Chapter 266
Xiao Li originally wanted to say the same introduction to the IV ghost and ponytailed ghost. However, the reaction of the pen fairy and the split-mouthed woman made him stop and he instead continued to go up.
The impact downstairs continued. Although the IV of the IV ghost was stuck in between the two door handles, it couldn’t last long. In addition, the elevator had stopped working and they could only climb up the remaining floors.
Going upstairs was much harder than going downstairs. Xiao Li was already gasping when he climbed up three floors. He held the railing with one hand while the other hand was in his pocket. The pen fairy didn’t leave and had been suspended in midair.
The split-mouthed woman observed the pen fairy. Xiao Li didn’t speak and the split-mouthed woman was also silent. Finally, she couldn’t help it anymore. She came to the pen in two steps and spoke casually. “I’ve heard of you.”
The pen fairy’s body was shocked.
The voice of the split-mouthed woman was muffled through the scarf. “You will answer the questions they ask you and you can only tell the truth. So now can I ask you, am I beautiful?”
She unwrapped the scarf and revealed her split mouthed, the flesh and blood cavity and the sharp teeth. The visual impact was stronger than when she showed her mouth all the time.
Originally, the split-mouthed woman didn’t have the impulse to ask this from Xiao Li anymore. Now that she had bumped into the pen fairy and saw that it had been answering questions. Therefore, she couldn’t help asking again.
The pen fairy, “.......”
This question wasn’t difficult to answer but could it tell the truth? In particular, it saw that the hand holding the large scissors was tightening and it didn’t want to experience the feeling of being cut. It couldn’t let that happen. Therefore, the pen fairy drew a character that didn’t really mean anything in the air and handed the problem to Moriarty.
Xiao Li didn’t look at the pen fairy’s ghost character. The hand he put into his pocket touched the things Wang Huai and Gong Mingming had given to him. There were three pieces of chaos fragments plus a strange amulet. Xiao Li felt the breath of the goddess of night that he had sensed once from the adjudication prison.
At the time, Wang Huai had whispered to him when putting things in his pocket. “I can guess what you want to do. These things will help you a bit but we can’t put all our eggs in one basket. The others and I will use another method to save reality.”
This was why Xiao Li was the only one who came here. If he failed, there was still Wang Huai.
Xiao Li stopped and rested a bit while climbing the next step. Before the split-mouthed woman could turn to scold him, he climbed up at a faster pace. This wasn’t an easy action. Due to the existence of the cracks, he had to concentrate on avoiding them by raising his feet or bending down. He sometimes even had to walk sideways.
The brittle sounds of bones didn’t disappear from downstairs. They seemed to have found a way in. Xiao Li looked down through the middle gap in the stairs and saw that the black swamp below was eating at everything, including the stairs, walls and steps.
The floors here were high enough that the muffled noise from outside could be transmitted to Xiao Li’s ears without any hindrance. It was deafening. Compared with thunder, it was more like a crashing sound when a certain space overlapped with another space.
On the 85th floor, the stairs had reached the end. He couldn’t take the stairs to go up further. He could only take the sightseeing elevator. However, the 85th floor couldn’t be directly entered. It was blocked by a door with a password lock. There was a corridor outside the password door that led to the staff room.
The black mud on the wall slowly fell off, forming a shape similar to a human body and struggling for life.
This place didn’t only mutate ghosts, it also bred ghosts. The worst thing was that apart from the building itself, these cracks gradually extended and widened, turning into a torn opening. At this time, a hand stretched out from the gap closest to Xiao Li! The hand was pale with swollen fingers. The fingers tried to squeeze the rest of its body out of the crack.
The overlap between reality and the rest of the instance worlds was almost complete. There was only one last step. There was no need for Xiao Li to speak. The split-mouthed woman couldn’t get his translation and took out her pair of scissors and cut the hand coming from the crack. The five fingers fell to the ground like radishes. The creature in the crack howled and ran away.
On the other side, the IV ghost used the needle attached to the back of his hand to attack another creature, assisted by the ponytailed girl. However, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the total number of cracks. He needed more help.
Xiao Li’s fingertips moved. He took out his phone and called a number. The moment the call connected, Xiao Li didn’t give the other person a chance to speak. He asked directly, “Can you open this password lock?”
Meiyou’s main business might be the telephone but since she could force mobile phones without signals to receive messages, she might be able to act as a ‘hacker’ to a certain extent. Meiyou didn’t speak but Xiao Li could see that the first number had been pressed on the password lock. It was a six-digit password and Meiyou was slow.
The second number.
......
There was just a lot of movement in the room next door. Based on the sound, it was like someone was pouring water from the water dispenser inside. The sound was getting louder and closer to the door.
Meiyou pressed the third digit. It was still three digits away.
The monster in the staff room poked its head inside. It was a person whose head was put into the drinking water dispenser. His neck was stuck in the narrow water outlet and there was still water in the bottle. His entire head was soaked in water and he was swollen and pale. He was like a water ghost.
Xiao Li didn’t move. He watched it approach step by step until the closed eyes in the water suddenly opened!
Just as he took a third step, a lazy and elegant female voice rang out from behind him. A finger tapped on the bottle of water. “You didn’t even bother drawing candles this time? Do you need something quickly? What business do you have?”
