Ning Zhe's shadow was projected on the wall by the flashlight's beam, with curves both front and back, delicate and graceful.
Jade Water Bay Manor required bachelor's degrees even for security guards, so naturally they had standards for waitstaff appearance as well. Liu Yunzhi and Xie Yaoan's figures and looks were well above average. With a bit of makeup and a beauty filter, either could easily livestream and hook wealthy men.
In the corridor, the electrician's corpse that had collapsed on the ground stood up straight. The entire process used neither hands nor feet. Like a city gate pulled up by ropes, it rose vertically into the air, straight as a javelin.
The ghost silently turned its head. Its lifeless gaze swept over Ning Zhe's shadow, then paused for several seconds on the flashlight in Feng Yushu's hand.
As Ning Zhe had observed before, when too close to a light source, the ghost's movements became cautious and slow. It feared light, but why did it fear light?
This was what Ning Zhe wanted to figure out.
A ghost was still just a ghost, not Taiyi with human identity and memories. After idling for a moment, it still began to act according to its rules. Its javelin-straight body leapt high and fell heavily. The spiked shoes on both feet struck the ground with a crisp thump.
Thump.
Ning Zhe stood not far from the corpse, just a few steps away. With this leap, the ghost covered more than half the distance, now less than a meter from Ning Zhe.
At such close range, both Ning Zhe and Feng Yushu could see the earnest working expression on the electrician's face. His focused eyes seemed to be examining something, yet also seemed to see nothing at all.
Feng Yushu gripped the flashlight tightly with both hands, staring unblinkingly at this upright corpse before her, afraid to miss even a single frame of movement that might cause her to overlook any detail.
Under Feng Yushu's gaze, the ghost leapt again.
With this jump, it leapt from the corridor's darkness into the flashlight beam's illumination range. A shadow thick as ink was thus projected on the wall.
The electrician possessed by the ghost was not tall, a small man under 1.7 meters, yet the shadow beneath his feet appeared disproportionately massive and ferocious. This disparity far exceeded the scope of lighting angles, stretching a deep blackness across the wall. The terrifying angular contours at the shadow's edges completely failed to match the corpse's actual posture.
This didn't look like the electrician's own shadow at all. It looked more like a vicious demon crouching on the ground.
The flashlight's beam originated from Feng Yushu's body and shone forward, yet this demon's shadow didn't extend along the light's direction. Instead, like a barbed black arrow, it pointed unerringly at Ning Zhe.
More precisely, it pointed at Ning Zhe's shadow cast on the wall.
Then the ghost leapt again.
The upright corpse like a javelin leapt high and fell heavily. The legs pressed together became like a spear tip, piercing through a patch of darkness on the ground.
The ghost stepped on Ning Zhe's shadow.
Ning Zhe died.
"This is the ghost's killing method? You die if it steps on your shadow?" Feng Yushu's heart was shocked, but without any delay she shut off the flashlight's power. The corridor immediately plunged into pitch blackness.
With a thud, Ning Zhe's body fell down. Liu Yunzhi's soft body leaned against the wall. The waitress uniform on his body quickly disappeared, and the flesh-toned stockings wrapping both legs returned to Ning Zhe's long pants.
"Ning Zhe, are you all right?" Feng Yushu asked anxiously.
"Just lost one life, how big a deal can it be?" Ning Zhe braced both hands against the wall, trying to stand. But just as he rose, he collapsed again. "Ah, damn..."
Feng Yushu's expression grew panicked, anxiously watching Ning Zhe whose condition was clearly wrong. She couldn't help glancing several times at the electrician's corpse still standing motionless in place.
The ghost still stood there. It hadn't left yet.
Ning Zhe struggled but hadn't managed to get up.
Feng Yushu couldn't figure out the current situation at all. "Ning Zhe, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm fine, just a little... side effect, Taiyi's side effect." Ning Zhe said breathlessly. "I need a little time to recover, to recover... Auntie, you go kill this ghost. You go end all this."
"Eh... eh?" Feng Yushu froze. "I go kill the ghost? Are you serious..."
"Yes, while it hasn't left yet. Time waits for no one." Ning Zhe's voice grew increasingly weak. "Go quickly, kill it, using the method it killed me..."
"The method... it killed you?" Feng Yushu still couldn't quite process this.
