Chapter 18: She is Live Streaming with Li Daqiang's Phone
Faint sounds of dripping water echoed in his ears, and his nose was filled with a lot of dust, making it itchy; his eyelids felt very heavy.
"Damn it, that hurts..."
His entire body felt as if it was falling apart, a fiery pain piercing his chest.
Li Daqiang slowly opened his eyes, his unfocused pupils gradually sharpening, as his eyes adapted to the darkness.
This was a cramped room of about ten square meters, with moldy and blackened straw on the floor, and moss growing on the walls. Nearby, several large rats scurried about, unafraid of humans, chattering and gnawing at something in the corner.
He propped himself up, still feeling dizzy.
He remembered not long ago, he had been holding his phone, using the flashlight to peek into a dry well, and then...
Right! His phone had illuminated something—a pair of eyes abruptly intruding into his field of vision from the darkness.
Those eyes were unlike the urban legends he had encountered before, filled with ferocity and evil; they were merely hollow and devoid of spirit, like a deep lake shrouded in fog.
Those eyes just gazed at him quietly—silent, profound, their intent unclear—without much emotion, only a hint of curiosity.
That gaze produced an inexplicable discomfort in him, yet Li Daqiang couldn’t find the right words to describe it and could only continue to recall what had just happened.
"I locked eyes with those eyes for a moment, and then..."
Then he was attacked!
Something resembling an iron hook silently reached out from the darkness, piercing through his calf before he could even struggle or cry out. He was dragged into the pitch-black cellar.
When he regained his senses, he immediately used the spell passed down from his ancestors, encasing himself in lightning, and amidst a blood-curdling scream, he was tossed into the darkness.
In life-and-death situations, one can unleash incredible potential.
Li Daqiang felt that this was already one of the best uses of his spell since he learned it. If he could survive this and gather enough materials, he could immediately upgrade his spirit patterns!
While pondering, that pair of eyes inexplicably flashed through his mind, like a shadow, already imprinted in his memory.
He recalled the animals he had seen ages ago while visiting the zoo. Back then, the facilities weren’t as good as they are now; the animals were kept in dark, square cages, and when they hid in dim corners, watching human visitors, they had a similar gaze.
But this time, the situation was a bit different.
"This time, I am the one trapped in the cage, being taken care of..."
Li Daqiang unintentionally muttered, and his body trembled violently.
He felt he had said something wrong.
From the moment he woke up, he had sensed a pair of eyes—animal eyes—watching him from the shadows, well hidden, not wanting him to know of its existence.
But now that he had mentioned it, he had broken some kind of taboo; the owner of those eyes was angry and about to come out to kill.
—————
On the other side.
The burly man, upon seeing Jiang Li follow him into the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, immediately extended an invitation to her.
However, Jiang Li's response was a rather unfriendly smile.
The burly man was taken aback. Before Jiang Li could speak, he said in a deep voice, "I understand. Strong individuals prefer to walk alone! Then take care, and we shall meet again!"
With that, he cupped his fists towards Jiang Li and turned to dash toward those dark factory buildings.
Jiang Li watched the burly man leave for a long while before retracting her gaze and calmly muttering to herself, "Well, if someone follows, it would only hinder my movements."
Having said that, her eyes scanned around, recalling several relatively safe locations recorded in the archives about the South Suburb Slaughterhouse. She selected one of those places and walked ahead quickly.
—————
The South Suburb Slaughterhouse was once the largest integrated pig slaughtering and breeding factory in Huacheng and the surrounding seven or eight cities, covering a vast area.
Apart from three slaughtering and processing buildings, there were also seven or eight farms and two small office and laboratory buildings.
When they first encircled the urban legends within the South Suburb Slaughterhouse and sealed it, Jiang Li had just joined the Siye Society; the situation was similar to what Luxianbei was experiencing now and still in the investigation phase, so she did not participate in that task.
The information about the South Suburb Slaughterhouse was obtained from the archives only after that.
So, this was still her first time entering the inner part of the slaughterhouse.
Inside the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, aside from the two small office buildings, the other structures were all one- or two-story brick houses that stood about four or five meters high.
The houses had rows of tall windows adorned with iron bars.
Those windows were small, dark holes, resembling ventilation ducts or a pair of lightless eyes.
In addition to the windows, the front of almost every building had only a moderately sized iron door, which was now rusty and locked with a heavily rusted padlock.
One couldn't help but wonder if the slaughterhouse was hiding some secrets.
