Challenge

The two guests.... No, the two bandits did not hold back when threatening others. It even made the witchdoctor mistakenly think that he was actually the good and helpless one.

Those animals were bought here by him to be used as blood sacrifices. He didn't expect it to be used like this.

He could change into all kinds of shells; male or female, young or old, and he could tolerate that. He could even piece together different body parts...…But not for animals, let alone those that have been confined in the dungeon until they were about to grow mould.

It was the most effective form of threat for him.

With the pigs' eyes watching him, the witchdoctor was practically ready to answer anything he was asked.

From him, You Huo and Qin Jiu found out about the general situation ——-

There was indeed an outbreak of Black Death in Carlton Mountain. The disease spread rapidly and no one in the huge ancient castle was spared. With her weak physique, the Duchess passed away in within two days.

The Duke who was closest to her also suffered from a serious case of the disease and only managed to last two days longer than her.

After that, it was the servants.

Douglas the head butler lasted the longest. He got people to clear away with the dead servants and set up a coffin for the Duke and his wife.

The day before the burial, the witchdoctor came to the castle.

At that time, the witchdoctor hadn't borrowed the nun's body and was hiding in his old shell. He would sway slightly whenever he walked.

This person who looked like he was on the verge of death said to Douglas: "I can bring your Master and his wife back to life."

"Go and find a pair that's similar to them. The more similar, the better."

"Appearance and status are of secondary importance. The most important thing is their heart and soul."

The witchdoctor said this to Douglas.

After giving him hope, he added: "The resurrection process is a little gruesome, but it is a sacred ritual. As someone who resurrects them, you must willingly sacrifice yourself."

Douglas said: "Okay."

Late at night, he tricked a travelling couple and dragged them into the bedroom after rendering them unconscious.

He then pried open the coffin that was about to be buried and brought the Duke and his wife back.

In the silent and empty bedroom, he cut off the head, limbs, chest and waist of the Duke and again pieced them together. Candle wax that was dripped onto the knife solidified into a milky-white film.

He drank a few glasses of wine, sat on the ground for a moment while the witchdoctor watched on before proceeding to cut up Alyssa like a melon.

White candles were place around them in a circle.

The witchdoctor pointed at the two unlucky travellers and asked Douglas: "Okay, one last step left. I'll confirm it with you again, are these two unfortunate people here indeed similar to the Duke and the Duchess? If they're not, it won't succeed."

Douglas half knelt before the couple and poured wine onto them to wake them up.

With his back facing the witchdoctor, he said without looking back: "It's similar. They are very much in love."

Under the couples devastating cries, Douglas reached out and placed his hands on their heads.

...….

That night, the Duke was resurrected.

The rotten parts of his body were replaced by parts from the traveller's body. This included most of his face too.

When he opened his eyes, the young butler Douglas turned old at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. In an instant, be became an old man.

Everything was as the witchdoctor had said.....

Unfortunately, the Duchess failed to be resurrected.

***

The witchdoctor licked his lips and said: "I still remember the Duke's expression at that time. Next to him was his chopped up wife, in the mirror was his pieced together face, the ground was covered in blood and there was an old unfamiliar looking butler too.....Hah."

He narrowed his eyes and looked at the old butler who was also tied up: "You are the most ruthless person I've ever encountered. I was not as resolute as you when I did it the first time and even shed some crocodile tears."

"But the Duke surprised me too."

In the witchdoctor's eyes, the castle brought forth many hidden talents.

The butler cut people up like melons without any hesitation and the resurrected Duke was also only in shock for a few minutes before calmly accepting the situation.

The witchdoctor said that there were too many servants in the castle, and it was too troublesome resurrecting them one by one. He had a way to let them continue existing, but they would be neither alive nor dead, like ghosts trapped inside the castle for life.

The Duke thanked him.

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The witchdoctor also said: "What about your wife? Rebury her?"

The Duke found a large wooden coffin and instructed Douglas to put Alyssa in it before replying: "It's okay. I can occasionally invite some guests over..."

"If there is a pair of lovers or a married couple like myself and Alyssa," the Duke said, "I have enough patience to wait. Douglas will always be with me, right?"

Douglas echoed: "I will always be here. I will find the most suitable and loving guests for you."

The master and servant strangely worked well together.

When the witchdoctor proposed that "the act of continuously resurrecting and changing bodies incurs curses, you will lose your body", they didn't hesitate to transfer it over to the small town behind Carlton Mountain.

***

"How is the curse transferred?" You Huo held down the other party's wrist.

