Chapter 118: The Human Skin Drum (22)

But she had no regrets!

If her future husband were any man other than Qi Yangbo, she would feel a sense of extreme revulsion from the depths of her soul. She could not bear for any other man to touch her!

Perhaps, then, dying alongside Qi Yangbo was the best choice she could make in this life.

After all, she was dying at his hands, wasn't she?

Zhu Ya'an slowly closed her eyes.

Zhu Ya'an was dead.

However, the water-sac mutant creature behind her was clearly not satisfied with killing only one person.

Alienated monsters have no human emotional fluctuations. In their eyes, there is nothing left but slaughter.

Furthermore, perhaps due to the moonlight, the wounds inflicted upon the monster healed rapidly.

"Tang Mu, bind them. Ge Wenqian, poison needles. An Xiaoying, release your puppets to soak up the damage. Lu Zhengqing, keep moving and maintain defenses. As for the rest of you, figure it out yourselves!"

Having issued these orders, Qiao Yuan ignored the others and focused solely on the battle involving his own team.

Tang Mu's red silk bound the two specters firmly. However, the strength of these monsters was many times greater than before. Relying on her own power alone, Tang Mu found herself unable to completely restrain them.

Forced into a corner, she had to borrow the power of the natural environment to secure them!

Large swaths of red silk bound the specters, while smaller strands anchored to the surrounding sturdy structures. Since neither poison nor physical attacks could severely wound the creatures, the only option was to contain them. They had to wait until dawn; once the moonlight's enhancement faded, they would see if these monsters remained so formidable.

But the spectral entities were too powerful.

The more red silk she deployed, the faster Tang Mu’s mental energy was consumed.

Before long, beads of sweat gathered on her forehead.

"Ten vials of mental restoration potion. Take them." Qiao Yuan tossed the vials to her.

The Spirit-Gathering Potion was a small blue bottle, valued at 1,000 points in the shop. If it were up to Tang Mu, she would certainly have been reluctant to buy them. But Qiao Yuan was known for his vast wealth; such an expense likely meant nothing to him.

Tang Mu accepted them without hesitation.

*Gulp, gulp.* She swallowed them all.

With her mental energy restored, the length of the red silk Tang Mu could manifest increased significantly, all of which she wrapped around the specters.

Because of her binding, the monsters' struggles grew weaker and weaker, until they were barely perceptible.

"Rest where you are," Qiao Yuan commanded, his decision swift. He ordered his association members to stop wasting their stamina on the specters.

Instead, they were to sit down and rest until dawn.

The other players, seeing the Qiao Yuan team lead the way, stopped wasting their energy as well.

"Damn it..." Inside the attic, the woman overlooking the scene slammed her fist against the table in hatred. Once the moon set, her connection to the specters' power would wane. She had already consumed too much spectral energy to catalyze the mutants. Now, she had to retreat and rest if she wanted the energy to continue playing with them.

*Hmph*, five more days.

They all had to die.

Dawn broke.

The moment sunlight pierced the clouds, Old Wang’s Hostel returned to its original state.

But unlike the previous two days, Boss Wang and the receptionist were gone.

Villagers who seemed to have appeared from nowhere flooded into the hostel, claiming everything inside as their own. Yet, what they coveted most was not money or spectral coins, but the camera locked inside the safe.

"Word is, a new girl came to the village today. Seems like she’s from the city, and she’s a real beauty. But she’s got a fierce temper; didn't want to submit to Laizi. In the struggle, she even knocked out Laizi’s front teeth. Laizi got angry, tied her up by the millstone, and made people grind her teeth down to force her submission."

"I hear she still hasn't given in."

"How could it be that easy? They say she comes from a wealthy family in the city. Her skin is fair and tender, smooth to the touch. Laizi only bought her because he won a lot of money gambling a few days ago—spent eighty thousand on her, he did."

"Originally, Laizi didn't want to do anything too harsh to the girl. But she’s stubborn as a mule, preferring to starve herself rather than yield. Look, today Laizi dragged her off to the tofu factory, saying he’d force-feed her tofu even if he had to shove it down her throat."

"Tsk, sigh. I’ve said it before: a woman’s strength is no match for a man’s. Why have such a fiery temper? Just lie back and accept it; it would save her all this suffering."

Those who advised women not to struggle were almost always men. As for the women of the village, they were cold, silent bystanders, not daring to speak up.

The players understood the plot now. It seemed the location for today’s photo op was the tofu factory.

They followed the villagers to the factory.

Inside, a pitch-black-skinned man was gripping a woman’s hair with all his might. He pressed her face into a pile of raw tofu, forcing her to eat.

The woman’s front teeth had already been ground away. She spoke with a whistle, and under the man’s heavy pressure, her entire head was buried in the tofu dregs. Even when she struggled, only wheezing sounds escaped her—no intelligible words at all.

More importantly, during the struggle, her clothes were torn off.

The onlookers not only failed to offer any kind interference, but instead raised their cameras, snapping photos frantically. *Click, click.*

The scene cut off abruptly.

These were images from many, many years ago.

The players opened their eyes again.

Where was the tofu factory? It was nothing more than a wooden building that had been in ruins for years. The air was filled with the scent of long-term decay and rotting wood, along with fine dust that danced perpetually in the shafts of sunlight.

"What’s going on?"

"Why does today’s 'check-in' spot feel different from the last two days? It’s like we’re in two completely different timelines!"

"Indeed." Another player looked troubled. "It’s not like I didn't come to this tofu factory yesterday. But when I was here, the equipment was intact, and the place was full of people. The wooden beams and doors were brand new. Nothing like this ruin."

"Should we check the other location on the map?"

"What’s the other location?"

"The pavilion."

The pavilion was halfway up the mountain.

As the players approached from a distance, they saw a woman sitting inside. Beside her was a stone table, and on the table sat several exquisite dishes. But there was nothing else on the plates—only tofu.

"You’ve come."

The woman turned around, her face lit with a gentle, blooming smile.

The group had spent the night fighting specters, and their rest had been far from restful. Yet, this girl’s smile seemed to possess an inexplicable magic, causing them to lower their guard without a hint of suspicion.

Still, a few who were overly cautious did not take another step forward, even as the woman before them remained smiling, gentle, and submissive.