As Jiang Li passed by those houses, she noticed many disjointed phrases etched onto the blue brick walls, exuding madness and chaos.
She had seen this situation before; it was common in many incidents involving urban legends.
When people found themselves in the midst of urban legends, nearing the brink of mental collapse, they would try to express their inner negative emotions.
The expressive means of those on the verge of madness were numerous—potentially through music, drawings, or handicrafts—but the most common was still writing.
To them, it seemed that by doing so, they could escape from their nightmares.
However, in reality, this would only harm others—these were one of the crucial mediums for making people believe in the existence of urban legends! Jiang Li thought.
In many urban legend cases she dealt with, a significant number of them, which had long since faded into obscurity, were revived simply because someone encountered these insane creations and began to believe in those urban legends.
Tonight, the moonlight was dim and yellow, casting a faint glow on the concrete floor. Following the information in the archives, Jiang Li quickly found the feed configuration room of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse.
According to the records, this was the place with the lowest residual spirit energy fluctuations among all the buildings, which meant that it was likely the safest place.
The courtyard enclosed by high walls was overgrown with weeds in the corners.
The dark red paint on the door had already peeled off, indicating it hadn't been visited in a long while.
Jiang Li walked up to the door and tentatively pushed it; unexpectedly, it creaked open with a "squeak," the padlock, having been violently damaged, fell to the ground with a loud clank.
A messy courtyard came into view, with a blue brick house directly ahead. The door was ajar, and flickering light could be seen through the crack.
Who was the one who unlocked the door? Was it one of those undergoing scrutiny? Or had someone arrived here before they did?
As Jiang Li pondered this, she suddenly thought of that unseen individual, furrowing her brows. Then her expression turned cold, and she clenched her fists. Accompanied by a flash of silver light, while silver armor enveloped her hands, a knife much longer than her height appeared in her grasp.
Holding the long knife, she controlled her pace and silently approached the blue brick house, peering inside through the door crack.
Once inside the blue brick house from the front door, she found a very small outer room, featuring a twisted and deformed metal table along with an old wooden chair that had toppled to the ground—resulting in an eerily cold and sinister environment.
A filthy notebook fell onto the floor, yellowed at the edges, with the word "Register" faintly visible on the cover.
Aside from that, there was nothing else.
There was also an iron door diagonal to the direction of the front door. Walking through it should lead to the ingredients room, and the faint light was emanating from behind that iron door.
Jiang Li did not rush to investigate what was hidden behind the iron door. Instead, she spread her spiritual awareness to remain vigilant against the fluctuations of spirit energy around her as she walked over to the twisted and deformed metal table and bent down to pick up the register.
June 7: Li XX, special growth concentrated feed 2.1T
June 8: Li XX, special growth concentrated feed 2.3T, nutritional powder 450KG
June 9...
The content recorded in the register for the first ten pages was quite normal, but there was a large expanse of blank space between August and September.
Jiang Li flipped several more pages, and it wasn’t until she reached the end of September that the registrations resumed.
September 25: Wang XX, special growth concentrated feed 2.1T, meat 100KG, nutritional powder 300KG
Meat? Jiang Li furrowed her brows.
Though pigs are omnivores and do eat meat, why would someone specifically feed them such things? From a cost perspective, doing so would be a loss.
Moreover...
What kind of meat is this referring to? Why isn't it specified?
Human flesh? Given Jiang Li's extensive exposure to urban legend cases, that thought immediately emerged in her mind, but she quickly dismissed it.
Not to mention the cost of obtaining human flesh, according to her memory, there had been no major incidents of disappearances of people or corpses in the archives of the Siye Society during that period.
If it’s not human flesh, then what could it be?
A hundred kilograms of meat a day would probably not be sufficient for each pig but rather for certain specific ones.
What exactly is the South Suburb Slaughterhouse up to? Why is there no detailed documentation in the Siye Society's archives?
As Jiang Li pondered, she continued to flip through the pages. In the ensuing lengthy period, "meat" made up a significant part of the feed ingredients.
It wasn’t until the register date reached the end of November that it once again exhibited a large blank space.
End of November... She froze for a moment while looking at the blanks, suddenly recalling something.
Wasn’t the homicide at the South Suburb Slaughterhouse said to have occurred at the end of November?
With patience, she flipped through several more pages. When the register was no longer blank, she was slightly taken aback.
The notebook was smeared with streaks of dark red doodles; those doodles were twisted and strange in shape, resembling haphazard drawings made by a child, yet upon careful inspection, it could still be distinguished as small figures.