The witchdoctor hesitated and didn't want to speak. He struggled to get his hand out of his grasp and wanted to move back a little – at least an inch more away from the pig. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, the opponent held firm.

The witchdoctor struggled until his face was red.

"How could you bear being so rough with a lady?" He asked You Huo while wearing the nun's skin.

You Huo remained indifferent: "I can be even more rough."

The witchdoctor shut his mouth.

He took advantage of his close proximity to You Huo and stared into his eyes. Since the other method didn't work, he wanted to try and confuse You Huo with seduction: "This beautiful gentleman, I actually still have a lot———ugh!"

Halfway through his words, Qin Jiu pressed him down with his knee on his back.

The witchdoctor collapsed onto the ground, his lips kissing the pig.

"..."

Qin Jiu glanced at You Huo before threateningly looking down at the witchdoctor: "You're seducing the wrong person. Can't you see that this beautiful gentleman over here is very annoyed? But compared to him, I'm a little more ruthless."

His low voice sounded next to the witchdoctor's ear. It sounded like a devil's voice: "Cutting up a pig is no problem. Cutting a human like you is also not a problem. If you continue being so uncooperative, I'm afraid you might not even have a whole pig and would only get the pigs head."

"Combining a pig and a sheep sounds good too."

Witchdoctor: "...…."

The beautiful gentleman sang in harmony with the devil. He said coldly: "Three options. I'll give you three seconds to decide."

The witchdoctor felt like he had ran into a couple of psychopaths.

"3."

"2."

The witchdoctor immediately spilled: "Food and wine."

"The food the Duke prepared for the townspeople are the medium for the transfer. After eating those things, it's equivalent to agreeing to sacrifice themselves. The more they eat, the deeper they are bound and the sooner they will be cursed."

"Food and wine?"

You Huo suddenly recalled Zhou Qi's fever after not eating anything and turned to the butler: "The food provided to the guests at the castle are like this too?"

Douglas didn't speak. It could be taking as silent affirmation.

The witchdoctor interjected: "Of course. After luring guests over, even if the Duke doesn't use your body, he can use you to block part of the curse so why waste it?"

You Huo and Qin Jiu looked at each other. They frowned at the same time.

If the scope of the curse was not limited to the town and even included examinees, then those bloodied half-dead people in the church probably aren't all townspeople.

"How to get rid of the curse?" You Huo asked the witchdoctor.

The witchdoctor said: "Didn't you listen in earlier? Like I said, you just need to transfer it to another person."

"I'm talking about getting rid of it completely."

You Huo bent down and looked at him coldly.

The witchdoctor's eyes met with his. He said defeatedly: "Kill the cursed or kill the duke."

"YOU———"

The butler who had his head lowered suddenly straightened up. Just as he wanted to speak, Qin Jiu stuffed a pig hoof in.

The witchdoctor snickered and repeated: "Just kill the Duke."

Those one-sided words of his could have contained hidden motives. Qin Jiu glanced at the bloodied man curled up in the corner: "Priest?"

The bloodied man laid there like he was dead. After a moment, he looked up weakly and nodded: "I remember this...….."

Qin Jiu: "Thanks."

His eyes scanned between the witchdoctor and the butler. He then suddenly said jokingly: "The interrogation is temporarily over. Big Invigilator, what do you think? Rank A, B, C or D?"

You Huo released his hold and indicated at the witchdoctor with his chin: "C for this one. Re-examination."

Witchdoctor: "...….."

He then indicated at Douglas: "D, elimination."

Qin Jiu raised his hand and tapped his forehead to salute mischievously: "Give me half a minute."

The edges of Douglas's wrinkled lips turned down. A hint of despair was evident on his face.

***

The darkness underground makes people forget about the time. By the time You Huo and Qin Jiu exited the small hut, the sky was already starting to get darker.

The sky in the distance was overcast with dark clouds. It slowly moved closer.

They wore their formal coat and returned to the church only to find everyone crowding around the bowling pins. The mood was a little strange.

Gao Qi called out to them from afar: "You're finally back. We were about to go search the back for you."

"What's happening?" Qin Jiu glanced at the crowd.

Gao Qi: "We found some clues and found out what it means by curing the patient."

Everyone turned over a few of the stretcher beds and showed the blood writing underneath it to You Huo and Qin Jiu.

"There are repetitive parts. Putting it together, it says...…" Gao Qi took a deep breath and said: "They can be freed by killing them."

