Evil As Humans

Chapter 92: Playing Dead

From discovering the vision to inferring the current situation, Yin Ren’s head only turned for a moment.

He didn’t have time to confirm with Zhong Chengshuo and activated Coffin Nails immediately. The ghost contract was activated to its maximum extent. Hu Tao and Grandpa Lu appeared at the same time—they didn’t have time to figure out the situation and just grabbed the two unconscious girls under the coercion of the contract and dragged them up with force.

Hu Tao carried Ge Tingting like a chicken, while Grandpa Lu went to catch Qi Xin. Two fierce ghosts rushed like a hurricane towards the light at the end of the tunnel, but as soon as Lu Tanfei was about two steps away, he looked at his hands suspiciously.

The blue and white withered hands were empty, and he failed to catch Qi Xin.

Qi Xin lived in a closed town where evil things were rampant, but it turned out she was a weak science post.

Yin Ren made a quick decision and made a gesture. Grandpa Lu helped Hu Tao carry Ge Tingting, and with the blessings of two ghosts, Ge Tingting was ejected towards the entrance of the cave like a cannonball. The little girl didn’t care about her inability to speak and let out a series of screams of unknown ravings.

Qi Xin heard the sound and left the single room. She held onto the wall of the cave with a face full of doubts.

It was hard to say whether her decision was right or wrong.

Because in the next moment, when Ge Tingting rushed towards the light, the scenery in front of everyone suddenly changed. The deformed tunnel tilted over and transformed from a tunnel into a bottomless, giant well. A strong evil qi blew wildly from the bottom up. While the summer heat hadn’t dissipated, the cave turned into an icy tunnel as if it were winter, making people unable to straighten their knuckles.

Lighting completely disappeared, and everything was so dark that they couldn’t even see their five fingers.

The moment the light disappeared, Zhong Chengshuo drew his knife in an instant and pierced the nearest rock crevice. He stepped on the raised stone and was able to maintain his balance in less than a second.

Yin Ren stepped into the air and floated in mid-air. He had just stabilized himself when he heard the sound of the earth rumbling from behind…

Qi Xin was wearing a professional uniform that made it inconvenient for her to move. She didn’t even have a pen on her, so she could only fall down the cave in a daze. Yin Ren hurriedly stretched out his hand and grabbed onto Qi Xin’s wrist to catch her.

Immediately afterwards, Yin Ren turned around and sent himself into Zhong Chengshuo’s arms.

“Hold my waist,” he said in a deep voice. “This matter isn’t over yet.”

Zhong Chengshuo hugged Yin Ren’s waist silently—Mr. Ghost King’s waist was strong and thin, which allowed him to hold it firmly.

Everything happened within a blink of an eye.

In the dense darkness, the three of them were suspended in midair. The mine was still twisting and wriggling like crazy. They were like flying insects trapped inside an empty Rubik’s cube, and they could only watch the world twist into a ball in vain.

Outside the cave.

Ge Tingting was almost shot out of the hole as if she were an intercontinental missile. Fortunately, the two ghosts were conscious enough and remembered to slow her descent near the end. After she finally stopped, Ge Tingting could hardly breathe. She could only pant, letting out sharp whistling from her breath.

But this didn’t affect her AI voice transmission. “Something happened inside. There was a magic attack, and Qi Xin didn’t run out.”

Xiang Jiang’s voice came from a few steps away. “Understood.”

Ge Tingting wiped the cold sweat off her face and looked in Xiang Jiang’s direction. Seeing this, she almost choked to death on her own breath.

The Xiang Jiang in front of her had no eyeballs, and there was only thick darkness in its place.

Xiang Jiang’s face was frighteningly pale, and the blood vessels under his skin were showing a strange, purple-black color, like a poisonous root system. With a distorted expression on his face, he twisted his head at an angle that no living person could and “looked” up and down.

Ge Tingting tensed her body vigilantly and rubbed her eyes hard—this Xiang Jiang wasn’t right. He was too tall, and there was something beside him.

Looking intently again, her heartbeat didn’t know whether to stabilize or speed up.

…There were two Xiang Jiang in front of her.

One of the Xiang Jiang had a human face. He held a yellow talisman between his fingers and looked solemnly into the cave. The one without eyes was floating behind him and was currently bending over with his lips close to the real Xiang Jiang’s ears. He covered his right hand with his sharp nails as the eyeless “Xiang Jiang” hissed and whispered.

It was a ghost that looked exactly like Xiang Jiang.

The ghostly presence was so thick that it was like a substance, making people seem as if they were submerged in icy water from head to toe. Hu Tao and Lu Tanfei took two steps back uncontrollably and then disappeared in place.

Ge Tingting swallowed. She subconsciously wanted to step forward but was pulled back by Huang Jin.

“Don’t go over there.” Huang Jin had an ugly expression on his face.

