5: Chapter 5: A Demon in Human Skin, A Horrific Trial

The woman raised her dead gray eyes without pupils, staring fixedly at the tightly closed villa door.

The demon who had killed her daughter was inside.

At this thought, a thick, intense resentment nearly condensed into a tangible black fog around her.

But she did not charge in directly.

Instead, her body emitted a few crisp 'crack-crack' sounds.

Immediately after,

she, like a boneless gecko, reversed her limbs in an eerie manner and silently crawled up the villa's outer wall.

She slowly slipped in through a half-open window on the second floor.

Her movements were so light that she seemed less like a solid entity and more like flowing, formless flesh.

Second floor of the villa, the corridor.

Several uniformed maids were cleaning.

"Hiss... why did it suddenly get so cold?"

One of the young maids shivered, her face full of confusion.

"Yeah, I feel it too."

Another maid glanced at the central air conditioning panel. "It's clearly set to warm air... Could the AC be broken?"

They did not notice.

On the ceiling right above their heads.

A blurry, human-shaped shadow was tightly pressed against it, slowly crawling past.

A drop of viscous blood nearly dripped onto the maid's head.

But the next second, the blood was caught by a ghastly pale hand.

The Crying Ghost paid no attention to these ordinary people.

Her target was clear. She silently slid down the stairs toward the first-floor banquet hall.

At this moment, the first-floor banquet hall was filled with deafening music, the air thick with the scent of expensive alcohol and cigars.

Under the huge crystal chandelier was a group of young men and women dressed in fine clothes.

Most of them were prominent Rich Second-Generation Heirs from Changyang City.

However, this group revolved around the eldest son of the Zhao family... Zhao Bingtian.

"Hic..."

"Tonight, drink and play to your heart's content!!"

Zhao Bingtian's face was flushed with drunkenness, his tone filled with arrogance.

As he finished speaking, he directly pulled a young girl into his arms, a wolfish glint appearing in his eyes.

This girl wore a cheap white dress, had an innocent face, and was filled with fear and humiliation.

Her name was Gu Yiyi, a top student who had just started university.

She had been forced to come here to raise the exorbitant surgery fees for her critically ill parents.

"What are you hiding from?"

Zhao Bingtian gave a sinister laugh, grabbing Gu Yiyi's hair and forcing her to look up.

"Here, drink this."

Saying this, he poured the champagne in his hand directly over Gu Yiyi's head.

The cold liquid flowed down her cheeks, soaking her dress.

Seeing this, Zhao Bingtian directly forced the drink to her mouth.

"Cough... cough..."

As the alcohol entered her mouth, Gu Yiyi began to cough violently, tears mixing with the wine as they streamed down.

"Young Master Zhao... I beg you... let me go..."

"I really can't drink..."

"Let you go?"

Zhao Bingtian laughed exaggeratedly as if he had heard a joke.

"Did I spend money to buy you just so you could pretend to be innocent?"

He suddenly leaned in, his alcohol-reeking face almost touching Gu Yiyi's nose.

"You can leave if you want."

"Return the money to me, five hundred thousand."

"Or..."

Zhao Bingtian pointed to the spilled wine on the floor.

"Get down on all fours, lick it clean like a dog, and bark a couple of times for me to hear."

Gu Yiyi's entire body stiffened.

Her eyes reddened, and she couldn't stop trembling.

Boundless humiliation washed over her.

But what could she do?

If she didn't comply, she would have to return the five hundred thousand immediately.

That was her parents' lifesaving money... "What? Not willing?"

Zhao Bingtian's face turned cold, his gaze becoming sinister.

"Seems you're a tough one."

"There was another tough one last time, what was her name... oh right, Qiu Xiaoya."

Hearing this name.

The shadow clinging to the corner of the ceiling shuddered violently.

A bone-chilling cold erupted from the shadow.

Zhao Bingtian, completely unaware, continued with a cold laugh, reminiscing.

"That girl was also a student, just like you, putting on a high and mighty act."

"And then?"

"That just made her more fun to play with."

He licked his lips, a perverted light flickering in his eyes.

"Her pleading cries back then... tsk tsk, they were truly wretched, yet truly wonderful."

"That kind of desperate pleading is simply the most beautiful music in the world."

"What a pity..."

Zhao Bingtian sighed, a look of regret on his face.

"Her body was too weak, she stopped breathing after just half a day of play."

"Such bad luck."

"I hadn't even had my fill of fun yet."

Hearing this, the surrounding Rich Second-Generation Heirs burst into raucous laughter.

"Young Master Zhao is mighty!"

"For a piece of trash like that to die by Young Master Zhao's hand is her good fortune."

A Young Man with a Crew Cut sitting next to Zhao Bingtian flatteringly leaned in.

His name was Meng Minghao, Zhao Bingtian's number one lackey. His family was in real estate, and he had often followed Zhao Bingtian in committing misdeeds.

