Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

Grandma Chiyo's confidence grew immensely. If Li Mo had more tricks up his sleeve, he might really be able to take little Chiyo out of this bizarre village.

After seeing that little Chiyo was fine, Li Mo fired a shot, and the nether fire spread through the rat swarm.

Before long, all that remained on the floor were the charred corpses of a group of rats.

Li Mo walked forward to pick up the bizarre coin. The residual aura on it was minuscule; it would probably only attract a moment's attention if used again.

"Hmm?"

The nether fire, just before it was about to extinguish, began to seep into the floor of the second-floor bedroom.

"..."

Li Mo looked down and touched the floor with his hand. There was nothing unusual. The thermometer placed on it also showed a normal temperature.

"This fire can track rats. Are there some on the first floor too? I'll go out and kill this bunch of rats right now!"

Grandma Chiyo was furious. She grabbed the broom in the corner and walked out the door menacingly.

Li Mo did not respond immediately. After a moment's pause, he nodded, "Go, slaughter them all and avenge your granddaughter."

After getting Li Mo's approval, Grandma Chiyo became more confident. But just as she happened to pass by Li Mo, he changed his tune again, whispering in a low voice, "Don't go to the first floor. Just stand on the stairs and don't do anything."

Grandma Chiyo was stunned, not understanding what he meant.

After walking out of Chiyo's bedroom, she indeed saw a large group of rats circling on the first floor. They didn't even run away when they saw her. Instead, they turned their heads towards her, their eyeballs glowing with an eerie green light.

"Aren't these animals afraid of people?" Chiyo was very puzzled. Logically, rats should run when they see people.

The first floor was very quiet. Everything was as usual.

Except that the peach wood rooster on the table had, for some reason, fallen onto the floor.

Grandma Chiyo gripped the broom tightly, ready to go to the first floor and smash these rats flat. But Li Mo's reminder suddenly came to her mind.

He had told her not to go to the first floor, but to stand on the stairs.

Although she didn't understand why, Grandma Chiyo did as she was told.

In Chiyo's bedroom, Li Mo stood up, walked to the window, and purposefully turned his head to look outside.

Outside the window, there was a giant rat silhouette standing on a small hill, woodenly staring at the coin in his hand.

After the bizarre coin was hidden by Li Mo, the giant rat silhouette's head drooped slightly, looking at the middle part between the first and second floors, where the stairs were located.

Li Mo clearly remembered that the vicinity was a plain, with no small hills.

"Doesn't the west wall block the ghost's line of sight?"

"Also, this group of rats can understand human speech. If I'm not mistaken, the threshold outside is already broken, and the peach orchard is crowded with rats. The reason it's still so quiet is because they have a certain level of intelligence. After realizing that their companion had died and that I have a weapon that can kill them, they want to lure the living into their trap."

Li Mo analyzed quickly. Recalling his previous encounters, he vaguely guessed the movement patterns of the bizarre animals in Yae Village.

First, they possessed a certain level of human intelligence.

This could be deduced from the various traps they set. This was by no means a blind and foolish, conventional ghost that would only wander around if it couldn't find a target that met its rules.

Second, they feared death.

Conventional means could not kill them, but bizarre power could cause real damage to them, even kill them.

This clearly violated the primordial rules of ghosts.

This group of rats should only be derivatives of a ghost, and the source was most likely the giant rat silhouette standing on the small hill outside.

The Bizarre pistol could only suppress, not kill.

That ghost sheep had the ability to restart, but it was still killed by Crimson-Dyed Sakura. This meant...

They regarded the Bizarre pistol as an equivalent weapon to Crimson-Dyed Sakura, so they would not act rashly before figuring out whether the Bizarre pistol could kill ghosts like Crimson-Dyed Sakura.

"But it's still a bit strange. They shouldn't have appeared in front of Yae Sakura, but they dared to appear in front of me openly, and even the ghost outside revealed its true form, as if it knew that the Bizarre pistol was not as good as Crimson-Dyed Sakura."

"The Bizarre pistol had effectively suppressed the ghost sheep before, but in the end, the nether fire suddenly disappeared, as if it had been overwritten by another, more complete rule."

"Not just the ghost sheep, but also that bear. The nether fire could suppress it and burn it to ashes, but it would always be extinguished at the last moment."

"There must be some rule that is connected to all the Bizarre Things here."

Li Mo put away his anomalous pistol and walked straight to the almost-exhausted little Chiyo.

The white bedsheets were stained red with blood. Her organs were ruptured and bleeding heavily. Her vital signs were rapidly declining, and she was in danger of dying from excessive blood loss at any moment.

This was also an inevitable result. After all, she was just an ordinary person.

Without the characteristics of a ghost, death was a very normal thing.

