CH 95

Chapter 95 – Without a Key 7

Lian Qiao didn’t cooperate and there was also an injury on his leg. Xu RenDong didn’t dare to pull him hard but was also afraid that if he let go Lian Qiao would run away.

Shi JianChuan was rather leisurely. He took out a folding fan out of nowhere and slowly fanned himself. He just followed Xu RenDong with a smile, without any intention of helping. Xu RenDong naturally wouldn’t ask him for any help.

After finally dragging Lian Qiao up to the second floor, Xu RenDong was already exhausted. He dug out another rope from the mountaineering bag, intending to tie Lian Qiao to a column temporarily. Lian Qiao refused to be tied and punched and kicked Xu RenDong. Xu RenDong was patient at first and tied him while trying to avoid domestic violence. However, Lian Qiao struggled so hard that the rope could not be tied at all and Xu RenDong ended up with several teeth marks on his arm.

Xu RenDong suddenly got angry, took out a crowbar and knocked Lian Qiao unconscious. With a plop, Lian Qiao fell to the ground. Xu RenDong dropped the crowbar and patted himself off, feeling quite satisfied. 

Shi JianChuan was stunned: “…I couldn’t tell but you are actually very ruthless.”

Xu RenDong glanced at him, turned his head and left without saying a word.

Shi JianChuan followed him very naturally: “Where are you going?”

Xu RenDong: “Looking for a stool.”

“Oh so you can’t reach the lantern.” Shi JianChuan said with a smile. “Why don’t you ask me for help? I can help hold you up.”

Xu RenDong: “…” He really didn’t want to pay attention to this person, so he walked forward without looking back.

There were stools inside the room. However, Xu RenDong circled around the second floor and found that there was no guest room on this floor. On the entire second floor, except for a kitchen and a public thatched hut, there were no guest rooms at all.

“Everyone on this floor is dead.” Shi JianChuan shook his fan and said, “The guest rooms disappeared along with the corpses.”

Xu RenDong said, “Then I’ll go upstairs.” Then he turned and walked towards the stairs. 

“That’s right.” Shi JianChuan suddenly asked, “What was in the ancestral hall?”

Xu RenDong was taken aback for a moment, thinking how do you know I entered the ancestral hall? But he didn’t want to be passive in front of Shi JianChuan, so he asked indifferently: “Why do you want to know?”

Shi JianChuan sighed: “Stop pretending. I’ve already distracted the old lady for you, so I’m qualified to ask you this.”

Xu RenDong was surprised: “What do you mean by ‘distracted the old lady for me’? When did I ask you to do that?”

Shi JianChuan shook his head: “After I gave you a reminder last night, didn’t you go to the entrance of the ancestral hall? It was a pity that the old lady was guarding the door so you couldn’t get in.”

“Why do you want to help me?”

“You are helping me as well. I also want to know what’s inside the ancestral hall.”

“Then why do you think I will definitely tell you?”

Shi JianChuan smiled: “You and I have no conflict of interest. Everyone wants to live, right?”

Xu RenDong was silent. Shi JianChuan said again: “I also took the candle from your third floor. If I hadn’t kindly tipped you off, how could you have noticed that the candle was a key prop?”

Sure enough…

After noticing the candle on the third floor disappeared, Xu RenDong had guessed it might be Shi JianChuan giving him a hint. He just didn’t understand why Shi JianChuan wanted to help him. Also, if he wanted to help then why didn’t he just state his intentions outright and resort to playing these kinds of tricks?

Shi JianChuan was really unpredictable. Xu RenDong’s inner vigilance towards him increased by another point.

Having said that, Xu RenDong felt that he could share the experience in the ancestral hall with him. So the two walked back and talked about various things.

However, when Xu RenDong returned to the stairway, he was shocked – Lian Qiao was gone!

Xu RenDong smacked himself on the head. He looked around, everything was clean and there was no sign of a fight but Lian Qiao was nowhere to be seen.

“Did he run away?” Shi JianChuan closed the folding fan with a “pop”, his expression serious.

Xu RenDong didn’t care about anything else at this time, and said quickly: “I’ll go to the kitchen to see, you help me go upstairs to look for him” After saying that, he ran towards the kitchen.

There was a sound of “OK” from behind and Shi JianChuan headed upstairs.

The kitchen is on the other side of the circular tulou. As Xu RenDong ran wildly, he scolded himself in his heart: How could he forget to tie up Lian Qiao!

Lian Qiao’s physical fitness was good but he didn’t dare to use a heavy hand so he would not be knocked out by the crowbar for long. Of course Lian Qiao ran away when he woke up! This was bad!

How could he be so stupid!

Xu RenDong was in a state of turmoil and when he ran to the kitchen door and saw the familiar figure in a casual sweater, he at first felt relieved which was then followed by shock.

