Chi Yu searched the room inside and out, her expression darkening. "With this much blood, they're definitely dead, but the body is gone."
Xie Hui was terrified and crying, but Yin Qian knew that since the incident happened here, the person must be nearby.
They hadn't heard any commotion, so there was only one possibility...
His gaze shifted to the window. This was only the third floor.
He leaned out and saw a streak of blood on the dusty wall, leading down to a patch of wasteland overgrown with weeds.
"I'll go down and check."
Although he was tormented by his emotions and felt uncomfortable all over—every breath felt like a heavy burden—Yin Qian knew they couldn't afford to wait.
Chi Yu nodded, and Yin Qian forced himself to rally his spirits and ran out.
Chi Yu paced around the room for a moment before turning to look at Xie Hui.
"Are you okay? Let's go check the church."
Xie Hui gritted her teeth and stood up. "Okay."
Once they reached the church, the deathly paleness of Xie Hui's face improved slightly. Being here seemed to settle her mind.
"Do you come here every day?"
Chi Yu circled the church. Although it was dilapidated, it was kept quite clean, showing that Xie Hui put a lot of heart into it.
She walked over to the confessional Xie Hui had mentioned and pulled back the black cloth. Indeed, she saw a pool of blood inside, sprayed in a pattern that dripped and trailed out toward the exterior.
Something wasn't right.
Scavengers all took courses in criminal investigation and autopsy. When it came to these matters, they were considered experts; they weren't like ordinary people who couldn't see anything.
As she was observing, Xie Hui's voice suddenly came from behind her.
"Your relationship with Brother Yin isn't very good, is it?"
Chi Yu frowned and turned to look. Xie Hui was standing not far behind her with a strange expression.
"What did you say?"
Xie Hui repeated herself. "Are you two no longer in love?"
Chi Yu complained inwardly that there had never been any love to begin with.
Seeing her expression, Xie Hui sighed.
"I've hosted so many programs and seen so many couples. I've almost never been wrong."
"Even for people who love each other, emotions change. Love is clearly such an important thing, so why doesn't anyone cherish it?"
"They only regret it when things reach a point of no return."
Chi Yu looked at her without expression. The other party was just a young girl. Even if she truly harbored ill intentions, as a battle-hardened scavenger, Chi Yu wasn't afraid.
Even without using her abilities, an ordinary man wouldn't last three rounds against her.
Xie Hui tilted her head. "I want to know which kind you are. The type to abandon each other when disaster strikes, or... the type willing to sacrifice yourself for the other?"
Xie Hui didn't walk over. Instead, she stepped toward a person-sized green plant and gave it a push. The plant toppled over, and the flowerpot shattered across the floor.
A round object rolled out from the pot, coming to a stop at Chi Yu's feet.
It was a human head, long since shriveled and dried.
As Chi Yu's eyes met the head, an indescribable wave of fear suddenly surged within her.
The fear traveled through her entire body, making her limbs go weak. She barely managed to avoid collapsing on the spot.
Xie Hui giggled and pulled out a palm-length dagger from behind her back, slowly walking toward Chi Yu.
"I'm curious. How will Brother Yin react when he sees your head?"
Chi Yu was completely enveloped by fear. She couldn't think or react; her mind felt like a mess of mush.
Right then, a clear female voice rang out in Chi Yu's mind like a clap of thunder, dispelling the fog in her brain.
"Chi Yu! Remember your identity! Don't let the returning spirit's resentment consume your mind."
At the sound of this familiar voice, the sense of fear in Chi Yu's heart vanished instantly. Her hands and feet were still weak, but she was now able to dodge Xie Hui's strike and barely manage to escape.
"Zhu Xi Ning?!"
The voice that had echoed in Chi Yu's mind belonged to Zhu Xi Ning, who was supposed to be in a deep sleep in the rooftop room.
"It's me. Time is short, so listen. Before, I saw black energy on everyone in the demolition building, but that wasn't accurate."
"I can see it clearly now. Most people have black energy inside their bodies. This energy grows denser the longer they stay in the building until they are completely assimilated."
This was likely what had happened to Su Xiaoxi and Mu Qing. They had once been on the verge of being assimilated by the deceased residents.
"But there are a few people who don't have black energy inside them. Instead, the black energy is clinging to them."
Zhu Xi Ning's voice was still weak, but her tone was incredibly firm.
"That is the vengeance of the returning spirits upon their killers."
"There are three killers in this building!"
...
On the other side, Nan Yue hadn't rushed back to the demolition building. She hadn't even made it out of the fourth level of the underground parking lot before she was blocked.
She looked silently at the man opposite her, having already roughly outlined the secret of the building in her mind.
"Chen Zhenxiong," Nan Yue said in a flat voice, "you're the one who kills people and slashes their faces to ribbons."
Chen Zhenxiong slowly walked toward Nan Yue. The smile on his face seemed to twitch, becoming uncontrollably excited.
"Everyone says I'm a monster."
Perhaps because he rarely spoke, Chen Zhenxiong's pronunciation was somewhat stiff, sounding quite eerie.
"But I've realized that their faces are the truly ugly ones."
Nan Yue already knew about Chen Zhenxiong's past. His current state had only begun after he was subjected to cyberbullying.
She wasn't a judge and had no way to determine if Chen Zhenxiong counted as a victim. She only wanted the truth.
"Why did you dump the scoundrel's body on the first floor?"
This was Nan Yue's confusion. Leading them to the pit of corpses behind the building later was likely to clear himself of suspicion.
A man like Chen Zhenxiong was very sharp. He had sensed that Nan Yue's group wasn't simple, so he had used a method to distance himself first.
However, the scoundrel's body had always been a point of confusion for them.
A body showing the characteristics of two different killers had inexplicably appeared nearby while Oasis Community was searching the demolition area.
In fact, if it hadn't been for that scoundrel's body, Nan Yue and the others wouldn't have even known a second killer existed.
"I hate it when others touch my trophies."
Chen Zhenxiong's eyelids twitched neurotically, looking as if he were about to mutate in the dim environment.
"No interference. That was our agreement."
Nan Yue narrowed her eyes. A killer's logic was often incomprehensible, but she understood Chen Zhenxiong's meaning now.
Living in the same building, they were each aware of the other's business. The intuition between their kind was very keen.
For a long time, they had not interfered with each other. They didn't touch the prey the other had set their sights on, nor did they disrupt the other's hunting.
But this time, that old man had actually laid a hand on his trophy.
That was something he couldn't accept.
So he had thrown the scoundrel's body on the first floor. It wasn't for others to see; it was a warning to the old man.
No wonder Old Wu had fled. From any perspective, he likely didn't want to face the Mute.
Rate on N.U.
