Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

Xiang Yu roughly understood the rules of this shopping mall.

First, once a living person's identity is exposed in public, those "ghosts" will hunt them down relentlessly.

Secondly, wearing paper clothes can indeed reduce one's presence, but it's only a temporary solution. After observing for a long time, these ghosts will still discover that you are a living person and then hunt you down.

Third, here "living people" are "ghosts," and "ghosts" are "living people."

After all, the fat boss recognized the head that had been kicked, and that head was clearly still conscious.

In the eyes of a ghost, the children are nothing more than kicking a mannequin's head.

This leads to the final rule...

Before proceeding, Xiangyu needs to verify this.

Xiang Yu looked back and saw that one of the pursuing ghosts was about to catch the slowest-running fat boss. So Xiang Yu slowed down, turned around, and slowly raised his right arm, clenching his fist. A terrifying energy gathered between his knuckles—a thousand kilojoules.

This is roughly equivalent to the energy of several hand grenades. He must ensure that the power of this punch is enough to pulverize the pursuing ghost, otherwise he cannot verify his conjecture.

Seeing that Xiang Yu had slowed down, the ghost immediately changed its target, preparing to grab Xiang Yu first.

It missed.

Because the moment Xiang Yu turned around, he had already thrown a punch.

"boom!!!"

The moment the shockwave exploded, the windows of several nearby shops shattered simultaneously, shards raining down in all directions. The violent energy surged through the fist into the pursuer's body, tearing and blasting it apart from the point of impact, causing the body to explode completely from the center outwards.

The fat boss standing nearby almost dropped his jaw when he saw this scene. Who would be so kind as to punch something that would have the effect of a bomb?

Is this even human? Could this person be a ghost too?! No, wait, if ghosts really exist, then having superpowers isn't so surprising...

Qigong, yes, it must be qigong! This man is a qigong master!

The fat boss immediately thought of the performances of many qigong masters before, such as electric drills not being able to penetrate abs or swords not being able to cut into necks. Although they were nothing compared to Xiang Yu, they could at least explain this earth-shattering punch.

So Qigong is real! He went home and started practicing!

Xiang Yu had no idea how much of a storm his seemingly insignificant punch had stirred in the fat boss's heart; he only knew that his guess was about to be proven true.

The shattered body was now scattered in various places.

But strangely, the severed arm was still slowly wriggling.

Its five fingers seemed to have their own will. The index and middle fingers supported the ground, bending and straightening, and actually "stood" the entire severed hand up, just like a little person drawn by a primary school student with two fingers.

Then, those two fingers began to move rapidly.

However, just as it caught up with Xiang Yu, it was kicked away by Xiang Yu and fell directly into the darkness on the first floor.

it is good.

Xiang Yu slowly withdrew his foot, a hint of understanding flashing in his eyes.

The hypothesis has been successfully verified.

fourth.

This shopping mall has a strange effect: people inside, even after suffering fatal injuries, cannot truly "die."

Whether it's a head kicked on the ground or a headless mannequin, in a sense, they are still alive! And they still possess consciousness!

"In other words, those people who disappeared in the mall before must have entered this 'ghost world' for some reason." Xiang Yu began to make connections from the dossier in Ji Zhuo's hand. "Many of them probably failed to discover this rule and were thus hunted down by vengeful ghosts, dismembered, and turned into human fragments—like that Manager Wang from earlier."

"But this is a large-scale disappearance incident, with dozens, even hundreds, of people missing... and so far only one human has been found."

Where are they?

At the same time, Xiang Yu saw the escalator appear in front of him.

"Go to the third floor!"

After the three people rushed onto the escalator, the escalator began to move slowly, and all the ghosts that were chasing them stopped in front of the escalator. It seemed that they could not get to the third floor by taking the escalator from the second floor.

"Yes, they can't get up here!" The fat boss looked relieved. "I escaped using this!"

As the group slowly made their way to the third floor, just as the two were about to continue, Xiang Yu immediately stopped.

"If you're right, then the third floor should be the toy store."

"Yes……"

"There will be a lot of kids here, and kids don't care about anything else. When they see us, they'll probably shout that we're fake. That means the third floor is many times more dangerous than the first and second floors."

The fat boss was startled by this, then quickly nodded, "I, I'll do as you say."

The three proceeded cautiously, when suddenly An Ling stopped, clearly startled by something.

"What's wrong? Why are you so timid?"

Xiang Yu followed An Ling's gaze and was startled as well.

On the shelf was a row of dolls, and these dolls looked exactly like the ones that had appeared in Anling's house!

"W-what's wrong? Is there a ghost?!" The fat boss saw that the two were scared, and he became scared too.

However, Xiang Yu glanced at the pile of dolls with his "Experienced and Knowledgeable" ability and found that they didn't seem to have any ranking system; they were just ordinary dolls.

"It's alright, there's nothing wrong with this doll."

After confirming there was no danger, Xiang Yu was about to walk forward when he heard footsteps behind him.

……

Ji Zhuo and Li Yiheng were sitting in the car, nervously staring at the commercial center.

All around were large flakes of falling snow and boundless silence.

"How long have they been inside?" Ji Zhuo asked anxiously, fiddling with the documents in his hand until the pages were frayed.

"It's been three or four hours, hasn't it?"

"The walkie-talkie isn't getting a signal?"

"without."

"...It seems there really is something supernatural inside." Ji Zhuo frowned. "Absolutely do not go in rashly."

"I agree." Although Li Yiheng is tall and strong, he is actually very timid. He knows this very well, which is why he chose this profession to toughen up his courage.

In the end, he didn't develop any courage at all.

"Hopefully Section Chief Xiang can get out soon..."

Ji Zhuo shook his head helplessly, then looked up at the desolate pedestrian street. This place was quite lively before the commercial center closed down. He often brought his daughter to the children's playground here during his holidays.

Now things have changed, and the bustling crowds have become empty.

Just as he was feeling sentimental, he suddenly noticed a small figure appearing not far from the pedestrian street.

He was stunned. The figure was so familiar that he couldn't believe it.

"What's wrong, Lao Ji?" Li Yiheng sensed that Ji Zhuo's expression was a bit off.

"Xin Xin..." Ji Zhuo's throat went dry.

"Xin Xin, isn't that your daughter...? Hey?"

Li Yiheng also noticed something was wrong. He looked up and saw a little girl of about three years old tilting her head and looking at the two of them right next to the fire escape in the commercial center.

"Xin Xin, Xin Xin, what are you doing here?"

Ji Zhuo panicked. He quickly put down the documents in his hand and rushed towards his "daughter" who was not far away.

"Wait a minute, Lao Ji, what are you doing here?!" Li Yiheng felt that something was off about this and reached out to stop Ji Zhuo.

"I don't know!" Ji Zhuo didn't know why either, but his body had reacted before his brain did.

He needed to get his daughter home as soon as possible!

But after glancing at Ji Zhuo, the little girl said with a smile, "Daddy, I want to go to the children's playground."

"Don't go!!!"

Ji Zhuo practically screamed. He knew in his heart that his daughter could not possibly be in such a horrible place at this moment...

but.

but--

What if?

Even if there was only a one in a billion chance, he wouldn't dare gamble with his daughter's safety.

"Waaah, Daddy won't let me go..."

The little girl's face fell, her eyes reddened, she pouted, and muttered pitifully, "Daddy won't let me go, so I'll go by myself!"

Before she finished speaking, she turned around, took two short, wobbly steps, and ran towards the fire escape of the commercial center, disappearing in an instant.

Ji Zhuo panicked too. He knew better than anyone how irrational his actions were, but...

He still chased after him and rushed into the fire escape.