Chapter 259: Chapter 227: Exploiting the Rules

Cui Liu Lane.

Yu Da watched helplessly as Sang Que fell, unable to rush over to check, while Kou Yushan also ran into trouble when he intended to help Sang Que fend off the attack.

After Cui Cheng charged into the alley, his whole body stiffened as he felt a chill grazing his waist.

Just ahead lay the body of Lu Da, who had been cut in half at the waist, and Cui Cheng feared he would meet the same fate.

Suddenly, a hoarse laugh echoed from Cui Cheng’s waist. Before he could look down, Yu Da braced himself and stepped into the alley, yanking him out.

Both of them tumbled at the entrance of the alley. Cui Cheng touched his waist only to find his clothes were slashed open, including the Inner Armor he was wearing inside, but what he felt was a hard lump that wasn’t there before.

Yu Da leaned close and saw that the lump was about the size of a fist, faintly resembling a woman’s face, with a hint of blush.

“It’s the curse of a human-faced pustule, someone outside is saving you!” Yu Da immediately realized what was happening.

The human-faced pustule case happened three years ago, and Yu Da still remembered it vividly.

It was a widow with a young daughter, with no in-laws to help, forced to rely on her skills in making rouge to survive.

The widow was beautiful and smiled at everyone, but being an orphaned mother, no one protected her, leaving her beauty and ability to earn money as her ’crime’.

Despite having done nothing, the widow was slandered by neighbors for seducing married men, claiming that selling rouge was a cover for prostitution, and that her rouge contained corpse oil to harm others.

The widow endured everything to raise her child, but misfortune struck in pair, her daughter died unexpectedly, and no one knew if it was accidental or murder.

Later, the widow poisoned those families who frequently bullied them, as they wished, she burned their jawbones to refine corpse oil, used the oil to make rouge, and applied it to commit suicide.

After her death, curse-laden rouge inexplicably appeared in some cosmetic stores in the city, causing users to develop human-faced pustules all over their bodies.

Kou Yushan’s current wife, Yun Niang, was always reluctant to open a shop because she recognized this widow and had helped each other in the past.

“Cough!”

Sang Que, who was lying on the ground, coughed, pressing her neck to get up. Yu Da abandoned Cui Cheng and hurried over to check on her.

“How are you, did you get hit by a curse?” Yu Da inspected Sang Que hastily, noticing that her wounds were swiftly healing, yet her complexion was increasingly pale and devoid of blood.

“It must be Captain He, casting curses outside, keeping you from dying in the nightmare.” Yu Da exclaimed, believing Sang Que’s curse was He Buning’s doing.

After hearing Yu Da’s inference, Sang Que finally understood why she hadn’t seen Xia Chan, Xuan Yu, or Black Donkey in the dream.

However, she knew her curse wasn’t cast by He Buning; it was the old monk’s curse from Ming Mansion that she partially inherited.

She didn’t possess the old monk’s complete immortal abilities, surviving by rapidly depleting her own energy and blood, but if not replenished, she would indeed perish.

She doubted drinking blood in the dream would help much, reckoning it ineffective, thus she ought to be cautious henceforth, not relying on the curse to act recklessly.

Yu Da helped Sang Que stand up, and as soon as Sang Que was on her feet, dizziness hit her followed by severe anemia symptoms.

Sang Que pressed her head and asked Yu Da, “Is that thing in the alley killing according to sound?”

Yu Da nodded, “From what we’ve seen, it’s indeed based on sound; you and Lu Da entered together, and your footsteps were obviously lighter than Lu Da, so it targeted him first before coming for you.”

Cui Cheng stood up too, his right arm empty beneath his sleeve, and smashed his left fist against a nearby willow tree, “What now, we can’t just float in there!”

The willow tree trembled violently from Cui Cheng’s blow, sending the snow atop cascading down.

The commotion triggered the tapping footsteps to resonate at the alley entrance again.

The thing was confined within the alley, not attacking people outside, the alley was a straightforward path, likely entering the adjacent courtyards wouldn’t escape it.

The three furrowed their brows in contemplation; Sang Que, with her usual tendency to think outside the box and find loopholes, suddenly came up with an idea.

Yu Da and Cui Cheng both scratched their stomachs and waists respectively, identical in their puzzled gestures, looking at Sang Que.