"Big brother..."

Little Chiyo's voice was very, very small. Her eyes could barely open, her eyelashes were clumped with tears of pain, and her vision was blurry.

She stared at Li Mo without blinking. Her pale lips moved slightly, wanting to say something, but after two heavy coughs, she spat out a large amount of blood.

The bedsheets were soaked more and more warm, while her body became colder and colder.

Li Mo stood by the bed, calmly watching little Chiyo's dying process without any reaction.

Saving her was very simple. He just needed to cut a slit in his wrist and let the blood flow into little Chiyo's mouth.

Although little Chiyo would be contaminated by it, she had lived in Yae Village since she was a child and had long been contaminated.

An ordinary person's lifespan was only a few decades. Li Mo didn't need to consider the problem of her becoming a ghost after death, unless she could live for hundreds, or thousands of years...

But Li Mo had no such thoughts at all.

"No, what am I waiting for?"

Li Mo clearly felt the abnormality of his own behavior and couldn't help but ask himself.

His remaining sensibility reminded him to feed his blood to little Chiyo, but he couldn't do it.

"..."

"I'll go out and deal with the rat swarm first."

Li Mo left the weak little Chiyo and left the room. He came to the second-floor corridor and looked around.

The moment the rats saw Li Mo, they quickly fled into dark corners, the roof, the beams, the tunnels...

They did their best to hide themselves.

Li Mo turned his head to look at the table on the first floor directly opposite the main door. The peach wood rooster on it had fallen.

All these signs indicated that a ghost had already invaded the interior, for unknown reasons.

Li Mo glanced at Grandma Chiyo's expression. She seemed to have seen a similar scene before, or rather, had experienced it, so she was not so surprised.

Suddenly, a rat fell from the sky, and its landing spot was precisely Grandma Chiyo's head.

Draw the gun?

No...

This was a feint.

They were forcing me to use the Bizarre pistol. But how did this group of ghost derivatives know that the Bizarre pistol had limited ammunition?

Or was it... I didn't meet the killing rule.

Li Mo did not hold back. After all, he had no impulse to draw his gun in the first place.

The abnormality once again startled Li Mo. His state was a bit off.

Even after dying twice, he wouldn't be so indifferent to a dying living person like now. Even a little reminder would be good...

Before Li Mo could speak his words of reminder, Grandma Chiyo snorted coldly, turned the broom handle, and the end instantly became a spike.

"Squeak... squeak!"

She aimed the broom, and the rat was ruthlessly pierced as it fell.

The tragic cry it let out before it died made the darkness stir. The house trembled, and the rat swarm began to adjust its position, their purpose unknown.

Was it... reporting?

"What should I do now?" Grandma Chiyo couldn't help but turn back and ask.

Li Mo calmly replied, "Kill them all."

"Huh? But there are too many of them. There will definitely be some that get away. The old man tried it before, but back then there was only one cat."

"That's just one option. We have another option, and that is to kill ourselves," Li Mo slowly walked to the first floor and bared his heart.

As expected, the rat swarm did not attack him.

They were still throwing themselves at Grandma Chiyo from all directions.

"Catch."

Li Mo threw the anomalous pistol on his body to Grandma Chiyo.

After the position of the anomalous pistol changed, the rats still did not change their course of action.

This made Li Mo confirm a rule.

This group of rats was not afraid of death. The one afraid of death was the ghost standing on the small hill outside, not this group of derivatives.

The reason the rats retreated was simply because that ghost had given the order, not because they themselves feared death.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have launched an attack so rashly.

So the rats' true attack rule was only one—living people.

Li Mo looked up. He could no longer feel any Bizarre aura on the second floor. All the rats had come to the first floor, hiding in the dark corners and glaring at Grandma Chiyo.

The rats would look at Li Mo with a look of confusion, but they would eventually leave.

Because Li Mo had crushed his own heart. Whenever his heart showed any signs of recovery, he would crush it again.

In this way, he was judged to be a dead person.

A living person's heart could not stop beating.

Thus, the only target of the rat swarm was this old woman fighting alone behind him.

"You saw the whole process of me shooting just now. If you believe me, let the rats enter your body, then aim at your own heart and shoot."

Grandma Chiyo was stunned. She had seen the destructive power of the Bizarre pistol with her own eyes. If she shot her own heart with this thing, wouldn't she...

What's more, she had to let the rats enter her body? How would she get them out?

Li Mo just stood quietly on the first floor, his cloudy eyes staring intently at Grandma Chiyo.

"If you still want to save little Chiyo, you'd better do as I say. She's about to die."

Hearing this, Grandma Chiyo trembled all over. The peach wood broom in her hand fell from the stairs.

Two rats climbed up from her feet to her face. Grandma Chiyo gritted her teeth and opened her mouth wide. The rats quickly crawled in.

