Chapter 106 Witch 10

"..."

Did this elder brother really come back to life?

Perhaps it was because his soul's wounds hadn't healed yet. Listening to elder brother's ambiguous tone, Xia Qi's mind went blank for a while.

This again? Why does this keep happening!

"A Qi, are you embarrassed?"

Seeing Xia Qi's lack of response, elder brother let out a soft laugh. He lifted his sharp chin and moved it higher, brushing against the line of Xia Qi's neck, skillfully finding his ear.

Once he confirmed the position, elder brother opened his mouth and took Xia Qi's earlobe into his mouth.

Not expecting him to use his mouth after his earlier actions, Xia Qi shuddered, and his whole body slid down again.

Elder brother tightened his left hand, lifting Xia Qi up and pressing him firmly against the wall of the slope.

Even after such a big move, elder brother still held his earlobe and mumbled, "Just... let me hold you, okay?"

"No." Xia Qi rejected his request as expected and turned his head to avoid his mouth.

Elder brother had no choice but to reluctantly let go of his mouth.

Without elder brother causing trouble, Xia Qi breathed a sigh of relief. He tightened his left hand on the rope on his back, took a deep breath, and reached up with his right hand to grab the large rock above.

He lifted himself to climb up, but this time, the weight behind him was far beyond his expectations. His waist couldn't support the weight of both of them.

With just a little effort, an indescribable ache spread up from the base of his spine. Instantly, the area below his chest went numb from the sourness.

"Sigh." Xia Qi couldn't help but let out a cry of pain.

His frequently injured waist had twisted again.

Bearing the intense pain in his waist, Xia Qi turned his head to look at the culprit on his shoulder, gritted his teeth, and asked word by word, "How did you get heavier again?"

If it weren't for elder brother suddenly gaining weight, how would he have gotten injured again?

Elder brother happened to be tilting his head as if looking at him. Since half of elder brother's face was covered with a black cloth, leaving only his chin and lower lip exposed, Xia Qi couldn't see his exact expression.

Xia Qi thought, it's good to have his face covered; he could tell lies without even opening his eyes.

Sure enough, elder brother said seriously, "At night, the witch power on Tianxing Mountain strengthens. After I recovered my witch power, my weight naturally returned."

Xia Qi, with red eyes, glanced at him and asked, "Can you use your witch power to make yourself lighter?"

Elder brother: "..."

How can you be so clever?

"A Qi, let me massage your waist." Without answering Xia Qi, elder brother took the initiative to move his left hand down and gently pressed it on his waist, slowly rubbing it.

A warm sensation spread from his palm to Xia Qi's waist, and Xia Qi bit his lips, feeling the soreness in his waist indeed dissipate a little.

Elder brother pressed against him, massaging his waist for a while.

Xia Qi always felt that elder brother's personality had changed again, becoming increasingly familiar to him. While the elder brother was massaging his waist, Xia Qi had already quickly devised a plan.

Believing that Xia Qi had accepted him, elder brother was delighted again and leaned close to his ear, gently asking, "Is it still painful?"

"Get lighter, and I'll carry you up," Xia Qi spoke coldly and ruthlessly, refusing to engage. Today, he had to make him lighter and then carry him up.

Big Brother: “……”

Can someone explain why his A Qi is so fixated on carrying him?

The two were locked in a standoff on the slope. One insisted on carrying the other, while the other refused to lighten himself. Big Brother sighed, about to indulge his precious self, when suddenly, a scream erupted from above the slope, breaking the mountain's silence.

"Ahhh, Vice Chief, he’s jumping up!"

"Holy shit! He’s scratching me again!"

"Mom, help! Vice Chief, save us!"

The screams continued unabated, as if the entire group of corpses had gone berserk. The players seemed to be running around, not knowing what exactly was happening.

Xia Qi wanted to go up and see what was happening, but Big Brother was still holding his waist and said smugly, “Look at them.”

Xia Qi: “……”

He curled his lips and turned his head to look at Xia Qi, almost writing the words on his face: Quick, praise me, I’m the best-behaved compared to them.

Xia Qi helplessly shook his head. While Big Brother was feeling proud, Xia Qi pulled the bow on the rope tied behind him, loosening the knot that bound Big Brother.

"I’ll go up first, you come up yourself," Xia Qi said, pulling his right hand out of Big Brother’s palm and swiftly crawling out from under him.

Thanks to Big Brother healing his waist injury, this time, as he climbed up, his waist didn’t twist again, and he regained his former strength.

Big Brother was frozen, watching helplessly as Xia Qi nimbly climbed away from under him and up.

After reaching the top of the slope, Xia Qi looked down and saw Big Brother still in the same position, one hand on the wall, the other hand still suspended in the air. However, the rising black mist from Big Brother’s head showed that he seemed quite resentful.

Xia Qi couldn’t help but curl his lips and ran toward the chaotic crowd of players and corpses on the mountain path.

On the gentle slope, several players were running wildly, chased by bouncing corpses. The corpses' fingertips were stained with blood and flesh, as if they had just scratched them from the players' bodies.

"Why did the brothers suddenly lose control?" Seeing the scene of the dancing corpses, Xia Qi hurried into the grass and helped the fallen vice chief to his feet.

The vice chief, holding his injured forehead, hissed and said, “...Soul-bewitching bell.”

Xia Qi quickly pulled the soul-bewitching bell out from the vice chief's pocket and handed it to him.

Trembling with his right hand, the vice chief shook the bell towards the crowd of corpses and said, “Arise!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the corpses seemed to freeze and stand stiffly in place.

"Ding, ding, ding..."

With Xia Qi's support, the vice chief slowly shook the bell as he stood up.

Seeing the corpses finally stop chasing, the players let out a big sigh of relief. “Finally, it's quiet.”

