See the Law of Deception

Chapter 255 Heredity (61)

Perhaps it was the slightly calmer breathing, heartbeat, or even subtle physiological changes that made Yangpi realize that she had once again obtained some information from what it had said, and it once again fell into a kind of "emotion" that was almost angry and embarrassed.

It was unaware of the change in its "emotions." In fact, it didn't even quite understand that it had fallen into an emotional state. It just felt that no matter what Lu Jinzhao said next, it absolutely should not reveal any more information.

Now, it has become even more like a "person".

How could they be hallucinating?

Lu asked via typing today.

I'll tell you about the transaction.

Will they wake up before the train arrives?

I'll tell you about the transaction.

Lu Jinzhao raised an eyebrow slightly when he saw the repeated words.

"Won't they notice if I skin them now?"

I'll proceed with the transaction.

【? 】

Are you still human?

That's hard to say.

She certainly didn't really intend to skin the other passengers alive right now, nor did she think the other passengers would simply succumb to their illusions and die.

However, this kind of waste of time is not a solution.

Lu Jinzhao moved a little closer and carefully observed the state of the others. Most of them had their heads down, looking at the ground, their eyes unfocused, as if they could not concentrate.

Only Shen Yi, in the moment she fell into the hallucination, seemed to be looking up ahead, and at this moment, her gaze was indeed looking forward.

This means that if she doesn't wake up in time, she will break the taboo of "not letting your shadow out of your sight for more than thirty seconds".

Lu Jinzhao looked at Tian Lei again. Like the others, she had her head down, lost in her illusion. After a moment of thought, [Killer] crawled out from Lu Jinzhao's shoulder and then leaped onto Tian Lei's head.

When it landed on Tianlei's head, a palm the size of a piece of paper gently patted Tianlei's head, and the power of the [nemesis] was already poured into it.

The color of half of [Killer]'s face faded instantly, and tiny cracks appeared in it, like a mask that was half broken.

Less than a second later, Tian Lei's pupils trembled slightly, and her unfocused gaze slowly returned to focus. Her face still held the bewilderment of a hallucination, but when she looked up, she saw Lu Jinzhao standing in front of her, raising an index finger to his lips, signaling her to be quiet.

Immediately, Tian Lei regained consciousness.

[Killer] swayed and slid down from Tian Lei's head to her shoulder. Lu Jinzhao raised her hand to catch her, allowing Tian Lei to clearly see the damaged state of [Killer].

It will probably break completely after one more use.

Tian Lei looked at Lu Jinzhao with a hint of confusion. She hadn't expected Lu Jinzhao to be willing to help her like this, even though their relationship was already quite "close" and their cooperation at the event was very smooth.

But this is, after all, a death trap. Every time you help others, your own strength will diminish. Perhaps, at the crucial moment, you'll be missing just one last chance.
Lu Jinzhao didn't give her much time to overthink. After calculating that it was almost 30 seconds, she pointed in Shen Yi's direction.

Tian Lei's gaze followed her hand to Shen Yi, and then she immediately realized why Lu Jinzhao had asked her to look over there.

She recalled Shen Yi's destiny. Although she didn't know exactly what it was, it was rumored to have an excellent effect on ghosts, which was one of the reasons why she was able to become a special-grade ghost.

Soon, 30 seconds passed, and Shen Yi broke the taboo.

The shadow beneath her feet moved.

At first, it was just a tiny, insignificant change, like a test, gently swaying, like a leaf being blown by the wind.

But those were shadows, not leaves, so they couldn't be moved by the wind, and there was no wind here.

Then, the dark, flat shadow head turned slightly.

It seemed to be listening intently, or perhaps observing something.

It "watched" for a while.

Until it was determined that it was "free".

So it began to bend down.

It wasn't actually getting shorter; rather, it was moving closer to Shen Yi, folding its body little by little in a way that defied physics, bringing itself ever closer to her.
Its arms were outstretched, as if it wanted to give Shen Yi a hug.

