Clearly, once the crosses are charred, they will each pull the thick rope in one direction, tearing Yan Yu's body to pieces!
Su Cheng immediately launched an attack without hesitation.
Xu Shaowei stood there dumbfounded, blocking the way, while the other four ghosts hid behind her, stalling for time until the cross burned out—a very cunning tactic.
Su Cheng's blade made an abrupt turn, avoiding Xu Shaowei's neck, leaving a trail of blood in the wind.
Xu Shaowei's eyelids twitched, and although her face remained expressionless, the glint in her eyes indicated that she was not entirely being manipulated.
Her eyes kept moving to the lower right.
Su Cheng quickly understood her meaning. As he swung his knife closer to her again, he pulled a black bead from her lower right belt, tightened it, and crushed it.
Xu Shaowei broke free of control the moment the bead shattered, and took the opportunity to move aside so that Su Cheng could cut the rope binding her.
She wasn't pulling the rope herself; it was tied around her wrist!
Su Cheng's knife struck Wang Yue's shoulder, who was caught off guard. His body exploded with a "bang," scattering bits of flesh and bone everywhere.
" Yan Yu, you handle them!" Su Cheng shouted.
"No problem." Xu Shaowei drew her short sword and swiftly attacked the three ghosts who were trying to escape.
Su Cheng first cut the rope, and while protecting Yan Yu's heart meridian with her White Qi, she pulled out the cross.
"Sizzle..." The cross was unusually hot, directly burning Su Cheng's palm until it was smoking, and the skin and flesh were rotting under the high temperature.
Su Cheng frowned, pulled out the cross in one go, threw it on the ground, and only began to automatically repair itself after her palm was removed from the heat source.
Yan Yu suddenly opened her eyes, her eyes rolled back, the crucifix detached from her body, black pus and blood seeped from her chest, her face turned pale, and her life was visibly fading away.
The spirit that had been behind Yan Yu had taken the opportunity to merge with her body. It had been suppressed by the cross earlier, and it was still unwilling to give up the chosen body.
But Su Cheng wouldn't give it a chance, quickly grabbing Yan Yu's hand. Streams of White Qi flowed in to drive away the female ghost until it was forced out of her body, whereupon blue flames burned it away.
Every day, Su Cheng would take out the medicine from her bag and feed it to Yan Yu, all the while trying to keep her mind from wandering.
After a while, Yan Yu's eyeballs rolled down, and her body finally stopped trembling. Her pupils focused, but were somewhat dark and hazy. "Su... Su Cheng?"
"It's me, and Xu Shaowei too. How are you?" Su Cheng said, turning to look at Xu Shaowei. Seeing that the other woman was handling things with ease and didn't need any help, she felt relieved.
"It's alright, but I can't see things clearly." Yan Yu's voice was weak, and her eyes were bloodshot and red.
Her practiced movements as she took the medicine from her bag and her calm tone indicated that she had regained her memory.
"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" Su Cheng waved her hand, and Yan Yu's eyes indeed did not react.
She examined Yan Yu's body and found no residual yin energy. Since it wasn't yin energy obscuring her vision, it must be a physical injury to her eyes. "Don't worry, it shouldn't be a big problem."
Yan Yu nodded, and after a few seconds asked, "Is your third task to help with the New Year's Eve party?"
"Yes."
"That's good."
"Let me apply the medicine." Su Cheng tore open the fabric covering Yan Yu's chest, poured in the medicine, and bandaged it. "I'll do some basic treatment first. Be careful of infection these next few days."
"Okay, thank you." Yan Yu curved her pale lips into a smile. "You saved me again."
Su Cheng tightened the bandages and helped her up. "Yes, you must live well and come back to the real world to repay me."
"Of course... that cross really went in deep," Yan Yu said, clutching her chest in pain.
"Hey, have you guys forgotten about me? You didn't even come to my aid." Xu Shaowei sheathed her sword and walked over, her body covered in blood, with crimson finger marks imprinted on her goggles.
After the ghost inside the corpse was removed, the body exploded, and fragments of flesh and bones littered the ground, leaving Xu Shaowei drenched in blood.
Su Cheng handed her a pack of wet wipes. "Thank you for your hard work. Just wipe me down quickly, then I can go upstairs and take a shower and change my clothes."
Thank you all this time.
"Don't just talk the talk, treat me and Su Cheng to dinner when we get back..." Xu Shaowei approached, and when she met Yan Yu's eyes, she realized something was wrong, "What's wrong with your eyes?"
Yan Yu shook her head. "It's nothing, I just need some rest."
Su Cheng: "It looks like a side effect of being possessed by a ghost. It shouldn't be a big problem; with your physical condition, you'll recover quickly."
Xu Shaowei felt relieved. "Then let's go upstairs first. We've been to all the places we needed to go in the hotel, and we've dealt with all the troublesome things that came our way. We'll just wait to check out tomorrow at noon."
Xu Shaowei and Su Cheng supported Yan Yu on either side, bypassing the scattered pieces of flesh, and headed towards the exit outside the red mist.
This basement appears to connect to various floors, with more than one passageway.
Su Cheng went through a dark room to the basement, while Xu Shaowei was behind a closet in the hotel room. As for Yan Yu, she had already fainted before coming here.
