Chapter 46 (Part 3)
◎ If you don't know how to take care of yourself, you'll end up dying of exhaustion.◎
The black slime was like a wave. As one wave passed, everyone on the roof was dragged into the painting.
The remaining fragments of the evil spirit on the scroll were crowded in the corners, and the fragments were wriggling away from the center of the easel.
The black liquid that had spurted out early spread across the entire rooftop, like garbage and sewage baked by the sun. It quickly dried up, shrank, evaporated, and disappeared into wisps of mist, dispersing into nothingness.
The seemingly endless black liquid gushing from the cracks also reached its end. The source was like a broken pipe, feebly vomiting out the last few drops of slime.
Click.
Several pieces of canvas fell to the ground, and the remaining green-faced, fang-toothed ghost face struggled to move away.
Only faint sticky marks remained where the black liquid had gushed out, and only a pool of sticky liquid remained under the easel.
The white canvas was soaked in the center of the "sewage", and the mucus blurred its shape, making it almost impossible to recognize the appearance of the scroll.
Amidst the fragmented, blurred blocks of color, the figure who had been dragged into the painting and repeatedly torn into pieces reappeared. The black and white figure in the sketch was fragmented, staring blankly outside.
"bell--"
The telephone rang suddenly on the rooftop.
The sound was very faint, as if it was blocked by a layer of obstruction.
The sound came from the fragments of canvas.
There was a short sound, then it stopped. The fragments stuck in the slime moved suddenly, and the fragments barely fit together.
Hu Tu rushed over, holding a blood-red phone, and looked up at the rooftop. "The strange outbreak is over. There's no one up there."
A temporary cordon was set up downstairs of the residential building in the community.
The residents who were knocking on doors and asking them to come downstairs saw a group of people in police uniforms rushing upstairs and gathering together whispering.
"What happened?"
"It's the middle of the day, I don't know. This is the smell, can you smell it? It's so foul, like rotten meat..."
"Oh no! Is there a psychopath hiding a corpse?!"
"Oh, it's a good thing my baby didn't come back to sleep at noon, otherwise he would be scared to death."
…
The investigators who were maintaining order responded vaguely, saying only that they had received a report of a suspected malicious incident and asked everyone to stay away.
It was a weekday lunchtime, and adults and children alike were busy. Soon, the only people left at the edge of the blockade were elderly men and women joining in the fun.
"Captain, deputy captain, evacuation complete. Over a dozen True Spirit Society sacrificial rituals have been dismantled in the corridor. We briefly checked the residents while knocking on doors and apprehended someone connected to the True Spirit Society, providing a hidden residence for this operation. This building is currently secure. Upstairs, this is…"
The sound of a report coming from outside the rooftop broke the silence on the rooftop.
The investigator finished speaking rapidly, then received a look from the deputy captain and realized, "Did I interrupt the captain's thoughts?"
"No." Hu Tu waved his hand, "Come and take a look. Based on the existing information, identify the strange scene."
The investigator responded, moving past the others gathered on the rooftop.
The stench of decay was so thick that it was suffocating, and the ground was bitingly cold. As I walked forward along the faint sticky marks left behind, the fear in my heart kept rising.
Seeing the dim candlelight at the edge, the investigator's scalp tingled, "Has a C-level weirdness erupted here?!"
Only the C-level ones must use the clean candle to resist, otherwise even the remaining strange aura will make people afraid and weaken their vitality.
But there was clearly no major conflict during this operation.
From Bai Xian's warning to the recent arrival of the team preparing to ambush the Zhenling Society nearby, it seemed like the incident ended in a blur?
According to the training, if this was to clean up a Class C incident, the clean candle must be lit at the center of the strange outbreak. Why didn't she see the strangeness?
The investigator looked around following the candlelight and noticed an inconspicuous pile of black mud on the ground.
A black and white sketch was stuck wetly to the mud. The picture had been torn into pieces and pieced together, with cracks all over the picture.
Draw...
The painting is of the roof!
The anxious painter in front of the easel, the henchman hiding on the rooftop watching... everyone's expression is painted vividly, even the garbage in the corner of the rooftop is painted with incredible clarity.
It was as if the entire rooftop was put into the painting, or perhaps there was an eye slightly higher up watching them, capturing the moment of the strange explosion on the painting.
The investigators immediately realized why no member of the evil organization had been caught.
"The carrier is a scroll. After using it, a living person enters the painting. C-rank... Is this the [Hell Scroll]? The records show its ghost state as a demon floating world painting. Only when it freezes will it show the scene of its last devouring. Was it forced to freeze when it devoured the ghost master and revived?"
Lao Li nodded and said, "I haven't forgotten the training content. I remember it very well."
The investigator was confused. "But, but it doesn't make sense! It can't fully revive without devouring the Trickster, but after devouring it, who caused it to freeze?"
Old Li looked at the captain. Hu Tu half-closed his eyes and shook his head, "It shouldn't be me. When I found the weird, I only felt that it was very weak, so weak that it seemed to be almost lost. When I found the weird, it was actually stable, but it was much weaker than a normal C-level weird."
Old Li frowned, "Could it be the True Spirit Society's new research?"
Hu Tu thought for a moment, "Yao Qing and the others are still at the Xile Hotel, right? I'll ask them later if they've seen the 'painter' pass by. It'll take some time for the lingering strange aura to dissipate. Let's first interrogate the guy we captured. We'll also need time to prepare the cleanup cover-up."
Behind the evacuation cordon, the strange stench that had been lingering only on the rooftop was suddenly covered by a foul smell.
