My daughter has been possessed.

Chapter 133 Internal and External Collusion Leads to Peddler's Suffering

Chapter 133 Internal and External Collusion Leads to Peddler's Suffering

At this moment, the old peddler's appearance was still the same as when Li Jiuhe saw him last night: his head was cracked open, with white bone exposed, and blood was oozing from the corners of his mouth and nose, which had already congealed.

Upon hearing the boy's words and seeing the old peddler, Li Jiuhe suddenly understood.

That old guy is really taking advantage of me.

It's highly likely that the old peddler met him yesterday and realized he was different from the people of this place. Moreover, County Magistrate Shi said he was exceptionally capable and had even helped the people of the city.

This made the old peddler secretly take notice of Li Jiuhe, and he then planned to use him to see if he could drive away the evil spirit that had been haunting the hidden boy.

It's likely that the old peddler had tried several times with the help of others, but without success.

After all, no one has Li Jiuhe's ability to constantly try and make mistakes and adjust plans.

Once someone is killed, even if they discover something before they die, it's impossible to do it all over again.

On the other hand, the old peddler himself did not dare to try it. Although he was very strong, he was probably also wary of these powerful ghosts, especially the black-clad female ghost from earlier.

As the old peddler barged in, the boy's heart sank, and he took several steps back.

The old peddler reached out and wiped his face, and the terrifying appearance of the exposed skull instantly disappeared, revealing its true form.

For a peddler like him, it was extremely easy to fake what he had just done.

He then stepped forward, fearing that Li Jiuhe would stop him, and threw something that looked like a ball of yarn at him.

"Thank you for your cooperation, guests from outside the city. Please rest for a while!"

Before the object even got close to Li Jiuhe after it was thrown, the ball of yarn suddenly stretched out, like a spider web that completely ensnared Li Jiuhe.

The net tightened rapidly, binding him so tightly that he could not move, lost his balance, and fell to the ground with a thud.

"Second Prince, you cannot leave Ye City."

The old peddler stopped looking at Li Jiuhe and walked straight towards the boy.

The boy pressed his back against the corner of the wall, his face filled with grief and indignation: "You old scoundrel, even if I die, I won't let you have a complete corpse!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he patted his chest. Underneath the coarse linen clothes, there seemed to be something special. The clothes tightened rapidly and then burst open with a bang.

The boy's body was completely blown to pieces, and the blood sprayed all over the old peddler and Li Jiuhe in the house. Sure enough, no one was left with a complete corpse.

After the initial shock, the old peddler came to his senses and chuckled.

"Whether the body is intact or not is not important; the most important thing is that this old servant can go back to report."

He then turned to face Li Jiuhe and walked towards him. "Guest from outside the city, you've seen enough of the show, but this is a secret concerning the fate of the world, so I can't keep you here!"

Before he could even make a move, Li Jiuhe laughed, "Old man, you're trying to play dirty tricks on me, aren't you? Fine, I'll remember this. Let's have some fun."

The old peddler was suddenly taken aback.

Task reset.

Including this time and the previous few times when facing the terrifying female ghost, Li Jiuhe reset the "survive" questline, not the other questline related to the Guan family.

However, after this reset, he suddenly felt a little regretful. Why couldn't he define three quest lines at once?

In that case, the secret currently discovered in Ye City could obviously be used to create another quest, and if the quest is completed, the rewards might be quite generous.

That being said, the current situation is not entirely inflexible.

Without hesitation, Li Jiuhe immediately canceled the "survive" task and redefined the vacant task line with a new task.

[Task definition successful. The task is temporarily named "Investigate the cause of the haunting and leave Ye City."]

【Title: Discover the Cause of the Haunting and Leave Ye City】

[Rank: IV, Grade B]

Requirements: 1. Find out the true reason why Ye City was invaded by vengeful ghosts; 2. Determine Ning Chong's true identity; 3.

Leaving Ye City.

【奖励：1、任务总时长延长1个小时30分（当前总时长4小时）；2、奖励2个重置时间锚点；3、奖励1次可携带重置之前任一物品的机会；4、奖励3积分；5、

Two random tags will be awarded as a reward.

[Note: Due to the unique nature of this world, everyone or every vengeful spirit you encounter during this mission will be incredibly powerful. Avoid direct confrontation.]

Li Jiuhe also did not expect that this new mission level would be only one level lower than the mission level of the Guan family chasing him!

It's clear that this is due to the unique nature of this world's space.

The mission description was already very clear: they couldn't possibly confront them head-on; the best course of action was to outsmart them.

Of course, if I were the deceased Chen Zhenghai, it would be easier to outsmart him.

