I frowned and said, “Don’t touch Li Mazi!”

Zhang Yan sniggered evilly. “I don’t have the time to talk nonsense with you! Exchange the iron swallow for Li Mazi. Otherwise, come and pick his corpse. Your call.”

I turned to look at Senior Shu. He gave me a slight nod. I then agreed with her.

Zhang Yan sneered darkly. “Tonight, you will come alone. Meet me at the zoo.”

I hung up the call and said helplessly to Senior Shu, “It seems she’s afraid of you. She told me to go there alone.”

Senior Shu rolled his eyes at me. “It’s a trap, and you are still in the mood to smile.”

He snatched my phone and called Feng Yuanzheng. “What’s going on over there?”

I was speechless. He also had Feng Yuanzheng’s number, but he always wanted to use my phone. I knew he just wanted to save a few dimes on phone fees.

Feng Yuanzheng ranted as soon as the call went through. “She suspected me at first, and she looked like she was going to kill me! Had I been a little weaker, my life would have been over at that moment!”

He looked scared.

Anyway, since Feng Yuanzheng was all right, Senior Shu eased his mind. He laid on the sofa and took a nap.

“Sir, would you like to go upstairs to rest?” said Li Qiushu.

“No need, I’m just an old man. No matter where I sleep, it’s the same.” Senior Shu shook his head.

I thought it was funny and told myself that the sun had risen from the West today! Then, I chatted for a while with Li Qiushu before going to the guest room to sleep.

After dinner, it was around twilight. I took the Sirius Whip and the Illusory Mind Bell with me and departed. I considered that the spirit was afraid of rats, so I put Senior Shu’s life-bound rat in my bag.

By doing so, I would be able to scare the spirit, and Senior Shu could precisely locate me!

The suburban zoo didn’t sound nice at all. On the way there, I learned something from the taxi driver. He pouted. “They call it a zoo, but it’s nothing more than a birdcage!”

It turned out the zoo was just a wide park that kept some birds. The people in the surrounding areas often took walks along the grounds.

When we arrived, I noticed that the park didn’t even have a lighting system. After the driver left, the entire park was pitch black.

I stood still for a while to adapt to the darkness before slowly walking into the park. The park was empty; I didn’t even see a bench. Grass grew everywhere I looked. After walking for around two hundred meters, I found a big stone. I directly sat on it.

I felt a little chilled by the night wind. I lit up a cigarette and carefully observed my surroundings. If Zhang Yan chose this place, she would have come here before me. Perhaps, she was hiding in a corner and watching me now.

A bird suddenly flew near me, twittering in midair. This aroused my interest. This bird was strange as it didn’t look like a nocturnal one. When I looked at the bird, it seemed to understand me. It immediately flew towards me.

At this moment, my bag suddenly moved. I heard the life-bound rat squeaking! As it had been with Senior Shu for quite a long time, the rat now had a mind of its own. If it’d made noise at this critical moment, I was sure it wanted to remind me of danger.

I pulled myself together. The bird was plunging fast toward me, its sharp claws sparkling in the night. It wanted to attack me!

I didn’t have enough time to counterattack, so I instinctively dodged it. The bird brushed past my ear, and the sharp claws cut a lock of my hair.

“You bastard!” I screamed and cursed.

I was lucky that the life rat had warned me. Otherwise, that bird could have pricked my eyeballs!

After attacking me, the bird slowed down. After around ten minutes, it fell helplessly on the ground. It didn’t move afterward.

I went over and checked it. It had died, and the body was cold and rigid. It was as if it had been dead for quite a long time. I soon understood; the spirit had controlled the carcass!

I suddenly remembered that the driver had told me this park was like a birdcage. I now knew why Zhang Yan wanted to negotiate with me here. She wanted to use those birds to deal with me!

I was scared. After imagining flocks of birds covering the sky and plunging to attack me all at once, I felt my legs turning into jelly.

It was said that what you were afraid of the most would indeed come to you. While I was thinking about how to deal with them, I heard the wind tear and the birds twittering behind me. I turned and saw all kinds of birds covering the sky. They were heading toward me as fast as missiles. I noticed that they weren’t flapping at all. They seemed to be the same as the previous bird, dead.

To deal with me, Zhang Yan had killed so many birds. I was scared, but also angry!

For the time being, I only had the Sirius Whip and the Illusory Mind Bell. It wasn’t efficient to use the Sirius Whip to deal with those small-sized birds. After hesitating, I took out the Illusory Mind Bell and shook it.

I was certain that the spirit was using its mental power to control the birds. At the same time, the Illusory Mind Bell could deal with this kind of energy. There should be an effect, which would give me more time.

