Chapter 91 ...

“I think I know where ‘Shao Ji’ is. Let’s go find her now!” Nangong Qi said confidently.

Hongji nodded. "Let's wait for Aji to wake up before we go together; it'll be safer."

Nangong Qi nodded silently without objecting.

The long wait made the air even quieter.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he finally woke up. He looked around in confusion and then returned to his initial state of silence.

He quietly followed behind Hōjī.

Lifting the narrow curtain, light shines through, and everything seems thriving, but the people here are all made up of the dead.

But there was light in their eyes; they all felt they still had a future, a bright future.

The kids from yesterday are still here, still playing and frolicking with their peers. In their current understanding, isn't this a time of peace and prosperity?

Everyone else greeted Aji with smiles, "Good morning, Chief." "Good morning, Chief." "The food looks good today, Chief, would you like some...?"

They finally stopped, on the scaffold that Aji had searched for so long yesterday, amidst the charred ashes.

Nangong Qi subconsciously wondered if Shao Ji might be here.

The next second she knew she saw "Shao Ji" kneeling there.

They were startled and looked at "Shao Ji" warily. Shao Ji tilted her head and said, "Beautiful—so beautiful—"

The moment Nangong Qi saw her, she was overwhelmed by fear and collapsed to the ground in terror.

Sensing that something was wrong with Nangong Qi, she immediately stood in front of her, but... Hu Ji looked left and right but saw nothing.

“Beautiful...so beautiful—” The flower sprouted from the crack in Shao Ji’s neck.

Nangong Qi watched helplessly as the flower passed through Hongji's body, thinking he was about to die again. Hongji felt nothing, but based on his analysis, he knew there must be something nearby that he couldn't see.

His eyes darted around, but he saw nothing.

Ignoring the desolation before her, the flower, not in a hurry to kill Nangong Qi, extended a tongue-like organ and licked Nangong Qi's face.

The slippery feeling was nauseating, and Nangong Qi was too terrified to move.

Aji saw it and grabbed it immediately, even a little confused. What was this? Was it an enemy? It smelled delicious.

"Squeak." A little too much force was used accidentally, producing a squeezing sound. Aji shook her hand, somewhat puzzled, and gently rubbed her fingers together, feeling a slippery texture.

A terrible feeling.

What did he grab again? Ah, not quite sure. He groped around with his hand and pulled on something that looked like a vine. Hmm? Something seemed to have splashed on his face.

Aji raised her hand and wiped it, something seemed confusing. She blinked and looked at Hongji, saying that if he didn't understand something, he should just look at himself.

Hongji clearly sensed that Nangong Qidu had relaxed, and patted Aji on the shoulder, "It's okay, you did a good job."

He looked at his body, completely unharmed, having touched nothing. Was it capable of penetrating anything that wasn't living? Or...?

Nangong Qi swallowed hard, then suddenly realized her mouth was full of blood. Had she accidentally bitten her tongue?

Aji turned around, the bloodstains on her face were still dripping, and there were even unformed drops of blood on her eyelashes. Aji seemed to realize something and turned to look at Nangong Qi, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Nangong Qi shuddered instinctively, then belatedly realized what she was afraid of.

On the ground, a strange flower was uprooted, along with its large intestine. It seemed that only this flower filled the body, leaving it empty.

"Dead?" Nangong Qi asked, trembling.

He calmed her, saying, "It should be."

Sensing that Nangong Qi was not in a good state, I went back first and found a cup of hot tea for her. When a person has something warm in their hand, it can greatly reduce stress.

Nangong Qi pondered the cup and slowly said, "I think that 'Shao Ji' is fake."

Isn't that obvious? If it were his alternate identity, it would be impossible for it to happen like this. He also believes that Shao Ji couldn't have been parasitized so quickly. The "Shao Ji" that he can't see can't possibly be Shao Ji inside and out.

But... why do they think that's his disguise? Does he look like him? Aji licked the still-wet blood on his hand. Ah? It does taste like blood, but where is that fragrance coming from?

Forget it, I don't understand. There are other aliases.

Shao Ji glanced at A Ji licking his hands and shuddered. It was terrifying that he was licking blood. This was no longer the protagonist he remembered!

Hmm? Hmm, Hmm, why did Hmm naturally stop this behavior? They share the same memories, yet their intelligence has been affected to this extent? They're starting to imitate children! How childish!

If they won't let me, they won't let me. It's not good to drink anyway. I'll just keep spacing out.

He looked at Hu Ji with admiration as he stopped Nangong Qi.

