CH 56

Chapter 56: Witchcraft Sacrifice (XXV)

Xie Wanwan’s body was lying on the cold ground in the underground, blood pooling out from the big hole in her chest, and there were splashes of blood on the surrounding walls. Her face was frozen in fright, the panic and disbelief at the moment before she died fixed on her face.

Isabel stepped back a few steps in fear, clinging to Qi Leren’s arm, so strong that she pinched a row of fingerprints on his arm. Qi Leren patted her arm placidly, took out his arm reluctantly, and went forward to check.

The body was still warm, and it didn’t seem to have died for too long. This fatal wound was what had caused it. The area was very large, even the internal organs were exposed, a mass of sticky collapsed flesh in the blood, which looked particularly disgusting.

Qi Leren hadn’t recovered from the shock of seeing Xie Wanwan’s body. How was it possible? How could she just die? This question echoed in his mind over and over again, making him feel like he was dreaming.

“Who killed her? Lu Youxin?” Qi Leren asked in a daze.

Ning Zhou squatted down to check her wound, and nodded her head in a dignified manner. 

Was it that Xie Wanwan tried to kill Lu Youxin and was killed herself? Was Lu Youxin so powerful? Qi Leren’s mind was a mess.

What about Lu Youxin?

Isabel sounded like she was choking behind him. She held her head against the wall, slowly sat down on the ground, curled up into a ball, and Qi Leren ran back and asked her what was wrong.

Isabel seemed to be frightened, holding her head in her hands, her body shaking violently all over, and making a gurgling sound in her throat, as if she wanted to speak but her words were caught in her throat.

“Are you ok? What’s the matter?” Qi Leren was confused by her abnormal reaction.

Ning Zhou also came over and lifted her up from the ground. Isabel turned pale, and her eyes rolled as she passed out. Qi Leren quickly shook her, but unfortunately there was no response. She seemed to be in a deep coma.

“Probably seeing the dead stirred her memory,” Qi Leren said with uncertainty and asked awkwardly, “What should we do now?”

Ning Zhou’s big blackbird suddenly said calmly: “Find an empty room to settle down, let’s find the last witch.”

Although he knew that Ning Zhou’s bird could speak, what the bird said was always not only mocking but also quick witted. Hearing it suddenly say a long sentence clearly, Qi Leren turned stupid: “You, you, you, you…”

“I let it speak. Once I speak, the accumulated strength in my skill will be wasted,” the big blackbird added, pecking Ning Zhou’s ear with its beak, and Ning Zhou nodded slightly at Qi Leren.

Qi Leren listened, stunned, and watched in a daze as Ning Zhou picked up the passed out Isabel and moved forward. He quickly followed after her, looking at his wrist that the goddess wrote on and thinking sullenly, since the pet can speak for her, why didn’t she speak before? Did she think it was unnecessary to explain to him?

The Goddess’ heart was as deep as the sea, poor Qi Leren who had never had experience of being in love before mentally scratched his head. Although he knew intellectually that he shouldn’t be quibbling over such a thing in this dangerous situation, he couldn’t control himself emotionally!

In an instant, Ning Zhou had taken Isabel to an empty room, put her on the bed, and put a crystal stone-like thing in her hand. A faint halo emanated from her hand and enveloped her inside. Ning Zhou nodded at Qi Leren, and they left the room and continued to look for the last witch.

The underground palace was too big. Looking for a witch aimlessly was tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack. Qi Leren had nothing to talk to Ning Zhou about, pretending that he was seriously analyzing: “We still have to start from the tips on the stone wall. The tips say that this witch is like a gecko with a broken tail, but people don’t have a tail. This ‘broken tail’ may mean that a part of her body is missing.”

Ning Zhou listened attentively to his speech and nodded from time to time, but this had greatly inspired Qi Leren. He spoke like a junior high school student who couldn’t wait to show off his solution ideas to his favorite deskmate, and chattered on like beans spilling: “But it’s also possible that the 'broken tail’ is not a physical description, but a description of her being as fast as a gecko who survived at a critical juncture. She should have a keen sense of smell, because the tip says that she 'smells the living’ and 'eats the dead body’. We’d better go to Ye Xia or Xie Wanwan’s body.”

Ning Zhou blinked, and there was a trace of emotion that could be called appreciation in her beautiful blue eyes. Qi Leren was greatly encouraged, and although he was obviously too proud, he pretended to be modest and said, “Well, in fact, I might possibly have also talked nonsense, I may not necessarily be right.”

Ning Zhou’s big blackbird looked at him contemptuously, and Qi Leren stared back at it. One person and one bird suggested to each other with their eyes that “you are a fucking moron,” while Ning Zhou had already started to leave, and Qi Leren, who felt a little regret about failing to win the fight with his gaze, quickly followed.

The corridor of the underground palace was like a maze. Ning Zhou suddenly stopped for a while and looked thoughtfully. Qi Leren thought that she had found something, and immediately became alert. Unexpectedly, Ning Zhou’s bird said faintly: “Why didn’t you show the way like a gentleman like you promised?”

Qi Leren immediately realized that the goddess was lost! So he rushed forward to express himself, but before he could show his ability to know the way, Ning Zhou’s face suddenly changed and she ran in the direction they’d come from.

