Chapter 13 Dividing the Troops

Following the remaining water stains on the floor, the group arrived at the women's locker room. As soon as they entered, Jiang Cheng, who was at the front, stretched out his arm to stop the others. Huai Yi looked inside, his breathing becoming rapid.

Less than 10 meters away from them, a black figure stood with its back to them, water dripping from its entire body.

Facing the figure was a row of lockers.

With both arms hanging at its sides, the figure held a glimmer of light in its right hand, like something reflecting light.

It was the key!

Upon seeing the key, Fatty's face became anxious, and he subconsciously wanted to say something to Jiang Cheng, but with the figure present, he dared not speak. In the end, he could only gesture frantically with his hands.

Jiang Cheng didn't even need to look to know that Fatty was worried that once the locker door was opened, Jiang Yanran, who was hiding inside, would be killed by the ghost, and the mission would fail.

However, he was the only one who thought so. Jiang Cheng, Wang Qi, and Huai Yi did not share this concern.

The reason was simple: if the locker were so easy to open, Jiang Yanran would have been killed long ago. There would be no need to wait until now.

The result was just as Jiang Cheng had expected. The figure tried many times with the key, but it just couldn't open the locker door.

More precisely, the key wouldn't go in.

After several attempts, the figure became increasingly agitated. At first, it simply pulled on the locker door with force, but after discovering that it was useless, it turned to tearing and even smashing it with its hands.

The "dong, dong" sounds echoed in the silent swimming pool, each one hitting Jiang Cheng and the others' hearts, and the ground was shaking.

Through the gap, they could see that the locker door had been smashed inward, the paint peeling off, covered with countless scratch marks, carved out one by one by the ghost's fingernails.

If it were a normal locker door, it would have been torn to shreds long ago, but this was not normal. Although the locker door looked terrible, it remained sturdy.

With a crisp "ding," the key fell to the ground.

The ghost bent down to pick it up.

The movement was extremely exaggerated, its head directly touching the ground. Not only that, but it went even lower, its neck twisted as if broken, one side of its face pressed against the ground.

Coincidentally, from between its legs, the ghost's face was directly facing Jiang Cheng and the others' location. Although it was obscured by wet hair, they could still vaguely see a pair of resentful eyes staring at them.

And at this moment, Jiang Cheng, seeing the ghost's face for the first time, began to tremble. He had finally found the source of that familiarity.

That face covered by wet hair...

Lin Wan'er!

This ghost actually had a face that looked exactly like Lin Wan'er!

No, not just the face, the figure, and even the clothes were the same. From this moment on, the ambiguity surrounding the figure gradually dissipated.

Like a jigsaw puzzle, as Jiang Cheng pieced it together bit by bit, the figure became more and more like Lin Wan'er.

Just as only a few pieces of the puzzle remained, and it was about to be completed, a hand grabbed his wrist.

In an instant, he suddenly woke up.

"Run!" Fatty grabbed Jiang Cheng and ran out.

Taking one last glance, Jiang Cheng found that the figure was maintaining its previous bizarre posture and was actually crawling towards them.

It was still that familiar appearance, but it was no longer Lin Wan'er.

A moment later, Jiang Cheng understood. He turned his head and quickly asked Huai Yi, "What did the ghost look like to you?"

Hearing this, Huai Yi's face darkened. "It was a woman, very similar... very similar to my ex-girlfriend. I gave her everything back then, but she abandoned me."

Jiang Cheng then looked at Wang Qi, but he found that Wang Qi was staring at Fatty, while Fatty was looking at him. Both of them had complex emotions in their eyes.

Jiang Cheng understood instantly.

In different people's eyes, the Heart-Eating Demon (Shi Xin Mo) was also different. Jiang Cheng saw Lin Wan'er, Huai Yi saw his ex-girlfriend who abandoned him, Fatty saw him, and Wang Qi saw... Fatty.

Everyone saw the person they couldn't let go of the most in their hearts.

This was the ability of the Heart-Eating Demon!

If Fatty hadn't interrupted him just now, he probably would have been finished when the Heart-Eating Demon, disguised as Lin Wan'er, crawled over.

"Pat."

"Pat."

...

The sound of footsteps behind them was slow, not at all as fast as they were running, but strangely, the sound was like a tail, hanging behind them, unable to be shaken off.

"It's useless, we can't shake it off." Wang Qi, paying attention to the movements behind them, said quickly.

Jiang Cheng said, "Let's split up. One team attracts its attention, and the other team goes back to find clues. There must be clues inside the women's locker room!"

Jiang Cheng and Wang Qi definitely had to split up, otherwise, if Huai Yi and Fatty were left as a team, by the time they found the clues and returned, their ashes would probably have been scattered by the ghost.

"Brother Fugui, you come with me." Wang Qi reached out and grabbed Fatty's arm, as if there was no room for discussion.

Fatty subconsciously looked at Jiang Cheng.

Not far ahead was a fork in the road. Jiang Cheng nodded slightly to the two of them, "Take care." After saying this, Jiang Cheng took Huai Yi and left along the other road.

Wang Qi continued to run forward with Fatty.

About ten seconds later, a black figure appeared eerily in the middle of the fork.

It was black all over, its face a blur, and it was dripping wet, as if a layer of mud was smeared on its body.

The figure tilted its head and looked at the direction Jiang Cheng had escaped, then turned its head and looked at the direction Wang Qi was running, seemingly deciding which one to chase.

The figure kept looking left and right, appearing very agitated. After a moment, with a "crack" sound, the figure's face sank and actually split open from the middle.

Then, the crack went all the way down, and soon, a terrifying, huge crack ran through the entire body of the black figure, like a saw, sawing it in half.

The two halves of the body fell to the ground, constantly wriggling and struggling, as if enduring great pain.

However, this scene only lasted for less than half a minute. Along the incomplete parts, blood-red buds began to grow at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Slowly, two black figures, exactly the same as before, stood up one after another.

The sound of "pat, pat" footsteps echoed in the swimming pool again, but this time, there were two. The two black figures that had split off chased along the two roads respectively.

...

Fatty slowed down his pace and followed behind Wang Qi, his ears perked up, his eyes darting everywhere, and he said in a low voice, "I hear footsteps, not far from us." He paused and continued, "It's coming after us."

Strangely, after discovering that the ghost had chosen their team, Wang Qi and Fatty both showed a relieved expression.

"Stay close to me." Wang Qi walked in front, quickly looking for a way out.

Fatty nodded, then took out his phone and sent a message to Jiang Cheng, informing him that the ghost was with them, so that Jiang Cheng could feel at ease to find clues, and they would try their best to buy time.