Infinity Flow: The Man Assigned by the Game Cannot Be Wanted! - Chapter 10

The groans from the pigsty drew closer and closer. In a short while, the three of them were standing outside the fence, looking in.

Trapped inside was the person they had spent the entire night searching for: Auntie.

Auntie’s eyes were blindfolded with a piece of dark cloth, and a tattered rag was jammed into her mouth, held tightly in place by a rough hemp rope tied into a hard knot at the back of her head. Both her hands and feet were bound tightly behind her back.

Lin Chubai reached out and pulled the dark cloth away. Ye Zhou stood right behind the two of them, looking as though he was ready to scoop them up and carry them away at any moment.

The sunlight shining into Auntie’s eyes caused her to squint involuntarily, but the three of them could clearly see that the turbidity in her eyes had vanished.

Upon recognizing the newcomers, Auntie began to struggle even more violently. The places bound by the hemp rope were chafed raw until bloody scars formed, and her eye sockets gradually reddened.

“Go! Hurry and go! There is an enchantment set by Old Li here!” The moment Lin Chubai untied the rope, he heard her speak urgently.

Song Siyun patted Auntie’s shoulder. “The enchantment is already broken. Tell us everything you know.”

Hearing this, Auntie’s gaze flickered. Her mouth hung open for a long time without closing, and only after she finally seemed to digest the words did her open mouth slowly shut. Her face was染 over with a look of pain. She lowered her head slightly, using her scattered strands of hair to conceal the tears welling in her eyes before she slowly began to speak.

The wind swept through the forest, carrying a wave of chillness. The tree branches swayed slightly, the cicadas chirped incessantly, and a fallen leaf drifted down quietly, landing squarely on the loosely braided pigtail of Dingxiang. The young man beside her raised a hand to brush it away, and his clean, bright laughter rang out.

“I told you so. Your hairstyle looks really pretty today, even the fallen leaves like it.”

Dingxiang did not reply, only offering a slight smile as her ears flushed a faint pink.

A thick, warm hand slowly drew closer to her slender, fair hand. The instant their fingertips touched, it felt as though an electric current surged through their minds, sending a tingling sensation all over their bodies.

Seeing that Dingxiang showed no disgust and even wore a hint of girlish shyness, the young man mustered his courage, hooked his fingers, and grasped her hand. “Wait for me! Tomorrow I am coming to propose marriage!”

“Mm, I will wait for you.” Her gentle voice carried a trace of youthfulness and anticipation.

The two of them walked hand in hand toward home, exchanging bursts of laughter along the way. But the sky refused to cooperate; a low, rumbling thunder echoed, and the sun was slowly swallowed up. In less than a minute, the golden sunlight was replaced by dark storm clouds.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Toll fee!” A wooden club embedded with iron nails thrust horizontally in front of the two of them. The nails on the club nearly scratched Dingxiang’s face, startling them into taking half a step back.

The group holding the wooden club was none other than the notorious local ruffians led by Li Ba. Relying on his family’s minor connections, he committed countless vile and disgusting acts, stealing chickens from one family today and extorting money from another tomorrow as part of his routine.

Sure enough, just as the two took out their money intending to pay to avert disaster, Li Ba snatched the coin pouch away, casually tossing it back to the lackey behind him, and sauntered lewdly toward Dingxiang.

“Little sister, Big Brother wants to come play with you.”

Seeing his beloved treated in such a manner, the young man felt his teeth ache with rage. He lifted his foot, wanting to rush forward and shield Dingxiang behind him. Suddenly, a dull thud came from his knee.

Then came more dull thuds. Within moments, the young man spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Seeing this, Dingxiang slapped Li Ba across the face, her slender nails drawing a thread of blood, and shoved him away. She rushed toward the beaten young man, picked up a wooden club scattered nearby, and swung it at the back of the head of the man in front of her, forcibly carving a gap through the crowd before grabbing the young man’s hand and running.

Li Ba was momentarily stunned by the sudden strike. He only recovered his wits after Dingxiang ran past him, and he fiercely issued an order to his lackeys: “Chase them!”

Dingxiang dragged the half-conscious young man toward her home, but suddenly she felt her grip lighten and looked back.

“Running away? Where do you think you are going? None of you are leaving!” The ruffians behind them had already caught up, surrounding them within seconds. It was Li Ba, his face stained with a hint of fury.

The young man wrenched his hand free from Dingxiang’s grasp and shoved her forward. He collapsed backward onto the ground, kicking up dust and letting out a final cry: “Run! Don’t worry about me!”

