Artifact Report

Chapter 136 Han Liuyue: The corpse is not so useful
Having encountered so many twists and turns at the beginning, Han Liuyue originally thought that the process of bringing the vulture and the corpse into the nest would be even more difficult, right?
Unexpectedly, what happened next went surprisingly smoothly.

She took the vulture and Jin Xueli took the corpse. After handing over the collapsed, chaotic and untraceable mess to the hunters, the two of them went into the nest separately.

It’s not that they don’t want to go together—Han Liuyue is actually worried about acting separately—but they can’t go together.

She did not ask Jin Xueli for details, she only knew the general idea, but the two of them seemed to have very different paths and could not get together, so they had to meet again in the nest.

Along the way, she remained highly alert; the vulture was unwilling to return to its nest, and did not find any opportunity to take advantage of Han Liuyue.

In the end, both the person and the resident arrived safely at the entrance of the Museum of Modern Art in the nest within the scheduled time - Jin Xueli was pulling a suitcase and waving at her desperately at the door.

"Look, you were worried before whether I could do it alone, but I got there earlier than you."

Jin Xueli seemed to still be unconvinced - before leaving, Han Liuyue was worried about her and tried to hint at her in at least ten ways.

"Well, it's early, good job."

Han Liuyue's compliments were mostly casually slid out: "You can drag such a heavy box here by yourself, that's amazing."

"...Are you coaxing the child?"

Jin Xueli muttered something, glanced at the soft and broken human body in her hand, and couldn't help but shudder.

"Why are you still carrying it with you now that it's already in its lair? Why not find an open area, untie the ropes, and kick it out? That would save you a lot of worry. It's so frightening to carry it around with you."

Indeed, carrying a vulture is a very troublesome thing.

Once it feels there is an opportunity to attack, even the surrounding environment will begin to create conditions for it.

In order to prevent it from having any evil thoughts, Han Liuyue carefully broke and smashed its body every few minutes, tightened the rope and blocked its mouth.

In addition to having to be alert all around, she felt she had never been so tired after walking all the way - the mental stress was pervasive, soaking her body like a tired wet towel.

Besides, I didn’t have time to change my clothes after the rain, so I looked more like a wet towel.

"I would throw it away if I could,"

Han Liuyue sighed and said, "I brought it with me just in case. If the corpse doesn't work, I might have to force it to transform into Vesile again... I know, I know, it said it can't do it. But who knows if that's true? It's good to be able to transform a little bit."

Jin Xueli fought another battle.

"Then you must keep an eye on it," she warned. "This is where I had my last fight with the vultures. I was left with a huge shadow."

According to her, a huge candle had formed on the underground floor at some point in time. It was more than a person's height and several dozen meters long.

Given its size and length, it cannot be transported out unless the above-ground buildings are blown up.

It’s a bit tricky not to be able to take it back…

Jin Xueli discovered it accidentally, so there is no guarantee that there won’t be a second hunter who finds it; how to make it the property of the Kai family instead of a tourist attraction that anyone can come to?
You can't pee around it.

But people are so strange: Han Liuyue was worried about how to transport the candles, but at the same time she was secretly worried that she would not be able to see the candles when she entered the basement.

When she finally stopped in front of the huge candle that stretched across the exhibition hall, Han Liuyue stared at it for a few seconds, turned around, slapped Jin Xueli on the back, and said with a smile: "You didn't lie!"

"It hurts so much, of course I'm not lying!"

"I'm worried that this might be a trap and there might not be any candles at all. Then I'll have to fight you."

Han Liuyue let out a long sigh, patted his chest, and said, "Even though you're weak and don't seem to have much experience, I really enjoy going on missions with you. It makes me feel relaxed and happy. If I had to kill you, I'd have to be unable to eat for at least three days."

"Why did you reduce it from three days to one day?" Jin Xueli was so angry that she couldn't find the main point. "Hurry up and start, sir!"

She grunted as she dragged the suitcase into the center of the hall and unzipped it, revealing the body inside.

Vesile had been dead for several days, and after being embalmed, his body had already become stiff.

Before they set off, they had to smash the joints of the corpse and it took them a lot of effort to fold up the limbs, curl up the body, and stuff it into the suitcase.

Having even done something like stacking corpses before, Jin Xueli didn't seem to feel so uncomfortable when she was moving the bodies out. She just had a look of resignation on her face - at the same time, Han Liuyue was not idle either.

The first thing to do is to tie the vulture firmly to the pillar.

After making sure it couldn't break free, she took out her phone and took pictures of the candles and the captions on the surrounding walls.

Next, she took out a folding tripod from her backpack, set up a camera facing the candle; in addition, she also held up a small video camera in her hand.

One is used to record the whole process, and the other is used to record the contents of the candle.

"I'm ready, we can start recording," Han Liuyue greeted.

"Why don't we switch jobs? Why am I always the one touching the corpses?"

In order to avoid touching the body directly, Jin Xueli put on a pair of work gloves. She dragged Wei Xilai to the candle, took up one of his hands, found a random place, and pressed it on.

"Go to the candle end and look. Does his birthday appear?"