"Ever played shadow-stepping games?"
Ning Zhe's voice was weak, trembling slightly as he spoke. "Two children each hug one leg and use the remaining leg to hop and jump trying to step on the other's shadow."
"Whoever's shadow gets stepped on is considered dead. This is this ghost's rule. Very incredible, right? It's just that simple."
Simple enough that it required a life to test.
"But..." Feng Yushu wanted to ask more, but this time, Ning Zhe didn't answer her.
The corridor was completely silent, quiet enough to hear one's own heartbeat. Ning Zhe leaned against the wall, unconscious. The ghost stood by the wall, motionless. Only Feng Yushu remained, holding the flashlight in her hand, at a loss.
Watching time pass second by second, the ghost was about to leave. The window of time left for her was nearly exhausted.
Feng Yushu bit her lip tightly. Her left hand trembling, she placed the flashlight on the windowsill and turned on the power switch.
The moment white light shot out, that ferocious demon appeared on the wall again. It seemed to have discovered something. Its massive, malevolent form shrank drastically the instant the light came on, as if wanting to shrink back under the electrician corpse's feet. But calculated intention beats unprepared response.
A layout prepared in advance could be faster than the rule's retreat.
Before the ghost disappeared, Feng Yushu's feet stepped on its head. Like a spear piercing armor, she pierced through this thick ink that had stained the night curtain.
In this instant, time seemed to freeze.
The massive and ferocious black shadow struggled and convulsed under Feng Yushu's feet, its limbs twisting into inhuman shapes, like a living snake nailed to a wall with a pin, and also seeming to emit some kind of shrill scream that ordinary people couldn't hear.
The scene before her eyes was absurd and eerie, yet carried some unspeakable quality of blasphemy and morbid curiosity that made Feng Yushu afraid to move at all.
That demon convulsing and twisting underfoot was like a deity being tortured...
Feng Yushu didn't know why such a thought suddenly appeared in her mind. There was no reason for it at all, yet this idea had indeed formed, crystal clear.
The flashlight's beam fell on the silent corridor. Feng Yushu saw that beneath her feet, on this beautiful marble floor, her own shadow was gradually disappearing, rippling and dissipating like bubbles in water.
The demon crushed beneath her feet also gradually stopped struggling at this moment, recovering that massive and ferocious terrifying posture. Its feet connected with Feng Yushu's feet. The terrifying limbs imitated Feng Yushu's appearance, assuming a posture similar to hers, as if it had truly become her shadow.
The ghost was dead.
The instant the ghost was killed, Feng Yushu knew its name:
"Terang...?"
What a strange name.
"Oh right, Ning Zhe!" Feng Yushu crouched down in a panic, cupping Ning Zhe's face with both hands, wanting to check his condition. But in the next moment, a terrifying scene appeared before her eyes.
On Ning Zhe's face was someone else's face.
"Zhang Yangxu?" Feng Yushu recognized the features on Ning Zhe's face. Full forehead, flat cheekbones, upright and rugged features. It was Zhang Yangxu.
But in the next moment, his features changed again, transforming from a stern and tough middle-aged man into a face with soft feminine lines. It was Liu Yunzhi's face.
After Liu Yunzhi came Old Li, then another person Feng Yushu didn't recognize. Different people's different appearances flashed back and forth on Ning Zhe's body. His build and appearance constantly changed in a short time, flip-flopping repeatedly, like a frequently stuttering film strip playing in reverse.
Broken pixels escaped from Ning Zhe's body. Feng Yushu screamed, discovering that Ning Zhe's neck had grown ink-green snake scales.
"The Snake God?" Feng Yushu's voice trembled.
In the next moment, those snake scales transformed into a hazy smoke, formless and shapeless, born from emptiness and destroyed in emptiness.
The features on Ning Zhe's face constantly changed. Curved long horns grew from the top of his head. His left hand was thick and dark like a man's, while his right hand was as pale and tender as a woman's. Feminine charm and masculine toughness appeared simultaneously on his body. Chaos, cacophony, without center.
A hoarse voice of indeterminate gender emerged from Ning Zhe's mouth, as if crossing eons of ancient time:
"Who... am I?"
Volume One: The Guest Who Ascends the Tower.
End.
Chapters in advance there: patreon.com/Thaniel_a_goodchild