Chapter 53 - 42. Mu Shen’s Spiritual Artifact

The man who walked out had a withered face, and he was indeed the father of the girl in the white dress. Xia Feng took a deep breath and looked at the still dazed girl in confusion, "Isn’t she your daughter?" "Daughter? No, no, I’m her stepfather." The man smiled lightly, "The two of you seem to have just passed by accident. How about we leave each other alone and not disturb my experiment?" Fuck your experiment~ Xia Feng cursed in his heart. His broadsword had long been eager for action, and he wouldn’t be named Mu if he didn’t chop this bastard’s head off! However, just as he frowned and was about to make a move, Mu Qingtong suddenly spoke up, "Recently, my experiments have hit a bottleneck. If you don’t mind, we could stay and act as protectors for you while also observing." Xia Feng’s hand, which had just been about to draw his sword, froze. He coughed, adjusted his hood, and smiled, "Yes, yes, brother... we happen to be researching an experiment on how to create Evil from family conflicts. Perhaps we could exchange experiences~" The man didn’t expect the two of them neither to stop him nor leave but instead offered to stay as protectors and observers? He pondered for a moment and didn’t refuse, "Alright, as long as you don’t cause trouble." "Don’t worry, don’t worry, we’re not bad people... no, wait, we’re not good people either." Xia Feng nodded, earnestly promising only to observe. The man nodded and no longer paid attention to the two, instead waving his hand in front of the middle-aged woman and the girl in the white dress. The middle-aged woman immediately came out of the Illusion Realm, but before she could fully recover, she saw her daughter with a vacant gaze and a trace of black qi wafting from her eyes, slowly walking towards her. She froze, recognizing these as symptoms of Evil Disease. "Little Qiu..." She stepped back in horror, not even having time to process how her daughter had come back to life, when the girl grabbed her throat and pushed her to the edge of the rooftop with great strength. "Die... die... everyone goes die..." the girl in the white dress murmured eerily, her mouth twitching. The middle-aged woman struggled in fright but to no avail. Catching a glimpse of her husband not far away, she desperately called for help, "Yu! Quickly— come help, our daughter has Evil Disease!!" "Ah? How could that be?" The stepfather came to the pair’s side, lightly patted the woman’s arm, and said jokingly, "Come on, Lu Meili, relax. Just let your daughter go crazy and vent until she’s done. After all, you’ve taken such good care of your daughter, she couldn’t possibly have Evil Disease." "?!?!" Lu Meili was completely dumbfounded by her husband’s words. What was this situation? Her husband, who she had lived with for years, suddenly seemed like a different person. "You, surnamed Yu! Have you gone mad?!" The stepfather ignored her and instead whispered eerily into the girl’s ear from behind, "Little Qiu, your mother said earlier you were a heartless thing. Why don’t you prove it to her?" As he spoke, he quickly slipped a sharp knife into the girl’s hand and guided her hand straight downward. Lu Meili’s pupils constricted in terror as she attempted to resist, but the tip of the knife edged closer to her forehead, growing larger in her eyes. "Yes, yes, just like that~~" The sinister, bewitching whisper echoed once more beside the girl’s ear, "Do it, prove it to her~" "How could it... be like this..." In that moment, Lu Meili suddenly remembered her daughter had once told her about the stepfather wanting to turn her into Evil. Back then, she was angry, thinking her daughter was making up lies to drive the stepfather away, becoming more and more poorly behaved. How could it be like this... A taste of despairing agony spread, and she was filled with remorse. She should have never remarried; if only she had managed the steamed bun shop properly— "Thud!" Tears streaked with blood slid down from the girl in white’s eyes, the knife’s point skewed and dropped, clinking sharply on the tiled rooftop. "Useless, indeed... never mind then..." The stepfather frowned, picked up the knife, and plunged it cleanly and decisively into Lu Meili’s forehead. The expression of the middle-aged woman’s post-escape joy froze on her face. This move caught Xia Feng somewhat off guard, but no matter, his only goal was to save that poor girl. However, he was puzzled why Mu Qingtong still hadn’t made a move at this point, struggling to understand what she was thinking. Previously, he had been afraid that Mu Qingtong had some sort of backup plan, so he too had quietly watched for changes. But if he didn’t make a move now, the person was about to escape. "So, does this mean your experiment has failed?" Just as Xia Feng was about to act, Mu Qingtong once again spoke up at just the right moment, stopping Xia Feng in his tracks, nearly choking him up. The middle-aged man turned and smiled, "That’s right, I didn’t expect my stepdaughter’s willpower to be unexpectedly tenacious. She held on without acting out. If it were someone else, they would have turned into an Evil by now." "That’s really too bad," Mu Qingtong nodded, expressing a bit of regret. The middle-aged man was taken aback and also nodded, "Indeed, it is quite regre—ugh—" He didn’t get to finish his words. A bright red blade tip pierced straight through his throat. ’Ugh—’ His eyes widened with terror as he tilted his head back, trembling as he tried to grab his neck. But as the blade was withdrawn, blood sprayed up like a fountain into the sky. Plop— His body went limp and fell to the ground, the last scene he saw before dying was a girl in a white dress holding a blood-dripping knife, her eyes turned dark with pupils marked by a golden cross ☩ symbol, staring quietly at him: "What I mean is, you can die now." "!" The man’s head lolled to the side. "!" Xia Feng’s head also tilted, one eye widened in disbelief as he looked at the girl in the white dress, then he quickly turned back to look at Mu Qingtong. "Damn, is this your Spiritual Artifact ability?" Xia Feng’s voice shook with shock—the thing was so powerful it couldn’t be described with anything less than an ’S’! I just knew Mu Qingtong, that slick operator, wasn’t without a Spiritual Artifact. "Spiritual Artifact?" The red-clad person tilted her head, "What are you talking about? I don’t understand." "Do we know each other?" Xia Feng: "..." Alright, alright, keep acting, you just go on with your performance. Plop— The symbols in the eyes of the woman in the white dress dispersed, and her body slumped to the ground. Xia Feng stepped forward to check her breathing and nodded, "Good, she’s just passed out." "This person isn’t dead." "What?" Xia Feng turned with confusion. Mu Qingtong stood beside the dead man, holding something like an instrument, apparently extracting his soul. About two seconds later, she shook her head with a slightly grave voice, "No soul, this is a power doppelgänger, he’s not dead yet." "Not dead, huh..." Xia Feng nodded, not dead wasn’t really surprising, this guy didn’t seem like a simple character, having some contingency was quite normal. Rather than worrying about whether the man was dead or not, he was more concerned about Mu Qingtong’s Spiritual Artifact. "So, is your Spiritual Artifact ability hypnosis, or control? It looks like a very powerful control skill," Xia Feng flipped the girl’s eyelid to check and fell into thought, "What’s the trigger condition then? Direct gaze into your eyes? No, that can’t be right, you’re wearing a mask..." "The people around are still in the Illusion Realm, it seems that Illusion Evil is still here and hasn’t left," Mu Qingtong looked up at their surroundings. "Got it, the triggering condition is hearing your voice!" Xia Feng slapped his fist with realization. Mu Qingtong turned and said, "Can you sense around, find that Illusion Evil? This Illusion Evil should be in league with the man." S~eaʀᴄh the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Or, maybe your Spiritual Artifact ability actually has no triggering condition at all?" Xia Feng pondered. "..." Mu Qingtong asked, "Are you actually listening to me?" Xia Feng replied, "Eh? Good question—this is exactly what I wanted to ask!"