The Corpse in the Cabinet

The Corpse in the Cabinet

So you really did eat it for the rest of your life.

You really ate it.

Wu Xian shook his head. After admiring the photo for a while, he asked, "May I ask who Wang Zhiwu is? Your wife gets money from him every month—ten thousand yuan, for no reason..."

"Enough!"

The freezer shook violently, and Wu Xian began to feel a bone-deep chill.

"Do you have to tear open every wound? I wronged Juan'er, so no matter what she does to me, I have no complaints. Even if I die, I don't want her burdened with a bad reputation!"

Mr. Wang was so furious he laughed. He breathed a stream of cold air into Wu Xian's ear.

(Note: Worshipping a god has a small chance of attracting calamity. The Heavenly Official bestows evil, the Earth Official inflicts punishment, and the Water Official curses. Offering a longevity peach guarantees that worshipping a god will not trigger negative effects.)

Wu Xian understood.

Wu Xian pondered for two seconds.

"It's about to open. Please bear with me for a little longer."

"I did good deeds without asking for anything in return!"

"So you really are in love. That settles it. I'll figure out how to get you out."

He tied a rope around the freezer, then pushed it off the bed frame and toward the window.

"I'm still a little cold. But you... don't you feel hot?"

A cold smile crept over Mr. Wang's incomplete face inside the freezer. Once he got out, he would stuff Wu Xian into the fridge and lock him inside.

Heavenly Official - Kui Star Official Salary Master!

Wu Xian rose lazily, found a spot facing the sun, and opened the window. He removed the bed frame and set it in front of the window, then tied the freezer up with a rope.

"Then please hurry. I won't let you down."

So what if the curse lifted after he let Mr. Wang out?

"Bullshit!"

Ever since waking up inside the fridge, he'd been itching to haunt someone. Why could other evil spirits kill people for fun while he was stuck in a freezing box?

"The first time I worshipped a god, before entering the blessed land, there were three statues nearby. Maybe they were the Three Officials, who govern Heaven, the underworld, and the waters!"

As long as he found another stick of incense, he could come here to worship the gods whenever he wanted!

Keeping time with his quick footsteps, Wu Xian hummed all the way down to the first floor, without incident. He put his hand on the apartment building's entrance door and was about to push it open when something knocked his hand away, making him stumble back.

Wu Xian had the True Fire Incantation and the Copper Coin Sword, but he couldn't waste them all in a place like this!

When he said Mr. Wang wasn't being honest, he wasn't talking about the affair between the two of them.

"Ha, we meet again."

Wu Xian's singing stopped abruptly. He turned to go back upstairs, only to find the stairwell shrouded in darkness. Even the narrow window seemed to have been sealed off by something.

That was why he'd taken the stairs.

The doorknob was ice-cold, and the lock was frozen solid. There was no way to open it!

For a woman to have leverage over him, and for someone to keep paying her even after he died, meant they had some serious dirt on each other. And Liu Juan hated him that much...

[Little Longevity Peach]: Can be taken out of the blessed land. Eating it outside the blessed land extends one's life; eating it inside heals injuries; offering it to a god averts calamity.

Suddenly, a pair of pale arms covered in frost reached around from behind and closed around Wu Xian's neck!

Mr. Wang leaned on Wu Xian's shoulder, his face twisted in a sinister grin.

Oppression, darkness, and cold washed over him. Silence swallowed his surroundings; all he could hear was his own breathing and heartbeat.

Everyone who knew his secret had to die.

"Looks like I angered the Water Official, which is why I attracted Mr. Wang."

"What about the other statue?"

"How much longer are you going to stall?"

If Wu Xian had turned around just then, he would have seen Mr. Wang's frozen, horrifying face, stripped of its flesh and skin. His tooth-filled mouth, lips gone, opened and closed as he whispered in Wu Xian's ear.

Mr. Wang was a bad person!

Instead, Wu Xian searched the room again. Ever since entering the blessed land, he'd found all his good stuff in dangerous places.

So, since Mr. Wang couldn't interfere with anything outside the fridge, Wu Xian would find a good way to let him out.

After lifting the curse, Wu Xian didn't rush to leave.

"You know..."

Wu Xian took two steps back, then sprang forward with a flying front kick, sending the freezer propped by the window crashing outside!

First, he found a longevity peach about the size of his fist. As soon as he picked it up, a new line appeared on the Record of the Devoted's item page.

"When a person's body temperature drops below a certain point, the body's temperature-regulation center malfunctions. They start to feel hot, so they take off their clothes and seek out the cold—until they're frozen through and through, like me."

The stairwell was a creepy place, too. The ceiling lights had long since broken. On the way up, sunlight had shone through the window, but on the way down, only dim, scattered light remained. The white paint had peeled off the walls, leaving the brick and cement damp and clammy.

Wu Xian didn't believe Mr. Wang would keep his word.

"Was it really that good?"

And besides...

"After you saved me, I haven't even had a chance to repay you. Why are you leaving?"

"Get lost!"

Wu Xian concealed the statue, then rummaged through the cabinets until he found a toolbox. Only then did he leave Mr. Wang's home.

He wanted to kill people!

"I could've sworn my coffin was moving."

While Mr. Wang had still been there, Wu Xian hadn't found anything. But when he searched again, he quickly made a new discovery.

But what caught Wu Xian's attention most was the other information hidden in the note. He could now be almost certain that there were three kinds of statues: the Heaven Official Statue, the Earth Official Statue, and the Water Official Statue. Worshipping each kind brought different rewards, but also different calamities.

The dim sunlight fell on him, and black smoke rose from the corpse. With a howl, Mr. Wang scrambled to his feet. His broken limbs quickly reassembled, and he fled into the shadows in a panic, vanishing from sight.

By that logic, there ought to be something good hidden in the home of Mr. Wang, who'd concealed a corpse in the freezer.

"Are you starting to feel hot now?"

Mr. Wang sensed himself moving and asked Wu Xian in confusion.

Wu Xian didn't know how evil spirits came into being, but Mr. Wang had clearly transformed from a dead person. An evil spirit born from a good person might still have the slightest chance of being good, but one born from a bad person was definitely bad.

Wu Xian explained awkwardly, "Don't get the wrong idea. The freezer's chains really wouldn't open. I had no choice but to smash it. I was only trying to save you—I didn't push you off the Ninth Floor because I wanted to kill you."

He wanted to try it, too.

"Hey, it really works. Looks like the rules of the blessed land are pretty flexible."

Satisfied, Wu Xian pulled his head back from the window. A sheen of sweat covered his forehead, and his body temperature was gradually rising. He opened the Record of the Devoted and saw that the curse had disappeared.

Slay the Hanging Wraith, gain spirit incense; explore the perilous place, glimpse the Dark Abyss.

Bang!

The freezer plummeted straight down and slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash. Its lid broke off and flew away, scattering shattered ice and Mr. Wang's mangled corpse across the ground.

As before, Wu Xian didn't want to risk entering a sealed space with no way out, staking his life on whether the elevator was safe.

Mr. Wang froze for a moment. His one remaining left eye blinked.

He really did feel a little hot!