Chapter 176
The changes in the sound were subtle but it was there. If the reincarnators hadn’t turned off the lights and concentrated their senses, they wouldn’t have noticed it. Once the sound changed, Zhou Ying consciously manipulated the phone to turn on the light for Xiao Li.
The reincarnators were no strangers to this place. It was the backdoor of Future Them Park’s cafeteria. They had lunch and dinner in this staff cafeteria. It was like an ordinary restaurant in reality. The tables were next to each other and the food was relatively rich.
The reincarnators entered the canteen from the main entrance that they had already passed. This was the back entrance to the kitchen that was usually used to transport food ingredients and throw away garbage.
Boom, boom, boom.
The sound of something heavy falling continued.
Xiao Li tentatively pushed at the door of the kitchen and found it was unlocked. He walked in while signaling for Zhou Ying to lower the brightness of the phone. The light from the phone became weak and he could barely see.
Fu Guangbo followed. His expression wasn’t very good as a terrible possibility came to his mind. “Surely the food we ate wasn’t...”
“What is in these water pipes?” Zheng Yi continued.
Ye Zeqing’s face was dark and he didn’t care about the cold image he had tried so hard to create as he cursed. “Fuck.”
“I don’t think so.” Chen Jinghan thought of the food during the day and didn’t blindly guess. “The texture of the beef during the day was obviously beef. I previously learned this technique specifically to lose weight. I can carefully distinguish the tastes of various meats.”
“That’s good.” Fu Guangbo sighed with relief.
There was a huge stove in the kitchen with a large pot on it. There were also many pots and pans and several freezers. Unlike the outside world where the water pipes were inside the walls, here they came out directly from the corner of the wall.
In this way, several water pipes twisted in the air like a snake. They wound together from the corner of the wall and converged above the reincarnators’ heads to form a black plastic pipe that was several times wider.
The pipes went vertically from a high altitude to the next floor. It could barely be seen through the crack in the ground that below them was a blood-red pool as large as the entire room.
It was filled with blood and corpses from time to time. Body parts and limbs mixed together with blood clots that had been solidified and blackened. They fell into the bloody pool and caused bloody bubbles to appear. The strange thing was that sometimes it wasn’t a body part that fell in from the pipe. More often than not, it was a white round object that fell directly into the bloody pool.
Xiao Li lay on the ground for a while and found that the smell of blood had become stronger.
“What is inside...?” Fu Guangbo also used the same posture to take a look. “There are so many bodies and so much blood. Is it from the previous security guards? What are those white things?”
Xiao Li thought for a moment. “Perhaps they are table tennis balls filled with white powders.”
Fu Guangbo, “.........”
Xiao Li continued to look at the falling white spheres. At one point, a sphere falling into the bloody pool faced him and he saw a struggling face on it. Spirit... body? President Sun definitely wouldn’t be collecting these things to take a bath. The reason why he was using it must have to do with the ‘truth behind Paradise.’
He should be able to break it...
Xiao Li touched his chin, looked up and finally got up from the ground. He searched carefully, opening the cabinets in the back kitchen one by one. Finally, he found what he was looking for in the middle cabinet.
Fu Guangbo squinted in the darkness and found that they were things everyone knew: vinegar, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and other condiments.
“Y-You want to&#k2026;?” Fu Guangbo wondered.
Xiao Li picked up a bottle of vinegar, opened the lid and drew a kitchen knife from the chopping board. He was just about to use the knife when Shen Chenzhi suddenly pulled him.
Xiao Li, “?”
He turned and saw that the other person was holding a pair of plastic gloves that he had obtained from somewhere. The young man put on the gloves so seriously that it was like he was putting a ring on his beloved. He smoothed out every finger for Xiao Li so there weren’t any wrinkles.
Soon, Shen Chenzhi reluctantly let go of his hand and automatically retreated to the side.
The body temperature belonging to an outsider receded and the touch on his fingers completely disappeared. Xiao Li bent his fingers unnaturally but didn’t express his gratitude. He turned his head and moved his hands, using the kitchen knife to cut a hole in the plastic pipe.
The viscous blood poured from the not-so-large opening, staining Xiao Li’s gloves red.
He raised the kitchen knife, held it against the opening and poured in the vinegar that was in his left hand. A sour smell came from the opening. The bottle of vinegar emptied and then Xiao Li changed to another bottle of soy sauce.
Fu Guangbo, “.........”
“Look again to see if there are any more of these things.” Xiao Li didn’t forget to tell the others.
The kitchen cooked a lot of food and many condiments were needed. Zheng Yi soon found a box of newly bought vinegar in the storage room and brought it over. Xiao Li emptied the soy sauce in his hand. Then he glanced at the time displayed on the phone and gestured for Ye Zeqing to come over. “You come.”
“What?”
Xiao Li stepped aside and took off his gloves. Then he went to the sink and started to wash the blood off. The opening in the pipe wasn’t big but due to gravity, a bit of blood had splashed on Xiao Li’s face. He turned his head to wipe off the bright red blood with his thumb then he slowly rinsed it away.
Fu Guangbo saw his side profile and thought of the story about Hercule on the forum. This person truly did look like a cold-blooded murderer.
Xiao Li cleaned his gloves, handed them to Ye Zeqing and pointed to the opening in the pipe. “You come and pour them.”
It was simple.
Ye Zeqing eagerly pulled up his sleeves, put on his gloves and poured the seasoning into the pipe as Xiao Li did before. After playing around, he also poured in a few bags of salt and sugar.
