I'm bound to the World-Destroying Witch

Chapter 42. The Divine Artifact of Mu Shen

The man who came out had a gaunt face; he was the girl in the white dress's father.

Xia Feng took a deep breath and looked at the still dazed girl with a puzzled expression: "Isn't she your daughter?"

"Daughter? No, no, I'm her stepfather."

The man chuckled lightly. "Gentlemen, you seem to be just passing by. How about we keep to ourselves and not disturb my experiment?"

"Experiment my ass!" Xia Feng cursed inwardly. His broadsword was already itching for a strike; he wasn't going to be Mu if he didn't chop this guy's head off!
However, just as he frowned and was about to take action, Mu Qingtong suddenly spoke up: "I have recently encountered a bottleneck in my experiments. If you don't mind, we can stay and act as your protectors, and observe from the sidelines."

Xia Feng's hand, which was about to draw his sword, froze. He coughed, adjusted his hood, and smiled, "That's right, that's right, brother. We're also researching how to create 'Calamities' using family conflicts. Maybe we can exchange experiences~"

The man was surprised that the two of them neither stopped him nor left, but instead offered to stay and act as protectors to observe.
He hesitated for a moment but didn't refuse. "Okay, as long as you don't cause trouble."

"Don't worry, don't worry, we're not bad people. No, we're not good people either." Xia Feng nodded, assuring everyone that they were just observing.

The man nodded and ignored the two women, instead waving his hand in front of the middle-aged woman and the girl in the white dress.

The middle-aged woman was immediately jolted awake from her hallucination, but before she could even process what was happening, she saw her daughter with vacant eyes and black mist swirling around her eyes slowly walking towards her.

She paused for a moment, then recognized that these were symptoms of an illness.

"Xiao Qiu." She took a step back with a look of horror in her eyes. Before she could react to how her daughter had come back to life, the girl grabbed her by the throat and pressed her against the edge of the rooftop with great force.

"Die. Die, all of you, die!" the girl in the white dress murmured eerily, her lips twitching.

The middle-aged woman struggled in terror, but to no avail. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her husband not far away and cried out for help, "Old Yu! Quick—come help! Our daughter has a terrible illness!!"

"Huh? How could that be?" The stepfather came to their side, gently patted the woman's arm, and said in a teasing voice, "Come on, Lu Meili, relax. Let your daughter have a little crazy outburst and vent her frustrations. After all, your daughter is so well taken care of by you, she won't get a curse."

"?!?!" Lu Meili was stunned by her husband's words. What was going on? Her husband, with whom she had lived for many years, seemed like a completely different person.

"You surnamed Yu! Are you insane?!"

Her stepfather ignored her and instead came up behind her, leaned close to her ear, and whispered with a sly smile, "Xiao Qiu, your mother said you were heartless before, why don't you prove her wrong?"

As he spoke, he swiftly shoved a sharp knife into the girl's hand, gripped her hand, and plunged it downwards.

Lu Meili's pupils contracted sharply in fear as she tried to defend herself, but the tip of the knife slowly approached her brow, growing larger in her eyes.

"Yes, yes, that's it~~" The seductive, eerie whisper rang in the girl's ear again, "Go ahead, prove it to her~"

"How could this be?" At that moment, Lu Meili suddenly remembered that her daughter had told her about her stepfather wanting to turn her into a scourge.

She felt angry at that time, because her daughter would make up any lie to drive away her stepfather and was becoming increasingly bad.

How could this happen? A wave of despair washed over her, and she was filled with regret. She shouldn't have remarried in the first place; if only she had managed the steamed bun shop properly—

"clatter!"

Two lines of blood slid down the girl's eye sockets. The knife tip tilted and fell onto the tiled platform with a crisp sound.

"Useless indeed, so be it." The stepfather frowned, picked up the knife, and cleanly and neatly plunged it into Lu Meili's forehead.

The middle-aged woman's joyful expression after surviving the ordeal was frozen in time.

This move caught Xia Feng off guard, but it didn't matter, since his goal was simply to save the poor girl.

He was puzzled that Mu Qingtong hadn't made a move yet; he couldn't understand what she was thinking.

Previously, he was afraid that Mu Qingtong had some backup plan, so he also waited and saw what would happen.

But if we don't act now, they'll run away.

"So, your experiment was a failure?" Just as Xia Feng was about to make a move, Mu Qingtong spoke up again, stopping him in his tracks once more, almost choking him. The middle-aged man turned around and laughed, "I guess so. I didn't expect my stepdaughter's willpower to be so strong. She stubbornly resisted and didn't make a move. If it were someone else, they would have become a Calamity-Transformer long ago."

"That's such a pity." Mu Qingtong nodded, expressing slight regret.

The middle-aged man paused for a moment, then nodded: "It is indeed somewhat—uh—"

Before he could finish speaking, the bright red blade pierced straight out of his throat. "Ugh—" His eyes widened in terror as he tilted his head back, his hand trembling as he tried to cover his throat. But as the blade was pulled back, blood gushed into the sky like a fountain.

pat-

His body went limp and he collapsed to the ground. The last thing he saw before he died was the girl in the white dress holding a blood-dripping knife, her eyes turning black and her pupils becoming golden crosses, silently staring at him.
What I mean is, you can die now.

"!" The man tilted his head to the side.

"!" Xia Feng also tilted his head, staring wide-eyed at the girl in the white dress in disbelief, before suddenly turning back to look at Mu Qingtong.

"Holy crap, this is your magical artifact ability?" Xia Feng exclaimed in shock. This thing would be ridiculous if it didn't have an S rating!
I knew that Mu Qingtong, that old sixth brother, couldn't possibly be without a magical artifact.

"A magical artifact?" The man of hearts tilted his head to look at him. "What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"By the way, do we know each other?"

Xia Feng: "."

Okay, okay, keep acting if you want to.

pat-

The symbols in the white-dressed woman's eyes faded, and her body went limp as she collapsed to the ground.

Xia Feng stepped forward to check his breathing and nodded: "He's alright, he just fainted."

"This person is not dead yet."

"What?" Xia Feng turned around in confusion.

Mu Qingtong stood beside the dead man, seemingly extracting his soul with some kind of instrument. After about two seconds, she shook her head and said in a slightly somber tone, "There is no soul. This is an avatar with special abilities. He is not dead yet."

"Not dead?"

Xia Feng nodded. It wasn't surprising that he wasn't dead. This man was clearly not a simple person, so it was normal for him to have some backup plan.

He was more concerned about Mu Qingtong's magical artifact than whether the man was dead or not.

"So, your magical artifact ability is hypnosis? Or control? It seems like a very powerful control skill." Xia Feng flipped open the girl's eyelids, lost in thought. "What's the trigger condition? Looking directly into your eyes? No, no, you're wearing a mask."

“The people around me are still in the illusion, so it seems that the Illusionary Calamity is still here and hasn’t left.” Mu Qingtong looked up at her surroundings.

"Got it, the trigger condition is hearing your voice!" Xia Feng clapped his fist, suddenly realizing.

Mu Qingtong turned around and said, "Sense it, can you find that Illusionary Calamity? This Illusionary Calamity should be with the man."

"Or perhaps your magical artifact ability doesn't actually have any triggering conditions?" Xia Feng pondered.

"."

Mu Qingtong: "Are you even listening to me?"

Xia Feng: "Eh? Good question~ That's exactly what I wanted to say!"

(End of this chapter)