In the pitch-black shadow, those hands were like two outstretched tentacles, trying to grab Shen Yi, who was not even on the same plane as them.

What's terrifying is that when it did this, the clothes on Shen Yi's arms dented slightly, and the marks indicated that they had been gripped by a pair of transparent hands.

It's not hard to imagine that if Shen Yi were to remain immersed in this illusion, she would likely be swallowed up by her own shadow without even realizing it.

But in the very second she was caught, Shen Yi suddenly snapped out of her hallucination!
Lu Jinzhao could see large goosebumps rising on the back of her neck, as if it were a sensation or some kind of stimulation. Then, the invisible hands that had been gripping her arms suddenly withdrew as if they had been burned by a raging fire.

The shadow on the ground distorted for a moment, then immediately returned to its original shape.

what happened?
At the moment Shen Yi was "caught" by the shadow, something must have been at work, allowing her to immediately break free from the illusion and also avert the taboo attack.

Immersed in her hallucinations, she probably can't use supernatural items on her own. So, is that her destiny?
It can be passively triggered, can resolve direct supernatural attacks, and can also help her break free from hallucinations. Although it was not obvious before, now it seems that this destiny is quite useful.

When Shen Yi woke up from the hallucination, she was no different from before, and it seemed that she had not suffered any injuries.

She felt her destiny had just been triggered, and seeing the scene before her, she suddenly realized that she had just fallen into an illusion. However, when she turned her head and saw Lu Jinzhao and Tian Lei, who were equally awake, she showed a hint of surprise.

Only those who were immersed in the hallucination just now could know how sudden and unexpected it was. Even though her destiny was supposed to protect her from supernatural attacks, she still entered the hallucination without warning. If she hadn't violated the taboo of shadows, she probably wouldn't have been able to wake up from the hallucination.

This is not normal. Her destiny should help her ward off all ghosts that try to "get close" to her, so why would she be pulled into a hallucination without any defense?

Moreover, the hallucination felt like a return to that moment, to that past she didn't want to look back on.

She was pulled in once during a patrol mission, and although she was on guard after that, she still fell for it.

Such a hidden and hard-to-defend hallucination, yet the two Level 1s next to her woke up even earlier than her?

About ten seconds later, Luo Yu followed Bai Pei, and the special-grade members gradually broke free from the hallucination. However, their expressions were not pleasant, not only because they had suddenly fallen into a hallucination, but also because of what had happened in the hallucination.

Those were memories that none of them wanted to recall, yet they couldn't forget. They had suddenly recalled those past events during patrol missions, and had also fallen into strange hallucinations during missions at the ancestral hall. This time, it was as if the two had overlapped.

The memories seemed to be shrouded in a strange shadow, becoming incongruous, as if something was being altered. But when they broke free from the illusion and tried to recall the encounter in the illusion, they couldn't figure out where that sense of incongruity came from.

The strange woman was the one who finally broke free from the illusion.

Unlike the others, upon waking, her face was contorted with rage for a moment, and she even frantically looked down at her hands before slowly regaining her composure. Those present didn't urge her on; the passage of time wasn't necessarily a bad thing for them now, especially since simply standing and waiting, with no other events unfolding, was actually a positive thing.

This means that there are no new forbidden resurrections that can be triggered simply by standing like this.

No one present wanted to leave the group and go alone; who knew if some taboo of "not being alone" would suddenly arise?
It would only take them less than ten minutes to walk to the village entrance, even if they walked slowly. They had plenty of time, even too much time.

Once everyone had woken up, the group slowly continued its journey.

The fog was so thick that they could not see anything ahead, but fortunately, they knew the village’s layout by heart, so the fog would not make them lose their way. The only thing to worry about was whether the fog might be hiding other dangers.
The sound of footsteps on the ground gradually became sticky, the damp mud clinging to the soles of the shoes, making each step heavier than the last.

