There must be some kind of hint.
The two boxes were very exquisite, with intricate patterns carved into them by skilled craftsmen.
Nan Yue didn't dare touch them with her hands; she lowered her body slightly to observe them.
The box on the left seemed to be a microcosm of the Zhou family, with rockeries, flowing water, and countless delicately dressed women with faint smiles; the craftsman's woodcarving skill had reached the peak of perfection, and one could feel joy just by looking at it.
The box on the right, however, was like a scene from a Shura Hell, making one feel fear at a glance and even unwilling to look again.
If it were according to Nan Yue's personality, she would definitely open both boxes to take a look, but if she could only choose one, she would only choose the one on the right.
Often, an overly direct guidance on the surface meant there was likely a trap.
Moreover, Nan Yue felt that there might be some mental attack on these boxes that made her feel uncomfortable; the impact on an ordinary scavenger would definitely be even greater.
They would likely be guided to open the box on the left.
But Nan Yue herself would not open the left one; she was somewhat puzzled, as guidance of this level shouldn't be enough to trigger Zhu Xi Ning's death foresight.
At this moment, Nan Yue in the pavilion did not know that the faces of the several people outside were frighteningly pale.
From the moment Nan Yue stepped onto the pavilion and entered the curtains, Zhu Xi Ning had noticed something was wrong.
"Is that a shadow?..."
Zhu Xi Ning and the other two were relatively far away; to avoid affecting Nan Yue's actions in the pavilion, none of them spoke loudly.
Zhu Xi Ning furrowed her brows and muttered to herself.
She had a very bad premonition from the moment Nan Yue stepped onto the pavilion, and after she entered the curtains, she discovered that Nan Yue's figure looked strange.
It was as if... there was a ghostly double.
Nan Yue's physique was sturdy and agile, but now her figure looked somewhat bloated.
However, she couldn't see clearly.
Zhu Xi Ning pursed her lips and swam forward a bit; although she still couldn't see clearly, her suspicion was confirmed.
There was indeed a problem!
Nan Yue's figure looked as thick as two of her...
Wait!
Two of her?
Zhu Xi Ning's first reaction was the thing Nan Yue was carrying on her back; all the streamers had seen that female ghost reach an agreement with Nan Yue to be carried on her back.
Was it because the special nature of the Lake-center Pavilion made her manifest, or had she gone back on her word?
But then Zhu Xi Ning discovered that the thing didn't seem to be crouching on Nan Yue's back, because not only was Nan Yue's back bloated, but her limbs also seemed to have overlapping images.
Gu Xiang Kai and Jiang Siyan naturally noticed this as well; Gu Xiang Kai's Steel Thorns bloomed at the Lake-center Pavilion but were unable to enter.
Even Jiang Siyan's white mist could not go inside.
Although the white mist served a healing purpose, it could also be used to investigate the situation to a certain extent.
Unfortunately, even Zhu Xi Ning's ants could not enter the pavilion.
There were two possibilities: one was that when someone was in the pavilion, outsiders could not interfere or enter.
But this possibility was low because this was originally a collective mission, which meant it was impossible for only a single person to enter.
Then it was the other reason: if they wanted to investigate the situation inside, they had to go onto the pavilion themselves; their awakened ability could not enter without them.
This made things difficult.
Because seen through the layers of curtains, Nan Yue's movements were normal, and she seemed completely unaware of the abnormality behind her.
Of the five people in the water, only You Teng's expression shifted unpredictably; he didn't trust anyone, so he had brought a livestream screen with him when he went into the water, and now he was watching Nan Yue's stream.
Densely packed red bullet comments covered the streaming screen; he couldn't see the situation in the pavilion, nor could he see what Nan Yue saw.
The loophole he wanted to exploit had been blocked by the platform.
But he saw the blood-red bullet comments.
【Back-to-back】
【Back-to-back】
【Back-to-back】【Back-to-back】【Back-to-back】【Back-to-back】
The thing inside was not crouching on Nan Yue's back.
Instead... it was back-to-back with her!
No wonder every move Nan Yue made looked like a ghostly double; this was clearly something with its back pressed against her back and its hands pressed against her hands, following Nan Yue's movements.
If You Teng were to enter the pavilion at this moment, he would be able to see the thing behind Nan Yue.
It was a woman with a figure and height similar to Nan Yue's, her back firmly stuck to Nan Yue's body, her pale and bloated face clearly visible behind her long black hair.
Through her foul-smelling and damp hair, one could see her pitch-black eyes without a trace of white, and her red lips that stretched all the way to her ears.
Although her body was so bloated from the water that her original appearance was almost unrecognizable, her twitching mouth and the saliva flowing out proved that the thing back-to-back with Nan Yue... was extremely excited.
It was waiting for something...
Nan Yue in the pavilion did not discover that something that shouldn't exist was attached to her back; in fact, she couldn't discover it; when she turned her head, that thing would also turn its head following her movement.
They had merged into one, becoming a single person, indistinguishable from each other.
Nan Yue carefully picked up the box on the right and pushed open the wooden lid with a click.
Inside was a piece of yellowish cloth with writing on it.
Nan Yue took it out, and as soon as the material touched her hand, she realized something was wrong; this oily texture was definitely not cloth.
Her eyes darkened; it was human skin.
Nan Yue suppressed her disgust and shook out the human skin; on it was red handwriting that had turned somewhat black.
It wasn't hard to guess what it had been dipped in to write this.
The human skin unfolded to be quite large, with many words inside, so Nan Yue had to focus her mind to read it.
In the eighth year of the Kaiyuan era, a man named Zhou from a refugee village colluded with Woguo and sacrificed a hundred villagers in exchange for the position of guard commander; he then slaughtered three villages and one town to become a centurion.
What followed was a bloody history of rising to power that spanned half the page; Nan Yue summarized that the Zhou family had started as drifters from a refugee village who gained the favor of Woguo through murder and surrender.
Later, when the Jing Kingdom fought its way back, he gained the favor of the monarch at the time by betraying various Woguo strongholds.
However, the Zhou family had already made too many enemies by then; he didn't ask for an official post and only said he wanted to return to his hometown to live as a commoner.
After returning here, he became a wealthy merchant through the riches he had obtained from killing for most of his life.
This ancestor of the Zhou family was a clever man, knowing that what a monarch feared most was not greed, but the lack of it.
He gave up his official rank and frantically amassed wealth, but the monarch of the Jing Kingdom not only didn't warn him to restrain himself but instead indulged him everywhere.
Because of the prestige he had gained from selling out Woguo earlier, he even began to have a hand in salt, mining, and transportation projects, and the authorities turned a blind eye.
It could be said that at that time, although the Zhou family was only in a county town in Pingzhou, they could be called the richest in the Jing Kingdom.
But the ancestor of the Zhou family soon discovered something was wrong; because he had committed too much evil and carried too many lives on his back, no matter how many concubines he took, the children born would die at forty-four days old.
Despite being such a wealthy family, he only had one son, and this son was also good-for-nothing, rotten to the core.
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