Plum Blossom Seal

Wen Ya was stunned, a rare sight indeed. This scene was incredibly impactful. She had never known that Si Mucheng could move so quickly, and he looked as if he had practiced.

The man who was abusing the dog was still yelling while being pinned to the ground: "Who are you? Are you sick in the head? You think you can tell me what to do in my own home? Let me go right now!"

Si Mucheng's eyes were red. Just looking at his face, he seemed aggrieved and furious, but the muscles on his arms contrasted sharply with them. If someone didn't know the situation, they would hardly believe that anything could make such a muscular man shed tears.

Si Mucheng angrily cursed, "Scumbag!"

Wen Ya didn't even notice how Si Mucheng had addressed her earlier. After a few seconds of hesitation, she quickly took out her phone and called the police.

However, the communication did not go smoothly during the phone call.

Wen Ya described the situation to the other party, but before she could finish speaking, the other party said something that made her eyes turn cold, and then she hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Si Mucheng noticed that something was off about her.

Wen Ya looked at him, then at the man abusing the dog, her tone becoming somewhat indifferent: "They said that since it's in their own home... it doesn't count. And there's no evidence to prove that it's a stray cat or dog. They even asked me how I got to his house."

These words struck Si Mucheng as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head.

Yes, there's currently no law protecting small animals. If it's a pet, it's considered property, and there's little recourse as to how the owner treats it. Unless it happens in a public place, the only possible charges are violations of public order. But this man abusing the dog has his own territory. They might even be charged with trespassing.

Hearing their words, the man abusing the dog knew they couldn't do anything to him, and became arrogant: "I'm warning you, let me go right now, or I'll call the police and say you're thieves! Robbers! You broke into my backyard! And attacked me! I'll have the police arrest you!"

In just a few minutes, the situation reversed completely.

Si Mucheng immediately looked around but didn't find any cameras, assuming the family hadn't considered installing surveillance. He calmed himself down and increased the pressure on the man abusing the dog, making him yelp and scream. He said to the man, "Behave yourself. Since I'm here, I'm not afraid of your threats. Someone like you probably wouldn't dare to complain even if I beat you up. Because you're just a rat in the gutter, cowardly and incompetent, only daring to take your anger out on smaller animals. If you're so tough, fight me! I'll give you a handicap and you'll be beaten to a pulp!"

The man who was abusing the dog turned red in the face, but under Si Mucheng's tyrannical power, he couldn't say a word.

Wen Ya knew that this matter could only end here, and even if she knew the truth, there was still nothing she could do about it.

She walked to the northwest corner, where the corpses still emitted a strange stench, and flies swarmed around them. But Wen Ya wasn't afraid, nor did she find the filth or stench bothersome. She simply squatted down and examined the remains. There were actually five small animals inside.

The most severely decomposed body had a tuft of pale yellow, curly hair visible on its back, and a piece of its head was missing.

Wen Ya remained silent for a while, then sighed, found a snakeskin bag among the miscellaneous items nearby, and put the corpses one by one into the bag to prepare them for burial.

After doing all this, Wen Ya walked over to Si Mucheng and the man who abused the dog. There was a small dog lying there. The whimpering they had heard at the beginning must have come from it. However, it had been disemboweled and was lying there without making any noise.

But if you look closely, you can still see its body rising and falling slightly; it is still alive, but everyone knows that it probably won't survive.

Si Mucheng's eyes turned even redder, and he gritted his teeth, wishing he could punch that dog-abusing man a few more times.

Wen Ya couldn't treat the puppy as a corpse, so she found another bag, gently picked it up, and put it inside. After doing all this, she said to Si Mucheng, "Let's go."

Si Mucheng released the man who was abusing the dog, but before the man could even utter a curse, he had already made his move. With an elbow strike and a kick, he knocked the man to the ground, where he couldn't get up for a long time.

Seeing that the threat was completely gone, Si Mucheng stepped forward, picked up the snakeskin bag, and left the bungalow with Wen Ya along the path. Behind them, the man who had been abusing the dog was still yelling and cursing.

Back on the path, Wen Xiaofeng and the little dog ghost waited together by the roadside.

Wen Ya stared at the ghostly figure, suddenly feeling hesitant to approach. In the snakeskin bag in Si Mucheng's hand lay the corpse of the little dog ghost.

Even though it was already a ghost, she still felt that it was somewhat cruel to treat it this way.

But the little ghost seemed not to care. It hopped over and anxiously circled the plastic bag in Wen Ya's hand. It was the little dog that had just been tortured and was on the verge of death.

The little dog was whimpering through its nose, extremely anxious.

Wen Ya remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "It... probably won't make it."

Upon hearing her words, the little ghost dog's tail immediately drooped, its head bowed, and it whimpered softly, its ears drooping. It seemed saddened and remorseful for failing to save another little dog with the same fate.

Si Mucheng's eyes were still red, and seeing this, his nose tingled again, but he still said softly, "Master, let's give them a proper burial."

"Wait a minute." Wen Ya turned around, looked at the bungalow, took out a blank talisman paper, took out cinnabar, and drew a talisman on it, a talisman that Si Mucheng had never seen before.

She finished writing it in one stroke, then bent down and said to the little dog ghost, "Blow a breath."

The little dog ghost stared curiously at the talisman in front of it. Although it didn't understand, it still blew a breath onto the talisman as instructed.

Then, Wen Ya threw the talisman out, and it flew straight toward the bungalow.