Han Liuyue's camera passed over Weisilai.

Vesile's pale and gray face drooped crookedly beside the candle.

His stiff body, with its joints broken, folded and stretched, was twisted like an elongated "Z" shape, with his legs dragging on the ground and his upper body hanging in the air by one hand.

This is the billionaire who was once the center of attention and had the final say... but now he has become a tool that people despise.

It is better to say that the more money one has during his lifetime, the more ironic his appearance will be after his death.

Why should I bother to do this for him? When Han Liuyue's camera left Weixilai and the candle appeared, her heart skipped a beat.

"It really appeared. That's great. The corpse can be used."

She smiled and said, "So pressing on a corpse's hand also has an effect. I wonder if it would work if I cut off a hand... Hmm, I'll try it next time. I can try it on both living and dead hands. There's a lot of potential, a lot of potential."

"Even if hunters don't have good things, you're too unrestrained," Jin Xueli muttered. "When is his birthday?"

The words "1967.5.22" appeared on the candle head, which was consistent with the information they found before entering the nest.

"Chai Si wants to know how long he was alive before his death?" Jin Xueli asked.

"Oh, he didn't even give me a timeframe. How about... a year?" Han Liuyue frowned and said, "But if we examine it carefully day by day, will it take a year?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I didn't have time to use it carefully last time..."

Jin Xueli thought for a moment and suggested, "I think we should start from the day he died. What do you think? Let's see what happened on the day he died. Maybe there will be some clues."

"Okay, whether you watch it from the beginning or backwards, you have to watch it anyway."

Han Liuyue said this, striding towards the end of the candle. The last day of Wei Xilai's life was also the end of the candle—the candle could not predict the future.

Jin Xueli first put down the body, knelt on the ground, and opened the fire trough corresponding to November 11.

After a while, the candle in the camera lens melted softly and drooped down, leaving a transparent and moist candle wax hanging in the air like the surface of a lake.

Han Liuyue held her breath.

Even though she knew intellectually what she was going to see, she still couldn't help but feel surprised when she actually saw a small, living Vesile dragging his feet into the study.

...Is this what he experienced and saw on his last day?

No matter how long you've been a hunter, you'll always be surprised by artifacts and nests.

Little Vesile seemed to be working, sitting alone at the table, without making any movement for a long time.

He has always been alone. Could it be that he really has a heart problem...

Jin Xueli reached out her hand and gently moved the candle wax, as if fast-forwarding a movie, to adjust the time backwards - but the candle wax suddenly became empty, the study, the little man, all disappeared.

Han Liuyue raised her head and met Jin Xueli's equally surprised face.

"what happened?"

Jin Xueli moved the body back and forth a few times, puzzled. She grabbed the corpse's hand and slapped it hard on the candle, as if she thought it was a broken TV.

"Did I turn around? Is this place dead?"

Han Liuyue looked at the place where the corpse had touched and asked, "Is it true that when I touch the candle, the corresponding date will appear?"

"Yes," Jin Xueli replied.

"Look," Han Liuyue said, pressing the camera upwards. "This should show November 11th, right? The part we melted is the last one. The part you accidentally touched just now was the one from the day before."

Jin Xueli took a look.

After a few seconds, she asked, "...Where's the date? Why isn't it showing anything?"

"You drag the body, and we'll walk to the middle," Han Liuyue gestured, "to see if the dates at the front are also consistent."

This question was answered half an hour later.

The candles that should have displayed the entire history of Vesile's life now seemed to be covered with a thick fog that gathered and dispersed from time to time.

Wherever the thick fog covers, either the day is missing or the scene is missing.

Over a period of about a year, they touched the candles 25 times with their corpses' hands, but the dates could only be seen 12 times; and of the 12 days when they floated, the experiences were complete and the scenes were clear on only three days.

The two looked at each other, and from their expressions, Han Liuyue knew that they both had the same answer.

"Maybe it's because he's dead," Jin Xueli guessed. "If he had come a little later, maybe nothing would have emerged from the candle."

"Sure enough, the function of changing the past doesn't work very well."

Han Liuyue wanted to sigh. "When I came here, I was thinking, if the experiences of the dead could be resurfaced and altered, wouldn't that mean death could be reversed? I didn't realize there's even this limitation."

"What should we do now?" Jin Xueli asked.

Han Liuyue looked at her.

"Why are you looking at me?" Jin Xueli became alert.

"Nothing much... Since my experience is incomplete, I can only record what I have. Trying it bit by bit is a physically demanding task. Can you do it?"

I don’t know why, but Jin Xueli is most susceptible to her provocation.

"Stand back with your camera," she said, suddenly excited. "The bodies are coming!"

　This title can start a debate between Han Liuyue and Lin Sanjiu, "Are corpses really useful?" Lin Sanjiu is on the affirmative side, and Han Liuyue is on the negative side.

　　Jin Xueli's strength is relatively weak, but that's only in relative terms. Compared to Chai Si and Han Liuyue, she's a chicken, but compared to me, she's a female warrior.

　　I can’t drag a person weighing over 100 kilograms around... I guess most people can’t do it either.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)