Chapter Thirty-Two: The True Face of the Enemy

“That’s Blackface Guard Baolifu’s room.”

Shang Yi slapped his thigh. “This isn’t good. We need to get back to the second floor, now.”

Without another word, he and the Three Ghosts rushed to Blackface Guard’s room on the second floor, but there was still no sign of Zhang Kun.

He looked at the Three Ghosts, his face full of confusion. “Was this door locked before we came up?”

Tan Gong, ever meticulous, answered immediately, “I saw you lock it.”

“But when we just entered this room, the door wasn’t locked!”

“That means Zhang Kun has been here and escaped through this door.”

“His teleportation went downward—he went straight from the third floor to the second!”

“It’s been about two minutes now. He could teleport again at any moment!”

“For him, slipping past the apartment’s walls is a breeze. Catching him now will be almost impossible!”

Shang Yi and the Three Ghosts looked at each other, stunned. None of them had expected that such a meticulously arranged capture would be foiled by Zhang Kun’s desperate escape.

Shang Yi hadn’t even seen what the man looked like.

“So what now?” Xiong Xia felt a little dejected, having failed her part of the blockade.

Shang Yi thought for a few seconds. “We still can’t risk going to Fang Liang. We’ll have to wait for the police to arrive.”

“All of you, stay invisible and follow me. Unless I give the word, don’t show yourselves.”

“I’ll go open the main gate outside, so the police can get in more easily.”

“If we approach Fang Liang with the police later, protect me and the officers—don’t engage Fang Liang unless absolutely necessary.”

“I’ll try to check the Forbidden Zone Detector secretly. If I find anything, I’ll let you know.”

The Three Ghosts nodded and faded from view.

Shang Yi locked the door behind him, returned to the first-floor bedroom, changed into his own clothes, picked up the Hanged Man’s gear, and went to the trap location to dress the Hanged Man’s body again.

He took the Hanged Man’s keys, opened the apartment’s iron gate, then walked back to the main building, intending to check the Hanged Man’s room on the fourth floor.

Just as he entered the living room, two people walked toward him, and he could hardly believe his eyes.

It was his mother, Bai Mei, and his father, Shang Li, coming toward him.

“Yi, let’s go home.”

“Son, your mother and I are back—aren’t you happy?”

Shang Yi was utterly shocked by this scene. The tone and expression of his parents were exactly as he remembered.

“Could it really be my parents come back?”

Happiness arrived so suddenly that he could scarcely believe it.

The sight of his parents, their voices and smiles, nearly broke through all his defenses.

For a moment, he felt like a child again, as if he had returned to the happy days of his childhood.

Just as he was about to stretch out his arms and embrace his parents, something seemed to stir in his personal space.

He checked in his mind and saw that Tang Bohu in the pet section was baring his teeth and claws, leaping about wildly, desperate to get out.

He sensed, keenly, that something was wrong.

He couldn’t help but recall the moment when he had pushed his parents over the cliff.

—

Tang Bohu’s frantic behavior finally jolted his mind into motion. “My parents fell from the cliff—how could they suddenly appear here?”

As he watched his parents come closer, a slight wavering crept into his heart.

He closed his right eye and looked at them with his left. Nothing seemed amiss.

“It really does look like my parents.”

But just as he was about to open his right eye again, he caught, in the edge of his left vision, something standing a few meters away.

“What is that?” He jumped in fright, turning his head—only to find the Three Ghosts had vanished.

In their place stood three monsters he had seen in Nine Yin Mountain Prison—a lizard, a crocodile, and a dinosaur!

His hackles rose instantly, his heart pounding violently.

“No, why does this feel so familiar?”

His mind whirled with confusion. He felt he had experienced something like this before—but when?

He forced himself to ignore his parents for the moment, staring at the three monsters while frantically searching his memory for the source of that sense of déjà vu. But nothing came.

“Hm? Why do the movements of their claws look so familiar?”

Suddenly, the way the three monsters moved their claws caught his attention. After a few seconds, a near-instinctive realization dawned on him.

“These are police hand signals! Danger! Enemy! Evade!”

He still didn’t fully grasp what was happening, but his police academy training before transmigrating kicked in, guiding his reflexes.

He instantly performed a diving roll, narrowly avoiding his father’s outstretched hand.

“Son, what’s wrong? I’m your father!”

Shang Li’s face showed some surprise, but he kept smiling as he walked closer.

Shang Yi looked again at the monsters, who continued to make police hand signals.

A flash of lightning seemed to split his mind.

“This is an illusion?”

He quickly shut his eyes and released Tang Bohu from the pet section.

To his shock, what emerged wasn’t a little honey badger, but a giant beast like the legendary qilin!

The creature landed with a leap and pounced, claws flailing, at his father.

“Son, help me!” Shang Li shouted.

