"Number 3, you are also cleared of suspicion." Fu Fu said righteously, "I can vouch for you, so now it's just Number 2 and Number 1 left."

"The masked man who injured me is one of those two," Luo He suddenly said.

Hearing this, Fu Fu's hand trembled, and the IV drip shattered on the ground. "How could it be… Are you sure?!" Although she hadn't had much contact with Numbers 1 and 2, she still didn't want to believe they would do something so drastic.

"The masked man's methods are above you and me. There are only a few Night Watchers with such skills, and he's not one of them." Luo He's hand rested on the book, the light in his eyes dimming little by little. "Although he hid his aura very well and didn't reveal too much of his ability, I just feel like I know him. We are… very familiar."

"What evidence do you have?" Fu Fu asked seriously.

Luo He unbuttoned his clothes, revealing his body wrapped like a rice dumpling. "Forty-seven cuts, each avoiding vital points. I don't know which Night Watcher would be so merciful to me."

"Number 8," Luo He added, "He didn't want to kill me. He saved me."

Fu Fu felt a chill in her heart. She vaguely remembered that after Luo He saved her, he planned to fully open the door within his body and perish together with the Judge. If the masked man hadn't intervened, Number 3 would indeed be dead.

Although, in the eyes of the Night Watchers, the masked man had not only saved the Judge but also heavily "killed" Crimson Number 3, making him a very dutiful helper.

Fu Fu couldn't help but fall silent. After a long while, she stammered, "So… in such a short time, to make forty-seven cuts, each avoiding vital points, requires extremely precise control. Among us, besides… besides Number 6, the only one who could do this… is him."

"Go and inform the Master," Luo He said to Fu Fu, turning his head away.

...

Hundreds of kilometers away from Luo He and the others, in a secret room, an old man, heavily injured, wailed in pain. One of his arms had been stripped bare of flesh, leaving only bone.

Even more terrifying was that this was just the beginning. Flesh continued to fall from his shoulder, and at this rate, sooner or later, all the flesh on his body would fall off, leaving behind only a skeleton.

"Old man, hang in there!" The Candle Bearer grabbed the Judge's right hand, the hatred in his eyes for Gong Zhe's face seeming to solidify.

Until the door of the secret room was pushed open, and someone ran in, flustered. The person carried a suitcase, the handle handcuffed to their wrist.

Entering the password, they opened the suitcase, inside was a bright red piece of paper.

Snatching the red paper, the Judge pressed his intact hand onto it. The next moment, a light red halo surged out, and a gust of wind blew through the enclosed space. The immense pain caused the Judge to arch his back violently.

But the effect was obvious. The flesh stopped falling off, and the non-stop bleeding also stopped. The Candle Bearer finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that at least his life was saved.

"Huff… huff…" The Judge gasped for breath, his eyes staring fixedly in another direction. "Gong Zhe was actually hiding in the team, why didn't you tell me this information beforehand?!" He couldn't suppress the anger in his voice.

Slowly, a calm voice came from the direction of the Judge's angry gaze. "If I had known beforehand, do you think I would have accompanied you to your death?" A masked person sat on the sofa.

"Bastard!" The Judge roared.

The masked person wasn't annoyed. Leaning back on the sofa, he raised his head and said with a cold laugh, "It would have been good if the Judge had this kind of momentum when facing Gong Zhe."

"Don't quarrel." The Candle Bearer advised, "Old man, calm down. If he knew Gong Zhe was hiding in the team beforehand, he wouldn't have kept it from us. Besides, thanks to him today, it's hard to say whether you could have escaped."

The Judge had also been overwhelmed by anger. The door within his body was eager to open, severely interfering with his thinking, and absorbing the red contract had only alleviated it somewhat.

Seeing the Judge calm down, the Candle Bearer turned to look at the masked person. "We were able to retreat unscathed this time, thanks to you. It seems that choosing to cooperate with you was the right choice."

"It's a transaction," the masked person corrected.

"Yes, it's a transaction." The Candle Bearer looked the masked person up and down, unable to hide the envy in his tone. "The power of space, truly an excellent ability. Even if Gong Zhe wanted to kill you, I'm afraid it would be very difficult."

"You talk too much." The masked person turned his head to look into the darkness, where there was a large table. "How long will it take you to do what you promised me?"

"One month," the person behind the table said.

"Too long." The masked person's breathing became rapid. "I can't wait."

"Your body has been too severely damaged. It will be difficult to repair it in a short period of time." The person behind the table's tone was very calm, but it carried the aura of a superior. "You need to gradually occupy and familiarize yourself with this body, subtly changing the original owner's personality and habits until you kill the original personality and finally replace it."

"This requires a long process," the person continued.

"At most, I only have two weeks!" The masked person took off his mask, and when they saw the face under the mask, the Candle Bearer and the Judge on the opposite side frowned subconsciously.

What they saw was the face of a young man, but only half of his face remained. The other half… the other half was eerily terrifying. If they had to describe it, it was like a jumbled puzzle, the nose moved to the position of the chin, and the eyes moved to the forehead. In short, all the positions were misplaced, making people's scalps tingle.

"Is this the consequence of the power of space going out of control?" The Candle Bearer suddenly felt uneasy.

"I can already influence the main personality of this body, but it was interrupted by Number 4," the masked person said in a low voice. "He must have sensed something, which is why he killed the body I was parasitizing."

If Jiang Cheng was standing here, he would recognize that the intact half of the masked person's face was actually his old acquaintance, a young college student named Chen Qiang.

After a moment, the voice replied, "I didn't expect your ability to be so out of control. Then two weeks it is. We will fulfill our promise and help you reshape this body."

"I will come to you in two weeks. Don't contact me during this time." The masked person sat up from the sofa, and then a black vortex appeared in front of him. The masked person stepped into the vortex and disappeared.

"What a poor fellow." The lazy voice behind the table sounded again. "If I were him, I might have gone crazy long ago. He doesn't even have a body of his own anymore. Can he even be considered a living person?"

The Candle Bearer looked at the place where the masked person had disappeared and couldn't help but shake his head. "I'm afraid he himself can't answer this question clearly, President."