Chapter 229: Chapter 194: Turning to Evil
"You know them?" Yang Xiao was somewhat surprised.
"Can’t say I know them, just heard some things. These androgynous things are all followers of the Great Black Buddha Mother. These people extremely loathe anything related to sex, affirming in their doctrine that sex is the root of all evil, a source of degeneracy and filth. To earn the favor of the Great Black Buddha Mother, believers will erase their own sexual characteristics and offer them to the sacred altar of the Great Black Buddha Mother to be burned."
Having listened to Fu Qingzhu’s words, then looking at the man’s lower body and the woman’s terrifying abdominal wound, Yang Xiao couldn’t fathom their reasons for such actions.
Fu Qingzhu sighed slowly, "It is said that as long as one gains the favor of the Great Black Buddha Mother, one can experience the highest pleasure, something not comparable to sexual gratification."
"Self-harm would be one thing, but the most terrifying part of this sect is their obsession with purity. They have a pathological fixation on it. To join the religion, besides self-mutilation, one must also kill all those they’ve had relations with in extremely brutal ways and then dedicate themselves completely to the sect, serving the Great Black Buddha Mother with a pure body and spirit."
Staring at the three corpses on the ground, Fu Qingzhu slightly frowned, as if something didn’t make sense. "Strange, I heard that these guys were dealt a heavy blow a while ago. They were besieged by over a dozen gangs collaborating together, even the big boss from the Southeast Province was ambushed and killed by a group of experts. How could they appear here?"
Suddenly, the expressions of Yang Xiao and Fu Qingzhu changed drastically, and they both thought of the silver box in Young Master Qi’s hands at the same time.
Previously, Yang Xiao remembered, the large metal box used by the Technology Department to contain the Resentful Eye was made of a similar material.
"That suitcase contains the Resentful Eye!" Yang Xiao felt numb. Who would have thought that taking a job for 500,000 would be life-threatening?
"Fatty Sun, I’m going out there to kill you!" Fu Qingzhu trembled with rage; he’d been played as well. The intermediary who introduced the job to him hadn’t mentioned any of this.
It was not safe to stay here any longer. The two of them immediately took flight, judging by the current situation, Young Master Qi and his men were doomed.
Not daring to use the elevator, they arrived at the emergency exit. Fortunately, the door wasn’t locked.
The two of them rushed down the stairwell, going down seven or eight floors before stopping to catch their breath.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t keep going, but they sensed something unusual; it was too quiet around them, quiet as if everyone in the building had fallen asleep.
An oil painting hung on the opposite wall.
Fu Qingzhu stepped forward and ripped it off. As the painting fell, a sign marked ’22nd floor’ was revealed.
Yang Xiao’s previous room was on the 22nd floor of the building.
"We are trapped." Yang Xiao and Fu Qingzhu quickly calmed down after a moment. Panic would not help solve the problem, and at least they were now certain that a paranormal event had broken out within the building.
The safety corridor was too narrow; if they were blocked there, they would surely die. Yang Xiao and Fu Qingzhu turned to go upstairs, needing to determine the extent of the paranormal incident.
Although pistols were useless against that kind of thing, they were very effective against people. Yang Xiao clenched the pistol in one hand while the other sneaked into his backpack, secretly taking out the Drama Robe and stuffing it into his chest.
"Rustle, rustle..."
Fu Qingzhu, leading the way, suddenly stopped in his tracks, clenched his fist with his right hand, and gestured to Yang Xiao behind him to stop immediately.
The two of them listened intently; the sound was coming from not far upstairs, probably... probably right around the corner of the staircase, near that emergency door.
Fu Qingzhu drew the dagger from his waist, lightened his footsteps, and moved upstairs with Yang Xiao, one in front of the other.
As the sound grew clearer, the expressions on the faces of Yang Xiao and his companion became more and more unusual; they actually heard a deep, panting breath.
Finally, as they approached, they saw a scene that greatly surprised them: just outside the ajar emergency door, a naked man was squatting on a decorative vase almost half his height, his body writhing non-stop.
"Don’t move! I said don’t move!" Yang Xiao raised his gun, the scene in front of him making him uncomfortable.
However, the strange man not only ignored him but also began to let out low growls, his actions becoming more intense, as if he had reached a breaking point. Finally, after a few seconds, the man’s body shook a few times, his neck tilted, and he collapsed to one side.
It was only then that Yang Xiao and his partner saw the man’s face clearly. His eyes were bulging, blood was flowing from his seven orifices, veins were popping on his face, giving him a terrifying appearance.
But even more chilling was that the man was smiling, his mouth gaping wide, revealing a serene and regretless smile.
Fu Qingzhu probed the man’s breathing with his hand, then swiftly retracted it: "He’s dead."
The man’s lower body was mutilated beyond recognition by the sharp edges of the vase, a ghastly sight to behold. The bloody scene combined with the man’s relieved smile added a religious eeriness to the atmosphere, sending chills down one’s spine.
The clothes that had been stripped off were thrown to one side, with grey uniforms belonging to the security personnel, and a black baton was also dropped not far away.