But Li Jiuhe knew his own limitations and lacked insight, so all he could rely on was to advance the plot, just like before.

As long as the plot unfolds smoothly and clearly, the outcome is sometimes better than outsmarting the opponent.

This mission information also provided some foresight, such as the boy in the house being called "Second Prince" by the old peddler.

The mission information directly gave the boy's name—Ning Chong.

"Ning Chong? Later Ning Dynasty! The Second Prince?" Li Jiuhe muttered to himself.

The old peddler just said, "This is a secret concerning the well-being of all people," so it seems that the strange invasion of Ye City is indeed related to the imperial court!

Ning Chong, the second prince, was trapped by these powerful evil spirits and was also being hunted down by the old peddler.

The old peddler called himself "Old Slave," which suggests that his true identity was not that of a peddler at all, but rather someone who was acting under the orders of some important figure.

Based on the above clues, what Li Jiuhe knows so far is that the vengeful ghost that suddenly appeared in Ye City, as well as the ghostly mist swirling outside the city, are most likely related to Ning Chong.

Someone deliberately set up a trap in Ye City to kill him.

The old peddler didn't enter Ye City with good intentions to help the city's people; that was just an excuse. He only came for Ning Chong.

The entire world revolves around that young man, Ning Chong.

Ning Chong is in great danger now, as a large number of powerful and terrifying ghosts have been attracted to him and have trapped him in the house.

Previously, these powerful ghosts would follow him wherever he went.

Moreover, the most terrifying one was the woman in black, who even the powerful and extraordinary old peddler was wary of.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have tried to push Li Jiuhe in front to take the blow.

It was still dark when Li Jiuhe reset the mission, returning it to the initial settings from last night.

He needed to give himself more time to deal with that old, undead peddler.

Furthermore, he also discovered that the world time within this boundary stone was also problematic, as it would regress directly when his mission was reset!

It's important to understand that this is impossible in the normal world timeline. No matter how many times you reset the mission, the overall world timeline will not stop, but will continue to move forward.

It now appears that the timeline within this boundary stone space has been affected by its own mission definition capabilities.

In other words, the Boundary Stone's spacetime capabilities are likely inferior to his own in terms of level, otherwise he wouldn't have been affected so profoundly.

Suddenly, a guess popped into Li Jiuhe's mind: Could it be that the sequence line of the Boundary Stone is the same as his own?

Then I thought of the morning bell on the 27th.

Li Jiuhe himself, Chen Zhong, and Jieyu Shi might all be of the same type on the same sequence line.

Of course, the latter two are sequence items.

At least there is a high probability that Li Jiuhe and Erqi Chenzhong are on the same line of sequence, otherwise Chenzhong would not have followed him all the way, and there is also a faint spiritual connection between the two.

To find out if this Boundary Stone is the right one, Li Jiuhe can wait until after completing this mission and then try to communicate with it to see if it has a telepathic connection with him, just like the Morning Bell.

Estimating that it would be more than two hours before dawn, and that the timeline of this spatial world had been reset, Li Jiuhe felt a sense of novelty.

It was as if his sequence abilities were only perfectly released and utilized in this world.

Now we need to find a way to get into the house behind it, meet up with Ning Chong, and then deal with that cunning old peddler hiding in the shadows.

"Either I get rid of the peddler first and meet Ning Chong, who is trapped by the vengeful ghost. Or I can rescue Ning Chong at the same time and find a way to kill the peddler?" Li Jiuhe muttered to himself.

After thinking for a moment, I couldn't find a solution that would solve the problem once and for all. It seems I'll have to try resetting the task again.

After weighing his options, he found two charred pieces of firewood in the corner of the room, took off his coat, and quickly wrote something on it.

He had previously communicated with the mute Li family of three. The people in this world use the same writing system, but the head of the Li family was not very literate, so communication was not very smooth.

After quickly finishing writing, Li Jiuhe found a fist-sized rock and placed it in the middle, then turned his coat inside out to cover the rock.

He then tied his outer garment and the stone around his waist and, holding a burning candle, went outside.

He glanced at the reset points; there were still plenty, but he would probably have to perform a lot of resets to test the waters.

Under the cover of night, they carried the burning candles to the front of the house of the Second Prince Ning Chong.

At this moment, twenty or thirty ghosts of various terrifying strengths and sizes were moaning and roaring outside the house, scratching at it incessantly, but unable to enter.

It must be that Ning Chong inside the house possesses some special ability, so even without the protection of exorcising candles, he can still resist the invasion of these vengeful ghosts and keep the house under the blessing of some mysterious power, preventing it from being destroyed by the ghosts.

However, there is one thing that cannot be helped: even if the vengeful spirits cannot enter the room, they will not leave, but will instead trap it.

