CH 148.2

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, player, you have obtained the prop [Yama’s Order] x1. This is a special prop that can only be used in this copy.]

[You can use this item to summon [King Yama] to assist you in your actions; it is a very powerful item in this copy.]

[You’re really lucky, player!]

Bai Lixin: [……]

I might not be human, but you’re a real dog, system.

But…

Bai Lixin lowered his head, the thick raven-feather eyelashes hiding the twinkle in his eyes.

King Yama’s Order? The system says that he can summon King Yama, and Dijia says he could summon him.

Doesn’t that mean Dijia is “King Yama”?

No wonder he became a bride snatcher; no wonder he was shocked whenever he showed gratitude to King Yama; and no wonder he was particularly concerned about his opinion of King Yama.

After all, he was King Yama.

He accepted the token calmly, and expressed his gratitude even more, “Thank you, Dijia, you are very kind, and I also thank King Yama.”

“It is King Yama’s shelter and blessing that made me fortunate enough to meet a good person like you.”

“I like King Yama so much!”

Dijia clutched his chest tightly.

I can’t hold it any longer, quick, someone help!

The two walked all over Yanwang Town but didn’t find the black shadow they had seen earlier.

Bai Lixin had looked through all the courtyards, and every coffin at every house had paper money and paper figurines.

Even the coffin house the corpse drivers had brought him yesterday didn’t have a single corpse, only coffins.

Bai Lixin walked to the old man’s bedroom and peered inside. It was dark, and he could smell the familiar musty stench of decay from yesterday.

The door to the room was left open, so they pushed it in to have a look. The room was dark, and under the quilt was a small mound, as if someone were sleeping in it.

Could someone be inside?

Bai Lixin and Dijia looked at each other and instantly understood each other’s intentions.

–Should we go and see?

–It’s dangerous, I’ll go.

–Together?

–All right.

The two crept to the bedside. Bai Lixin held his breath and quickly lifted the covers.

The next moment, a pale white face with open eyes crashed into their eyes.

It was a flimsy paper figurine, the size of an adult. Its back was hunched over and its legs and arms curled up; if it weren’t for the setting and the eerie white face, he would have said, “It was so lifelike.”

The paper figurine lay on the bed, its eyes particularly dark against the white paper skin.

It just stared back at Bai Lixin and Dijia. It was obviously a non-living thing, but it was as if it were alive.

——————–

In the live broadcast room

[Fuck, mom, that almost scared me to death.]

[Sure enough, the scary stuff arrived late. I was almost thinking I was watching the wrong live stream. The game is worthy of being a horror escape game, it always has to scare us.]

[Wuuu, is it really late? I’ve been scared all night! I was scared silly from the moment God Xin put on the bridal gown. Actually, from the moment the bridal dress suddenly floated out of the door, didn’t you guys feel scared?!!!]

[…… This brother or a sister, that stuff happened hours ago, and you’re just reacting to it? May I ask if your genus is fish?]

[No, this brother can’t be a fish; fish have a three-second memory, he can’t remember that long, so he should be a dinosaur, whose reaction period is longer.]

[“Slow and Long”]

[A little fairy slowly retracted her feet into the bed and softly cursed, “Fuck.”]

[Hahaha, laughing to death.]

[The clothes on this paper figurine are the same as the clothes on the old man of the coffin house; I have a bold idea.]

[That is more than a bold idea, it’s a strong guess.]

————

The paper figurine stared at Bai Lixin, who stared back at it.

A few seconds later, Bai Lixin recovered the paper figurine with the quilt and said calmly, “There’s nothing here, let’s go.”

Dijia gave Bai Lixin a deep look and said, “Mmm, okay.”

They quickly exited the room and left the coffin house.

When the sound of the two people’s footsteps disappeared, the quilt that should have been peaceful shook a few times, and then a pale hand made of paper stretched out from the quilt.

As the paper figurine moved, its body made the “click, click, click” sound of bamboo joints moving.

The quilt was soon lifted by a crack, and a pair of eerie dark eyes peeked out from underneath the quilt, looking particularly terrifying in the quiet room.

“Jie Jie Jie.”

A strange laugh came out of the quilt…

————–

Dijia and Bai Lixin were silently crouched in the corner, quietly observing the changes in the coffin house. Dijia hid behind Bai Lixin and asked in a low voice, “Why didn’t you expose it?”

Bai Lixin: “We shouldn’t startle the snake, we don’t know the purpose of the paper figurine, the whole Yanwang Town is deserted except for this one paper man.”

“He must have something to do with why the villagers disappeared, so let’s just watch his movements; it won’t be too late to catch it.”

Just as the two of them finished speaking, there was a loud “creak” of a door in the silent darkness of the street.

They immediately held their breath and watched a figure sneak out of the coffin home with something on its back.

The figure moved very stiffly, and the snapping sound of bamboo joints rang out every now and then.

It was stiff, but it moved with surprising speed.

Dijia naturally took Bai Lixin in his arms, tapped his toes in the air, and his body blended into the darkness with ease, easily following the figure not far away.

The clouds that obscured the moon moved, and the moonlight gently streamed down to reveal the white, stiff face, dark eyes, blood-red lips, and two red blushes on the cheeks.

