The two stared at each other from opposite sides of the street, the atmosphere growing subtly tense.
The Barrel Butcher seemed to be assessing the probability that the human girl named Bai Tang had survived Long Night.
“Waaah—!”
Suddenly, at that moment, a piercing infant’s cry that could penetrate eardrums rang out from the end of the street. The ground beneath their feet began to tremble, and the small pebbles on the road jumped up and down at a rhythmic frequency as if they had come to life.
Both their expressions changed drastically at the same time.
Why did they have to run into that thing right now? Their luck was terrible!
The orange-red flames inside the human-skin lanterns lining both sides of the street instantly turned into an eerie ghostly green. Within the flames, one could vaguely see twisted, ferocious human faces.
A massive entity over five meters tall—an indescribable blood-flesh aggregate that looked as if countless corpses had been crudely stitched together—came rolling from the end of the street. Countless human arms and legs waved like tentacles across its body.
Just one glance at it caused Claire a slight headache as her sanity points plummeted.
Any low-level bizarre creatures too slow to escape on the path of the rolling flesh aggregate had no chance. They screamed as they were crushed and stuck to its body, becoming nutrients for the monstrous thing to continue advancing.
To the flesh aggregate, this could barely even be called hunting—it was simply choosing a random route to pass through.
Compared to low-level bizarre creatures, this was the real danger of Long Night!
Seeing the indescribable horror gradually approaching, Claire steadied her mind and looked at the Barrel Butcher with an expressionless face.
“Let me inside to take shelter, or I’ll kick your tavern door down.”
The Barrel Butcher narrowed his eyes. “Are you threatening me?”
“You can take it that way.”
She could either help him and use the favor to cut off any ideas he had of demanding an explanation regarding the human girl from White Day, or stand by and watch, risking being dragged into danger and perishing together.
The choice was not difficult.
After a moment of silence, the Barrel Butcher finally stepped aside. Claire entered the Goat Tavern and thereby avoided the incoming crisis.
Once inside the tavern, her eyes immediately fell on a scorched mark on the floor, as if left behind by fierce flames.
She rested her chin on her hand, deep in thought.
“A Demon Hunter’s handiwork…”
The Barrel Butcher had no intention of paying her any attention. He headed alone to the storage room and soon dragged out the corpse of a human who had been dead for some time into the back kitchen.
Moments later, the sound of chopping meat came from the kitchen.
Everyone on Undead Street knew that during White Day, the Goat Tavern operated as a normal tavern with cheap and good beer.
But once Long Night arrived, the tavern would transform into the bloodiest slaughterhouse—a hell from which anyone who unfortunately entered could never leave.
Which parts made the best brewing ingredients and which could only serve as side dishes to go with drinks—a qualified butcher would not waste any part of his prey.
“Where did that human come from?” Claire asked.
“Just some ignorant fool who wandered in.”
The Barrel Butcher’s mocking reply came from the kitchen.
Claire nodded. She actually didn’t care about the already dead human. As a witch of the [Neutral] alignment, she also had no sense of justice like wanting to punish evil.
To her, as long as the dead human wasn’t Bai Tang, it was fine.
But just because she didn’t care didn’t mean others didn’t.
“It seems you’ve been targeted by a Demon Hunter. That’s not good news~” Claire said with a slight smile.
The sound of the boning knife chopping meat in the kitchen paused for a moment.
“It’s quiet outside now. Hurry up and leave!”
Claire’s smile faded. She focused her attention outside the tavern. The enormous commotion from earlier was gradually moving farther away until it completely disappeared.
Long Night returned to its deathly silence.
Claire stood up, pressed down on her tall pointed hat, and prepared to leave. At the door, she paused for a moment.
“Considering tonight, I won’t pursue the matter of you making things difficult for Bai Tang. But if that girl comes looking for revenge herself later, I won’t interfere.”
“Heh~”
A disdainful snort came from the kitchen. The Barrel Butcher clearly didn’t take her words to heart.
……
She stepped back onto the street. The path the flesh aggregate had rolled over was filled with the thick stench of blood, and the entire street was now completely empty—not a single shadow remained.
The remaining distance wasn’t long, so it didn’t take much time. Claire soon arrived at her destination.
[Blood Madam’s Clinic]
The entire clinic looked as if it had been soaked in formalin. Even from a distance, one could smell the unbearable pungent odor permeating the air.
Perhaps due to the earlier incident, the clinic was not open for business.
A wooden sign reading [Closed] hung on the door.
Not good. It looked like she might have made this trip for nothing tonight.
Claire curled her fingers and knocked on the closed wooden door of the clinic. The thump thump sounds rang out especially clearly in Long Night.
“We’re not open tonight. Please leave.”
A mature woman’s voice came from inside the clinic. It didn’t deter Claire. As long as someone was there, it was manageable!
Claire continued knocking, showing that she had no intention of leaving if the door wasn’t opened.
The knocking continued for about three minutes. Finally, the sound of high heels clicking on the wooden floor came from behind the door.
The clinic door opened, revealing a woman about 1.7 meters tall with a graceful figure, wearing a bright red dress.
“Why is it you?”
Upon seeing that it was Claire standing outside, Blood Madam’s expression immediately turned unpleasant—bordering on disgust.
“What? Here to cause trouble again like last time?”
It was only then that the witch realized the original Night Demon who ran the general store seemed to have had some grudge with Blood Madam. And now that she had taken over his identity…
“If you’re here to see the child…” Blood Madam glanced at Claire’s empty hands and sneered. “Hmph~ You’ve never come to see her once since she was born, and now you can’t even be bothered to bring a gift. Don’t come here and embarrass yourself.”
Claire’s mouth twitched.
Since they lived on the same street, a man and woman getting together by accident and having a child wasn’t exactly rare.
Of course, that was all done by Bai Tang’s original scumbag Night Demon teacher, not her.
“No, my student got injured. I came to buy some medicine from you…”
“Heh, you came to me just to save your little lover?” Blood Madam crossed her arms over her chest. “Picking a human as your side piece? You really have terrible taste.”
“Get lost. You’re not welcome here, and I definitely won’t sell you anything!”
The way Blood Madam looked at the witch was like she was looking at a scumbag who had abandoned his wife and child.
“Uh…”
To be honest, although Claire had taken over the identity of Bai Tang’s previous Night Demon teacher, suddenly having an ex-wife and a child was still something she didn’t quite know how to handle.
However, at that moment, a smaller figure appeared behind Blood Madam. She was hugging a teddy bear missing one button eye and peeked out timidly.
It was the Blood Doll that Bai Tang had encountered before.
“Excuse me… Are you Big Sister Bai Tang’s teacher?”
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