As Li Jiuhe approached the house, most of the vengeful ghosts turned their heads and looked at him with ferocious expressions.

Li Jiuhe ignored these terrifying creatures and continued to approach, holding a candle.

Before long, he realized that his actions seemed to have attracted too much attention. Some of the ghosts stopped paying attention to the house in front of them, turned around, their eyes flashing with malice, and growled at him as if they might attack at any moment.

Li Jiuhe ignored them and instead took out a second candle and lit it.

As the candlelight became brighter, the nearby ghosts immediately took two steps back, and some even raised their hands to cover their faces to avoid being directly illuminated by the candlelight.

Li Jiuhe took the opportunity to move forward several more steps until he felt he had reached the right distance.

He took the stone from his waist, along with his coat covered in writing, wrapped it up, and threw it violently at the nearest window.

He threw it with tremendous force, smashing the window and tearing a fist-sized hole in the window paper and frame, allowing the stone and his coat to fall inside.

It turned out that these vengeful spirits were unable to break through the house windows because Ning Chong had a way to defend against the eerie power of the spirits, rather than ordinary external forces.

Li Jiuhe then shouted at these terrifying ghosts.

This diverted the attention of all the evil spirits outside, because this action was a clear provocation, completely different from simply approaching the house with a candle.

Immediately, half of the fierce ghosts approached Li Jiuhe, roaring incessantly while using their hands to block the candlelight.

Upon seeing this, Li Jiuhe immediately blew out one of the candles, took the other still-burning candle, and turned to leave.

As the candlelight shrank, all the evil spirits in front of the houses immediately came chasing after it.

Li Jiuhe ran quickly while protecting the flickering flames.

He didn't run far, but just circled around in the vicinity.

Whenever he distanced himself from these vengeful spirits and they tried to return to Ning Chong's house, he would immediately blow out the candles.

With no safe zone left, all attention immediately turned to themselves, and the vengeful ghosts turned around and swarmed after them.

He ran for a while and then lit the candle again, repeating this process as he circled around the area, actually searching for the old peddler's possible hiding place.

Li Jiuhe originally thought he wouldn't be able to lure these evil spirits away, but it seems this trick will work; otherwise, he would have to think of other ways.

However, he also discovered that among the pursuing ghosts, there was no eerie woman who liked to press her back against others.

It seems that this vengeful ghost is indeed too powerful, completely ignoring its deliberate provocation and continuing to stare at the people inside the house.

There were no residents nearby, and it was completely deserted, so Li Jiuhe was not worried about accidentally harming innocent people so far.

On the contrary, since the old peddler had asked Li Jiuhe to scout the way for him, he certainly wouldn't stay far away; instead, he would lie in wait nearby to observe.

If, by chance, Li Jiuhe fled in the direction where the old peddler was hiding, he would likely immediately flee, alerting the group of vengeful ghosts that were chasing after him.

Even if the old peddler wasn't hiding in this direction, it wouldn't matter. After seeing the group of vengeful ghosts being lured away, he would most likely immediately approach Ning Chong's house and complete his plan to kill Ning Chong.

Li Jiuhe intended to test the waters step by step through this method.

If the test is successful, all the better. If the test goes wrong and the vengeful ghost catches up with him, he will immediately reset and try again.

Inside the house, Ning Chong got up and picked up the stone wrapped in his coat from the ground.

He discovered that there were many words written inside the coat, so he immediately unfolded the coat and read them carefully.

【Young master, although I don't know your true identity, you are in great danger right now.】

An old peddler wants your life, but is afraid of the ghosts guarding outside your house.

Now I'm deliberately luring some of the ghosts away to see if I can make them chase after the old peddler.

Of course, there's also the possibility that he'll turn back and ambush you. You can use the ghosts still outside to hold him off, and I'll arrive with the other ghosts.

We'll play it by ear!

Ning Chong quickly scanned the words on the clothes, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"The trick was clumsy, but this guy—he's interesting!"

He was of course unaware that the underlying logic of Li Jiuhe's plan required constant revision through task resets, and that Li Jiuhe wouldn't care even if he died multiple times during this process.

Because there will always be a time when Li Jiuhe will correct it.

Ning Chong then looked out the window with a hole in it and saw that there were no ghosts outside, obviously they had all chased after Li Jiuhe.

"There are no ghosts, and the old peddler hasn't arrived yet, so I can leave now. Should I go?" Ning Chong muttered to himself.

However, he was a vigilant person and had been exceptionally intelligent since childhood. Although he did not see any ghosts outside, he still did not go out.

