Chapter 9: The Headless Monster

  "It seems so!" The old god stick's footsteps were called Yu Bu, arranged according to the Big Dipper Seven Stars, as if stepping on the Gang Star Mansion. Since several classmates died tragically, I started paying attention to this kind of information and understood a bit about it.

  The old man's ritual seemed to be going smoothly, the candle flames flickered, and the atmosphere in the workroom became somewhat mysterious. My eyes were fixed on the headless corpse, and after about five minutes, there was no change in the corpse.

  Was it just my illusion earlier? I'm even a bit confused myself.

  Ten minutes or so passed without any change. The old immortal stopped on his own, somewhat surprised to circle around the headless corpse, with a serious expression.

  "Team leader, what's wrong?" I asked.

  The old man stroked his chin and replied, "Just now I was indeed summoning souls, but it didn't work. The soul of the headless corpse seems to have disappeared. Generally speaking, after a person dies, their spirit will linger in the mortal world for seven days before returning to haunt, which is what we call 'the seventh day'."

  I hesitated for a moment and said: "Just now I saw that the headless corpse moved, don't know if it's useful."

  "Did you see it clearly?" The old official asked very seriously.

  "It should be, right!" But being asked by him like this, I became somewhat uncertain instead.

  "That's strange, is the soul still in the corpse?" The old Taoist returned to the headless corpse and picked up the yinsheng money that was pressed on top of it.

  "Hey, don't be so tense, it's normal for the corpse to move a bit, it's just a normal nerve reaction, after all, he hasn't been dead for long."

  "Maybe!" I feel that our previous experience in handling cases for the Zero Number Special Case Group is completely useless, everything is unknown to us.

  The old man took out two yellow talismans and stuck them on the heart of the headless corpse, then returned to his previous position, stepped in Yu Bu, and began to chant a spell. It was a new spell, this time I stood closer, vaguely heard the content of the spell.

  "When the underground spring dries up, all grass and trees wither. Forever a ghost in the dark underworld, unable to ascend to the clear heavens. I appear before you now, do not be frightened or anxious. Together we make a solemn vow, vowing to save all living beings. Quickly, as if by imperial decree! Open your mind!"

  The old man's words had barely fallen when a strong gust of cold wind swept through the almost sealed forensic room. The only light source in the room, a candle, swayed back and forth, on the verge of being extinguished.

  I let out a loud cry of "Oh no!", rushed towards the candle and tried to protect the flame.

  Sigh...

  The dark wind grew even stronger and directly blew out the candle, plunging the room into darkness in an instant.

  People have an instinctive fear of darkness, especially in such a strange environment. I feel my scalp tingling and my hair standing up one by one.

  A heavy breathing sound came from the darkness, and my heart began to beat faster. The old monk shouted: "Calm down, don't move."

  A few seconds later, the candle lit up again, but the flame turned into a strange red color.

  The old man exclaimed in surprise: "Huh? How can this be?"

  "What's going on here?" Grey asked.

  "The old man spoke in a low voice: 'It's a bit different from what we predicted, the soul of the corpse is indeed still there, but there's also something else.'"

  "What else is there?" I think anything that can be stuffed into one's soul is definitely not a good thing.

  "I don't know what it is either, but I'll find out soon. This thing is fierce! You guys get back a bit." The old monk's tone was unexpectedly anticipatory.

  I couldn't wait to get away, and took a few steps back. Greg, relying on his size and quick reflexes, was still standing at the workbench. I grabbed him and pulled him to one side.

  Almost at the same time, the headless corpse underwent a change. The surface of the skin erupted with some green marks, like ink dripping on white paper, rapidly spreading out. Only the color was like rust.

  "This is interesting!" The old god stick walked to the side of the headless corpse, wanting to bend down and carefully observe the corpse. At this time, the corpse suddenly convulsed violently, its limbs shaking at a very fast frequency, hitting the workbench with a loud thud.

  Although I was mentally prepared, I still felt a bit eerie. The frequency of the convulsions accelerated rapidly, and all the talismans stuck to my body were shaken off.

  Tick-tock...... Tick-tock......

  The headless corpse made a cracking sound of bones breaking, and the sound of muscles tearing. After a minute, the corpse gradually stabilized, but its appearance had undergone a huge change. It turned into a monstrous shape.

  The wound on the neck of the corpse was torn into a huge, grotesque mouth. The white vertebrae were split in two and grew over a dozen sharp, white bone spurs. It was simply a monster with its jaws wide open.

  "What the...! This is ridiculous!" Grey cursed.

  A headless monster flipped over and crawled onto the stage, its four limbs on the ground, just like a dog. The copper green on the surface of the corpse was like the spots on a dog's body. This sight was terrifying, fortunately there was only one.

  "What's going on with this thing?" I asked hastily.

  The old man stared with wide eyes and said: "I don't know, I've never seen it before! Let's take things as they come."