It was the paper figurine they had seen on the bed earlier.

The paper figurine wasn’t aware that it was being followed; it had feet, but it was not running, instead, it was sliding them along the ground.

Its body was so light that it could slide a long distance with a gentle blow of the wind.

The paper man was carrying a heavy-looking bag on his back, but its contents were unknown.

The paper man slid for about half an hour and, surprisingly, stepped out of town.

He did not cross the river but walked along the town’s wall before finally stopping in his tracks.

At the same time, Dijia gently landed on the top of the wall with Bai Lixin in his arms.

They watched the paper man throw the bag on the ground and then bend down to begin digging into the earth.

As he dug, he sang.

“Two men are born in the spring, and a bunch of men will grow in the autumn, hee hee hee hee.”

“Great master, take a quick look at the gift that the believers have given you, they are the freshest of lives and their bodies are still warm.”

Although the paper man looked light and airy, his digging movements were very vigorous.

He dug a deep and large hole in the ground, then threw the bag. The moment he threw the bag, two bodies rolled out of it.

The two bodies were not yet stiff, so they should not have died so long ago.

The place the paper man dug was almost the same place the corpse drivers had dug up the corpses yesterday. In addition, the two corpses he had just thrown in were just like the corpses from yesterday; their faces were all scratched up, so it was impossible to tell what they looked like.

However, Bai Lixin frowned.

The men in the pit, one fat and short and one thin, were wearing long robes, with straw ropes wrapped around their waists, and a bell.

It was the two corpse drivers from yesterday; they left in a hurry at dawn and, unexpectedly, ended up here.

Bai Lixin watched as the paper man began to sing after throwing the two into the pit.

“Great master, this is the life I dedicate to you. I have not only food for you but also your next bride.”

“I have left my mark on him, and I am sure you will find him soon.”

“Oh great master, for the sake of being so devout, may the devotee pray for a small gift from you?”

The paper man buried the bodies neatly, not forgetting to pat the soil to make it more compact.

When this was done, the paper man knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times in the direction of the woods.

In the next second, a bizarre scene took place.

A small tree sprouted from the place where the body had just been buried. On the green branches was a round, crystalline fruit that glowed red in the darkness.

The moment the paper man saw the fruit grow, he became even more excited, and once again kowtowed several times on the ground, speaking reverently as he did so, “Thank you, thank you, thank you for the gift, master. I will help you find more lives!”

After saying that, the paper man quickly took the fruit off and stuffed it into his mouth.

Soon, an even more bizarre scene took place.

The body, which was made of paper just a moment ago, changed the moment the paper man ate the fruit.

The arms slowly filled up, and the light body became heavy.

The two eyes turned back to those of a human being, and even the clothes made of paper turned into rough linen clothes.

In just a few breaths, the paper man had turned into a human being, and it was none other than the old man whom Bai Lixin had seen yesterday.

The old man wasn’t aware of Bai Lixin and Dijia’s presence, he tremblingly picked up the bag and found a dead branch from the ground to use as a walking stick, then moved in the direction of Yanwang Town with hobbling steps.

As he walked, the two could still hear him muttering to himself, “Ten days, I hope the next wave of living people will come to Yanwang Town within ten days.”

“Hey, if only I could slide like a paper man when I turn into a human… bah, I have a crow mouth, I don’t want to turn into a paper man again. Please don’t blame me, master! I was talking nonsense, I was just talking nonsense!”

“Aigoo, this old back of mine, it hurts me to death.”

The old man muttered as he wobbled away.

It was only when the old man had entered Yanwang Town that Dijia and Bai Lixin jumped down from the wall.

Dijia looked at the tree that had lost its fruit with dark eyes.

Bai Lixin: “You know this tree?”

Dijia nodded: “It is something unique to the Underworld, the fruit of the Manzhushahua.”

“Manzhushahua is also known as the flower of death; it is not supposed to appear in the world of the living.”

“Although I don’t know why it has appeared here, I can confirm that this matter is connected with the Underworld.”

Bai Lixin walked around the ground with his head lowered, seemingly looking for something.

Dijia watched Bai Lixin’s strange actions until he stopped. The latter stood in a place not far away and called out to him, “Dijia, can you come and help?”

Dijia walked over and asked, “What is it?”

Bai Lixin pointed at his feet, took two shovels out of his backpack, and said, “Help me dig here.”

Dijia took the shovels that appeared out of thin air: “……”

‘This was supposed to be a scouting trip.

Why would you carry two shovels around!’

‘No, I can’t ask; Bai Lixin is good; he probably has his own reasons.

Yes, the poor child has suffered, he probably carried shovels because he often does some labor jobs.’

‘God is not fair, and what happened to Bai Lixin is too heartbreaking.

What kind of suffering hasn’t he faced?’

While Dijia was thinking, Bai Lixin had already started to dig a hole in the ground.

Seeing Bai Lixin’s skillful movements, Dijia’s heart ached even more.

‘He probably became skilled because he did it repeatedly. He has suffered so much, yet he remains optimistic and never shows his misery.’

Dijia gripped the shovel tightly and asked himself.

‘Did you give enough money in the first place?’

He made a note to give the young man more the next time he went to the temple!

He won’t let Bai Lixin get wronged again.