The Vanished Figures! (I Absolutely Don't Want Recommendation Votes... Huh! They're Great)

Li Qing took Tang San and Xiao Wu by the wrists and led them to an open clearing.

"Xiao San, take out the wine cups and the wine!"

"Sure!"

Li Qing poured wine into each cup and set them before the three of them.

"Uh... aren't we supposed to drip blood into them?" Tang San lightly furrowed his brow and scratched the back of his head. He only remembered vaguely that it was supposed to be done this way because he was drunk, though it also seemed like it wasn't.

Indeed, in the martial world of his previous life, sworn siblings had to prick their fingers, drip blood into their wine cups, and then drink. But on Douluo Continent, there was no need for that. They only needed to swear by their martial souls.

"If we're dripping blood, then let's do it." Hearing that, Li Qing directly summoned the Scythe of Severance and cut his index finger. He then passed it to Tang San and Xiao Wu, and they each cut their index fingers as well.

"Ding-dong~"

Blood dripped into the wine cups.

"Hey, how old are you two now?" Li Qing asked.

"I'm over a hundred thousand years old! I'm the oldest, so I'm the boss!" Xiao Wu cheered excitedly.

"Who are you trying to fool, Blue Silver Grass?" Tang San looked unconvinced. "You're the youngest here, so stop it. I'm six years and ten months old now. What about you, Qingzi?"

"I'm six years and thirteen months old. I'm the oldest."

Xiao Wu seemed about to say something, but Li Qing beat her to it.

"Today, I, Li Qing."

"I, Tang San."

"Xiao Wu, you..." Tang San shook the drowsy Xiao Wu.

"Oh... I, Xiao Wu!"

"Swear by our martial souls—(scythe), (Blue Silver Grass), (soft... um, rabbit)—that we are willing to become sworn brothers and sister..."

As their voices fell, the stars filling the night sky glittered, while the crescent moon cast starlight over the three of them.

"Good. Let's raise our cups and drink!"

"Gulp, gulp, gulp..."

These cups... seemed a little big... Why hadn't they finished drinking yet?

After another huge cup of wine, all three of them fell asleep on the ground.

The cemetery was quiet in the morning. When the first ray of sunlight pierced the thin mist, Nuoding Cemetery welcomed another peaceful dawn, except for...

The three people lying on the ground, snoring away.

At that moment, Li Qing was hugging some kind-hearted person's tombstone, drool running down along the grooves in the stone.

Li Qing's hands gradually slipped away from the tombstone, and his body tilted backward.

Thud!

His body hit the ground, and his head slammed down hard.

"Hm? Where am I?"

Li Qing looked around with bleary eyes, his face full of confusion. Turning his head, he saw...

"Grave of the Late Father Hao Daomei."

"Holy shit!"

Goosebumps rose all over Li Qing's body. He immediately sprang up from the ground, muttering nonstop. Judging from the movement of his lips, it seemed he was saying...

"Fuck, fuck, fuck..."

Li Qing kept backing away, backing farther and farther away, hoping to get away from the "friend" who had "kept him company" all night, until he bumped into something hard.

"Hm, what's behind me?"

Li Qing turned around and found another tombstone.

"Grave of the Late Father Mei Wenhua!"

"Holy shit!"

Li Qing bowed, pressed his palms together, and began chanting earnestly.

"Big brother, I'm sorry. I accidentally passed through your treasured grounds and disturbed your peaceful cultivation. It was truly unintentional. I'm sure that as a great ghost, you have a great ghost's magnanimity and won't hold it against me. I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

After all that, Li Qing looked around and discovered that he was actually in a cemetery!

Li Qing held his still-foggy head and recalled what had happened yesterday.

"After we left the tavern, Xiao San seemed to say we should go right, and I seemed to say... left? Then... we passed through a 'big arched gate'?"

"A big arched gate?" What was that?

Li Qing was dumbfounded. It seemed that he had led the way? If there had been a big arched gate... then it looked like he had left Nuoding City...

Li Qing fell silent.

"Hey, where are Xiao San and the others?"

Li Qing looked around. There was an open clearing ahead, and the wine cups from last night's oath were still there, but Tang San and Xiao Wu were nowhere to be seen.

"Could they have been taken by ghosts... No way. With Tang San looking like that, even a ghost wouldn't be able to stomach him. Xiao Wu, on the other hand, is all tender and pink—she'd be perfect steamed... No!"

Li Qing drove those strange thoughts from his mind and began searching for Xiao Wu and Tang San.

"Xiao San~

Xiao Wu~

Xiao San~

Xiao Wu~

Where are you guys~"

Two minutes later, Li Qing had completely sobered up. His inability to find Xiao Wu and Tang San made him sense that something was wrong.

He walked over to the clearing where they had sworn brotherhood last night, trying to find some clues.

Li Qing bent down and picked up a wine cup. "Mm, this cup is fucking huge!"

Looking down at the ground again, Li Qing discovered bloodstains! His brows knitted tightly.

"There's more blood around the wine cups, and then... over there!" Li Qing's gaze followed the direction of the bloodstains. "There are even two trails of blood leading into the depths of the cemetery!"

Other than the larger patches of blood around the wine cups, the bloodstains elsewhere were intermittent, as though they had dripped from a wound drop by drop.

Li Qing followed the bloodstains forward, step by step into the deeper parts of the cemetery. As for why he called it "deeper," it was because Li Qing felt that where he was standing now already counted as deep inside.

The deep blue shimmered darkly beneath the early morning sun, while the secluded mountain forest carried a faint chill beneath its bathing light.

The dense woods were outlined in patches of dark green, light and deep. Everything was silent; not even insects could be heard. Only the occasional wind sweeping over the grass tips cut out faint, fragmented sounds through the forest. The sounds came and went, making the entire cemetery seem even more secluded.

It was so quiet that no one passed by.

As he walked, the gaps between the drops in the two blood trails grew longer and longer. Finally, in front of a tombstone, they vanished!

Based on Li Qing's many years of experience watching Detective Conan and reading countless detective novels.

There was only one truth!

There had to be something wrong with this tombstone!

Li Qing cautiously crept closer to the tombstone and observed it carefully.

At the base of the tombstone, there were clear marks of movement and scraping.

This was way too easy, Li Qing grumbled inwardly.

Summoning the Scythe of Severance, he began to slowly move the tombstone.

"Rumble, rumble, rumble..."

As Li Qing shifted the tombstone, a pitch-black opening appeared before him...