  "You'd better think of a way quickly." The headless monster shook its neck, and it could pounce on him at any time. The bone spurs on its neck, which were more than ten centimeters long, were like daggers, and if he was hit, his life would be gone in an instant.

  "Two headless corpses are the same, how did one corpse change? Did the other guy kick the bucket?"

  Look at him, as if he couldn't wait for another corpse to turn over and get up. The old monk quickly said: "Pfft pfft pfft, people's words are unscrupulous, blown away by the strong wind!"

  "Do you still believe this?" This was a trick we used when we were young. If we said something unlucky, the grown-ups would let us say this sentence to drive away the bad luck.

  The old man said: "This is a workroom, it's very evil, bad things will happen if you say them!"

  He had just finished speaking when a headless monster suddenly jumped up and pounced on me. Sharp bone spurs were directly smashing towards my head.

  "Ah!" The monster seemed to know that I was the weakest of the three, and it directly pounced on me with a killing move. Even if I saw it coming, I couldn't dodge in time. All I could do was stare blankly as the headless corpse approached me, its sharp bony fingers stabbing towards my brain.

  Before I could finish speaking, Grey, who was beside me, lifted his big foot and gave my butt a ruthless kick.

  I was kicked out directly and hit the workbench. My head almost got scratched by a bone spur. If it was just a little bit more, my head would have been pierced.

  Grey's quick reaction saved my life, but he didn't have time to retract his foot. The headless corpse jerked its neck, and a long bony spur sliced through his leg, blood gushing out instantly.

  Lao Sheng stepped three paces and made two, rushed to the side of the headless monster, holding a copper coin sword in his hand, and chopped down at the headless corpse.

  The copper coin sword struck the headless monster, just like cutting tofu, and easily slashed out a wound. The wound quickly turned black and carbonized, emitting a foul odor that was several times more pungent than the stench of a corpse.

  The headless monster ate pain and jumped to one side. It swung its neck and targeted the old god stick.

  After landing a hit, Lao Da's expression relaxed a lot. He said in a low voice, "This thing is evil, but it's not hard to deal with."

  Greyle covered his wounded leg and shouted: "Then leave it to you." The two of us retreated to one side. In a one-on-one situation, the old godstick had a great advantage.

  I examined Grey's wound and found that it was bleeding profusely, but not very deep. I tore his pants into strips and applied a simple dressing.

  The old man said: "The changes of the two people may have nothing to do with the murder weapon, but why doesn't Xie Ping'an's corpse have such a change?"

  We can't answer that question. Grey, bleeding, quipped: "Maybe it's because this guy is handsome?"

  Bang!

  I heard a faint metallic collision beside me, turned my head to look, and another corpse seemed to have moved as well. That crow-mouthed Gale, good things don't come true but bad things do, really made him hit the mark this time, another headless corpse had also become a zombie.

  The second one was less than a meter away from us, and as soon as the corpse started moving, it would quickly become a zombie. Grey reacted very quickly, getting up with a limp and rushing towards the corpse.

  "Squad leader, it's going to turn into a zombie, what should we do?" I asked loudly.

  The old man's response almost made me sprain my waist, he said: "I'm not clear either, you guys figure it out!"

  The headless corpse convulsed with increasing frequency and incredible strength, and Gray was almost unable to hold on.

  "Think of something quickly, I can barely hold on!" Gale shouted.

  "It seems that we need to show our true skills now." The old rascal's expression finally became serious. The headless monster seemed to have sensed the threat. Its body retreated a few steps, then suddenly jumped forward and pounced on the old rascal.

  The old man dodged the attack while muttering to himself, "The head is one of the six yang meridians, it's a vital part of the human body. Apart from the head, the heart is the most vulnerable! Attacking the heart might be useful."

  Hsss... Hsss...

  The old god's words seemed to have hit the weak point of the headless monster. The monster swung its neck and attacked him with bone spurs, forcing the old god into a corner.

  On the other side, Gray's situation wasn't much better. The headless corpse he was pinning down had also grown sharp bony spines and was twisting its neck, almost breaking free.

  I saw a scalpel on the workbench, no time to hesitate, I rushed over and grabbed the scalpel, took a few steps to get next to Glay, grasped the scalpel and stabbed it into the heart area with all my might. The sharp scalpel easily pierced the heart of the headless corpse. The headless corpse twitched a few times, completely still.

  Another headless one seemed to be frightened and wanted to drive away the old god stick.

  "Hmm, looks like it's still useful after all." The old man bent his waist to dodge the bone spur, his body leaning forward, one hand propping up the ground, and the other hand gripping the copper sword, stabbing from a strange angle. The headless corpse couldn't dodge, could only watch as its heart was pierced, and then nailed to the wall, kicking its legs a few times before becoming still.

  "Wow! The copper coin sword is so sharp, what's it made of?" Grey asked curiously.