The tough, resilient vine net bound the old woman's body. Other than her mouth, which she could still move, not a single part of her body could budge.
The two people who dragged the old woman back to the inn were soaked through, just as they had been the night before. Jiang Pengyu and the others hurried out of their rooms after hearing the commotion, but when they saw the old woman captured in Yu Jing's hands, they were too shocked to speak for a moment.
"You really pulled it off, Yu Jing! Are you planning to..."
Jiang Pengyu did not really understand why Yu Jing had kept the old woman alive. Perhaps she was the ghost haunting this area. If they killed her, everything might come to an end.
"This old woman should be something created by the inn. In terms of strength, she's actually not much different from the simulated ghosts I encountered during the institute's tests. She definitely isn't the real ghost that Commissioner Lu Chuan warned us about... My plan is to try to obtain information about this inn from her. Also, the incident involving the female Supernatural Ability disciple who was violated, as reported in the newspaper in the room, must be connected to the inn."
"What? How are we supposed to question her?"
Jiang Pengyu looked at the old woman, not convinced they could get any information from her.
"Let Zhang Xingyue try first. If that doesn't work, I have other ideas."
Yu Jing turned his gaze toward the somewhat frightened girl nearby. The way she looked at him had already changed completely.
Zhang Xingyue thought to herself, I never expected such a powerful ghost to be captured alive! This man seems so unremarkable, and he even looks rather frail. At first, I thought he was just the Yu family girl's lackey. Was I wrong about him?
After a moment of thought, Zhang Xingyue followed Yu Jing's instructions and looked at the old woman trapped inside the net. She spoke softly:
"If her brain structure is intact, I might be able to control her thoughts. First, drag her into a room sealed on all sides. Nothing from outside can interfere while I'm controlling her."
Everyone dragged the old woman into a sealed room on the first floor. They used vines to bind her remaining three limbs and torso to the bed, leaving her unable to move. Yu Xiaoxiao even deliberately severed the old woman's tendons in her hands and feet to prevent any accidents.
"I'll try hypnotizing her first. If that doesn't work, I'll attempt to invade her mind with mental power."
Zhang Xingyue raised her index finger in front of the old woman. The old woman seemed to catch the scent of fresh flesh and opened her foul-smelling mouth, trying to bite off the finger before her. But as the finger swayed, the old woman's ravenous desire gradually faded. Under Zhang Xingyue's gaze, her milky eyes slowly began to reveal faint traces of normal pupils.
"Something's wrong..." Yu Jing suddenly realized that something was amiss.
The old woman in front of them appeared to be hypnotized, but when he looked closely at Zhang Xingyue, her pupils had also become unfocused.
Suddenly, Zhang Xingyue's face twisted ferociously. Her body toppled to the floor and began convulsing violently. Her teeth clenched tightly as garbled words spilled from her mouth. "Blood... so many corpses, needles... thread... Don't kill me! I didn't mean to offend you!"
At that moment, Men Qian, who had remained silent at the side, made a decisive choice. He produced a scalpel from who knew where and immediately performed brain surgery on Zhang Xingyue, using precise blade work to sever an important nerve inside her skull.
Zhang Xingyue's struggling body instantly went limp. Her eyes closed tightly, and white foam spilled from her mouth.
Yu Jing cooperated with Men Qian, splitting threadlike strands resembling suturing needles and thread from his fingertips. Men Qian used the plant fibers to stitch the severed nerve back together, then restored the skull and sutured it as before.
"It was mental backlash. If I'd been five seconds later, Zhang Xingyue would probably have suffered brain death. I severed the bypass circuit at her brain's central junction and reconnected it, like forcibly restarting a computer. A large amount of data will be lost, and her brain has definitely sustained damage. It'll take several hours for her to regain consciousness." Men Qian spoke calmly.
"You did a great job." Jiang Pengyu patted Men Qian on the shoulder.
"Should we kill it?" Yu Xiaoxiao asked from the side.
"No... wait until nightfall. If the old woman still hasn't changed once night arrives, kill her."
Yu Jing rubbed his chin. His judgment had been wrong just now, putting one of his teammates in danger. He should have realized sooner that the old woman was being controlled by something hidden deep within the inn. When Zhang Xingyue tried to peer into the old woman's memories, she had indirectly connected with the entity controlling her on a mental level.
"I'm sorry. My judgment was wrong." Yu Jing shook his head.
"It's fine. No one could have anticipated this. Hu Zhi is dead, Zhang Xingyue is deeply unconscious, and you also need time to recover from physical exhaustion. Let's stop here for today. Everyone should return to their rooms and rest. Hopefully, nothing unexpected happens in the meantime."
At Jiang Pengyu's suggestion, they placed the old woman in the vine net and dragged her to a room in the corner of the third floor.
The old woman remained hypnotized and showed no signs of movement. Yu Jing helped Yu Xiaoxiao dry the water from her clothes. Everyone temporarily sat in the room to rest. Yu Jing also refrained from taking out the strange bell, because he felt that the right moment had not yet arrived.
After some simple conversation and rest, the daytime of the second day gradually gave way to evening.
They had gone an entire day without eating. Other than Yu Jing, who could absorb organic matter as nourishment for his body, everyone else there was tormented by hunger.
As the last rays of sunset sank beyond the mountaintop, the old woman bound inside the vine net slowly opened her eyes, pupils appearing within them. At the same time, the rotten parts of her body began to heal, and she no longer looked as terrifying and grotesque as she had that morning.
"What... what do you want!? My granddaughter isn't here. I don't know anything."
"Like a corpse during the day and a human at night? What a strange change." Yu Jing quietly studied the old woman, who looked flustered inside the net.
"Men Qian, you handle the conversation."
Yu Jing was not good at communicating with others, and Yu Xiaoxiao was even worse, so the task fell to the relatively shy Men Qian.
"Ma'am, we won't hurt you. We just want to learn more about this inn from you... We're Shen Yixuan's friends, and we really want to help you."
Shen Yixuan
The name of the female Supernatural Ability disciple from the newspaper. The instant Men Qian spoke it, the temperature in the room plummeted by at least five degrees Celsius.
Everyone present realized that this female Supernatural Ability disciple was almost certainly the true ghost hidden here. It would be best not to say her name aloud for the time being.
"...You know my granddaughter's name, but why are you treating me like this?"
The old woman looked terrified. Anyone bound like this would naturally take the people in front of them for ill-intentioned captors, but Men Qian already had a response prepared.
"Because you hurt people during the day, ma'am. The person lying on the bed is my friend, and she fell deeply unconscious because of you... We're your granddaughter's friends, so we came here to protect her safety."
As soon as he said this, the old woman looked toward Zhang Xingyue, who lay unconscious on the bed. Her tense expression gradually calmed...
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