Jiang Li’s gaze deepened, just as she was about to continue reading, a faint fluctuation of spirit energy intruded into her awareness.
She abruptly lifted her head towards the direction from which the fluctuation came, her eyes settling on the iron door emanating faint flames, followed by a series of muffled thuds coming from behind it.
"Who’s there? Come out!"
Jiang Li growled, but no response came.
Her eyes grew cold, and gripping her long knife, she walked towards the iron door.
Unlike Luxianbei, Jiang Li believed that when encountering danger, avoiding it might be a decent strategy, but it wasn't the best option.
The best response was to directly eliminate the source of danger; that would lead to true safety.
As soon as she reached the iron door, she caught a whiff of a familiar stench—a smell of animal corpses rotting in a confined space, compounded with dust and mold.
Not long ago, she smelled a similar odor in the auditorium of Shihhekou Middle School.
However, unlike the last time, this stench was mixed with the scent of incense.
She contained her spirit energy to shield her nose and mouth, taking a few steps back before slowly pushing the iron door open with her long knife.
Behind the iron door was a storage room for feed, the large warehouse was empty, with a thick layer of dust on the ground, scattered with footprints. In the center of the warehouse, a fire pit and an offering table stood alone.
The money for the dead in the fire pit had just burned out, still emitting sparks, while a pair of red candles flickered on the offering table, the melting wax resembling two streams of blood tears trickling onto the table.
Jiang Li held her knife and surveyed the area. It was silent, making it impossible to discern from where the earlier muffled thuds came.
The only noteworthy detail was a pile of bones stacked in one corner of the room.
Approaching the bones for a closer look, Jiang Li found that they consisted of poultry and livestock, smaller mammals, and even reptiles, but there weren’t any human bones.
————
23:56, in the low and desolate mountains behind the South Suburb Slaughterhouse.
A figure dressed in a black robe, wearing a comedic skull badge on their chest, stood atop a gnarled tree, gazing down.
This was the cat-eared girl from the Urban Legends Chat Group.
"Sasa——Sasa——!"
Accompanied by the rustling of branches, a tall, skinny man clumsily climbed up the tree and sat beside the cat-eared girl.
"How's the situation, Cat?"
"Zhang Dexian has already clashed with the urban legends in the slaughterhouse, and it’s still undecided."
"Genius Mahjong Girl seems to have discovered something and is currently researching."
"Li Daqiang is still trapped in the underground breeding facility, not dead yet, but I think if no one saves him, it won’t be long."
"Li Weiyi is somewhere; if the captain's intel is correct, he must have already gone inside."
Noticing the cat-eared girl had paused, the slim man tilted his head, "What about Wang Buliu?"
"Don’t mention her! Just thinking about her makes me angry!" the cat-eared girl huffed, "That Wang Buliu is such a nuisance! Everyone else has gone in, but she just has to be a loner."
"Ah? What did she do again?" The man asked with a smile, his interest piqued, but his expression carried the implication that he already knew.
The cat-eared girl, as the domineering figure in the Huacheng branch of the Urban Legends Chat Group, had been unanimously deemed the most difficult member to deal with by the other group members.
Watching her get riled up by Wang Buliu over the past few days had become the most amusing pastime for others during their leisure moments.
The cat-eared girl shot a glance at the man, frowning, "She’s live streaming with Li Daqiang's phone, and hasn’t even entered the slaughterhouse yet."
"Huh? That’s happening?" the slim man feigned surprise.
After a two-second silence, under the cat-eared girl’s disdainful gaze, he took out his phone, found Li Daqiang's live streaming room, and expertly typed, "Host, show us your legs?"
However, before he could hit send, a furry paw smashed his phone screen.
"At a time like this, you’re still thinking about GHS?"
"GHS has timing too! Isn’t the feeling right? If it’s time, then go for it!"
"You..." The cat-eared girl glared fiercely at the slim man, "Wang Buliu’s making a mess, it’s driving me crazy! What if she gets noticed by the Siye Society?"
"She won’t." The man sulked, "First, who would watch such a stream?"
"Second, the live stream only has visuals, no spirit energy fluctuations. Do you think everyone can sense spirit energy through virtual networks like the captain?"
"Third, she’s quite clever; she hasn’t revealed her face. Most of the time, only her mouth is visible."
"Tch!" The cat-eared girl spat, "Then why are you watching?"
"But her chest really is... you get it, right? Just a quick flash is enough."
The cat-eared girl shot the man a sideways glance, murmuring, "I suddenly feel a real name registration system is urgent!"
