Identity

Because the passage was relatively narrow, they could only walk forward in single file. Brian led the way, followed by Sam, Anna, and Amy, then Meng Zu, with Jamie, Lisa, and Ella at the rear.

Meng Zu had not walked at the front because he was worried about Jamie's group. By keeping Sam's group of four separated from them, he could respond immediately if anything happened.

Brian moved forward nervously with his left hand clamped over his mouth. Everyone followed Meng Zu's instructions and kept their mouths tightly covered. Although Meng Zu illuminated the way from behind with a flashlight, the unfamiliar, narrow, dimly lit place still kept Sam's group of four on edge.

"Brian, Sam, relax a little. I'm right behind you. If anything happens to you, remember what I told you—just hit it directly. Those Tiger Knuckles of mine are good stuff. I used them to badly injure the four guys who kidnapped you before," Meng Zu said, trying to steady their nerves.

If ordinary people became too tense, they could easily be frightened by something suddenly appearing. If they screamed and gave Mary Shaw a medium to act through, they would be in serious trouble.

Mary Shaw's strength was unknown, but she was definitely beyond an ordinary vengeful spirit. If she was too powerful, he could only save whoever he could. Of course, the worst outcome would be being unable to save anyone and having to run for his own life.

Meng Zu's words immediately put Brian and Sam more at ease. The ones who had kidnapped the four of them before had been vampires. If this thing could injure vampires, it had to be extraordinary, giving the two of them some confidence.

"Are these puppets?" When they arrived in the room where the puppets were displayed, Brian was startled by the sight of them, but relaxed after seeing what they were.

"Why are there so many puppets here?" Sam asked curiously.

"Don't mind them. Keep moving," Meng Zu urged. He could not sense that eerie, icy aura, so these puppets were still just ordinary puppets.

After Brian and the others finally left the theater while remaining tense the entire way, Meng Zu looked back at it beside the car, puzzled. Strange. Mary Shaw actually didn't stop us!

But he could not worry about that now. It was already 5:20. It would be best to leave Ravensfair before dark.

Meng Zu asked Sam's group of four, "Which one of you can drive?"

"I can," Anna said. "I already have my driver's license."

"Anna, drive. Amy, sit in the passenger seat," Meng Zu instructed them. Then he smiled at Jamie's group of three. "Jamie, Lisa, Ella, the six of us will have to squeeze together in the back."

"That's fine," Ella said with a smile. "As long as we can get back, this is nothing."

Brian sat by the left window, with Sam sitting on his lap. Meng Zu sat beside Brian, Jamie beside him, with his wife Lisa on his lap. Ella sat on the far right.

Fortunately, the vehicle Meng Zu had rented was an SUV with plenty of room inside. Otherwise, it truly would not have fit so many people.

Meng Zu pointed Anna toward the road to Sault Ste. Marie. "We're going to Sault Ste. Marie. There are planes there, and Jamie's group lives there too."

The car sped down the highway with its headlights on as the sky grew darker and darker. Meng Zu carefully studied the map, thinking, We should be close to leaving Ravensfair's boundaries now. Mary Shaw still hasn't appeared. Did she give up?

Sam took off the Tiger Knuckles on his right hand and asked curiously, "Mr. Meng Zu, is there something special about these Tiger Knuckles?"

The others were curious as well.

"Put them back on. Don't take them off. These Tiger Knuckles were blessed by an old priest. They can protect ordinary people from being harmed by creatures of darkness. Of course, their greater purpose is to injure dark creatures," Meng Zu explained. However, he watched Jamie and Lisa from the corner of his eye and saw no change in their expressions.

Sam's eyes lit up. "Once I get back, I'll go to the church and ask them to bless some things for me too."

"Don't even think about it. A blessing isn't something just any priest can perform. It's not as simple as you imagine. You'll understand once you get to the church."

Night had fully fallen. Meng Zu checked the time—it was already 6:10. Suddenly sensing activity from the system, he opened it and saw a notification.

