CH 137

“Crack.”

A sensation of a neck bone breaking was felt in his hand.

Zhong Chengshuo hesitated to catch the body in his hand. He stood barefoot on the ground, always vigilant for possible alarm vibrations.

The small room was filled with pale light, and a headless male corpse had stuck its arm into a Sunken Society employee wearing a white coat. The two were motionless in the center of the room like sculptures; this picture could be used directly as a promotional image for a horror movie.

Zhong Chengshuo patiently waited, even though he already had an answer in his heart.

Most of the corpses stored by the Sunken Society had strong evil qi, and sophisticated electronic devices were highly likely to be affected. There were probably no instruments such as surveillance cameras arranged here, only layers of monitoring spells.

After all, compared to invaders, the transformation of corpses under unknown spells required precautions.

The designer at the time probably couldn’t imagine that there was such a corpse that had not been revived by any spells, and even the attacks used for the attack were purely physical—fast, accurate, and deadly, leaving no reaction time for the victim.

Two minutes passed.

Confirming that the alarm hadn’t been triggered, Zhong Chengshuo quickly stripped the Sunken Society staff member. He lifted the naked corpse onto the mortuary cabinet where he was located, pushed the part below the person’s shoulders into the freezer, and only left the head outside.

Under the low temperature, the body quickly became cold and stiff.

Zhong Chengshuo nodded his neck with satisfaction. He swayed forward and groped around the dissecting table until he found a bone saw he was wishing for. The sharp edge pressed against the neck of the corpse, and Zhong Chengshuo pulled his arm without hesitation.

The sound of metal rubbing against bone was chilling.

In addition to biology, King Yama also knew anatomy very well. It didn’t take long for Zhong Chengshuo to saw off the person’s head. The remaining part of the neck was just right and could be smoothly connected to his damaged spine.

A fresh and intact head… an integrated “sensory device” with five senses.

Zhong Chengshuo suppressed his aversion and pressed the dead man’s head hard against his neck.

When the broken and cold cut surface touched the fresh flesh, it produced a crushing sound that made people’s teeth ache. Blood slowly slid down Zhong Chengshuo’s collarbone, feeling like a thin snake passing by.

Zhong Chengshuo held the head with both hands, waiting anxiously.

Will it fail?

If it failed, this dead man wouldn’t be able to go back by himself, and Sunken Society would definitely find out that something was amiss. They would move him away from here, and his situation would become quite passive.

Don’t fail.

Absolutely don’t fail.

Zhong Chengshuo tightened his hard-earned head with his ten fingers, repeating the words in his mind. He had been in tense and dangerous situations before but had never experienced such a range of emotions.

This feeling was incredibly strange.

If the previous 28 years were spent submerged in water, then he had finally emerged to the surface. Nervous, restless, anxious. Fear spawned countless emotions, each one new and overwhelming.

He had no head or heart, but his thoughts rolled endlessly, and his chest was filled with worry. Fortunately, they weren’t strong enough—more like new shoots growing after the rain—not enough to immobilize him.

At the moment, Zhong Chengshuo could only hold his head with both hands, waiting for his body’s instincts to take effect, as if a second had stretched into infinity.

Finally, when Zhong Chengshuo was so nervous that his neck hurt, the feeling feedback appeared.

A faint, rusty-sweet smell.

Zhong Chengshuo tasted blood.

In the void, a faint light gradually appeared, and the new view was tinged with a pale blood red.

Zhong Chengshuo blinked hard. The eyeballs of the dead man’s head weren’t very useful. It was like he was looking at the world through a lens full of dust. In his new ears, there was only the sound of dripping blood, and the sound quality was as bad as a pair of 5 yuan headphones from a street vendor.

He saw his surroundings for the first time.

The room wasn’t big, and the four walls were covered with metal-shining mortuary cabinets. Each cabinet door was labeled with a number and a rough description. Except for Zhong Chengshuo, who was a science post, all the other bodies were dangerous items treated with special spells.

According to the description, two of the bodies had been stored for over three hundred years.

