PD -Chapter 39 The Monster’s Affection

“Quick! Go into the tunnel and see what’s happened to those two!”

As I wrestled with the monster, I shouted at Er Leng, who had been standing there dumbfounded.

He immediately snapped back to his senses, switched on his flashlight, and sprinted into the mine tunnel.

The monster instantly tried to stop him from entering. The moment its attention wandered, I moved with a thought, and the Spirit-Binding Ruler shot forward.

The ruler closed in on the monster in an instant. Another second and it would have wrapped the creature up like a rice dumpling.

But at that very moment, the qipao-clad spirit appeared out of thin air once more, using its materialized body to block the attack.

“Ahhh—!”

The spirit’s scream was sharp and chilling.

The Spirit-Binding Ruler immediately coiled around it and erupted with a brilliant golden light.

The spirit tried to repeat its old trick, shifting from a solid form into an incorporeal one. But now that it was trapped by my ruler, it no longer had that opportunity.

Its figure grew increasingly faint, nearly transparent, yet it remained unable to break free.

“ROAR!”

Seeing the qipao spirit suffering, the monster suddenly let out a furious howl.

It immediately picked up the trapped spirit in its arms.

The talismanic power radiating from the Spirit-Binding Ruler pierced into the monster’s arms like countless needles. Its flesh was instantly torn and mangled, yet it still refused to let go.

Only then did I realize that the monster was fundamentally different from the qipao spirit.

It wasn’t an apparition formed from yin energy.

It possessed a genuine physical body.

Its body merely seemed to be saturated with sinister yin power, which was why the Daoist talismans engraved on the ruler could harm it.

Staring at the creature before me, I felt as though I was beginning to understand what it truly was.

“Hiss…”

As I watched the spirit, a strange sound suddenly rang out.

At the same moment, blazing fire erupted before my eyes.

Half of the monster’s body was instantly swallowed by flames.

Er Leng and Li Zi emerged from the mine tunnel, supporting Monkey between them.

Li Zi was holding that ridiculously oversized red signal pistol in one hand.

The flames came from the tracer round he had just fired.

Only after being scorched by the fire did the monster finally release the qipao spirit.

Though half its body was engulfed in roaring flames, it remained ferocious as ever.

It lifted its head and glared at me with vicious hatred rather than seeking revenge against Li Zi, the one who had fired the flare.

Perhaps in its mind, hurting the qipao spirit was far more infuriating than hurting itself.

You’ve picked the wrong opponent, I thought.

The Demon-Burning Flame burst from my hand.

I raised my right fist slightly and looked coldly at the ridiculous pair of monsters.

“S-Stop…”

A hoarse, elderly voice suddenly sounded.

I froze.

The voice had come from the qipao spirit.

“Please… don’t… hurt… him…”

The spirit spoke one word at a time, like someone who had not spoken for so long that it had forgotten how pronunciation worked.

“You and it don’t belong in this world anymore,” I said coldly. “You raised this monster while you were alive, and even after death you intended to let it continue harming people?”

“I… only wanted… to be with him…”

Its voice was harsh and grating.

I snorted.

“Then I’ll grant your wish.”

“I beg you… let him live. I… am willing to bear everything in his place…”

Unexpectedly, the spirit gradually calmed down.

Though its body had faded significantly under the restraint of my Spirit-Binding Ruler, its expression became strangely peaceful.

At that moment, it no longer resembled a vengeful ghost.

Instead, it looked like an old woman nearing the end of her life.

The blue-faced, fanged humanoid monster no longer roared at me.

Like a loyal dog, it moved close to the qipao spirit and let out mournful, sorrowful whimpers.

Her words stirred my curiosity.

I wanted to know the origin of this bizarre monster.

I wanted to understand what kind of relationship existed between them that could make the qipao spirit willingly accept complete annihilation for its sake.

Just then, it seemed as though the spirit had sensed my thoughts.

The qipao spirit gently exhaled a wisp of energy.

Before me, the energy unfolded into a scene.

It was a glimpse of several decades ago.

Back then, the haunted mansion was still new, and the woman in the qipao was still young.

The young woman and her husband, a young Nationalist Army officer, had been forced to leave for the front lines.

She waited day after day in the villa for his return.

Soon afterward, news of his death arrived.

She spent her days drowning in tears.

One day, she finally made up her mind.

She hung a length of silk from a ceiling beam and prepared to follow her husband in death.

But at that moment, a group of dark-skinned young men accidentally entered the house.

They were laborers from the iron mine at Headless Mountain.

Originally, they had been conscripted by the Nationalist government as forced laborers.

After the officer died in battle, however, the mine fell into the hands of local gentry, and the workers continued to receive pitiful wages.

Everyone in the surrounding villages knew that the lonely villa still housed the widow of the young officer.

Though she lived alone, no one dared harass her because her husband had died in military service.

But these laborers from the very bottom of society thought differently.

Years of exploitation had filled them with hatred for the people above them.

They had secretly entered the villa hoping to steal a few silver dollars so their families could have enough to eat.

The moment they climbed through a window, however, they discovered a beautiful woman in a qipao preparing to hang herself.

Startled by the intruders, the woman forgot all about suicide and instead demanded to know what they wanted.

The laborers gritted their teeth.

If they were already here, they might as well go all the way.

Kill her, take whatever valuables they could find, and flee.

As several of them rushed forward and pinned the woman beneath them, one young laborer remained at the back.

He was smaller and weaker than the others and had not joined in.

The men restraining the woman were young and strong.

Most had never touched a woman before.

The instant they pinned her down, their animal instincts overwhelmed them.

They began groping her, tearing at her clothes while forcing her to the ground.

At that moment, the weakest laborer grabbed a small bronze statue from a nearby tea table.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Several heavy impacts echoed through the room.

After the bronze statue smashed into skulls again and again, the crazed laborers collapsed to the floor, their heads drenched in blood.

The young laborer helped the terrified, tear-streaked woman to her feet and carefully pulled her clothing back into place.

At first, she was terrified.

But later she realized that the frail young man beside her seemed even more frightened than she was.

Before them lay his companions.

Blood covered the floor.

One after another, they had stopped showing any signs of life.

The pair stood frozen for a long time before finally regaining their senses.

Together, they discussed how to drag the bodies outside and bury them in the garden.

The woman tried to give the laborer several silver dollars and told him never to speak of what had happened.

He refused the money.

He explained that he had been forced to come along and had never harbored any improper intentions.

Before leaving, he noticed the white silk hanging from the ceiling beam.

He urged her not to take her own life.

Smiling, he told her:

“Being alive is the best thing in this world.”

When the woman heard those words, the radiant smile that appeared on her face showed that she had once again felt the beauty of life.

In the end, the young laborer had no choice but to return to the mine and continue his backbreaking work.

Little did either of them know…

This was only the beginning of an even more tragic story to come.