Chapter 173: Chapter 130: With the Power of One
When Zheng Xiu tied Gongsun Mo’s painting scroll tightly to his back, the Zheng Shan Incarnation’s ethereal body instantly grew much more solid.
Chu Susu’s eyes widened.
"What on earth happened?"
"What happened was..."
Zheng Xiu’s question suddenly triggered Chu Susu’s painful memories.
Chu Susu first clutched her head in agony, then walked like a madwoman toward the bodies of Brother Ya and Pang Shengyun.
"A guy in black dug out their hearts... and then... then they died..."
Chu Susu spoke for a while, sobbing all the way. Her words were vague, but Zheng Xiu got the gist of it. She didn’t get to the point, but she was just a young girl who wasn’t yet an adult and lacked a strong will, so Zheng Xiu didn’t press her.
With the scroll on his back, Zheng Xiu took a few steps, assessing the state of his Incarnation now that Feng Bei’s signal was being severely jammed.
For some reason, Feng Bei had been "swallowed" by the painting, disrupting the connection between the Heart Prison and Post Station Feng Bei.
But perhaps because Feng Bei’s Mystic Ghost Domain was too powerful, a sliver of it had managed to leak out of the scroll. Even if it was just a tiny bit, it was barely enough to allow Zheng Xiu to use Divine Travel to cross a thousand li and arrive here.
Normally, when Zheng Xiu used Divine Travel to reach Post Station Feng Bei, he would appear at the edge of Feng Bei’s Ghostly Realm, at most thirty zhang away from Feng Bei. Now, however, he could only barely manifest a short distance from the scroll. It was clear that Gongsun Mo’s strange painting was severely suppressing Feng Bei’s Ghostly Realm.
’The Incarnation’s Attributes haven’t been affected.’
Zheng Xiu clenched his fist, producing a series of sharp cracks.
The other orphans and the townspeople on the street remained standing in a daze. Chu Susu was collapsed over Pang Shengyun’s body, sobbing her heart out.
Zheng Xiu lifted Pang Shengyun’s clothes and found that grayish-purple liver mortis had already appeared on his body.
He used [Scouting].
A die emerged from between his eyebrows and spun rapidly before him.
Lines of information cascaded down Zheng Xiu’s vision like a waterfall, allowing him to take Chu Susu’s few words and quickly deduce what had happened.
"They were already dead. That person was likely a ’Thousand Gate General.’ To fulfill some ’rule,’ he deliberately used two corpses as bait, aiming to make Feng Bei believe ’something.’"
Chu Susu froze at his words, her eyes misting over. "Really?" she asked hoarsely.
"Yes, really. They were dead long before we entered the town. The dead can’t be brought back to life. The most important thing now is to figure out how to get out of here." Zheng Xiu analyzed quickly, "Besides, apart from your Brother Ya and Pang Shengyun, the other orphans are still alive. Ye Weiyang may act unconventionally, but they would never kill an entire town of people. Feng Bei has been sealed inside the Cannibal Painting. We have to leave this place as soon as possible so the rest can survive."
Chu Susu was silent for a moment. She wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, and in a flash, she seemed to transform into a different person. In a few crisp sentences, she described what she had witnessed.
Zheng Xiu listened in silence as he walked over to Xu Shu’s corpse. He bent down, picked up his heavy, serrated weapon, and tested its weight. He gave it a few easy, flourishing swings, nodding to himself. ’A decent weapon.’
The dead can’t be brought back to life.
’This serrated blade... I’ll just borrow it.’
As he toyed with Xu Shu’s blade, Chu Susu reached the crucial part of her story.
Apparently, after Feng Bei had obliterated Lower Six with a single slap and was about to deal with Xu Shu, the scroll on Feng Bei’s back suddenly came to life. It unfurled, rolled Feng Bei up, and in the blink of an eye, swallowed him completely, causing him to vanish into thin air.
Hearing this, Zheng Xiu fell silent for a moment. Anger ignited in his eyes, and with one swing, he sawed Xu Shu’s corpse in two, cracking the ground beneath.
"Bastard! So that’s how it is!"
Realization dawned on Zheng Xiu.
This was the real trap.
’Could it be that the Night Lord, hiding in the shadows, knew all along that the "something" hidden in the scroll would react to Feng Bei’s "Omen"?’
’The moment Feng Bei "acted" to kill someone, it would trigger the scroll’s "devouring" mechanism and swallow him into the painting?’
In other words, it didn’t matter who came.
What mattered was that out of all the Ye Weiyang in General Town, as long as just one of them could provoke Feng Bei into killing someone while he carried the scroll, the Night Lord’s goal would be achieved.
Any member of Ye Weiyang in General Town could have been a pawn, sacrificed by the Night Lord.
For all he knew, Lower Six Zhou Bashi, who was obliterated by Feng Bei’s slap, probably had no idea what was happening before he died. He died in utter confusion, completely ignorant.
As he figured out the key to the puzzle, Zheng Xiu felt a chill run through him, even amidst his anger.
Why on earth would the Night Lord use such a method against Feng Bei?
That Night Lord had yet to even appear, but had already predicted events with divine accuracy, setting this entire trap.
Feng Bei had survived twenty years ago. Could it be that his survival itself was a mistake?
A strange illusion suddenly occurred to Zheng Xiu.
It was as if all of this, this whole situation, meant that the very fact of Feng Bei being alive had become a mistake. And someone was trying every means possible to correct this "mistake."
"Fuck!"
Zheng Xiu’s mind was a storm of frustration. He unconsciously dragged the blade across the ground.
"Uncle Zheng!"
It wasn’t until Chu Susu called out in a trembling voice that Zheng Xiu realized he had dragged Xu Shu’s corpse with the serrated blade, mangling it horribly. ’May the dead rest in peace,’ he thought silently, forcing himself to calm down. He kicked some loose stones over Xu Shu to bury him on the spot, then threw the die again, using [Inspiration]. This time, the roll was smooth. He got a great success on the first try, activating [Spiritual Vision].
Under his Spiritual Vision, Heaven and Earth took on different colors. Not far away, a figure was whimpering and digging at something on the ground. Looking closer, he saw that it was Dou Xie, sobbing as he picked up scattered book pages from the ground, trying and failing to reassemble them into a book.
