SES Chapter 61 Part 2

There was a hint of irritation in his voice.

And for good reason—because of Luo Ren, most of his bar staff had run off. A few days ago, Yi Wansan had called him out of the blue, saying Mu Dai couldn’t talk. That freaked him out.

Now that he knew they were all safe and would return to Lijiang soon, he finally felt at ease.

Just before hanging up, Luo Ren hesitated. “Uncle Zhang, has Mu Dai ever… suddenly forgotten things? Like she does something, but afterward has no memory of it?”

Uncle Zhang chuckled, as if something funny had just come to mind.

“Oh, yeah.”

Luo Ren’s heart leapt.

“If our little boss lady drinks too much, she forgets everything afterward.”

Not that. Luo Ren was a bit disappointed but still asked, “She can drink?”

“She can. Sometimes she even pours herself a glass for fun. But she has a limit. Once she crosses that line—bam, it’s a disaster.”

Uncle Zhang clicked his tongue, still sounding spooked. “When she’s drunk, she’s terrifying.”

Luo Ren ended the call with a wry smile.

No—that wasn’t it. What happened with Mu Dai today had nothing to do with drinking.

He wanted to believe she was just “scared stiff,”… but something felt off. Really off.

A chilling thought crept in: Could she be possessed by a vicious slip? They’d confirmed one of them was sealed inside the urn—but what if there were two?

When she fell from the rope, and the clam brushed against her, could that have been the moment it slipped in?

His mind raced. He tried to force himself to stop overthinking, but he couldn’t help it.

By the time he turned back, the cabin lights were already off.

It was late. Time to sleep. And for Yi Wansan to sketch the water shadow, complete darkness was best.

Luo Ren hesitated, then called the Mystic.

It was loud on the other end. He heard the Mystic shouting, “Every time I come, you make me do all the dirty work! Next time I’m not coming, you hear me?!”

The Mystic, bullied? Hard to believe. But somehow, his tone always sounded more amused than angry.

Luo Ren asked, “You’re not in Lijiang anymore?”

“Nope, visiting a friend.” Then he suddenly asked, “Hey, did you find the fire?”

“What if I did? What if I didn’t?”

The Mystic lowered his voice, a little smug, “If you did, I might know how to save Pingting.”

Luo Ren’s blood rushed to his head. “How?!”

“Listen carefully. Vicious slips and the Phoenix Luankou are water and fire—they can’t coexist. If you guys are the chosen ones, then the five elemental forces—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—have been passed onto you. I’ve come up with a rough method that might work…”

“Inject blood from all five of you into Pingting. It might force the vicious slip out.”

Five people of mixed blood, injected into Pingting…

“Won’t there be blood type issues?”

“Oh, come on, Little Carrot! What’s your head filled with, carrots? This isn’t the time for strict science! Pingting’s already in that state—just try whatever you can…”

Luo Ren felt something click in his brain.

If the five of them each carried an elemental attribute… does that mean vicious slips couldn’t possess them?

Just earlier, Yi Wansan had said the urn originally had a terrifying human face on it. But once they threw it back into the water, the face vanished—water is one of the five elements. And wood, too—Mu Dai could sense Phoenix Luankou’s messages through wood. If the wood element had passed to her, maybe the slip would have avoided her…

The Mystic hadn’t thought of that. “I guess… that’s possible.”

Luo Ren let out a long breath.

Suddenly, a scream rang out from the cabin.

He jolted and ran in, flipping the light on as he went. Everyone was up. Mu Dai was fanning Yan Hongsand, looking apologetically at them all. She mouthed something.

She had a nightmare.

Thinking something had happened, Luo Ren let out a breath of relief. He looked at Yi Wansan, who shook his head and handed over the sketchpad. “Only got halfway.”

Luo Ren took it.

Meanwhile, Cao Yanhua climbed over the mattress and into the girls’ bed area. “Red Sand, what kind of nightmare did you have?”

Yan Hongsand whispered, “I dreamed about cremating my uncle.”

Maybe it was just on her mind. She’d decided earlier to cremate him nearby, so she dreamed about it that night.

She dreamed she took her uncle Yan Jiuxiao to the crematorium.

It was empty inside. She was alone, pushing a cart with her uncle’s body to the furnace.

The worker there looked strange, his head covered with a black cloth. He gruffly told her, “Go wait in Monitoring Room One.”

That was where the families could watch the cremation through a live feed.

Room One was the first in a row of identical rooms.

She sat in the center of the front row and stared at the screen. Eventually, it lit up—she saw her uncle’s body, wrapped in white cloth, slowly enter the furnace. Then—whoosh—fire engulfed it.

According to tradition, this was when you were supposed to shout, “Watch out for the fire!” to warn the soul not to get burned on its way out.

She lowered her head to wipe her tears. When she looked up again, she was frozen in horror.

A woman had appeared at the mouth of the furnace.

Her hair was wild. She was screaming.

There was no sound on the screen, but that made it even more terrifying. The woman’s twisted, agonized face seemed like it was trying to break out of the monitor.