Chapter 90: The Vanished Corpse and a Deepening Mystery

What a coincidence, I just remembered I have something urgent to attend to. I’ll be leaving now.

Mo Qiu made a playful and adorable face.

Bai Chen, his fury mounting, instinctively raised his heavy cannon pistol.

He remembered with vivid clarity that it was this very scoundrel who had marred Mo Qiu’s face.

Bai Chen had vowed to make them pay!

Bai Chen immediately pulled the trigger, the recoil sending him hurtling backward to collide with Su Wanghai.

The tempered bullet pierced Mo Qiu’s body, yet she shattered along with the Mysterious Person’s corpse, disintegrating into a scattering of mirror shards.

‘Damn it, I forgot they had that trick!’

A bullet utterly wasted, Bai Chen exclaimed in frustration.

“Forget about them for now, get off me!”

Su Wanghai felt as though he was seeing his grandmother waving to him from the far bank of the river.

Scrambling to his feet, Bai Chen rushed over, only to find a pool of blood and a fragmented card.

Rage ascended his features, and Bai Chen gritted his teeth in fury.

“Libelle, it’s her again… we’ve been used as pawns by her!”

Bai Chen remained seated alone, his expression grim, until reinforcements arrived and Su Wanghai was carried away on a stretcher by others.

Having finally secured victory, the corpse had vanished. Bai Chen paced frantically, thinking, ‘Could anything possibly be more absurd than this?’

Just then, his phone rang. Bai Chen glanced at it, surprised to see Mo Qiu’s name on the caller ID.

Mo Qiu.

“Hello, Mo Qiu?”

“Bai Chen, I…” The girl’s voice abruptly faltered, followed by the thud of a heavy object hitting the ground.

“Mo Qiu, what’s wrong?!”

The girl’s voice on the other end of the line was frail, as if she were desperately suppressing something. Furthermore, Bai Chen distinctly heard several flirtatious laughs.

“Hello, Mo Qiu? Mo Qiu!”

Only the cold, indifferent beeping tone answered Bai Chen. Without a moment’s hesitation, he found Manager Cheng Xuan, briefly explained the situation to her, and then departed.

‘Could she have been following me, only to get caught up in the monster attack as well?’

The mere thought ignited a renewed spark of electricity in Bai Chen’s dark eyes, though he forcefully suppressed the restless power.

‘Mo Qiu, please be alright!’

****

Upon hearing the heavy cannon pistol discharge, Mo Qiu almost instinctively covered her ears.

Immediately after, she heard the Mysterious Person fall to the ground, screaming. The sound was so utterly wretched that their gender-ambiguous voice resembled the distorted static of a malfunctioning radio.

When the Mysterious Person ceased all movement, both Mo Qiu and Bai Chen reacted identically.

‘The Mysterious Person… just died?’

‘That was too anticlimactic!’

‘The weapon in Bai Chen’s hand possesses terrifying power.’

Mo Qiu’s gaze remained fixed on the heavy cannon pistol in Bai Chen’s hand, her expression one of deep concern.

‘This wouldn’t do. What if she became too reliant, neglecting to continually enhance her own capabilities?’

While Bai Chen’s attention was fully engrossed by Su Wanghai, Mo Qiu had intended to quietly, stealthily claim the corpse for herself. She hadn’t anticipated Bai Chen would notice.

‘Fortunately, I still had a spare mirror card, or that would have been a real problem.’

‘Although you relied on external tools, you still did quite well.’

Fortunately, Mo Qiu had departed quite promptly; she hadn’t yet ventured far from her previous location when she heard the sounds of numerous demonkind rushing towards it.

After evading them, Mo Qiu finally reached the depths of an alleyway, a sufficiently safe position.

Finally, she clutched the last mirror card in her hand, and Mo Qiu’s gaze flickered with hesitation.

‘If any more unforeseen circumstances arose, she wouldn’t be able to escape as quickly as before.’

The Mirror Trick allowed Mo Qiu to freely traverse a small pocket of space within any mirror.

Even a tiny shard could serve as a reliable point of access, but only for Mo Qiu herself.

Once other living beings entered the mirror space, exiting became considerably more difficult.

Unless Mo Qiu entered with them and then exited together.

The girl tossed the card, allowing it to hover in mid-air.

The corpse, reflected in the mirror’s surface, steadily enlarged, then plummeted from the mirror space as if sinking to the bottom of a lake.

Her star-bright eyes watched the corpse for a long moment, unblinking.

Outside the alley, an occasional chilling breeze swept through, stirring the girl’s deep blue hair and the red-lace-trimmed gown she wore.

“They’re truly dead.”

After playing a silent game of ‘one, two, three, Red Light, Green Light’ with herself, Mo Qiu reluctantly accepted the truth.

“I had so many questions I wanted to ask them, and yet they just died like this?”

“Who sent them? What was their true purpose? What was the deal with the key? The questions piled up like mountains, but now, not a single one can be answered.”

Mo Qiu sighed, her small leather boots splashing through a puddle in the alley as she moved to the other side of the Mysterious Person’s corpse.

With the person dead, the concealing shadow beneath their hood naturally receded.

Mo Qiu crouched down, grasped the hood’s brim, pursed her lips, and forcefully pulled it back.

The true face of the Mysterious Person was finally revealed to her.

Staring at the somewhat familiar face, the girl froze in place.

‘I’ve seen this person before… they were one of the demons who attended the meeting at the Black Palace.’

Mo Qiu suddenly recalled the Mysterious Person’s true identity, realizing with a jolt: ‘Wait, was their true identity merely that of a basic member, not some mid-level figure?’

