Chapter 69 Who Eats Whom?
Liu Sheng also had a pair of frail, seemingly easily breakable child's arms hanging around her neck.
The darkness above the wilderness didn't resemble pure night sky; instead, it was like a thick, inky, dripping malevolence.
Just one more glance would make her feel this suspicious night closing in on her, with threads of malevolence silently invading her mind.
So, Liu Sheng didn't look again. Instead, she silently carried that thing on her back, focusing on the only Dao under her feet.
The Dao under her feet seemed endless, its path shrouded in the night, like an abyss that devoured one's spirit.
Walking like this truly made it easy to become disoriented.
Liu Sheng felt her legs growing weaker and weaker, and her back was heavy and cold, making her shiver.
But luckily, this coldness helped her maintain a sliver of clarity.
At this moment, she finally heard that thing timidly utter its first words: “Sister… why won't you turn around and look at me?”
Liu Sheng's spirit lifted.
It's here!
This thing finally couldn't hold back, could it?
She opened her mouth to reply, but a voice suddenly echoed in her mind: “Do not answer, do not turn around, or your Soul will be taken.”
She was instantly startled, a chill running through her. She almost fell for it?
This voice… was it her mother? It sounded so familiar…
Perhaps she had heard it when her mother told her stories as a child?
Or?
A cold smile touched Liu Sheng's lips as she continued walking forward with that thing on her back.
The child's tender voice echoed in her ears again, pleading even more pitifully: “Sister, I'm so scared. Won't you really turn around and look at me?”
After calling out a few times and seeing Liu Sheng remain completely unmoved, that thing finally couldn't restrain itself.
Its hands were still hanging around Liu Sheng's neck, but Liu Sheng could feel sharp fingers scratching at her back, sharp nails slowly digging into her flesh, and icy fingers drilling into the torn gaps, followed by other parts.
Pain came in waves. Liu Sheng bit her lip, not crying out, and continued walking in silence.
Blood dripped onto the dirt road, and her body grew weaker and weaker. Her vision blurred, but Liu Sheng still struggled to move forward little by little.
Finally, that thing completely drilled into Liu Sheng's body.
At this point, if anyone else were present, they would see Liu Sheng's skin stretched and bloated by a bulging object, appearing massive and weird.
It was time.
Liu Sheng smiled coldly, her eyes filled with a bloodthirsty chill.
The Little Tentacle inside her quietly probed into the flesh that, though part of the same body, did not belong to her. Thread by thread, strand by strand, it slowly wove countless fine black nets, enveloping that thing.
Then, it exerted sudden force!
A sharp, painful shriek muffled inside Liu Sheng's body.
Afterward, these bulging things rapidly contracted. Liu Sheng's body slowly returned to normal, though her skin was still somewhat loose.
After a while, Little Tentacle finally let out a big burp, then pulled out a head-sized round object from Liu Sheng's body and tossed it onto the dirt road in front of Liu Sheng.
Liu Sheng looked down and saw that it was indeed a head, with a pale, wrinkled face, resembling an old woman. A few sparse hairs on its head, which should have been white, were now stained red by Liu Sheng's blood.
Little Tentacle told Liu Sheng that the thing on her back was a weird objects with a frail, childlike body but an old woman's head.
The head bounced a few times on the ground, feeling a bit dizzy.
After a while, its wrinkled eyelids finally twitched open.
A young girl's face with an evil smile was directly facing it, very close.
The head was so scared it bounced again in place.
Then it glanced left and right, realizing it was no longer in the illusion but back in the dimly lit Wen Family ancestral hall. It knew everything was over.
Every time it encountered this terrifying woman, nothing good happened!
Why couldn't it kill her, even though she was so weak?
Liu Sheng squatted on the ground, watching the head's reaction, finding it somewhat amusing.
Could there be such a timid weird objects?
And it still came out to scare people?
But it was precisely this kind of thing that had caused Cui Cui and Liao Chengpeng to lie unconscious on the ground.
And Fu Ze sat against the wall, his face showing pain, as if something had been drained from him.
Fortunately, Liu Sheng directly absorbed Guai Qi to break the illusion; otherwise, who knows what would have happened if they had been trapped in it for too long.
At this moment, Little Tentacle opportunely and quietly told Liu Sheng that the scent of this weird objects was something it had smelled on Wen Weilan before, and it was very familiar, as if it had smelled it somewhere else previously.
Liu Sheng's thoughts moved like lightning. She stood up and walked to the altar, then stood on tiptoe and directly took down the central ancestral tablet that read, “Deceased Ancestress, Mother Zhou, Madam Dowager,” which belonged to Old Master Wen's wife and Miss Wen's grandmother.
The head was startled at the sight, becoming even more dejected.
Liu Sheng examined it carefully. This ancestral tablet should have been made a year ago, but the carving was clear and clean, and the wooden lacquer was shiny and reflective, making it look newly made.
She ran her fingers over the wood grain. Amidst the reddish-brown, there seemed to be some dark red patterns like blood vessels.
It was indeed an old acquaintance.
“You're the Pear Tree Wraith, aren't you?” Liu Sheng asked. “How did you end up like this?”
The head looked up at Liu Sheng with great fear, its withered lips trembling as it replied, “After I was captured by you all… I was split into pieces… After that, I didn't know anything until I woke up and was placed in this spot.”
Its voice was still as tender as a child's, and hearing such a voice from such a face was truly weird.
This Pear Tree Wraith still lacked cunning; its inherent methods were simple and direct. It was only when utilized by someone with ulterior motives that it became covert and malicious.
The person behind the scenes knew that Miss Wen worshipped her grandmother daily, so they directly set up the weird objects as an ancestral tablet.
Moreover, a deeper layer of the design was chilling.
Liu Sheng spoke, “You wanted to devour my spiritual Qi, didn't you?”
“Yes… but why do you have so little spiritual Qi…?” The head replied timidly. It was the first time it had absorbed such meager spiritual Qi recently.
Liu Sheng's expression was calm: “Of course, because I don't have a divine talent at all; my spiritual Qi is less than ten.”
The head's mouth dropped open. Then why did it bother so much!
And it even sacrificed itself!
“So the rule you're currently set to is that if one doesn't turn back, their spiritual Qi will be devoured?” Liu Sheng asked again, not waiting for the head's answer, and continued speaking to herself.
“And an illusion was designed to deceive with the voices of loved ones, ensuring Wen Weilan wouldn't turn her head and would allow her spiritual Qi to be devoured.”
“Even more malicious is that a scene of flesh-cutting was arranged to make Wen Weilan imprisoned for murder, to prevent Wen Weilan from realizing one day that she was set up, and then exposing, retaliating, etc., which would disrupt the plans of the person behind the scenes.”
“Of course, now it's even more perfect; Wen Weilan has been treated as a weird objects, with no possibility of turning the tables.”
“And they can even put on a righteous, family-destroying act to gain reputation. How wonderful.”
“This scheme must have been laid out a long time ago, right?”
“That's right, it should have started when Wen Weilan was a child, shouldn't it?”
Liu Sheng turned to look out the door, sneering as she said loudly, “Isn't that right, Old Master Wen?”
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