Su Cheng carried Yan Yu on her back while they climbed. The reason she wouldn't let Xu Shaowei carry her was simple: she was too dirty.
Xu Shaowei then briefly described the situation she had encountered.
She chose to take the initiative when she was locked in the closet, only to find that the masked man was not as easy to deal with as she had imagined.
The masked man was the controller in the illusion. Even though Xu Shaowei broke the illusion and killed the masked man, she still suffered a sneak attack from him.
She moved the cabinet uncontrollably and went down into the passageway, participating in a "sacrificial ritual" in a daze.
"These people were all dressed in white, like some kind of cult. As they chanted those sacrificial incantations, I saw a terrifying pair of eyes... They were raising something through the ritual."
Yan Yu nodded in agreement, "I sensed the strangeness of the hotel even before the female ghost targeted me."
"Since its inception, the Man Moon Hotel has been plagued by various murders: crimes of passion, revenge killings, thefts, and robberies... Those who survived either developed mental health issues or underwent drastic personality changes."
"Later, the number of guests staying at the Man Moon Hotel decreased sharply, and the bloodshed gradually stopped."
Su Cheng pondered and speculated, "So the Man Moon Hotel was built to facilitate this group of humans and ghosts in carrying out cult rituals."
If, as Xu Shaowei claims, they are indeed raising a monster that is referred to as a god, then what is their purpose? What do they want the monster to do with?
The three of them were at a loss for what to do.
But Su Cheng had a premonition that this problem was related to Task Three.
Did this cult group have any secret plans during the New Year's Eve party?
Climbing out of the basement, Su Cheng suddenly remembered something. She handed Yan Yu to Xu Shaowei and quickly ran towards the hall, saying, "I'll go look for clues in the hall first."
The hall was deserted; the fountain at the entrance seemed to have turned slightly redder, and the black toad in the center appeared to have shimmering light on its body.
The black toad seemed to sense Su Cheng's gaze and fell into the fountain with a "plop".
It was fast, but Su Cheng was even faster, the tip of her boning knife piercing the pool and pinning the black toad's leg to the bottom.
"Croak! Spare me, my men, don't kill me!" The black toad's beady eyes gained a spark, and its mouth opened and closed, emitting a child's voice.
Su Cheng used the cold pool water to remove the toad with her knife.
Black mucus oozed from where the knife tip pierced the toad.
Su Cheng didn't waste any words, and said with a hint of threat, "Who built the basement of the Man Moon Hotel? Tell me everything you know."
"Quack quack quack, I've told you everything, please let me go first, okay? Waaah quack, this knife is going to devour my cultivation..."
The black toad thrashed about, looking pitiful, and readily surrendered at the slightest touch.
Explain yourself clearly first, then state your conditions.
"I'll tell you everything, I'll confess everything, I just beg you to spare my life!" the black toad shouted. Now that it was in human hands, it could only suppress the resentment in its heart.
"Actually, this hotel's basement was built by the Sun God Cult to feed evil spirits."
Su Cheng frowned. "What is 'Sui'? What do they want to do with it?"
"The evil spirits are very powerful things; they want their help and Protection. I don't know about the others, but I only secretly absorbed a couple of breaths of resentful energy to cultivate myself while they were killing people. I've explained everything; can you let me go now?"
Su Cheng looked into the black toad's teary, beady eyes, her voice unusually cold. "No."
The black toad was on the verge of tears, crying out, "I'm truly innocent! I didn't kill anyone! I didn't get involved in anything bad!"
"You didn't get involved, but those ghosts probably welcomed the killings, even hoping for more deaths. After all, if they didn't kill, where would you get the resentment to cultivate yourself?"
Su Cheng mercilessly exposed the toad's hidden scheme. Don't be fooled by its current "abandoning darkness for light" appearance. If Su Cheng were an ordinary person, her hand would have been rotten the moment she touched it. The toad was simply playing favorites against its own people.
"Then what do you want to do?" The black toad's beady eyes filled with resentment, and the child's voice deepened, finally revealing his true emotions.
"Take me to the rest of the Sun God Cult." Su Cheng lightly shook the hilt of her knife. "Help me honestly, and you might survive; otherwise, my blade will devour you right now."
"Alright, but I can only discover their identities by getting close to them." The black toad didn't hesitate for long. Although it had a subtle cooperative relationship with the Sun God Cult, it had no qualms about betraying them.
Su Cheng put it in her pocket.
Because the Smart Bag cannot hold living creatures, she could only temporarily keep the black toad on her person. She wasn't afraid of it causing trouble; aside from the boning knife, she also had her jade pendant with her. If the black toad dared to play any tricks, it would be courting death.
A note from the author:
none
Chapter 133
Su Cheng relayed the information she received from the black toad to Xu Shaowei and Yan Yu. After thinking about it, the three of them also felt that the Sun God Cult's summoning of evil spirits was related to the New Year's Eve party.
But what exactly they intend to do with the spirits remains unknown.
Su Cheng glanced at the wall clock; it was already 2 a. m. "I have to go out for a bit; I should be back before dawn."
After saying a few more words, she turned and hurriedly left the Man Moon Hotel.
Open your phone, and on the homepage of the Star Moon platform, Lu Heng's live stream is marked with a "hot" tag, showing a million viewers online.