Si Mucheng realized that Wen Ya was probably going to do something to the man abusing their love, and asked, "Master, what's this?"

Wen Ya's eyes darkened: "That's a Soul-Snatching Token."

Si Mucheng was startled and stammered, "Huh? That...that...are we really going to go that far?"

Wen Ya looked at him, a hint of a smile in her eyes: "The name is just scary. The talisman only makes people have nightmares, day and night. What they dream about will naturally be related to what they did, just to teach them a lesson."

Si Mucheng nodded, then suddenly laughed: "I was originally thinking of sneaking in after dark to grab a sack, beat that bastard up, and vent my anger. I even checked, there are no security cameras in his house, so we can just hit him and run. That guy is obviously a coward who won't dare to make a sound after being beaten. But Master, your idea is better."

The talisman went into the room through the bungalow and wobbled as it stuck to the clothes of the man abusing his girlfriend.

The man who abused the dog was named He Yun. At this moment, He Yun sat on the sofa in the room, cursing and swearing. He was in a lot of pain and had a lot of pent-up anger that he couldn't vent. But the two people who had just been there had already taken everything he could use to vent his anger.

Thinking of the man and woman, He Yun became even angrier. It was utterly absurd. What did he do have to do with them? But how did they know what he did...? Who saw it?

He Yun suddenly stood up and nervously looked around. After looking for a long time but not finding anything, he angrily punched the sofa again.

He lived with his parents. He didn't have a job, and his parents worked every day and only came home at night. He really didn't dare to make a fuss because even though his father was almost fifty, he was still very irritable and would beat him with a fist the size of a sandbag at the slightest disagreement. So, he tried his best to pretend that nothing had happened.

But the injury on his lip couldn't be hidden. Sure enough, when his parents came home that evening, his mother asked him with concern what had happened. Before he could think of an explanation, his father glared at him angrily: "Did you go out and get into a fight?!"

"No! I just bumped into it!" He Yun explained in a panic.

His father scoffed, "That's for the best!"

His parents rarely went to their backyard, so they knew nothing about what He Yun did there. However, He Yun always felt that his mother must have discovered something, but he would clean the backyard every now and then.

Sometimes he would throw the relatively intact carcasses of animals to his mother, saying that they were good for killing and would improve the family's meals. The other odds and ends were excellent organic fertilizer, which he would throw into the vegetable garden in front of his house, and the vegetables that grew from them were quite good.

He thought, those beasts are going to die sooner or later, it doesn't matter whether they die sooner or later, let alone how they die. Besides, they're homeless, without an owner, even if the King of Heaven himself came, he couldn't do anything about them. That man and woman were so righteous at first, but in the end they couldn't do anything either.

He Yun was incredibly frustrated. There were plenty of stray dogs in the suburbs, and he planned to go out the next day to find another one, otherwise he wouldn't be able to vent his anger.

However, that very night, he started having nightmares.

In his dream, he shrank and was chased by a pale yellow mongrel. Countless times, he had been the butcher and the puppies and kittens the prey, but now the roles were reversed.

He only remembered that he had to escape, so he ran all night. But how could two legs outrun a four-legged dog? He was quickly caught, and he woke up abruptly as the dog opened its blood-red jaws.

When he woke up, he felt like he had survived a disaster, mainly because it was so real. He could even smell the hot, damp, and smelly odor from the dog's mouth.

He Yun glanced at the time; it was only one in the morning, he hadn't slept long. He took a breath, tried to fall asleep again, and drifted off to sleep once more.

But as soon as he entered the dream, that gaping, blood-red mouth appeared again. He cursed, "Damn it, how did it connect again?!"

In his dream, he was swallowed by a dog and woke up in excruciating pain. After waking up this time, he could no longer fall asleep.

He Yun was too exhausted to go out and look for stray dogs the next day, but he couldn't sleep either. Every time he fell asleep, he would dream of himself being shrunk and swallowed whole by that pale yellow mongrel in different ways. The ways of dying were endless: being ripped open by the dog's claws, being bitten in two, being teased and toyed with until he was played to death. Each time, he would wake up in excruciating pain.

He would break out in a cold sweat even when he tried to sleep, and he could only endure it without daring to sleep. After a few days, he looked haggard, as if his life force had been drained, and he stayed at home all day, as if he had been possessed.

His mother noticed something was wrong and asked him what was wrong, but he couldn't say it and just waved his hand.

Later, his mother encountered a strange Taoist priest on the road. Thinking that something was wrong with him, she spent some money to bring the priest home.

The Taoist priest was startled when he saw He Yun, and then inquired about He Yun's nightmare in detail. He asked, "Have you committed any crimes related to dogs, especially the pale yellow one in your dream?"

Upon hearing this, He Yun realized that he had killed so many cats and dogs that he couldn't even count them all, let alone remember their colors.

Seeing that he didn't speak, his mother hurriedly asked, "Is it related to something he did?"

The Taoist priest nodded: "He looks like he's been possessed by an evil spirit. We need to perform a ritual to send that dog spirit away."

Upon hearing this, He Yun cursed the Taoist priest as a fraud, but his mother still gave him money to perform the ritual, and even went to the backyard to do it.

After the Taoist priest had done his haphazard mess in the backyard and left, his mother said meaningfully, "Xiao Yun, don't do anything bad anymore."

He Yun was truly terrified.

But that's a story for another time.

After leaving He Yun's house, Wen Ya and Si Mucheng found a small hillside and buried the dead cats and dogs, including the body of the little dog ghost.