The Monster's Family

Chen Zhou watched her struggle and didn't make things too difficult for her, handing the Soul-Shaping Pill directly to Piao.

Piao swallowed it eagerly. Her soul gradually stabilized, and the aura that had caused her instinctive tremors faded away.

Her tense body finally relaxed slightly, and the suppressed insectoid chirping in her throat died down.

Chen Zhou didn't answer her question directly. Instead, he asked, "What about you? Why do you choose to stay here?"

He looked around the desolate, desperate village, his gaze finally returning to Piao.

"With your abilities, anywhere would be much better than Huangshawo. Staying here, you neither hunt humans for your cultivation nor have you truly integrated into human life. It doesn't fit your survival logic."

"These people shouldn't have any deep connection to you."

It was a sharp question that pierced through the core contradictions of her behavior.

But this time, Piao’s mind didn't enter a logic loop, nor did she check her tattered notebook. She looked up at the earthen hut behind her.

A word surfaced from the core of her consciousness, which was otherwise wrapped in countless layers of resentment and greed.

It was the first word she had learned after being picked up.

"Family," she uttered. Her voice remained flat, but it seemed to carry an indescribable weight.

"Family?" Chen Zhou became even more interested. "But you aren't human."

This sentence was like a heavy hammer smashing into the center of Piao's logic.

She seized up again.

Indeed, she wasn't human.

She was a monster born from the resentment of victims of starvation and the evil intent of locust demons.

She knew this better than anyone. Since she wasn't human, how could she have a family?

The concept of "family," in her understanding, was an emotional bond based on blood relations and shared life, characterized by high levels of altruism and sacrifice. It completely violated her fundamental principle as a monster: survival above all else.

Her behavior was a paradox.

Looking at her face, which was currently a mask of internal errors, Chen Zhou realized this powerful monster was actually quite simple.

He decided to stop teasing her.

If he pushed any further, she might actually break.

Chen Zhou smiled. "See? You’re doing things that don't fit your logic. Is it so strange if I do the same occasionally?"

Piao couldn't argue. She could only stare at him blankly.

"If you really want a reason..." Chen Zhou said softly, "it's probably because your situation is a bit like someone I used to know."

Chen Zhou didn't believe in karma, but if even a monster was willing to defy her instincts for humans, he didn't mind acting as her good fortune.

Chen Zhou looked at Piao and gestured toward the dilapidated hut behind her. "Is your family inside?"

Piao nodded and turned toward the hut. Chen Zhou’s figure flickered as he followed her in.

Inside, a heavy scent of herbs and decay hit him. The light was dim, with only a tiny oil lamp flickering in the corner.

A figure lay on a simple earthen bed.

It was a very old, very ugly woman.

Her face was covered in deep wrinkles and age spots, her skin dried and clinging to her bones. Her hair was thin and white, and she was curled up under a ragged quilt, looking as though her life-fire could go out at any moment.

This old woman was known to everyone in Huangshawo as the "Ugly Hag."

But Chen Zhou knew that name hadn't always belonged to her.

Piao walked over and skillfully picked up a bowl of cold herbal medicine from the bedside. She fed it to the Ugly Hag spoon by spoon.

"Cough... Is it... is it Piao who’s back?" The Ugly Hag opened her cloudy eyes with difficulty. Seeing Piao, a trace of a kind smile appeared on her withered face. "Did you... go help the villagers again today?"

Piao didn't answer, merely repeating the mechanical motion of feeding the medicine.

The Ugly Hag seemed used to her silence and talked to herself. "Good child... Mother taught you to be a good person... You’ve remembered... Cough, cough..."

She began to cough violently. Piao reached out and gently patted her back in a rhythmic motion, much like one would soothe an infant.

Chen Zhou stood to the side like a ghost that didn't exist.

He could sense that there was no blood relation between the Ugly Hag and Piao.

His Ghost Domain had already spread. From the scattered conversations of the villagers outside, he had pieced together part of the truth.

Many years ago, the woman had found a girl in the sands outside the village whose face was half-hideous like a devil's. She assumed the child had been abandoned.

That was Piao.

Piao’s intelligence had been newly born back then; she didn't understand much and acted mostly on the greedy instincts of an insect. Combined with her hideous appearance, the villagers viewed her as an ill omen.

Out of pity, the Ugly Hag had ignored the village’s opposition and adopted her, treating her as her own daughter. She taught her to speak, to walk, and to "be a good person."

Because of this, the Ugly Hag’s family was gradually marginalized by the village.

A few months ago, Huangshawo was struck by the knocking ghost for the first time. The first door it knocked on was the Ugly Hag's.

That night, her husband and son both died horrific deaths. Only she and Piao had survived, for reasons unknown.

The Ugly Hag had been bedridden with grief ever since.

Though the villagers didn't openly cast them out, their fear-driven avoidance and resentment were like invisible knives cutting into them day and night.

They subconsciously believed the village's disaster had started with the Ugly Hag's family and that Piao was the source of the misfortune.

After finishing the medicine, Piao pulled a dried locust from her robe. She carefully broke it open and stuffed the larger half into the Ugly Hag's mouth.

Though the Ugly Hag wondered how her daughter found grasshoppers every day, she never asked. She just chewed with effort, her eyes filled with satisfaction and relief.

"Piao... eat it yourself... Mother is old... can't eat much..."

Piao didn't speak. She stuffed the remaining small piece into her own mouth and chewed expressionlessly, as if tasting a piece of flavorless wood.

Once finished, she sat quietly by the bed like a hollow stone statue.

Chen Zhou took the opportunity to scout outside. He confirmed that one of his lost Ghost Servants had indeed manifested here.

So, both missing skeletons were accounted for.

One had appeared in Heishuiyu days ago, and another was here in Huangshawo. The third, which he had actively sent in, had been forcibly buried in Shikan Village.

Finding nothing else to do, Chen Zhou circled the area but found no specific clues regarding the knocking ghost.

By the time he returned to the hut, the night was deep.

The Ugly Hag had fallen asleep, while Piao remained in the same position as before, unmoving.

Knock.

A dull knocking sound echoed from outside.

The flame of the oil lamp inside jumped violently.

Knock.

The Ugly Hag’s body began to tremble uncontrollably on the bed.

Piao snapped her head up. Her eyes fixed on the door—her left phoenix eye cold as frost, her right insectoid pupil filled with murderous intent.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

This time, the knocks landed precisely on their door.