The mortuary cabinets were tightly sealed and level, and only his mortuary compartment was half exposed, with the Sunken Society employee he had killed lying in it with the blood from the broken neck flowing slowly down the metal.

Zhong Chengshuo carefully maintained contact with his head and neck and turned around.

In the middle of the room was a dissecting table, and the activity table next to it was filled with a variety of medical instruments. The nursing solution brought by the person was open on the table, emitting an unpleasant smell.

Zhong Chengshuo moved his head to the edge of the table, freeing up one hand to laboriously rummage through the toolbox. His luck was good, as the sewing needles and thread were all there.

He carefully sewed the dead head onto his neck, wound two rounds of bandages around it, and finally, his hands were freed.

The stitching was a bit painful, and the disinfection procedure wasn’t very thorough. But given his current condition, it didn’t seem like he needed to worry about infections.

The metal surface of the mortuary cabinet illuminated Zhong Chengshuo’s current appearance.

In the blurry image, Zhong Chengshuo’s limbs were as strong and slender as ever. His body had been tidied up by the Sunken Society employee, but his chest had been blown to pieces—the once-smooth chest line was now unsightly.

After hesitating for a moment, Zhong Chengshuo wound a few more rounds of bandages to hold the broken ribs in place.

His new head hung slightly, and moving it was still a bit stiff.

The head appeared to be around thirty years old, with ordinary features and slightly chubby cheeks. The eyes bulged out, and the person’s face still bore the shock and fear of death.

There were no signs of fusion between the flesh and blood around the neck and his body. It was completely separated and could not become a part of his body.

Could it be rejection? Zhong Chengshuo pondered uncertainly.

The head only provided him with the most basic five senses, and controlling the facial muscles was extremely difficult. Zhong Chengshuo felt like he was operating an outdated computer, and all the reactions from the head were slow.

What was worse, he couldn’t use the dead person’s brain. He didn’t know the person’s name, what his job was at Sunken Society, or their usual habits.

All he had was a simple work badge.

“Technical Department 2-B2219-070: Zhang Wei.”

Perhaps for security reasons, Zhang Wei didn’t even have a phone on him.

Zhong Chengshuo slowly put on the person’s clothes, which had a strong smell of sweat and hair oil. They were a bit too big for him and clung to his body like pickled vegetables. But with the white coat covering him, he looked somewhat presentable.

Zhong Chengshuo adjusted his collar to cover the gauze around his neck. As long as he hid his hands, which were thin and pale, and maintained the expression on the dead person’s face, he looked… like a person.

“Ah… Ahem…” The voice was still his own, with a wheezing sound.

Zhong Chengshuo rubbed his face with his hands, but the head remained icy cold, and his facial features were stiff. The worst part was that the head would gradually decay, and he was running out of time.

Zhong Chengshuo put on an “expressionless” face and quickly cleaned up the blood on the ground and pushed Zhang Wei’s headless body into the morgue drawer.

Before leaving, Zhong Chengshuo put his hands in his pockets and looked at “himself” in the morgue drawer again. After a few seconds, he finally realized what was wrong—

He tried to move his chest to fake a normal breathing rate.

Half a minute later, the heavy metal door slowly opened without a sound.

Zhong Chengshuo poked out the head he had just obtained and turned it stiffly from side to side.

He was standing in the middle of a long corridor. The corridor had no windows, and both sides disappeared into the deep darkness, with no end in sight.

An unknown location, dull senses, and a throat that couldn’t speak casually. Plus, with this unfamiliar face and ill-fitting clothes…

His mission to “return to Yin Ren’s side” began somewhat awkwardly.

……

Haigu Municipal Hospital.

Huang Jin purchased half a cabinet of wood and leather and made a delicate leather case for his carving knife, which he hung on his body at all times.

He couldn’t afford better jade and animal bones, so he had to go with a large quantity of mediocre supplies.

Huang Jin copied all the tranquility talismans he could find on the market and lined them up on the wall. The stack of calculation paper next to him was piled high, and as the carving knife tapped gently on the wood, his brow furrowed.

