"What... what in the world is this thing?" Even after being a part of the Yu Yuan Sect for so long, Tong Han had never seen such a bizarre object and imdiately questioned it.
"It’s a Resentful Eye, but it’s shattered. It took a full 10 years to collect these three fragnts," Mo Daidai sighed.
"How did this Resentful Eye end up like this?" Yang Xiao pressed on, "And what exactly are its abilities?"
Mo Daidai shook his head, "I don’t know."
"You don’t know anything yet you spent 10 years looking for it?" Yang Xiao’s tone couldn’t help but rise; she was starting to lose her patience as the situation was unfolding way beyond her expectations.
As if Mo Daidai had anticipated this kind of reaction from the two, he slowly reached into his chest. Yang Xiao and Tong Han instantly went on guard. Although the black-clothed bodyguard was tough to deal with, Yang Xiao had the Soul-Capturing Mirror in her hand, and even if she couldn’t win, she was confident she could escape.
However, Mo Daidai didn’t pull out a gun or sothing like the Resentful Eye to threaten them; instead, he took out so photographs. Upon seeing what was in the photos, Yang Xiao and Tong Han couldn’t help but be taken aback—they stared for a long ti before confirming that the figure was a deford person.
It wasn’t for no reason that they were shocked, as the degree of deformity was simply horrifying. Arms grew from the knees, shins sprouted along the shoulders, an eyeball was embedded above the navel, while another grew in the palm of a hand, and a bald, egg-like head jutted out obliquely from the waist, the face was nearly flat, with all features gone, illogically scattered across the body.
Various electronic devices, both familiar and unfamiliar, were attached in different spots on the person’s body, displaying a range of vital signs. There were also drips of IV fluid punctuating the fact that this person was still alive.
Even more alarming was the discovery of gill-like structures on the person’s body. Upon comparing several photographs, it was clear that the gills in the cheek area were continuously opening and closing, revealing the raw, red flesh inside.
After a mont of silence, Mo Daidai took out another photograph and pushed it towards them across the table. The photo showed a girl in a crop-top, fashionably dressed, with bright eyes and white teeth. She appeared just of age, smiling sweetly with a slight tilt of her head, exuding the aura of youth from head to toe.
Glancing from the photo of the girl to the deford and ugly person, Yang Xiao couldn’t help but take a deep breath, "Is this the sa person?"
"Yes," Mo Daidai put away the photos, his resolute eyes significantly dimd, "She is my sister."
As soon as he said this, Yang Xiao and Tong Han fell silent for a mont, clearly sensing the sorrow in the man before them. After a long while, Yang Xiao ventured, "How did this happen?"
"I don’t know, but it must be related to this thing." Mo Daidai looked up at the strange sculpture, "This item once belonged to my sister. But after she had her accident, it disappeared. I searched for it for 10 years before I finally managed to piece it together."
"You previously called it a Ghost Envoy; why?" Tong Han was very concerned with this title.
"I don’t know, either. I found it while sorting through my sister’s possessions. The words ’Ghost Envoy’ were written on the box where this item was originally stored, in my sister’s handwriting," Mo Daidai continued, "The day before she was fine, but the next morning, she didn’t co out of her room for breakfast. When the servant went to call for her, she had beco like this."
After the recent strange event, Yang Xiao suspected that Mo Daidai’s sister had suffered a mishap similar to what they had experienced; sothing was very wrong with this statue. "After your sister’s accident, did anything else happen in your family?"
Mo Daidai looked at Yang Xiao and spoke slowly, "At that ti, our family business ran into big trouble. There were several powers joining forces trying to take us down. However, after my sister’s accident, our family situation improved instantly. Those forces that opposed us suffered one calamity after another—either the head of the family died suddenly or their businesses encountered big problems. Their alliance fell apart on its own. In just one year, we had nearly claid 70% of the market share in our province; no one could stand against us."
"So your business improved imdiately after your sister’s accident, is that it?" Yang Xiao roughly understood what had happened.
"Yes, imdiately." Mo Daidai admitted.
"Mr. Mo, then the matter is clear. I think your sister knew of the difficulties at ho, so she used the Power of Resentful Eyes to curse your competitors in so way unknown to others, and she herself was afflicted by the backlash of the Power of Resentful Eyes," Yang Xiao deduced. The situation wasn’t complex; Mo Daidai had no reason not to have thought of it, so Yang Xiao suspected he just didn’t want to admit it.
"Perhaps," Mo Daidai’s calm response seed to affirm Yang Xiao’s guess.
Considering this, the Resentful Eye truly was a treasure: it could be used to curse one’s enemies, kill without a trace. But recalling the sorry state of Mo Daidai’s sister, Yang Xiao slowly cald down; as desirable as it was, the side effects were just too terrifying.
"You have already woken up this Resentful Eye. Before long, you will receive the nightmare script and go to the Nightmare World," Mo Daidai said seriously.
Yang Xiao had an epiphany, as if discovering a new world, "So that’s how the Nightmare World is opened."
But Mo Daidai shook his head, "This is a very special way to open it. It’s nearly impossible for ordinary people to collect all the fragnts of the Resentful Eye."
