Chapter 074: Nurturing Spirits Brings Calamity, Harming Others and Oneself

Song Kai immediately connected the little girl covered with eyes and that human skin mask with the description on the micro-shop. At this moment, Qin Liang came out after his shower.

The two briefly exchanged their stories.

Soon, Song Kai understood the situation.

Qin Liang was a deputy police officer in the town. He had been expelled from police school due to a mistake and had remained in the town working as an auxiliary officer ever since. He hoped to crack a big case and become regularized. Coincidentally, a murder case had occurred in the city. A real estate tycoon, Luo Dahai, had been killed in a gruesome manner, but no matter how hard anyone searched, not the slightest clue could be found.

In his eagerness to solve the case, Qin Liang used his connections to publish a false report in Yishui City, claiming that the murderer of Luo Dahai would soon be found, as definitive evidence had been left on Luo Dahai’s corpse. After releasing this false report, Qin Liang hid Luo Dahai’s body, waiting alone in the mortuary, hoping to lure the killer into a trap.

This plan was indeed simple, even somewhat foolish, but murderers were often paranoid. Upon seeing the report, the killer would surely try to find the body and destroy the evidence.

Therefore, Qin Liang wasn’t entirely acting recklessly.

While Qin Liang waited in the mortuary, Song Kai happened to arrive, leading to the scene that had unfolded earlier.

Song Kai said to Qin Liang, “Well, your plan isn’t bad, but if the real killer does show up, you’ll likely be stabbed to death. Let me ask you something: do you know where the old lady from the mortuary went?”

“She went home. I arranged it with Granny Sun—told her to rest at home today while I stayed in the mortuary, lying in wait for the criminal,” Qin Liang said proudly, patting his scrawny chest.

Song Kai frowned. “Then why did the old man at the gate say Granny Sun had already resigned? That’s suspicious!”

With a furrowed brow, Song Kai said to Qin Liang, “Take me to see Granny Sun. It’s important.”

“Hey, I’m working on this case too, you know,” Qin Liang protested, not wanting to play second fiddle.

Song Kai was already heading outside. “If you want to stay there alone, be my guest.”

Qin Liang’s face turned pale at those words. He quickly caught up with Song Kai, saying, “All right, all right. A case is a case—after all, I’m a public servant.”

They soon climbed out over the wall.

Qin Liang was curious—Song Kai actually had a police motorcycle.

Song Kai claimed he’d borrowed it, then took Qin Liang straight to Granny Sun’s house.

Granny Sun lived in a nearby village.

Qin Liang called at the door, “Granny Sun, Granny Sun, are you home?”

“Who is it?” The door opened a crack.

“It’s me, Officer Qin Liang!” he introduced himself, eager to clarify he was an officer and not just an auxiliary. “Granny Sun, thank you for helping me with the investigation today.”

Recognizing Qin Liang, Granny Sun opened the door wider. “It’s nothing, Officer Qin. Did you catch the criminal?”

“Not yet, I—” Qin Liang faltered, not sure what to say next.

At that moment, Song Kai strode directly into the courtyard, saying as he went, “Granny Sun, you’ve been haunted, don’t you know? You’re covered in ghostly energy—you’re nearly dead!”

“What are you doing! Get out!” Granny Sun tried to push Song Kai out.

Song Kai gave her a gentle shove, and Granny Sun fell to the ground.

Sitting there, she cried out, “Officer Qin, what are you doing? Who is he? Do you suspect I’m the one who killed Luo Dahai?”

“Don’t be afraid, Granny Sun, this man’s a good person,” Qin Liang reassured her, helping her up. He brushed his hair aside with a delicate gesture and glared at Song Kai. “Hey, Song Kai, do you have any sense of decency at all?”

But Song Kai was already headed toward a side room in the courtyard, where the ghostly energy was overwhelming.

“What are you doing—what are you doing?!” Granny Sun was terrified, running after him and trying with all her strength to hold him back.

Song Kai picked up a peachwood sword and a stack of talismans, pushed Granny Sun aside, and kicked open the door to the side room.

Inside, countless sticks of incense smoked.

Beneath the incense were dozens of black jars, each surrounded by aromatic smoke that stank acridly.

On a large table in the center sat a puppet.

The puppet was eerily lifelike—a little girl about eight or nine years old in a dress, standing with her head tilted and a smile on her face.

Qin Liang, who had been complaining about Song Kai’s roughness, was so shocked on seeing the puppet that he collapsed to the floor.

The puppet looked exactly like the little girl he’d seen at the crematorium!

“Damn, I—damn!” Qin Liang crawled over to Song Kai’s side.

Song Kai narrowed his eyes and turned to Granny Sun. “You’re raising a ghost?”

