Lady Jinhua let out a scream sharp enough to pierce the eardrums.
The vertical pupils on her face narrowed into thin slits. Her thick, rotten snake tail slammed violently against the ground.
Two of her arms pressed down on the coffin while the huge mouth in her abdomen accelerated its swallowing.
The other four arms swung toward Wei Xilou—
Some of the pale arms extending from the void pinned Lady Jinhua down, while the rest increased their strength, inch by inch dragging the coffin, which was already half swallowed by Lady Jinhua, back out by force.
A stream of viscous bodily fluid came out with it, filling the air with the stench of rotting flesh.
Seeing this, Lady Jinhua immediately stopped paying attention to Wei Xilou.
All six of her arms grabbed one end of the coffin, desperately trying to snatch it back.
The golden-thread nanmu coffin had originally been extremely sturdy.
But after being corroded by Lady Jinhua’s bodily fluids and then subjected to such tremendous pulling force, it finally couldn’t withstand the strain.
It snapped in the middle.
The two halves of the wreckage flew in opposite directions and slammed into the pillars of the ancestral hall.
The young man lying peacefully inside fell from midair as well.
Lady Jinhua let out a strange shriek and reached out to grab him, but countless pale ghostly hands pinned her firmly to the ground.
Fingers tipped with sharp, hooked claws dug into her flesh, nailing her securely in place.
Wei Xilou stepped onto her enormous head and leaped upward, catching the falling youth and pulling him into his arms.
Lady Jinhua, having had her child snatched away, let out a mournful howl.
Her snake tail smashed the ground, creating cracks that spread in every direction.
Amazingly, she managed to break free from the suppression of countless ghost hands once again.
“Holy shit! Was that an earthquake?”
Wei Yao, who had bravely followed them inside, felt the ground shaking violently beneath his feet.
He couldn’t keep his balance at all, as though he were standing on the surface of water, and his expression instantly changed.
Wen Dajiang’s eyes went wide, and his whole body began trembling.
“What earthquake? They’re fighting over there!”
Wei Yao followed his gaze.
Sure enough, he saw countless terrifying ghost hands extending from the ground and the air, pinning Lady Jinhua down.
But Lady Jinhua obviously refused to submit.
She began rolling violently like a crocodile, using all six arms and her tail to strike and thrash about, tearing apart numerous ghost hands.
Amazingly, she stubbornly managed to crawl back to her feet.
The courage Wei Yao had painstakingly built up immediately leaked away like air from a punctured balloon.
Pfft. Pfft.
“Maybe we should just wait until they’re done fighting before we go over…”
Wen Dajiang and He Jiaqi had exactly the same thought.
But before they could retreat, the other main participant in the battle suddenly turned his head and looked toward them.
Even from such a distance, Wei Yao could still feel the man’s gaze.
It was as though he were experiencing the suffocating sensation of having his neck grabbed all over again.
Wei Yao’s scalp tightened, and every hair on the back of his neck stood straight up.
Sure enough, the familiar feeling of suffocation returned to his throat the very next second.
A pale ghost hand that had appeared from who-knows-where grabbed him by the neck and lifted him directly in front of Wei Xilou.
Wei Yao kicked desperately in midair, like a duck being strangled by the neck and completely unable to fight back.
His face flushed red as he glared at Wei Xilou.
He hadn’t been able to see from a distance that the man was actually carrying someone in his arms.
Now that he was right in front of him, he finally saw clearly.
He stammered out,
“Xu… Muchen?!”
Wei Xilou merely lifted his eyelids and, without the slightest hesitation, stuffed Wei Yao into the arms of the rushing Goddess Jinhua.
The six arms Goddess Jinhua had been waving froze. She stared blankly and bewilderedly at the person suddenly shoved into her hands.
Wei Xilou magnanimously told her, “This is your baby. Hold him tight. Don’t let him run away again.”
The vertical pupils on Goddess Jinhua’s face slowly opened and closed like human eyes blinking, and her vague voice was filled with confusion. “Baby?”
“……” Wei Yao could not hold back from using the filthiest words to curse his eighteen generations of ancestors.
Seriously, what kind of fucking ancestor was this?!
However, he soon had no time to curse anymore, because Goddess Jinhua lowered her head. That enormous face, with only one bizarre vertical eye, moved closer and stared fixedly at Wei Yao.
The instant Wei Yao met its gaze, he felt as though his soul had separated from his body, floating up in a hazy, weightless state.
“Baby… baby…”
The murmuring voice kept calling out beside Wei Yao’s ears.