'Anomalous energy has been detected attacking the host's mind. The system has automatically erased it.'

So this was the reason Sheriff Donnie had said that memories of Mary Shaw would disappear once someone left Ravensfair. Mary Shaw altered people's memories through mental power, somewhat like Professor X. If not for the system, he might have lost his memories of Mary Shaw too.

She could alter people's memories without making a sound. Without the system's prompt, he would never have noticed. This made Meng Zu realize just how terrifying Mary Shaw was. But now, it also confirmed that they had left Ravensfair.

Sheriff Donnie had said Mary Shaw could only kill within Ravensfair. No one who had left Ravensfair had ever been killed by Mary Shaw outside it. Meng Zu finally breathed a sigh of relief, and his constantly tense nerves eased.

The car continued down the road while gentle music played inside. Driving in silence was dull, and now that they had left Ravensfair, Meng Zu did not object.

Sam, Brian, Amy, and Jamie chatted in the car. Ella was very talkative, and she was beautiful and elegant, making Brian and Sam especially happy to talk with her.

Only Anna and Meng Zu did not join in. Anna was not an experienced driver and needed to focus, while Meng Zu would not truly lower his guard before the mission was complete. Any accident could happen.

Suddenly, Meng Zu's expression changed. He shouted, "Anna, turn the wheel right!"

Meng Zu startled Anna. Although she did not know why, she hurriedly turned the steering wheel to the right, and the car immediately veered aside.

At that moment, a black van with no lights on narrowly brushed past the rear of their car. Because the turn had been too abrupt, Anna could not control the car's direction, and it hurtled toward several trees not far away.

Anna immediately slammed on the brakes. The car finally stopped just before it crashed into the trees, leaving two deep tracks in the dirt behind it.

"What happened?" Sam asked, dizzy from being thrown around.

"Everyone, get out of the car first!" Meng Zu did not explain.

Outside the car, Meng Zu looked at the black van stopped in the distance. He walked over to Anna and ordered Brian and Sam, "Put on your Tiger Knuckles and stay by Anna and Amy. Protect them."

Though it was night and the sky was dark, Meng Zu's physique, four times that of an ordinary person, along with Basic Dynamic Vision, allowed him to clearly see distant objects by the faint moonlight. That black van had been driving straight at their car head-on.

If the two vehicles had collided, at the black van's speed, even with Meng Zu's physique being four times stronger than an ordinary person's, he would have been severely injured even if he survived.

The black van started again, still without any lights, then turned around and drove toward them. Meng Zu's face turned cold.

Meng Zu slowly walked forward, calculating the distance between them. Then he took grenades from his Storage Space, pulled the pins, and hurled them hard in the black van's path.

One, two, three, four. Meng Zu threw four grenades in an instant.

Watching the van rapidly approach, Meng Zu silently counted the time. Boom! A huge blast and firelight erupted in the darkness. The black van was launched straight off the ground, then flipped onto its side and crashed down.

Looking at the burning black van, Sam cried out in terror, "Oh my God, what's going on?!" Then four people engulfed in flames crawled out of the van.

"Save them!"

Brian and Sam hurriedly took off their jackets and rushed forward with them in hand. Meng Zu grabbed both of them and flung them back. "Don't move recklessly. Those four aren't human. Protect Anna and Amy."

The four burning figures crawled on all fours, charging at Meng Zu with incredible speed in bizarre postures. Meng Zu finally saw their faces clearly. Their eyes were gone, leaving only two sockets streaming black fluid. Their mouths were split to their ears, exposing mouths full of sharp teeth, and sharp claws had grown from their hands and feet.

Meng Zu gripped a silver dagger in his right hand and met them head-on. With a light leap, he dodged the monster lunging at him, used its back for leverage, stomped down hard, and sprang above another monster. The dagger in his hand sliced through its head without resistance.

The moment Meng Zu landed, he rolled aside to avoid another monster's claws. Supporting himself with his left hand, he immediately flipped back up and kicked the monster away with his right leg.