"And don't worry, Young Master Zhao."

Meng Minghao chuckled, a lecherous look appearing on his face.

"I've gotten a new batch of goods."

"This time, the girls are definitely more enticing than that Qiu Xiaoya, guaranteed to be fresh and tender, each one a beauty!"

Hearing this, Zhao Bingtian nodded slightly.

"Fine."

He kicked Gu Yiyi, who was kneeling on the ground.

"What are you still dawdling for? If you don't want to pay back the money, start barking!"

"Otherwise, I'll let you experience the same treatment as Qiu Xiaoya."

Gu Yiyi despaired.

She looked at the twisted, mocking smiles on the faces around her.

This was no longer the human world.

This was clearly hell!

For her parents... she closed her eyes, tears falling like broken strings of pearls.

"Woof... woof..."

Faint, tearful barks sounded in the noisy hall.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"Good! Well done!"

"Bark louder!"

Instantly, Zhao Bingtian, Meng Minghao, and the others erupted into wild,carnival laughter.

They took pleasure in this.

Trampling human dignity underfoot, watching the other struggle and beg for mercy, this gave them immense satisfaction and thrill.

Faced with this scene, the Crying Ghost finally could bear it no longer.

When she heard these people trampling her daughter's dignity and even treating her death as a topic of conversation, the killing instinct of a Fierce Ghost was instantly and completely triggered... Drip.

A bloody tear fell silently.

It landed right on the glass coffee table in front of Zhao Bingtian.

Blooming into aPoignantblood flower.

"Huh?"

Zhao Bingtian was taken aback, looking down.

"Where did this blood come from?"

He muttered to himself, then looked up at the ceiling, but there was only empty space, nothing at all.

However, Zhao Bingtian did not notice... the Crying Ghost had already opened her bloody maw wide, about to activate her killing rule.

However, a voice,majesty, grand, andUnquestionable, suddenly stopped her.

"Stop."

It was Lin Chuan's voice.

Hearing this, the Crying Ghost's body froze rigidly in mid-air.

She dared not disobey Lin Chuan's command.

"Whimper..."

She let out an unwilling whimper.

"Why... My Buddha... I want to kill them..."

"Killing them directly would be letting them off too easily."

Lin Chuan's voice was terrifyingly calm, devoid of any warmth.

"Don't they like to play?"

"Then let them play properly."

"Let them crumble bit by bit, despair bit by bit, in endless fear."

"Let them regret ever being born into this world."

For these demons in human skin,

a direct death would be a release.

Only by making them experience torment a hundred times more painful than death is the true punishment.

Moreover.

Only in this way can their value be maximally extracted... their fear value.

"Don't be in a hurry just yet."

"Wait for my clone to arrive."

"The good show is only just beginning."

As Lin Chuan's words fell.

The Coughing Ghoul quickly left the Desolate Temple.

In just ten minutes, it arrived outside the Zhao family villa.

Then, like a gust of wind, it passed through the villa's main door without any hindrance... into the banquet hall.

Zhao Bingtian hadn't given that drop of blood any serious thought.

The revelry was still continuing.

"Brother Zhao, how about lending me this chick for three days?"

Meng Minghao stared at Gu Yiyi with a lecherous grin, his eyes roaming over her body without restraint.

"I have some new toys over at my place, and I was just worried about having no one to try them out on."

"I want to help Brother Zhao properly 'train' her."

Zhao Bingtian waved his hand dismissively, completely unconcerned.

"Take her, take her."

"Just don't break her."

"Got it! Thanks, Brother Zhao!"

Meng Minghao was overjoyed.

He stood up and staggered towards the restroom.

"Drank too much, need to drain the lizard first."

Whistling, he pushed open the restroom door.

Inside the Zhao family villa restroom, the décor was luxurious, even larger than an ordinary family's living room.

The huge mirror was wiped spotlessly clean.

Humming a tune, Meng Minghao stood before the urinal and unzipped his pants.

Right at that moment.

A chill, sinister wind blew in from somewhere.

Making the hairs on his back instantly stand on end.

"Damn it, what's going on..."

"Have I been overdoing it lately, feeling a bit weak?"

Meng Minghao muttered a curse.

He shook himself and turned to walk to the sink to wash his hands.

The sound of running water echoed.

He lifted his head and looked at his own reflection in the mirror.

This one look.

His pupils constricted violently.

For in the mirror.

Standing behind him was actually a girl in a school uniform.

The girl hung her head, long hair covering her face.

But that school uniform was all too familiar to him.

It was the clothes Qiu Xiaoya wore the day she died!

"Who's there?!"

Meng Minghao was so frightened his heart skipped a beat, and he whirled around.

Behind him was empty.

Only the cold tiled wall.

"Shit..."