"Don’t interrupt! There’s one important thing I haven’t mentioned yet!"
As he spoke, the slim man looked towards the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, smirking, "The most crucial point is that under the captain’s arrangements, the Siye Society and ordinary people can’t see her stream at all."
"You mean..."
"Exactly. Right now, her live streaming room is full of urban legends and lone spiritual ability users." The slim man nodded, "Just like that urban legend live streaming station I was interested in last time."
"Wait..." The cat-eared girl suddenly raised a hand, interrupting, "How do you know all this? Oh, I get it. The captain must have already dealt with Wang Buliu's situation before sending you here, right?"
"Were you having too much fun watching me make a fool of myself earlier?"
As the cat-eared girl revealed her sharp claws, the man twitched his mouth, "Uh, don’t scratch..."
Before he could finish his sentence, with a flash of cold light, blood sprayed from his face like a fountain.
"Ah! How many times have I told you not to scratch my face? You can scratch anywhere else; why..."
"Anywhere else is fine?" The cat-eared girl's gaze lingered on the slim man's body before gradually moving downwards.
The slim man swiftly covered his groin, meekly saying, "You might as well scratch my face..."
————
Luxianbei realized three minutes after picking up Li Daqiang's phone that his live stream was still on.
She placed the phone in her pocket, and it kept vibrating incessantly. Annoyed, she took it out to check and saw it was a private message from the live streaming platform’s backend.
She originally intended to leave the streaming room, but as she fiddled with it—having little experience with such things—she ended up registering as a streamer.
She swore she was absolutely not an idiot with live streaming software; she clicked the options according to the normal procedure, but somehow ended up with an account registered.
This was definitely not her fault; it was a problem with the streaming software!
Of course, registering as a streaming account didn’t mean she had to go live, until after fiddling for a few more minutes, she saw the income details in Li Daqiang's live streaming backend.
Perhaps it was because the phone captured the strange eyes in the darkness, right before the stream cut to black, resulting in a full program effect; Li Daqiang’s received gifts were unusually high today.
Luxianbei glanced at the income details pouring in, contemplated for two seconds, switched screens, and returned to the streaming room.
Originally, she didn’t intend to do such things, but the audience in the streaming room was incredibly generous!
"Hello, dear audience! I’m Li Daqiang’s friend!"
"He just got into a bit of danger and sustained some injuries, so he probably can't stream for you today."
"But don’t worry, he can’t stream, so I can continue to show you the unique happenings of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse! My streaming room number is 6324; welcome everyone to support me!"
Luxianbei had long wanted to try live streaming and making videos; she had set up her account, and just needed to find Du Sixian for the equipment.
However, due to uncontrollable body temperature issues that inadvertently messed up the live streaming costs, she had never gone through with it.
Now...
Luxianbei secretly turned off Li Daqiang's stream and opened her own streaming room—"Obedient Soft Girl, Shattering at a Touch: Online Spirit Exploration."
Then, observing that it was close to midnight, she raised her phone and walked towards the interior of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse.
————
Moments later.
From a distance, the cat-eared girl spotted Luxianbei, put down her phone, and swiftly tightened the pseudo-divine armor on her legs, running laps in the open space behind the entrance of the South Suburb Slaughterhouse, her expression growing complex.
"Damn it! What is she doing?"
"Uh..." The slim man pointed at the phone in his hand. "She’s exploiting a glitch."
"What?" The cat-eared girl tilted her head.
The man facepalmed. "Doesn’t the rule state you have to walk at least a hundred steps after entering the South Suburb Slaughterhouse? So..."
The cat-eared girl suddenly snapped back, growling, "Crap, she plans to run a hundred steps at the door and then not go inside, right?!"
"Does anyone even watch a stream like that?"
"You know, appearance determines worldview." The slim man shrugged, "The audience has an unusually high tolerance for pretty girls."
"But she didn’t show her face!"
"They can visualize based on her body! And she has a nice voice; everyone loves that!"
The cat-eared girl, "..."
Silently, she pulled out her phone from her pocket and sent a message to Luxianbei.
One Hundred and Three-Quarters Cat: @Wang Buliu dear group member, please do not exploit loopholes in the rules. This is a warning; after three warnings, the review will be deemed a failure.
————
Far away.
After receiving the message.
Luxianbei, "..." How is this like a game company? Clearly, it's a glitch she created herself, yet she’s being told she can't exploit it reasonably?
Damn! This is really disgusting!
