Chapter 1771: Hostage
The fat ball suddenly said, “Phoenix Chick, I have something I still don’t really understand. This Jing Teng is really important to the Ghost King, so why isn’t the boss personally taking care of this? Why does he keep sending trash at them?”
The skinny monkey rolled his eyes and replied, “If you were the biggest big shot in the world and someone opened up a small shop in your territory, would you personally deal with them?”
The fat ball scratched his head, then said with a simple and honest smile, “I guess what you’re saying makes sense. But I hope it’s not like those human stories where the main character isn’t immediately killed, and slowly grows as a result. After gaining experience from defeating several underlings, they end up defeating the big boss instead…”
“Pah pah pah!” the skinny monkey spat, smacking him. “Stop reading all those garbage human novels and talking about them as if they’re real. What, do you think you’re some scholar now?”
“Scholars don’t taste good. They’re too sour,” the fat ball said, shaking his head a little.
The skinny monkey was clearly not in the mood to discuss whether scholars tasted good or not. He lowered his voice and said, “Let’s sort out the details of our plan. This is what we’ll do…”
…
Meanwhile, Zu An’s group finally found the whereabouts of Little Ying’s parents. It turned out they had been looking for Little Ying the entire time, and yet they didn’t find her even after using up their entire family’s wealth.
Little Ying’s father had overworked himself, and had already passed. Now, only Little Ying’s mother remained. In order to find Little Ying, she and her husband had already sold their ancestral home and anything else they could. It was rumored that she was merely spending her final days in a barren field. She had a simple and crude house there, but it was a place so remote that not even ghosts would go there.
The group finally arrived at the ruined little house up the mountain. They saw an old lady dressed in bright red clothes staring blankly at the horizon. The wrinkles on her face seemed to tell the story of a bitter life.
“A malicious spirit?” Zu An and Qiu Honglei exclaimed in surprise. Judging from what they had seen along the way, red clothes were often linked with malicious spirits. That was their instinctive reaction.
Suddenly, Little Ying broke out into sobs. She ran over and shouted, “Mom!”
The old woman seemed to have some kind of hearing impairment. At first, she didn’t hear anything. Only when Little Ying already ran up to her did she react. She stiffly turned to look at Little Ying, and a hint of of confusion flickered through her turbid eyes.
“Mom, do you not recognize me anymore?” Little Ying asked. She felt pained when she saw her mother’s reaction. She had already been dead for so many years, and her mother had become much, much older.
“My Little Ying, are you really my Little Ying?” the old woman replied, her turbid eyes suddenly regaining a hint of brilliance.
“It’s me, mom! Your daughter was unfilial and returned too late…” Little Ying said, weeping.
“As long as you’re home, as long as you’re home…” the old woman replied, tears trickling down her face. “Just where did you go?! If you came back just a few years earlier, your dad would have been able to see you.”
Little Ying felt more and more broken-hearted. The mother and daughter hugged each other and continued to sob.
After they shared the emotional moment for a while, the old woman suddenly noticed the others and asked, “Who are these people?”
“They’re the friends who brought me back. I was only saved because of them,” Little Ying said, wiping her tears. When she saw her mother’s happiness, she didn’t even dare to say she had already died. She was worried that her mother would suddenly notice that her appearance hadn’t changed at all, so she quickly changed the topic and said, “Mom, your clothes are quite pretty.”
“Are they?” the older woman replied appreciatively. “These are the burial clothes your father used what was left of our assets to buy for me. I could sense that I was already about to die, and I was worried that I wouldn’t have the strength to put them on after I passed. There are no neighbors around here either, and even if there were, who would help an old lady into her burial clothes? I would definitely be filthy and smelly, so I put them on ahead of time to not bother others…”
“Mom…” Little Ying said, unable to hold herself back anymore. She hugged her tightly and bawled her eyes out.
From that, it was clear that this wasn’t a matter of an older woman trying to look attractive, but rather that she was already quietly waiting for death. Jing Teng and Qiu Honglei both cried. Wei Suo also couldn't help but wipe his eyes from time to time.
Meanwhile, Zu An suddenly thought of his own parents in his previous world. Just how broken-hearted were they right now? When he heard the sobs around him, he felt somewhat suffocated and decided to leave. Jing Teng and Qiu Honglei were both consoling Little Ying and her mother, so they didn’t notice him as he walked into a recess in the mountain. As he watched the natural movements of the clouds, he finally felt a bit better.
Suddenly, two dark figures appeared next to him. The fat one said, “This kid really is pretty damn handsome. If I had this appearance, wouldn’t I be able to kill wantonly wherever I wanted in the Yin Yang Realm?”
“Kill wantonly, my ass! Our Yin Yang Realm cares about strength the most. The stronger you are, the more handsome you are. Looks are only secondary!” the skinny figure couldn't help but curse.
“I guess you’re right. But can’t I be both handsome and strong?” the fat Hidden Dragon replied.
“How could there be someone like that? The heavens wouldn’t permit such a thing,” the skinny Phoenix Chick said in annoyance.
The two of them reflexively gave Zu An a look. They both shook their heads. This guy really was handsome enough, but he didn’t even have a single ripple of ki coming out of his body. He was nothing more than a weak pretty boy.
