See the Law of Deception

Chapter 149 The Substitute (23)

"can."

Lu Jinzhao agreed without hesitation.

After all, she had intended to keep at least one teammate alive.

In the final half-minute of her ordeal, due to excessive blood loss and supernatural interference from the ghost, Qin Wan began to feel dizzy and her steps gradually became unsteady.

Countless people were calling her name in her ear. If Lu Jinzhao hadn't been holding her wrist tightly, she might have already lost her way in the crowd.

But even that ghost must be somewhat helpless, right?
It has used all the tricks it could, and now that the bad luck is almost over, what else can it do?
Everything unfolded as Qin Wan had predicted. Time passed slowly, and the ghost seemed to have no other way to take their lives.

Qin Wan's heart grew increasingly excited. She thought that although this mission was extremely dangerous, fortunately, this ghost's method of killing was particularly unique. It seemed to have no physical body and had to have a substitute take away all the passengers' lives before it could proceed to the next step.

As she was thinking this, Qin Wan's face suddenly stiffened, and her excited heart stopped at that moment.

She thought of a question.

Yes, they weren't the only passengers who entered the instance. What about the others who were successfully replaced by stand-ins?
What about the stand-ins?
They just disappeared like that?

As if in response to her guess, Qin Wan heard the roar of the engine and tires, and the sound of the tires rubbing against the ground.

A beam of high beam shone directly from the other end of the street.

The lights dispelled the darkness and were meant to bring light, if only the car shining those lights hadn't been speeding towards her.

The high beams were too bright for her to see who was in the driver's seat, but whoever it was, the speed at which the car was approaching indicated that they were up to no good.

Several blank stand-ins who were walking towards Qin Wan like zombies on the road were knocked away. The tall vehicle was like a merciless meat grinder, heading straight for its target.

Qin Wan didn't have time to think too much, and could only remind Lu Jinzhao, who was pulling her, in an urgent tone: "Run!"

To be injured like that is incredibly lucky!
Lu Jinzhao didn't need to be reminded; she was already preparing to dodge. However, she was running too slowly with Qin Wan in tow. The car was undoubtedly heading straight for Qin Wan. She could easily have dodged it by simply abandoning her, but Lu Jinzhao didn't do that. She grabbed Qin Wan's hand and pulled her in front of her. Then, Lu Jinzhao quickly grabbed Qin Wan's legs with her other hand, picked her up, and ran to a corner where the oncoming car couldn't reach them before the car hit them!
Qin Wan gripped Lu Jinzhao's shoulders with both hands, her pupils dilating rapidly.

"You're so strong."

Some destinies can enhance a person's physique, but does shadow puppetry also have this effect?

Lu Jinzhao didn't have time to reply to her. The speeding car hadn't hit them, and it was now turning the steering wheel repeatedly at the corner, the wheels screeching against the ground. It looked aggressive and showed no intention of giving up.

"It's Du Yu's teammate!" Qin Wan, who was being carried and didn't have to run herself, didn't stay idle either. She observed carefully for a while and recognized the person sitting in the car.

The two people who had been replaced by stand-ins finally showed up.

"Since the ghosts couldn't have substitutes take our place, they wanted to kill us directly?"

"But this ghost doesn't seem to have a real body, or rather, its real body can't appear in front of us? So it can only use a substitute that has replaced the original."

Seeing that Lu Jinzhao had no intention of putting her down, Qin Wan could only stay put and avoid causing trouble, but she was also constantly trying to analyze Gui Jinzhao's current actions.

It's actually quite simple; I just wanted to kill them.

"So, the reason Du Yu's teammates are only showing up now is because they realize they can't replace us."

Since they cannot be replaced, they must be killed.

This demon has focused all its skills on its Stand, so the only "physical means" left is to bring out the Stand that has successfully replaced the demon.

The blank Stands all over the streets didn't cause them much physical damage, but the Stands that had already replaced them were ready to run them over as soon as they appeared.

Fortunately, not many people were replaced.

The car, which had already turned around, rushed towards the two of them again without hesitation. Misfortune seemed to be pulling the car's front, always managing to hit them in time.

To make matters worse, another beam of high beams appeared from not far away, and another car sped towards them from another direction, blocking the path Lu Jinzhao had originally intended to take.