Lian Qiao was eating!

What was he eating?!

Xu RenDong rushed in and grabbed Lian Qiao. He saw Lian Qiao’s bound hands holding a large piece of rotten meat, trying to stuff it into his mouth.

The piece of meat was so rotten that the shape could not even be seen and the dense maggots twisted around on it, making Xu RenDong’s scalp explode.

“Don’t eat it!” Xu RenDong roared and grabbed the rotten meat.

“Hmm!” Lian Qiao was suddenly deprived of food and fury flashed in his eyes. Soon, however, his attention was drawn to other foods on the stove.

He grabbed a large lobster and snapped its head off. The lobster’s body had rotted into a pool of water and a viscous yellow-green slurry was dripping down. Lian Qiao was very excited, raised the lobster shell with bright eyes, opened his mouth and poured it in.

Xu RenDong hurried to grab it but this time Lian Qiao learned it well. Before his hand could touch the lobster shell, he raised his foot and kicked Xu RenDong hard, actually kicking Xu RenDong out several meters away.

Lian Qiao lost his mind and this kick was a serious one. Xu RenDong felt that his internal organs were twisted together and he couldn’t get up for a long time while covering his stomach.

“You…you fuck…” Xu RenDong got angry, took out a crowbar and was about to knock Lian Qiao out by repeating his old trick when, from the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw something. His heart skipped a beat, his instinctive reaction was faster than his thinking and he had already sprang out.

“Be careful!” He threw himself on Lian Qiao and pressed Lian Qiao down.

At the same time, his back froze—he could clearly feel the muscle fibers being torn.

“Ugh!” He and Lian Qiao fell heavily on the ground. Only then did the pain come slowly.

A large piece of meat was torn off from Xu RenDong’s back. However, he didn’t have time to look at the wound at all because he felt that the thing behind him lunged at him again!

Lian Qiao still held the lobster shell and refused to let go with an intoxicated look on his face. Xu RenDong endured the severe back pain, hugged Lian Qiao tightly and rolled on the spot. Hearing a muffled sound beside him, the thing flew into the air and hit the ground heavily.

Xu RenDong tried his best to pull Lian Qiao up from the ground and retreated while pulling. With the sunlight coming in from outside the door, he could see clearly that the one who attacked him was a monster as tall as a person.

It was a greenish murloc {I had to google this, it’s a fish headed monster and looks gross!}. The fish head was huge and the two fish eyes were flat and inlaid on both sides of the head, looking dull. However, the wide open mouth was covered with sharp fangs, which made  Xu RenDong’s scalp go numb.

The murlocs had webbed fingers on their hands and feet, which were wet and dripping with sticky mucus. It had just missed and soon turned around and rushed towards them again.

Xu RenDong dragged Lian Qiao left and right to dodge, the image was very awkward. Pots and pans in the kitchen were knocked to the ground, making ping-pong sounds. Xu RenDong looked around for an opportunity and made a run for the door. As soon as he stepped out, the momentum suddenly stopped.

At the same time, there was a severe pain in his left shoulder!

The stench of hot air hit his neck and he didn’t have to look back to know that it was the murloc who bit him. As soon as Xu RenDong gritted his teeth, he pushed Lian Qiao out of the door with all his might, picked up the crowbar and swung it back at the murloc.

Lian Qiao fell heavily to the ground. The fall seemed to make him sober but he still didn’t regain his senses. He just sat on the ground and stared blankly at Xu RenDong.

“Go!” Xu RenDong shouted.

Lian Qiao turned a deaf ear but stood up and walked slowly towards the kitchen.

Xu RenDong hit the murloc over the head with the crowbar but the murloc’s skin was as hard as a crocodile. The crowbar made a rattling noise but the murloc didn’t let go.

It wasn’t until there was a tearing sound that Xu RenDong’s shoulders loosened when a large piece of meat was torn off by him.

Xu RenDong was in so much pain that he nearly fainted, however he didn’t dare lose his focus.  As soon as he got loose, he stabbed the crowbar into the murloc’s eyes. The murloc was chewing raw meat when his eyes were suddenly hit hard and he was furious. The sharp webbed claws waved wildly. Xu RenDong clutched his wound and just took a step back when he was immediately grabbed again from the front.

Seeing the mouth full of fangs biting towards him, Xu RenDong raised the crowbar in front of him. However, the crowbar was bitten off by the murloc!

The murloc spit out the crowbar and slapped Xu RenDong’s forehead with his claws. The front claws were thick and thick like bear paws. This time, Xu RenDong’s body completely turned over and he hit the ground heavily. Immediately, his vision turned black and he couldn’t stand up.

