After My Cross-dressing Cover Was Blown, the Movie Star Became My Accomplice - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

◎ Alcohol hurts like hell! ◎

The female corpse attacked with incredible speed. Of course, the Rakshasa was not slow either; he quickly stepped in front of Mu Yao to shield him, raising the blood-red dagger in his hand, ready to battle the corpse at a moment’s notice.

“Giggle, giggle.”

The piercing sound of grinding teeth continued as the corpse drew closer.

Although the injury to Mu Yao’s shoulder hindered the movement of his left hand, his right hand was still functional. He pulled out a talisman hidden in his pocket and flicked it toward the female corpse with a swift motion.

Before the yellow paper even touched the corpse, it sensed the malevolent energy and self-combusted in mid-air. Three chains wreathed in ghostly blue flames shot out from the fire of the talisman, rapidly lashing toward the female corpse.

The female corpse was agile; even under the simultaneous attack of three chains, she managed to dodge them with ease.

“The talisman is strong, but it’s not suitable for dealing with a physical corpse. This kind of talisman needs to be used as a surprise attack.”

The Rakshasa shook his head; failing to snag the corpse with the talisman was a real waste.

“My goal wasn’t to catch her. It was to give you more time to prepare so you wouldn’t be caught off guard.”

Mu Yao gave a soft huff. He hadn’t expected to catch her; he just saw how fast she was and feared the Rakshasa wouldn’t be able to handle it. He had risked his life to save this man; he couldn’t let him get hurt by a corpse now.

“You did that for me?”

The Rakshasa asked in disbelief, his eyes never leaving the female corpse.

“Of course.”

As soon as Mu Yao finished speaking, the talisman’s power faded. The handless corpse resumed its charge toward them.

“Alright, thanks. It did indeed leave me better prepared.”

The Rakshasa nodded and lunged forward to meet the corpse’s attack. Without the talisman’s distraction, he wouldn’t have had time to move out; he would have been stuck in a passive block. The talisman had served its purpose by letting him take the initiative.

The glowing red dagger lunged toward the corpse’s throat. Just as it was about to strike, the corpse twisted in a bizarre posture and veered off in another direction—toward where the unconscious Zhang Hao lay, the selfish Village Chief who had destroyed Auntie Zhou’s peaceful life.

The corpse swiftly bit into the Village Chief’s shoulder and carried him up toward the ceiling of the cavern.

It clung to the stalactites, its hair hanging down. Its head tilted side to side, causing Zhang Hao’s body to sway with it. He remained unconscious, and the corpse’s movements looked like a mockery or a boast.

Only then did the two realize the corpse’s true goal wasn’t to harm them. It had used the attack as a diversion; its real objective was to seize Zhang Hao.

“Crap, is it going to take the Village Chief and escape?”

Mu Yao watched the corpse’s swaying movements and spoke up anxiously.

“No, it’s going to destroy him.”

The Rakshasa could clearly see black marks appearing on Zhang Hao’s neck. The marks were spreading upward, gradually encroaching upon his head.

The Rakshasa had seen these black marks many times. When they appeared on a living person, the victim would inevitably end up like a mindless fool. This wasn’t just physical damage; it was damage to the soul itself.

“Destroy him? How?”

While the Rakshasa knew the effects of the black marks, Mu Yao did not. Just as he was wondering how the corpse would destroy the Village Chief, he saw the Rakshasa raise his hand to throw the dagger.

“No!”

Before the dagger could leave his hand, it was intercepted.

Auntie Zhou gripped the blade tightly with both hands. Blood flowed from her palms, running down the blade into the groove and mixing with the Rakshasa’s blood. The red glow on the dagger vanished.

“You! That is no longer your daughter; she’s just a puppet being controlled by someone!”

The Rakshasa looked at Auntie Zhou, his eyes filled with the frustration of being obstructed.

“No matter who controls her, she is my Nannan. You cannot hurt Nannan!”

Auntie Zhou gripped the dagger deathly tight. In her eyes, whether it was the ghost Nannan or the mummified Nannan, she was still her daughter. Her daughter had been harmed for so many years; now that she finally had her back, she wouldn’t let anyone hurt her!

“Auntie Zhou, Nannan has been controlled for so many years. Do you really want her to stay that way?! The Village Chief grew up in the village and had no chance to learn dark arts. Only he knows who taught him, and only he has seen the mastermind’s face. He is our only lead!”

Mu Yao didn’t know exactly how the corpse intended to destroy the Village Chief, but he could faintly guess who was pulling the strings: it had to be the masked man who fled earlier.

“If the Village Chief dies at the hands of your daughter’s body, he won’t be able to confess the truth, and we won’t be able to root out the mastermind. Do you really want the mastermind to get away with this?!”

Mu Yao pointed at the Village Chief hanging in mid-air, the black marks already spreading across his face.

“The… mastermind?”

Auntie Zhou froze. She slowly turned her head toward the Village Chief.