Before his voice fell, the ghost “Xiang Jiang” noticed Ge Tingting’s movements. He once again turned his head at a terrifying angle, and his jaw opened abnormally wide, letting out a low, threatening howl.

Countless evil qi condensed into invisible needles, and all of them pierced Ge Tingting’s eyes in an instant. Ge Tingting was so shocked that her scalp went numb, and her legs were so soft she couldn’t move.

“Xiang Hai,” Xiang Jiang warned.

Only then did the malicious, fierce ghost named “Xiang Hai” turn his head around again.

“Yin Ren and the others encountered something.” Ge Tingting barely regained her strength to control her limbs as she played out the AI voice.

Xiang Jiang ignored her as he quickly dialed a number. “Enemy attack, enemy unknown. Unit 9 partners and an unrelated citizen are missing.”

A vague reply came from the other end of the line. Xiang Jiang pursed his lips, threw out an “Okay”, and hung up the call.

“Continue to investigate the evil things in the cave. Before the situation is clarified, the three of us will turn to investigate external factors.”

Ge Tingting’s face stiffened. “What about those three people?”

“Oh, there are colleagues from the Emergency Management Department in the cave. They are performing other tasks and can take over rescuing them,” Xiang Jiang said. “Before the situation is clarified, you don’t need to rush over. It’ll just delay things.”

After he finished speaking, he clapped his hands and the fierce ghost Xiang Hai dispersed in response.

Ge Tingting and Huang Jin: “……”

Given Xiang Jiang’s tone, there didn’t seem to be any room for them to refute.

“Let’s go. Find out the true body of the evil thing faster, and you can also help those two people.” Huang Jin patted Ge Tingting on the shoulder.

Xiang Jiang’s cloudy eyes paused for a moment on Huang Jin’s face.

“Interesting. You don’t seem worried about them at all,” he said, seemingly unintentionally.

Huang Jin: “You have read my profile. We criminals are heavy-hearted.”

Xiang Jiang snorted meaningfully, turned around, and walked out of the cave.

“Stay away from Xiang Jiang’s ghost.” After confirming that Xiang Jiang had gone far enough, Huang Jin turned to Ge Tingting. “That ghost is very bad. That kind of resentment is rare among Nightwalkers.. If it weren’t for knowing Shian’s style, I would have suspected this person was poached from Sunken Society.”

Ge Tingting rubbed the goosebumps on her arms. “I think it’s okay.”

“Because that thing kept its hands away from you.” Huang Jin raised his hand, and there was a conspicuous black corrosion wound on his lower arm. “Look at this… When it first came out, I just leaned over and took a look.”

Ge Tingting was speechless.

She learned a lot of basic knowledge in Shian, which naturally included the basics on ghost masters.

Corpse servants and ghost masters were very similar in one point—the stronger the “karma” between the corpses and ghosts they used and themselves, the greater the ability they could exert.

In order to pursue power, some evil cultivators even intentionally mutilate their relatives and friends, turning them into power weapons.

The ability of a ghost master was largely determined by the quality of the ghost. Xiang Jiang had such a fierce ghost, so it wasn’t surprising he could become the “#1 ghost master in Haigu”.

“Sister, are you there?” After a while, Ge Tingting tapped on her headset. “Are Yin Ge and Zhong Ge okay?”

“I just contacted them. They are fine. You two listen to Xiang Jiang’s command first.” There was an inexplicable sense of exhaustion in Lu Xiaohe’s voice. “Waiting on you guys… Well, when you all come back, I’ll definitely file an application for a salary adjustment.”

Ge Tingting: “……”

Lu Xiaohe still had the energy to joke, so it seemed like the situation should be fine over there.

……

In fact, technically speaking, the three people in the cave weren’t considered fine.

The twisting performance of the mine lasted for more than ten minutes, forcing Yin Ren to fly left and right. After the rock wall stopped squirming, Comrade Xiao Zhong brought heavy news…

“We are deep underground.” He turned on the light he was carrying and spoke with great certainty.

Qi Xin: “How do you know?”

“Calculating Yin Ren’s flight, we’re roughly southeast underground from Gengsheng Town.”

Zhong Chengshuo put a bundle of lighting lamps on his head like a miner’s lamp and tapped on his headset to clearly report their coordinates.

At first, the communication on Lu Xiaohe’s side was staticky, but she quickly adjusted the channel.

“Copy that.”

Lu Xiaohe’s voice was clear. In the face of pure evil qi, Shian’s communication equipment finally came into play.

“I found the place. The underground structure there is very complicated. Take care of Qi Xin and don’t wander around.”

After experiencing the storms and waves in the Archive, their rear commander sounded a bit contradictory, as if she wanted to be nervous but couldn’t get nervous.