“Why do girls always like this type? Are they all blind?!”
Zu An had thought that two great enemies had closed in, but who would have thought that they would just be two clowns? He asked, “Do the two of you need anything?”
Hidden Dragon and Phoenix Chick exchanged a look and said, “It’s not anything to do with us, but rather with you.”
“I don’t think I recognize you two, let alone share any grudges,” Zu An said, giving them a sidelong glance. They had sinister ghost energy around them and didn’t seem like humans. He had heard Jing Teng say that ghosts who could move however they wanted in broad daylight were often extremely strong.
“If you’re going to blame anything, blame the fact that you appeared at that woman’s side,” Hidden Dragon said, chuckling sinisterly.
Phoenix Chick quickly said, “Stop spouting nonsense. Jing Teng isn’t that far from this place. It’ll be troublesome if she notices what’s happening over here. We’ll capture him first, then we’ll slowly interrogate him after bringing him to a safe place.”
“Okay!” Hidden Dragon replied with a nod. He immediately placed his hand on Zu An’s shoulder.
Zu An had planned to do something, but judging from the two’s conversation, he decided to just tag along for the time being. When Hidden Dragon’s hand pressed down on his shoulder, he immediately felt a wave of sinister energy enter his body. He secretly used the Primordial Origin Sutra to eliminate the energy. Of course, on the surface, he pretended to have been suppressed.
Hidden Dragon grabbed Zu An and said disdainfully, “He was a pretty-faced weakling after all.”
Phoenix Chick sighed and added, “Let’s get out of this place first.”
Afterward, the two of them took Zu An with them and quickly left. They arrived at a cave they had already prepared in advance.
“We’re safe now,” Hidden Dragon said, sighing.
Phoenix Chick looked around and said, “I’ll go and set up the trap now, and we’ll try to find a way to bring Jing Teng over. Keep an eye on him and interrogate him. Be more careful, though.”
“Don’t worry! Don’t tell me you think this pretty boy is going to overturn this situation somehow?” Hidden Dragon replied dismissively.
Phoenix Chick felt as if that made sense. Dealing with Jing Teng was more important, so he quickly left to make preparations.
…
Hidden Dragon then turned to look at Zu An, saying, “Hey, pretty boy, you should answer everything I ask you. If you cooperate well, I can make you suffer a bit less.”
Zu An quickly asked as if he were really scared, “Who… Who are you people?”
“Heh, we aren’t humans, but rather great ghost generals of the Ghost King! My name is Hidden Dragon, and my companion is called Phoenix…” Hidden Dragon was stunned halfway through his sentence. He shot Zu An a glare and snapped, “I’m the one asking the questions here!”
“Ghost generals?” Zu An muttered, thinking to himself that he seemed to have heard of them before. The Ghost King had eight ghost generals, and every single one of them was a powerful individual who dominated a region. But this guy didn’t seem to fit the bill… He replied, “What do you want to ask me?”
“That’s more like it,” Hidden Dragon said, feeling more and more disdain as he saw Zu An continue to cooperate. This pretty boy really is unreliable, as expected. I didn’t even do anything, and yet he’s already cooperating. He took out a candle and lit it before saying, “Don’t try to trick me. This thing can discern whether you’re telling the truth or lying. If it’s a lie, the fire will flicker.” The candle was already lit, and the fire seemed to be fixed in place, not moving at all.
Zu An exclaimed in amazement, “There’s actually something like that? Then why isn’t the Ghost King using this to determine the degree of loyalty of his subordinates?”
“Who dares to be disloyal to the Ghost King? This thing naturally isn’t that useful for the Ghost King!” Hidden Dragon reflexively replied. However, he felt that something wasn’t quite right. Why was the other guy asking him a question again? He coughed lightly and quickly asked, “Ahem, why did the ghosts the Ghost King send all fail?”
“Because they were too weak,” Zu An replied.
Hidden Dragon reflexively glanced at the fire. It didn’t move, so that was the truth. He asked, “Just how did you defeat them? Normally, you shouldn’t have been able to accomplish that with your strength.”
Zu An replied, “Your intelligence is wrong. We’re really strong.”
Hidden Dragon thought, As expected. He asked, “Did Jing Teng’s strength recover?”
Zu An was a bit shocked. He thought, Was Jing Teng really powerful when she was at her strongest? But he still replied, “She has too many secrets, so I don’t know.”
Hidden Dragon gave the candle a look. The answer was the truth, leaving him shocked. The issue does lie with Jing Teng after all!
“How strong exactly is your Ghost King, really? Just how many of you ghost generals are there, approximately?” Zu An asked curiously.
“The Ghost King is an unrivaled being”. Not even all eight of us generals added together are his match…” Hidden Dragon realized what was happening halfway through his sentence. “You damn kid, I’m clearly the one asking the questions!”
Zu An ignored him and continued, “I saw your companion leave just now. Are they going to bring Jing Teng?”
“That’s right,” Hidden Dragon said with a hint of pride. “Kid, even though you’re incredibly weak, you’re handsome. That woman Jing Teng seems to care a lot about your well-being. As long as we use you as a hostage, she’ll definitely take the bait. We’ve already set up forty-nine traps in the vicinity. No matter how strong she is, she can only wait to be captured if she comes.”
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