The bizarre creature’s presence completely dissipated, and the violent wind gradually calmed. Everything returned to silence.
Staring at the cowardly ghost’s corpse, which had collapsed to the ground and stopped moving after losing its restraints, Jiang Yetong remained dazed for a long time before slowly coming back to her senses.
She had done it!
She had actually done it. She had avenged her dead companions, her cat Coffee, and all the pain and despair she had endured these past few days.
“Ugh… hngh… wuu…”
The girl wiped the tears that kept sliding down her cheeks with the back of her hand. As if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, she squatted on the ground and sobbed, her body shaking with each cry. She looked utterly heartbroken.
Seeing this, Bai Tang didn’t rush over to comfort her.
Crying so bitterly all of a sudden probably meant she was remembering something painful. In times like this, it was better to stand quietly to the side and wait for the girl to regain control of her emotions on her own.
Just then, Theresa, who had disappeared earlier, returned from inside the house. She was carrying an old, rusty iron bucket with both hands. The water inside sloshed from side to side with her steps, looking like it might spill at any moment.
“Bai Tang, come help!”
Hearing her, Bai Tang quickly stepped forward. One of them held the iron handle to steady the bucket while the other lifted the bottom. Together, they poured the entire bucket of clean water onto the ground.
Splash~
The water not only washed away the bloody smell in the courtyard but also rinsed away the cowardly ghost’s spilled blood and the thin layer of yellow mud covering the ground, revealing the complete reverse summoning magic circle underneath. It was made of countless complex, interlocking runes that looked like they had been drawn with fresh red blood.
Whether it was an illusion or not, when Bai Tang focused her attention on the runes, the dense and intricate patterns suddenly seemed to come alive. They twisted slowly and irregularly, like living earthworms.
Was this some kind of mental pollution?
When Bai Tang shook her head hard to clear her mind and looked again, the runes had returned to normal, as if they had never moved.
“Don’t stare at it for too long. You won’t be able to remember it anyway.”
Theresa casually tossed the bucket aside and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Noticing Bai Tang’s gaze, she reminded her offhandedly.
Bai Tang paused, then closed her eyes and tried hard to recall the runes on the summoning circle. To her shock, whenever she attempted to remember them in detail, the once-vaguely outlined runes immediately transformed into the same writhing mass of chaotic worms she had just seen.
She really couldn’t remember them at all!
“What’s going on?!”
“It’s obvious. These summoning circles have ‘consciousness,’” Theresa said. As a native of the hell world, her understanding of this place far surpassed Bai Tang’s. “You can think of it as an anti-copy system that every summoning circle gains after being drawn.”
“All summoning circles can only be drawn, never copied.”
As if suddenly remembering something, Theresa added, “However, it is possible to record them on paper through certain methods. That way, even if you can’t memorize them, you can still use them.”
Bai Tang fell into thought. She roughly understood what Theresa was implying without saying it outright.
In short, the runes were the core of a summoning circle. Most summoning circles could only be drawn after one had learned and mastered them. If Bai Tang had accidentally seen a summoning circle capable of calling forth some indescribable powerful existence, it would be impossible for her to successfully recreate it from memory alone.
“I understand.”
Theresa blinked and glanced back and forth between the summoning circle and Jiang Yetong, as if considering the next steps.
Suddenly, the demon hunter slapped her palm with a loud smack, and a big exclamation mark seemed to appear above her head.
“Right! If we want to activate the reverse summoning circle early, we’re still missing the most crucial thing—sacrificial flesh and blood!”
Bai Tang immediately turned her gaze toward the cowardly ghost’s corpse lying nearby.
“Can we use this?”
“We can, but the amount is too small. We need flesh—large quantities of flesh that can be used as offerings!”
After speaking, Theresa smiled and patted Bai Tang on the shoulder, naturally extending her open palm.
“Bai Tang, give me some Ghost Coins. I’ll go buy some from the slaughterhouse next to the blacksmith shop right now. That girl’s leaving soon anyway,” the demon hunter said with an understanding smile. “You two should take this last chance to chat properly.”
Bai Tang was speechless.
“You really have money on the brain.”
Still, what Theresa said made sense. Bai Tang simply took out extra Ghost Coins and handed over a total of five thousand. The surplus could be considered payment for running errands.
“Is five thousand enough?”
“Mm… It should be enough after some haggling!”
Haggling, huh? Recently on Undead Street, it wasn’t just rumors about Bai Tang that were spreading—Theresa’s reputation was also quite well-known.
She went around scamming bizarre creatures, threatening them by claiming they were targets on her demon hunter bounty list. If they didn’t want to be killed, they had to pay a little money, which she elegantly called “protection fees.”
Her so-called “discount” probably meant beating them until their bones fractured and forcibly lowering the price to cost price!
No wonder people said her [Chaotic Good] alignment was something else. The “Good” part was real, but the “Chaotic” part was also very real!
Bai Tang watched Theresa leave happily with the money.
She took a deep breath and turned her gaze back to the cat-eared girl. It was true that over the past two days, aside from when they were resting separately, they had mostly been on the move. Their conversations had been brief and superficial.
Only now that Theresa had deliberately stepped away did they finally have a chance to talk properly as fellow humans from Earth.
“Senior Bai Tang meow.”
Jiang Yetong had naturally heard their earlier conversation. In just this short while, she had already calmed down. Although her eyes were still a little red, she had stopped crying.
Bai Tang looked around and eventually found a step to sit on. She patted the empty space beside her, signaling for the girl to sit down.
“Sit. It’s just the two of us here now. You don’t need to hold back. If there’s anything you want to say, just say it directly.”
“Mm… Or I can ask you too. Either way is fine. We’re compatriots. There aren’t so many restrictions between us.”
The girl sat down beside Bai Tang and pressed her lips together. Her fluffy cat tail swayed gently behind her.
That’s right. Senior Bai Tang was the only person in this hell world who shared the same bloodline as her. If she couldn’t even trust Senior Bai Tang, then who could she trust in this world?
The girl fidgeted with her fingers as her cat ears twitched.
“Senior Bai Tang, you can ask first meow.”
Bai Tang nodded.
“Alright. Then can you tell me in more detail how you and your original companions ended up in this world?”