Chapter 116: The Law Shows No Mercy

On the ground, two investigators circled the collapsed Li family’s small house from north to south. Outside, four or five police cars were parked, and a barricade stretched out for dozens of meters.

“Why is there no movement?” one investigator stared intently into the pit, anxiously asking, “Could something have gone wrong?”

Surrounded by sirens, the two paid no heed. The other investigator pressed his lips lightly and shook his head: “No… this feeding zone is confirmed to be at the level of a vengeful spirit. Capturing the soul shouldn’t pose a threat to life, at most some injuries… Chief!”

Before he finished, both saluted simultaneously. The barricades were progressively opened, and four men strode straight over with swift footsteps. Leading them was an elderly man with a head full of white hair, wearing glasses and dressed in a white lab coat.

“What’s the situation?” he asked immediately upon arrival.

“Reporting, Chief, the qi fluctuations have now stabilized. But we haven’t gone down yet.”

“Well done,” the elder waved his hand, his eyes sharp and piercing, “This year, at the East Sea City symposium, I raised the issue of classifying spirits and even proposed establishing a related department. Yet no one took it seriously—only out of respect for my years did they offer a few polite responses.”

“But this feeding zone, I can be certain, is unlike any spirit we’ve encountered before!”

“Don’t disturb it. I’ve reviewed data on S9527. As long as it can locate the spirit’s whereabouts, there’s a chance to capture it. I want firsthand information.”

He turned to the others, “Seal off the scene. We’ll wait here for it to come out. No one goes down to disturb it; no one knows what’s really going on down there.”

...

“Waaah... aaahhh!” Li Jiankang sobbed with heart-wrenching despair, crying for nearly ten minutes before finally closing his eyes and speaking for the first time: “I… probably won’t make it out alive, right?”

Qin Ye smiled faintly: “It’s you who shouldn’t get out alive.”

“Sometimes I’ve thought about why morality in society is deteriorating more and more. Later, I reached a conclusion.”

“That is, small evils left unpunished eventually become great disasters.”

“And you are far more despicable than those sixty or seventy-year-olds who stage accidents, force others to jump, then say in interviews, ‘I didn’t force him,’” Qin Ye said softly, “You personally dragged more than thirty people down to hell...”

As if he had long anticipated this, Li Jiankang’s expression calmed. Suddenly, he smiled—tear-streaked and ugly.

“I just... just wanted to be with my family…”

His voice, in this bloodstained room, sounded like a lament: “Maybe your generation doesn’t understand our values… in our days, family was everything… nothing is greater than family…”

These two sentences were like a key. After saying them, he closed his eyes again, but a trace of relief appeared between his brows.

Strange.

Most people only realize what they must let go of when death is imminent.

His hand trembled as he reached into his waistband, and after a long moment, pulled out a pack of cheap cigarettes—Qin Ye had never even heard the brand name—before shakily lighting one.

As the strong scent of nicotine filled the air, his expression finally steadied somewhat, though his eyes remained hollow as he stared at the ceiling: “I married my wife, Song Jiafang, early on, but we never had children. Only at thirty-seven, thirty-eight did we finally have a child, Li Cheng.”

“We... valued him deeply... loved him so very much...” His hand holding the cigarette trembled, as if recalling how their love drove them to provide the best environment for their child, leading them to work away from home, missing his childhood, and thus all the tragedies that followed.

...

It was like a sword piercing his chest, bleeding profusely. He trembled for a long time before taking a deep drag: “Who would have known... after ten years of hard labor and finally some savings... Xiao Cheng would end up like this...”

“I truly... never dreamed it would come to this.” Tears streamed uncontrollably down his face like an old wolf near death as he looked hoarsely at the ceiling, “Why... why did we only want to give him a good environment? Why did we give everything for him... Why did we fight so hard for him, only to get this result!!”

“Didn’t we hand him over to the shelter? We paid the highest price!!”

“Everything, all for his own good... aaahhh!!” He wept again, pounding the wall fiercely. Yet like a candle flickering in the wind, the pain soon passed.

Qin Ye said nothing.

He had seen too many comedies and tragedies, joys and sorrows. He knew well how much influence parents have on their children.

Material wealth can’t fill every void, especially the spiritual emptiness.

“When I found out, I wanted to kill him...” His lips moved like a corpse’s, exhaling faintly, as if death was near: “But... I couldn’t.”

“He’s my only son... our bloodline’s continuation... one of the closest people in the world to me. I just wanted us to be together... I had no idea this method would raise zombies, but... seeing them open their eyes again... heh…”

A hallucinatory smile appeared on his face: “It’s as if... none of this ever happened.”

