Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Domestic Violence Village Six

The faint slope leads to the dark, bloody tea tree roots.

The surroundings are eerily silent.

Red meat paste.

Black blood pulp.

Thick pustules burst, and the pus and blood flow is slowly absorbed by the tree roots.

At this moment.

Liu Tianran and Ming Yue, two little chicks, help each other forward, one weaker than the other.

Liu Tianran has a tough personality when at home, excelling in theory, but not quite as skilled as Ming Yue in practice—though this comment does somewhat unfairly blame Senior Liu.

Ming Yue, with her family background and Conan-like sunny disposition, is practically a walking disaster magnet.

Five tunnels, if she leads, you'll definitely face the most hellish of difficulties.

Senior Liu Tianran is just that unlucky one.

Comparing practical skills to Ming Yue, well, she’s just a freshman, newly entering the field, so there's still room for improvement.

As the timeline extends, Ming Yue's deathly aura will only grow more pronounced, and her practical skills will become ever more refined.

By then, among peers, no one will surpass Ming Yue.

Just wait and see.

Right now, standing before the tree roots, "Conan" asks in a steady voice: "Senior, do you remember the guess made by the golden ingot in last week's feng shui calculations course... in the middle?"

The two step closer to the pool of dismembered bodies beneath the tree roots. Liu Tianran’s lips tremble: "Who, who is the golden ingot?"

Ming Yue: "That little chubby kid, the one who mentioned the dismembered bodies."

Liu Tianran suddenly understands: "Oh, him!"

Ming Yue nods like a chick pecking rice: "Now I think what he said makes a lot of sense."

"Indeed, it is dismemberment. Senior, just look at all these body parts on the ground..."She pointed to the half-sunken raised buttocks five meters ahead, "—No escaping now, under this tree root, it’s densely packed with dismembered bodies."

Liu Tianran: "I think this time, the workload of the Shui Ximen Police Station—"

Ming Yue: "—Will be extraordinarily huge."

At this point, the two exchanged glances.

"What should we do now?"

"Senior, we can’t pretend we didn’t see this."

"But this obvious anomaly, 'yin energy creating flesh,' this is way more impressive than any other yin wind or yin rain! We two living people walking over here—Ming Yue, aren’t you afraid of triggering a corpse fraud?"

Ming Yue: "…"

Ming Yue accurately retorted: "It’s already in pieces, what’s there to fake a corpse for?"

"She should try scaring me to death with one leg (highlighted)."

One leg.

Liu Tianran: "…"

Despite the inappropriate situation, Senior Liu was still amused by Ming Yue.

"Very good, Ming Yue, you’re really awesome," Liu Tianran said. "Keep this up, knowing gratitude and fearlessness, I have high hopes for you."

Then, Liu Tianran switched on the radio receiver and spoke into the public frequency:

"Team Three has arrived directly beneath the tea tree forest, discovered a cluster of dismembered bodies, repeating, discovered a cluster of dismembered bodies. It is conservatively estimated that at least—"

Liu Tianran gave Ming Yue a signal. Ming Yue hurriedly counted the body parts that clearly didn’t belong to the same person, then signaled a number to her senior:

"—At least 13 people’s dismembered body parts."

"All female."

"Report complete."

Public frequency: "…"The yin energy here is thick, interfering with communications. In such a poor auditory environment, the public frequency still bursts with a "Yí——" of astonishment.

The dozen or so people online were simultaneously stunned by the discovery of Team Three.

"Shit, it's a confirmed domestic violence case! Let Shui Ximen Police Station keep making excuses, I’ll hammer them to death!"

"Dammit, damn it, damn it, are these low-income male residents trash or what, dismembered bodies, my God!"

"Sis, those aren’t low-income residents."

"Damn, better not marry or have kids for peace of mind."

"After the male from Yue Hai Yu Ting gets sentenced to death, I’ll definitely visit him in prison, and I’ll bring gifts for everyone."

"Gifts? What gifts?"

"An airplane cup and soap."

"…"

Qin Lin steered the conversation back: "Team Three, how are you certain the location is under the tea tree?"

"…"

Ming Yue, just as she was using a steel fork to pry open a tree root, responded on the spot:

"Senior, the tea tree’s roots are right in the pile of dismembered bodies, absorbing blood and flesh to grow."

"The tea tree itself is a yin-type plant, and this pile of flesh is great nourishment."

"Plus, it's close to the old city wall of Shui Ximen, where the yin energy is abundant. Now it's feeding back."

Qin Lin seized on the key point: "Feeding back? What does that mean?"

Watching the pustules on the rotting corpse burst, causing the entire chunk of flesh to slightly tremble like a glistening piece of braised pork—

Ming Yue took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself, and was ready to touch it—after thinking for a moment, she pulled out a yin energy talisman to cover her right hand, then started to clean up the dismembered body while answering Qin Lin:

"Feeding back means—these dismembered bodies here, their bones are very old, and you can see the bone age traces."