Occasionally, you'll step on some dry branches and hear them creak and break.

click-

It was the sound of stepping on fallen leaves and withered branches.

rustle--

It's the sound of too much mud stuck to the soles of your feet, scraping against the ground.

—Pfft

A muffled thud came not from the ground, but from behind.

Lu Jinzhao paused, and she and the others turned around to look behind them.

Even though they weren't far apart, the woman's figure became somewhat blurry in the mist. A large amount of white fog swirled around her. She stood still, and judging from her posture, she must have been walking normally before she stopped.

Something happened that forced her to stop.

That thing is her right arm right now.

The arm, twisted in an impossible way, from fingertips to elbows, looked like a wrung-out towel.

The blood didn't drip down his arm, but splattered—splashing and splashing, turning the nearby white mist red.

The woman's eyes widened; she had no idea which taboo she had violated that had led to this sudden misfortune.

The twisting continued, and a sickening sound kept coming from her arm; the "towel" hadn't been wrung out yet.

The woman finally realized what was happening. She quickly pulled a supernatural object from her bag to stop the attack, but even after the attack stopped, her arm wouldn't return to normal.

She was still bleeding, and her face was pale from the pain and blood loss, with large beads of sweat dripping from her forehead.

Fortunately, passengers usually carry some first-aid supplies in their backpacks. As she rummaged through them, she looked at the others and then, somewhat incredulously, realized that she was the only one who had been attacked, the only one who had broken the taboo.

No, that's not right.

And there's Lu Jinzhao.

She looked at Lu Jinzhao's missing left calf.

Could they be the same?
Different.

Lu Jinzhao knew this clearly.

The attack that woman was experiencing was completely different from hers.

The only similarity is that they were the only ones who "alone" broke the taboo.

She was cursed by misfortune, but what about women?

Did she do anything unusual just now?
If not, then what caused her to break the taboo?
What makes her different?
Several questions swirled in Lu Jinzhao's mind. Perhaps because the woman's previous behavior was so strange, she was still unable to let down her guard against her.

It's not that I think it might be a ghost in disguise or that I'm possessed by a ghost, but rather that I have a kind of aversion to this "person" himself.

The woman simply wrapped the twisted arm to stop the blood from spurting and considered the treatment done. She practically treated the arm as a pile of rotten flesh, and the whole process took less than five minutes.

When she stood up again, the woman staggered slightly, feeling dizzy from blood loss.

But I should be able to hold on until I get on the bus without any problem.

In the mist, the group set off again.

Visibility became even narrower; if the distance between people exceeded two meters, it felt as if they were about to be swallowed up by the thick fog.

Tian Lei stood very close, her shoulder pressed against Lu Jinzhao's shoulder. She was very worried that something might happen that would cause her to get separated from Lu Jinzhao.

The atmosphere was incredibly oppressive. Unexpected events kept happening one after another, which was to be expected, but what would happen next was completely unpredictable.

got windy.

The wind blowing from the mountains brought a refreshing coolness, but it also dispersed the thick white fog.

The fog has lessened somewhat.

But this doesn't necessarily mean it's a good thing.

Ahead, several figures appeared, but they weren't red.

They walked silently down the road, their faces and clothes obscured by the fog, only a few vague silhouettes visible.

Even though the details were unclear and only an outline was visible, it still made everyone present feel a sense of unease.

so similar.

Their silhouettes in the fog were so much like their own.

The other party seemed to have noticed them as well, and stopped as well.

The two groups gazed at each other from afar, neither able to make out the other's face, yet neither daring to approach easily.

Another hallucination?

When this idea came to mind, someone had already verified it.

But they did not fall into hallucinations again at this moment.

The fog thinned out a bit, and now we could see much better.

The figures facing them in front of them matched their features perfectly, including the woman's twisted arm.

Lu Jinzhao was the only one not included.