Free Web NovelChapter 660: Chapter 526: Mutation_2
Suddenly, he furrowed his brow and had Lu Wencheng repeat the ghost’s actions after entering the door. Listening, Yang Xiao discovered the key issue: the ghost’s movements were problematic—it was mimicking their earlier actions.
Not long ago, after Yang Xiao had brought Lu Wencheng back, they had first sat by the bed to discuss, then stood by the window to look outside, followed by the ringing of the phone, checking the phone, and lastly, most crucially, they had entered the Mirror World through that large mirror.
The ghost had retraced their exact steps; it hadn’t discovered their hiding spot based on its abilities but merely confirmed that Lu Wencheng last disappeared in front of the mirror.
Thinking of this, Yang Xiao became alert. He suspected that the ghost had not left but was hiding nearby, waiting for Lu Wencheng to show himself. freeweɓnovel.cøm
Although the backlash from the Soul-Capturing Mirror was growing stronger, Yang Xiao decided to wait longer. He led Lu Wencheng through the Mirror World to the corridor outside the door, struggled to observe through a pane of glass, and had Lu Wencheng adjust the angle to look towards the doorway, but they could see nothing; the glass was abnormally blurry, as if covered in a layer of water vapor.
"I can’t see clearly; there’s condensation on the glass," Lu Wencheng couldn’t help but complain. No sooner had he spoken than he sharply realized—if everything were normal, how would condensation spontaneously appear on the glass? It was that ghost, the ghost hadn’t left!
Yang Xiao was right...
Indeed, after waiting another two minutes, Lu Wencheng finally heard that icy scraping sound, which grew increasingly distant, entered the stairwell, and finally disappeared completely.
At that moment, the Soul-Capturing Mirror in Yang Xiao’s hand had also shattered halfway. Similarly, all the mirrors or glass in the entire Mirror World were extensively cracked; they had to leave now or they truly couldn’t escape. They returned to the room and fled through the dressing mirror.
His head aching slightly, Yang Xiao steadied his heart and gazed at the Soul-Capturing Mirror, only to see that the shattered mirror showed no signs of self-repairing. It seemed that he could no longer use the Soul-Capturing Mirror in the upcoming missions, which was definitely bad news.
The door showed no signs of being forced; it was just silently open. The ghost had come through the door, and there were bloody footprints on the floor, with small chunks of flesh nearby. Lu Wencheng, suppressing his nausea, picked up a piece and discovered that it still had some cartilage attached, which felt springy to the touch.
"It’s a human nose," Yang Xiao suddenly said.
This unexpected declaration startled Lu Wencheng, causing him to tremble and drop the chunk of flesh. Looking down, he saw that the room contained numerous pieces of flesh. The ghost had dropped them while walking, and some chunks still had hair attached, just like a grievously guilty criminal suffering from Lingchi.
Moreover... most crucially, these chunks of flesh were very fresh, bloody, with no signs of decay or foul smell, as fresh as if they had just been cut from a person.
Yang Xiao secretly named this ghost: Lingchi Ghost.
"Do you remember those photos that those three from the Patrol Defense Office showed us?" Lu Wengeng suddenly asked, "In Building 2, when they caught us."
Memories returning, Yang Xiao recalled that there, they had been shown a photo of a bloody skeletal frame.
The skull in the photo was wearing a mask with "Sky 83" on it, one of their people.
This person had been killed by other Angel Envoys, as confirmed by the Silver-haired Captain, who also inquired whether they knew who had done it. Yang Xiao had answered with "Prisoner 3." Now, it seemed likely that the ghost that had come to kill them had connections to Prisoner 3.
This extremely cruel method of murder also aligned with Yang Xiao’s impressions of the Black Buddha Mother Sect, the Head of Ten Thousand Religions.
Additionally, the telephone originally on the bedside table was knocked over, and upon picking it up, they found that the receiver was missing, the cord torn apart, with blood on the remaining half. The ghost had stolen the phone handle.