“I suggest you find a dry place to camp. Zhong Chengshuo, pay attention to the toxic gasses and oxygen content in the air—I’m analyzing the nearby topographic map. The results will be available in four minutes. There are senior employees of Shian nearby. They will come to rescue you soon.” Lu Xiaohe arranged things in an orderly manner.

Zhong Chengshuo: “The attacker?”

“Unknown,” Lu Xiaohe sighed. “If you didn’t notice someone or an evil thing approaching, then it was probably a trigger for some magic mechanism from Sunken Society. But I’m just guessing. There’s no evidence to make a conclusion.”

Zhong Chengshuo nodded. The light on his head rose and fell with his movements. Qi Xin was still quiet. She let Yin Ren hold her arms without complaining.

‘Quite a good mechanism,’ Yin Ren thought.

The question was “who” arranged it and “when” the mechanism was deployed. For the mine, the location of the so-called mechanism was too shallow, and the strength was too strong. When the accident happened, there was no fluctuation in spells when the mechanism triggered.

This incident was too weird. Shian was probably more surprised than they were.

Unfortunately, he had to do a full manual guidance task. Yin Ren sighed inwardly as he carefully landed on the “ground”.

This place was no better than a dry mine. There was stagnant underground water that was four fingers deep, and around them were snake-teeth like stalagmites. The stagnant water looked like ink under the dim lighting, black and lusterless.

There was a weak life reaction underwater, though ghost knew what was inside.

There was a raised stone platform not far away. It was about the size of a double bed. It wasn’t dry, but at least it was far away from the water. The three of them climbed to the top of the stone platform and began to wring out the water from their shoes and socks.

Yin Ren ignited a fire in the center of the slate, and they surrounded it with their shoes and socks to let it dry. Zhong Chengshuo took out a bunch of items from his backpack and began testing things.

Qi Xin sat honestly in place, like a planter that had been accidentally implicated. Her hair was wet from sweat. She brushed it back behind her ear, revealing a conspicuous stitching scar at the corner of her forehead.

As the fire crackled, the shadow of the protruding scar shook, as if it had life.

Noticing Zhong Chengshuo’s unveiled gaze, Qi Xin straightened her hair again to cover up her scar.

“Car accident,” she explained briefly.

Zhong Chengshuo: “Oh.”

He turned his back and tinkered for a long time, then took out three cups full of clear water. “I mixed in some rehydration fluids.”

“You can’t drink the water here.” Qi Xin frowned.

“I filtered it carefully,” Zhong Chengshuo said sincerely.

Yin Ren tugged at the corner of Zhong Chengshuo’s clothes and leaned his head over. “It’s better not to drink. This place is full of evil qi, so there may be evil insects in the water. It’s useless to boil it. People will get sick even if they drink it.”

Not to mention that everything happened too suddenly, and they didn’t get the chance to bring utensils to boil water.

“I’ve really dealt with it,” Zhong Chengshuo muttered while still maintaining his turned-back posture as he lifted his trousers up a bit.

Yin Ren: “?”

This guy actually brought the Evil Fruit with him. This was good news, but did that have anything to do with whether or not the water could be drunk?

“I stirred each cup thoroughly with the blade,” Zhong Chengshuo whispered solemnly, avoiding Qi Xin. “This is a top-notch cursed spirit weapon. Any microorganisms and evil things inside will be completely annihilated.”

Yin Ren: “……”

How good. This was the first time he had seen someone ruining a top-level cursed spirit weapon… Is this how this knife is supposed to be used? It doesn’t seem like it! For a moment, he seemed as if he could hear the wailing of the Evil Fruit.

Boss Yin couldn’t help but pull out Dog Thing, making it realize how generously it was being treated as an employee.

Dog Thing was lying obediently in its phone case. The screen was pitch black. The hamster pendant on the case dangled from it, casting a shaking shadow in the fire.

[Did you notice anything just now?] As soon as it showed up, it was put to work. Boss Yin typed this to it.

[Siren: I don’t seem to understand. If there’s anything else I can help you with, please let me know.]

[What are you talking about?]

[Siren: I didn’t get that. Please try asking me again.]

Yin Ren choked.

Dog Thing didn’t respond to his question, as if it had turned into a real AI.

The firelight illuminated the small stone platform as darkness wrapped around them in layers. The sound of water was endless, and the thick evil qi surged like mist.

The originally quiet scene suddenly felt a little more dangerous.

And in the depths of the darkness, less than two kilometers away from them, there was a breath approaching fast.

The author has something to say:

Xiao Zhong: Subjectively and deliberately sterilize the water.

<<Shocking, King Yama killed tens of millions of lives in three minutes!>>

The life of microorganisms is also life.jpg

Kinky Thoughts:

The title is referring to how Dog Thing has now become (whether it’s pretending or not) an actual smartphone, so in a sense, like a dog, it’s “playing dead”.