“Lian Qiao…” Xu RenDong called out to Lian Qiao for help vaguely with blood in his mouth but got no response. He struggled to get up but, the next second, the dark green murloc appeared in front of him again. He only felt that his chest and thighs were under heavy pressure at the same time. The murloc fixed him with two thick front claws, opened his mouth full of fangs and quickly bit him in his stomach!

There was no pain at first. It was not until the murloc raised his head with a fleshy pink intestine hanging from the corner of his mouth, that Xu RenDong felt severe pain and his whole body began to tremble.

He grabbed the murloc’s front claws, trying desperately to move it away from his chest. However, the murloc remained immovable and even lowered his head again, biting into his internal organs.

It hurts!

The sound of chewing on raw meat filled his ears. Xu RenDong’s body was convulsed with pain and the ground in front of him turned black but he was still trying to roll his eyes to find Lian Qiao’s figure.

Finally, he saw Lian Qiao – in front of a cauldron.

He didn’t know what was in the pot but Lian Qiao was stuffing the contents of the pot into his mouth piece by piece. He didn’t look over from beginning to end, even though Xu RenDong was being tortured by slow slicing, he didn’t look back.

Amidst the despair, Xu RenDong felt a little bit comical. 

Why are you so greedy? I’m about to be eaten and you’re still eating alone behind my back.

Xu RenDong was in so much pain that he could not make a sound, only the sound of gasping from the depths of his throat was left. The murloc gnawed wildly in his stomach, making his body flop around. Xu RenDong couldn’t even struggle. 

It took all his strength just to endure the pain.

At this moment, the murloc on his body seemed to notice something and suddenly stopped gnawing. It raised its head and looked back in confusion. In a blink of an eye, its entire body flew up and slammed into the wall!

Xu RenDong turned his head with difficulty and saw a figure in a Tang suit at the door.

“If I had known, I should have come to the kitchen instead.” Shi JianChuan sighed. He  glanced at Xu RenDong sympathetically. Immediately afterwards, he took out something from his arms and threw it at Lian Qiao.

Xu RenDong vaguely knew what he was throwing at Lian Qiao but he didn’t have the strength to stop it. A few shadows flashed quickly in front of his eyes and something flew around. He couldn’t see clearly and only heard the murloc roaring, fighting with something.

It didn’t take long for the murloc’s huge body to fall to the ground and the surroundings to become quiet.

Xu RenDong heard that someone was vomiting. The man vomited so badly that he almost vomited out his bile. But then, the man rushed to his side and called him in a hoarse voice:

“RenDong! You…”

Xu RenDong turned his eyes slightly and saw a panicked face.

Lian Qiao’s mouth was still stained with dirty vomit, his eyes were red, his whole body was shaking and he looked very miserable. 

Shi JianChuan bent down to examine his injuries. In fact, just by looking at the intestines and blood flowing all over the floor, he knew that it was helpless. But Shi JianChuan didn’t say it in front of Lian Qiao and just patted him on the shoulder.

Lian Qiao picked up Xu RenDong from the ground. The blood quickly soaked Lian Qiao’s clothes and trousers and he found in despair that Xu RenDong’s body had become so light, his shoulders were bitten to expose his bones and there was a big hole in his stomach. The gnawed internal organs leaked out of the stomach and the blood gurgled, and could not be stopped.

He hugged Xu RenDong tightly, his voice trembling.

“What happened, why is this happening… RenDong… RenDong…”

Xu RenDong’s lips moved and he wanted to speak but couldn’t make a sound.

What did you say?” Lian Qiao hurriedly put his ear to his lips and heard a whisper like a gossamer silk.

“…It hurts…help me…”

Lian Qiao trembled all over, with a look of severe pain in his eyes: “No…don’t…” His voice was choked and his whole body was shaking, “You don’t want to die… Don’t…”

Xu RenDong gasped hard. His injuries were lifeless but the pain was so intense that he couldn’t even pass out. He didn’t know how long this torture would last but he couldn’t bear it for a second longer.

It really hurts. There was pain all over.

Why wasn’t he dead yet?

“Help him end the pain.” Shi JianChuan took out a dagger from somewhere, “If you can’t do it, I can help you.”

Xu RenDong turned his face slightly and cast a grateful look at Shi JianChuan. .

“…No need.” Lian Qiao suddenly seemed to be a different person and said in a cold voice, “I’ll do it.”

When Lian Qiao took the dagger, Xu RenDong suddenly thought: Isn’t this too cruel?

Wouldn’t it be too cruel to ask Lian Qiao to kill him with his own hands?

At this moment of thought, Lian Qiao had put him on the ground, raised his dagger high and stabbed him in the heart!

The chill invaded and his fragile heart burst instantly. Xu RenDong’s pupils shrank suddenly and, at the moment when his life passed away, Lian Qiao’s face was clearly reflected in his pupils.

Murderous eyes.

There was a feeling of deja vu.