After the ghost left, Ning Zhe didn't immediately rush toward the breaker's location. Instead, he approached the corpse the ghost had just possessed, crouched down, and conducted a simple examination.
The body itself showed nothing unusual. Apart from minor abrasions where skin had rubbed against the lawn during the fall, there were no external injuries. The facial muscles were stiff and frozen, fixing the terrified, twisted features in place at the moment before death.
If Ning Zhe didn't know that both Taiyi and Zhaoyu had been killed by his own hand, he might have thought this person died in He Village. After all, his death state was too similar to Gu Yunqing's—practically identical.
But did this mean nothing suspicious about the body existed?
Of course not.
Ning Zhe pulled a power bank from his pocket and switched on its light.
His power bank was a model with a built-in lamp that, besides charging electronic devices, could serve as an emergency flashlight.
Bright but focused light shone on the corpse before Ning Zhe, illuminating the terrified expression with perfect clarity. But what Ning Zhe looked at now wasn't the body itself, but the lawn behind it.
Corpses killed by this ghost did indeed differ somewhat from ordinary human bodies. Something about them was different—not very obvious, but not very hidden either. Anyone deliberately looking would easily discover it.
But in the earlier chaotic, tense atmosphere, clearly no one had the energy to leisurely concern themselves with the dead.
After experiencing that dangerous moment just now and having a vague direction in mind, Ning Zhe easily discovered some clues from this corpse.
"This corpse has no shadow." Ning Zhe tilted the power bank in his hand slightly, changing the angle of illumination, but the lawn ahead still showed no outline of the corpse.
The light emitted by the electric lamp passed through the deceased on the ground without obstruction, as if passing through glass.
No—even perfectly transparent colorless glass would show some refraction or scattering. But this corpse before him showed nothing. Light passed through the solid human body without any obstruction or attenuation, as if nothing existed ahead.
"People killed by the ghost lose their shadows." Ning Zhe switched off the flashlight and stuffed the power bank back in his pocket, standing up. "All right, let me sort through the information I have now."
The ghost has no normal vision. It cannot see people, only the shadows people cast when illuminated by light.
People killed by the ghost have no shadows.
The ghost doesn't appear alone. It often chooses to possess corpses it has killed to move around.
The ghost fears light. When too close to a light source, the corpse it possesses moves cautiously and sluggishly.
Like earlier in the corridor when it didn't immediately kill Feng Yushu, or under the lamppost when it didn't immediately kill Ning Zhe—when too close to light sources, the ghost's movements became sluggish.
As Ning Zhe pondered, he heard a faint rustle. The corpse lying on the lawn suddenly moved.
The ghost had returned.
Although Ning Zhe had been extremely careful when using the power bank for illumination, he still couldn't avoid his body producing a faint shadow outline in the scattered afterglow of the electric light.
Even though his examination was quick enough and he switched off the light decisively, a shadow that existed was a shadow that existed. Even one second counted as existing. The ghost was a rule, and rules only cared about whether something happened, not to what degree.
Ning Zhe stepped back, silently watching the corpse before him stand up straight, like a city gate pulled up by ropes.
At this moment, the ghost was right in front of him but couldn't find him, because the light was off.
"What an interesting ghost..." Ning Zhe frowned slightly.
Unlike Zhaoyu, this ghost had extremely strong instant-kill properties. Without any information hints, encountering it could easily result in instant death with no chance to react. But once you had intelligence, a direction to evade and think, overcoming or subduing it wasn't difficult.
It could even be called effortless.
"If things are truly as I suspect, and this ghost was deliberately released here because of Zhaoyu..." Ning Zhe's expression became strange. "Then this person really underestimated me."
Even without Bai Zhi's hints, Ning Zhe could use Taiyi's rule to substitute deaths, piling up lives to brute-force the pattern. Many people in the manor had died, but survivors still remained.
Unless the person who released this ghost into the manor didn't know about Taiyi's existence.
"He knows about Zhaoyu but not Taiyi?" Vaguely, Ning Zhe felt he had grasped something extremely important.
Rustle, rustle...
Fine friction sounds came from a nearby honeysuckle bush. Ning Zhe instinctively turned his gaze toward the sound source, immediately followed by a muffled gunshot processed through a suppressor.
Swish—
The human body has its limits. Even athletes with the best physical fitness cannot dodge bullets at such close range. Even if their neural response keeps up, their body cannot.
But rules can keep up.
Taiyi's rule activated far faster than Ning Zhe's body could move.
At the same instant the gunshot rang out, the parasol in Ning Zhe's hand dropped with a bang. The youth holding it vanished from before gun-wielding Old Li's eyes, transforming into a small magpie landing on the lawn.
The moment its claws touched ground, the magpie transformed back into Ning Zhe. His legs kicked hard against the lawn, launching his entire body like an arrow from a bowstring. Before Old Li's gun muzzle could capture the target again, Ning Zhe's fist had already struck his abdomen.
"Urgh!"
The heavy blow to his abdomen brought piercing pain. Yet Old Li couldn't even scream, because while Ning Zhe's right hand struck his abdomen, one knee simultaneously broke his gun-wielding wrist. His left hand seized Old Li's throat before he could cry out, tackling him to the ground.
Like a cheetah pouncing on an antelope, sharp canines locked on the herbivore's windpipe.
Ning Zhe straddled Old Li, expressionlessly choking his neck. His right hand swiftly reached toward the man's face, cleanly inserting fingers toward the eye sockets.
Two squelching sounds followed as Ning Zhe barehanded gouged out Old Li's eyeballs. The detached eyes dangled by optic nerves on either side of his cheeks like yo-yos, tears and blood dripping down.
Only after this did Ning Zhe release Old Li's neck, picking up the riot pistol from the ground and smoothly adopting a shooting stance. "Who are you? Why did you shoot at me?"
However, the severely injured Old Li couldn't immediately answer his questions. The middle-aged security captain curled up on the ground, moaning and rolling in pain.
Swish—
A rubber bullet embedded itself in Old Li's calf, immediately followed by a heartrending scream.
"I'll ask one more time. Who are you? Why did you attack me? Do you have accomplices?" Ning Zhe lowered his voice.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild