sinovels Chapter 164 Head Transplant
Chapter 164 Head Transplant
Chapter 164 Head Transplant
In fact, Li Jiuhe and Ma Li were stunned the moment they saw the white-bearded old man appear.
Because just two or three steps behind the old man was a headless corpse.
The body looked somewhat frail, with a slightly hunched back, following silently behind the old man, while its hands were gripping a heavy fire axe.
The old man was completely unaware. After saying a few words to Li Jiuhe and the other man, he was about to walk through the reception center to the restaurant and kitchen next door when Li Jiuhe reminded him, and he froze.
He gripped the kitchen knife tightly in his right hand, his throat moved, and he seemed very nervous.
Li Jiuhe and Ma Li were also very nervous. They never expected that a headless corpse would be standing alive in front of them.
If this headless corpse can move freely, then could the headless male corpse they saw in the storage room earlier also get up on its own and secretly follow them?
Ma Li subconsciously glanced behind her, but saw nothing.
She didn't think she had broken the rules, because the rules in the notebook also said that if someone called her name from behind, she should remember not to turn around or answer.
"Sir, could you please tell me how far away the headless corpse behind me is?" the white-bearded old man suddenly asked.
Li Jiuhe immediately replied, "Only two or three steps—"
Before he could finish his warning, "the other party is still holding a sharp axe," the white-bearded old man suddenly turned around. Without even looking closely, he stabbed the headless corpse behind him with his kitchen knife.
Sure enough, the headless corpse behind them, who were prepared, made the first move.
The other party, wielding axes in both hands, had already assumed an attack stance. The moment the white-bearded old man turned around, the kitchen knife had just been extended when the headless corpse's fire axe was already aimed at the other party's neck.
With a whoosh, the axe blade swiftly sliced through the white-bearded old man's neck, separating his head from his body, which flew off into the air.
Li Jiuhe and Ma Li stared wide-eyed at this terrifying and bizarre scene.
It wasn't that they didn't want to help, but they were too far away. It would only take the other party a few words to make a move, and before they could even get close, it would all be over.
It's already quite good that they were able to warn the other party in advance, even though the old man attacked before he could finish listening, which is why he suffered the consequences.
Even more bizarre things are yet to come.
After the white-bearded old man's head fell to the ground, not a single drop of blood spurted from the neck joint, just like the headless male corpse in the storage room.
The old man's body then collapsed to the ground with a thud, while the headless corpse standing behind him quickly threw away the fire axe in his hand, took two steps forward, squatted down, and picked up the white-bearded old man's head.
Right under Li Jiuhe's nose, he held the head in his hands and groped his way to reattach it to his own neck.
"Holy crap!" Ma Li exclaimed in surprise, "What's going on? A sneak attack—to steal my head?!"
Li Jiuhe remained silent, simply watching this bizarre scene unfold.
Soon the headless corpse attached the old man's head to its neck. With a snap, the head twisted to the left and right twice, seemingly fitting perfectly.
At this moment, Li Jiuhe seemed to find this guy more agreeable.
When the burly, white-bearded old man appeared, Li Jiuhe felt that the man looked rather strange, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was so strange about him.
Anyway, at the time, that person gave him a feeling that something was off.
Now he knew that this disharmony stemmed from the disproportion between the white-bearded old man's head and his bulky body.
Logically speaking, the old man looked to be over seventy years old. It's not impossible for someone to have such a physique, but it's definitely very rare. At least Li Jiuhe had never seen one before.
On the contrary, the frail, hunched body that had now snatched the head looked more fitting with the white-bearded old man's head.
Li Jiuhe felt that this head and body were a perfect pair.
After the old man adjusted to the head he had just stolen, he immediately turned to look at Li Jiuhe and the others with a sinister look in his eyes, seemingly quite dissatisfied.
Then the guy slowly picked up the fire axe from the ground.
Li Jiuhe didn't stand on ceremony and took out a rune pistol.
The old man was taken aback, then his gaze softened. He coughed and pointed towards the restaurant: "I'm going to get some food. Let's keep to ourselves and avoid conflict."
"Could you explain what just happened?" Li Jiuhe asked.