Gently moving the man’s corpse aside, along with the disgusting vase, Yang Xiao slowly opened the heavy emergency door, trying to make as little noise as possible.
The corridor behind the door was eerily empty, but the blood smell lingering in the air suggested that it was not as calm as it appeared.
Taking the lead with his dagger, Fu Qingzhu in front, and Yang Xiao behind with the gun at the rear, they moved forward cautiously. Passing by a room with its door open, they saw two naked corpses, one on the refrigerator and another by a chair, their deaths were strikingly similar to the previous man’s.
It was not until he witnessed the terrible scene before him that Yang Xiao deeply realized why it is said that Evil Cultivators deserve death.
Along the way, the pair stumbled upon over a dozen bodies, both men and women, many of which were dressed in black suits – bodyguards brought by Young Master Qi.
This floor was full of suites with large rooms, making it difficult to search. They only looked into rooms that had open doors.
Upon reaching a room located in the middle of the corridor during their search, they detected something abnormal. The room was heavily damaged, but no body was found.
Continuing their search, they discovered a bedroom with the door slightly ajar, yet strange sounds were emanating from inside.
Yang Xiao didn’t know how to describe the sound, movements very slow, and the voice feeble yet bizarrely piercing, evoking a sense of despair akin to a terminal struggle at death’s door.
Fu Qingzhu strode forward and kicked open the bedroom door, and in the next second, both men outside were stunned, a chill pervading their bodies.
More than a dozen pale, naked bodies were packed together, both the living and the dead, writhing against each other, intertwining, embracing, rubbing.
The bodies of the deceased were also ensnared by the flesh, resembling a cluster of bloated maggots.
Through the gaps in this mass of white flesh, Young Master Qi’s face peered out, his eyes still open in death.
The bed had already collapsed under the weight of this mass of flesh, the living and the dead crammed together.
Staring at this bizarrely pulsing conglomerate of flesh, Yang Xiao couldn’t help but shake his head, his mind in disarray, feeling as if something inside him resonated with this rhythm.
Fu Qingzhu was in even worse shape. Breathing heavily, his stare vacant, his body swaying slightly to the rhythm, as if he was about to join this carnival at any moment.
"Bang!"
"Bang! Bang!"
Decisively, Yang Xiao fired his gun, blasting the heads off the few remaining living amidst the flesh, and as several bodies jerked to a halt, the disgusting mass finally fell silent.
"Phew—"
"Phew—"
Leaning against the wall, Fu Qingzhu panted heavily; in just a few seconds, his body was drained, and only he knew that, just then, he had felt an impulse towards that repulsive mass of flesh.
In the not-so-large bedroom, clothes, weapons, broken lamps, ornaments, and various other items were scattered about. In the corner, Yang Xiao found the silver suitcase.
The handcuffs on the suitcase were still closed, with a bloody arm still attached. Judging from the ferocious tear, it must have been ripped off by brute force. Young Master Qi probably never anticipated dying so horribly.
"Hmm?"
The case wasn’t locked; with a touch, it sprung open, and inside... inside it was empty.
"The item’s been taken!" Yang Xiao tossed aside the case, a sudden ominous premonition surging within him.
This place was no longer safe; the two quickly left, the downstairs route being unreachable, they had to try their luck upstairs. As they reached the corner of the hallway, Yang Xiao involuntarily halted.
From the far end of the corridor, he heard a faint song drifting towards them, the singing mournful and plaintive, melodiously winding, compelling one to listen more closely.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Yang Xiao suddenly felt a pain in his abdomen and violently awoke, realizing that he had, at some point, started walking towards the other end of the hallway.
He lifted his shirt to see a cut at the spot where the Drama Robe was tucked in, which still bled a little when pressed.
Turning around, the sight behind startled him into a jolt. Fu Qingzhu’s pants were half down, his gaze fixed intently on him.
Knowing that his companion was bewitched, Yang Xiao slapped him hard, "Smack!"
"Smack!"
"Smack!"
...
Although he was a bit harsh, the effect was immediate, a few slaps returning Fu Qingzhu’s lecherous gaze to normal, and without explanation, he yanked Fu Qingzhu and ran in the opposite direction.
The ethereal voices grew louder.
Just as the men were about to be overtaken by the sound, a door on the right side of the hallway suddenly opened, and hands reached out, violently pulling the two inside.
As Yang Xiao was about to draw his gun, he was pushed against the wall, a powerful hand gripping his wrist like a vice, "It’s me!"
With no lights on in the room and only the light from outside the window, Yang Xiao finally made out the man in front of him, dressed in black leather and wearing sunglasses.
Besides Black Sunglasses, there was also a tall girl standing in the room, dressed in a black suit, with her hair pulled back into a high ponytail, her eyes hard and piercing, the female assistant who had been following Young Master Qi.
Fearing that Yang Xiao might speak, the girl stepped forward and covered his mouth.
As the singing outside grew nearer, everyone held their breath, and Yang Xiao’s pupils dilated as he began to make out the song.
This was no ordinary song.
It was a chant.