"But the grayish blood and flesh are plump and fresh."

"This is definitely problematic, Senior.""How could the flesh decay slower than the bones?" Bones contain inorganic materials, and no matter how long time passes, they won’t completely oxidize.

But flesh is made entirely of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and organic decomposition takes just a few weeks.

As she spoke, Ming Yue’s finger pried open a piece of thigh from the blood and mud.

"Slurp."

The sound of blackened flesh and rotting bone separating was disturbingly satisfying.

Upon hearing this, the public frequency erupted with sounds of vomiting.

Qin Lin was so startled he almost jumped up:

"Junior, be careful!"

"Yin energy feeding back is not a normal phenomenon. There must be an extremely high concentration of yin energy under this tea tree. Your constitution is purely yang, don’t act recklessly!"

"The balance of yin and yang is no joke!"

"You and Liu Tianran should withdraw!"

"…"

Ming Yue didn’t respond.

She knew that Qin Lin was right.

She didn’t intend to do anything foolish like eliminating the yin energy and spreading yang energy.

Looking at the women around her, their bodies shattered beyond recognition, completely undignified, their skin exposed, and some of the decayed bones even bore marks of sharp weapons.

Perhaps they had just been brutally beaten before they died.

Perhaps, just before losing consciousness, they had been violated by their beasts of husbands.

Any of these could be true.

When they were alive, they could cry, scream, curse—maybe they thought about escaping under the abuse, or maybe they didn’t.

But now, they could only be buried under the tea tree, listening to the night wind, gazing at the stars, and occasionally welcoming stray dogs to urinate on them.Perhaps, in the quiet of the night, one could still hear the sound of the tea tree's dense roots sucking up the decaying flesh and blood.

How "poetic" and insane.

Crossing the line of life and death is the kind of hatred that is willing to endure endless torment, even burning one's soul.

The Ghost Slayer is not an ignorant ordinary person.

They know that souls truly exist in this world.

Once you reach this understanding, how can Ming Yue pretend that all of this hasn’t happened and simply rewind everything back to where it started?

"I understand your good intentions, Senior." Ming Yue answered calmly, her voice slightly echoing in the surrounding darkness.

"I don’t intend to do any righteous retribution—that’s the Shui Ximen Police Station’s responsibility."

"I just want to clean this up for them. At least—whether it’s bones or flesh, I don’t want them to remain here scattered and unseen by the world. At the very least, let them lie on the ground, watch the stars, feel the wind, and then enter the fire pit."

After a pause, Ming Yue looked up at the intertwined roots of the trees and added:

"Everyone comes into this world pure and innocent. The way they die is already unfair enough."

"And also, so many resentful and vengeful spirits are gathered here—Senior, do you remember what we saw on the surface? The tea tree grew so well, thick, flourishing, with a rich tea fragrance—"

"Do you think, if we ignore it, will passersby sneakily pluck the leaves to make tea?"

"What do you think these tea leaves were grown with? Can they just be picked?"

"Would you dare drink it without fearing possession during the Ghost Festival?"

Although Ming Yue felt deeply moved, she still analyzed the situation with a calm and objective mindset.

Her earlier anger and sorrow were nothing compared to the deeper, hidden concerns she now felt.

The tea leaves were certainly undrinkable.

A giant, poisonous tea grown from the decaying flesh and blood of dozens of people? Drink it, and you’ll definitely rise up and ascend after finishing it.

"…" Qin Lin fell silent.

He was not a woman.But it was not hard to understand Ming Yue's anger and sorrow.

However, as the leader of the project, the personal safety of the team members was more important than any misguided sense of virtue or moral righteousness.

This was Qin Lin’s dignity as the team leader.

He softened his tone and said:

"Still, it’s not possible, Ming Yue."

"Right now, the other teams have not yet reached the end of the earth tunnel. We don’t know if they will converge at one point—if this collapsed tunnel ultimately connects under the tea tree, then we’ll clean it up after we get there."

"If within one minute, we haven’t arrived, I ask you to bow three times and return along the same path. Do you understand?"

Liu Tianran quickly pulled Ming Yue. Ming Yue nodded, knowing that Senior was truly concerned for her. "I understand your intention, Senior."

Qin Lin was not like Yan Jun, someone who could soften their boundaries just because they liked Ming Yue. His tone became firmer: "I don’t mind whether you misunderstand me or not."

"Now, answer my command directly."

Ming Yue: "Understood. I won’t act rashly."

"Your life is more important."

Her gaze fell on the piece of thigh meat she was holding in her right hand, and she decided to return it to its original position.

The senior was right.

