The Streetlight Came On

Arrogant —Qu Xuanqing couldn't find any other adjective to describe Yu Xing's current state besides these two words.

Have you ever seen a player in a deduction dungeon brazenly showing off items they stole from a ghostly NPC?

Okay, Qu Xuanqing had seen it before; she had done it herself.

But why does that "hehe" sound so cheeky coming from Yu Xing's mouth?

The Kraun clown doll, only half the height of a human, recovered from his rage and coldly watched the three people leaving his shop. His glass eyes reflected not only anger but also resentment.

After all, it couldn't leave its own building, and the three outsiders had already left, so there was no way to change the outcome. If they were still in the shop, it could have confiscated the weapon because of their violation, but as if they had agreed beforehand, they were the first to hand the weapon over.

Ah, this is probably the tacit understanding among cunning people.

My money...

"You will pay for all of this," Kraun said. "There are many, many things on this island that you can't afford to mess with. Hopefully, you won't suffer a terrible fate."

After saying that, as if it didn't want to see it anymore, it slammed the door shut with a loud bang, the loudest sound Yu Xing had heard since arriving in the island city.

Zhao Yijiu vaguely sensed a different smell suddenly mixed in with the surrounding air. He warned, "It seems like some ghost heard the noise. Let's hide."

"Hmm." Yu Xing chuckled nonchalantly, "Quite the vengeful one, tsk, go hide in that alley for a bit."

He casually pointed to a small alley next to the general store. Zhao Yijiu narrowed her eyes. She wondered if it was a coincidence, but the road Yu Xing pointed to happened to be the one with the faintest strange smell, which meant that even if there were ghosts inside, they wouldn't be very powerful, making it the best choice for them.

Qu Xuanqing had no objections. The three of them moved quietly and quickly toward the alley. There was a street lamp at the entrance of the alley, which was not yet turned on. In the hazy air, it stood there silently like a thin, hunched ghost.

Yu Xing glanced at the street lamp. The carvings on the lamppost were very ornate and exquisite, with the top light bulb set in a semi-circular shade shaped like a flower carving.

He only glanced at them briefly before stepping into the alley and standing against the wall, immediately assessing the safety of the alley.

This must be the alleyway of the slums. Dust filled the air, and the reddish-brown brick walls were occasionally dented, as if something had pried them off after they dried out, revealing moldy germs inside. Spider webs were everywhere, stuck in the middle of the old wooden planks standing against the wall. Right next to them were two trash cans, and several bags of garbage lay outside the trash cans, emitting a rotten stench.

The only good thing about Dead Silent Island is that there are no flies and bugs flying around the garbage and making unnecessary noise.

The alley is short; you can see the end at a glance. At the very end, there is a wall about two meters high, blocking their way.

In the middle of the alley, there are several dilapidated wooden doors, indicating that people used to live here.

The faint smell of blood emanating from the alley was coming from one of the doors. Zhao Yijiu cautiously looked in that direction but saw no sign of anything coming out.

He turned around to ask if he wanted to go inside those doors to take a look. In reality, not every room that could be entered had an independent copy; it had to be an independent building. Some residences did not have this restriction; they were ordinary spaces that people could enter as usual. This provided a great deal of hiding and temporary resting places for these deducers.

--Of course, since there are no copies and no rules, these spaces may also contain scattered ghosts, that is, corrupted entities.

But then Yu Xing stuffed the banknotes into his trouser pocket, causing a large bulge on one side of his pants. He seemed a little embarrassed by the sight and muttered, "When we get back to the hotel, I'll have Daisy's daughter exchange them for counterfeit coins. What kind of nonsense is this?"

Qu Xuanqing glanced at the bulge and chuckled softly, "You can also put it in your breast pocket..."

Yu Xing: "That's even more outrageous."

"You remind me of when I was little, I would sometimes fall asleep in your room after training and wake up in the morning..." Qu Xuanqing said, pretending to recall something. Actually, the bulge caused by these banknotes wasn't that big, and the positions were quite far apart, but she just wanted to tease Yu Xing, since this was one of the few Yu Xing showed any shame.

Zhao Yijiu pricked up her ears to eavesdrop.