Shang Yi was stunned by the bizarre scene, his muscles tensed, his whole body cold, nearly paralyzed as he watched the qilin knock his father to the ground.

—

A white light flashed before his eyes, so bright he could hardly open them.

A few seconds later, as his sight returned, his parents and the monsters were gone.

In front of him stood an old man in hospital clothes, and a tall, thin, long-faced man.

“It’s Fang Liang and Zhang Kun!”

He had finally broken free from Fang Liang’s psychic illusion and saw his enemies’ true faces.

Tang Bohu seemed to have deep hostility toward any creature with hallucinatory powers. The moment it emerged, it pounced at Fang Liang.

Fang Liang was maintaining illusions against both Shang Yi and the now-recovered Three Ghosts, under great strain at a critical moment.

—

Suddenly attacked by a threatening force, his mental power rebounded, dealing him a severe blow.

Seeing Fang Liang’s dazed expression and Zhang Kun’s tense demeanor, Shang Yi knew the most dangerous moment had passed; now both sides were locked in stalemate.

He quickly took the Forbidden Zone Detector from his personal space and slipped it into his pocket. Looking to his side, he saw the Three Ghosts had become visible, all ready in fighting stances.

He signaled them: “Stay alert. Hold position.” To buy thirty seconds, he began a psychological battle with the enemy.

“Director Fang, the Hanged Man betrayed the Fool and sent me to clean house. What you’re doing now is mixing up friend and foe.”

Fang Liang was already shocked that Shang Yi had broken free of his psychic illusion.

Hearing that he was supposedly sent by the Fool, Fang Liang normally wouldn’t have believed a word. But in this moment, a sliver of doubt crept in. “The Fool sent you?”

Zhang Kun was a deeply suspicious man. Ever since coming to Lu’en Apartments and getting involved in so many murders, he’d been on edge, locking his door every time he was in his room.

Earlier, sensing that the Hanged Man’s voice was off, he probed and realized the person outside wasn’t the Hanged Man, so he quickly activated the Forbidden Zone ability [Demon Spirit Flash] and escaped to the second floor.

He’d intended to ask Blackface Guard for help, but upon arrival, saw both Blackface Guard and the bald fat man trussed up on the floor.

Realizing the enemy was on the third floor, he didn’t linger, but immediately fled outside.

At the wall in the courtyard, he kept watch on the living room door, ready to escape over the wall if anything went wrong.

After a while, seeing Shang Yi leave the living room, he thought that running away would get him nowhere, so he might as well return to the third floor and seek Fang Liang’s help.

He waited until Shang Yi was far enough away, then rushed back to the third floor, found Fang Liang, and explained the situation.

Fang Liang listened, half believing, half doubting. He first led Zhang Kun to the fourth floor to look for the Hanged Man, sensed that he wasn’t there, and then went back down to the second floor.

Upon sensing that Blackface Guard and the bald fat man were unconscious, he realized there really was an intruder in the apartment, and a formidable one at that.

The two of them had just reached the living room when Shang Yi, with three invisible ghosts, entered.

Seeing the situation deteriorate, Fang Liang hurriedly activated his Forbidden Zone, [Lu’en Mirage], trapping both Shang Yi and the Three Ghosts in a dream.

But Xue Ling, Tan Gong, and Xiong Xia had already regained their Forbidden Zones, giving them some resistance to his illusion.

They retained enough reasoning to signal Shang Yi.

Thus Shang Yi dodged Zhang Kun’s deadly attack.

Now, with Shang Yi suddenly claiming to be sent by the Fool to clean house, Zhang Kun, too, was startled.

But being meticulous, he quickly realized that Shang Yi had earlier imitated the Hanged Man’s voice.

If he really was sent by the Fool, there was no need to impersonate the Hanged Man.

Seeing Fang Liang’s face clouded with uncertainty, Zhang Kun quickly warned, “Director Fang, he can’t be from the Fool—he just pretended to be the Hanged Man to trick me.”

Regardless of what Fang Liang believed, he no longer had the strength to recast his illusion.

At that moment, as Fang Liang hesitated, Tang Bohu once again leaped up from the ground, pouncing at Fang Liang.

Zhang Kun, holding a dagger, saw the creature lunging at Fang Liang, who seemed terrified of it. Thinking it was just a cat, Zhang Kun stabbed at it with the knife.

Tang Bohu, mid-flight, noticed another attacker and swung a claw at Zhang Kun’s wrist, twisting to bite down on the back of the blade.

Zhang Kun hadn’t expected such agility and ferocity from a little cat, and was caught off guard, scrambling in panic against Tang Bohu’s counterattack.

Shang Yi saw Tang Bohu and Zhang Kun locked in struggle, Fang Liang motionless, and, with thirty seconds now passed, hurriedly glanced at the Forbidden Zone Detector.