputation He shook his head and came to the high walls of the ughterhouse.
He didnt realise how tall the walls werethey were nearly four metres high, and their mere presence suffocated him.
He found that the courtyard wall was divided at a height of more than two meters, and the lower wall was more weatheredpared to the top half.
The upper walls seemed to have been added at ater date.
<i>What are they trying to hide?</i>
Scrolling through his phone, one article caught his attention: four years ago, the ughterhouse sent a spy to steal their technology, which caused a death.
However, there were no reports on this persons death, as if they were trying to cover it up.
He briefly nced at the ughterhouse where he was going to hold the review, then took out his tools and went to work.
There is only one location where the seal needs to be reinforced. Once he reces it, his task will beplete.
<i>Just as Jiangli said: No urban legends. Not difficult.</i>
At least, thats what it seems on the surface.
ording to the diagram of the seal given by the Night Division, he quickly found a locked manhole cover surrounded by withered weeds.
Taking out the key, he unlocked the manhole and pried it open. As he climbed down thedder into the deep cer, a stench of animal faeces wafted into his nostrils.
A dazzling silver light blinded him suddenly, but the owl badge slightly vibrated as it buzzed, returning the cer to darkness.
It seemed that if he broke into this ce without wearing the badge, you would be subdued.<i>This really feels like Im working for a secret society.</i>
He remembered talking with Jumeng aboutbining the knowledge of science, engineering, and history to find a suitable career for him since these were the courses he focused on in university.
Grave robbing, she answered him.
He could remember Jumengs indifferent yet cute face. Smiling in his heart, he covered his mouth and nose with one hand and looked around in the darkness with his shlight.
The dark cer was tiny, and iprehensible curses were etched onto the smooth stone walls. He could see dark-coloured earthen bags scattered around the room.
He fumbled through his coat and took out a ck, double-stemmed lily. Holding it up with one hand, one lily bloomed a light blue while the other bloomed a light yellow.
Taking note of the lilys colours, he took out a red envelope marked with a silver owl andpared it with the colour chart written on the envelope.
[Psychic Fluctuation Levels: D- to D+
Natural Disaster Tendency: <= 0.01%
Status: Normal]
Completing his field research, he put away his bag and held the Operation Code in one hand, with the shlight in the other. Taking out a mahogany hammer, he walked towards a bag deep within the cer and carefully moved the bag aside to reveal three silver stakes nailed into the ground.
Pulling out the items needed, a strange feeling washed over him as if he were being stared at.
Like a pair of eyes that eyed him in the shadows.
<i>Eyes that were not bright or cloudy and held no emotion. It wasnt human, and it never rested. It would blink asionally,</i> he thought.
This strange feeling made him ufortable, but he suppressed it. Pulling out the short, silver stakes nailed into the ground, he removed brand new stakes from his waist and inserted them into the ground, raising the hammer.
ng! ng! ng!
After receiving the runes, his strength was far beyond that of an ordinary person, knocking down all three stakes with a single strike of the hammer.
A faint light shed at the bottom of the bag, and there seemed to be a faint buzzing sound in the air.
ording to the Operation Code, this meant that the seal was strengthened.
When he bent over to clean up, he noticed that the eyes watching him seemingly disappeared.
Climbing out of the cer, he reced the manhole cover and locked it, eyeing the old silver stakes in his hand.
It was engraved with runic inscriptions, but something seemed to have corroded it. It was full of small chips and stained with a dark rust.
His work went by smoothly, and it took less than an hour for him to reinforce the four seals around the ughterhouse.
However, when he came to thest location, something happened.
The manhole cover seemed to be damaged and broken into, and a strong stench emanated from the cer.
Staring into the dark recesses expressionlessly, he raised his hand and allowed a pir of me to flood into the cer, and the mes got bigger and bigger and bigger.
<i>Wait, fuck! I didnt mean to use my Trump card! What the fuck?</i>
Under normal circumstances, the pir of me should berge enough to illuminate a small area. However, the fireball forming on the tips of his fingers became asrge as the manhole cover before shooting out into the darkness with a whoosh!
The mes, amplified by his runes twentyfold, violently licked through the dark recesses of the cer. An explosion could be heard inside the cer, and the ground shook.
With his ears ringing and his face covered in soot, he fell to the ground as he stared nkly into the manhole, recovering as much psychic energy as he could. He felt a little tired but climbed down the cer.
<i>With such a big fireball, whatever is inside should be half-dead, right?</i>
Secretly, he rejoiced, conveniently forgetting that there was a chance for his spell to be amplified 0.01 times instead.
The cer was covered in ayer of soot, and he nodded as he sighed. The stone walls werent damaged, and he walked towards the designated earthen bag.
However, instead of three silver stakes, two were missing; the remaining stake waspletely ck.
He frowned and took out the lilies, and almost instantly, the lilies bloomed into dark blue and orange, respectively.
That meant that psychic energy leaked through here, but it was still within a safe range.
He cursed as he started writing on a notepad.
[Psychic Fluctuation Levels: C- to C+
Natural Disaster Tendency: <=0.02%
Status: Unstable]
Cough!
He coughed as he breathed in smoke. Leaning down, he was about to pull out the stake before feeling the strange eyes on him again.
Unblinkingly, it watched his every move.
It seemed to watch him from a ce humans cant reach, like stars in the sky. However, stars were high up in the sky, but the eyes were hanging right behind him.