Another monster took the opportunity to approach Meng Zu from behind, its claws slashing toward the back of his head. Meng Zu suddenly dodged aside and drove his dagger into its head with a swing of his arm.

Meng Zu pulled out the dagger and charged at the nearest monster. A streak of silver light flashed through the night, and the monster that passed him collapsed to the ground without moving.

Only the last one remained. It seemed incapable of fear. Even after Meng Zu had dealt with its three companions, it still viciously lunged at him.

The result went without saying. With one stab to the head from Meng Zu, it stopped moving.

"I didn't expect Mary Shaw to be able to leave Ravensfair." Meng Zu could sense Mary Shaw's familiar aura from the four monsters.

But Meng Zu was confused. These four monsters were not made from puppets. When his dagger cut through them, it felt like it had sliced flesh and blood. What was going on?

When Meng Zu returned, Ella looked at the four monster corpses and asked fearfully, "What are those things?"

"A kind of monster. We should leave this place quickly." Meng Zu walked past Ella toward the car.

Suddenly, three black whips lashed toward Meng Zu's back. He instantly turned and dodged, cutting the whips apart with his dagger. Leaping backward, he looked at Ella coldly. "I suspected there was something wrong with you three long ago."

"Ah!" Sam's group of four screamed and hurriedly distanced themselves from Jamie and Lisa.

Jamie and Lisa's appearances had become horrifying and twisted, just like Mary Shaw's reflection Meng Zu had seen in the theater room's mirror. Their eyes were white, and black cracks split across their faces.

Jamie and Lisa had suddenly changed and attacked Anna and Amy. But the instant they grabbed the two women, a flash of white light enveloped them and instantly sent Jamie and Lisa flying.

Earlier, after getting out of the car, Meng Zu had walked to Anna's side while speaking to Brian. Behind his back, he held two small silver crosses and passed them to Anna. Anna was smart and instantly understood his meaning. She quietly accepted the crosses, and while Meng Zu charged at the four monsters, she went to Amy and secretly gave her one.

These two crosses were standard church products that had been blessed. They could protect their carriers and temporarily resist attacks from dark creatures. The church usually sold such items to those who needed them, with prices varying—charging the wealthy more and the poor less.

Meng Zu noticed that Ella was different from Jamie and Lisa. Her appearance had not changed at all, but the three black whips extending from the empty air around her made it obvious that she was the real boss.

"Hmm!" Meng Zu's pupils contracted slightly. Ella's three black whips were made up of tongues. Tongues! Could Ella be Mary Shaw?

"You're Mary Shaw?" Meng Zu asked in surprise.

"Hehe, what a perfect body. You're the person most suited to become a Perfect Puppet." Ella—no, Mary Shaw—smiled, greed filling her eyes as she looked at Meng Zu.

So Perfect Puppets were made from people. She had planned this even while alive. It seemed she knew black magic. No wonder she had become such a terrifying vengeful spirit after death. Meng Zu sneered. "You think you've got me cornered?"

"I already know your strength. Tonight, you're mine." Five more black whips made of tongues extended from the empty air around Mary Shaw. The eight black whips instantly lengthened and attacked Meng Zu from all directions.

Bang!

A handgun appeared in Meng Zu's hand. A large hole appeared in Mary Shaw's forehead, with a glowing bullet embedded inside it. The eight black whips instantly went limp and dropped to the ground.

Looking at the fallen Mary Shaw, Meng Zu said disdainfully, "Granny, times have changed."

Bang! Bang!

With two more shots, Meng Zu blew apart Jamie and Lisa's heads, killing them.

Just as Meng Zu was about to walk toward Sam and the others, he suddenly sensed danger approaching from behind. He hurriedly dodged aside as a massive machete slammed hard into the ground.

A hulking man at least two meters tall, wearing a hockey mask, stood where Meng Zu had been moments before.

"Jason?"

(I wrote some yesterday but didn't finish it. This chapter is four thousand words. It's already been signed, so please support it and vote for it, (￣３￣)a)