“I discovered that this ‘Shao Ji’ appeared as soon as I was thinking about it. It was like I was wondering if ‘Shao Ji’ would be here. And then she really appeared. In fact, she might not have been ‘Shao Ji’ at first because ‘Shao Ji’ was the first thing that came to my mind, so it became ‘Shao Ji’.” Nangong Qi explained with difficulty in the language she could understand.

"You mean it's something you imagined?" Hu Ji guessed.

"It's not so much that it's like it didn't have an identity before I spoke; it was like air before I spoke, but once I called out its name, it became real."

"Really? That's quite strange." Hōji seemed thoughtful. "Any other unusual behavior?"

"At first, it looked a lot like Shao Ji, but over time it became more and more stiff, and when no one was around, flowers started to sprout from its neck. The flowers were strange, very bright and beautiful, with a tongue in the middle, connected to its intestines."

After trying to imagine it, Hōji decided not to torture himself anymore.

“I think I understand now. It appears in your fear, as long as you think it might appear, but I can’t feel it. Even if it passes through me, I don’t react. But Aji can touch it?” Huji concluded.

“Yes.” Nangong Qi, having recovered slightly, nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

"Is there anything else unusual?"

"Hmm...it seems to keep repeating things like 'Beautiful,' 'Beautiful'?"

"Is that so? Do you have any associations with these words?"

"Absolutely not."

"I see. Ghosts are usually obsessed with something. These two words must have some important meaning if they are always on people's lips. But can this thing be called a ghost?" Hu Ji hesitated.

"I don't know either, maybe it's just something that people care about appearance? It's so strange."

Just then, a voice came from outside the door: "Chief, every household has registered now, and they're waiting for you to come and celebrate with drinks!"

"Okay, I'll be there in a bit."

"Hmm?" Nangong Qi looked at Hong Ji and opened her mouth, but the voice that came out was Aji's. "A little trick."

"Oh, oh."

They eventually went out, not wanting to arouse suspicion, since provoking them wouldn't do them any good. With so many people, if they attacked together, even ants could kill an elephant.

They greeted each other along the way, but Nangong Qi, who was standing next to them, didn't get used to it so easily.

She was trembling the whole way, and it was obviously more dangerous to leave her alone.

A bewildered Aji was invited to the stage to give her thoughts, leaving only Huji and Nangong Qi below.

When I touched Nangong Qi's hand, it was ice cold and she was sweating profusely.

"What's wrong?" Hu Ji noticed that Nangong Qi was probably too nervous.

"I... there are ghosts all around me, I'm afraid they'll suddenly come up and eat me again." Nangong Qi's face was pale.

Huiji knew that the pressure of two deaths was unbearable for Nangong Qi.

"..."Right now, relieving Nangong Qidu's pressure is definitely more important. Who knows if Nangong Qidu's imagination will become a reality?

"...Actually, these dead people have no ill intentions towards the living. I was lying to you before."

"What do you mean?" Nangong Qi felt that she didn't quite understand.

"So you're saying I lied to you before. The reason that mother and son disliked you is because they said you indirectly caused their deaths, which is why they attacked you. But now that you've died once, in their eyes you don't owe them anything anymore, so there's nothing to be afraid of," Hu Ji said helplessly.

"You mean to say that I really killed that mother and daughter? But why are you lying?" Nangong Qi was on the verge of collapse.

"Because guilt can sometimes crush a person." It wasn't just this mother and daughter; Huiji looked at the crowd inside singing and dancing.

"Ah! That one! Isn't that person 'Shao Ji'?" The flower appeared in Nangong Qidu's field of vision.

She immediately realized that she was starting to have wild thoughts, and she tried to control them, but the more she tried not to think about them, the harder they were to control.

Suddenly things started to get out of control. Countless figures began to appear. At first, these people just wanted to be "Shao Ji," but gradually they began to deform and become strange and ugly.

They slowly gathered around, their voices becoming unified: "Beautiful—beautiful..."

It seemed that this was the only living being left among the people around.

But in Hōji's eyes, everything remained calm, and nothing seemed to have happened.

He picked up Nangong Qi helplessly. "Can you tell me their location?"

"..." It took Nangong Qi quite a while to finally come to her senses. "Okay."

Heiji decisively crouched down and jumped up! ? He flew up!

For a moment, Nangong Qi forgot her fear in surprise. Looking down, she saw countless identical monsters, their necks sprouting speech, constantly chanting the same word, "Beautiful—beautiful..."

"Are we just going to stay here?" Nangong Qi asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, they can't reach us at this height. My energy is more than enough," said Hu Ji nonchalantly.

Looking down, Nangong Qi couldn't help but wonder, with so many monsters, what if they started building human towers? Wouldn't they be able to reach us? And their lower bodies are intestines—what if they stretched out?

***They really came up!