Yeah, I Killed Him

Huang Zhaoyan's shout made everyone look at Fu Qian differently.

Didn't you say you hadn't found anything? Could you have been slacking and come straight over here?

I really had been slacking and come straight over here. Someone else could handle that pointless busywork.

Under everyone's skeptical gazes, Fu Qian remained perfectly composed, without a shred of guilt.

Just then, Huang Zhaoyan ran over under everyone's expectant eyes.

"Where?"

Li Weixuan still had the bearing of a great general. There was just a hint of excitement in his voice.

"Over there. It'll take about fifteen minutes."

Huang Zhaoyan pointed behind him.

"I found a corpse."

A corpse?

Everyone's eyes, including Li Weixuan's, dimmed again. Their morale dropped by another 99 percent.

Huang Zhaoyan still hadn't realized the misunderstanding his words had caused.

"It's a very strange corpse. I think you should go take a look."

So he really hadn't reported her. He hadn't even looked at her once.

Fu Qian sighed inwardly. Don't look so guilty!

"Then let's go have a look."

Li Weixuan took a breath and got the group to their feet.

Finding something was better than nothing. At least they could look for clues.

When the group arrived, they stared at the killer's corpse in a daze for a long time.

There was only one reason: it was simply too strange.

The killer's corpse was even more twisted than before. His arms were almost completely torn off, hanging on by just the last few strands of flesh.

Ugh!

Fu Qian heard someone retching again.

"Strange indeed. He must have died recently, but the state of this corpse is unnatural. Could it be related to this place's unusual environment?"

Li Weixuan frowned, equally unable to make sense of what he was seeing.

Then he suddenly thought of something and turned to Fu Qian.

"Didn't you see this corpse on your way here?"

Fu Qian glanced at Huang Zhaoyan, who instinctively looked away.

"Of course I did."

He nodded. The group was taken aback.

"Then why didn't you mention it?"

"What was there to mention?"

Fu Qian looked surprised, as if they were making a fuss over nothing.

"I'm the one who killed him."

They were right, after all. No matter how you looked at it, it was just a strange corpse, not an exit—wait, what did you just say?

Everyone jumped in shock and stared at Fu Qian in disbelief.

"You said... you killed him?"

Even Li Weixuan let out a startled cry, his composure shaken.

"Yeah. I was out scouting earlier when this guy attacked me, so I killed him while I was at it."

Fu Qian's tone made it sound like he'd tossed out some trash on the way to buy soy sauce.

"Just to be clear, he attacked first. It was entirely self-defense."

"Do you know who he was?"

"No."

Fu Qian shook his head, noticing Huang Zhaoyan looking relieved.

"He followed me for a while, then suddenly jumped out and said he was going to kill me. He even told me to hurry up and run."

"He said he was going to kill you, and told you to run?"

"Yeah! He even reminded me to release the Arrow Bell and call for backup."

Li Weixuan's gaze sharpened.

A man was going to kill someone, yet he reminded his target to call for help.

The earlier actions could still be explained to some extent, but this made no sense at all.

Li Weixuan instinctively glanced back at the others, realizing the situation wasn't so simple.

He wasn't some martial arts fanatic with no understanding of human affairs. In almost an instant, all kinds of possibilities occurred to him.

The killer had someone else in mind as his real target. Going after Fu Qian had merely been a diversion.

Someone had dared to pull this during an expedition he was leading. Did they think he was too mild-mannered?

Once they got out, he would get to the bottom of this. Otherwise, what would become of the academy's reputation?

"Check his belongings."

Li Weixuan gave the order, then looked deeply at Fu Qian.

"Don't worry. Once we're out, I'll give you an explanation."

This student might have all sorts of secrets, but no one would tell such a pointless lie and take responsibility for something like this.

"It's fine. This guy was a pushover."

Fu Qian sounded utterly unconcerned.

"If that's the case, he must have died very recently."

Li Weixuan turned his attention back to the corpse.

"Which makes the state he's in even stranger."

"It is strange. I already have a theory about it, and Ji Liushuang and I reached similar conclusions and discussed some ideas."

Fu Qian spoke as if he and Ji Liushuang had long been on the same wavelength.

He didn't want to be the one proposing every idea; that would look far too suspicious.

Since he'd already spoken with Ji Liushuang, having the academy's star student back him up was the perfect solution.

Ji Liushuang was frowning in thought. When she heard Fu Qian mention her, a flicker of surprise crossed her eyes.

"Liushuang, do you have a theory about this?"

Fu Qian's words caught Li Weixuan off guard.

"I have a few ideas. It seems like it might be connected to this place."

Though she found it a little strange that Fu Qian had put her forward, Ji Liushuang nodded and shared her reasoning.

"Think about it. Since entering this place, we've seen almost no living creatures. The only corpse we've found was that of the killer who followed us here. Isn't that strange for a place you can enter but can't leave?"

"And since we came in, we've encountered two kinds of monsters: one made of black hair, and another that's a palm formed from arms. They're both connected to the human body.

"So I wonder if it's possible that every creature that enters this place, after dying under the influence of some special force in the ruins, has its corpse gathered together in a particular form, turning into those things?"

This...

Ji Liushuang's words clearly struck a nerve, stirring up quite a commotion in the group.

"If that's true, does that mean this place is alive?"

"Will we be digested in some strange way after we die?"

"So we can't get out, and then we'll turn into those palm monsters?"

"That's disgusting!"

Seeing the group descend into chaos, Li Weixuan raised a hand to signal for everyone to calm down.

He frowned. If this was true, then this place was truly sinister.

"I think it's a good thing."

A good thing?

Everyone was stunned. Even Ji Liushuang stared at Fu Qian in horror.

What could possibly be good about this? Was it because it satisfied your taste for the bizarre?

Fu Qian pointed at the corpse on the ground.

"Have you thought about what it means that so many things are missing from his body?"

What did it mean?

Apart from being bizarre and gruesome, what else could it mean?

"So far, we've seen hair and arms, but no blood..."

Fu Qian ticked them off on his fingers.

"That means..."

He pointed toward the depths of the ruins.

"There's some kind of destination deeper inside the ruins—a place where these things go."

"Whatever form it takes, it might be extremely dangerous, but it's still better than staying here, where there's not a single crack to slip through."

"So I think we should go deeper inside and have a look."