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 la

id 

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 s

leep, i

t’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

 depar

ted.

I considered 

that the 

spirit

 was afraid of rats, 

so I

 put 

Senior Shu

’s life-bound rat 

in

 my bag. 

By d

oing 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 i

t’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

. 

I

f 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

, i

ts sharp claws sparkl

ing

 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 t

he 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;

t

he 

spirit

 had controlled th

e 

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 i

magining flocks of birds covering the sky and plunging to attack me a

ll 

at once, I felt my legs turn

ing 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 th

ose

 small-sized birds. 

After h

esitating, 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. 

I

f I didn’t throw it away, she would torture Li Mazi. His voice 

on

 the phone was feeble. 

After p

ondering 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

.

” 

M

y voice grew cold. 

Zhang Yan was 

angry

at 

m

y

 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, s

he recovered soon. She grabbed Li Mazi’s throat

 and s

lowly increas

ed

 the strength of her 

grasp

. Li Mazi’s legs struggled hard

, and h

is eyes bulg

ed

. 

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. 

T

he 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! O

therwise,

 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

. Hi

s 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

. A

t 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!