“There’s someone else behind him? My Nannan is being controlled by that person right now? If Zhang Hao dies, you won’t be able to find him?”

“Let go immediately. There’s still a chance to save him and find the mastermind. If you wait any longer, it’ll be too late!”

The Rakshasa answered urgently, giving the dagger a meaningful tug.

He didn’t want to hurt a living person unless necessary, especially a victim like Auntie Zhou, but they truly couldn’t afford to waste more time.

“Mama, let go. Nannan doesn’t want him to run away.”

As Auntie Zhou wavered, the red-clothed ghost Nannan, still bound by the Soul-Hooking Chain nearby, spoke softly.

Hearing Nannan’s voice, Auntie Zhou let go as if struck by lightning, muttering:

“No… can’t let the mastermind escape. Can’t. He has to pay the price too. He has to!!”

With Auntie Zhou’s grip released, the Rakshasa hurriedly wiped the blood off the blade with his sleeve and quickly sliced his own palm.

The scabbed wound was reopened, and blood flowed onto the dagger. The exquisite weapon erupted in a crimson glow once more.

This time, there was no obstacle. The Rakshasa threw the dagger; it streaked through the air, forming a vivid red line in the darkness.

Crack.

The dagger pierced the female corpse’s skull with a faint sound of splintering bone. Auntie Zhou covered her eyes, unable to watch.

Struck by the dagger, the corpse stiffened for a moment. Its mouth fell open, and the Village Chief plummeted from the ceiling. The cavern ceiling was three or four stories high; a fall from that height would be fatal or crippling for a human.

Mu Yao tapped the Soul-Hooking Chain in his hand and whispered a command:

“Save him, and please be obedient for once!”

He treated it as a last-ditch effort, sending the occasionally disobedient chain to save the man.

The chain finally behaved. It flew to the Village Chief, caught him, and lowered him smoothly to the ground.

Just as he was set down, the corpse on the ceiling lost its strength and fell straight down, landing right next to him.

Mu Yao rushed over to the unconscious Village Chief to check his condition. Seeing his chest rising and falling with steady breaths, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Did that bastard Zhang Hao die?”

Auntie Zhou walked over to the corpse, gently taking her daughter’s body into her arms. She looked coldly at the unconscious man.

“Uh, he’s not dead. He should be able to give up the mastermind, right?”

Faced with Auntie Zhou’s icy gaze, Mu Yao spoke with a hint of uncertainty.

“A lot of time was wasted. We have to see if the spell has eroded his brain.”

The Rakshasa, sensing Mu Yao’s doubt, squatted down to check as he joined the conversation.

“How exactly does this spell destroy a person?”

Mu Yao leaned in curiously. He watched as the Rakshasa put on a pair of gloves and began examining the wound on Zhang Hao’s shoulder and the black marks spreading toward his brain.

“See these black marks? These are traces left by the ‘Black Trace Memory-Erosion Art’.”

“Black Trace Memory-Erosion Art?”

Mu Yao silently memorized the name as he continued listening.

“The mastermind uses a puppet medium to inject this curse into the victim’s wound. The curse spreads along the wound to erode the brain and the soul, turning the person into a mindless idiot. The Investigation Bureau has frequently encountered people ruined by this spell in recent years, and without exception, these people were all practitioners of certain dark sacrificial rituals.”

The Rakshasa’s hand moved to the back of the Village Chief’s head. Seeing that the black marks had already reached that area, he shook his head with regret.

“We were a step too late after all. His memories have been destroyed.”

“Mindless? Zhang Hao turned into a mindless idiot just like that? Hahaha! Karma! This is karma!”

Hearing the Rakshasa’s words, Auntie Zhou suddenly began to laugh. Then, weeping, she stroked her daughter’s corpse.

“Nannan, Mama is so sorry. I still delayed them. The mastermind can’t be found… can’t be found… If Zhang Hao is an idiot, will he not be punished? Can I kill him?”

“No!”

Hearing Auntie Zhou’s words, Mu Yao and the Rakshasa refused in unison. They looked at each other across the gap of magic and masks until the Rakshasa spoke first.

“I can only confirm his body is damaged. As for how much his soul has been eroded, that’s still uncertain. He must come back to the Bureau with me. As for his punishment, the Bureau has its own arrangements.”

“Still can’t kill him? What a pity… Nannan? You… what’s happening to you?”

Auntie Zhou shook her head and looked back down at her daughter’s body. The corpse suddenly moved, beginning to twitch violently in Auntie Zhou’s arms. It quickly began to swell—larger and larger—like a balloon being rapidly inflated.

The Rakshasa had a sudden, ominous premonition. He scrambled up and reached out to grab Mu Yao. Just as he caught him, the corpse exploded with a “bang.”

The aged mummy turned into fragments. The shards scattered in all directions, drenching the three nearest people from head to toe.

“AHHHH!!! NANNAN?! NANNAN!!!”