The players helped each other up. The collective rampage of the corpses just now had been worse than when the soul-bewitching bell summoned them during the day. If they hadn’t cut the ropes in time, their hearts might have been torn out by the corpses.

The vice chief, weak, shook the bell for a while, but his right hand lost strength, and the bell instantly fell to the ground.

"Aooo—" Without the guidance of the bell, the corpses went into a frenzy once more, raising their hands and bouncing stiffly toward the players.

"Damn it! Help!" The players hadn’t rested for more than a few minutes before the corpses went mad again, and they scattered, running for their lives once more.

Zhang Yun could not help but take out his prop and shouted at the corpse jumping towards him, "Don't blame me for destroying you if you come again, I don't want this damn mission anymore..."

"Don't move!"

Xia Qi shouted at Zhang Yun, quickly bent down, and picked up the vice chief's bell, shaking it several times.

"Clang clang clang!"

The crisp sound of the bell rang out once again, and all the corpses instantly stopped attacking the players.

"Clang clang clang!" Xia Qi continued to shake the bell a few more times.

This time, to his surprise, the corpses actually turned around, looking over at him.

The corpses can actually turn around?

Looking at the synchronized movements of the corpses, Xia Qi thought to himself, it seems that the soul-controlling bell can make the corpses do many things.

"A Qi, if you recite the corpse-raising spell, you can command them," the vice chief whispered into Xia Qi's ear, quietly teaching him a few lines of the spell.

Following that, Xia Qi shook the bell while reciting the spell the vice chief had just taught him.

Under the urging of his spell, the corpses seemed to be guided by something, jumping towards him one by one. One corpse jumped to the front, about a meter away from Xia Qi, and another corpse placed its hand on the first corpse's shoulder.

Five corpses, like they were playing a bunny hop dance, placed their hands on the shoulders of the corpse in front of them, forming a long line.

Under the vice chief's guidance, Xia Qi shook the bell again, urging the line of corpses to move forward.

"Boom, boom, boom."

The line of corpses was very obedient, jumping forward in perfect unison, heading up the mountain road.

Watching Xia Qi's amazing moves, the players were stunned.

Zhang Yun covered his injured half-face and muttered softly, "This feels like something I've seen before..."

"Yeah, isn't this the corpse-driving show? What channel was it on?"

Listening to the enthusiastic discussion, Cha Gong's expression changed.

"Was it the 'Today's Ghost' show from X Province? Or that 'Marching Forward into Science' show?"

Hearing this, Cha Gong's expression darkened again, and he quickly changed the subject, "Everyone, hurry up and follow, don't fall behind."

After successfully guiding the line of corpses onto the correct path, the vice chief patted Xia Qi's hand and said, "A Qi, you've worked hard. Take a break for a while, and shake the bell again later."

Xia Qi put the soul-controlling bell away in his pocket.

The vice chief patted Xia Qi's shoulder appreciatively and began to admire the line of corpses in front of him, scanning through each one. Suddenly, he noticed a corpse was missing.

"Where’s the tallest one?" the vice chief asked puzzledly, "A Qi, wasn't he your responsibility?"

Sure enough, you noticed.

Xia Qi pursed his lips and asked, "Vice chief, since controlling the corpses is so troublesome, why not use ropes to lift them up?"

He couldn't understand why they had to risk their lives transporting the corpses up the mountain. The risks were too high.

If he weren't here today, and they hadn't managed to transport the corpses back before night, wouldn't all the players have been pursued by the rampaging corpses until daybreak?

"After listening to Xia Qi's question, the vice chief unexpectedly straightened his expression and answered seriously, 'A Qi, using a hoist rope to lift them up like cargo would be a disrespect to our brothers who fell in battle. We must treat them with the highest respect.'"

Upon hearing this, Xia Qi was immediately stunned.

Fallen brothers…

Upon learning the true identity of these corpses, Xia Qi felt a heavy heart.

Xia Qi furrowed his brow, thinking carefully for a moment, then turned around decisively and said, "I'll go back and find him."

"Yes." The vice chief looked at him lovingly and nodded, watching Xia Qi's figure disappear down the mountain road.

When Xia Qi returned to the slope where he had left the tall brother, he looked down and found that the tall brother was gone.

"Where is he?" Xia Qi stood on the slope, looking carefully below, searching all around, but he couldn't see the tall brother's figure.

Is he angry?

Or is he deliberately playing tricks on him?

Xia Qi searched for a while longer and found that the tall brother had vanished without a trace, not even leaving a footprint.

Sure enough, he's not your average big brother, as if he wanted everyone to know he was different from the other corpses.

The vice chief’s voice echoed from afar, "A Qi, have you found him?"

"Almost, almost," Xia Qi casually replied.

If the tall brother’s body belonged to a fallen villager, then this corpse must not be lost.

Holding a lighter, Xia Qi moved through the woods, his anxiety growing. He couldn't help but think, what if the tall brother got angry and ran back to the cave?

"Where are you?"

Xia Qi called out softly, but it seemed he was deliberately opposing him, refusing to show up.

Hearing the vice chief's increasingly urgent calls, Xia Qi gritted his teeth and walked back to the slope where they had parted ways.

As Xia Qi walked on the steep slope, he deliberately limped and cautiously tested the edge, as if he wanted to fall.

When he reached the most dangerous section, Xia Qi took a deep breath, muttering to himself that if he fell, he'd just crawl back.

Clenching his teeth and closing his eyes, he stretched his foot out and stepped off the edge of the steep slope!

The expected pain of falling didn’t come. As Xia Qi tilted and fell, he landed in a warm embrace.

"This time, you fell into my arms," the person holding him tightened his grip and smiled.

Author's Note: You’re really a cunning boy.