Yu Xing: "... Shh, don't speak, something's coming."

On the desolate street outside, a black dot appeared from afar, slowly approaching. It was something walking slowly from the end of the road beyond their field of vision. Since the verb "walking" was used, it meant that this thing was somewhat human-like. It was a hunched-over humanoid creature, and it looked like a woman, wearing a tattered black dress, with her hair covering her front and hanging down to the ground.

Because her sleeves were also torn, her pale arms were exposed, with blood vessels and veins bulging on her skin. In the middle of her palm at the bottom, she gripped a huge axe.

"Another Female Ghost with an axe, is this some kind of trend?" The Female Ghost was still quite far away, probably attracted by the loud noise of Kraun slamming the door. Yu Xing's soft muttering didn't cause any change in the Female Ghost, so he guessed that the Female Ghost couldn't hear such a low-decibel sound.

As for its popularity, it's all because in the Blood Pool Middle School exam, the Female Ghost in the Yugi also wielded an axe. The only difference was that the first one wore white, while this one wore black. Moreover, just by looking at her appearance, the black-clad axe-wielding Female Ghost was clearly more tyrannical, like some kind of beast suppressing its killing instincts.

As she slowly approached from a distance, her slender legs seemed unable to support her entire weight, and she staggered with each step, like a zombie.

"She's dangerous, at least D-level, maybe even a C." Zhao Yijiu stared coldly at the axe-wielding Female Ghost, then at the axe itself. "That's a 'weapon' too."

"Oh? So, my dear combat power assessor, do you think we can go head-to-head with that Female Ghost right now?" Yu Xing tilted her head.

"No, you'll die," Zhao Yijiu added, "Under normal circumstances."

In other words, he doesn't use the power of the vengeful ghost; Qu Xuanqing relies solely on the strength of his physical body, Yu Xing doesn't use the sinister and powerful force within him.

They would certainly die under these circumstances. The fact that Zhao Yijiu could say such a thing with such certainty is enough to prove that the axe-wielding Female Ghost is a formidable enemy at this stage.

"Then let's avoid it for a while." Qu Xuanqing twirled the stick in his hand. "After this Female Ghost leaves, shall we continue forward?"

Unexpectedly, Yu Xing gave an order she hadn't anticipated, "Brother Jiu and I will continue forward; you go back."

"Hmm?" Qu Xuanqing and Zhao Yijiu were both a little surprised.

"Take this stick back and let Zhao Mou study it. Also, buy a pair of gloves from the hotel. Even if your body can't sense the resentment in the stick, it might still seep into your soul over time. It's a danger that can be avoided with just one extra step, and I can't let you take that risk," Yu Xing said. "Later, take the money I have on me and the teeth that appeared in the two female guests' corpses back with you too. Use the money to buy things, and keep the teeth. Don't give them to Daisy."

The argument was logical, well-founded, and convincing, yet Zhao Yijiu's eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly, a hint of understanding flashing in her eyes.

"Mm." Qu Xuanqing nodded.

It seems that since she won't be immediately affected by the resentment in the stick, this weapon is tacitly given to Qu Xuanqing. It would be best if she took it back and handed it to Zhao Mou for research. Originally, the ghosts they encountered on the outskirts of the city, whether they were contaminated or plague-infested, were not particularly threatening and were still within their control. Losing one of Qu Xuanqing's Combat Power wouldn't be a big problem.

The teeth will also be taken back by Qu Xuanqing. Besides Zhao Mou, Wen Qinghuai in the group should also be very interested in studying this kind of thing, since this material can be used to make "weapons".

Hunting contaminated organisms and bringing back their remains to exchange for money is a viable way to survive. However, when it comes to buying things under the same conditions, it's always better to use cash directly. It would be a waste to exchange these materials, which might come in useful at any time, for ordinary supplies.

As they talked, the Female Ghost with the axe drew closer and closer. When she got within a certain range, the three of them tacitly fell silent and even held their breath.

This was something they all sensed simultaneously: the distance at which the Female Ghost could hear sounds.

Yu Xing peeked out, trying to observe the Female Ghost's movements from the angle. He noticed that although the Female Ghost was attracted by the sound, she wasn't sure where it came from. She quickly passed by the general store. She didn't ignore these closed, isolated buildings, but she wasn't particularly interested either.

