We agreed to seek enlightenment together, but how did you end up seeking enlightenment for my mother

Judging from the victim's clothing, she appears to be a maid.

She was laid out on the cutting board, her skirt lifted to her waist, and the chef was repeatedly chopping at her abdomen, the blade striking flesh and bone with a dull thud.

"Brown hair and brown eyes, is that the person the maid is looking for?" Xu Zhou's heart stirred, and doubt quietly arose.

Why did the chef kill her?

The lighting was dim, making it impossible to see the chef's face clearly, but he was at least two meters tall, with a rather intimidatingly broad back and muscular build.

Xu Zhou did not rush to make a move, but continued to observe his surroundings, trying to gather more information.

There's no ready-made food nearby, which is bad news, meaning that finding Wu Lulu's quest objective will inevitably involve dealing with chefs.

The problem is that the other person may be very good at interpersonal relationships, but seems difficult to communicate with.

Xu Zhou bent over and moved to the side, hiding behind a bag of flour. He quietly drew out a short knife and wrapped the hilt tightly with strands of his hair.

From this angle, you can see the woman's entire body. Her abdominal cavity has been completely cut open, revealing red and white contents gushing out. Blood is flowing down the operating table, staining a large area of ​​the floor.

What shocked Xu Zhou even more was the chef's inhuman appearance: thick, drooping ears, a short, thick neck, a wide, protruding nose, and skin with a strange pale pink hue.

At first glance, it looks exactly like a monster with a pig's head and a human body.

The pig-headed chef stopped dissecting the abdomen, making grunting noises, and reached his entire hand into the maid's open belly, his fingers rummaging through the internal organs, making a strange sound like squeezing gel.

Blood splattered continuously, staining his already soaked apron with fresh crimson.

Xu Zhou felt a chill run down his spine and his stomach churn. Although he had killed enemies before, that was nothing like the pure torture he was witnessing. With his current mental fortitude, he couldn't bring himself to do such a perverted act.

Not long after, the chef's arm paused, as if he had touched something.

He pulled a chain from among the maid's mangled internal organs, rinsed it briefly in a basin of water, and when he pulled it out, the chain reflected a golden luster, revealing itself to be a valuable gold necklace.

"Was it because the maid stole the gold necklace that the chef killed her?"

Xu Zhou had just entertained this thought when he immediately dismissed it; he simply couldn't bring himself to place the pig-headed monster on the side of justice.

"Gold... *humph*... I like it..."

The pig-headed chef grunted, tilted his head back, and swallowed the gold chain.

Now the truth is out: the maid was simply unlucky and ran into a monster that loved to eat gold.

Xu Zhou pondered to himself that since he was hiding in the shadows, he should launch a sneak attack to weaken the enemy's strength first, and then ask the Iron Puppet Ancestor to finish the job. This way, he could resolve the issue safely and hone his assassination skills in actual combat.

So he quietly stepped out of the flour bag, tiptoed and crept up behind the pig-headed chef, finally stopping about five meters behind him, and slowly stood up in a throwing stance.

And at this very moment—

boom!

The kitchen door was kicked open.

Wu Lulu was seen holding a baguette in her hand and another one in her mouth, still in the position of kicking down the door, exposed to the candlelight.

The girl spotted the pig-headed chef and the victim on the table, as well as Xu Zhou behind her, who was raising a knife to launch a sneak attack. However, for reasons unknown, her first reaction was to greet Xu Zhou.

"Boss of the small fry~ I've found you!" Wu Lulu waved her baguette, her face full of excitement.

The pig-headed chef turned his head in confusion, and his eyes met Xu Zhou's.

"Hmph?"

"Well……"

At this moment, Xu Zhou wished he could beat Wu Lulu's drums to a pulp. He simply couldn't understand how a person could be so free.

As soon as the pig-headed chef raised his cleaver, Xu Zhou's super intelligence immediately told him that it was time to use his super strength.

Then, with a resolute expression, he pointed forward.

"Iron! Golem!"

"Buzz—"

The metal giant appeared out of nowhere, sweeping away the cleaver with a single punch, and then embedding the pig-headed chef entirely into the wall with another punch. The force was so great that the entire mansion seemed to tremble.

Having succeeded in his attack, Xu Zhou decisively retrieved the iron golem to prevent his trump card from being exposed to others.

Wu Lulu, standing at the door, hadn't quite reacted yet. Her jaw dropped, and the bread she was holding in her mouth clattered to the ground.

"Woof! Three seconds, three seconds..."

She muttered something incoherently, bent down to pick up the baguette, and jogged over to Xu Zhou's side.

"Boss, this is the bread I found for you. It's delicious and good for chewing!"

Xu Zhou glanced at the suspicious stains on the baguette, took it, and tapped the other person on the head with his other hand.

Given Wu Lulu's personality and her methods that affect her senses, there's no point in saying anything more; we can only go with the flow.

Therefore, Xu Zhou didn't dwell on it much and quickly calmed down.

"Why are you only coming now?"

Wu Lulu held her head in one hand, her ears drooping, looking aggrieved.

"I met an old butler on the way, and from what I got, I learned that there is actually a basement level in this mansion, and the Earl's daughter is very likely hiding there."

"Wait, what did you say?" Xu Zhou raised an eyebrow.

"The countess's daughter is underground." Wu Lulu blinked.

No, the sentence before that.

"The old butler?"

"The middle sentence."

"Should I try to trick him into revealing information?"

Xu Zhou smiled and gently patted Wu Lulu's head, his gesture tender and full of care.

The girl, unaware of what was going on, simply squinted her eyes and silently enjoyed the moment.

"Do you think you can get information out of other people?" Xu Zhou asked with a smile.

"I think I can do it," Wu Lulu said seriously.

The answer is of course no.

The butler clearly leaked the information intentionally, with the aim of getting the challengers to find the underground entrance on their own. Anyone with a brain knows that there must be a great terror hidden there, and it is definitely not something that a single team can handle.

"If this news is true, then this challenge will likely require teamwork."

If each team focuses solely on competition from the beginning and never considers cooperation, they will most likely end up being wiped out.

"This is troublesome."

Xu Zhou put aside the matter of the underground chamber and the alliance for the time being, and instead looked at the pig-headed chef embedded in the wall in the shape of the Chinese character "大" (big).

Despite taking a punch from the iron golem, the monster was still alive, though its already pig-like face became even more swollen and round.

Xu Zhou flicked out strands of his true words to bind them, activating the relic's effect.

"Tell me, where is the most delicious food in the mansion?"

"In the lady's... humming... room..."

"What is that?"

"Rainbow... almond candy... hum..."

Having received the answer he wanted, Xu Zhou nodded in satisfaction, pondered for a moment, and then continued to ask follow-up questions.

"What is the most precious treasure in the mansion?"

"Hmph... I don't know..."

As expected, Xu Zhou could only extract information related to food from the chef, so he withdrew his hair and gave up on asking any other questions.

Looking at the ugly face of the pig-headed chef, a question quietly arose in my mind.

The Earl of Lionheart has been fighting against dark creatures for decades. How could he possibly tolerate the presence of non-human beings in his mansion?

Is the purpose of this pig-headed monster really just to provide food information?