Summoning his last breath, the young man forced himself back up. Relying purely on adrenaline rather than his brain, he stood in front of Dingxiang to block the group of people. Blood dripped steadily from his head onto the ground as he glared viciously at the men before him.

Li Ba was thoroughly enraged by the sight and rallied his lackeys to attack.

The young man circled around Dingxiang, fighting off the mob, while Dingxiang occasionally picked up stones from the ground and hurled them into the crowd. The two of them cooperated seamlessly.

Gradually, the leaves stained red with blood, the tree roots soaked in brain matter, and the snakes, insects, birds, and beasts that once inhabited the area fled in all directions.

Yet two fists could not match four pairs of hands. Soon, with a sharp pop, the young man took a blow to the back of his head and collapsed to the ground.

Dingxiang, standing right behind him, was spotted by Li Ba, who grabbed her by the hair, dragged her out, delivered a vicious, full-face slap, and then kicked her straight into the riverbank boulders.

The protruding rock struck her lumbar spine, causing her body to twist backward at an unnatural angle. Gouts of blood spewed forth, and she could not stop coughing. With a retch, she spat out a massive pool of matter; they had completely lost all capacity to resist.

“Run! Why are not you running anymore?” Li Ba showed no trace of sympathy toward them, only overwhelming cruelty as he strode toward Dingxiang.

Dingxiang cast one last glance at the young man lying motionless on the ground, revealing a final trace of guilt and despair before turning her gaze to the approaching Li Ba. Her expression hardened into one of absolute resolve.

Her lips moved in a frantic murmur, and her fingertips stained with her own blood began tracing incomprehensible runes onto the stone.

The final stroke fell, and she slammed her head fiercely against the rock.

The heavy rain that had been held back for so long finally poured down, as if weeping for Dingxiang and trying to shield her from the agony.

Yet even the rain could not wash Dingxiang’s innocence clean and keep it in this mortal world. Once Li Ba finished his vile deeds, he tossed Dingxiang aside by the roadside like a rag, attempting to wash away his crimes with the rain.

How could that be possible? Rain could wash away physical traces, but it could never cleanse a wrongfully murdered soul.

From that day onward, Lotus Village knew no more peace. Whenever the anniversary of Dingxiang’s death arrived, bloody water and hair would seep up from beneath the crops, converging in the center of the village, slowly forming human shapes to begin their slaughter.

Human instinct drove the villagers to flee outward, leaving only the group of ruffians and their relatives trapped behind, unable to take a single step outside Lotus Village.

Gradually, the population of the village dwindled. No one tended the wasteland, no one engaged in weaving anymore, and the place slowly transformed into a ghost village.

To prevent the remaining residents from escaping and leaving them to fend for themselves, and to preserve his dwindling authority as village chief, Old Li resorted to the forbidden soul-stealing art. He forcefully trapped the physical bodies of those about to leave, while imprisoning all their souls within the red beads.

Auntie covered her face tightly, spilling out everything she remembered after the seal on the red bead was broken.

“He invited my father out of retirement, and my father brought me here, but I never expected that… I would be controlled too.” Auntie’s father was none other than the old man.

As those words fell, the three of them simultaneously received a system notification.

[Hidden quest completion progress: 75%]

“Damn it! That bastard is truly a beast!” Song Siyun could not help punching the hay bale, cursing aloud.

Beside him, Lin Chubai stood rooted to the spot in silence for a long time. Yet Ye Zhou noticed his knuckles turning white from clenching his fists, as if words were no longer necessary.

“Li Ba, where is he?” Lin Chubai stared at Auntie, speaking every word with deliberate weight.

“I do not know. I do not know. After that incident, no one ever saw him again.” Auntie continued to sob.

Mournful wails echoed through the mountains, sounding part-weeping and part-evil laughter, while crows flapped their wings, flying off to unknown destinations.

Just as the sun should have been lifting its fish-belly gray light, the sky overhead turned an ominous blood red. Cascading waves of bloody water surged forth from the farmland, gradually swallowing their ankles.

“When is the anniversary?” Ye Zhou cast a cold glance toward Auntie.

Auntie did not answer. Her sobbing stopped abruptly, replaced by a dazed expression. Her lips began to twitch involuntarily, and like someone afflicted with madness, she murmured softly: “No. No. How could this be. Father!”

With that, she bolted away in a panic. The three of them exchanged glances, and Lin Chubai gave Song Siyun a cue before following after her.

Mountains stretched endlessly under a blood-stained sky, and crows circled and shrieked in the air, as if playing a final requiem for the withered corpse below.