Xu Qin’s state was somewhat unstable, the more she used the dinner knife, the brighter the blood on it shone, and the more intense the smile on her face became.
Yet that eerie smile carried a sense of cruelty and unfamiliarity, as though another person was using Xu Qin’s face to smile.
Murder made the curse even more vicious and frenzying, after Xu Qin killed another blocking outsider, the heartbeat finally appeared behind Xu Qin and Han Fei.
The dull heartbeat spread fear, and Han Fei felt a faint pain in his chest, he looked back.
A ghost with the upper half of its body tattooed with a human-faced butterfly stood in the corridor, its heart hung outside its chest, contracting and pulsating continuously.
What made Han Fei feel even more unsettled was that it seemed there was an insect pupa placed inside the pulsating heart of the ghost.
"Are the insect pupae used to control them?"
Han Fei and Xu Qin stood together; he wanted to help Xu Qin, but she gently pushed him away.
"You go downstairs first."
"I can hardly control myself now," Xu Qin bit her finger, her lips covered in fresh blood, her expression becoming more morbid, "Right now, I really want to slice up everything that moves, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop myself from cutting you open and eating you if you don’t leave."
With Xu Qin’s gaze sweeping over him, Han Fei felt goosebumps crawl up the back of his neck; the way Xu Qin looked at him had become somewhat foreign, as if she were eyeing a delicious ingredient.
He knew he really couldn’t offer much help to Xu Qin, and with Huang Ying as an extra burden, the most prudent course of action at the moment was to take Huang Ying and leave first.
Sharp pain continuously emanated from his chest, which seemed like another form of curse, the closer to that upstairs outsider, the stronger the curse became.
Han Fei didn’t know how to break free from the curse and could only try to keep his distance from it.
The fierce ghost, with its heart hanging outside its chest, saw Han Fei trying to leave and immediately stepped forward to fight Xu Qin; its body was sliced apart over and over, but as long as the heart hanging on the chest remained unscathed, it seemed capable of infinite rebirth.
Xu Qin paid a huge price to kill the outsider; her heart thudded violently, fine blood silk surfaced on her body, and it seemed like she could explode from the inside at any moment.
More and more flesh and bloodstains accumulated in the corridor, turning it into a scene akin to a Shura field from hell, with both Xu Qin and the outsider having lost all reason, plunging into madness.
And just then, the door of a room on the fourth floor opened, and a middle-aged woman, covered in bruises and wounds, suddenly appeared, launching an attack on the outsider without warning!
Dragging long hair behind her, blood silk kept falling from the ceiling, merging into her body, her wounds multiplied, and the grudge energy on her grew stronger.
This woman seemed to have been always hiding her grudge and ability, her room filled with hair stained with blood, the entire room resembling a cage woven from black hair.
"Brother Huang Ying first screamed in this very room; his luck is indeed against the heavens, having run right into the most terrifying room."
Han Fei intently watched the newly arrived woman; she had seemingly long wanted to kill the outsider, yet had not acted, until Xu Qin created this rare opportunity for her.
The outsider was diced over and over, reviving time and again, creating a seemingly unsolvable situation, but Han Fei noticed that the time it took for the outsider to reassemble its body was getting longer.
When Xu Qin sliced the outsider for the seventh time, countless blood-stained black hairs emerged from Room 2044, directly sweeping all the shattered flesh from the ground into Room 2044.
The woman, covered in bruises, had achieved her goal, so she turned around and leaped into the dark mane of hair.
Completely lost to madness, Xu Qin recklessly chased after her, attempting to rush into room 2044, but unfortunately, the other person had closed the door just a step ahead.
The dark hair twined around the door panel, as Xu Qin hacked away at the security door like a madwoman.
"Xu Qin!" Han Fei, carrying Huang Ying on his back, hurried over to Xu Qin’s side, but when Xu Qin turned to look at him, an indescribable chill surged through his brain.
In Xu Qin’s bloodshot eyes flashed faces of screaming people, and her hand holding the sharp knife almost subconsciously stabbed towards Han Fei!
The blood-stained tip of the knife came to a halt right in front of Han Fei’s eyes, as Xu Qin bit her own lip, and blood dripped down her pale chin.
Unable to speak, Xu Qin gripped the dinner knife and dashed towards the downstairs, her speed now double what it was before.
Downstairs, there were Outsiders blocking the way, but by the time Han Fei arrived, those Outsiders had been sliced to pieces.
While worried about Xu Qin, Han Fei did not forget to finish the job, as he had a pre-task for a hidden profession to accomplish, which required him to kill ten Outsiders before reaching level ten.
Following closely behind Xu Qin, finishing off any stragglers, Han Fei did not waste much time before carrying Huang Ying into building number one.
Knowing that Xu Qin was not in good condition, he temporarily left Meng Shi to take care of Huang Ying.
After giving a few instructions to Meng Shi, Han Fei sprinted towards the fifth floor, following a trail of blood drops, some belonging to others, some her own.
The doors on the fifth floor were not closed, and from inside the room came the eerie sounds of swallowing and chewing.
Quietly entering the room, he saw Xu Qin standing in the kitchen, stuffing various meats into her mouth.
She ate ferociously, covered in blood up to her hands, but she didn’t care at all.
Soon, after devouring all the meat available in the kitchen, Xu Qin smashed the living room’s pickle jar and pulled out wailing lone souls.
She tore at them ravenously, as Xu Qin was a woman who ate ghosts, and only by swallowing them could she alleviate the pain brought by Curse.
Her clothes soaked in bloodstains, Xu Qin’s grim and terrifying face slowly returned to normal after she furiously gobbled down a large amount of "food" made from Ghosts and Monsters.
"Are you very afraid now?"
Bright red blood trickled down Xu Qin’s face, which was covered in bloodstains, and all ten fingers were bitten to the point where bones showed through.
She knew she looked frightening as she stood alone among a mess of Fragments and pools of blood.
Tearing his own shirt, Han Fei approached Xu Qin and carefully bandaged her hands: "Does it hurt a lot?"
Gently placing Xu Qin’s hands on the table, Han Fei found a broom behind the door to sweep up the Fragments on the floor. While cleaning, he asked inadvertently, "Is there any way to expel the Curse from your body?"
Xu Qin, who was lost in thought, was startled for a moment. She looked at her own hands and shook her head: "I am her, and she is me."
"Then, you better not go out for groceries in the future, I can run errands and fetch things for you." Han Fei smiled at Xu Qin, "You love researching gourmet food, you just need to focus on cooking."
"Are you really not at all afraid of me?"
"What is there to be afraid of?" Han Fei said warmly, sitting beside Xu Qin with a warm smile on his face: "Speaking from the heart, you’ve saved me several times, even if one day you truly eat me, I would accept it willingly."