The old man didn't answer, but quickly said, "We'd better not talk too much and take care of ourselves. There are still two days left; we just need to get our hands on the rescue team to arrive on the island."
"We are not staff members here," Li Jiuhe said. "The boat we were on encountered a storm, and when we woke up, my companion and I were washed ashore on this island by huge waves. We just arrived here."
The old man looked surprised and carefully examined him and Ma Li.
Ma Li also spoke up, "Our clothes were soaked, so we changed into our work clothes."
The old man nodded and asked, "Have you two separated since you entered here?"
Li Jiuhe and Ma Li exchanged a glance, and Ma Li said, "We haven't separated; we've always been together."
"Did you hear someone calling your names from behind?"
"no."
Did you say those four words?
"No, not at all."
Do you know which four words I'm referring to?
Li Jiuhe nodded and waved the newspaper in his hand: "I just saw it."
The old man seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and reminded him, "Remember, don't stare at yourself in the mirror, including your reflection in the glass. Also, don't turn on any lights in the dark, as this will prevent your shadow from appearing."
"It should be okay if I accidentally see a mirror, right? As long as I don't stare at it for a long time," Ma Li quickly asked.
The old man shook his head: "It's fine to look at it for a moment or two, but don't stare at it for too long."
Li Jiuhe's expression changed slightly: "When you said we separated, what level of separation were you referring to?"
The old man said, "It means your companion isn't by your side, and you haven't seen him/her for a while, even if he/she..."
"You can't be out of my sight for more than four or five seconds."
Upon hearing this, Li Jiuhe and Ma Li's hearts skipped a beat, and they subconsciously exchanged a glance.
The old man immediately noticed something was wrong with their expressions and quickly asked, "Have you two separated before?"
Li Jiuhe nodded: "She was looking for clothes in the inner room, and I was changing clothes in the outer room."
The old man waved his hand and said, "I advise you two to separate immediately, you must separate. Your companion can no longer be trusted, because he (or she) may already be that person!"
"But we haven't broken any rules so far," Li Jiuhe explained. "Those taboos are what you just mentioned."
The old man shook his head, seemingly sensing that Li Jiuhe and his companion might pose a threat to him, and was no longer prepared to stay there.
He took a few quick steps forward before saying without turning his head, "The taboos I mentioned are only those we've discovered; there are countless others yet to be found. Perhaps one of you, or even both of you, has already violated them."
Li Jiuhe watched his figure disappear into the corridor.
At this moment, he also realized the seriousness of the problem. Although he and Ma Li had indeed seen some of the rules, as the old man said, there might be many more rules that had not been revealed.
Those who knew these rules have probably already been beheaded.
For example, based on the behavior of the old man and the body just now, they did not easily turn around, regardless of whether anyone was talking behind them.
It's clear they're hesitant to try because they're not familiar with many of the rules.
Li Jiuhe hadn't had a chance to ask about the strange scene just now, but even though the old man himself didn't say, he could roughly guess why that scene had happened.
He quickly said to Ma Li, "Let me explain this to you. You need to be more vigilant so that you can protect yourself if we have to separate."
"Uh, okay————"
Ma Li was also a little nervous because she suddenly felt like she had lost her backbone and was unsure whether Li Jiuhe was still the same Li Jiuhe who had come here with her at the beginning.
Li Jiuhe knew what she was thinking and said, "Don't be nervous. That guy can't kill me. As long as I'm standing here talking to you, I'm definitely not being impersonated."
He is confident in this, after all, he has a task reset mechanism as a backup.
"You saw the scene where he was stealing the head. My guess is that the old man had already broken the rules and had his head chopped off. But it seems there's some kind of protective mechanism that allows his headless body to reclaim his head."
Li Jiuhe analyzed as he spoke.
"However, we don't know yet whether this old man is still alive, since he won't let us get close. And another thing, the body that took his head now seems to be really dead, just like the headless corpse we saw in the storage room."
As they spoke, the two looked again at the burly body that had been beheaded and collapsed at the entrance of the reception hall.
Ma Li said nervously, "Then I'll release some of the ant larvae now and let them search this building to see if there's any more information."
Li Jiuhe nodded.
Soon a large swarm of black ants was released, and they split into two groups, quickly leaving from both ends of the corridor.