Huh? What kind of trouble was going on? Qi Leren was at a loss and quickly gave chase.

The speed of going back was much faster than when they came. When Qi Leren ran to the door of the room where Isabel had been left, a shadow came out of the door as fast as a lightning and went straight for Qi Leren’s face. He stood on the spot in astonishment, and when he saw that his blood was about to splash three feet, a hoarse and gentle voice sounded in the room: “Get out of the way!”

Although the inexplicable strength was not strong, Qi Leren’s body was still tilted uncontrollably to the side, and a strong breeze passed over his head. He subconsciously looks up— a figure with only half of their body was covered with blood that splashed on his face. When he looked back, it climbed on the wall of the corridor like a gecko, and its eyes under its hair were flashing with greed. Its mouth seemed to have been torn open, reaching from ear to ear, revealing a mouth filled with bloody fangs.

Ning Zhou had rushed out of the room, and the gecko witch let out a scream hoarsely, leaving her body with only two arms hanging upside down on the wall above her head and fleeing like a bird.

It was so fast that it just disappeared in front of the two people in the blink of an eye. Ning Zhou gave up chasing and inserted the two knives back into their scabbards.

Qi Leren stood up holding the wall and hurried in to see Isabel’s situation. She was still in a coma, and the barrier that enveloped her was still there, but the halo seemed to have dimmed greatly. It was probably that the gecko witch had touched the barrier while attacking her, which was why Ning Zhou had come back in such a hurry.

Fortunately, Isabel was fine. If she died, it would be troublesome to complete this hidden quest.

Ning Zhou came over from the door, and Qi Leren asked with concern: “Are you hurt?”

Ning Zhou shook her head, frowning when she saw his face. He wiped the blood on his face with his sleeves. Qi Leren hadn’t noticed that he’d been smeared with blood by the gecko witch, and immediately felt sick and turned aside to wipe his face. This wasn’t clean blood. If it was poisonous, wouldn’t his face be disfigured?

The blackbird perched on Isabel’s bed cleared its throat and said seriously, “It has a knife wound.”

Suddenly, he heard the blackbird say something serious in its natural mocking voice, but Qi Leren still couldn’t accept it. He stole a glance at Ning Zhou and then slowly made a sound.

Wait, what the goddess means is that it was injured, and she wasn’t the one to cut it?

“Did it get hurt?” Qi Leren asked.

Ning Zhou nodded his head.

“Is it Lu Youxin?” Qi Leren asked again.

“You’re stupid, it’s a knife wound,” the big blackbird said contemptuously.

Well, this sentence was definitely not Ning Zhou’s words. It was really easy to distinguish.

But if not Lu Youxin, who could it be? Judging from the time when the last witch appeared, Ye Xia was already dead, and they couldn’t be sure about Xie Wanwan. Judging from the interval between the tips on the wall, the last three witches appeared very close to one another, but the next witch appeared only after one was destroyed. Judging from the battle traces, both Lu Youxin and Xie Wanwan were suspected to have fought with the statue witch, and then Xie Wanwan died, and the murderer was most likely Lu Youxin. From the point of view that Xie Wanwan’s place of death was very close to the statue, it was very likely that the two of them had fallen out immediately after jointly dealing with the statue witch. If Xie Wanwan had cut the gecko witch, it had to have been in a very narrow span of time. Besides, he wasn’t sure if Xie Wanwan wielded a knife or not.

Was it the Ellie-Aisha sisters? Was it true that the two missing sisters weren’t so simple? Or was it Lu Youxin who cut it? In fact, could she also wield a knife? But looking at Xie Wanwan’s body, the wounds may have been pierced by Liu Youxin with her bare hands. He remembered that he had seen Lu Youxin return to the palace with blood on her hands before. She probably was used to fighting with her bare hands.

Things became more and more complicated, and Qi Leren rubbed his temples and felt upset.

Ning Zhou picked up Isabel and walked to the door. Qi Leren asked curiously, “Where are you taking her?”

The big blackbird gave him a side look and said in a strange tone, “Go wandering at the ends of the earth.”

Qi Leren looked at it silently, simply ignored it and said to Ning Zhou, “It’s not convenient if you meet the gecko witch later while holding her. I’ll do it.”

Ning Zhou looked at him with a deep face, looking at him from head to toe. When Qi Leren was starting to be flustered, she handed Isabel over and motioned for him to take her. Qi Leren hurriedly stretched out his arms and tried to hold her in his arms. As a result, he regretted the weight as soon as he got started, and his arms and knees turned jelly and she fell to the ground – so heavy! He couldn’t hold her at all!

A soft girl’s body really couldn’t hold another soft girl. Qi Leren accepted his fate. He was ashamed to see Ning Zhou carry people on her shoulders like sacks, and no matter whether Isabel woke up with a stomachache or not, by contrast, the him who was princess-carried by the goddess probably received VIP treatment, right?

They moved on with Isabel, who was still unconscious, and soon came to the temple. Qi Leren proposed to go back and see if Ellie and Aisha had come back, but Ning Zhou was noncommittal.

After stepping into the temple, Qi Leren saw a line of words on the far wall. He immediately came forward to see that the last clue after killing the witch had already appeared.

[One of us went and came back.]