Seeing her daughter’s body explode was too much of a shock for Auntie Zhou. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted dead away.

Mu Yao, who had just been pulled into the Rakshasa’s arms, was covered in the mess. He was dazed. The Rakshasa, however, didn’t care about the filth on himself. While shielding the Little Impermanence in his arms, he pulled out his prayer beads and sent them spinning through the cavern.

“This… the mastermind did this?!”

Mu Yao slowly regained his senses, his body trembling slightly.

“Yeah. I didn’t expect him to be lurking here instead of fleeing. I thought he ran when the corpse stopped moving. Tsk, a miscalculation. Little Impermanence? Why are you shaking? Scared?”

The Rakshasa was still holding Mu Yao, so he could naturally feel the trembling. Assuming he was afraid, he asked.

“As if! I’m shaking from anger! Anger! How could he be such a bastard? He didn’t even spare her body!”

Mu Yao spoke through gritted teeth. He thought the mastermind would be satisfied with destroying the Village Chief to achieve his goal, but he hadn’t even spared the girl’s corpse, leaving her without a whole body in the end!

Though an amateur, he knew enough to know that those whose bodies aren’t whole cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation normally. They either wander the Yellow Springs, get detained in the City of the Wrongfully Dead, or become earthbound spirits trapped in the past forever. None of them have a good end!

“You’re actually angry? Heh, you truly are a living Impermanence. One with a very strong ‘living’ sense.”

Seeing that the Little Impermanence wasn’t afraid, the Rakshasa felt relieved and let him go. At that moment, the prayer beads flew back.

“The mastermind has truly escaped this time.”

The Rakshasa had a connection with his tool. He knew the beads hadn’t found any abnormalities, which meant the mastermind was truly gone.

“He got off easy. I really wanted to catch him and give him a beating… This place is a wreck. What do you plan to do?”

Mu Yao waved his hand in frustration. He looked around; the fragments of the mummy had affected all three conscious people, and even the unconscious one had been splattered. It was going to be a nightmare to clean up.

“Someone will be here soon to handle it. Little Impermanence, come here. I’ll take care of your wound.”

The Rakshasa walked to a clean spot and beckoned to Mu Yao. He had produced a roll of bandages from somewhere.

“My name isn’t ‘Little Impermanence,’ I have a name! And I don’t need you to treat my wound; I’ll handle it myself. I’ll leave the rest to you; I’m not getting involved further. By the way, do you have a way to control the ghosts?”

Mu Yao didn’t like the nickname but couldn’t give his real name. He just wanted to go back to the inn and shower, not waste time letting the Rakshasa treat his injury.

“I do. You really don’t want it treated?”

The Rakshasa shrugged and produced a bottle of alcohol from somewhere to clean the wound on his own palm.

After cleaning his own wound, he pulled out a gourd-shaped tool and signaled for Mu Yao to release the Soul-Hooking Chain.

“No way. Alcohol hurts like hell!”

Mu Yao shook his head, indicating he had zero interest in having his wound cleaned by him. He unfastened the chain and released the ghost children; they flew into the gourd and were sealed away by the Rakshasa.

“…You won’t hurt these kids, right?”

Mu Yao knew the Rakshasa’s men were almost there. He turned to leave, but before going, he asked about the fate of the ghost children.

“No. But it’s a fact they were controlled into hurting people. We’ll likely arrange for someone to investigate their backgrounds and notify their families to identify them. Then we’ll review whether they were completely controlled or if they harbored malicious intent of their own. As long as they weren’t acting out of their own malice, the Bureau will arrange for their salvation so they can re-enter the cycle of reincarnation.”

After everything that had happened, the Rakshasa was a bit more talkative, offering a detailed explanation.

“That’s good. As long as they can enter the cycle.”

Mu Yao’s mind was at ease. He nodded and quickly left the cavern.

After a while, a team of people dressed in black walked in quickly. Their leader approached the Rakshasa.

“Captain, sorry. We didn’t catch the person.”

“Heh, you wouldn’t have. That person is incredibly shrewd. Take this man back first and see if we can extract his memories… By the way, did you see the Little Impermanence?”

The Rakshasa was sitting on the side of the platform, slowly cleaning himself with a towel.

“We saw him. According to your orders, we left a gap on purpose. Captain, do we not need to deal with that Impermanence?”

Just as Mu Yao was leaving, the Rakshasa had contacted his men outside to tell them to leave a gap so he could leave easily.

“Would you dare move against someone from the Underworld? Forget it. The little guy helped me out, so let’s let him off the hook.”

The Rakshasa tossed the towel to his subordinate and flexed his wrist as he stood up to head out. Passing by Auntie Zhou, he ordered:

“Take this person back as well. Following the usual procedure, replace her memories so she forgets this painful time. She deserves to start her life over.”

The Rakshasa’s gaze was complicated, reflecting both pity and sorrow. He shook his head and walked out. Behind him, his team members were busy cleaning the scene, while he walked out alone.