Once they reach each floor, they will split into more exploration teams to search the rooms on the upper floors one by one.
Taking this opportunity, Li Jiuhe asked Ma Li, "When you went into the storage room to look for clothes just now, besides the corpse, did you notice anything else unusual? Like, did you hear any strange noises or anything that made you alert?"
As Ma Li recalled, she shook her head: "No, after I saw the headless corpse, I immediately went out to call you."
Li Jiuhe remembered that there were no mirrors in those two rooms. Otherwise, given Ma Li's personality and habits, she would most likely have taken a good look at herself in the mirror after changing into that work uniform to see if she was still pretty.
If the clothes look awful and fall below her bottom line, she might just change them back immediately, even if it means wearing wet clothes all the time.
So if there's a mirror in the room, Mali is almost certain to fall into the trap.
Now that she knows the rule, she no longer dares to look in the mirror.
A short while later, Ma Li said, "The second floor has been searched. We didn't find any living people, only two headless corpses, a man and a woman. Like the one in the storage room, they seem to have been dead for some time and are not moving."
Li Jiuhe nodded without saying anything.
Soon after, Ma Li said, "The third floor has been searched as well, but there's nothing there."
"Pay close attention to the prompts that include the rules," Li Jiuhe reminded.
"Yes, I've been keeping an eye on it," Ma Li nodded.
In Li Jiuhe's opinion, Ma Li should be fine at this time. After all, if the butcher had really cut off her head without her noticing and replaced her, the butcher wouldn't know how to control the black ant swarm.
Unless this vengeful ghost is incredibly powerful and can instantly take over all of its target's abilities after beheading and replacing it.
A moment later, Ma Li said, "Three headless corpses were found on the fourth floor, and there were signs that a person had just left one of the rooms. I suspect that the old man from earlier might have stayed in that room."
Li Jiuhe didn't speak, but turned his head to look in the direction of the restaurant, and didn't see the old man return for the time being.
The resort's buildings are constructed in a circular pattern, with a large garden and swimming pool in the center.
Therefore, each floor has many rooms, and the area is relatively spacious, but the number of floors is not high.
Fortunately, the ant colony of MaLi was large; a dozen or so ants could cover an entire room for searching, so the search was always ongoing.
After waiting for a while, Li Jiuhe slowly spoke: "Have you noticed a problem? We've mostly seen headless bodies, but we haven't seen a single severed head."
Ma Li nodded in surprise: "Yes, it's strange. Just now, that old man was fighting with other people for his head, so here—are heads a scarce resource?"
Li Jiuhe frowned and did not answer.
Just then, Ma Li's expression brightened: "We found a head, in room 512 on the fifth floor."
"Are there any headless corpses?" Li Jiuhe asked.
"I didn't see it."
"Let's go up together."
The building's power system has been cut off for a long time, whether due to a storm or intentional shutdown, so the elevators have also been out of service for a long time.
The two quickly went up the stairs and arrived at the fifth floor. Ma Li immediately pointed in the direction of room 512.
As Li Jiuhe passed by the doors of these rooms, he noticed that almost all of them were open and unlocked.
The ant larvae that were searching didn't open the door either, because they could easily squeeze in through the crack.
They quickly entered room 512. The room was easily scanned, but Li Jiuhe did not see the head that Ma Li had mentioned.
Ma Li pointed to a large wardrobe.
Li Jiuhe stepped forward and opened the wardrobe, finding a small, locked safe inside. He asked in surprise, "Then the head is in the safe?"
Mali nodded: "My ant larvae are already cracking it. This safe isn't very new, so it should be easy to open."
The dial on the safe door was slowly turning, clearly indicating that the black ants that had crawled inside were trying to find a suitable point to open the door.
Li Jiuhe took a step back, turned his head to look at the ordinary guest room, and heard a click as the safe door was opened.
Looking down, a complete head appeared before my eyes.
This is the head of a woman who appears to be only in her twenties. She has well-defined features, but her face is extremely pale and her eyes are closed, suggesting that she has been dead for some time.
"I'll have the ant larvae move their heads out first," MaLi said.
Li Jiuhe shook his head: "It's okay, I'll do it."
