Two men together forced her to eat more. Xu Xuehui took a few more bites but eventually frowned, insisting she couldn’t eat another mouthful. Ding Longyun, at a loss with her, had no choice but to take away the leftover cold fried rice. Only then did Xu Xuehui breathe a sigh of relief.
By now, the sky had completely darkened. Ding Longyun found a candle and lit it, making it the sole source of light in the pitch-black room. “Rest a bit; later we’ll head up to the rooftop together,” he said, pulling out a steel shovel and a dagger. He took a cloth and gently wiped both the shovel and the dagger for a while, then solemnly handed the dagger to Xu Xuehui. Xu Xuehui took the dagger—it was far sharper than the kitchen knife she’d used before. “I’ve sharpened this dagger; it’s very sharp. Be careful when you use it, don’t hurt yourself,” Ding Longyun warned her. Xu Xuehui nodded, let out a soft “mm,” then glanced at Su Li, feeling she shouldn’t play favorites, so she also brought along the hammer he had given her.
The three rested for a while, since they had just eaten and weren’t fit for intense activity right away. Ding Longyun looked at the clock hanging on the wall, which now pointed to seven. Figuring they’d rested enough, he blew out the candle on the table and said, “Let’s go.” With the steel shovel in one hand, he opened the door with the other. Xu Xuehui followed behind him, while Su Li, holding an iron rod, brought up the rear. Then, dragging the corpses of the beastly creatures they’d left in the hallway earlier, they headed up the stairs toward the rooftop.
Ding Longyun led the way, climbing the stairs to the rooftop. Su Li saw that this vast rooftop was piled with many corpses. Clearly, over the past few days, most of the Spirit Source Beasts Ding Longyun had killed had been hauled up here. Su Li took a quick glance and counted at least twenty to thirty corpses—most were low-level Corpse Beasts, along with a few Water Rat Beasts. The most striking was a giant Water Rat Beast corpse, several times larger than the ordinary ones. Su Li realized at once that this must be the Water Rat King, evolved from a Water Rat Beast, an elite-class Spirit Source Beast. Ding Longyun’s “Soul Devour” ability had come from killing this Water Rat King.
“Tonight’s moon is big and round,” Ding Longyun remarked, looking up at the sky. Though it was night, the moon hanging overhead cast a soft glow, so it wasn’t completely dark—at least they could make out each other’s blurry silhouettes. “They say the moon is fullest on the fifteenth and sixteenth; today’s the seventeenth, but it’s still not bad,” Su Li added, also glancing up. He saw Ding Longyun drag two Corpse Beast corpses to the rooftop’s edge, then suddenly heave with all his strength, tossing them down. Su Li leaned out slightly and watched the two corpses crash heavily into the water below with a “plop,” sending up splashes.
Su Li noticed four thick ropes hanging down from the rooftop’s edge, one end fixed to the roof and the other dangling into the water. “What are these ropes for?” “You’ll see soon enough,” Ding Longyun replied as he tossed down two more Corpse Beast corpses. Hearing this, Su Li didn’t press further. He watched Ding Longyun throw down a total of eight corpses before stopping. “Dumping eight corpses at once should stir them up. We’ll wait here for them to come up,” Ding Longyun said. Su Li asked, “So this is how you’ve been luring these monsters up to kill them before?” “Exactly, but it’s tricky. Too few corpses and it doesn’t work well; too many and it’s bad—it can attract terrifying monsters. That giant water rat was a case in point. Back then, we didn’t know better and threw all the corpses down, which brought that big guy up. It nearly got us killed. I got lucky and managed to kill it, but surviving was pure chance.” Ding Longyun still shuddered when recalling the Water Rat King’s demise. Su Li grunted in acknowledgment and fell silent, staring downward. Under the moonlight, the eight corpses sank into the water, and soon unusual ripples appeared in the water below, followed by dark shapes emerging.
“If we don’t throw the corpses down, won’t they show up?” Su Li asked Ding Longyun in a low voice, thinking that in the past two days, even without tossing corpses into the water, Spirit Source Beasts had still appeared sporadically. Clearly, their appearance wasn’t strictly tied to whether corpses were thrown in. Ding Longyun kept his eyes on the commotion below as he explained, “Of course not. They’ll show up even without throwing corpses, but their appearances are random and unpredictable, which works against us—we’d have to stay on guard all the time. By tossing the corpses all at once, we lure them out, making them converge at this time, which makes hunting easier. And after this concentrated appearance, they show up far less often at other times.” Listening to Ding Longyun’s explanation, Su Li understood and nodded slightly. This method was indeed clever—using the corpses as bait to draw out the Spirit Source Beasts at a fixed time when they were fully prepared, allowing for focused hunting, while reducing the chance of encounters at other times.
Su Li watched as heads began to emerge from the water below. In the moonlight, he saw those swollen, pale faces and knew they were low-level Corpse Beasts. The Corpse Beasts surfaced, reached out, grabbed the dangling ropes, and started climbing up. Su Li took a soft breath, realizing the purpose of those four ropes—they were for the Corpse Beasts to climb up to the rooftop. “These zombies might have simple minds, but they know how to use ropes to climb. We just need to hold our ground here and deal with them easily,” Ding Longyun said, lifting his steel shovel with a faint smile. “But killing these zombies isn’t much use. Let’s leave them to Xuehui, so she can level up to 2 faster.” Xu Xuehui stood beside Su Li, craning her neck like him to look down. Her pupils contracted slightly, sharp as an eagle’s, as she stared below and suddenly spoke: “Down there, there’s one with three hands.” “Three hands? You mean among these Corpse Beasts?” Su Li was taken aback. He looked down at the climbing Corpse Beasts but didn’t see any with an extra hand. Xu Xuehui nodded.
The Corpse Beasts climbed the ropes at a decent speed and soon appeared before the three of them. Ding Longyun didn’t attack immediately, afraid of knocking them off and sending them falling. Instead, he let them step onto the rooftop before swinging his steel shovel with a sharp smack.