In the food street in the afternoon, shops hurriedly closed their doors one after another, stalls ran as if there were dogs chasing them, and even the shop selling stinky tofu closed its windows.
Ye Ping'an pinched his nose, dragged his chair into the room, and quickly closed the restaurant door with a kick of his heels.
Zheng Xin was still immersed in his beautiful fantasy when he saw the skinning boss coming back safe and sound.
Why isn't she dead yet?!
Could it be that the artist is not ready yet?
Zheng Xin didn't want to be implicated by the [Hell Scroll], so he quickly persuaded her to go out. "Boss, the sun is so nice outside, why don't you go out to bask in it?"
Ye Pingan rolled his eyes. "What's so good about that? Are you the boss or am I? If you want to show off, go ahead and do your work."
Zheng Xin was embarrassed. "Well, isn't it because you like taking a nap in the sun? The air is good today, and you think the sun is too strong, so I'll give you this. What great weather... Ugh!"
Zheng Xin eagerly took two steps at a time to open the door. As soon as he reached the crack of the door, he took an exaggerated deep breath.
A foul odor emanated from outside the glass door, which he inhaled into his lungs. Zheng Xin's face instantly turned pale, and he vomited non-stop.
"Police received a report of a foul odor emanating from a resident's home in Yiyuan Community, suggesting a potential incident. An investigation revealed that the resident's toilet was clogged, and while dismantling it, he lost control of his emotions, causing a ruptured pipe, impacting the building's sewage treatment plant, and causing the odor to build up in high temperatures. Jiangshi News reminds you to be cautious when repairing toilets; if you have no experience, consult a professional."
Short local news videos popped up on my phone one after another, all reporting on the same thing.
Ye Ping'an scrolled through the video feed, watching Zheng Xin vomit non-stop. He shook his head and said, "No wonder it stinks. You have to try it, are you stupid?"
The smell was not obvious at first, but when the wind blew, it stunk for ten miles, as if a septic tank had exploded.
Anyone who stays outside is a fool.
"The news is giving him some face. Losing control of his emotions? Road rage, right? It's really hard to understand the mindset of a madman. It's fine if he just smashed his own toilet, but why would he blow up the entire building's cesspool?"
Ye Ping'an was complaining when a new message popped up on his phone.
Lao Li: [Boss Ye, this person passed by the Xile Restaurant at noon. Did you see him?]
Ye Pingan glanced at the photo: [Yes, I passed by. What's going on?]
Old Li took a deep breath: [He's dead.]
Ye Ping'an wasn't surprised at all: "Alas, I saw he was in a hurry, so I didn't stop him from trying to sell his medicinal food. Look at the dark circles under his eyes. An artist who stays up late and doesn't know how to take care of himself, look, he must be dying of exhaustion."
Old Li frowned at the reply.
The painter was indeed seen passing by on the surveillance camera, but Yao Qing and others who stayed nearby did not discover anything else.
Ye Ping'an didn't seem to understand the euphemistic question, and she still didn't ask whether it was Boss Ye who stopped the [Hell Scroll].
But I didn’t see Boss Ye contacting the painter!
"Perhaps... her creature is more than E-rank. When [Hell Scroll] was targeting her, the creature revived and devoured the creature controller. But due to Boss Ye's creature's counterattack and the captain's [Ghost Call], the creature froze instead?"
"Let the research department continue to lose hair." Old Li pinched his eyebrows and arranged for the remaining investigators not to relax, lest the True Spirits become desperate and do something desperate.
-
“Eating people—!”
The screaming in the receiver stopped abruptly, leaving only a rustling noise.
At a certain base of the True Spirit Society, the members who were in contact with the painter crawled over and knocked on the door of Bai Lu's room on the top floor.
"Boss Lu! The painter is dead!"
Bai Lu's pupils shrank slightly and he quickly calmed down.
It is not time for [Hell Scroll] to revive yet, but the opponent is a mysterious master trained by the Investigation Bureau, who might drain the painter's body.
When one person dies, someone else will serve the gods.
Bai Lu said nonchalantly, "He will share eternal life with the spirit of the scroll. We should be happy. The brothers who went with us should have successfully held the scroll. How is it going on the scene? When will they be back?"
Wait… no evacuation report yet? They're stuck?"
The subordinate was sweating profusely and tremblingly said, "Boss, they are all dead."
"What?!" Bai Lu asked sharply, "What's going on?"
"Of the people assigned to go there, only one external member who stayed behind was captured. Upstairs..." The subordinate swallowed hard, "No one escaped.
"Everyone has entered the painting, but the Hell Scroll seems to have become even weaker. The Investigation Bureau is keeping a close eye on it, and those who went there haven't figured out what happened. It's just... it's just a discovery that the investigators find quite baffling."
Inexplicable? Inexplicable!
The white deer was instantly horrified.
Jiang City is really weird, it seems like everything is against the gods!
He hadn't accomplished anything with the strange weapon, and just by checking one person, the strange weapon in his hand was scattered.
The B-rank [Hundred Eyes] disappeared. The C-rank [Hearse] disappeared. The C-rank [Hell Scroll] inexplicably weakened and fell into the hands of the Investigation Bureau.
This is definitely not an accident.
...What kind of power could have accomplished this? The fact that no one had noticed its existence made it even more terrifying.
"Block the news of the [Hell Scroll], and everyone remain silent. Clean up, we can't stay here anymore. Maybe she's a trap set by the Investigation Bureau!"
Run! Let's get out of Jiang City first!
【Author’s words】
Three more updates! Nine thousand four today is great!
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