Sang Que walked to the alley entrance, inhaled deeply, and directly stepped inside with one foot, using the back of the knife to hit the wall hard.

Bang!

A muffled sound; Yu Da and Cui Cheng held their breath.

Along with the muffled sound, Sang Que immediately leaned back, retracting her foot, as a cold breeze swept across her waist, severing her Token’s string.

However, Sang Que dodged in time; only the Token’s string was cut, but she was unhurt.

Seeing this, Yu Da widened his eyes in surprise, while Cui Cheng looked a bit confused.

Yu Da praised, “Smart, Sang Er!”

Knowing Cui Cheng’s military habits, predisposed to follow orders over pondering, Yu Da explained, “That thing attacks one person at a time; whoever makes the loudest noise gets attacked first. So, if someone constantly creates loud noise at the alley entrance to attract it, does that mean others can safely enter the alley?”

Cui Cheng paused, then clapped his thigh, “Right, great idea!”

Then Cui Cheng scanned Yu Da and Sang Que, volunteering himself.

“You two are clever; I’ve stayed in the army all year round, only good at reacting on the battlefield, no need to rack brains for this, let me do it. Besides, I’ve got the human-faced pustule curse, even if something goes wrong, I won’t die.”

“If you mess up, we die.” Sang Que remarked bluntly, “My curse may not be effective next time.”

Damn!

Cui Cheng’s face darkened, feeling Sang Que always opposed him, whatever he did.

Yet, Sang Que was right; if Cui Cheng failed to attract that thing in the alley, it would immediately seek out Sang Que and Yu Da.

Yu Da wasn’t yet cursed, and Sang Que said her curse mightn’t work next time; one mistake would surely lead to death.

At the critical moment, Cui Cheng suppressed his hot temper, “Rest assured, I’ll make no mistake!”

With Cui Cheng’s assurance, Sang Que and Yu Da exchanged looks; now Yu Da also intended to join the venture, determined to save Granny Zhuang. Only by entering might he find a feasible solution.

Cui Cheng loosened up his limbs, grabbed his Ring-headed Saber, and after preparing, all three stepped into the alley together, Sang Que and Yu Da treading softly against one wall, while Cui Cheng kept one foot in and one foot out, vigorously striking the wall with the back of his saber.

Bang!

A muffled sound; the wall cracked open from the force of Cui Cheng’s strike.

The chilling wind swept over, and Cui Cheng leaned back, stepping away, his waist emitting a raspy low laughter as the curse shielded him from the attack; nonetheless, more human-faced pustules appeared on his body.

His hand, neck bore them, the face becoming clearer.

Cui Cheng’s old face stiffened, watching Sang Que and Yu Da, who ignored him, already dashing deeper into the alley. Cui Cheng dared not delay, once more stepping inside and pounding the wall.

This time he retreated swiftly; the curse didn’t flare up, while the eerie wind crashed against the wall, scattering debris.

Cui Cheng mastered the rhythm, performing repetitive actions to draw the thing’s attention, this straightforward task was effortless for him.

However, Sang Que and Yu Da found themselves facing anticipated troubles.

Sure enough, the alley concealed peculiarities, lined with uniform walls and courtyard gates, when they turned, the old willow vanished, and darkness loomed ahead.

Whether onward or back, it was the same straight path.

The two surveyed their surroundings, Sang Que tentatively pushed open a gate, entering only to find herself back in the alley, unchanged.

She repeatedly pushed open different gates, going in and out, yet regardless of the route, she ended up in the alley.

“Hold up, Sang Er,”

Yu Da carefully observed his surroundings, drawing from years of experience, inspecting each gate, muttering odd numbers, counting and checking back and forth.

“Got it, five gates on each side, totaling ten; see if the peach charm trace on this gate differs from the others? Let’s try this one.”

Yu Da pushed the gate and entered, still in an identical alley, but he quickly found another gate among ten with subtle differences, pushing through.

The alley remained unchanged, but Yu Da grew progressively confident, accelerating in spotting the divergences.

When they pushed open the tenth gate, they finally saw a newly painted bright-red courtyard gate at the alley’s end, adorned with fresh peach charms and two hanging red lanterns with the character “Fu,” exuding a New Year’s Eve atmosphere.

“We’re here!” Yu Da glanced deeply at Sang Que; they had arrived at Granny Zhuang’s house.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep