Chapter 31: The Gossipmonger in the Corridor

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The shout was like a match set to a string of firecrackers. Dense, chaotic footsteps thundered through the building, making the entire floor tremble, while shrill screams and the sounds of fighting surged along the staircase and into the sixth-floor corridor.

“What…” Li Qingxia’s face instantly turned pale. Her body went rigid, taut as a drawn bowstring.

“Chenqiu… can you beat them?” Li Qingxia asked in panic.

Li Chenqiu turned around and said softly, “I can—”

But when he reached the word “beat,” his voice suddenly stopped.

He lowered his head and looked at his exposed arm. Gooseflesh had risen across his fair skin—a warning from his body.

At the same time, everyone on the sixth floor who had heard the commotion began opening their doors and cautiously poking their heads out.

“What… what’s happening downstairs?!”

“I don’t know. Surely there aren’t bandits in this day and age, are there?”

“Could a Reviver have gotten into the hotel?”

The moment those words were spoken, the corridor fell silent. Everyone’s face went deathly pale.

A young man timidly said, “I’ll go take a look at the stairs.”

With that, he carefully pushed open his door, braced himself against the wall, and tremblingly made his way toward the stairwell.

“Be careful!” the girl sharing his room poked her head out and called timidly.

The young man turned and gave her a faint smile. “Don’t worry…”

Splurt!

Bang!

The sounds of flesh being pierced and something striking the wall rang out almost simultaneously.

White dust drifted down from the corridor wall. The electric light crackled like something out of a horror film, flickering on and off.

The young man’s face was beside the light. Under its glare, his smiling features flickered at the same rhythm, while his tall, six-foot frame swayed in midair like a feather.

In the light, the onlookers saw not only the young man’s body, but also a tongue—a tongue that had pierced through his head and stretched all the way to the stairwell.

“Hehehe… there are advantages to coming up early.”

A sinister voice drifted from around the corner of the stairs.

Accompanied by the slow, wet slap of footsteps, as though the soles of the shoes were soaked with water, a beautiful young woman emerged.

Her mouth hung open. Drops of green saliva trickled from the corners of her lips, while her long, slender tongue writhed in the air like a worm.

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“Husband!!!” the woman sharing the room screamed at the top of her lungs.

The woman by the stairwell turned toward the sound, a sly glint appearing in her narrow, beautiful eyes.

Whoosh!

The next second, her tongue shot out like a giant python. It pierced a small hole through the door blocking the woman’s path and plunged straight through her heart with a wet splurt.

“If you two love each other so much, how could you let him die alone?” the woman said mockingly.

“It’s a Reviver! A Reviver!!!”

At last, the people snapped out of their daze. Doors slammed shut throughout the corridor, the noise popping like firecrackers.

The woman curved her lips into an alluring smile and swayed toward the door of Room 601. “Are you hiding well? I’m coming to kill you now~”

Inside the room, a middle-aged woman had hidden her six-year-old daughter beneath the bed.

“Moonlet, be a good girl. You mustn’t make a sound. If you stay quiet, your daddy will take you to the amusement park every day from now on!”

The woman pressed her face against the cold floor and clasped the girl’s tiny hand tightly in her large palm. She was smiling, but tears streamed relentlessly onto the floor.

“Mommy… I-I’m scared…” the girl stammered. Her eyes were swollen red, yet they gleamed like shattered glass.

“Don’t make a sound. No matter how frightened you are, don’t make a sound!”

With that, the woman released the girl’s hand, ran into the bathroom, and shut the door.

A few seconds later—

Bang!

The woman kicked the door open and strode inside. Just as she reached the bathroom, the tightly closed door suddenly flew open. The middle-aged woman emerged and swung a mop with both hands at the intruder’s head.

Splurt!

“How laughable.”

The woman withdrew the fingers she had driven into the middle-aged woman’s skull and revealed a contemptuous smile.

From beneath the bed, the girl could not see the two women’s full bodies. She could only see her mother’s feet suddenly appear, and then…

Collapse.

“Mom…” The girl cried out before she could stop herself.

Just as she tried to cover her mouth, the sound of wet footsteps echoed beside her ear.

When the girl turned her head, she found herself face-to-face with half of the woman’s turned profile.

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“Oh, there’s a pretty little girl here too!”

The woman was just reaching out to seize the girl when heavy footsteps sounded outside the room, interrupting her movement.

At the entrance to Room 601, Li Chenqiu walked in with both hands in his pockets. He kicked aside the corpse blocking his path, then stopped in front of the crouching woman and looked down at her from above.

“You… Li Chenqiu?!” A flicker of surprise appeared in the woman’s eyes.

Li Chenqiu asked in astonishment, “Am I really that famous? Even a Reviver has heard of me…”

Whoosh!

Before he could finish speaking, the woman’s tongue shot out like a bullet.

When it was less than four inches from Li Chenqiu’s face, he tilted his head, letting it skim past him.

He immediately reached out and seized the woman’s tongue. With a powerful swing, he hurled her out of the room. She slammed straight into the wall with a bang, the terrifying force spreading cracks across it like a spiderweb.

This was not the Reviver who had caused him to break out in gooseflesh. She possessed only the strength of someone who had just entered the Second Restriction.

“Hah… hah…”

The woman panted heavily, her eyes filled with terror. How had the central figure of City Eleven suddenly appeared here?

She had no time to dwell on the question. The moment she tried to rise and flee toward the stairwell, a gentle breeze swept past her. Before she could react, a large hand seized her head and smashed it into the wall with a bang.

After pinning the woman’s head in place, Li Chenqiu clenched his other hand into a fist and drove it upward into her jaw.

Crack! Crack!

The sound of bones being crushed rang through the room. The woman’s jaw was instantly reduced to pulp, and the force of the blow caused her two rows of teeth to bite clean through her own tongue.

Severe pain made her limbs convulse uncontrollably, while mournful whimpers spilled from her mouth.

Although Revivers could regenerate, that did not mean they were immune to pain.

“I’m asking you: what is your purpose in coming to North Yellow Mountain? Why did you come? How many of you are there? What is the strength of your strongest member?” Li Chenqiu asked coldly.

A few seconds later, the woman’s injuries healed. She glared at Li Chenqiu with vicious hatred and threatened him, “Do you know whose woman I am? Let me go, and I…”

“I don’t.”

Li Chenqiu pressed down hard with his palm.

With a bang, the woman’s head burst beneath his hand, dissolving into a faint mist of blood.