These heads seem to be in high demand right now, which is why they're locked in a safe. And that old man touched them too, and he's someone who really cares about the rules.
So touching his head shouldn't be a problem.
Li Jiuhe quickly reached inside with both hands, held the young girl's head, carefully took it outside, and placed it directly on the bed.
He found the head to be ice-cold to the touch, and it was unlikely to come back to life.
"What do we do now?" Ma Li asked.
Li Jiuhe had an idea: "Let's try and see if we can revive her."
"How do we try it?" Ma Li asked curiously.
Li Jiuhe asked, "Which rooms were those headless corpses you just saw downstairs in?"
Ma Li immediately realized what was happening, her face showing a look of horror, and quickly told Li Jiuhe the room numbers.
Before long, Li Jiuhe held the young girl's head in his arms, with Ma Li following closely behind. The two quickly arrived at the fourth floor.
Two headless corpses were found lying side by side on the bed in one of the rooms. It was clear that the two corpses were a man and a woman, and that they were probably in their fifties.
Li Jiuhe first tried placing the head on the neck of the headless female corpse, just like the old man he had seen before.
But after waiting for a while, there was no response.
He moved his head again and placed it on the neck of the headless male corpse next to him. After waiting for a while, he found that there was still no movement.
"I don't know if it's a problem with my brain or my body," he muttered to himself.
This terrifying scene gave Ma Li goosebumps, and she thought to herself that Li Dashuai was quite quick to get into character.
After taking the head, the two continued their attempts, making their way to the first floor. Along the way, they attached the head to the headless corpses upstairs, but none of them reacted.
Li Jiuhe held the young woman's head in his arms, looking at the robust, headless corpse lying at the entrance of the hall.
He muttered to himself, "This headless body just collapsed, and it was able to move just now. If it doesn't work this time, I'm out of options."
After saying that, under Ma Li's gaze, he walked to her body, squatted down, and quickly reattached the woman's head from his hands.
Almost immediately, the woman's tightly closed eyes snapped open, and at the same time, the body beneath her head twitched several times, her chest heaving, before she took a deep breath.
The woman gasped, her eyes wide with terror, her pupils darting around rapidly.
Before long, the light fixed itself on Li Jiuhe in front of him.
Li Jiuhe had already stood up and taken two steps back to prevent this guy from suddenly attacking and hurting people.
The young woman was clearly still in a daze. She sat up, looked down, and the surprise on her face gradually disappeared, replaced by a look of sudden realization.
"How did you find this head?" She looked up at Li Jiuhe and Ma Li.
"I discovered it by accident." Li Jiuhe didn't tell the truth.
"Who are you—" the woman continued to ask.
Li Jiuhe repeated his explanation to the old man, then took the opportunity to say, "We only know that after your head is cut off, it can reconnect with other parts of your body, allowing you to be reborn. So what else is there that we don't know?"
The woman seemed to be judging the truthfulness of his words, and after a moment replied, "After being beheaded, you have 48 hours to revive. As long as your headless body finds its own head, you can reattach it. If you really can't find it, you can find someone else's head to reattach first, and then try to find your own head and switch it back. But before you find your head, the headless body will have more difficulty moving around."
"So all of this has to be done within 48 hours?" Ma Li exclaimed in surprise.
"Yes." The woman nodded. "After 48 hours, both the body and the brain will be completely dead, and even if they are reattached, it will be useless."
"So, in your current situation, if it exceeds 48 hours, will it remain like this forever?" Ma Li asked.
"If I don't find my own head within 48 hours, but someone else's, I'll be like this for the rest of my life. If I find my own head, that would be the best outcome," the woman replied.
Li Jiuhe frowned, looking at the female head and male body in front of him with a puzzled expression.
Only now did he suddenly realize that his thinking had almost been swayed by his initial preconceived notions.
He then spoke, word by word: "So the body is the dominant force, the head isn't. After your heads are cut off, your souls are in your bodies, not your heads? In other words, the one speaking to us now isn't the young woman I see, but the soul within this man's body?"
The person in front of him laughed, then pushed himself up from the ground with both hands.
He extended his hand to Li Jiuhe: "Let's get to know each other again. My name is Chen Song. I was too hasty just now. Although you reminded me, I still got ambushed by that old guy."