Besides, he didn't dare to completely believe Li Jiuhe's words, since he had never met this person before and needed to be wary of him conspiring with the peddler to deceive him.

Ning Chong hesitated for a moment, then sat back down cross-legged on the bed and touched a pendant on his chest.

The pendant wasn't visible; it was hidden inside the clothing, close to the skin of the chest.

"Other vengeful ghosts might be attracted away by that person, but the ghost clinging to my back is likely to stay, because that eerie woman has her eyes glued to me."

Meanwhile, the old peddler was hiding on the eaves of a dilapidated house.

A large section of the eaves here is broken, just enough for a person to hide inside and secretly observe from the outside.

Although his hiding place was a bit out of the way, the angle was just right so that he could see the house where Ning Chong was being tormented by the vengeful ghost through the corner between the two houses.

At the same time, he also saw Li Jiuhe, the bait he had used in his scheme, wandering around nearby with a lit candle.

Just then, Li Jiuhe suddenly shouted and blew out the candles, which completely enraged the evil spirits, who chased after him. However, the direction he fled was in their direction.

"He didn't go in any other direction, but just happened to choose this spot. Did he discover me?" the old peddler wondered.

However, he didn't delay. He immediately got up, climbed out through the hole in the eaves, and quickly left.

He could see clearly that all the evil spirits outside the house had been attracted by Li Jiuhe, and it seemed that none of them had been left behind.

However, one vengeful old peddler was so wary of him that he hesitated whether to take this opportunity to kill the Second Prince Ning Chong.

Just then, Li Jiuhe couldn't help but shout, which instantly dispelled his hesitation.

"Ah, what's stuck to my back?" Li Jiuhe ran while holding a candle, frantically patting his back.

It seemed as if something was clinging tightly to his back, but no one could see anything.

Li Jiuhe then seemed to have seen something and shouted loudly, "Hey, you stinky woman, what are you doing pressed against my back? Back off! Back off! Back off!"

He shouted loudly, and the sound carried far and wide, causing a large number of fierce ghosts behind him to roar and howl angrily, and their pursuit speed increased dramatically.

When the old peddler heard him shout, although he couldn't see clearly whether there was a woman sticking to Li Jiuhe's back, the words the other person said were clearly the characteristics of a ghost sticking to someone's back.

Li Jiuhe had never encountered a ghost that stuck to the back, so he couldn't possibly know these characteristics. Therefore, without a doubt, this guy had most likely lured the ghost away from Ning Chong.

In other words, there were no more vengeful ghosts around Ning Chong at this moment, and even the vengeful ghost he feared most was sticking close to Li Jiuhe's back.

The old peddler's eyes lit up, and he crouched low, rushing swiftly toward the house where Ning Chong was hiding.

He was very fast and adept at concealing his movements, quickly dodging Li Jiuhe and the group of evil spirits who were running towards his hiding place. He arrived outside Ning Chong's house in just over ten seconds.

A quick scan revealed no danger.

The old peddler suddenly pushed open the door, quickly walked into the room, and immediately saw the boy sitting cross-legged on the bed.

"Second Prince, you've made it so hard for this old servant to find you!"

The old peddler smiled smugly, but as soon as he spoke, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, as if something had been pressed against his back.

His body trembled violently as he realized that this sensation was a characteristic of the ghost that clings to the back.

He didn't have time to think about why the Ghost Sticking to the Back was here, or what was going on with Li Jiuhe shouting outside and describing all the characteristics of the Ghost Sticking to the Back. He also didn't have time to think about why Ning Chong didn't take this opportunity to escape, but instead seemed to know that he would come and deliberately stayed in the house.

In fact, neither the old peddler nor Ning Chong knew how many times Li Jiuhe had reset the process to achieve this result.

An unprecedented crisis descended. The old peddler didn't turn around to look back, nor did he have time to kill Ning Chong. Instead, his body transformed into a streak of light and he quickly darted out of the house window.

At the same time, he threw a small clay figure behind him, not caring whether he hit it or not, and ran forward in a disheveled manner, away from Ning Chong's house.

The more he ran, the more frightened he became, because the chilling sensation on his back was still there, indicating that the ghost was still clinging to him and had not been shaken off at all.

Suddenly, the old peddler felt a chilling sensation in his throat. Terrified, he let out a loud shout, and his clothes and pants fell off on the spot. He performed a "golden cicada shedding its shell" trick and disappeared.

When he reappeared, he was already over a hundred meters away, wearing only thin undergarments.

Fortunately, the chill in his throat had disappeared, and he had managed to dodge the terrifyingly sharp fingernails of the woman pressed against his back.

But before he could even feel relieved, the old peddler felt another chill run down his spine as he was pressed against the skin again.

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