He also pointed at one of the beds and said: "This is definitely something an examinee left. Three points for killing a patient, not capped."

After killing them all, perhaps the exam would end.

But You Huo counted roughly. Except for the priest who had ran off, the original 25 people here were still present. Not one was missing.

Not one of the examinees had moved to earn points.

Qin Jiu raised his eyebrow.

Before he could speak, an examinee mumbled: "In addition to that, we also found something else. We think.....among these patients, at least four or five of them are like us. They're examinees from another session."

If they were just NPC's they wouldn't feel burdened if they had to kill.

Until now, who hasn't killed a few small monsters?

But when they learnt that there were real people among them, no one could do it.

3 points. That was quite an impressive number for most.

But like Gao Qi and Zhao Jiatong had said, they had not reached that point of desperation.

They were not desperate enough to kill an examinee for those three points. That was a big relief.

But this mood was soon to be broken. Qin Jiu told everyone about the information they got from the dungeon.

Everyone's faces turned green in an instant.

Gao Qi's face was the greenest of them all.

He drank more than everyone else combined. If the curse was to be inflicted onto them, he would be amongst the top three.

***

The rainstorm started just before nightfall.

Under the curtain of rain, the old castle sat there like a predatory beast lying in wait.

In a large bedroom on the first floor of the west tower, the Duke was taking his anger out on the male servants. He smashed a cup splattering an oil painting in the process and kicked over everything that could be kicked over in the room...…

Because the butler was nowhere in sight.

A dozen carriages carrying the guests returned. The only one missing was Douglas.

Wasn't he the best at inducing the guests into making mistakes? What was taking him so long?

The Duke turned the ring on his hand. The mood around him was so poor, no one dared to approach.

For a moment, he suspected that Douglas may have joined forces with the witchdoctor. Perhaps they were doing something behind his back.

But soon, he persuaded himself again.

Anyone could betray him, but Douglas wouldn't.

"Master, it's time for dinner." A male servant reminded.

Even though the servants were no longer living and every action they did exuded the scent of death, they could still feel fear.

The Duke paused for a moment before commanding darkly: "If Douglas returns, tell him to get his ass over to me. I have to teach him properly about punctuality."

When he was done, he changed into his masked smile and turned into the dinner hall.

Today's dinner was very strange.

The guests all stared at the wine and roast chicken with dignified expressions. Only three gentlemen performed outstandingly———–

Like they were cursed by something, You Huo and Qin Jiu unhurriedly tasted all the food like they did the night before.

As for Gao Qi...….

Since he couldn't be saved anyway, he simply let himself go and drank freely.

The Duke gently tapped his glass and said with a smile: "What's wrong? My dear guests don't have an appetite today? This was carefully prepared by the chefs. If you don't eat, I'll be a little sad."

"...…."

Okay, everything is as you say.

The examinees took a deep breath. Wearing the expression if someone who was about to head out to war, they picked up a tiny piece of chicken skin....

The duke crossed his fingers. The eyes behind the mask curved.

At 10 o'clock in the evening, dinner was over.

The Duke sat at the head of the table and watched the examinees leave the hall. His eyes were constantly following the two perfect gentlemen. Inside, he looked forwards to Douglas's return and the good news he would bring with him.

When the last examinee left, a male servant hurried over.

"Master."

"Yes. Did Douglas return?"

The male servant's gey face changed into several colours. He stiffly nodded and said: "Yes, just returned....."

"Where is he? Waiting for me in the bedroom?"

The male servant hesitated: "No."

The Duke frowned: "Why?"

The male servant shrank back: "Butler.....um...went into his bedroom as soon as he came back."

The Duke was a little angry and also a little puzzled.

He made the male servant lead the way and headed straight for Douglas's bedroom with a stern expression.

"What the hell are you doing, Douglas?" The Duke immediately reprimanded as he opened the door.

The answer he expected didn't come.

The person he expected to see wasn't there.

"Where is he?!" The Duke glared at the servant.

The servant pointed at the corner of the bedroom: "Th…..there...…"

The Duke looked over:

A pig wrapped in the butler's shirt laid there paralysed. A parchment was tied to the shirt collar.

The Duke strode over and removed it.

The handwriting on the paper said:

Master, I am Douglas. You made me go and create some trouble for the guests.

Are you satisfied with this trouble?

Kind regards.

".........….."

The Duke almost died from anger.

He crushed the parchment paper with shaking fists and turned to leave the bedroom.

As he walked, he said to the male servant: "I want the bodies of those two guests tonight! Don't let a single one get away!"