Chapter 52: The Enchanting Villain

Tanya’s corpse howled madly, threatening Chu Ning with empty bravado, hoping to scare him off. Though its mind was muddled, some primal instinct still recognized the source of danger.

“Why do you always struggle so desperately? It’s such a headache!” Chu Ning pressed his forehead and grinned wickedly, looking more like a villain than ever.

Tanya watched the retreating corpse with a complicated expression, reflecting on the great difference between people. She glanced at Chu Ning’s sinister demeanor, then at the corpse—weak and powerless like a helpless rabbit—before lowering her head, resignedly awaiting Chu Ning’s subjugation of the corpse.

“Please, stop saying things that are so easily misunderstood, I beg you!” Tanya felt as if she were aiding and abetting evil, a sensation that gnawed at her conscience.

“Understood! But I won’t agree to your request,” Chu Ning replied, grasping Tanya’s meaning—she thought being with him made her look less like a good person.

How vulgar! He was a bad man to begin with; why bother pretending to be otherwise?

Even as he chatted with Tanya, Chu Ning was not idle. He controlled the black mist, attempting once more to invade the corpse’s body. As the mist touched the corpse’s skin, it dissolved, while a blood-red glow emanated from the surface, blocking most of the mist.

He wasn’t surprised by this failed attempt. After a blood ritual, a corpse’s strength would grow in leaps and bounds. It was only natural for the first time to hold some special significance.

Previously, manipulating the corpse had been easy simply because its strength was lacking and its instincts not fully awakened; thus, Chu Ning was able to command it as if it were his own limb.

After feeding on blood, the corpse became more cunning, seeking out the opponent’s weak spots to attack. Of course, Chu Ning had no easily exposed weaknesses, and their contact had been brief. Besides, the corpse only acted on instinct; even with a beast-like sensitivity, it couldn’t immediately discern its enemy’s vulnerability.

The only weakness was Tanya behind Chu Ning. Tanya could not be sacrificed—not yet, and certainly not at another’s hands. It was akin to snatching food from the jaws of a tiger; Chu Ning had hunted down this prey with difficulty and would never simply let it go, much less hand it to someone else.

No one would willingly give up a feast right before them! Thus, protecting Tanya was a necessity for Chu Ning; as long as it did not endanger himself, safeguarding her was the priority.

These threats posed no real challenge to Chu Ning; he merely needed to stand before Tanya to prevent the corpse from hurting her.

“What a bother!” Chu Ning muttered, bored at the scene before him. The corpse was hardly a worthy opponent, incapable of posing any threat to him. If the newly refined corpse devoured Tanya, its strength would double!

With this thought, Chu Ning glanced at Tanya, his gaze full of malice, prompting her to cross her arms over her chest and take a few steps back.

“Chu Ning, look—the corpse, the corpse!” Tanya cried out in panic, pointing at the charging corpse and calling upon Chu Ning for help, trusting him to handle the situation.

Though he had underestimated the corpse and failed to notice its sudden action, Chu Ning was not overly flustered. His eyes tracked the corpse’s movement, which appeared sluggish in his sight.

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“It’s not coming for us!” Chu Ning reacted swiftly, quick enough to spare a moment to judge the corpse’s target.

He guessed at the corpse’s intentions, following its trajectory to deduce what might happen next—it was aiming to escape!

The corpse’s intelligence had clearly risen, realizing that beyond the security door lay the vast world, where it could roam free.

“Something’s off. I really hate those sneaky creatures!” Chu Ning quickly sensed something was wrong. Though the blood aura blocked the black mist, the total impenetrability seemed exaggerated.

Somehow, the corpse’s strength had stepped up a level; it charged at the security door with brute force, as if nothing could stop it.

For a moment, the light in Chu Ning’s eyes faded as he watched the corpse smash through the security door, creating a human-shaped hole in the glass, even twisting the metal frame.

“Time’s up!” Chu Ning sighed and shook his head, aware that his time was running short. If he tried to stop the corpse from escaping, it would be difficult, and expending the black mist within would shorten his remaining time. Thus, he didn’t stubbornly try to keep the corpse.

Especially since a shadow had flashed across the glass moments before, after which the corpse became frenzied and its intelligence soared. Clearly, there was something fishy here; no one would believe it wasn’t the result of someone’s interference.

Watching the corpse dash outside, Tanya was swept with a torrent of emotions. There was the anxiety of losing control over the corpse—after all, nominally it was hers. There was a bit of relief at the escape; she honestly didn’t know how to handle the corpse, so its departure spared her further trouble.