Ghosts don’t do pointless things; the only reason for this object’s existence is to kill people. And since the handle was taken, Yang Xiao could think of only one likely possibility: this ghost might use the handle to find either him or Lu Wencheng in the future.
"Hisss—" Lu Wencheng took a deep breath, contemplating, "I think I’ve seen similar abilities in the Scripture Pavilion. As long as this ghost gets hold of something recently used by someone, it can pursue and kill that person."
"Regardless of time and distance?" Yang Xiao gasped.
"No, not to that extent, but... given our current situation, it’s enough." Lu Wencheng sounded somewhat dismayed; after all, they were trapped within these few buildings with no place to escape.
About an hour later, the fog outside gradually cleared. Yang Xiao and Lu Wencheng cautiously made their way downstairs, Lu Wencheng leading the way, with Yang Xiao clutching the Human Bone Staff behind him. They planned to meet up with the trio from the Patrol Defense Office as soon as possible; with the Silver-haired Captain there, minor ghosts weren’t a concern.
Soon, the two groups combined downstairs. Yang Xiao started complaining immediately, saying that Prisoner 3 had come to kill them. If they hadn’t thought to leave their mortal remains to serve the country, they might have been killed by Prisoner 3. He hadn’t even finished speaking when someone became unhappy. A young team member interrupted Yang Xiao, discontentedly saying, "What nonsense are you spouting now? Open your eyes and look properly, what’s this?"
Saying that, the young team member pulled a mask from his shoulder bag and tossed it to Yang Xiao. The mask was still bloody and stained Yang Xiao’s hand. When he turned the mask over, his eyes widened—it was Prisoner 3’s.
"You... no way, big brother, you slaughtered him?" Yang Xiao couldn’t believe that such a formidable character had been so easily killed. Within the Patrol Defense Office, the gap between people was even greater than between a human and a dog.
If Beibei, Big Bear, and Ximen Xiu were anywhere near as capable as this young man, Yang Xiao could wake up laughing from his dreams.
"No need to thank me, I didn’t kill him." The young team member pursed his lips. "I went to find him, but I was a step too late. He had already been killed by a ghost."
"Killed by which ghost?" Yang Xiao asked subconsciously.
The young team member frowned, "Which ghost could it be, if not the one that has made a mess of this place?"
It seemed the man had been killed by the Source Ghost. Although it felt unbelievable, Yang Xiao realized it actually made sense. The Source Ghost was powerful enough to crush anyone here; even the formidable trio had ultimately died at its hands, becoming a unique existence in this world.
"Enough chit-chat, let’s focus on the task at hand," the Silver-haired Captain urged.
"Right, let’s get the job done quickly. My wife’s waiting for me to come home for dinner," the young team member stretched lazily. "We’ve been here for days now."
"Missing your newlywed wife, huh?" the female companion teased with a sly smile, looking like an old hand at this.
Only the Silver-haired Captain remained silent, turning around and leading the way. In the dim background, the normally upright figure of the Silver-haired Captain slightly stooped.
Once they reached the marked location, Lu Wencheng used the corpse cone again to narrow down the area further. With the three protectors with him, he completed the task quite smoothly. Finally, he approximately marked the hiding place of the ghost’s lower half, which had gone missing, within a certain area on the map provided by the Silver-haired man.
When they actually arrived at the area, they found it was about the size of two basketball courts and quite secluded. Due to long periods of neglect, wild grass thrived everywhere. There was also a pavilion standing lonely amidst the darkness.
"This place has heavy yin energy; many people must have died here before. They built apartments over it, probably to use the living qi to suppress the underlying resentment. Since this area is barren and no buildings were erected, they constructed a pavilion instead. This is the Octagonal Pavilion. The corners of the eaves are tucked in, and I’m sure there’s a stone tablet buried three feet under it. This is the Corpse Suppressing Pavilion," Lu Wencheng stated with certainty. "There’s heavy resentment near the Corpse Suppressing Pavilion; the ghost must be nearby."
