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“You can say that, since they were all used to nurture flowers.” At this point, Bai Sinian who had been perfectly quietly stalked over. His eyes protruded and his pupils flushed red. “You tricked everyone to go there even though you knew that they would die?”

“If not for your cowardice and your senior’s willingness to take your place, do you think you will survive until now?” The monster thought it was Bai Sinian who brought Han Fei here so his eyes that targeted Bai Sinian were filled with venom.

The young man’s fist smashed into the monster’s face. Bai Sinian gasped heavily as his body continued to grow taller like there was no limit. Han Fei still had some questions so he had Drake pull Bai Sinian to the side for now.

“Was there any special mark on the guards you sent to Ziggurat? Or did they have to go through some kind of special training?” Han Fei’s real goal was to try to infiltrate Ziggurat as a security guard and he needed his disguise to be as perfect as possible.

“The guards would have to put on the cursed uniform. The uniform contained the wicked spirit of the previous owner. Passing the spirit’s test is only the first step, then you have to drink a drop of the Ziggurat manager’s blood.” The monster didn’t lie because he knew it was very easy for Han Fei to dispose of him.

“The manager’s blood?”

“At least that was what I was told. In any case, the blood contains some kind of bug cocoon. After you drank the blood, and did not perish, the cocoon would crawl deep into your soul. Then the security guard would become a qualified flower pot. They would be tormented by the pain and despair brought by the cocoon and eventually lose their humanity and become what most locals call the outsiders.” The monster paused before adding, “There are a small portion of people who could resist the mutation brought on by the cocoon, but their endings weren’t much prettier.”

“What are the more obvious mutations that one could see after consuming the cocoon?”

“First, their personality will change. Compared to humans, they will become more like animals, they have no sanity left and love to kill.” What the boss said was similar to the outsiders Han Fei had encountered. He could mimic their personalities perfectly. “Physically, there will be some changes too. The most obvious would be the appearance of a butterfly wing pattern on the body part where the cocoon had decided to reside. The pattern cannot be remove and will accompany the flower pot until the end of their lives.”

“How long will it take for the pattern to appear on one’s skin after the cocoon is ingested?”

“It depends on the individuals, some took hours, others took months.” Han Fei couldn’t verify that but creating a butterfly pattern was going to be difficult.

“Does everyone at the Ziggurat have the butterfly pattern?”

“No, the situation at Ziggurat is very complicated.” The monster picked his words carefully like he was worried that he might trigger some curses. “Ziggurat is the most dangerous building here and the danger is multi-faceted. Other than the manager whom no one has seen, there are many other scary creatures there. They can’t even start to imagine their horror.”

“I’m curious, why would all these scary creatures congregate at Ziggurat?” That was a question which had been bothering Han Fei.

“I don’t know but one time when I went to collect the broken flower pots, I heard from one of the tenants that you could see the other side of the nightmare inside one of the rooms…” When he was halfway through, the monster’s body suddenly froze. Then the folds of fat started to tremble violently. The black mist that released from his skin appeared to form sharp threads which shredded through his body. The ugly face was covered in disbelief. His eyes widened but he could no longer say anything. Black mist poured out from his mouth and tore open his brain. The smell was horrendous. After the monster was positively dead, the black mist dissipated.

Big Sin bounced about, taking in as much as black mist as it could. Han Fei looked despondent because he saw the character Death on the monster’s rapidly dissolving heart. As the monster perished, so did the character.

‘Is that the curse from Ziggurat?’ The monster accidentally triggered the death curse. Han Fei still had many questions for him.

“He was quite powerful among the Medium Lingering Spirits but he managed to retain his rationality with such power. That was rare, no more the Ziggurat valued his service.” Out of professional habit, when the monster’s curse was triggered, Drake walked forward to shield Han Fei from it. “The Ziggurat would never curse someone for no reason. They would only curse those that they value with the unique Death Curse. Based on my understanding of the Death Curse, the one on the monster was the weakest kind.”

All the spirits guarded around Han Fei while Bai Sinian looked at the pool of blood on the ground in a daze. He was reminded of many things, he understood why he became like this. He wanted to take revenge for his colleagues and his senior, but the killer was already dead. “Hey, you don’t really think this guy was the culprit, did you?” Han Fei patted Bai Sinian’s shoulder. “The real monster that killed your senior is still at the company, your boss was just its caretaker.”

Bai Sinian was still contemplating what Han Fei meant when he was dragged by the man towards the cargo elevator. Since there was a Grade F Hidden Mission at the security company, it could only mean that there was a Large Lingering Spirit inside the company or at least a monster at the level of the Doctor from Cattle Alley. “The boss is already dead so the thing would know about our existence already. In that case, we would meet it in person.” With all the tenants from Happiness Neighbourhood and teachers from Yi Ming Private Academy, Han Fei might not be strong enough to fight with Ziggurat but he was certainly powerful enough to bulldoze a security company.

“They call themselves the guardian spirit of Yi Ming Street, but they’ve been doing these dirty transactions. They treat the people living on this street as cargo, they have never really wanted to help this street.” Han Fei pressed the down button and the door started to close.

“What are you doing?” Bai Sinian was still stumped. He looked at Han Fei and the army of ghosts who were willing to follow him.

“Yi Ming Street needs a new guardian spirit, a real guardian spirit.” Inside the elevator, Han Fei waved his hand at Bai Sinian. “Come on.”

“Ziggurat is very scary. After we killed the boss, where are we going to find the new guardian spirit?”

“There’s no need to find one.” Standing amidst the many ghosts, Han Fei smiled, “He’s already here.”