He thought about several ways to improve the tranquility mantra, but with little success.

The situation was not optimistic.

The C-level investigation team was attacked, and the B-level investigation team had to call it a day. The national competition wasn’t canceled, but it wasn’t clear when it would resume. In the past twenty years, Shian had never experienced such a big incident.

Two other experts from out of town were still staying in Haigu, and they were unlikely to leave before the truth of this incident was revealed.

But all of this was like a fight between gods and had nothing to do with a small fry like him.

Huang Jin put down his carving knife and wood pieces, rubbed his sore eyes, and turned his head.

Ding Lizhi had completely shaken off the influence of the original case, and the unlucky guitar was completely separated from her body. After her body stabilized, she was transferred to the Haigu Municipal Hospital for recuperation.

Just now, she was holding a guitar and humming softly. When she heard the sound of the carving knife hitting the table, the melody stopped immediately.

“What’s wrong?” she curiously asked, her carefree thoughts still swirling around her.

“It’s nothing,” Huang Jin replied vaguely.

“Something happened, but someone is taking care of it.” He thought for a moment and added sincerely.

Ding Lizhi scratched her head. “Um… If it’s really dangerous, why don’t you quit?”

Huang Jin stood up and stroked the sharp blade of the carving knife. “There are some things that, once you know them, you can’t just quit, even if you want to.”

Since joining the unlucky Unit 9, he had written at least a dozen transfer applications. Every time he was beaten down by reality, writing his transfer application had almost become a daily habit for Huang Jin. After the Zhong Chengshuo’s incident, Huang Jin instinctively wanted to write another one, but this time, he couldn’t write a single word.

He didn’t like Sunken Society, didn’t like the Nightwalkers, and couldn’t say that he liked Shian.

But now…

He looked at Ding Lizhi, who knew nothing about the tragedy.

The transformation of Yin Ren’s state was still vivid in his mind. That evil was very good at handling emotions, and his relationship with Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t that long. Based on Huang Jin’s understanding of evil creatures, Yin Ren might have just wanted to try “falling in love with a human” and would come out of this relationship in a couple of days.

But Yin Ren didn’t come out of it.

If Yin Ren was previously a lazy candle flame, now his aura was as intense as a raging fire, so vivid that it was frightening. Even Huang Jin, who was not that close to him, could feel the suppressed pain from the burning flames.

Huang Jin sighed quietly. “I’m going to work.”

“So late?”

“Yeah, it’ll be over soon.”

He dusted off the wood chips on his clothes and walked towards the group’s collective ward. When he arrived at the door, Huang Jin took a deep breath, opened the door, and…

Crash! A pile of paper documents fell from the side and hit Huang Jin’s temple hard. The quality of the stack of documents seemed quite good, as Huang Jin felt his face had been severely punched..

Huang Jin: “……” Fuck this job. Whoever wants to do it, can do it. I really don’t want to do it anymore!

Despite this, he still hung his head and struggled to cross the mountain of documents on the ground.

Yin Ren sat in the center of the document mountain.

Before this, Yin Ren was always the most eager to go home. As long as he didn’t have a task, he would sprint home as soon as it was time to leave work. As for now, Huang Jin didn’t know how long it had been since he had gone home. Yin Ren’s luggage was all placed at the head of the hospital bed, as if he were going to root himself here.

He barely ate, and there was no trace of food near the table.

Huang Jin made his way through the document mountain and tried to soften his tone as he asked, “How’s the progress?”

Ge Tingting buried herself in a pile of paper documents, with only her head showing and her gaze looking dull. When she saw Huang Jin come in, she grunted and grabbed another piece of paper to read.

One of the papers floated down to Huang Jin’s feet. It seemed to be a record of early expenses, all paid by Zhong Chengshuo.

Lu Xiaohe’s voice sounded confused. “It’s hard to say about the progress.”

She had never investigated a case like this before.

The “Sniper” incident had the top elites of Shian actively investigating. They were more inclined to research the remnants at the scene, and the deaths of Zhong Chengshuo and Auntie Tao weren’t the first focus of the experts’ investigation.

