Chapter 61

"Let's forget it, let's wait for the dishes. If the dishes are fine, we won't meddle in other people's business. Although there aren't many of these dirty things in the world now, and ordinary people might not see one in their entire lives, for us, encountering ghosts is as common as having a meal. Especially when we're with Zhao Dushao, it's as natural as drinking water when thirsty. If the dishes are fine, it means it's just a lost soul. We'll leave after we finish the chicken pot. Hmm, how about that?"

Zhu Jianping looked at Zhao Zhu and Xiong Zhiji, and seeing that they both nodded in agreement, he picked up his teacup and started drinking again.

For these three, the duration of their lives was still an unknown number, so they had no interest in taking on the responsibility of exorcising demons and protecting the world. They had no such obligation; they just needed to take care of their own lives. They didn't have any saintly complexes.

The dishes came quickly, and after about fifteen minutes, a young waiter brought in a pot of chicken and placed it on Zhao Zhu and the others' table. At the same time, a female waiter pushed a cart of side dishes over, and after checking the list, both of them left.

Xiong Zhiji sniffed the air, smelling both the two people and the chicken in front of him, and said, "No problem, those two are alive, and this chicken is real chicken. We can start eating."

The three of them began to eat. For ordinary people, seeing a ghost once might make them uneasy for days, and those with weaker yang energy might even fall ill. But Zhao Zhu and the others ate and slept as usual. It was just a ghost, and they even had a zombie living downstairs. What was the big deal?

However, when Zhao Zhu was about to put a piece of chicken in his mouth, the jade hairpin tattoo on his left shoulder suddenly became hot, so hot that Zhao Zhu was caught off guard, and his chopsticks fell to the ground, the chicken rolling onto the table. Zhu Jianping and Xiong Zhiji looked at Zhao Zhu in confusion, not knowing what he was doing. If it was just an accident, it wouldn't have caused such a big reaction, right?

Zhao Zhu covered his left shoulder with one hand and pointed at the pot of chicken on the table, shouting, "There's something wrong with the chicken, spit it out quickly!"

Xiong Zhiji and Zhu Jianping almost without hesitation threw down their chopsticks, stuck their fingers down their throats, and started to gag, spitting out the chicken they had just eaten. They didn't ask why, because they knew what to do first and what to do later. Once they were sure they had spit everything out, they wiped their mouths with napkins and looked at Zhao Zhu with questioning eyes.

"Use other methods to test this chicken," Zhao Zhu said, "There's definitely something wrong."

Before, it was just Xiong Zhiji using his nose to distinguish, which was a bit too casual and subjective. Of course, after seeing that the two waiters were alive, everyone's vigilance had dropped significantly.

"Alright, I have tiger tooth powder, but using it to test a pot of chicken seems a bit wasteful, doesn't it?" Xiong Zhiji took out a small glass bottle and muttered to himself, "It's like using a cannon to swat a fly."

Tiger tooth powder, of course, is made from tiger teeth, and it takes 49 specific days of sun exposure to remove the yin and add the yang, and then mix it with incense ash. A bottle of tiger tooth powder would cost at least 300 points if exchanged.

Zhu Jianping looked at Zhao Zhu and then at Xiong Zhiji, and said to Xiong Zhiji, "Test it!"

Seeing that both of his companions were demanding a test, Xiong Zhiji could only grit his teeth and pour a little tiger tooth powder into the chicken. Soon, a cloud of smoke rose from the chicken, and in the smoke, a woman's face gradually appeared, a very delicate face, with closed eyes.

"Damn, there really is something strange." Xiong Zhiji immediately kicked the pot of chicken to the ground and prepared to rush out of the private room, but was stopped by Zhu Jianping.

"Don't be impulsive. That was a ghost shadow. There's something seriously wrong with this chicken pot. If you rush out, what if you get caught again?"

"Damn, I can endure any danger in the mission world, but this is the real world. Coming out for a meal and getting tricked, can I endure that?"

"Xiong Daxiong, are you overreacting?" Zhao Zhu asked, thinking that Xiong Zhiji's emotions seemed to be fluctuating too much.

Zhu Jianping wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a helpless look, "He's angry because he'll have a psychological shadow from eating chicken pot in the future, making him eat less of this dish."

Zhao Zhu, hearing this, touched his nose, understanding now.

"Alright, let's go check the kitchen. Since the ghost that came out was wearing a chef's uniform, it means there's definitely something unusual in the kitchen." Zhao Zhu got up, opened the door of the private room, and walked out.

Zhu Jianping and Xiong Zhiji followed him out. The three turned a corner and arrived at the kitchen of Chuan Jin Lou. The chefs in the kitchen were busy, probably because the business was very good.

"Who brought the bull's tears?" Zhao Zhu asked the people around him.

"No bull's tears, but I have talisman paper." Xiong Zhiji took out two pieces of talisman paper, lit them with a lighter, and held the ashes in his hand. He then picked up a bottle of beer from a nearby shelf, mixed the ashes into the beer, and took a sip before passing it to Zhu Jianping and Zhao Zhu.

A few waiters who were passing by looked at Zhao Zhu and the others with strange expressions, but they were quickly controlled by Zhu Jianping's mental power to ignore what was happening and go about their business.

Zhu Jianping took a sip and passed it to Zhao Zhu, who also took a sip. The taste was not good, very sour and astringent. After swallowing it, his eyes immediately felt heavy, and the world looked a bit darker. However, when he looked at the kitchen again, Zhao Zhu noticed something different.

On the side of the kitchen, there was a place for slaughtering chickens. Since Chuan Jin Lou had good business, a large number of live chickens were needed every day. The chickens were slaughtered on-site to give customers a sense of freshness. So, hundreds of chickens were slaughtered here every day.

In Zhao Zhu's line of sight, in the chicken-slaughtering room, about a dozen ghosts were squatting in front of pools of chicken blood, greedily sucking on them. They were enjoying it and were insatiable, almost glowing with a faint red light, a sign of transformation into a sha (a more malevolent ghost).

"How is it possible? Just drinking chicken blood shouldn't turn them into sha," Xiong Zhiji muttered.

"Look over there, look closely. There are about 17 or 18 chefs in the kitchen, but only half of them are actually working. The other half... are dead, but they think they are still alive and are helping with the work. This kitchen is a place where the living and the dead coexist, a yin-yang room!" Zhu Jianping's expression became increasingly serious as he spoke.

When a pot of chicken was made, one of the chefs buried his entire face in the chicken, as if stirring something. The chicken, of course, didn't move because the chef was a dead person, a ghost, and couldn't touch the food. But soon, when the chef lifted his face, his mouth began to widen, gradually stretching to an impossible degree, and a woman's face slid out of his mouth and fell into the pot of chicken. This face was identical to the one Zhao Zhu and the others had seen earlier.

"Ugh... so disgusting." Xiong Zhiji patted his chest.

"This is serious. Using ghosts to cast a curse, I've never heard of such a thing." Zhu Jianping pointed at the ghost chef and said, "What he spits out is a ghost shadow. If any of us eat it, we will be parasitized by the ghost shadow, which will extract our yang energy or lifespan. This is a very sinister curse."

"Can we find out who is behind this?"

Behind the ghosts, there must be a person.

"Not sure. It shouldn't be someone from the group. After all, there are only a few of us active in SZ City, and the others are just passing through. Chuan Jin Lou has been around for a long time." Zhu Jianping snapped his fingers, and a mental storm condensed in front of him. "But, who cares? I'll use the mental storm to scatter the ghosts in the kitchen and see if the boss dares to show up!"