35: Chapter 35: The Mystery of the Old House (Part 9)

It seemed to be angered, spinning and compressing ceaselessly.

No longer waiting for them to die quietly, it wanted to devour Qianye and the other person right now.

The hong ling umbrella remained stuck in the weak point of the tentacles; she didn't kill it instantly, but instead rotated the tip inside, slowly torturing it, while the wails continued endlessly.

The dense mass of tentacles dispersed slightly.

This completely enraged it; it grew rapidly, lengthened, and attacked them continuously.

Hu Tao blocked those tentacles, ensuring they didn't interfere with Qianye's movements.

Qianye: She kept stirring within the tentacles, as if searching for something.

The constant wailing was piercing and miserable.

Hu Tao swallowed hard as he listened to the miserable wails.

When encountering an enemy, the most terrifying kind is someone who doesn't kill you instantly, but instead lets you die slowly in torment.

"Hmm, found it~"

Qianye reached her hand directly into the spot where the umbrella tip was pressed, grabbed hard, and pulled out her hand covered in dark green liquid. In the center lay a dark green heart that was still beating "thump, thump, thump" incessantly.

"Heavens, is this a heart?!" Hu Tao hadn't expected this tentacle to have actually grown a heart.

Once the heart was extracted, those tentacles quickly withered, and the screams grew weaker and weaker.

Qianye placed the heart directly onto the flower pot; the heart turned into black mist and was rapidly absorbed by the little flower.

The little flower let out a satisfied burp.

So delicious! So delicious!

"Alright, now that you're full, you need to grow up quickly."

Hu Tao didn't notice this scene; once the tentacles disappeared, his first reaction was to open the door, fearing that other monsters might appear.

"What do we do next?"

If Desolate Wind knew they were still alive, he definitely wouldn't let them go.

"As a Guest, I have something I want to ask Uncle Bai for help with."

Uncle Bai was the elderly man who had opened the door for them at the entrance of the old mansion earlier.

Hu Tao still had some impression of him.

"But where are we going to find him?"

Qianye grinned.

At times like this, the purpose of NPCs becomes clear. They certainly wouldn't be able to find him on their own, but the NPCs would know.

For the whole afternoon, Hu Tao followed Qianye around the Ancient Mansion searching for NPCs, and they managed to pry out quite a bit of information.

In a small corner, an Old Woman with a limp was wiping a window. Qianye, holding the hong ling umbrella, approached her with light, brisk steps.

"Wow, Auntie, you're amazing! This window is wiped so clean!"

"Auntie, you are truly amazing!"

"..."

Upon seeing someone, Qianye immediately activated her "praising mode" and successfully infiltrated the inner circle.

The Old Woman originally had an expression of disgust and aversion when seeing a stranger.

After Qianye's extensive praising, she suddenly seemed to like Qianye no matter how she looked at her.

"Oh my, no, no, I'm just wiping it simply."

Qianye naturally took her hand, "Auntie, that's not right. One look and I can tell it's a professional technique; it's very impressive."

After saying this, Qianye gave her a big thumbs up.

It made the Old Woman laugh heartily.

"Oh right, young lady, how did you come here?"

Hearing this, Qianye smiled, "I am a good friend of your young master. He said he was returning to his hometown to hold a wedding, so he invited a few of us friends."

Upon hearing this, the Old Woman's expression changed instantly.

She shook off Qianye's arm and walked forward with a limp, muttering, "What a sin, what a sin!"

"When will these days ever end!"

Once the NPC left, Qianye's face returned to its standard smile, but if you looked closely, that smile didn't carry a trace of emotion.

Hu Tao was also baffled by this turn of events. What was going on? A master-level start, and a bronze-level ending?

Didn't she praise her for nothing?

Qianye didn't mind and continued searching for NPCs in the garden.

By a pond, she saw an NPC squatting there washing clothes.

Qianye struck again, and this time she obtained some information from her.

She had grown up in the old mansion since she was a child. Decades had passed, and Uncle Bai had always been there; strangely, he had always looked the same.

"Does he not have a wife or children?"

"He did. I heard that back then, the child suddenly went missing, and the wife left."

"As for what that wife looked like, I've never seen her."

"That child went missing?"

Yes, it was when she was about ten years old. Uncle Bai took his daughter and left the old mansion. When he returned later, he was all alone.

When others asked him, he only had one sentence: The child went missing.

Eventually, some people in the Ancient Mansion went to look for her, but they found nothing, and the matter ended without result.

"However, what's strange is that Uncle Bai wasn't sad at all."

It seemed he was only sad for two days before appearing normally in the old mansion again. And the weird thing was, he seemed to have even more drive afterwards.

After squeezing all the value out of the NPCs she encountered, Qianye waved goodbye with feigned reluctance.

She asked some older NPCs, and the summary was that Uncle Bai's origin was unknown; as long as they could remember, he had always existed.

Qianye grinned, smiling brightly, "Interesting."

Hu Tao was like a portable accessory; wherever Qianye went, he followed silently behind.

"Are we going to find that NPC, Uncle Bai, next?"

Hu Tao saw that she was walking aimlessly again.

"Find?"

"No, no, no." Qianye wore an inscrutable expression.

Her goal wasn't to search for him, but to first understand his existence.

— —

Night fell.

Countless ghostly shadows hid in the darkness, struggling and tearing at each other incessantly.

Returning to the room, the first thing Qianye saw was the White Cat lying brazenly on the bed.

"You're quite leisurely." Qianye placed the flower pot carefully at the window, turned around, and began petting the cat.

"Meow~"

"Woo~ Meow~"

The White Cat bared its teeth at her. Damn it, every time it wanted to step out of this door, the thing on its neck would constrict.

"Damn human, you'd better let me go."

Otherwise, my master will not let you off.

Qianye tapped the big bow on its forehead, "Hee hee~ I can let you go."

"Wait until I get bored of you~" Qianye smiled with malice all over her face.

It felt very much like she would annoy it to death without a second thought.

The White Cat glared at her viciously, but it could only glare; the moment it had the thought of killing her, its neck would constrict frantically.

"Good~"

"Tonight, big sister will take you to watch a show."

The most important thing now is to seize the time to rest.

The White Cat was tossed to the side, and she sprawled out on the bed ostentatiously by herself.

The White Cat "..."

This is how this woman likes it?

Heh, humans!

The night deepened, there was not a sound, and the air was stagnant.

Outside the window, countless black shadows surged, constantly pacing back and forth at Qianye's door.

The White Cat heard the movement and sensed the aura of its own kind. Its whole body exuded a malicious aura as it looked at the human still sleeping soundly on the bed, its eyes glowing with a ghostly green light.

It jumped off the bed, aimed at the tightly closed door, and bared its evil fangs.

Its ghostly green cat pupils gleamed with an eerie light. It glanced at the person on the bed; it couldn't kill her, but couldn't it rely on external forces?

"Hehehe..."

"Hehe... he"

The countless black shadows outside the door were excited, moving about incessantly.