It's highly likely that he's another teammate of Du Yu.

"Misfortune" performed brilliantly as always.

Several solutions to the current crisis came to mind for Lu Jinzhao, but she rejected the decision that required her to temporarily separate from Qin Wan. She kept holding Qin Wan not only to save her life, but also to confirm that she was with the real Qin Wan all along.

However, even though he had already practiced martial arts and his physical fitness far exceeded that of ordinary people, carrying an adult woman and running at high speed was still too exhausting. Lu Jinzhao could feel the fatigue coming from his body, but fortunately, he could still persevere.

At this moment, going indoors seemed to be the solution to the current crisis, but Lu Jinzhao suddenly asked Qin Wan a question while running quickly.

How long will this misfortune last?

Qin Wan gave a precise answer: "About fifteen seconds, with an error margin of three seconds."

enough.

Even if the "stand-in" driving the two cars hides inside the house with Qin Wan, she will definitely not let them go. She has very little strength left, the bell time has run out, and the shadow puppet has become somewhat tattered. The only thing left that can be used is the wooden box.

However, the wooden box's performance in Tier B dungeons is similar to that of the bell; it may not be very effective, and even if it is, it may come at a great cost. Without the bell, she needs to use it more cautiously.

Therefore, she needs a way to both resolve the current crisis and delay the ghost's attack.

An idea immediately popped into her head, and Lu Jinzhao sprinted towards the center of the wide main road, while two cars traveling in different directions turned their steering wheels in response to her movement.

Qin Wan, who possesses "misfortune," is like a giant magnet, constantly drawing two cars to her location until they crash into her.

The ghost's thoughts were absolutely simple: if she stood motionless on the wide street holding Qin Wan, then the two cars coming from different directions would rush straight towards her and Qin Wan.

As long as she doesn't move ahead of time and waits for the car to enter a range where braking is impossible and even sharp turns of the steering wheel won't help, the two cars will inevitably collide.

Fortunately, the driver wasn't human. Both cars were floored. The ghost didn't have any superb driving skills; she relied entirely on the "stand-in's" memories. In addition, Lu Jinzhao's muscles and reflexes were now much faster than normal, which gave her the courage to do such a thing.

When Qin Wan, who was being held by her, realized what she was about to do, her face turned deathly pale, and she dared not look in the direction of the car at all.

She desperately wanted Lu Jinzhao to put her down. If she had known he intended to do this, she would absolutely, positively ask him not to, to let her down, and to bear this misfortune herself. But it was too late now. Asking Lu Jinzhao to put her down now would be tantamount to suicide.

So she said nothing, and could only hold Lu Jinzhao tightly, like a drowning person clinging to the only piece of driftwood on the sea.

In reality, Lu Jinzhao didn't really understand what distance would absolutely cause the two cars to collide. After all, she hadn't studied this kind of knowledge. Her judgment was simply: at what distance could she react in time and jump out?

Two vehicles approaching sideways floored their accelerators, their engines roaring incessantly. The high beams seemed to pierce Lu Jinzhao's eyes. Qin Wan buried her face in Lu Jinzhao's shoulder like a turtle hiding its head, her hands trembling as she gripped her pocket watch tightly, intending to open it as soon as she realized Lu Jinzhao couldn't escape.

Even if you're smashed to pieces, with a pocket watch, you can recover, but it will probably cost you half a lifetime.

The lights drew closer, and the roar assaulted her eardrums at an alarming speed. Qin Wan felt her heart pounding so hard she felt nauseous. Lu Jinzhao, whom she was clinging to tightly, was also tense, but his heartbeat was surprisingly steady.

How could she remain calm under such circumstances?
While Qin Wan was still in surprise, the two cars were some distance away from them, but only less than three seconds away from colliding.

In a flash, Lu Jinzhao realized that this was her last chance to escape!

Without hesitation, she grabbed Qin Wan and leaped forward!
A deafening crash came from behind her! A burst of flames and flying debris from the vehicle struck Lu Jinzhao from behind, the impact sending her tumbling to the ground twice. Poor Qin Wan immediately cushioned her fall, but thankfully, they weren't turned into mincemeat and survived.

