Mo Yi didn’t expect that Yu Ran would ask to go with him, so he couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment. He turned to the side and looked at the woman behind him.
His pair of extremely deep eyes seemed to have a shallow coolness. When he was watching intently, there would always be the illusion that one couldn’t hide anything.
Yu Ran couldn’t help feeling agitated, and her back straightened immediately.
Mo Yi looked at her and seemed to be thinking about something, then smiled noncommittally:
“Ok.”
After speaking, he turned on his flashlight and continued to walk into the corridor.
Seeing the straight and thin back of the man in front of her, Yu Ran let out a slight sigh of relief and relaxed her tense shoulders.
She didn’t know why, in front of this man, she always got nervous subconsciously. She was the older one.
but……
Yu Ran’s mind flashed to the other’s face.
The gentle appearance concealed calmness and alienation. The dark eyes were always rational and indifferent. Although he was silent most of the time, once he opened his mouth, he hit the nail on the head.
Cautious and bold, it seemed that every step was well thought out, but he always made unexpected decisions.
Straight and focused like an arrow, he seemed to always know the next step.
But his too young face made it impossible to misunderstand his age.
Yu Ran couldn’t see through him, and realized that he was not simple.
Her eyes were slightly lowered, as she emptied the complicated thoughts from her mind, then quickened her pace, catching up with the back that had almost melted into the darkness in front of her.
The air in the corridor became more and more turbid, and the smell of blood seemed to get stronger. It mixed with the smell of decaying wood and fermented to form a complex smell, like living beings, haunting people’s nostrils.
The twisted and uneven corridor floor formed a weird angle with the walls, almost giving people the illusion of walking in a space-time corridor in a science fiction novel.
The two walked down the corridor one after the other, the flashlight’s slightly cold pale white light illuminating the path in front of them.
The wooden floor creaked harshly underfoot, which sounded extraordinarily monotonous in the silent and cramped corridor.
At the end of the hallway was the kitchen.
Mo Yi stood at the door, paused, looked around the familiar layout of the kitchen, then took another step and walked in.
Yu Ran followed closely behind him and walked in as well.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Yu Ran raised her eyes and looked at Mo Yi’s straight back, a look of contemplation flashed across her delicate phoenix eyes.
Will this time… be any different?
Mo Yi walked to the tall stove in the kitchen and looked at the familiar objects on the table.
Large and small black iron pots and kitchen utensils were stacked in a disorderly manner, a kitchen knife was deeply embedded on the thick and heavy chopping board, and a mouse’s tail was curled up on it.
But different from last time, the blood along the connection between the kitchen knife and the chopping board had disappeared like other bloodstains without a trace, and the long tail had also become dry due to the loss of blood, showing a wrinkled dark red.
When Mo Yi came last time, his attention was almost completely on the nursery rhyme nailed to the wall, so he hardly paid attention to other utensils on the table.
This time he shifted his focus, scrutinizing every detail on the table.
At this moment, an iron pot placed crookedly next to the chopping board attracted Mo Yi’s attention. It was not big, and looked as dark and unremarkable as the other kitchen utensils, rather casual, lying on the edge of the table.
But… under the illumination of the light, the edge of the pot showed a strange bright color, like water stains.
Mo Yi’s eyes sank, and he stretched out his finger to lightly brush the edge of the iron pot.
There was a cold and sticky feeling under his fingertip. He turned his palm and saw that his fingertip was stained with bright blood.
The white finger pulp and the extremely bright blood stain on it made a sharp color contrast, almost hurting his eyes.
Mo Yi slowly narrowed his eyes.
In this instance, the blood of all the dead people was basically absorbed, and according to what he saw outside, the blood should have been introduced into the land, drunk by the soil, and watered the two graves.
Not even the bloody handprints on the wooden door or the blood of the monstrous mouse’s chopped tail were exceptions.
So why was there blood here?
Mo Yi stretched out a hand and lifted the lid of the pot.
A strong bloody smell rushed to his face instantly, and the bright and rich rusty smell was full of a rotten aura, making people almost suffocate.
Fortunately, Mo Yi was forced to get used to the smell when he was outside the house, but he frowned slightly nonetheless as he lowered his eyes to look inside the pot.
Inside the pitch-black iron pot was a large amount of blood, the dark red color seemed to be wet, sticky and strange.
Mo Yi gently shook the edge of the iron pot with one hand, and the blood inside instantly made waves with the movement, imprinting faint red marks on the dark pot wall, revealing the white bones deposited in the pot.
The tiny bones were full of coldness, and were stacked either completely or scattered on the bottom of the pot. With Mo Yi’s movements, the blood slipped off, and exposed their complete appearance.
Again…the bones of cats and frogs.
Mo Yi was stunned, and his eyes slowly became solemn.
It was no coincidence that this clue appeared again and again.
