"Don't... hiss! I was wrong."
Only then did the Pavilion Chief desperately admit his fault. "But I had no choice!"
"If I dared take anyone to Lower River Village, the Heavenly River Cult would never let me off!"
"And what made you think I would let you off?"
With that, Ye Qianfan chopped off the hand the Pavilion Chief was still furtively using to fish out something.
Sure enough...
The Pavilion Chief's severed hand was clutching a stick of hard malt candy.
But something resembling a talisman had been drawn on it in cinnabar. It certainly didn't look fit for human consumption!
"Ah... sir... what are you doing?"
Clutching his severed wrist, the Pavilion Chief wailed desperately, "I only wanted... wanted to take out what I use to attract the Crying Children... to show you!"
"Really?"
Ye Qianfan didn't believe a word from this bastard.
He had already heard the rustling of things crawling nearby. He suspected that whatever the Pavilion Chief had taken out was another lure for some kind of infant monster.
He just didn't know what sort of ghoul it would attract this time!
"Y-yes!"
The Pavilion Chief kept desperately explaining, "This is what I use to attract the Crying Children. As long as I have it, they'll obey me... because they want to eat it..."
"So that's how it works."
Ye Qianfan picked up the malt candy from the ground.
When he noticed that the Pavilion Chief's expression hadn't really changed, however, he thought for a moment, dipped the candy in some human blood, then reached toward the Pavilion Chief's face to smear it on him.
Ye Qianfan's action immediately frightened the Pavilion Chief into screaming!
"No! Don't!"
"Once that candy gets on you, those little ghosts will see you as food!"
"I'll take you! I'll