The abrasions and the impact and shrapnel from the vehicle explosion quickly left large patches of blood on Lu Jinzhao's back. She frowned slightly, paused for about two seconds as if adjusting to something, and then stood up and pulled the spitting-blood Qin Wan up from the ground.

Qin Wan's expression was not good, and the resentment in her eyes was almost tangible. She couldn't understand why Lu Jinzhao, who clearly gave her the impression of being a cautious and composed person, would do something so crazy!
She also wanted to ask herself, "Did I see a ghost?"
She had never encountered anything like this before, nor had she heard her seniors talk about experiencing something like being on a movie set when entering a train station. But the next second, something even more bizarre happened.

Not far from them were two cars that had collided, exploded, and caught fire. At that moment, amidst the flames, several teeth-grinding sounds emerged, followed by the sound of collisions, as if people inside, being burned, were calling for help.

But Qin Wan knew it wasn't true.

It was a ghost trying to escape the twisted vehicle, wanting to get out and continue its pursuit of them.

"Even so, is everything alright?"

She wiped the blood from her lips, once again shocked by the existence of "ghosts".

"After all, it's a ghost." Lu Jinzhao said, looking down at his right leg. Based on his experience, he judged that it was probably fractured.

But a real ghost, especially one disguised as a human and not the real thing, will always cause some damage, right?

If these ghosts weren't stand-ins, but rather like the other ghosts on the platform, Lu Jinzhao wouldn't have used such a "physical" method. But these are two "stand-ins" that mimic humans.

Now, having suffered a tremendous impact, being burned by explosions and flames, they are still alive because they are ghosts, so they cannot "die," but their "human-like" bodies still restrict them.

They couldn't even open the twisted car door.

"But it seems like they're locked inside?" Qin Wan looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that although the car door was being repeatedly hit, it couldn't be opened.

The bad luck has passed.

Many of the blank stand-ins who came for Qin Wan had already been injured and sent flying. Now that the misfortune had no pull, they wandered the streets as if they had lost consciousness.

The crisis seems to have been averted.

Qin Wan slumped to the ground; thanks to the fire from the exploding vehicle, they no longer had to be plunged into darkness.

The burning flames brought the two a slight sense of security, even though there were constant clanging sounds coming from the flames.

"They're really tenacious!"

Qin Wan looked at the spot where the vehicles had collided, and then she saw, along with the sound of the impact, bulges appearing on the metal sheet.

Her expression suddenly turned horrified: "They can't possibly get out, can they?!"

Lu Jinzhao also looked at it: "It's probably possible."

She never expected to be able to completely control those two stand-ins.

"What should we do then!" Qin Wan was on the verge of tears. She thought the torment was finally over.

She was already exhausted enough.

"There's nothing we can do. It looks like they won't be out for a while. Let's rest now while the train is coming. We'll run to the train's location in a bit."

What else can I do?
Isn't the only option to run for your life?
On the platform, all they, as human beings, could do was this.

The two fell silent and rested for a while. Lu Jinzhao looked at the still burning flame. Some cracks had appeared on the iron sheet. These steel cages could not hold the substitute for too long.

She stood up and said to Qin Wan, "Let's go."

In short, get away from here and move closer to the train.

Qin Wan didn't use the pocket watch, even though she felt incredibly heavy, as if she were hovering on the edge of death. She knew she could fix these things once she got back on the train. Using the pocket watch to fix things now would truly beckon death and call for it to come quickly.

As the two walked toward the train, a sudden burst of running sounds arose.

"Phew, you guys are here? Are you alright? I thought something had happened to you!"

Zhou Ziming, covered in wounds and looking as if he had been through a fierce battle, ran towards the two of them, seemingly having gone through something or something.

Qin Wan and Lu Jinzhao looked up at him, but did not answer his question. Their eyes were filled with scrutiny and vigilance.

Zhou Ziming seemed a little embarrassed when they didn't respond for a long time.

"Uh, um, it's me, really!"

"It doesn't seem to make any difference."

He scratched his head, looking somewhat lost, then his eyes lit up as if he'd just remembered something: "You'll find out once you get on the bus!"

Lu Jinzhao and Qin Wan exchanged a glance, confirming each other's thoughts, and then said nothing.