In uncertain circumstances, it’s still best to "build a high wall, store plenty of food, and wait before claiming the throne."

However, Ming Yue overlooked one thing.

The yin energy talisman in her hand was not guaranteed in terms of quality and quantity.

To give an example:

The difference was like "the yin energy talisman drawn by Liu Tianran" versus "the yin energy talisman drawn by Ming Yue."

The talisman currently wrapped around the thigh meat was drawn by Ming Yue herself.

Clearly, in the current urgent situation, Ming Yue, in her haste, had forgotten all about how her yin talisman writing had been mocked by classmates, causing Zhai Dan to be laughed at as well for her weak spell during the curse exam.Earlier, Ming Yue, in order to prevent the strong yang energy carried by their team from triggering the vengeful yin energy in the corpse and causing a transformation, chose to wrap her right hand with a yin energy talisman before proceeding with the operation.

However, the talisman paper was thin, and the yin energy had a strong penetrating ability. After debating with Qin Lin for just a moment, the faded yellow talisman paper had already turned black.

At this moment, Ming Yue felt her fingertips dampen.

It felt as if a drop of bird droppings had fallen from the sky.

The dense yin energy had already come into contact with the living yang energy.

Ming Yue: "…"

Ming Yue let out a muffled sound, "Bad, this is my talisman."

"I forgot."

How sensitive is the principle of "yin and yang generating and restraining each other"?

Ming. Conan. Yue immediately appeared to explain.

She saw a strand of yang energy seep in, as if it had ignited a barrel of gunpowder.

The roots of the tea tree began to sway and dance, like a winnowing basket sending wind, pushing the yin energy into a roaring tide.

The half-pound of pork tenderloin in her hand seemed to undergo cellular division and regeneration, with meat chunks at the center rapidly growing and multiplying.

Terrified, Ming Yue immediately dropped it.

First, the swollen knee joints and calves.

Then, the thickened lower body and abdomen.

Her stomach was full of holes, densely packed like needle points.

One breast was missing half, while the other peeled off a layer of skin.

The surrounding yin energy surged like the sea, converging along the growing thigh meat, until it finally formed a ragged, skeletal structure with hanging flesh—"a person."

One leg grew into a person.

But there was no head.

The process was smooth and effortless.Ming Yue: "..."

Liu Tianran: "..."

The team members were dumbfounded.

On the other side, hearing Ming Yue’s promise, Qin Lin finally relaxed.

"This is good."

"Stay alert, we’ll be there soon—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Qin Lin was nearly shaken out of his chest by the deafening, heart-wrenching female scream duet from Ming Yue’s side:

"Ahhhhhh—!!!!!!"

That was the loud-voiced Liu Tianran.

"Sh*t, [beep] dog [beep] [beep] [beep]!!!"

That was the eloquent Ming Yue.

Qin Lin: "…"

Qin Lin couldn’t care less about his aching ears and shouted:

"What happened?!"

Both women screamed in unison: "Ahhhhhhhh! The corpse fraud!!!"

"Oh my god!!! The thigh turned into a person!!!"

"Sh*t! Senior, I really just got scared to death by a single leg!"

"F*ck! She has no head!!!"

Qin Lin: "…"

Qin Lin gritted his teeth and dragged his teammates back towards them.

He had no idea what had happened with the third team.But it's very likely connected to Ming Yue's yang energy constitution.

Truly, what you fear is what you get!

Earlier, he had repeatedly advised Ming Yue to back off to avoid a collision of yin and yang that could trigger a mutation.

And now, just as he feared, it happened.

Ming Yue was also innocent here.

Her concerns were entirely justified. The sea of corpses under the tea tree should’ve been dealt with as soon as possible.

Originally, her yin energy talisman wasn’t that bad either, or else she wouldn’t have been working with Ming Er Zongheng for so long.

It’s just that the yin energy underground was too heavy.

It couldn’t be estimated with the usual constants.

The “woman” in front of her—headless, with flesh hanging—let’s call her a woman for now—strangely moved her limbs. Soon, a spherical object flew from behind the tea tree roots, and with a snap, it landed on her neck, making a 180-degree turn, and twisted into place.

When her spine was fitted, it made a "pop" sound.

Ming Yue: "…"

Liu Tianran: "…"

Both of them were stunned.

This... this... this...

This extraordinary performance.

Ming Yue was shocked and muttered, "Mother duck, Fujiko!" [Note]

Liu Tianran: "…"

Liu Tianran snapped out of it in a second, immediately covering Ming Yue's mouth. "Little ancestor, can you close that crow's mouth of yours?!"

"You just said you wouldn’t get scared by a single leg, and look what happened!" She pointed at the evil spirit ahead.

"Now you’re talking about Fujiko—are you trying to fly to the heavens?!"Ming. Crow's Mouth. Yue: "…"