Corpse Recovery Diver
Chapter 79 - 15_5

Chapter 79: Chapter 15_5

Even though she was barely getting by herself, she still adopted me. Whatever she ate, that’s what I ate.

She would bask in the sun with me in her arms, talk to me, recount her youth, and speak of the children’s father, that man whose face she had already forgotten.

She would talk about amusing stories of her three children when they were young, saying how her eldest son promised to spoil her in her later years, so she wouldn’t have to do anything and meals would be served while she sat in bed;

She said her second son would get her new clothes made of new fabric every season, so she wouldn’t have to wear old clothes with patches anymore;

She said her daughter would buy her gold jewelry just like the other village women, to wear every day.

Whenever she spoke of these, she seemed very happy, yet as a cat, I knew that the children and grandchildren she raised hadn’t visited her for a long time.

Later on, she fell ill.

But she was like a broken wooden wheel, no matter how many cracks it developed, it never fell apart.

People from the village came, saw her condition, and summoned her three children, demanding they support their elderly mother.

Already resentful that she had lived so long without dying, depriving them of their luck, how could her three children be willing to support her?

Indeed, they placed all the blame for their own children’s failures upon her, as if their own misfortunes and ineptitude were all her fault.

The villagers kept a close eye, yet they were unwilling to even keep up appearances.

So, they simply conspired to lock her in the old house,

Look,

It’s the one right there."

Following the trench, Li Zhiyuan had already walked quite a distance, ahead was a one-story house with three rooms; the rooms on both sides had collapsed, leaving only the middle one barely standing.

The house door was already in tatters, and the door gods pasted above were blackened with age.

Old Mrs. Niu stepped out of the trench, drenched all over, standing in front of the door without rushing to push it open, but rather looking around nostalgically.

"Every day they would come in to deliver meals, putting on a show for the villagers to see, but they were always empty bowls, no matter how desperately she begged, they wouldn’t give her a single grain of rice or a drop of water.

Her two sons each had their excuses, saying their children would not agree, saying that if it weren’t because of her, they should have had a much brighter future.

Facing her, whose hunger was insatiable and who was hardly breathing, her two sons acted as if they had suffered great injustice, and she was the deeply sinful villain.

But she was too resilient; she drank dew, ate moss, insects that crawled into the house, anything she could find, edible or not, as long as she could swallow it, she stuffed it into her mouth.

She was tough, hanging on by a thread, like a tenacious weed.

I pitied her watching her struggle, and what’s even more pitiful is that at the time, she still remembered to share the insects she barely managed to catch with me, still thinking about feeding me, no matter how hard it was for herself.

Just like back then, when she struggled to raise those three children.

Hehehe... hehehehe..."

Old Mrs. Niu started to laugh, and fine fuzz gradually grew on the gaps that had been gnawed away by snakes, insects, rats, and ants on her face.

At that moment, the cat-faced old lady’s countenance seemed less terrifying.

Because it hid the true ugliness underneath.

Li Zhiyuan suddenly asked: "Did you eat her flesh?"

The cat-faced old lady nodded: "I did."

"Creak..."

The house door automatically opened, emitting a grating squeak.

As the door opened, the sounds that seemed to have been sealed inside also emerged.

The three Niu siblings were kneeling by the bed, their heads tied with white ribbons, waists wrapped in black sashes, wearing hemp garments, crying in mourning.

Everything seemed just as it was during the daytime daoist ritual.

Li Zhiyuan was puzzled; if the Niu siblings were here, what was that thing that Grandmaster and Run Sheng had caught?

However, recalling the Corpse Demon’s abilities, Li Zhiyuan had a realization; perhaps what he thought was lucidity... had never fully come, like waking from one dream without returning to reality, but instead entering a new dream.

The most obvious sign was... since Uncle Qin disappeared, he had never seen him again.

The previous Uncle Qin was a figment conjured by the Corpse Demon from his own mind.

It had even read his internal "Jianghu Chronicles," yes, and recited it to him.

Old Mrs. Niu pointed at Niu Fu and said: "As a child, he was often ill, it was she, who would carry him through wind and rain to seek medical attention, when there was no money for medicine, she would kneel to the doctor, wash their clothes, and chop wood for their household."

