Records

"Blood on the corners of his mouth... Bai Xiao probably ate meat he shouldn't have!"

The Family Annihilation Case had taken place twenty years ago, when Bai Xiao was still a child. He couldn't have been the real killer, but the way Bai Xiao looked now was exactly how Gao Ming had imagined the murderer in the Family Annihilation Case.

It was already a little too late to run. Gao Ming gripped the chain and had Zhu Miaomiao stick a Killing Talisman onto the Fire Axe. "Two against one. We should have a chance."

Barely a few seconds passed between Gao Ming having the thought and making his decision. The deranged Bai Xiao had already charged across the Building Corridor.

The Bone-Cleaver in his hand sliced through the night as he swung at Gao Ming with all his strength!

"Watch out!"

Zhu Miaomiao rushed in from the side. Just as the axe blade was about to strike Bai Xiao's shoulder, the raincoat-clad man dodged at an impossible angle.

His raincoat tore open, and Gao Ming caught sight of his body.

Strange writing covered his skin. The black characters crawled through his Flesh and Blood like insects.

His bones cracked, and his body seemed to be wrenching itself apart, section by section. Excitement and madness filled his face, as though something had taken control of his brain. His blood-smeared mouth stretched sideways into a chilling smile.

Pushing off with his back leg, Bai Xiao unleashed his body's full potential. His speed was astonishing.

Although Gao Ming had kept exercising even in the Maximum-Security Prison, he was still far outmatched by Bai Xiao. Without any formal training in combat, he relied more on instinct—an instinct that also came from deep within his Flesh and Blood.

With no moves or techniques to draw on, Gao Ming kept his eyes fixed on Bai Xiao, forcing himself to stay calm and predict the direction of his attacks.

Almost every time, he anticipated the attack and reacted in advance, yet even then he only dodged it by a hair.

"Hit him!"

In this situation, dodging alone was already a struggle for Gao Ming, let alone fighting back. He could only pin his hopes on Zhu Miaomiao.

Zhu Miaomiao was doing everything she could with the Fire Axe, but Bai Xiao could shift his bones at will, and his speed was absurd.

In the blink of an eye, Gao Ming had been driven from the passageway entrance into the Building B Apartments. He had never been so close to death.

The heavy Bone-Cleaver and Bai Xiao's crazed, grinning face filled Gao Ming's vision and mind. The floor and walls were covered in blood, wet and slippery. He was extraordinarily careful, but the enormous gap in their physical abilities still forced him into a hopeless position.

With his escape cut off, Gao Ming could only duck into a nearby room, just like the other Investigators who had been slaughtered.

He slammed the door shut, but someone had already broken the lock. The ninth floor seemed to be a hunting ground. None of its doors could be locked.

Piercing laughter rang out outside. The Bone-Cleaver hacked into the door, and the dull thuds sent Gao Ming's heart racing.

Bracing his body against the door, Gao Ming reached into his backpack and pulled out Zhao Xi's Posthumous Photograph.

"Zhao Xi! If you don't help me now, you'll really never see me again!"

Blood from his fingertips ran down the chain and dripped onto the Posthumous Photograph. The chain connected Gao Ming and Zhao Xi, and shadows gathered around the photograph.

The temperature in the room plummeted. The image of Gao Ming in Zhao Xi's Posthumous Photograph gradually lost its color, and five fingers covered in wounds reached out of the photograph.

Just like the scene depicted in the Posthumous Photograph, a broken arm followed the black chain and caught Gao Ming's hand.

The smell of blood spread. The falling man was caught, and Zhao Xi crawled out of the Posthumous Photograph, his limbs twisted!

At that same moment, the rental room's door was smashed open. Bai Xiao charged inside in his raincoat, but he hadn't expected Zhao Xi to be waiting for him.

Zhao Xi's broken body clung to Bai Xiao. No matter how Bai Xiao slashed at him, he showed no intention of letting go. Despair and oppression hung over him. The burdens life had piled upon him had become shackles, and even death had failed to free him.

Blood flowed from Zhao Xi's wounds, but instead of dripping onto the floor, it stuck between him and Bai Xiao. He wanted to pass every bit of pain and oppression he had ever felt on to Bai Xiao.

His face contorted hideously. The Bone-Cleaver in Bai Xiao's hand couldn't do any real harm to Zhao Xi, so his blood-smeared mouth suddenly opened wide, and he bit into Zhao Xi's shoulder!

Tearing and wrenching, Bai Xiao actually bit a chunk of flesh off Zhao Xi. More horrifying still, the bite wound couldn't heal. The strange writing on his body seemed to crawl into Zhao Xi through it.