A childish, innocent smile appeared on Wei Yao’s face. He opened his arms and hugged Goddess Jinhua’s finger, rubbing his face against it.
Wei Xilou glanced over and felt that, given the enormous difference in their sizes, the person clutched in Goddess Jinhua’s hand looked even more like a mouse.
He did not care whether the mouse lived or died. Carrying Xu Muchan in his arms, he prepared to leave.
Yet he was stopped by Old Master Wei once again.
When Old Master Wei saw his grandson being held in that thing’s hand, he nearly suffered a heart attack and fainted on the spot.
He had arrived too late to see the beginning and had no idea that Wei Yao had been shoved over by Wei Xilou himself. He thought his grandson had been caught by Goddess Jinhua. Throwing caution to the wind, he grabbed hold of the ancestor who was preparing to leave his grandson to his fate and humbly begged him once again to save the boy.
“……” Wen Dajiang and He Jiaqi, who had witnessed everything, wanted to speak but stopped themselves, then wanted to stop speaking but could not.
In the end, intimidated by Wei Xilou’s authority, they did not dare expose the cruel truth to his face.
Wei Xilou frowned unhappily. “Move.”
Old Master Wei’s body trembled. His fingers instinctively loosened, but when he glanced at his grandson in the distance, he tightened his grip again, racking his brain for another bargaining chip that might move this ancestor who was neither swayed by force nor persuasion.
Then he suddenly noticed the young man in the ancestor’s arms.
He did not know who the other person was, but seeing how carefully the ancestor was protecting him, an idea suddenly occurred to him.
“Ancestor, do you have some connection with this young friend? I see that his complexion is pale and his breathing is extremely weak. He should be taken to the hospital immediately. Otherwise, if we delay… I’m afraid something bad might happen…”
“Coincidentally, our Wei family has invested in a private hospital equipped with the best doctors and facilities. I can have Jianguo drive the ancestor there?”
As the old master studied Wei Xilou’s expression, he ruthlessly stomped his son with his cane.
Wei Jianguo understood immediately. He hurriedly pulled himself together and cautiously asked Wei Xilou, “Ancestor, shall I call the driver over right now?”
Those words successfully made Wei Xilou stay.
Although he had lain inside a coffin for over a hundred years, and many of his memories were no longer clear, he still retained basic common sense.
A-Chan was still an ordinary person. Given his current condition, he indeed needed to go to the hospital for an examination.
So many years had passed, and the Wei family seemed to have remained fairly prosperous. Being alone himself was one thing, but he also had A-Chan. In the future, there would indeed be places where he might need the Wei family’s help.
Wei Xilou nodded. “Prepare the car.”
A gleam flashed through Old Master Wei’s cloudy eyes. He looked at Wei Xilou even more eagerly.
“Ancestor, my grandson…”
Wei Xilou finally looked directly at him.
“The Wei family should have died out long ago. The fact that it has continued until today is entirely because Goddess Jinhua has protected it. If you really want to put it that way, that little mouse can actually be considered the child born of Goddess Jinhua and your daughter-in-law. Calling Goddess Jinhua ‘Mom’ isn’t wrong.”
Old Master Wei opened his mouth in astonishment. His lips trembled several times before he stammered, “B-but Goddess Jinhua isn’t exactly benevolent. If Yao Yao falls into its hands, can he really survive?!”
“Hold a formal adoption ceremony and announce it to Heaven, Earth, the gods, and ghosts. Have that little mouse acknowledge it as his godmother. From then on, worship it sincerely. If you can make it happy, naturally everything will be negotiable. Perhaps it can even protect the house and keep the residence safe.”
Old Master Wei was clearly still somewhat hesitant, but Wei Xilou had already run out of patience. Carrying the person in his arms, he walked outside.
Old Master Wei’s legs were inconvenient and he could not keep up with his pace. He could only viciously strike his son with his cane, desperately signaling for him to follow.
Wei Jianguo looked back at his son, who was still clutched in Goddess Jinhua’s hand, and secretly sighed. Nevertheless, he decided to treat a dying horse as though it were still alive and followed them.
The driver, having received the message, was already waiting outside the Wei family’s old residence.
As Wei Jianguo opened the car door, he once again stole a glance at Wei Xilou’s expression. Finding an opportunity, he carefully asked, “Ancestor, Yao Yao is still in that strange… Goddess Jinhua’s hands. He won’t be in danger, right?”
Wei Xilou said, “He won’t die.”
Hearing this, Wei Jianguo was somewhat relieved. Suppressing his worries, he got into the passenger seat and sent his wife a message to inform her of what had happened. He then personally accompanied them to the hospital.