Immediately after, a heart-wrenching pain came. Her intestines were pierced by the gnawing, and the tissues and organs in her body were wildly stirred.

Li Mo still watched quietly, not offering a helping hand.

Grandma Chiyo held on and raised the anomalous pistol, shooting herself in the heart.

With a crisp gunshot, the nether fire began to burn her body.

The fierce fire consumed her body, but it was not as painful as she had imagined. On the contrary, the rats in her body let out heart-wrenching wails.

Perhaps due to a judgment issue, the nether fire was extinguished and reignited, then extinguished and reignited again. The burning process lasted for a long time.

Seeing that there were no more living people in the room, the rat swarm quickly left the house.

After a long time, when the nether fire was extinguished, Grandma Chiyo finally came to her senses, gasping for air.

The first thing she said after waking up was, "How's Chiyo?"

Li Mo unhurriedly led her back to Chiyo's bedroom. The moment the door opened, the sight of little Chiyo's lifeless face almost made Grandma Chiyo faint.

"Chiyo! Chiyo!"

Grandma Chiyo dragged her stooped body to the bedside and reached out to shake the unconscious little Chiyo.

No matter how she shook her, she couldn't wake little Chiyo up.

It seemed she was beyond saving.

The blood flowing from the bed onto the floor was the best proof.

Realizing that she was helpless, Grandma Chiyo turned to Li Mo and begged incessantly, "Save her... save her! You said you would save her! I've already told you everything I know!"

Li Mo was expressionless. He threw a small dagger from his body.

"Cut off my flesh and feed it to her, and she can be saved. Don't worry, this won't make her look like the villagers at night."

"Then why didn't you before..."

"Because I couldn't."

Li Mo understood that a new rule had been added to him.

This was the price to pay for reversing life and death. When he forcibly saved the dead Shigure Kira in the haunted mansion world, this rule had appeared on him.

Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be too affected, but once he died too many times, this rule, just like the previous "exterminate the Bizarre" rule, would control Li Mo's thoughts and actions at all times.

"Black Abyss" had made him lose the concept of saving lives, let alone an ordinary person he was not close to.

Grandma Chiyo tremblingly held the dagger and cut off Li Mo's outstretched right hand.

The white bones looked particularly eerie, and black blood flowed from the cold body.

Grandma Chiyo endured the nausea and put the flesh into little Chiyo's mouth.

But because little Chiyo was already unconscious, she couldn't swallow.

Grandma Chiyo fell into confusion and anxiety again.

"Cut open her stomach and intestines, and put the flesh directly inside," Li Mo said.

Grandma Chiyo was horrified, but to save her granddaughter, she took the dagger and cut open little Chiyo's stomach, seeing the already tattered intestines and organs.

They had long been gnawed beyond recognition by the rats. There were broken small holes everywhere, and blood was constantly seeping out.

The blood vessels and nerves were tangled together, broken in the middle, and scattered on various organs.

"Ugh..."

As an ordinary civilian, Grandma Chiyo had only seen people being pierced by weapons and their intestines pulled out in times of war.

But she had never observed mutilated human tissues from such a close distance, let alone the fact that this person was her most beloved granddaughter.

"That's good. You don't even need to cut open the intestines. They're already broken," Li Mo said calmly, a black humor, a dark joke.

The flesh on his hand was rapidly recovering, but no one noticed.

Now Grandma Chiyo's attention was all on her granddaughter's body.

The flesh was put in, and something beyond her imagination happened.

The intestines were rapidly dissolving the flesh, and the damaged organs were healing bit by bit.

"Alright, she's out of danger, but she won't wake up for a while. It's a peaceful night, which is good news."

Li Mo walked to the door and said casually before he left.

Grandma Chiyo asked worriedly, "Are you sure those dirty things won't come again?"

Li Mo paused for a moment, then slowly said, "They probably won't come again, because... there are no more people here who meet their killing rule."

Hearing Li Mo's answer, Grandma Chiyo was confused. To understand the truth, she had to ask clearly so that she could better protect little Chiyo in the future.

So she brazenly continued to ask, "What do you mean by not meeting the killing rule?"

Li Mo glanced sideways. There were no more rats nearby. Then he pointed to his Bizarre Sprout left hand.

"I've been thinking from the very beginning why little Chiyo was the first to be attacked."

"If it was triggering the rule: interacting with the villagers. The person who interacted most recently was me, who just arrived today. The one who interacted the most was you, who has lived here for decades. It shouldn't be little Chiyo's turn no matter what."

"I originally speculated that it was because of this weapon. Because they were afraid of this weapon, they didn't dare to attack me."

