Chapter 1

From the first glance at the maidservant, Jiang Cheng knew she was dead.

The maidservant's face was livid, her shattered features constantly oozing blood. Her limbs were twisted, and her scantily clad body was covered in wounds from blunt weapon blows. Her head was caved in, her eye sockets crushed by the blunt force, one eyeball hanging out grotesquely.

But none of that was the most important thing. Jiang Cheng searched the maidservant's entire body and found not a single scar from a sharp weapon.

The maidservant wasn't killed by the Guan Erye ghost, but rather beaten to death by the monks like Huide and Huiming. The regular bruising patterns on the maidservant's body corroborated this.

Sure enough, in this bizarre night, Guan Erye's ghost wasn't the only one capable of killing. Those wicked monks were also a threat. Jiang Cheng couldn't help but feel a lingering fear; if he and Fatty had been caught by Huide and the others, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Jiang Cheng felt no guilt for the maidservant's death. After all, he had learned from the monks' conversation that the maidservant's true identity was likely a second-generation Shen Hong lurking among Ye Qiutang and the others.

But this second-generation Shen Hong was truly audacious, actually trying to make a deal with the wicked monks in the temple. This move was undeniably dangerous.

"Step."

"Step."

"Step."

...

The maidservant's corpse moved. Seemingly aware that Jiang Cheng wouldn't be leaving the room, and that guarding outside was useless, the maidservant dragged her twisted and broken legs, hobbling away in a bizarre posture, leaving a trail of shocking bloodstains on the glowing bluestone slabs.

After the sounds outside completely disappeared, Jiang Cheng waited patiently for a while longer. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief and slowly turned his head to look at Fatty. "Phew—, it's okay now."

"That thing... is gone?" Fatty hadn't dared to breathe heavily during that time.

"Yeah, it's gone." Jiang Cheng wiped the blood off his hands, his eyes scanning Fatty up and down warily. "By the way, how did you get back here alone?"

Now that he thought about it, Fatty had been swapped out before entering that building. What Jiang Cheng could surmise was that it must have happened when the mysterious person scattered incense ash in front of the building, and Fatty had tripped on the threshold.

Fatty's next words confirmed Jiang Cheng's guess. "It was in front of that building. I was just about to go in when someone suddenly pulled me from behind. I lost my balance and fell backward, hitting the back of my head on the ground, and then I passed out."

"The one who tripped on the threshold wasn't you at all?"

"What threshold?" Fatty was taken aback.

Jiang Cheng beckoned Fatty over, then examined the back of his head. Sure enough, there was a large bump. "Keep talking, when did you wake up?" After experiencing what had just happened, Jiang Cheng suspected everyone.

"Woke up... about half an hour ago, I guess. At the time, I was being dragged along. I was still dizzy from the fall, and I thought the person dragging me was Doctor, you."

"But when I became a little more conscious, I realized something was wrong. The person wasn't very strong and had a hard time dragging me. I was dizzy, and it was dark at the time. I tried my best to raise my head but could only see a blurry figure. But I touched that person's hand." Fatty paused suddenly, staring straight at Jiang Cheng. "That person's wrist was very thin, skin and bones, and there were scars on the back of the hand and arm." Very thin, and with scars on his body. These two points made Jiang Cheng's eyes sharpen, instantly locking onto the other person's identity. "It's the monk Huicong!"

"That's right, I thought it was him too, but before I could say anything, he pried my hand open, then ran away without looking back." Fatty's face was full of confusion as he said this.

Sitting on the wooden stool, Jiang Cheng replayed everything he had seen tonight in his mind, and the abbot's final words surfaced: "Benefactor, do not let illusions cloud your eyes. Return quickly, and when truth and falsehood meet, you will know that what this monk said is not false."

Looking at Fatty in front of him, Jiang Cheng understood that the time when truth and falsehood met referred to when he returned to his residence and saw the real Fatty. At that moment, the fake Fatty beside him would naturally be unable to hide.

After hearing Jiang Cheng's experience, Fatty swallowed nervously. "Doctor, it seems this abbot has some skills. If he hadn't given you a hint tonight, you would have been in danger."

"By the way, how could he tell that the person was a ghost in disguise? Does he rely on some kind of supernatural power?" Fatty asked, looking at Jiang Cheng.

This question hit the nail on the head. Jiang Cheng's expression became tangled. The abbot had indeed mentioned it. To resist this illusion, the abbot had even sacrificed his own eyes.

Jiang Cheng could roughly understand what the abbot meant. A person without eyes would calm down and see things with their heart. This was likely the way to break the situation.

According to the abbot, this night was nothing but an illusion, so blinding oneself at night wasn't a serious matter. Anyway, when day came, everything would return to normal.

It wasn't that Jiang Cheng was afraid of pain, or that he couldn't bear to part with his eyes. He was worried about being deceived.

The abbot's theory was based on the idea that the night was fake and the day was real, so the damage to the body at night was insignificant. Moreover, after going blind, he could be like the abbot, no longer disturbed by various delusions. Jiang Cheng remembered very clearly that not long ago, the ghosts like Huide and Huiming had all stopped outside the building where the abbot lived. They simply didn't dare to enter.

Jiang Cheng guessed that they were either restricted by some kind of rule, blocked outside, or they were afraid of the blind abbot, worried that the abbot would use his heart to see through their true forms.

Of course, there was another possibility. Jiang Cheng's gaze gradually turned cold. That was that these were all illusions, illusions deliberately created for him by those ghosts!

The so-called abbot was also fake, and he was in league with Huide and Huiming outside. All of this... was just a play they were putting on together.

Hearing Jiang Cheng express his thoughts, Fatty felt a chill rush over him, and his lips trembled unnaturally. "This... this is impossible, right? If that's really the case, then what about the guy who pretended to be me just now? If the abbot hadn't given you a hint, you might have..."

Suddenly, Fatty seemed to realize something, and his pupils shrank violently. "Could it be... could it be that guy was also part of the trap? They're in cahoots?!"

"A simple lie naturally won't deceive people, but what about hiding a lie in ten truths?"

"First, they throw out a fake bait, and then they deliberately guide us to discover this bait, thereby gaining our trust. When the time is right, they'll catch us all in one fell swoop."

"But... but he could have killed you, what's his purpose in doing this?"

The next moment, Fatty's face turned ugly, because he saw Jiang Cheng slowly raise that blood-stained hand, extending two fingers towards his own eyes.