What Relationship

Thirty minutes later.

Zhu Yan looked over the information the art student had handed him, his brows unconsciously drawing together.

“Name: Ji Xiting

Gender: Male

Species: Mutated Snowland Believer

Level: ???”

A level whose combat power was impossible to determine.

Zhu Yan had seen question marks like these elsewhere—for example, in the descriptions of his [Invisibility] ability and [Catalogue of Rules], as well as Qiu Lingfeng’s [Wish Fulfillment] ability.

Seeing them attached to Ji Xiting was extremely bad news. It most likely meant that the stronger his opponent was, the stronger Ji Xiting would become.

“You probably won’t be able to kill him directly. As long as a mutated Snowland believer makes regular pilgrimages, he can obtain immortality and the power to automatically repair any damage to his body.”

“The intervals between pilgrimages can be very long.”

Zhu Yan understood what that meant.

Since the intervals could be very long, stopping Ji Xiting from making a pilgrimage probably wouldn’t be of much use either.

“I’m sorry, but we haven’t found a direct way to kill him yet.”

Fangcun Mountain regretfully reached its conclusion.

If there was no way to kill him, then this could be called a completely useless piece of paper.

Zhu Yan watched the art student bustling around in front of the fireplace, deep in thought.

The guy was probably making coffee. The fragrance of coffee and hot light cream mingled and drifted through the air.

Zhu Yan shifted his gaze back and stared blankly at the ceiling overhead.

Feining had mentioned not long ago that horror creatures also fought over territory.

From what it had said, the being that had assigned Zhu Yan the task of planting [Gu Insects] seemed to be completely at odds with the Snowland.

Then, could he make use of that?

What if he borrowed someone else’s knife to kill Ji Xiting?

Zhu Yan pulled out the sheet of paper titled [Instructions for Using Gu Insects].

“Dear Holiday Marauder:

“Gu insects are a special kind of handicraft, made with considerable delicacy.”

“If you look closely, you’ll discover that inside their soft yet impenetrable shells are layer upon layer of threads of consciousness.”

Zhu Yan felt that Dragonfly had overestimated his eyesight.

The threads were inside the bug. How was he supposed to see them?

“The threads don’t actually possess consciousness. What I mean is that they are something extracted from the body of a higher existence…”

“And that higher existence is itself either an aggregate of desires or some other mutated and amplified version of something.”

Dragonfly was trying to explain this subtle concept in its clumsy way.

Zhu Yan more or less understood.

A gu insect was similar to a small avatar, except that it couldn’t think.

“The implantation method is very simple. Just use boiling water to melt its soft yet blade-resistant shell, allowing the white threads inside to dissolve into the water and turn into a fragrant cup of strong tea…”

In short, he just had to steep it in boiling water.

“…and make the host drink it. This is where you need to pay attention! Pay attention! You idiot!”

Zhu Yan straightened up and continued reading with renewed enthusiasm.

“You must ensure the purity of the host. That means not allowing him to provoke any other dark forces!

“Otherwise, you’ll be in for a world of trouble. Oh, I mean, this thing is rather single-minded. Once it recognizes a piece of territory, it insists on occupying it.

“If your host isn’t pure, it will emit a piercing shriek and believe that the other party has offended it.

“Don’t let it control the host and cause trouble for you. If it takes the host on a rampage through a dungeon, attacking powerful entities with backgrounds you can’t afford to provoke, then you need to do some serious self-reflection!”

What?

Zhu Yan couldn’t believe his eyes. He shot to his feet.

Wasn’t this exactly the trait he needed?

“What’s wrong?”

The art student heard the commotion and turned around.

He was still crouching in front of the fireplace, one hand reaching inside and rummaging around. After some effort, he finally pried out a storage-space card.

Then he stood up, trudged over to the induction cooker, turned off the heat, and carelessly poured the coffee and the milk-and-cream mixture from the other pot into the same container.

“You look really excited. Did something good happen?”

Zhu Yan sat back down.

“Nothing,” he said. “I just got excited when I saw you pull something out.”

