Following the direction pointed out, Bai Tang quickly located the slaughterhouse at the end of Undead Street. A roughly two-meter-tall iron fence enclosed a large open area. The black iron gate had peeling paint and was covered in rust.
Through the gaps in the iron bars, rows of meat-hanging racks could be seen in the enclosed space. Halves of pork split straight down the spine hung neatly from them. They appeared freshly slaughtered, with fresh red blood continuously dripping down.
The thick bloody smell in the air made Bai Tang frown deeply.
Fresh souls… A slaughterhouse should indeed have quite a few of them.
Thinking about it now, her mindset earlier had been too narrow. She had subconsciously assumed it referred to human souls, but the Blacksmith Ghost had only asked for the soul to be sufficiently fresh. He never said animal souls were unacceptable.
The girl’s gaze landed on a building beside the slaughterhouse’s open area, where faint silhouettes could be seen moving inside.
This made things easy.
Since it was a slaughterhouse, it was definitely a business. She had come out today with plenty of money!
Without further thought, Bai Tang put on a kind smile and shook the iron gate.
“Hey, Mr. Butcher!”
The slaughterhouse was in a rather remote location even for Undead Street. Other than the blood scent attracting too many ghouls after Long Night, almost no one came here during White Day.
The entire area was very quiet, so the noise Bai Tang made was impossible to miss.
A figure roughly one meter ninety tall slowly walked over. His upper body was that of a bare-chested middle-aged man, but his head was that of a pig. A waistband stained black from dried blood was tied around his waist, and fresh blood continuously dripped from the butcher knife in his hand.
At the same time, text information slowly surfaced in Bai Tang’s right eye.
[Name: Hector]
[Race: Pig-Head Man]
[Level: 19 (Fierce Ghost Level)]
[Alignment: Chaotic Evil]
[Introduction: The Pig-Head Butcher of the Undead Street slaughterhouse and the largest meat supplier on Undead Street. Aside from occasionally hauling dried meat out for sale, he usually stays within the slaughterhouse. No one knows where the fresh pork in his hands actually comes from. Only when one approaches the slaughterhouse during Long Night can the miserable screams of ghouls be heard…]
This was clearly implying that the dried pork circulating on Undead Street was made from ghouls!
Bai Tang sucked in a breath of cold air.
“You’re… the human who took out that werewolf at the tavern?”
Separated by the iron gate, the nearly forty-centimeter height difference forced Bai Tang to crane her neck to meet the Pig-Head Man’s eyes.
She hadn’t expected her feat to have reached the other party’s ears. Bai Tang kept her smile unchanged and casually let the corner of the Demon Hunter Revolver in her pocket show.
“Mr. Werewolf simply had bad luck that day, so I won by chance.”
Facing Bai Tang’s calm reply, the Pig-Head Man remained silent for a moment, his thoughts unknown.
“Mr. Butcher, may I purchase some goods from you?”
Only after Bai Tang reminded him did he seem to snap back to his senses and pull open the heavy iron gate.
“What do you want?”
“Mm… Let me take a look first.”
Perhaps because he couldn’t figure out Bai Tang’s depths, or perhaps because he was wary of the Witch teacher behind the girl, the Pig-Head Man showed no malice.
Bai Tang followed closely behind the Pig-Head Man. As she walked past the open area where the pork was air-drying, getting closer allowed her to see clearly that it wasn’t pork at all. It was clearly ghouls that had been specially penned and raised until they became pale and swollen!
Although Bai Tang knew that in this hell world ghouls didn’t count as ‘people’ and were more like humanoid animals, her stomach still turned violently.
Obviously, the Pig-Head Man walking ahead noticed her reaction.
“Heh, didn’t expect that the food you usually eat comes from this, right?” The Pig-Head Man grinned and laughed mockingly. “How about it? Pretty nutritious and delicious, huh?”
Bai Tang shook her head.
“I’ve never eaten it, but just looking at it is enough to kill my appetite.”
“Never eaten it?” The Pig-Head Man’s voice rose sharply, clearly shocked. “You don’t eat pork? Won’t you become malnourished?”
In the Pig-Head Man’s understanding, not only humans—even bizarre creatures would suffer clear physical decline if they went too long without eating meat. In this world, they wouldn’t last long.
And “pork” was the cheapest meat in this world. After all, ghouls were everywhere and nearly impossible to wipe out. The only downsides were that the meat tended to be dry and stringy, and eating too much of it could easily lead to mental confusion.
“Malnourished…?”
She had occasionally shown signs of weakness and anemia-like symptoms before, but ever since the Witch teacher made her try the magic potions, those issues had vanished.
Bai Tang lowered her head and used both hands to lift her chest, weighing them.
“Mm… I always thought it was a genetic problem. So it was malnutrition this whole time!”
If you’re not stacked, how do you gather people’s hearts? Who wouldn’t want to get intimate with Lady Luck and transmigrate to another world as a beautiful big-breasted loli-faced girl?
The Pig-Head Man was rendered speechless.
Was that what he meant earlier? And who asked about your figure?!
It had to be said that this small interlude eased the tense and oppressive atmosphere considerably. Facing dangerous bizarre creatures with a normal attitude was always better than being constantly on edge, making the other party subconsciously treat you as a neighbor on the street rather than potential prey.
“So what exactly do you want to buy? Want to take home a piece of pork to try?”
The Pig-Head Man turned to look at Bai Tang, only to discover that the girl’s attention seemed to have been drawn to something else. Her gaze was fixed in one direction, completely ignoring his question.
“Mr. Butcher, is there… another colleague of yours inside the slaughterhouse?”
Bai Tang suddenly asked an abrupt question. The Pig-Head Man was stunned. Following the girl’s line of sight, there was nothing over there except rows of fully loaded meat-drying racks.
“What do you mean?”
Bai Tang frowned and stayed silent. Although her spiritual power had failed to catch the escaping figure, she was certain she hadn’t seen wrong. Something had definitely moved and hidden itself there just now.
There was still another “guest” in this slaughterhouse—one that even the Pig-Head Man himself had not noticed.
“It’s nothing. I just felt that if Mr. Butcher always lives alone, it must be very lonely.”
The girl smiled brightly, her face full of pure innocence.
Though it was completely useless against the Pig-Head Man.
“I want to purchase one fresh soul!” Bai Tang raised her hand and declared.
“Sure.”
She had only been testing the waters, but she never expected souls to be openly priced goods in the slaughterhouse. What happened next completely exceeded Bai Tang’s understanding.
The Pig-Head Man led Bai Tang into the area where the meat pigs were slaughtered. He picked up a blood-stained iron hook and violently dug it into the head of a freshly slaughtered pig on the chopping block. The sharp hook pierced the hard skull, causing red-and-white matter to continuously ooze out from the cracks.
Right then, the Pig-Head Man twisted the hook and yanked it out with great force.
The expected scene of the skull shattering and brains splattering did not appear. Instead, he hooked out a pitch-black, semi-transparent mass.
It was a malevolent soul with a ferocious, terrifying face that continuously emitted sharp shrieks of “Eeeah—!”
[Spiritual Power -10]
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