"How much ti do we have before we receive the nightmare script?"
"About 7 days, the exact ti cannot be determined," Mo Daidai spoke, "But the Ghost Envoy will disappear first, I will inform you in advance."
"Will there be other people joining us for the task?" Yang Xiao asked in detail, for it was the first ti he would enter the Nightmare World in this manner.
"Of course," Mo Daidai nodded.
Mo Daidai had said all he could, and Yang Xiao knew it would be pointless to ask further, "Brother Mo, all this information you’ve given us, we have no way to tell if it’s true or false. We only agreed to help you enter the Nightmare World, and as for whether we’ll be able to get the Resentful Eye afterward, we can’t make any guarantees."
Mo Daidai nodded slightly, seemingly unworried, "Rest assured, this task is rather special. You don’t need to stand out too much; just staying alive will ensure that the Resentful Eye will end up in our hands in the end."
"Because the task was initiated by the two of us, right?" Tong Han asked.
"Exactly."
Now that the task was accepted, Yang Xiao had to consider his compensation. He was not interested in the vice captaincy Mo Daidai had promised, "I don’t need any vice captaincy; it’s not difficult for . I’d prefer to have a favor from you. If I encounter any trouble one day, I hope you, Brother Mo, will keep your word."
"Definitely," Mo Daidai promised.
"I want the Yu Yuan Sect to revoke the assassination order against , write off the past, and stop troubling ," Tong Han also clarified her compensation with Mo Daidai.
Mo Daidai nodded, saying with ease, "No problem."
"Tong Han’s leg is broken; won’t it be too much for her to attend the task?" Yang Xiao was thinking about how Tong Han had smashed her own leg, yet she was able to hold on until their return, all thanks to the Power of Resentful Eyes struggling to keep her going.
"No worries, I will heal Tong Han’s leg injury within three days." Mo Daidai seed to have thought of sothing, examining Yang Xiao from head to toe before finally speaking, "The people below reported that you are poisoned, but you don’t seem to be in much trouble."
Only then did Yang Xiao rember that his left hand and right leg had once been grazed by the Staff Killing Elder’s staff, which was poisoned, but after inspection, Yang Xiao was also bewildered; the wounds were still there, alright, but the previously rotting wounds were now mostly healed.
Yang Xiao imdiately thought it must be the doing of the Drama Robe, so he declined Mo Daidai’s later offer of soone to help check on him, "Could you arrange a room for ? I want to interrogate the Li Qingxuan we brought back. We found him in the secret chamber of Yanhe Tian’s house."
"Sure, you do as you please." It was evident that Mo Daidai wasn’t very interested in Li Qingxuan; he was only concerned about the task a week later.
Leaving with a box full of gold bars and photos of ghosts, there was already soone waiting for him outside the door, leading him to a secluded room in the hotel, where Li Qingxuan was.
"Teacher Yang!!" Seeing Yang Xiao, the dispirited Li Qingxuan was like a drowning man grasping at a straw, "Teacher Yang, save , please!"
"Cut the crap, tell , how did you get mixed up with Yanhe Tian?" Yang Xiao interrogated.
"Yanhe Tian? Who’s Yanhe Tian?" Li Qingxuan was utterly perplexed, "I don’t know him. I was... they captured . I was hiding perfectly fine in a safe house, and they broke in through the window at night, caught , and made write a note, the note said..."
"Teacher Yang, until we et again, signed Yu Yuan Sect," Yang Xiao finished for him.
"Right, right, exactly, they forced to write it. I don’t know any Yu Yuan Sect. I even asked them if they caught the wrong guy. I’m not from the Yu Yuan Sect; we are from the Hehuan Sect." Li Qingxuan vehently defended himself.
"Where’s Zhao, the drama shop owner?"
"He... he’s hiding. He’s in a small house in a surrounding county town, I... I told him to lay low for a while," Li Qingxuan explained sowhat sheepishly.
"Why did you make him hide?" Yang Xiao sneered, "To protect himself from , right?"
Li Qingxuan didn’t dare to make a sound, which seed like a tacit admission. Yang Xiao hadn’t expected the young man to be quite so shrewd. Under Yang Xiao’s stare, Li Qingxuan couldn’t bear it any longer and began to explain with a bitter face, "Teacher... Teacher Yang, you know I’m just a coward. I won’t lie to you, every ti I co back from a task, I have to find a place to hide for a while, afraid of being caught by soone looking to open a blind box, and I don’t dare to show my face until there’s no more talk outside. I told Zhao to hide for fear that you might find through him, and secondly, I was afraid that you... "
"Were afraid that I would kill the two of you to seal your lips?"
Li Qingxuan nodded his head in terror, "I’ve read your scripts; I know what kind of person you are. The more I thought about it after coming back, the more afraid I got, afraid that you were one of those guys, those Evil... Evil Cultivators."
Yang Xiao couldn’t help but laugh and cry, "Do I look like an Evil Cultivator to you?"
Swallowing, Li Qingxuan took a good look at Yang Xiao and suddenly lowered his voice, "Teacher Yang, if you spare , I swear I will never speak of you being an Evil Cultivator."
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