And fear of an unknown conspiracy—she felt like an insect caught in a spider’s web, tightly bound by hidden schemes, slowly succumbing to death.

The cold night wind slipped in through the shattered glass, making Tanya’s white dress flutter. The air, once thick with the scent of blood, was now much clearer. She stood in place, gazing at where her corpse had vanished, silent for a long time, murmuring softly.

With his time expiring, Chu Ning closed his eyes wistfully, savoring the cool breeze of the rainy night. When he opened them again, the exchange was complete. He rubbed his temples in pain, digesting incomplete fragments of information.

“Ah, this is really troublesome! What happened here? The bloody scene before me is like a slaughterhouse—can you explain it simply?”

Chu Ning found his memory blurred, as if pixelated, making it difficult to piece together what had happened. Confronted with the carnage before him, he felt stuck—how was he supposed to explain this to anyone?

“One of the people in the summoning ritual was the one who killed me; the others were his victims,” Tanya said, pointing to Zhang Long, who lay in a pool of blood, introducing the perpetrator behind the tragedy. She omitted the supernatural aspects.

“How tragic!” Chu Ning clicked his tongue at Zhang Long’s shriveled corpse; the skin had lost all moisture, wrinkled and drawn tight, the muscles atrophied and the weight plummeted.

Chu Ning was genuinely curious about how Zhang Long had died. Could it be that, after Tanya killed him, she vented her anger by dehydrating the corpse with a mixture of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium chloride, preparing to make a specimen for display in her home?

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“Where did you get the drying agent—don’t tell me you carry it with you! Anyway, congratulations on your vengeance. We’ll settle the payment when we have time,” Chu Ning eyed Tanya suspiciously. He knew revenge could drive people to irrational acts, like killing their enemy without a second thought.

“What drying agent? Stop with the nonsense. Don’t worry, we’ll settle the payment once we’re somewhere safe. This is no place for accounts!” Tanya guessed Chu Ning had returned, the metallic tang in his words marking the difference between the two. As for the nonsense about drying agents, she simply ignored it. After so much time together, Tanya had learned Chu Ning’s ways. Whatever startling things he said, nothing surprised her anymore.

Chu Ning glanced at the bisected corpse behind him and recalled the brutal deaths in his fragmented memory. He looked sheepishly at Tanya, standing in place. He really wasn’t good at handling corpses, much less cleaning up six floors within the allotted time—it was impossible.

After a moment of silence, Chu Ning finally mustered the courage to ask, “We didn’t leave any obvious evidence, did we? No belongings left behind? No witnesses to this scene?”

Tanya rolled her eyes. As ghosts, how could they leave physical evidence, much less be seen by ordinary people? Seeing Chu Ning’s guilty expression made her angry; the once proud and domineering Chu Ning was gone.

“No, rest assured! None of these deaths were our doing; you don’t need to act guilty or try to run!”

Chu Ning eyed Tanya oddly; Zhang Long’s corpse was still warm. From Tanya’s explanation, Zhang Long had cruelly murdered those involved in the ritual—so who had killed Zhang Long?

Surely Zhang Long hadn’t, out of guilt, hanged himself before Tanya’s eyes! Chu Ning felt little about Zhang Long’s death, except that it was richly deserved.

“I get it—excessive self-defense!” Chu Ning raised his eyebrows with pride, admiring his own ability to talk nonsense. He needed a reason to clear Tanya’s name.

But Zhang Long’s corpse had shriveled to a mummy; calling it excessive self-defense was absurd!

Tanya was so exasperated by Chu Ning’s explanation that she wanted to stab him—clearly it was Chu Ning who killed Zhang Long, yet he was pinning it on her. It was infuriating! Although she had long dreamed of killing Zhang Long, being made the scapegoat still bothered her.

“I’ll say it again—I did not kill him, understood?” Tanya enunciated each word, earnestly meeting Chu Ning’s gaze, hoping he would see her sincerity.

Hearing this, Chu Ning was amazed by Tanya’s skill—she completely washed her hands of murder and said it so confidently. He was full of admiration.

“Understood. Who is this? Why is there a dead body here? Ah!” Chu Ning jumped theatrically, pointing at the corpse and asking with feigned surprise. He thoroughly followed Tanya’s lead, pretending to forget Zhang Long altogether, acting as if he’d just discovered the scene.

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