The medical staff and VIP ward at the hospital had already been prepared in advance. As soon as they arrived, Xu Muchan was sent for various examinations. Only afterward was he returned to the ward with a one-on-one senior caregiver.
Wei Xilou remained by his side from beginning to end, displaying unprecedented cooperation and patience.
It was not until he saw the caregiver preparing to change Xu Muchan into a hospital gown that he frowned and spoke.
“Leave.”
The caregiver was startled by the sudden voice. When he turned around and saw Wei Xilou with his cold expression, he did not dare say another word. He quietly acknowledged him before lowering his head and hurriedly leaving.
Only after exiting the ward did he muster up the courage to look back.
The man dressed in a dark-blue long robe had bent over and was unbuttoning the clothes of the young man on the hospital bed.
What strange people, the caregiver thought to himself.
The man was dressed in bizarre clothing and covered in a murderous aura, which was strange enough. But the unconscious young man was even stranger.
He had heard that when the patient was brought in, his heartbeat was almost gone. He had looked practically like a corpse. Yet after undergoing a series of examinations, there turned out to be nothing wrong with him at all.
Moreover, the caregiver had never seen anyone whose fingernails were as long as that young man’s. They were a full three inches long and tinged blue-black. Combined with his completely bloodless skin, he looked exactly like the zombies in the zombie movies he had watched as a child.
What was especially strange was that, supposedly, the hospital director himself had personally brought this patient in and had repeatedly ordered everyone not to discuss him, much less spread anything outside.
The more the caregiver thought about it, the more his scalp tingled.
He rubbed the goosebumps rising along his arms and hurried away.
Inside the ward, after driving the caregiver away, Wei Xilou picked Xu Muchan up and placed him on his lap.
The unconscious young man leaned against him, his cheek buried against his chest. Long, jet-black strands of hair rested against his neck, while patches of snow-white skin showed through the strands, making him look as fragile as a porcelain doll—and just as obedient.
Wei Xilou slowly lifted the young man’s long hair and tucked it behind his ear.
After eating the black Tai Sui, Xu Muchan’s body had undergone considerable changes.
The most obvious changes were his hair and fingernails, which had grown longer in an extremely short period. His hair, which had originally only reached his shoulders, had already grown to his chest.
His jet-black, soft hair felt extremely pleasant to the touch. Wei Xilou grasped a lock, lowered his head, and smelled it before moving on to play with the young man’s hand.
After losing consciousness, the young man’s body had become extremely pliable, obediently allowing himself to be manipulated.
Those hands, which looked like works of art, were flawless. His finger bones were long and well-proportioned, and the raised knuckles were smooth and unwrinkled, carrying a faint trace of blood-colored warmth.
But the long fingernails at the tips of his fingers, tinged blue-black, ruined that beauty completely.
Wei Xilou stroked each of the sharp fingernails, which were like the hooked claws of a beast, thinking that he would have to find a nail clipper later and cut those long nails.
At that moment, the young man leaning against him gave a soft hum, as though he were about to wake.
“A-Chan?”
Wei Xilou lowered his head to look at him, only to see the young man slightly part his lips.
Two long, sharp teeth pressed against his lips and protruded outward. They seemed to be itchy, because the young man ground his teeth, making a creaking sound.
Wei Xilou found it adorable and reached over to touch those sharp little teeth.
The young man, who had been freely played with, suddenly opened his eyes.
His pupils were pitch-black as he stared at Wei Xilou.
Wei Xilou met his gaze and sensed that something was not quite right with his condition. He called out again.
“A-Chan.”
Xu Muchan stared at him.
His sharp canine teeth suddenly snapped shut, the tips of those pointed teeth piercing straight through the finger pressed against his lips.
Wei Xilou hissed and frowned as he looked at him, but he did not move his hand, allowing the young man to bite down on his finger.
The tip of the young man’s tongue greedily lapped up the blood dripping from the wound.
Some of the blood that he did not manage to lick flowed down the young man’s chin and into the hollow of his neck, the dark-red liquid staining his excessively pale skin.
Wei Xilou narrowed his eyes as he watched. He wiped some of the blood on the young man’s chin across it, then casually smeared it over his thin eyelids.
The hand being bitten was pushed a little farther into his mouth.
“Is it tasty?”
The young man held his finger in his mouth, his pupils pitch-black, without a trace of white showing.
Only his throat continued to move, producing a gurgling sound.
Wei Xilou laughed to himself and said softly, “Looks like it is tasty.”