Just as he was contemplating, Yu Ran walked over from the side and looked into the iron pot in front of him. After seeing the contents clearly, she slowly frowned:
“Bones?”
Mo Yi nodded and replied, “Yes, cats and frogs.”
Yu Ran was stunned for a moment, then turned her head subconsciously to look at Mo Yi’s drooping profile, her sharp eyes widened involuntarily: “Cats and frogs?”
Hearing that her tone was a little subtle, Mo Yi retracted his gaze on the iron pot and stared at Yu Ran:
“What? Do you know something?”
Yu Ran was a little uncomfortable looking at his focused eyes, so she couldn’t help but stagger her eyes slightly and replied:
“In the other room, that is, the room beside the mask-room, there are three jars. The jars are filled with some wet soil or something, and the patterns engraved on the jars are people’s heads, cats, and frogs.”
…people’s heads, cats and frogs…?
Mo Yi was slightly stunned, his eyes suddenly lit up like two cold stars, and the focused and bright light in his eyes could almost pierce the heart of a person.
He looked at the iron pot again, and his pale face was rarely stained with a trace of blood.
He knew to which demon the former mistress of the house had sacrificed.
Baal.
The great demon, the head of Solomon’s seventy-two demon gods, was said to have three heads, namely a man, a frog, and a cat.
His worship could even be traced back to more than a thousand years BC. It was the god baal-zebub worshiped by the Semitic people. The sacrifices to him were extravagant, and the sacrifice rituals often sacrificed children and living people. It was said that this was also the reason why he became a fallen god.
Before his fall, he was in charge of the sun and agriculture– the soil in the jars and the soil in the backyard were explained.
One theory was that in the Old Testament he appeared as Baal, but in the New Testament his name became– Beelzebub.
Beelzebub, on the other hand, was the demon in charge of the plague.
Mo Yi’s breathing became slightly rapid, and he looked down at the slightly undulating blood in the iron pot on the wooden table, as the strong and pungent rusty smell entered his nose. From the moment they entered the room, this kind of strong or weak bloody smell followed them like a shadow, and it never dissipated at any time.
Demon Baal also had a very famous feature.
Bloodthirsty.
Yu Ran stood aside, watching the change in Mo Yi’s complexion, she pursed her lips, stretched out her hand to hold his arm, and after seeing him look over, she smiled slightly, and said bluntly:
“Are you going to open a hidden branch quest?”
Mo Yi didn’t expect her question to be so direct, and couldn’t help but be stunned slightly.
Yu Ran seemed to already have an answer in her heart, and she didn’t care whether he answered or not, but just said to herself:
“I know that you essentially have the basic context now, you just need some key clues to connect the whole story, so… I hope to team up with you.”
Yu Ran took a deep breath and seemed to be afraid that she would be mistaken by Mo Yi as a player scoring points, and hurriedly added:
“The clues I collected before can also be shared with you, and I can also help, it’s not… it’s not…”
Mo Yi didn’t wait for her to finish, he chuckled and nodded.
He actually didn’t care if anyone came to get some points. This may be the only conscience of this game. One more person will not divide the points he should have gotten, but will recalculate the other party’s contribution.
So, as long as the other party was helpful to him, he didn’t mind teaming up.
In addition, Yu Ran made such a direct request to form a team, it was very likely that she had some bargaining chips in her hand, and it was very unwise to refuse.
Seeing that Mo Yi nodded without hesitation, Yu Ran let out a long sigh of relief and slightly relaxed her tense shoulders and neck.
She reached out, pulled open her backpack, and took out a small box from the side of the bag.
The surface of the square box was glowing with a black luster, and the delicate surface was crookedly engraved with three simple symbols, which Mo Yi recognized at a glance. Three simple heads were drawn on it: a man, a cat, and a frog.
In the middle of the box was a shallow dent, which looked like a crooked circle. It gave Mo Yi a strange sense of familiarity.
The next second, he seemed to remember something. He reached out and touched his trouser pocket. In the depths of the pocket, a hard and cold coin slid over his fingertips. The cold touch climbed up his peripheral nerves, causing his fingers to shake slightly.
Mo Yi took a deep breath and took out the twisted coin from his pocket. Its denomination: sixpence was written on the white metal surface.
He put the twisted sixpence into the groove on the box– it fit perfectly.
The next second, a faint metallic snap sounded.
The box was open.
Oh, wow, I didn’t expect this coin to play at all!
Thank you very much for the translation 🤍🤍🤍🤍
ooh!! how terrifying. i love it
thanks for the chapter! <3
I’m currently reading this at night …in a room with no light. It’s raining outside with thunderstorm and lightning. Needless to say I’m scared out of my mind right now but I can’t get my self to stop reading 😬
I’m impressed with how well all these different aspects of the specific demon came together to fit with the context here
Thank you so much for translating! <3