Director Jin. Director Jin.

Director Jin currently knew nothing about the Snowland’s power, so for the time being, he was still a pure host.

But that might not remain true in the future.

Zhu Yan could hide inside Qiu Lingfeng’s puppet and use the identity of “General Qiu” to force Director Jin to choose a side. He could bring Director Jin along to worship that so-called Huanxi Buddha with the high-ranking believers.

Then he could make Director Jin drink the insect tea.

After that, all he needed to do was bring Director Jin into Ji Xiting’s so-called [Endless Kitchen] dungeon, then find a way to lure Ji Xiting down…

If things went according to plan, he might—just might—be able to kill him.

At the very least, he could probably leave him half-dead.

Zhu Yan felt that it was worth trying.

He was even itching to give it a shot.

“Take this.” An Xuyin shoved the item into his hands. “Remember to come back again after a while. I know you may need to take care of some loose ends, but…”

He patted Zhu Yan on the shoulder.

“Fangcun Mountain will have a new mission for you, and we also need to take you around the neighborhood.”

“Oh, right. Give me the room card. Our people will be coming over to set things up in the next couple of days.”

Zhu Yan took out the room card and handed it over, then put away the storage-space card and rose from the sofa.

“Here you go,” he said. “I’ll be leaving first. There’s too much to do. Oh, right—the clothes…”

An Xuyin looked at him and said apologetically, “Please bear with us.”

Then he turned into a white cat and, without the slightest hesitation, extended his claws toward Zhu Yan!

…

Thirty minutes later.

Zhu Yan, controlling the puppet Qiu Lingfeng, carefully put on Qiu Dehai’s skin suit and pushed open the door to the express passage.

The puppet and the reading item were in hand, and Qiu Lingkai’s death was drawing near.

He hurried along the thick carpet in the corridor and knocked on the office door.

“I’m back.”

The door was pulled open from inside.

Yang Zhanbai rose from the sofa, a head of red hair disheveled as if it had been clawed, his expression gloomier than Zhu Yan had ever seen.

Zhu Yan’s heart tightened.

Was this normal?

He immediately thought back over what had happened. On the way here, he had checked Zhu Zeyu’s account, and Yang Zhanbai hadn’t sent him any new private messages.

Then what was this about?

Yang Zhanbai tugged at the corner of his mouth and gave a slight bow.

“General Qiu.”

“You can leave,” Zhu Yan said.

Yang Zhanbai gave another polite nod and brushed past him. Zhu Yan quickly closed the office door and asked, “What happened?”

Qiu Lingkai shrugged.

“A hot-blooded young man wanted to stand up for his friend. Too bad his acting was terrible.”

“As for me, I was bored, so I played along with him for a while. Has the head of Hunter No. 1 been handed over? What was the reward?”

“It’s been handed over,” Zhu Yan said.

Out in the corridor, Yang Zhanbai came to an abrupt stop.

What did that mean?

They already had the head of Hunter No. 1?

Then why were they still so determined to kill Zhu Zeyu?

Yang Zhanbai stopped in his tracks.

Inside the office, Zhu Yan knew that Yang Zhanbai had most likely planted a listening device here.

But it didn’t matter. In any case, his identity wouldn’t be exposed.

“What was the reward?” Qiu Lingkai asked. “Is it enough for us to establish a foothold in Madcap Happy Land?”

Zhu Yan manipulated the puppet in the form of [Mist], wearing a carefree smile.

“Of course. Those high-level horror creatures investigated that head and were absolutely delighted—thrilled, in fact. They even gave me a house in [Merriment Paradise]. A villa, no less.”

Yang Zhanbai clenched his fists.

Qiu Lingkai had clearly put on such a sanctimonious front earlier, telling him that lowly humans like them had no right to speak with high-level horror creatures.

Yet now, in the blink of an eye, he was asking Qiu Dehai questions like this.

Just what kind of identities did these two have, if they could actually communicate with the high-level horror creatures of [Merriment Paradise]?

He turned around and slowly crept toward the office, his footsteps light as a feather.