Indeed, as the bell jingled, the first wave of birds shook a few times. Then, they directly dropped to the ground.

I hadn’t expected the Illusory Mind Bell to work this well. I shook it harder and proactively approached the flock of birds. More and more birds fell. I felt more secure.

My phone suddenly rang. It was Li Mazi’s number. I shook the bell with one hand while my other hand received the call. I shouted into the phone. “Zhang Yan, have you played enough?”

“I’m scared of the bell in your hand. Throw it away!” Zhang Yan laughed, then forced Li Mazi to talk.

He whimpered. “Give her the iron swallow. As long as we don’t put our nose in this, Zhang Yan won’t trouble us!”

After Li Mazi finished talking, Zhang Yan hung up the call.

I was so angry at this moment.

If I threw the Illusory Mind Bell away, I wouldn’t have anything else to defend myself with. If I didn’t throw it away, she would torture Li Mazi. His voice on the phone was feeble.

After pondering for a while, I said through my gritted teeth, “Mazi, if you die, I promise I will take care of your family!” Then, I jingled the bell and used all of my power to attack those birds!

Given Zhang Yan’s current situation, it was a daydream to hope that she would spare our lives. If I dropped the Illusory Mind Bell, both Li Mazi and I wouldn’t be able to survive. The only solution now was to use force to defeat force.

“Enough!” Zhang Yan’s angry voice came out from behind me. I instinctively turned to face her. She was pulling Li Mazi out from behind a rock. Li Mazi had his hands tied behind his back. However, he looked strange when his eyes met mine.

“Oh, so you couldn't stand it when I defeated your birds.” My voice grew cold.

Zhang Yan was angry at my mocking words. She took out a sharp dagger and directly stabbed Li Mazi’s thigh.

Li Mazi screamed immediately.

“Don’t move!” I knew there was only one way to deal with a crazy person like her. I took out the iron swallow. Almost at the same time, I bit the tip of my tongue and spat blood on the iron swallow’s head.

I hadn’t attacked her because I didn’t know where she was. But now, as her fatal weakness was in my hand, I could play whatever I wanted!

Indeed, Zhang Yan trembled after I spat my blood onto the swallow. She dropped the dagger. However, she recovered soon. She grabbed Li Mazi’s throat and slowly increased the strength of her grasp. Li Mazi’s legs struggled hard, and his eyes bulged. It didn’t look like he would be able to resist for a long time.

It was good that I was prepared. I smeared the rat dung I got from Senior Shu over the iron swallow. The rat dung didn’t have an exorcising function. However, since the spirit was afraid of rats, it was a sharp weapon.

“You… You better wipe off that filthy thing! Otherwise, I’ll kill this pockmarked bastard… Blargh!” Zhang Yan’s face lost color. Her grip loosened, as she had to turn aside and retch. She was so enraged that she was shouting and yelling.

I wanted to take this chance to snatch Li Mazi back to my side. She saw through my intention, so she ignored her condition and grabbed Li Mazi’s throat tighter, shouting crazily. “We exchange, or we all die!”

She was scared, and I had been waiting for her to say those words. We were aware of the situation of this iron swallow. Destroying the bird wasn’t an option. So, it didn’t matter much whether we had the swallow or not. It would be more beneficial if I used it to exchange for Li Mazi.

I didn’t talk any nonsense. Standing a few meters away from her, I screamed, “Let go of him first. When he walks into the area between us, I’ll throw the iron swallow to you!”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you’re faster than me!” I didn’t want to lose this bargain. Discreetly, I opened my bag to release the life-bound rat. It slid away and hid in the grass.

Zhang Yan didn’t reject my idea. She slowly released Li Mazi. Li Mazi walked toward me. His face looked dull. Zhang Yan had probably roughed him up hard.

When Li Mazi passed the middle point, I shouted all of a sudden. “Here you go!”

When Zhang Yan lifted her head to look, I threw the iron swallow in the direction where the life-bound rat had gone.

Zhang Yan rushed toward it without a care for her life. I took the chance and pulled Li Mazi to me. We ran away.

After a few seconds, Zhang Yan made a shrill sound, followed by a cry. At the top of her lungs, she said, “I’m gonna kill you, you old stinky rat!”

I beamed a faint smile and pulled Li Mazi away. When we came to the gate of the park, Senior Shu was there. He exchanged looks with me then rushed into the park. He was headed in Zhang Yan’s direction.

This was our plan before I had come here. I would make the exchange and have the life-bound rat hold her down as the spirit was afraid of rats. Then, Senior Shu would go there to subdue her completely!