<i>Look all you want; you cant take a bite out of me.</i>
<i></i>
<i>I know Im handsome!</i>
As if to fill himself with bravery, he murmured a few words in his mind, tightening his grip as he pulled out the stake. Then he took out three new stakes, stuffed them into the ground, and nailed them down.
However, as the hammer hit, the expected sound of metal nging wasnt heard; instead, it was the muffled sound of flesh being pierced.
The ground was soft, like flesh.
By the light of his shlight, he could see blood seeping out from the ground, and a putrid smell rushed into his nostrils.
Immediately, the ground began to squirm, and the earth moved and undted as if something were about to break out of the ground.
Seeing this, his eyes turned cold as he raised the hammer, mming the two remaining stakes into the soil.
With two strikes, the ground sttered blood all over him, but it trembled twice before falling silent.
Outside the gate of the ughterhouse, he called Jiangli while wiping away blood from his body.
Beep.
Hello? Yibei? Are you done with your task?
Of course. Such a simple task is nothing but a piece of cake!
He paused, deciding to conceal what had happened to her.
He still needed toplete his review and wait until daybreakter at night. To be safe, hell inform her after the review is over. If he reports it now, they might enclose and investigate the ce.
<i>There are still four other people in the group chat. I dont know them, and I shouldnt involve them in my business, right? What if the Night Division recognises me and sends someone after me?</i>
Seeing that her subordinate was silent, Jiangli spoke, Yibei? Did you encounter anything strange?
Ah, no, no. I was just wondering if theres a bonus forpleting my tasks. If the bonus is good, it might incentivise me to do more work.
Noted. If you dont have anything to do, why dont youe back to headquarters?
She immediately hung up the phone, and he put away his cell phone. Turning around, he took another look at the ughterhouse and felt something blinking at him beyond its doors. Feeling cold, he ran away quickly.
The ughterhouse was far away from the city, and with how terrifying its surrounding urban legends were, it became even more difficult to catch a cab in the afternoon.
While waiting for a taxi, he encountered a strange man.
This man wore a dark fishermans hat with a low brim, concealing half of his face. He wore all ck, but the zipper on his upper coat was mostly open. One could vaguely see the turban wrapped around his shoulders and a thick gauze that was stained with blood.
He was carrying arge, bulging backpack on one shoulder.
When the man saw Yibei, he pretended not to see him, looking around before hurrying in the direction of the ughterhouse.
He didnt take the man to heart at first, fiddling with his phone. However, his eyes warmed slightly, and a thought stered itself on his mind.
<b><i>Hes looking at you.</i></b>
<i></i>
<i>Why is everyone looking at me?</i>
<i></i>
Turning his head, his eyes met the mans own.
They locked eyes, and panic shed across the mans pale face. His body trembled as he scrambled away, trotting down the winding path, and disappeared.
<i>Hes going to the ughterhouse. Is he from the group chat, too? Why is he here so early?</i>
Before he could figure out why, a car parked next to him, and the driver rolled down the window and said, Hey, you there! Are you the user [Han Xiaojuan, my wife]?
Although he didnt want to admit it, he nodded and got into the car.
<i>Forgot to change my ID,</i>he thought.
In the evening, at a mansion.
The silver-haired mentor sat in a wheelchair, facing the huge floor-to-ceiling window as she stared at the sunset. It slowly sank into the horizon, and its scarlet rays coated her silver hair with ayer of crimson.
Not long after, the door opened, and Hua, her maid, came to her side, holding a rectangr brass box.
Mistress, I brought you a new prosthetic limb. The fat man from the ghost market said that if you put this on, you wont be able to tell the difference from an ordinary limb.
Very good, Jiangli nodded, turning her wheelchair to face Hua. Is there anything else at the market? Thest time you went there, you said you met a girl selling a [Mask of mour], correct? Did you buy it?
I did, but Mistress, she scratched her cheek. Why do you want to disguise yourself?
Jiangli shook her head, smiled slightly, and said, There are five people in the review group chat this time.
The people who participate in these reviews must have some kind of ability, she added. And there arent a lot of psychics who know me. An Operator once participated in an event suspected of being organised by an urban legend. If somebody recognised him, wouldnt it cause trouble?
I suppose, Mistress, Hua nodded, taking out the mask.
The mask seemed to be of poor quality, with a slightly deformed bald head. The corner of Jianglis mouth twitched slightly.
This was the first time she had seen someone embed a spell on such a weird item.
Taking the mask, she ced it on her face and unlocked her phone. Turning on her browser app, she searched for pictures of girls and clicked on a picture at random. Focusing on the appearance of the girl, she injected her psychic energy into the mask.
The moment she injected her energy, the stic mask stuck to her face as if it were part of her own face. It squirmed and stretched, and in a few seconds, her appearance morphed into a beautiful, tanned, blonde girl with a slightly seductive look.
ncing at the mirror Hua was holding, she nodded with satisfaction, saying, The quality of the mask is pretty good, but I dont know how many times I can use it.
She shed a horrible, fake smile towards Hua.
Mistress, do not ever do that again, Hua murmured, remembering her childhood trauma of being bullied by horrible, delinquent girls.
Jiangli tilted her head in confusion and said, Is my smile that scary? I tried copying how Li Xuan smiles.
Tried.
Yes.
Hua was speechless, watching the unnerving smile pierce through her soul.