“What kind of fate are we calculating anyway? Didn’t we just establish that none of us have any fate left?” Yuan Qi managed a wry laugh, clearly annoyed. “Then let’s calculate when that shell of yours will be annihilated!” Zhang Yuqiu reached out and gripped his shoulder. Yuan Qi was instantly struck by the unexpected strength in the girl’s grip; he struggled twice but couldn't break free. Then, he felt something cool settle on the top of his head. He reached up, plucked it off, and realized it was an empty bottle, almost identical to the one Xiao Shu had inexplicably placed on Brother Mo Ming’s head. At that moment, Yuan Qi shrieked, crying out, “Bad news, I’ve been tricked!”

Fan Jia turned his head at the sound. He saw that besides Yuan Qi and Zhang Yuqiu, there was a man standing next to Yuan Qi who looked strikingly similar to Xiao Shu, plus Xiao Shu herself. Seeing the insects begin to crawl out from the top of Yuan Qi’s head, the group scrambled backward with lightning speed, retreating to the side. Once the ghastly flesh-eating bugs had devoured Yuan Qi’s shell down to nothing but white bones, the man who looked so much like Xiao Shu poured an oily substance from a bottle he held onto the bones and the writhing insect pile, then struck a match and tossed it on top. In an instant, a roaring blaze erupted once more.

At this juncture, the opposition had swelled to three figures. Fan Jia knew he was no match for them. He didn’t dare approach for a closer look, instead turning on his heel and fleeing immediately.

Xiao Shu watched until Fan Jia vanished on the other side of the street before turning back to Li Xiaohao and asking, “How did you get here?”

Xiao Hao maintained his usual indifferent demeanor and replied curtly, “If I hadn't come, were you expecting them to grab you and use you as a hostage?”

“What I mean is, how did you know we were trapped here?” Xiao Shu pressed.

“It was me, using a leaf to blow a signal to him just now,” Zhang Yuqiu chirped, leaning her flickering fox eyes close to Xiao Shu’s face with playful mischief.

“Oh!” Xiao Shu finally recalled the scene where Zhang Yuqiu and Fan Jia had been playing with the leaves earlier. Everyone had assumed the two were just fooling around, but Zhang Yuqiu had actually been sending out a distress signal—one that only the undead could perceive, rendering it completely undetectable to everyone else.

“Let’s go!” Xiao Hao declared. Zhang Yuqiu linked her arm with Xiao Shu’s, ready to follow, but Xiao Shu sharply pulled her arm free. “I’m not going back with you.”

“Why?” Xiao Hao frowned slightly, demanding an answer.

Xiao Shu immediately rolled her eyes, tossed him an invisible item, and shot back, “I refuse to go back and be a redundant person. I only want to find my good brother.”

“Your good brother?” Xiao Hao tilted his head back to look at the sky, then looked down at her. “You need to question in your heart whether Ming Xiaoyu is still the person he used to be. Did you see those Unliving bodies you just dealt with? Sometimes they are controlled by their masters, becoming puppets, turning into murder tools. That is the fate of the Undying. There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Allowing them to live forever must come with a price; they must surrender their souls for that immortality. When they fulfill the killing contract, that is the moment they surrender their soul. Because by then, they are no longer their former selves, having discarded their humanity to slaughter their own kind.”

Despite Xiao Hao unloading this lengthy speech, Xiao Shu responded by tossing him another invisible item. “Xiaoyu never completed that contract; you know that better than I do. I only have one question for you.”

“Ask away!”

“Is he the Heir?”

“What Heir?” Xiao Hao played dumb again.

“I’m not entirely sure myself, which is why I’m asking you. Those living corpses just said their new Heir was locked up in the mental asylum for two months—if not Xiaoyu, then who else could it be?” Xiao Shu refused to be put off, closing in step by step, forcing the truth out of Xiao Hao.