Meng Minghao patted his chest and let out a long sigh of relief.

"Too much to drink... really had too much..."

"Starting to hallucinate."

He turned back, wanting to continue washing his face to sober up.

But when he looked at the mirror again.

That girl... was still there!

And this time.

She lifted her head.

Her originally delicate face was now covered in bluish-purple cadaveric lividity.

Her mouth was split open to her ears, revealing an extremely eerie smile.

She was smiling.

Smiling at Meng Minghao.

"Hehe..."

A faint, almost imperceptible laugh abruptly echoed in the enclosed restroom.

"Ahhh!!"

Meng Minghao stumbled back several steps in fright and fell onto his backside.

"Ghost... a ghost!!"

Before he could even scramble to his feet.

*Snap!*

The restroom light suddenly went out.

The entire space was instantly plunged into a deathly silent darkness.

Only that eerie smile in the mirror seemed to still emit a faint, cold glow.

Immediately after.

He felt.

A cold, stiff hand gently rest on his shoulder.

That sensation.

Was like a piece of dead pork just taken out of a freezer.

"Don't... don't come closer..."

Meng Minghao's entire body went rigid; he didn't even have the courage to look back.

*Drip.*

A drop of thick liquid fell onto his face.

Carrying a heavy smell of rust.

It was blood.

He wiped it with a trembling hand, his hand covered in crimson.

Then.

He saw.

From the ceiling.

Countless strands of black hair cascaded down like a waterfall.

Bit by bit... covering his face.

Through the dense gaps in the hair.

He saw a face.

An inverted face, bleeding from all seven orifices.

Was pressed right up against his own.

It was... Qiu Xiaoya!

"Brother Meng..."

"Didn't you say you had lots of new toys?"

"I want to play too..."

"Help!!!"

Meng Minghao finally broke down.

He let out an extremely shrill and miserable scream.

Immediately after, his eyes rolled back, and he directly passed out.

At the same time.

Far away in the dilapidated temple, Lin Chuan's panel began frantically scrolling.

[fear value obtained from Meng Minghao: +5!]

[fear value obtained from Meng Minghao: +2!]

[fear value obtained from Meng Minghao: +10!]

"Not bad."

"Already providing almost 20 points of fear value so quickly."

"The Zhao family villa is indeed a good place."

Lin Chuan watched all this coldly through the sight of the 'Crying Ghost' and the Coughing Ghoul.

Terrifying Meng Minghao was only the beginning!

Inside this Zhao family villa, there were still plenty of 'leeks' capable of providing fear value... Outside the banquet hall.

"Did that kid Meng Minghao fall into the toilet?"

One of Zhao Bingtian's underlings frowned.

"Alright, I'll go check on him."

"This guy, don't tell me he really fell in..."

He had also drunk quite a bit and needed to relieve himself anyway.

Soon, he staggered to the restroom door and knocked heavily.

"Young Master Meng? Dead in there?"

No response.

"What the hell..."

The underling impatiently pushed the door open.

But what greeted him was a wave of intense, pungent blood.

"Holy shit..."

He didn't even have time to clearly see the situation inside.

The scene before his eyes suddenly changed.

The originally luxurious restroom was gone.

Replaced by a dark, damp basement.

The walls all around were hung with various instruments of torture.

And on those instruments.

Hung mutilated, incomplete human bodies.

Some missing hands, some missing legs, some just a skin sack.

And these 'people'.

At this moment, all turned their heads in unison, staring fixedly at him.

Their faces all wore the same eerie smile.

"Give... back... my... life..."

Countless voices overlapped together, like a demonic chant piercing his ears.

"Ahhh!!!"

"Ghosts!!"

The underling screamed, turned to run, but before he could take two steps, tripped over an invisible rope.

Falling flat on his face.

When he lifted his head.

He found himself lying amidst a pile of rotting corpses... At this moment.

Inside the banquet hall.

The originally lively atmosphere was directly shattered by the sudden screams.

"What's going on?!"

Zhao Bingtian abruptly sat up straight, his face darkening.

"What the hell are these useless fools doing?"

He shoved Gu Yiyi out of his lap, grabbed a wine bottle from the table, and stood up angrily.

"Dare to ruin my fun?"

However.

Before he could take two steps.

*Bzzzt...* The huge crystal chandelier overhead suddenly began to flicker.

The intermittent, flashing lights made the entire banquet hall bizarre and surreal.

A chill, sinister wind appeared out of thin air, causing the surrounding temperature to plummet instantly.

"Who's there?!"

A sliver of unease also rose in Zhao Bingtian's heart.

He looked around.

Only to find that the originally resplendent, golden walls were visibly aging and peeling at a rapid pace.

On the originally smooth marble floor.

Puddles of blackish-red bloodstains seeped out.

And within those bloodstains.

Twisted footprints were taking steps... one by one... approaching them.