"But when I went to the first floor and threw the weapon to you, they still didn't attack me. Instead, they became fearless and began to launch a general attack on you."

"So I judge that their killing rule is—vitality."

"You are already half a step into the grave. Their desire to attack you is very low; I crushed my own heart and am not much different from a dead person. Even if I didn't crush it, my life signs can't even compare to any old person who is still alive."

"But little Chiyo is different. She is very young, full of vitality, and has abundant life force. And after she lost too much blood and her life level dropped rapidly, the ghost lost its attack target and turned to attack you, the one with the most vigorous life."

"They still didn't attack me after my heart recovered, which means that a person who has died once does not meet the killing rule."

"The three of us have now 'died' once. No matter in what way, fake death or real death, no matter how low the degree, it's still dying once, which has worn away the killing rule the rats left on us."

"If we still meet the killing rule, then the rats should have come back by now, understand?"

Grandma Chiyo: "..."

Li Mo: "Forget it if you don't understand. You can figure it out on your own."

For an old woman who had never personally dealt with a supernatural incident, what he said was clearly a bit obscure, even though he had already said it very simply and clearly.

But due to her age, her thinking and reaction would inevitably decline, making it more and more difficult to understand the connection between things.

This had nothing to do with intelligence, but was an objective law of nature.

"Wait a minute!" Grandma Chiyo suddenly called out to Li Mo.

"What else? If it's about my flesh being able to heal little Chiyo, then I won't answer," Li Mo said.

Grandma Chiyo shook her head. "It's not that. A ghost exorcist definitely has their own taboos and reservations, I know. When my old man was still around, he also had some unspeakable secrets he was unwilling to mention."

"There was something I didn't tell you before. I thought you wouldn't need it. Now I think you should have another purpose for coming to this village. This information may be helpful to you."

Grandma Chiyo's words instantly made Li Mo turn around and stare at her gloomily.

"You said before that you had told me everything you knew. Can I understand that now... you deceived me?"

Li Mo's tone was calm and emotionless, but his decisive reaction suggested otherwise.

Grandma Chiyo quickly explained, "I only remembered it when I heard you keep mentioning 'rules' just now. I'm old, my memory is not good, please forgive me..."

"You'd better tell me everything you can remember this time. I, for one, hold a grudge," Li Mo's voice was cold.

"Mhm!" Grandma Chiyo nodded repeatedly, quickly knelt on the ground, and stuck her head under little Chiyo's bed.

It was an exquisite wooden box.

From inside, she took out a simple white omamori.

Instantly, the thermometer reacted. Li Mo reflexively put his hand on his waist.

The white omamori in front of him was either a ghost or a bizarre object.

But from its appearance, it was more likely the latter.

Li Mo did not act rashly. Since Grandma Chiyo could keep it safely until now, it should not be a great threat to the living.

But he was strictly speaking half-human, half-ghost now. He might be more human, but it didn't stop him from having the characteristics of a ghost.

"What is that, and what is its use?"

"Let me think, I remember... oh, right! The old man told me that this white omamori is related to the festival," Grandma Chiyo suddenly remembered.

Festival...

Rule...

So the festival was indeed a bizarre ritual? Was it related to the source Bizarre Thing of this world in some way?

Grandma Chiyo walked forward, wanting to stuff the white omamori into Li Mo's hand, but was refused by Li Mo.

"Tell me what it's for first," Li Mo was very vigilant. He wouldn't just casually accept a bizarre object.

Grandma Chiyo didn't understand why Li Mo was so cautious. It was just a white omamori.

But to compensate, she still patiently said, "This is something the old man stole... took from the shrine. Ahem... that's not important. What's important is that the old man said this thing is very important."

"He said... let me think, what did he say?"

Grandma Chiyo tried hard to recall.

"Right, it's related to the festival!"

"You've already said that," Li Mo reminded her.

Grandma Chiyo came back to her senses and apologized to Li Mo awkwardly.

"I'm not too sure what its specific use is. I only know that during the festival, the old man wore this white omamori and kept staring at the sky."

"I followed his gaze but didn't see anything. When I came back to my senses, I saw that the omamori had turned from white to black."

"In the following days, the old man became crazy, constantly muttering something about 'rules.' A few days later, he disappeared."

Li Mo: "..."

"He disappear a few days after wearing this thing. Do you think I would dare to wear it?"

Grandma Chiyo: "It's not what you think. He disappeared for another reason, not because of the omamori."

Li Mo: "How can you be sure?"

Grandma Chiyo: "Because before he disappeared, he repaired all the layouts in the house. Also, some villagers saw him leave the village during the day, but he didn't come back at night. He probably verified the legend of Yae Village: no one can return to Yae Village alive on the second day."

"Is that so..." Li Mo murmured softly, thinking of Yae Sakura.