Emergency Retreat

Run!

Wu Heng made a snap decision.

Without waiting for Number 17 to run with him, he turned and jumped out of a second-floor window behind him.

The Cursed Disciple's physical prowess was on full display.

He forced his way into a taxi by the roadside that was already packed with people, ignoring the girls' screams as he slammed the door shut.

"Drive."

Wu Heng pulled a wad of cash from his pocket and tossed it to the driver.

The bald driver saw the money and asked no questions. He released the brake and excitedly slammed his foot on the gas.

Only after the car sped off did Wu Heng have time to take another dozen or so bills from his wallet in his inner pocket and hand them to the three girls beside him.

The screams abruptly stopped when they received the pounds. The three girls stared at Wu Heng with six wide eyes, examining him curiously.

"Sir, are the police after you? Don't worry, I was a getaway driver when I was young. I'll get you out of here safely, guaranteed."

The bald, paunchy, middle-aged driver spoke while driving, turning his head to stare at Wu Heng.

Wu Heng looked at the driver, whose face was flushed with excitement.

"Turn your head forward when you talk. Promise not to turn around again, and I'll give you another thousand."

He continued, "Don't worry, the police aren't after me. I'm just evading Hell's Messenger."

As he spoke, Wu Heng stuffed another twenty or so fifty-pound notes toward the front seat.

"Oh, yes, sir. Do you need fake papers? You could show them to Hell's Messenger and tell it it's got the wrong person. I guarantee they'll be so convincing even the police won't be able to tell they're fake, let alone Hell's Messenger."

The driver stopped turning around, but kept right on talking.

"Shut up, and I'll give you another five hundred."

Everything fell quiet. The taxi sped on, ignoring the traffic lights.

Wu Heng appreciated how decisively the driver had acted. He didn't mind rewarding him a little more.

He'd been afraid Nailhead would notice a Cursed Disciple like him nearby.

If Nailhead suddenly got the urge to clean up the Ice Cenobite's mess, forcing Wu Heng to waste his trump card, that would be bad.

In other words, the driver might have helped him save a trump card.

"All right, pull over."

Wu Heng saw that the taxi had been driving for ten minutes and was now far enough from Frank's cabin. He spoke up.

"Sir, here's my card. If this happens again, come straight to me." The driver handed Wu Heng his card, still reluctant to part.

Wu Heng glanced at it. Apart from the phone number at the top, the rest was densely covered with at least a few hundred services, including lulling people to sleep, waking them up, and pretending to be someone's boyfriend.

He thought about it, then pocketed it.

To Wu Heng's surprise, the three girls in the car, who were obviously still in high school, asked for his contact information. They said they'd keep his identity as a secret agent confidential if he gave them his number, and wouldn't tell the police even if they asked.

Wu Heng casually brushed off the three girls, who had already imagined an entire spy story, and made a call.

"Number 17, it's me."

"Oh, sir. Did something happen just now? Why did you suddenly make an emergency retreat?"

"Don't worry about that. Are you still there?"

"Yes, sir. I saw you run, so I ran a thousand meters too, but nothing happened. I slowly came back afterward."

"What's happening at the cabin?"

"No one's come out, but there were screams. Also, I noticed that besides our three teams taking turns, there are other people watching the cabin."

"Oh, it's fine. Don't worry about them. They're with me too."

Wu Heng hung up. It seemed Frank and the Cap-Wearing Woman had begun their Journey to Hell.

Wu Heng had no intention of saving the Cap-Wearing Woman. Even if he went there, how would he explain how a newcomer knew so much?

Besides, there wasn't enough time. Once the box was opened, it was hard to stop. Wu Heng wasn't about to waste a trump card on a stranger.

Wu Heng had just sat down after returning to the pet shop when three girls showed up at the door.

They were the same three from the taxi.

"Boss, we're here to apply for the job. Oh, it's you! The secret agent!"

Wu Heng looked at the three young girls standing side by side, each averaging about 1.6 meters tall, and felt a little speechless.

"I'm not a secret agent, and I don't hire child labor. Thanks. Here's your fare; go home."

Wu Heng held out a twenty-pound note.

The girls all took a step back and shook their heads.

"We're already seventeen, and we're all freshmen at Hatton University. We're legally allowed to work part-time."

"Quick, show him your student IDs."

"And if you don't hire us, we won't keep your secret-agent identity confidential."

The girl in the middle, with a few freckles on her face and a mop of curls, looked ready to go down fighting.

All three held out their student IDs to Wu Heng, as if to say the decision was up to him.

"Hire us. We can be your informants."

Wu Heng looked at the names: Misha, Lucy, and Alisa.

They were indeed all seventeen.

"All right, but I wrote that I only needed two people."

"Then the three of us will do the work for two people's pay. Is it really a hundred an hour?"

The three of them blinked at Wu Heng, looking as if they'd stumbled upon a great bargain. That was indeed the case. Several people had already waited outside for that hourly rate, but Wu Heng hadn't been there, so they'd left.

"Fine, three it is. You'll all get paid by the hour. Lucy, right? You can organize the work."

Wu Heng didn't care about the money. He just needed someone to look after the pets. Seeing that Lucy seemed to be leading the other two, he put her in charge.

"Yay! The boss really is a good person!" The three girls cheered, eagerly tore down the job ad at the entrance, then ran into the shop and happily started playing with the cats and dogs.

Wu Heng had no idea how they'd decided he was a good person, but their youthful energy eased his taut nerves.

He smiled vaguely and paid no more attention to the three girls playing with the cats and dogs.

Number 17 contacted him again.

"Boss, it's been half an hour since the screams, and there's been no movement from the cabin. Should we go take a look?"

Detective Number 17 was crouched by the roadside a hundred meters from the cabin. He rubbed his left ankle as he asked.

He hadn't understood why the boss had run earlier. He'd been watching the place for so long, and no one else had gone in. He trusted his powers of observation.

Then the other side had merely shut the window, and the boss had suddenly leaped out of a window and fled. Number 17 had thought there was a bomb in the room across the way and had jumped out to escape too, spraining his ankle. Luckily, it had only been the second floor.

Wu Heng considered Number 17's question. Enough time had passed that Nailhead's Four-Person Order should have left. They wouldn't linger for long after appearing.

But Nailhead's Hermit had certainly taken notice of the place by now.

As the Hell High Priest, Nailhead no longer had a mortal intermediary. His intermediary was a Hell Bone Dragon disguised as a homeless man. They were known as Hermits, and were powerful supernatural creatures in their own right.

"Send someone to take a look. Don't touch anything. Take photos and send them to me."

"Keep watching. Report to me if anyone goes near the cabin."

Wu Heng ended the call and thought it over, making sure he hadn't overlooked anything.

The only problem was that when the Blood Corpse came back to life, there might be one more woman.

Wu Heng was still considering what to do about her.

Should he show her goodwill and learn more about the situation inside the Lighthouse from her?

Or should he prevent her from disrupting this world's plot and send her back to Hell?

Wu Heng thought he should wait and see what the woman was like after she came back to life.

After all, she'd be in Hell for at least a day. In that much time, she might have been tormented until she lost her mind, becoming twisted and crazed.

Like Frank in the movie, who could even casually kill his own older brother after escaping from Hell.