Both Saluk and Xinleit had believed them to be a higher-ranking official within the Imperial Organization, even more mysterious than Aiqi. Mo Qiu had shared this belief.

If the face beneath the hood had been unfamiliar to Mo Qiu, it might still have made sense.

But she remembered this person with striking clarity!

‘If they truly were merely bluffing, then the power they displayed was far beyond that of a basic member.’

Mo Qiu gazed at the distant sky; the devastation wrought by the colossal plant remained a shocking sight.

It would likely take a considerable amount of time for the city to recover from today’s wounds.

‘The Demon Guild will likely believe they’ve dealt with an Imperial Organization cadre… never imagining it was merely a basic member.’

Mo Qiu retreated a few steps, then plopped down, feeling no different from an overly excitable cat demon.

“Ouch, that hurts.”

It seemed she had sat down too forcefully, inadvertently aggravating a wound.

To divert the Mysterious Person’s attention from Bai Chen onto herself, Mo Qiu had endured considerable hardship.

Her black silk stockings, embroidered with dynamic constellations, were torn in several places, revealing skin that was either grotesquely disfigured or marred with wounds.

In her disguised form, Mo Qiu had been dressed like a lavish noblewoman from ancient times, the most radiant star at any ball.

After enduring a grueling battle, she now appeared disheveled, as if she had just escaped from a ruined family.

Her expression was weary, her dress tattered, and her hair somewhat disheveled.

Removing her mask, she reverted to her doll-like maiden form; the brilliant starscape in her eyes was replaced by bottomless, dark pools.

Once she relaxed, her body easily succumbed to fatigue, especially in this female form.

‘I should probably sit for a while until my wounds have sufficiently healed.’

The Mysterious Person was dead, and with them, this meager trail of clues abruptly ended. Mo Qiu suddenly felt a sense of bewilderment about her next steps.

‘Elia isn’t here, and the Mysterious Person has been dealt with. Has Fengling City truly averted its destructive fate just like that? It feels like I’ve played a game with a rather poor ending.’

Mo Qiu’s gaze periodically fell upon the Mysterious Person’s face; it appeared they had suffered far more agony in their final moments than she had.

Their features were twisted to an extreme degree, rendering their post-mortem appearance truly horrifying.

Mo Qiu tore open their black robe, revealing the wound that had claimed their life.

The shape clearly indicated a gunshot wound, yet radiating from it, the skin was blackened and cracked, and the veins bulged with a sickly greenish hue, making the injury appear utterly bizarre.

‘That certainly wasn’t an ordinary bullet.’

Mo Qiu muttered.

‘The Cat Demon Guild possesses many weapons specifically designed to combat demons, though they likely wouldn’t be effective against us humans.’

‘I should still be careful in the future. Even with a regular bullet, the heavy cannon pistol’s power could easily pierce right through me.’

As for how to deal with the Mysterious Person’s corpse—the Demonic Puppet Eye activated!

The fallen demon shed its ferocious expression, slowly rose to its feet, tidied its garments, and bowed to the girl.

“I fight for you, my master.”

Mo Qiu was highly satisfied to have acquired a demon puppet. First, she made it enter the mirror space.

‘It’s almost time to go home.’

After walking for a while on the nearly deserted streets, Mo Qiu made a call to Bai Chen to ensure he wasn’t suspicious of her.

“Hello, Mo Qiu?”

“Bai Chen, I…”

‘Wait, this feeling!’

The girl involuntarily collapsed to her knees, her face turning pale and fragile, her breathing growing increasingly ragged.

Whenever the Erosion Syndrome flared up, Mo Qiu felt as though her entire body was being gnawed by insects.

The pain was like a sharp needle, ceaselessly pricking her nerves; each breath seemed to demand all her strength.

Mo Qiu’s lips were tightly pressed together, cold sweat continuously beaded on her forehead. Her eyes stared fixedly at the alley entrance not far away.

‘No, I can’t let Bai Chen discover my abnormality, otherwise… things will get very troublesome.’

Mo Qiu’s skin had become extraordinarily sensitive due to the disease’s erosion; every slight touch could trigger intense pain.

If it were merely pain, it would be manageable, but crucially, the Erosion Syndrome also awakened the demon’s instinctual craving for extreme emotions.

More potent than the pain, Mo Qiu felt an overwhelming hunger. It was as if she hadn’t eaten or drunk for three days; the urge to sate herself almost consumed her mind.

‘But not here, I must get home first.’

Mo Qiu clung to the wall, moving forward one faltering step at a time, stumbling and falling to the ground after tripping over a stone.

The agony inflicted by the Erosion Syndrome grew more intense with each episode. Even if she managed to persevere and return home, she doubted she would have much strength left.

“Mo Qiu, what’s wrong!?”

‘And at this precise moment, could the situation possibly worsen?’

“Well, hello there, little beauty. What are you doing out on the street all alone?”

Several lewd men in sleeveless vests blocked Mo Qiu’s path, chattering among themselves and letting out sharp cackles.

“It’s quite dangerous with demons lurking about on the streets, you know.”

“How about we gentlemen escort you to a safe place? Don’t worry, we’ll certainly protect you well.”

Mo Qiu had reached her limit. If she didn’t hang up the phone now, her secret might be exposed.

The Mysterious Person had caused chaos throughout the city, leaving the streets virtually empty of people; only a few aberrant individuals were exceptions.

Mo Qiu gasped, her trembling eyes fixed on them.

‘Fear, too, is an extreme emotion.’