Then, Old Mrs. Niu pointed at Niu Rui: "When he was young, he got into a gang fight, killed someone, it was she who went to plead with the deceased’s parents, ensured their care until the end of life, and obtained a letter of forgiveness; in the end, she truly took good care of the man’s parents until their passing."

In the end, Old Mrs. Niu pointed at Niu Lian: "When they were splitting the family assets, she cried, saying she was also her child, that one shouldn’t be biased, saying that even if her brothers wouldn’t care for her in old age, she would take her in, and so she divided the little possessions they had into three shares."

As she spoke, Old Mrs. Niu turned her head, looked towards Li Zhiyuan, and said with a smile: "Do you know what Niu Lian did? Because she’s too good at surviving, Niu Lian thought it was too much of a hassle to play such a drama day by day.

That night, when it was Niu Lian’s turn to ’bring food’, she dragged her out of bed and threw her into the ditch in front, and the next day, she claimed her old mother had accidentally fallen into the ditch and disappeared.

In reality, she was already close to starving to death and couldn’t even speak."

"But in the end, she was still thrown into the water... and drowned.

At that time, she just floated in the water, and I, just like you earlier, walked along the bank following her.

At last, I jumped onto her body, I started to eat her flesh, although there was hardly any flesh left, it was tough, all bone.

But I just wanted to bite her, wanted to eat her. I was furious. Why did she have to be so stupid? How could there be someone so foolish in this world?"

"So then, you died together?"

"Yes, I never expected it to turn out this way. We died, but we... resurrected, turning into this abomination, neither human nor ghost nor demon.

I think, maybe it’s because she was foolish to the point that even Heaven couldn’t stand to watch."

Li Zhiyuan finally asked the question he had in mind: "What exactly do you want to do?"

The cat-faced old woman showed a fierce expression: "I want revenge, I want to avenge her, those three ungrateful wretches, why should they have the face to go on living well!"

"But you clearly have the power to take revenge already, why haven’t you done it?"

Hearing this question, the cat-faced old woman looked at Li Zhiyuan with some confusion: "That day at the longevity banquet, I thought the words you said to me were just to flatter me for the sake of your life. Could it be, these are your true feelings?"

"But shouldn’t one have such thoughts?"

"You people, you wouldn’t allow foreign evils to harm the living, no matter how... heavily steeped in sin they are.

This is your Dao, violating it will result in retribution.

Didn’t your Grandmaster teach you that?"

The Grandmaster taught me?

Li Zhiyuan pondered; after all, the Grandmaster clearly took me to Big Beard’s house that night.

And after it was all done, the Grandmaster, with his left hand on his hip and a cigarette in his right, laughed heartily and said we could enjoy a feast in a few days.

Could it be that the Grandmaster’s Dao is different from everyone else’s?

"No, now we’re talking about you. You’ve caused so much trouble, why haven’t you sought revenge?"

The facial features of the cat-faced old woman began to contort, and there was constant "crackling" sounds from inside her body. Dead earthworms and mice kept slipping from inside her and piled up on the ground.

Then, with a tone filled with grievances and indignation, she almost roared:

"I want revenge, I dream of taking revenge, but do you know what makes me most angry?

She and I, we are one. We are one entity.

Even though I am in command, she is actually no longer here, but her instincts are still within me.

I can feel that as soon as I kill one of these three, her instincts will awaken and restrain me, and I will have no more chances to strike against the other two!"

"So, you want to kill all three of them?"

"Of course, why should I let any of them go? I don’t want to pick just one, I want them all to receive their due punishment and retribution!"

Li Zhiyuan: "Then don’t kill any of them, not even one."

"What?"

Upon hearing this, Old Mrs. Niu directly grabbed Li Zhiyuan’s shoulders, nearly biting towards his neck, and hissed:

"You little brat, do you know what you’re saying?"

"Because there’s no need to kill, she won’t be able to restrain you."

"What do you mean?"

Li Zhiyuan looked at the cat-faced old woman close at hand and said with a smile:

"Cripple one, make one ill, drive one mad.

Then watch how their dutiful children, whom they have raised, will take care of them attentively.

That would be...

the best retribution for them."