“Nonsense! She’s not a ghost—she’s my daughter!” Granny Sun screamed, rushing to hug the puppet, shielding it as if afraid Song Kai might hurt her.

Song Kai sighed. “Granny Sun, your daughter is already dead. You’ve turned her into a vengeful spirit. Are you helping her, or harming her?”

“You’re lying! My daughter is right here, perfectly fine—she can talk to me every day!” Granny Sun shouted.

At that moment, a little girl’s voice came from the puppet. “Mama, Mama, Yuanyuan’s scared—these two are bad people.”

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, Mama will protect you. Are you hungry, darling? Want something to eat?” Granny Sun soothed.

“I’m not hungry, Mama. I just want to eat their eyes,” the little girl’s innocent voice piped up.

On the floor, Qin Liang let out a miserable scream and promptly fainted.

Granny Sun said, “Yuanyuan, be good. They’re still alive. When someone dies, Mama will let you eat their eyeballs.”

Song Kai, frowning, looked at the black jars scattered around. “Granny Sun, let’s leave your daughter aside for now. What about the masks? Don’t tell me you don’t know.”

“I—I know,” Granny Sun said, clutching the puppet. “All those people are dead, or nearly so. When I did their makeup, I’d ask if I could give their eyes to my daughter. They agreed, but on one condition—I had to make their faces into masks, sell them to someone with the same birth date and time, then bury the birth records in their hearts here, to nourish them. That way, they’d let my daughter eat their eyes. And not just the eyes—they wanted my daughter to get stronger, so she’d never leave me.”

“You’re lying! That method wasn’t told to you by those ghosts, was it? Someone else told you!” Song Kai stared at Granny Sun.

Head bowed, Granny Sun mumbled, “No… it was just those ghosts.”

Song Kai snorted coldly and leapt toward the puppet.

“Don’t hurt my daughter! She’s always been good—she never leaves the puppet!” Granny Sun screamed.

Song Kai flung a talisman down.

A sudden hissing sounded.

Abruptly, a mass of black mist burst forth.

The black mist formed the shape of a little girl, her body covered in eyeballs.

The girl spat a mouthful of black fog at Song Kai, inside which countless eyes exploded in midair.

Song Kai didn’t dare take it lightly—he threw talisman after talisman.

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed.

With a deafening boom, the black mist was shattered.

The little girl took the opportunity to flee.

Song Kai felt secretly relieved—fortunately, the Nine Thunder Internal Energy he practiced made his talismans thunderous and electrically charged. This kind of power was especially effective against ghosts and demons!

Otherwise, dealing with that little girl would have been no easy feat.

Granny Sun was dumbfounded, hugging the puppet and shaking it frantically. “Where’s my daughter? Where is she? She’s always been good—she never runs away. What happened to her?”

“I told you, you turned her into a vengeful spirit!” Song Kai snapped. “And not just your daughter—everyone who bought those human skin masks, you’ve doomed them all!”

Granny Sun stared at Song Kai and slumped to the ground.

“Tell me everything!” Song Kai demanded.

Granny Sun began to sob. “A year ago, I… I took my eight-year-old daughter to a funeral. On the way, Yuanyuan was hit by a car and killed—her eyes popped out. I’m a surgeon, and I was heartbroken, so I did her makeup at the crematorium myself, wanting her to be beautiful for her next life. Then a man with a face full of scars approached me—it was Ma Weifeng, the cremator.”

“Ma Weifeng told me my daughter could go on living, but she’d have to eat human eyes regularly. He taught me a method: skin the faces off the dead, make them into masks, sell them to people with the same birth date and time, and bury the birth records in their hearts to nourish them. That way, my daughter could draw energy from the dead people’s eyes and keep living.”

“I followed his instructions, made the first human skin mask, and to my shock, my daughter really did survive in the puppet—she could talk to me every day, sing to me, she wasn’t dead. But she was always hungry, wanting more and more eyes. So I quit the hospital and became a mortician at the crematorium. I… I always thought my daughter wouldn’t leave the puppet. I never knew I was hurting those people!”

She wept on the ground.

Song Kai sighed, pointing at the black jars. “Granny Sun, the evil you’ve done! Do you know this is a curse, more terrifying than ghosts? How many families have you destroyed?”

With that, Song Kai strode over, kicked over all the black jars, gathered them together, and set them ablaze.

Granny Sun just sat there, sobbing.

The heat from the flames roused Qin Liang, who cowered behind Song Kai. “Song Kai, where’s that little girl?”

“She ran off,” Song Kai replied, as he finished dealing with the black jars.

Despite his terror, Qin Liang was oddly excited. “Song Kai, I know how Luo Dahai died!”

“How?” Song Kai asked casually—he didn’t know Luo Dahai, and didn’t care much about his death.

“It was that evil little girl who killed him…” Qin Liang said, absolutely certain.