The Final Plan

The memorial tablet felt cold and icy in Zhu Yan’s hand.

At the same time, he kept an eye on Jin Rongxu’s progress. The moment Pot Lid’s face turned cold, the face of the Walking Corpse before him also darkened.

Zhu Yan’s mind tensed. His thoughts hooked onto the long saber inside his ring.

“Damnable thing!” the Walking Corpse suddenly cursed.

“Neither of those two players is honest! They’re not like my son. They refuse to obediently hand over their abilities and money…”

That scared him half to death.

Zhu Yan’s taut nerves relaxed.

He had thought he’d revealed some flaw and that “Mother” had seen through his true identity.

Zhu Yan asked bluntly, “Mom, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

When it came to her precious son, “Mother” held nothing back.

“I went to all that trouble to arrange this marriage, and I even gave my eldest daughter to him.”

“It’s also because your mother is useless. I can only use this method to take one person’s ability for you. The one leading that group should have the strongest ability, from what I can tell.”

The Walking Corpse’s face twisted with rage.

The negotiations that followed proved that the person leading the group was indeed the strongest among them.

He had puppets, money, and even the cloak he wore was an exceptionally rare item.

But…

“I originally wanted to turn everyone under him into skins. That would have made things easier.”

…

Inside the small building, Pot Lid and the others cast gloomy looks around the empty room.

The army medic even raised his nose and gave a light sniff.

Jin Rongxu put on an extremely convincing act. “Pot Lid, what are you talking about? We’re a team. How could we be colluding with anyone?”

The cold sweat on his palm had mostly dried.

Of course, the changes in these teammates were the work of the dungeon boss.

But now that he had calmed down and thought about it, the dungeon boss couldn’t possibly want him dead yet.

That had something to do with the yellow paper contract. Why else would they be rushing him to attend the wedding banquet? They intended to keep him alive until the banquet and kill him there.

After fiercely snapping back at Pot Lid, Jin Rongxu glanced at the private-message window in his field of vision.

Zhu Zeyu still hadn’t replied. He might as well have been dead.

Pot Lid’s face contorted. “Captain, what are you talking about?”

“I’m asking you what Zhu Zeyu’s ability actually is. Why did he leave?”

The Fog drifted outside the window, seeing everything clearly.

Good. Until he was ready to reply, Jin Rongxu should still be able to stall them.

…

The only fly in the ointment was that Jin Rongxu’s words carried far too much provocation, thoroughly angering the Walking Corpse standing before “Li Panlong.”

It exploded into a string of curses. “That bastard won’t say a single word! I’m telling you, the thing with the memorial tablet just now was obviously done by his teammate!”

Several Walking Corpses darted back and forth among the obstacles, but they found nothing.

“Shameless bastard! Where the hell did he die?”

What could he say? Never try to guess what a cat is thinking.

Zhu Yan silently replied in his heart, then stood up from the chair.

He might as well continue fishing for information.

And take a look at how this ceremony was supposed to work.

“Mom, if it really was his teammate’s doing, isn’t that a good thing?”

“That teammate will die by your hand sooner or later anyway. Look at this invisibility ability—it’s so rare.”

This time, the Walking Corpse’s face stiffened even further.

“My son, I wanted to deal with him yesterday, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t touch him!”

“He clearly bought my ashes. If I could use the blood curse to possess him, I could use his ability too.”

“Tell me, how could things have turned out like this?”

There it was. He had coaxed the information out.

Zhu Yan committed the words “blood curse” and “possession” to memory, along with the sentence, “I could use his ability too.”

Did that mean it could also use the abilities of the army medic and Ma Dong?

“It’s only one ability.” Zhu Yan put on an impatient expression. “You’ve swallowed so many players already. What does it matter if you’re short one? It can’t cause much trouble.”

“Mom, isn’t Li Laidi getting married? When exactly does the wedding banquet begin?”

He continued fishing for information.

“Tell me the whole process again. When will I get a new ability?”

The Walking Corpse opened and closed its mouth, then stiffly turned around and gestured for Zhu Yan to follow.

All right.

Actually, if he put himself in Li Panlong’s shoes, this felt pretty damn good.

An incompetent, useless new player could live a life of having everything brought to him simply because his mother had a deep obsession and overwhelming power.

“Li Laidi won’t live much longer. She also has the blood curse. That wretched girl—I wouldn’t have let her live this long if she didn’t share the same blood as you.”

“Once the blood curse is properly established, everything will be fine.”

The Walking Corpse’s neck suddenly bent backward. With a crack, it twisted a full 180 degrees until its face was aimed directly at Zhu Yan.

Its purplish-blue lips stretched apart, revealing teeth streaked with blood.

“Once they’ve completed the wedding rites and offered sacrifices to their ancestors, I’ll kill Li Laidi immediately.”

“Once she’s dead, that ability will automatically pass to you.”

That was far too strange.

Zhu Yan was curious about the logic behind it. Was it because Li Laidi and Li Panlong shared the same blood?

Could the blood curse’s function be to build a bridge of connection between two otherwise unrelated people?

“There won’t be any chance of failure, right, Mom?”

“Impossible,” the Walking Corpse said. “As long as you’re alive and she’s dead, this is guaranteed to work.”

What a shame.

Zhu Yan lowered his head and looked at Li Panlong’s hands.

The man was already dead—thoroughly dead at that.

“Mom, I want to make you stronger.” Zhu Yan spoke slowly. “The stronger you become, the stronger I become. How can I help expand your territory?”

This was the last question related to Zhu Yan’s Hunter mission.

Once he understood this, he could send Jin Rongxu a message.

“My son has grown up. He’s become so sensible.”

The Walking Corpse twisted its neck back with a series of creaks, then continued leading Zhu Yan forward.

“That’s easy. Once you have an ability, take Mom to a major city. As long as you bring the urn of ashes out and get those players to buy it by whatever means necessary, Mom can spread.”

“Or think of a way to take the skins I’ve possessed out with you.”

Ah. All right.

That shouldn’t be difficult.

Zhu Yan didn’t know whether the possessed skins could be taken out.

In theory, his ring could only store corpses.

Unfortunately, this was merely a small dungeon. Those powerful figures probably wouldn’t be interested in coming here.

But carrying the urn of ashes out of the dungeon should be no problem.

“We’ll talk about that later.” Zhu Yan imitated Li Panlong’s tone. “Mom, where’s my dad? If you have him carry your urn of ashes over here, will anything happen?”

A level-thirteen military saber was sharp enough. It would be more than sufficient for Zhu Yan to cut the patch of skin from Li Daochang’s back.

Once the time came, he could coordinate both operations.

In one role, as Zhu Yan, he would deal with Li Daochang, then reveal that Li Panlong was already dead and stall Mother’s advance.

Once he obtained the Nightmare Book, he would turn back and stab Jin Rongxu. Then, with the help of the puppet “Zhu Zeyu,” he would tear off the fake cloak he was wearing.

That way, he completed the dungeon mission and obtained what he wanted.

In the end, everything matched the scene the prophet had foreseen perfectly!