"He even bites Ghosts?" Gao Ming grabbed the chain and ran past Bai Xiao's side, binding him with the black chain imbued with Zhao Xi's obsession. "Zhu Miaomiao!"

With the Blood Talisman stuck to the Fire Axe, Zhu Miaomiao swung hard and buried the blade in Bai Xiao's back.

An agonized scream rang out as countless black characters surged toward Bai Xiao's back!

"I'm sorry, Team Leader Bai!"

Zhu Miaomiao swung the Fire Axe again, no longer holding anything back. In her eyes, Bai Xiao was no longer her former Team Leader, but a dangerous madman.

The Blood Talisman shattered against Bai Xiao's back, and Zhu Miaomiao's axe blade pierced through his ruined chest.

"His heart has already been dug out!"

"Aaaaaah!"

A fine network of blue veins surfaced on Bai Xiao's face. His eyes filled with resentment, and the black characters on his body melted like snowflakes.

His body toppled to the floor. Bai Xiao's Flesh and Blood seemed to lose all support, collapsing into a heap of pulp.

Gao Ming wiped the blood from Bai Xiao's mouth and pulled out the Fire Axe. Looking down at him, he couldn't tell whether Bai Xiao was now a human or a Ghost.

Once all the black characters had vanished, Bai Xiao opened his eyes again. He grew agitated when he saw Gao Ming and reached into his raincoat to retrieve something, but in the end, he couldn't do anything.

His Flesh and Blood had lost all vitality and gave off a powerful stench of decay, as though he had been dead for days.

Gao Ming lifted the raincoat and found Bai Xiao's Black Ring inside a sutured wound in his abdomen.

He tried activating it. There were several short voice recordings inside.

Recording one: "Seventeen minutes after entering the apartment building, we lost team members. Two Investigators disappeared while passing through the corridor."

Recording two: "Forty minutes after entering the apartment building. All the Ghosts within this anomaly event are humanoid, most with deformed bodies. They seem unaware that they are dead and retain their memories. As long as you don't behave abnormally, you won't be targeted, but under no circumstances should you enter the rooms."

Recording three: "Eating the meat lets you survive longer."

Recording four: "This doesn't feel like an anomaly event at all. It's more like an abnormal world that actually exists. Could there really be another world?"

Recording five: "You must protect your heart."

Recording six: "The morgue on the fourth floor and the home with white lanterns hanging outside are safe."

Recording seven: "Whatever you do, don't eat the meat!"

Those seven voice recordings were Bai Xiao's final words to the world. He had sewn the Black Ring into his flesh to keep it hidden, hoping there might be a slim chance of getting the recordings out.

"When I came to interview at the Investigation Bureau, Team Leader Bai was the one who hired me. He was a very upright man." Zhu Miaomiao was in a terrible state. She had never expected the first "Ghost" she killed to be the person she had once respected most.

"Everyone will die, including you and me. There's only one thing we need to do now: make our deaths mean something more." Gao Ming examined Zhu Miaomiao's hands. The palms she had used to grip the axe were covered in wounds that wouldn't heal. "What happened?"

"That Killing Talisman draws blood from me when I use it." Zhu Miaomiao took out the other two Killing Talismans. "Just now, I felt as though the talisman was swallowing me."

After carefully examining the Killing Talismans the spirit medium had given them, Gao Ming discovered that these so-called "Killing Talismans" seemed to be made from human skin. A ghostly figure was trapped inside each one.

"Everything in the strange tale, even the talismans, is connected to Ghosts. Is the shadow world a world made entirely of Ghosts?"

Gao Ming helped Zhu Miaomiao up and carried Zhao Xi on his back. After lingering near the passageway for a moment, he headed toward Building A.

Shadows mingled with bloodstains. The closer he got to Building A, the faster Gao Ming's heart beat. Something deep inside the apartment building seemed to be calling him.

"The spirit medium said this wasn't my first time taking part in the worship ritual. Could I have unwittingly worshipped something in the tunnel?"

The bloody water on the floor gradually diminished. Gao Ming faintly heard the cries of street vendors. He raised his head in a daze and found that he had already crossed the Building Corridor and entered Building A.

Pushing aside the clothes hung out to dry at the Building Corridor entrance, Gao Ming saw children playing and adults chatting. Building A seemed untouched by any strange tale. Everyone was living an ordinary, unremarkable life.

They behaved no differently from neighbors in the real world. The only difference was that each of their bodies was missing something, to a greater or lesser extent.

(End of chapter)