It was obviously just a finger but it pressed down the entire body of the water dispenser ghost. Then something bright red came out, replacing the original clear tap water with blood. Bloody Mary was elegantly dressed and she had a crystal-coloured pearl necklace around her neck. She took back her finger, looked around and raised her eyebrow. “I can smell it.”
“You aren’t afraid of him?” Xiao Li asked.
“He doesn’t want to deal with me. It is you and you are the one who should be afraid.” Bloody Mary leaned to one side and looked Xiao Li up and down. “Next, let’s talk about why you looked for me.”
Xiao Li thought for a moment before hesitating. “How many good friends can I introduce to you?”
Bloody Mary, “......”
Xiao Li briefly introduced the split-mouthed woman, the pen fairy and Meiyou. At the same time, he called out the ancient woman and introduced them. After meeting Bloody Mary, the pen fairy was energetic. It wrote a question in the air and Xiao Li read it out loud. “Mary, I have a question to ask you.”
Bloody Mary made a gesture of please.
“Do you really like to bathe in the blood of beautiful and pure girls as the rumours say?”
historical
Bloody Mary’s beautiful face stiffened slightly and she didn’t answer directly. She just smiled politely.
In front of the password door, Meiyou was pressing the sixth digit. Before pressing it, Meiyou spoke to Xiao Li on the floor. “Be prepared.”
What to prepare? It was better to call everyone over and have a lively time.
Xiao Li grabbed a pen and wrote something down. There was a ding as the password door opened and his line of sight suddenly widened a lot. Similarly, the things beyond the door directly entered Xiao Li’s eyes.
This floor was very wide. It was originally a revolving restaurant with a viewing platform in the middle that could be used for walking up and down. It was designed with floor to ceiling windows, allowing them to see outside without any hindrances. Usually, the guests could enjoy looking at the mountains and rivers. Now behind the glass was just black as night.
There were cracks all over his head. Every crack had half a body or a whole ghost stretching out from it. This floor was simply a paradise for ghosts. They didn’t need to be strong. They could win with numbers. They stood on the tables and climbed the ceilings as they watched the password door that gradually opened in front of them.
...Then they saw a gorgeous blonde beauty. The beauty touched the necklace around her neck and turned her head to the black-haired young man around her. “Sherlock, you are looking for me to do hard work, right?”
There was a cute little girl standing next to the blonde beauty but her words weren’t cute. “Hercule, you have to pay me. You didn’t pay me for the renovation cost of my house last time.”
“Yes, Moriarty, I want a gift too.” The split-mouthed woman wished for the whole world to be in chaos and hurriedly agreed.
Xiao Li finally opened his mouth. “How about I make you an appointment for plastic surgery? I know a great doctor.”
He would ask Dr J to operate on her and make sure that the split-mouthed woman never made this request again.
The split-mouthed woman, “......”
Bloody Mary followed their words with amusement. “One of you calls him Moriarty and the other calls him Hercule. Tell me, how did he meet you?
“It was in a completely enclosed village. I was really miserable with him...”
“......”
The group of people chatted to themselves and behind them—
There was a two-headed monster carrying a crying baby on its back, a stick person beside a costumed woman making a face to tease the baby, causing the baby to burst out laughing. There was also a strange-looking silicone doll furtively trying to attack the young man with black hair only to be tangled up in the air. An old man holding the paintbrush was looking at the costumed woman with a fanatical gaze from time to time, he would say something like ‘how are you drawn?’
The ghosts on this floor who had been waiting a long time, “......???”
Who could stand this?
The monster closest to the door was ready to roar at the door but once it saw this, it fell down on its butt and almost choked.
On the left side, a black-haired beauty was leaning against a pair of legs that was only half the size of her body. Her voice was full of temptation, making people confused and unable to resist. “So lively? I’m not late, am I?”
The weeping woman wiped away her nonexistent tears with the hair ghost on her head.
***
For the ghosts who could be considered instance boss level, the polluted ghosts in reality might be strong but it wasn’t a match for them. Therefore, after the brief howling of ghosts, this floor was cleared.
Xiao Li stared out the window. There was no time to delay as he stood on the sightseeing escalator leading to the two upper floors and pressed the start button. No one spoke out to stop him. Xiao Li had already explained to them and even made a deal with him. In addition to Bloody Mary and the split-mouthed woman, the other ghosts disappeared with Xiao Li on the sightseeing escalator.
The height increased slowly and after reaching the 88th floor, it was a completely different world from the one downstairs.
Downstairs, the world was gloomy and full of black mud with cracks all over. However, this floor was bright and clean and was completely unaffected by the collapse of reality. Or there was a ‘person’ who restored it to its original state.
There was a man standing on the top floor of the building. The window in front of him was tightly closed like every normal day and night in this building. He stared at the world below him through the clean glass windows, watching the humans below cry, struggle and run away.
He did not start and Xiao Li didn’t move. He just stood there in an expressionless manner without any surprise on his face.
A long time later, the man facing the glass window turned around. It was a completely unfamiliar face. He didn’t ask about Xiao Li’s identity or why this person had come. He just said to Xiao Li, “Sherlock, I really admire you. Why do you want to fight for humanity? Join me and I will give you everything you want.”
Facing these eyes, Xiao Li’s lips suddenly curled up in a smile. He usually didn’t like to smile very much but this smile made him look very sharp.
Proofreader: Tofu