A streak of racing fire flashed for a moment in the darkness of the narrow alley.
Driven by primal instinct, Gu Lian threw a punch.
The Fire of Dead Silence wrapped around her knuckles, leaving an arc of flame in the air as it smashed viciously into the head of the Weiyi.
The next instant, the Weiyi’s head exploded.
Flesh, blood, and broken bone fragments splattered against the left wall, centered on her fist, before the Fire of Dead Silence reduced them to decaying ash that drifted to the ground.
Gu Lian stood there, momentarily stunned.
‘Was this Weiyi a bit too weak?’
She hadn’t even finished her combo.
‘How are you already dead?!’
“Hee-hee-hee-hee… it hurts…”
Gu Lian’s pupils shrank.
She immediately raised her leg and delivered a straight kick to the headless Weiyi’s stomach.
“Stop being so creepy—hey!”
Boom—
A shockwave of air burst through the headless Weiyi’s body, causing blood to spray out from its side in a wide arc.
With that single kick, the Weiyi’s body was bent into a C-shape and slammed into the alley wall with a loud crash.
Amidst the flying stone chips, the headless Weiyi detached itself from the wall.
A face full of fangs extended from its neck like a mollusk, swaying in the air.
Gu Lian’s gaze suddenly tightened.
‘What on earth is that?!’
It had no face, yet it resembled certain marine life.
The slippery visage seemed coated in a layer of mucus, covered in feelers similar to those of a centipede.
‘Are all Weiyi things like this?!’
“Hee-hee-hee… you saw me…”
As the words fell, the childish voice suddenly shifted into a sharp, eerie duet of male and female voices:”Give me your flesh and soul!”
Squelch—
The Weiyi’s head lunged forward.
Dozens of tentacle-like meat sprouts extended, spreading out through the air in a dense cluster that would make anyone with trypophobia feel their scalp go numb.
Tentacles whipped past Gu Lian.
She twisted her body rapidly, and as one tentacle stabbed near her hand, she caught it with her five fingers like a flash of lightning.
Sizzle—
“Aaah!”
The Fire of Dead Silence ignited in her palm.
Almost simultaneously, a sharp screech rang out, followed by a thunderous boom.
The Weiyi exploded into a mess of transparent slime in front of Gu Lian, scattering in all directions.
The headless Weiyi’s original body fell to the ground with a thud, blood pouring from the stump of its neck.
‘Is it dead?’
Gu Lian was slightly dazed.
‘Is this thing seriously that bad at taking a hit? The Fire of Dead Silence barely touched it. How did it hit GG already?’
She felt a slimy sensation on her face, as if liquid were trickling down.
Gu Lian used her index finger to wipe the foreign substance from her cheek.
Turning her hand over, she saw a drop of transparent liquid clinging to her fingertip.
She held it before her eyes and took a careful sniff; a pungent, chemical odor filled her nose.
With a frown, Gu Lian flicked the liquid onto the ground.
The moment it hit the earth, it began to bubble as if boiling, and the liquid between the bubbles quickly evaporated.
“Ugh, this stuff… yeah, it’s really wicked.”
Feeling a slight headache, she walked over to the corpse and crouched down.
She pressed her palm, wreathed in the Fire of Dead Silence, against the body.
The flames spread rapidly from her hand over the corpse, which gradually turned white, decayed, and dried up, eventually weathering and crumbling into dust that scattered away.
After watching the corpse disappear completely, Gu Lian stood up as the flames died out.
Her claws returned to their state as slender, white fingers.
She brushed the dust off her hands with a look of slight disgust.
“If Weiyi are all this kind of thing, it’s no wonder those people from the Lieshou are so firm in their stance toward them…”
Judging by the way this Weiyi acted and the way the Lieshou treated her, these monsters that lacked the capacity for complex thought and possessed only simple instincts were the normal Weiyi.
Thinking Weiyi like her and Yao Yao were likely very rare, or even extremely dangerous.
Imagine what a thinking Weiyi capable of hiding within Human Society would be to humans?
The answer was that they would be highly unstable ticking time bombs.
