"So 'eat you for a lifetime' — it turns out they really meant to eat you."
Wu Xian shook his head, amused, then after studying the photos for a while, he asked again.
"May I ask—who is this Wang Zhiwu? Your wife receives a monthly payment of ten thousand yuan from him, for no apparent reason…"
"Enough!"
The freezer trembled violently, and Wu Xian felt an icy chill seep into his bones.
"Do you have to expose every scar? I wronged Juan'er, so no matter how she treated me, I bear no grudges. Even if I'm dead, I don't want her to carry a bad reputation!"
"How much longer are you going to stall?"
"Oh, so you really love her—well, that's no problem. I'll figure out a way to get you out."
Wu Xian stretched lazily and stood up, then opened the window facing the sun. He took apart the bed slats and propped them up against the window. Using rope, he tied the freezer securely.
When Wu Xian said Wang wasn't honest, he wasn't referring to their messy love story.
He meant Wang's identity.
A man threatened and blackmailed by a woman, still having someone else pay money for him after death—that's a heavy burden. And with Liu Juan's intense hatred…
Wang was a bad man.
Wu Xian didn't know exactly how the evil spirits came to be, but Wang was obviously one of the transformed dead. Spirits born from the souls of the good might retain a shred of goodness—but those born from the wicked? They were pure malevolence.
Therefore, Wu Xian didn't believe Wang would keep his promise.
Even if he got released and the curse was lifted—so what?
Wouldn't sharing a room with an evil spirit just invite an attack?
Though Wu Xian had true fire curses and copper coin swords, he couldn't waste all his resources here.
Since Wang couldn't affect anything beyond the freezer, Wu Xian decided to find a clever way to let him out.
He tied up the freezer, then pushed it from the bed frame toward the window.
Wang sensed the movement and asked suspiciously, "I feel like my coffin is moving."
Wu Xian replied casually, "Oh, I found the key, but the chains have been locked too long. I need to wiggle it a bit before it can open."
"Then hurry up, I won't treat you badly," Wang sneered inside the freezer, his broken face twisted in a cold smile. Once out, he planned to shove Wu Xian into the freezer and lock him in.
Anyone who knew his secret would die.
And more than that—
He wanted to kill!
Since waking inside the freezer, he'd been driven mad by his desire to cause mischief. Why could other spirits kill and have fun, but he had to be trapped in a cold box?
He was also endlessly curious about what Zhao Juan did to him.
Was it really so delicious?
He wanted to try it for himself.
"Almost there. Hang tight, please," Wu Xian said, stepping back two paces before launching a strong kick that sent the freezer crashing out the window!
"Get outta here!"
Bang!
The freezer plummeted, smashing onto the ground with a deafening crash. The lid shattered and flew open, scattering ice shards and Wang's broken corpse everywhere.
Dim sunlight spilled over the remains, smoke rising from the body. Wang howled, and his shattered limbs quickly reassembled as he crawled into the shadows, vanishing from sight.
Wu Xian retracted his head from the window, sweat beading on his brow. His body temperature was steadily rising. Opening his "Ally Scroll" to check, he saw the curse had finally lifted.
"Heh, it worked. Looks like the rules of this place are pretty flexible after all."
...
With the curse lifted, Wu Xian didn't rush to leave.
Instead, he searched the room again. Since entering this forsaken place, all the good things he'd found had come from dangerous spots.
"To kill a hanging spirit, burn spirit incense. To explore perilous grounds, consult the Dark Nether."
By analogy, Wang's freezer-lair had to hide something valuable.
Before, while Wang was still around, Wu Xian hadn't found anything useful. But this time, he quickly made a new discovery.
First was a fist-sized peach-shaped fruit.
Picking it up, a new line of text appeared on his scroll:
[Small Longevity Peach]: Can be taken out of the Blessed Land. Eating it outside grants longevity; inside the Blessed Land, it heals wounds; offering it to gods can ward off disasters.
(Note: Praying to gods carries a small chance of triggering calamities: the Heavenly Official curses, the Earth Official punishes, the Water Official afflicts. Offering a Longevity Peach guarantees no negative effects.)
Wu Xian nodded in understanding.
"Looks like the reason I tangled with Wang was because I crossed the Water Official's unlucky path."
But what concerned Wu Xian the most was the other information revealed in the annotation. By now, he was almost certain that the statues of gods could be broadly classified into three categories: the Heavenly Official, the Earthly Official, and the Water Official. Each type of statue, when worshiped, brought different blessings—and also different calamities.
"My very first worship before entering this Blessed Land—there were three statues nearby. Perhaps those three represent the Three Officials who govern Heaven, the Underworld, and the Waters!"
"But what about that other statue outside?"
Wu Xian pocketed the longevity peach and turned his attention to another discovery. In the master bedroom's wardrobe, there was yet another statue—an extremely ugly figure, blind and deaf, clad in green robes. Beneath the god's seat was an inscription:
Heavenly Official Kui Xing, Officer of Rank and Prosperity!
If he could find an incense stick, he could come here to worship anytime!
Wu Xian covered the statue carefully, then rummaged through the drawers to find a toolbox before finally leaving Wang's house.
As before, Wu Xian didn't want to risk entering a sealed space with no escape, risking his life to test if the elevator was safe.
So he took the stairs.
The stairwell was gloomy and decrepit. The ceiling lights were long broken. On the way up, a little sunlight filtered through the windows, but on the way down only faint scattered light remained. The white paint was peeling from the walls, and the bricks and cement were damp, evoking a cold, clammy atmosphere.
Wu Xian kept time with his tapping footsteps, humming a tune as he descended without incident to the first floor. He reached out to push the unit door open—only for his hand to be instantly pushed away, and he stumbled back.
The doorknob was freezing cold, the lock frozen solid—there was no way to open it!
Wu Xian's humming stopped abruptly. Turning to go back upstairs, he saw the stairwell plunge into pitch darkness. Even the narrow windows seemed sealed by some unseen force.
Oppressive, dark, and cold—silence fell. The only sounds were his own breathing and pounding heartbeat.
Suddenly, a pair of frost-covered pale arms shot out from behind, wrapping tightly around Wu Xian's neck!
Wang's corpse pressed against his shoulder, a sinister grin spreading across his face.
"Heh, we meet again."
If Wu Xian dared to look back now, he'd see Wang's frozen, fleshless, horrifying face, teeth bare without lips, whispering into his ear:
"You saved me, but I haven't repaid you yet. Why are you trying to leave so soon?"
"I do good deeds without expecting anything in return!"
"Bullshit!"
Wu Xian hurried to explain in a dry voice: "Don't get me wrong—the freezer's chains really wouldn't open. I had no choice but to break it violently. It was all to save you. I wasn't trying to kill you by throwing you off the ninth floor."
Wang laughed, exhaling a cold breath into Wu Xian's ear.
"You know…"
"When a person's body temperature drops below a certain point, their temperature regulation center malfunctions. They start to feel hot, take off their clothes, and seek cold—until, like me, they're frozen through and through."
"Now… are you starting to feel hot?"
Wu Xian pondered for two seconds.
"I'm still a bit cold. But you… don't you feel hot?"
Wang blinked with his remaining left eye.
He actually did feel a little hot!