After the Ghost left, Ning Zhe didn't rush straight to the circuit breaker. Instead, he went over to the corpse the Ghost had just possessed, crouched down, and gave it a quick examination.
There was nothing unusual about the corpse itself. Apart from a few minor scrapes from its skin rubbing against the lawn when it fell, it had no external injuries. The muscles in its face had stiffened, leaving its features frozen in a mask of terror.
If he hadn't known that Taiyi and Zhaoyou had both already been killed by his own hand, Ning Zhe might even have thought this man was from He Family Village. After all, the way he had died was so similar to Gu Yunqing's that they were practically identical.
—But did that mean there was nothing suspicious about him?
Of course not.
Ning Zhe pulled a Charging Bank from his pocket and switched on its light.
—His Charging Bank was the kind that came with a small built-in lamp. Besides charging electronic devices, it could also serve as an emergency flashlight.
The bright, focused beam fell on the corpse in front of Ning Zhe, illuminating its terrified expression in stark detail. But Ning Zhe wasn't looking at the body itself. He was looking at the lawn behind it.
The bodies killed by this Ghost were indeed different from ordinary human bodies. There was something unusual about them—not especially obvious, but not particularly well hidden, either. Anyone who took the time to look would have little trouble noticing it.
But in the chaos and urgency of what had happened earlier, no one would have had the energy to calmly inspect the dead.
After that harrowing encounter, Ning Zhe had a vague idea of what to look for. It was easy for him to spot something off about the corpse.
"This corpse has no shadow." Ning Zhe tilted the Charging Bank in his hand, changing the angle of the light, but the lawn ahead remained empty of the corpse's outline.
The light from the lamp passed through the dead man on the ground without obstruction, as if it were passing through a pane of glass.
No—even a completely transparent piece of colorless glass would refract or scatter some light. But this corpse did nothing of the sort. The light passed through a very real human body without obstruction or dimming, as if there were nothing there at all.
"People killed by the Ghost have no shadows." Ning Zhe switched off the flashlight, put the Charging Bank back in his pocket, and stood up. "All right, let's go over what we know."
1. The Ghost doesn't have normal eyesight. It can't see people, only the shadows they cast when illuminated.
2. People killed by the Ghost have no shadows.
3. The Ghost doesn't appear on its own. It usually possesses the corpse of someone it has killed and acts through it.
4. The Ghost is afraid of light. When it gets too close to a light source, the corpse it possesses moves more cautiously and slowly.
That was why it hadn't killed Feng Yushu right away in the corridor, or Ning Zhe right away beneath the streetlamp. When it was too close to a light source, the Ghost moved more slowly.
As Ning Zhe pondered this, he heard a faint rustle. The corpse lying on the lawn suddenly began to move.
The Ghost was back.
Although Ning Zhe had been very careful when using the Charging Bank for light, the scattered glow from the lamp had still cast a faint outline of his body.
Even though he had made his inspection as quick and simple as possible, and had switched the light off without hesitation, the shadow had existed. Even for just a second, it had existed. The Ghost was bound by rules. Rules only cared whether something existed or not, not how much of it there was.
Ning Zhe stepped back and silently watched the corpse in front of him rise straight up, like a city gate being hauled up by ropes.
The Ghost was right in front of him, but it couldn't find him because the light was off.
"This Ghost is kind of interesting..." Ning Zhe furrowed his brow slightly.
Unlike Zhaoyou, this Ghost was exceptionally deadly on a first encounter. Without any information, anyone who ran into it could easily be killed in an instant, without even a chance to react. But once they had the information and knew how to avoid it and what to think about, it wouldn't be difficult to figure out how to defeat or restrain it.
In fact, it could even be called easy.
"If things really are as I suspect, and this Ghost was deliberately put in here because of 'Zhaoyou'..." Ning Zhe's expression turned strange. "Then whoever did it really underestimates me."
Even without Baizhi's hint, Ning Zhe could have used Taiyi's rules to make others die in his place, piling up lives one after another until he had figured out the rules. Many people in the Manor had died, but there were still survivors.
Unless the person who had put this Ghost in the Manor didn't know Taiyi existed.
"They know about Zhaoyou, but not Taiyi?" Vaguely, Ning Zhe felt as if he had grasped something very important.
Rustle...
A faint scraping sound came from the Lonicera bushes not far away. Ning Zhe instinctively turned toward the source, only to hear a muffled gunshot, dampened by a silencer.
Whoosh—
The human body had its limits. No matter how fit an athlete was, they couldn't dodge a bullet at such close range. Even if their nerves could react in time, their body couldn't keep up.
But the rules could.
Taiyi's rules took effect far faster than Ning Zhe's body could move.
The instant the gunshot rang out, the Parasol in Ning Zhe's hand thumped to the ground. The boy holding it vanished into thin air in front of the gunman, Old Li, and became a small Magpie that landed on the lawn.
The moment its claws touched the ground, the Magpie turned back into Ning Zhe. He pushed off hard with both legs and shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. Before the muzzle of Old Li's gun could find its target again, Ning Zhe's fist had struck him in the abdomen.
"Ugh!"
The blow to his stomach brought a stabbing pain, but Old Li couldn't even let out a scream. As Ning Zhe slammed his right fist into Old Li's abdomen, one knee struck and broke the wrist holding the gun. His left hand immediately clamped around Old Li's throat before he could scream, and he tackled him to the ground.
Like a leopard bringing down an antelope, its sharp fangs locked around the herbivore's windpipe.
Straddling Old Li, Ning Zhe expressionlessly squeezed his throat. His right hand shot toward the man's face, fingers thrusting directly into his eye sockets.
A moment later, there were two wet pops. Ning Zhe had gouged both of Old Li's eyeballs out with his bare hands. The detached eyes dangled from his cheeks by their optic nerves, like yo-yos in a child's hands, while tears and blood dripped down.
Only then did Ning Zhe release Old Li's throat. He picked up the riot-control pistol from the ground and smoothly took aim. "Who are you, and why did you shoot at me?"
But Old Li, grievously wounded, couldn't answer at once. The middle-aged Security Captain curled up on the ground, groaning and rolling in agony.
Whoosh—
A Rubber Bullet lodged in Old Li's calf, followed by a bloodcurdling scream.
"I'll ask you again. Who are you? Why did you attack me? Do you have any accomplices?" Ning Zhe asked in a low voice.
Before you continue