When the Female Ghost stands still, her body will twitch for no apparent reason, and her black hair will twitch slightly with the twitching, like a broken wind-up toy. This continuous twitching of her body always terrifies visual humans.

At that moment, the Female Ghost stood still, facing the streetlights outside their alley, as if deep in thought.

Yu Xing had already pulled her head back, otherwise she would have been discovered.

He had a premonition that the Female Ghost would definitely want to come and take a look in the alley, because when she passed by other places earlier, Female Ghost would hesitate for a moment, and then walk away as if she smelled the scent of her own kind.

No one can guarantee that these ghostly creatures won't perceive that outsiders also possess a unique scent that guides them to these living prey.

Yu Xing mouthed, "Back off, dodge."

The three of them quietly walked to the back. There were several abandoned houses in the alley that could be used for hiding. They were certain that the houses were abandoned because the doors were almost useless, and the inside was dark and smelled musty, so it was obvious that no one lived there.

The Female Ghost was indeed coming this way.

As they got closer, they could hear the sound of the Female Ghost's axe scraping against the ground. Sometimes this wasn't because she couldn't lift it, but to intimidate her prey.

I don't know how intelligent this Female Ghost is, but she certainly doesn't seem to be as intelligent as the last female customer in Kraun's shop. However, in terms of ferocity, she is definitely the most intimidating ghost I've encountered since arriving on the island, apart from that giant face in the sea.

The Female Ghost reached the alley entrance.

She stood beside the streetlight, and suddenly, the streetlight at the alley entrance, which had been off, made two buzzing sounds and then turned on.

The dim light wasn't very noticeable under the fairly bright gray clouds, but the Female Ghost suddenly let out a low laugh from her throat.

"We've found you..."

Without hesitation, she walked into the alley, raised her axe in front of the first abandoned house with a door, and brutally chopped down the already precarious door, sending dust swirling and billowing out.

The Female Ghost craned her neck to look inside, and the head with thick black hair stretched forward a full half meter. Her head looked around the neighbors, and then withdrew.

"Not here..."

The Female Ghost's voice sounded like it had been cut by glass; every sound was agonizing, simply put, extremely unpleasant. She seemed certain that her prey was nearby, so she didn't hesitate to use such sounds to try and intensify her prey's panic. After all, many ghosts don't want to eat people, but rather the fear that arises in people's souls.

She smashed through several doors, then peeked inside before moving on to the next one. Finally, only two doors remained, one of which was where Zhao Yijiu sensed a faint smell of blood.

The Female Ghost stood in front of the door, and at least the axe in her hand was no longer cleaving down without hesitation, but she only hesitated for two or three seconds before raising the axe again.

The wooden door opened slightly with a soft creak.

A blood-red eye peeked out from under the door, staring at the Female Ghost outside, its eyes bloodshot.

"Leave..."

The ghost inside emitted a deep male voice; if you didn't look at the eye, you might mistake it for a professional online dating partner with a god-like voice.

However, the Female Ghost didn't need an online dating partner; she still swung her axe down, causing the door and the ghost behind it to wail in agony.

The door was cleaved open, revealing the monstrous creature inside. It was a deformed monster curled up, and that blood-red eye was just one of its many eyes; similar eyes covered its head, back, and arms.

The Female Ghost let out an excited laugh. Even though the person behind the door wasn't the living prey she wanted, she still picked up her axe and hacked the seemingly harmless ghost into mincemeat.

A moment later, only a black mark remained in the abandoned house. The Female Ghost picked up a blood-red eyeball from the ground, looked at it, and put it into her tattered pocket.

Unbeknownst to her, three red eyes had appeared on her white ankle in a short period of time.

She arrived at the last door with the joy of a victor.

The streetlights came on, indicating that something she wanted to kill was here.

So, this door is the last refuge for those weaklings.

She licked her lips, her sharp tongue tracing across her face. Perhaps knowing her prey had nowhere to escape, this time she didn't use the axe, but instead reached out and pushed open the door.

The old wooden door emitted a sharp, strained noise as the Female Ghost craned her neck to peer inside.

"We've found you..."