Chapter 1 The Truth

The sky outside was already faintly bright. At this time, Jiang Cheng and the others were gathered in the living room of the suite, all with their heads lowered, their expressions indescribably strange.

Two corpses lay on the floor, their faces covered with clothes.

"How... how could this happen?" Zhao Xingguo slumped to the ground, as if he hadn't recovered from the shock. They had only entered this world for less than two days, and his team was already down to just him.

The two corpses, one was naturally Pan Du, and the other was Linghu Yong.

"I want to ask you that!" Fu Fu sneered, asking with dissatisfaction, "You're leading a team like this, you can't even keep an eye on people."

"Never mind dead people, you can't even recognize the living. Are you blind?" Although Fu Fu was young, her words showed no respect for Zhao Xingguo.

"Say less," Luo He said.

His tone was calm, and there were no other emotions in his eyes as he looked at Zhao Xingguo. It wasn't so much that he pitied Zhao Xingguo, but rather that he disdained to communicate with him.

"First, tell us about your experiences there." Jiang Cheng shifted his gaze, his eyes swept across Luo He's calm face, and finally stopped on Huai Yi and the others.

As if he had received some kind of instruction, Huai Yi began to recount their experiences. Linghu Yong's body was found in the last, and largest, room.

When the body was discovered, it was lying on the luxurious large bed, with both hands folded together, placed flat on its chest, and a strange smile on its face.

Just like the previous victims they had found.

Even more chilling was what was revealed after the decorative painting on the door fell off.

It was a photo with yellowing edges.

In the center of the photo stood a man, his body twisted forward in a strange way. His hands, like chicken claws, were hooked up, and his body was covered in tattered wounds.

There was no flesh or blood in the wounds, only dry grass, as if a human skin was draped over a scarecrow.

It was Linghu Yong.

With this discovery, they found photos behind the decorative paintings on every door in the corridor.

The photos showed men and women, who seemed to be members of the Feng family.

The moment they saw Linghu Yong's photo and corpse, they immediately realized that Jiang Cheng's team... was in danger.

Because not long ago, the two teams had just separated.

But at the time, in order to avoid alarming the enemy, everyone did not use any lighting equipment, but calculated the time, and at 2:00 AM sharp, they gathered together and began to act.

Because the light was poor, they could only see a rough outline. At the time, they remembered that there were 10 people in total, five in each team.

"Could it be... that Linghu Yong was already dead at that time, and the Linghu Yong mixed in with the team... was a ghost?!" Pi Ruan seemed to realize this too, and his pupils couldn't stop trembling as he looked at the body on the ground.

"You could say that," Lin Wan'er said. She glanced at the other corpse lying on the ground, "It's Pan Du."

Similar to Luo He's team's experience, Jiang Cheng and his team did not encounter the strange fog, but arrived at their target area very smoothly.

In Jiang Cheng's plan, Liu the Cripple should live nearby.

After all, his legs were bad, and his range of activities would not be too wide.

But during the search, they encountered problems. This area seemed to be where the servants lived, so there were many rooms, very dense, with various low and uneven paths interspersed among them.

Before long, they actually got lost in it.

After walking a long distance, Jiang Cheng stopped. He realized that they were definitely not simply lost.

His memory was very good, and the direction he chose was fixed.

According to the distance they had walked, they should have already left the Feng mansion by now.

The problem was not the road under their feet, but... themselves.

A ghost had mixed in, right beside them.

Just like in the gold mine tunnel.

He began to observe the people around him without showing any signs. Including him, there were five people in total, and everyone's face was familiar. He couldn't see any flaws.

He then used the excuse of being vigilant to retreat to the back of the team and continue to observe, until a hand waved in front of his eyes.

Lin Wan'er held out a hand and pointed to the ground. After a moment, Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes, then nodded as if nothing had happened.

Just now, they had walked through a puddle, so everyone left a wet, muddy footprint on the ground after walking through it.

But among the many footprints, there were actually a few barefoot footprints. The footprints were relatively small, looking like those of a child.

This small footprint followed Linghu Yong crookedly, and judging from the distance between the footprints, it seemed to be close to his back.

"Everyone, be careful," Fatty's voice came, very low, his thick neck shrunk into his collar, his small eyes spinning around, seemingly very alert. "This area is not right."

"Okay," Linghu Yong, who was close to him, shrank his waist and responded.

Just as Jiang Cheng discovered the abnormality behind Linghu Yong, a strange feeling surged into his heart, and his expression was momentarily dazed.

The next second, when he opened his eyes again, before he could see the scene in front of him, he heard Fatty suddenly scream, "Damn! What's going on?!"

In his vision, a straight, stiff body stood in front of him, still maintaining the posture of walking with its back to him, but the owner of the body had changed.

It wasn't Linghu Yong, but Pan Du, who should have been obediently dead on the bed in the room...

"So, after the ghost was exposed, the illusion disappeared," Luo He analyzed, "Just like before."

In the tunnel, it was also Luo He who exposed the ghost that had mixed in with them, but through a different method. He did it by dialing the telephone number of that Ruhu.

Pan Du didn't seem like a ghost. The thing clinging to his back was the real threat.

At most, he could only be regarded as a puppet.

"It's a pair of small footprints. It seems that this ghost should be a child," Huai Yi said, touching his chin. "Or rather, the form it manifests is a child."

"By the way, we were drawn into that room by a song," Huai Yi continued. "It was... it was that song, 'Sakura no Ochiru' (Cherry Blossom Falling)."

A ballad only circulating in Yoko's hometown, scarecrows, wishing, the unpredictable god, plus the newly appearing child's footprints...

It seemed that there were more and more clues, but they all pointed to that shrine far away in a foreign country. The remaining time was definitely not enough to support them going to Dongyang (Japan).

"Could it be..." Fatty asked in a low voice, "Is there a problem with that shrine? The one enshrined there is not a god at all, but... a ghost?"

"That ghost came with the Dongyang people, across the sea."

Speaking of this, Fatty paused, scratching his head, seemingly feeling that what he said was not specific enough, but he didn't know how to say it correctly.