They knew how to endure; they knew how to grow strong in the shadows.
Once such a bomb exploded, the resulting impact… just thinking about it was terrifying.
If that was the case, it certainly explained why the Lieshou’s pursuit of her had been so horrifyingly intense at the beginning.
If she were the one making the decisions, she would probably be even more ruthless and uncompromising than the Lieshou.
After all, only a dead enemy was a good enemy.
“Sigh, this cruel life… if only there were no Weiyi, how much… wait, I seem to be one myself now. This is depressing.”
Walking out of the alley, Gu Lian took out a piece of Chenpi Candy she had “borrowed” from a store.
She gripped the wrapper with her teeth and squeezed the candy into her mouth with a gentle pull, casually tossing the packaging aside.
Cold moonlight shone through the gaps in the thin clouds.
The moon flickered in and out of sight behind the overcast sky, while darkness and light shifted like a colorful garment.
In the dark alley, small droplets of water gradually gathered into a puddle.
Tap—tap—
Strange footsteps echoed through the alley, coming closer and closer.
Dark leather shoes stepped onto the ground.
Then, a hand composed entirely of entwined meat sprouts and tentacles pressed into the liquid, gradually turning blackish-blue.
“Hee-hee… little sister… so much fun…”
A crisp, childish voice echoed in the alley.
A rat had just emerged from the sewer to forage when a mass of flesh with a wide-open maw bit down on it with lightning speed.
With a pop, the rat was dragged entirely out of the sewer and into the air.
Under the moonlight, the rat’s shadow could be seen struggling incessantly.
But as time passed, the rat’s shadow was gradually swallowed by the mass of flesh.
The whimpering of its struggle diminished until, finally, the alley fell into total silence.
“Hee-hee-hee… so delicious…”
On the way back, the sound of Heavy Metal Health Punk was everywhere, a noise that made one feel restless just listening to it.
The lyrics, rising higher with every line, made Gu Lian’s eardrums ache.
She truly didn’t understand why these old ladies insisted on grouping up to perform the Square Dance every single night.
Was it really that interesting?!
After passing several “Auntie Dance Troupes,” Gu Lian finally reached Lao Daye’s front door and tapped lightly on it.
Knock, knock, knock—
“The door isn’t locked. Just turn the handle and come in.”
Gu Lian pushed the door open.
In the living room, Yi Yi was sitting on the sofa with zero grace, stuffing food into her mouth.
Lao Daye was still beside her, constantly piling food onto Yi Yi’s plate, unable to stop smiling.
“Sister Ling, it’s such a pity you didn’t get to eat Lao Daye’s cooking today!”
Yi Yi used both hands to cover her bulging mouth, her speech muffled and unclear.
Gu Lian’s mouth twitched.
“You brat, you should call him Grandpa!”
Faced with Gu Lian’s scolding, Yi Yi turned her head and pouted.
“Didn’t you used to call old people either ‘Old Man’ or ‘Old Bag’ all the time?!”
‘Damn it, where did she hear that?!’
At the thought of Yi Yi’s quirky and mischievous personality, Gu Lian felt a massive headache coming on.
If they got kicked out this time, she felt they would deserve it.
This little girl was simply too impolite!
“Hahaha, Lian, don’t worry about it—”
Lao Daye placed a doting hand on Yi Yi’s messy hair, his smile widening.
“A child being like this is just being pure.
One shouldn’t force them to be sensible about these things.”
“…”
‘That’s true.
The house finally has some life in it.
Lao Daye probably lived alone every day before this.’
But…
‘Hearing that, it feels like there’s a hidden meaning!’
‘I’m already 18! I just look a bit small, okay?!’
‘It’s all Yao Yao’s fault; she must have spoiled Yi Yi too much!’
“Achoo!”
Elsewhere, Yao Yao, who was eating wild fruit in the forest, suddenly sneezed.
Seemingly confused as to why she had sneezed, Yao Yao scratched her messy hair and looked around.
Then, she spread her hands and shrugged, taking a bite out of a wild apple.
“Mmm, delicious!”