“As if I only had a nightmare.”

“How could I bring myself to do it? How could I lock up my living kin here?”

Qin Ye remained silent, allowing the man his last moments of confession. Such mercy was deserved.

Li Jiankang said no more; those words seemed to drain his last strength. Like a living corpse, he steadied himself against the wall and smiled through tears: “I deserve to descend to the eighteenth level of hell... I accept my punishment.”

Qin Ye looked deeply at him: “Since your family wants to be together, I’ll make it so.”

Clang!

Before the words faded, a long blade was drawn, and two coffin lids burst apart simultaneously. The things inside, seemingly stirred by some stimulus, breathed heavily, greedily, and with a bloody stench, like waves crashing.

Earlier, Li Jiankang had released Li Cheng, who immediately hid inside a coffin. With his limited wits, he knew it was the safest place. Yet upon smelling fresh flesh, his extreme hunger overwhelmed his fear.

Li Jiankang’s face paled. He understood: he was now repaying his sins.

“I originally intended to drag you straight to the underworld for a thousand years of labor. But...” Qin Ye glanced at more than thirty spirits kneeling midair, sobbing and trembling, “there are over thirty lives here, and they wouldn’t agree...”

“Roar!!!” At that moment, from a smaller coffin, the zombie encountered earlier in the passage suddenly sprang upright.

“Ha... sss...” Pale green spiritual energy sprayed from its fanged mouth, its face contorted. Drool wet its clothes. It scanned the area, stomach growling audibly, and when it saw Qin Ye, it let out a terrified scream before locking its gaze on the trembling Li Jiankang in the corner.

After hesitating two seconds, it leapt step by step to Li Jiankang. Its ugly head vaguely resembled Li Cheng’s. Its twisted form cast eerie shadows in the light. Drool dripped from its sharp teeth. It opened its mouth, cracked from ear to ear, forcing out a smile that was both trying to please and utterly terrifying: “Dad... Dad...”

Li Jiankang bit his lips until they bled, trembling and shrinking into the corner, staring fixedly at the monster before him like a rabbit facing a wolf.

“What’s there to fear?” Qin Ye said expressionlessly. “This is your son... You destroyed over thirty lives and raised such a son.”

“Dad... Dad...” The zombie’s head, seemingly boneless, twisted with a clicking sound. Its voice was breathless: “I... want to eat... meat...”

...

Li Jiankang clenched his teeth tightly, suddenly closed his eyes, and, perhaps summoning all his courage, screamed, “No!!!”

His voice rang loudly, echoing underground. The zombie stopped.

“Daddy...” Its blood-red tongue drooped to the ground, mouth opening in an exaggerated arc: “Then... are you tasty...?”

“Roar!!!” The next second, the massive jaws lunged toward Li Jiankang’s head!

Qin Ye closed his eyes.

Cruel?

He did not think so.

Heaven’s injustice can be survived; self-inflicted fate cannot.

Think the other side is the weak party? That father and son are tearing each other apart? That human decency is lost?

Then why not look at the more than thirty lives still kneeling on the ground, sobbing and choking?

Yet the expected sound of bones breaking did not come.

Instead, another voice wildly lashed out: “Sss... bastard... bastard!!”

Qin Ye opened his eyes in surprise. With the naked eye, a slightly plump figure suddenly broke free from its fear of Qin Ye, crazily bursting out of another coffin.

Covered in black hair, disheveled, this zombie was even more horrifying, riddled with countless stab wounds, indicating it was once a plump woman. Now it rushed behind Li Cheng, its stiff left hand grabbing his hair, while the other hand thrust into Li Cheng’s mouth, blocking the biting jaws.

Qin Ye was stunned.

Before he could react, Li Cheng’s furious roar shook the underground: “Let go! Let go!!”

“I’m so hungry... so hungry!! Let me eat... let me eat him!!”

“Mom... Mom, don’t you love me anymore... you won’t let me eat... let me eat him!”

It screamed and rolled on the ground. With monstrous strength, the zombies caused the earth to tremble, scattering bones and dead fish as they tore at each other.

“She... still has some consciousness?” Qin Ye gazed in disbelief at the two zombies.

“It’s not consciousness, it’s instinct,” Arthas’ voice softened slightly. “She remembers the man treated her well, remembers this is her son... Because the obsession with a son killing his mother before death is engraved in her heart, she refuses to allow a son to kill his father again.”

“Ghosts aren’t all evil, and no one is perfect...”