Seeing that Ye Zeqing was handling it, Xiao Li looked at the time and sped up his speech. “We will go. You stay.”
The last words were spoken to Ye Zeqing. Ye Zeqing was stunned for a moment. “You want to leave me alone? Where are you going?”
Xiao Li replied, “The exhibition halls.”
“Weren’t you planning not to go?” Fu Guangbo asked stupidly.
“I still have to go.” Xiao Li had already started to walk out the door. “I also have to go openly and in a flustered manner.”
“Yanluo, you stay here. You have the ghost physique and you are relatively safe. After pouring all of them, take the elevator upstairs, go to the 19th floor and start patrolling.”
Ye Zeqing’s mouth started to twitch. He didn’t want to show his fear but he still said, “Can’t I go with you? What am I going to do there?”
“Don’t you want to paralyze the opponent?” Xiao Li didn’t waste time and turned to Zheng Yi. “Then—”
Before Zheng Yi could speak, Ye Zeqing had already interrupted him. Ye Zeqing spoke through gritted teeth, “No, I will go. You are trusting me with this. I... I will go.”
Zheng Yi wasn’t too convinced but there was no direct opposition.
Xiao Li nodded. Then he took out the little yellow book, summoned the Eternal Soul Umbrella, handed it to Ye Zeqing and whispered a few words.
Ye Zeqing held the umbrella handle and his heart was settled a lot. Once Xiao Li and the others left, he no longer disguised the cold sweat on his forehead. He started to accelerate the pollution of the bloody pool.
Once everything was done, he took off his gloves, placed the empty bottles on the cabinet and held up the Eternal Soul Umbrella as Xiao Li explained. He wrote Xiao Li’s name on the umbrella and held it as he headed to the elevator.
After the Eternal Soul Umbrella was unsealed, one of its functions was camouflage. Xiao Li confirmed that with his consent, this function could be used on others.
historical
On the other side, Xiao Li ran out of the office building. He had already explained to the others and they ran with him toward the exhibition hall. It was like... they were chasing something.
The time was 11:35.
***
The other side.
Below the blood pool was a huge basement that occupied the entire office complex. It could no longer be called a basement. It was more like an underground palace. The light in this basement lit up the entire floor.
President Sun and his friend were already in place. They were standing on a glass staircase, looking at the sculpture below and making final preparations. Below the glass staircase was a pond that had been carved and polished. It was empty inside and there were countless complicated patterns on the bottom that were intertwined with each other.
In the middle of the pool was a statue taller than a person. The face of the statue was of a man. The face was angular and looked arrogant.
President Sun looked at the big clock on the other side and clenched his fists as he prayed in his heart, “Faster, faster.”
He just had to succeed this time and he would be able to get a god to descend.
The friend opposite him looked a bit excited. Then he looked down at the book in his hand, took out a pen and wrote in it. A black shadow emerged from the side and spoke hoarsely. “There are... two ‘hims.’ One is near Hall X and one is on... the 18th floor...”
“Two?” President Sun frowned. “Is it his item?”
The friend thought for a moment. “When did they go there?”
“One at 11:35 and one at 11:40.”
“What did he do in the office building?”
“Looking for the water pipes.”
It was just as the shadow said. Ye Zeqing was holding onto the Eternal Soul Umbrella and knocking around the wall to find the water pipe. Then he followed the sound of the water as before.
President Sun waved his hand. “No matter which one of them is him, one is in the exhibition hall and one is above us. They won’t affect us.”
“No, I was thinking...” The friend spoke slowly. “It might be unlikely but since there is such a copying item, he might be pretending to be someone else...”
President Sun was stunned. “Are you doubting me? I’ve always been here with you.”
“No.” The friend shook his head.
Just then, the black shadow took the initiative to speak. “The one from the exhibition hall is... coming here.”
It was currently very close to midnight.
A smile appeared on President Sun’s face as he spoke in a longing tone. “It’s okay, let him come. Let him come to welcome the descent of a god.”
Once their goal was achieved, all their problems would be solved the moment the god came to the world.
The ending would be the same even if 5,000 reincarnators joined forces.
***
Time passed and Xiao Li’s return wasn’t hindered. Once he found the stairs leading to the underground palace in the logistics office, President Sun was standing below to greet him.
“Welcome.”
Xiao Li saw the smile on this person’s face and wondered, “Will your next sentence be ‘Are you satisfied with what you are seeing’?”
President Sun was taken aback for a moment. “I didn’t want to say that. However, now that you mention it, I can use this sentence to welcome you. Are you satisfied? You should feel honoured to die after seeing a god descend.”
Xiao Li raised his eyebrow. “A god descends?”
He looked at the statue in the pool.
“The greatest god in the world.” President Sun’s face was full of worship. “The time is up. Come and welcome my lord with me.”
It was midnight. The hanging pendulum of the clock had already been programmed and it started to shake from left to right, making a large nose.
The top of the statue pool split to both sides. Then the bloody pool above them poured into the statue pool along a special pipe. The black and red meat pieces and the white spirit bodies were mixed together, filling the array for the sacrifice bit by bit.
The colour of the pool was no longer bright red. It was black and this gave the pool a ghostly atmosphere. The liquid was sucked up by the statue and gradually filled the entire statue. The appearance was very good but...
Something seemed to be wrong. President Sun sniffed. The air was filled with something... sour, sweet, bitter and salty.
It was like a dark dish made by someone who knocked over all the seasonings. The smell was so disgusting. President Sun had only taken two sips when he suddenly hugged his stomach and vomited. He vomited out not only his stomach fluids but his broken heart.