Unit 9 was conducting an extended investigation to contribute to their fallen colleagues… That was how she was originally prepared.

She could accept that Zhong Chengshuo had hidden motives. After all, wanting to join Shian’s as a science post would have personal reasons to some extent.

She could also reluctantly understand how Yin Ren had special connections that allowed Shian to open up advanced permissions for her. After all, Yin Ren had lost his memory when he first joined, and there might be some background to that.

…But the current direction of the investigation was a bit far-fetched.

Lu Xiaohe couldn’t help but move her gaze to Yin Ren.

“Progress? We can now confirm that Zhong Chengshuo’s original motive was indeed to ‘fully investigate the death of Zhong Chengfeng’.”

Yin Ren didn’t lift his head and was holding a thick stack of police documents.

“Zhong Chengfeng had nothing to do with the metaphysical world, but she was unfortunate enough to be affected by the Divine Descent 28 years ago…”

Yin Ren was still wearing Zhong Chengshuo’s white thread shirt, and his hair flowed down the table. Next to him, a huge screen showed a national map. Every place Zhong Chengshuo had been was marked with a red line. Another screen was constantly scrolling with code, and the location of Zhong Chengshuo’s hamster tracker had just been cracked at 61%.

“I understand,” said Huang Jin.

It was pretty easy to understand. Yin Ren wanted to fully investigate everything about his deceased lover. It was human nature, and this way he could also provide information to Shian.

“No, you don’t understand,” said Lu Xiaohe.

Huang Jin pulled over a chair and sat down, looking confused.

“I’m looking for a way to capture the sniper alive,” Yin Ren said.

Huang Jin’s butt made a thud as he fell off the chair. He ignored the pain and stared at Yin Ren. “You, what?”

Wasn’t the plan to find Zhong Chengshuo’s body?

Yin Ren finally lifted his head, and a hint of frightening focus was in his eyes.

“Zhong Chengshuo is related to Wei Huaqian, who is associated with Sunken Society, and they have been developing in Haigu for many years. Despite this, Shian hasn’t been able to make any moves on them, which means their base must be difficult to find.”

As if he had seen through Huang Jin’s thoughts, he responded calmly.

“The sniper personally took Zhong Chengshuo, so he knows where his body is. The easiest way is just to ask him.”

Yin Ren glanced at Huang Jin and turned over another page of information.

“Besides, as long as I can be the first to catch him, I can… well, do a lot of things.”

Huang Jin scanned the information on Zhong Chengshuo spread out all over the room, and finally stopped on Yin Ren. He sat in the middle of the white papers, his pale shirt blending in with his surroundings, but he himself was like a burning flame.

“So you’re investigating Zhong Chengshuo…” Huang Jin swallowed nervously.

Yin Ren smiled at him and threw a pile of police records at him. “I just want to know why the sniper chose him.”

……

The people by the table went from four to three. The young Ge Tingting was the first to fall asleep. With Yin Ren’s persuasion, she returned to her hospital bed. The clock ticked away in the quiet room, and soon only one person was left.

It was almost four in the morning, and all his human companions were asleep. Yin Ren turned off all the lights in the room, leaving only the dim glow of the screen. Even Yellow Millet on his phone charm was sleeping while whistling lightly and was as soft as a puddle.

Yin Ren lowered his head and continued to flip through the pages, one by one. He had not slept since he dreamed of Zhong Chengshuo.

The printed black letters flowed into his eyes line by line, and the silence around him was terrifying, leaving only the sound of him flipping through the pages.

Fwish, fwish.

Suddenly, Yin Ren stopped and lifted his left hand forward. The darkness opposite the table surged, and a familiar figure lifted his head and looked at him silently.

The phantom of Zhong Chengshuo sat quietly opposite Yin Ren, holding an illusory page.

At first glance, it seemed as if they were investigating the same case, just like before.

Yin Ren looked at the person’s face for a while before lowering his head and continuing to review the information. These words were the most potent anesthetic, able to help him hold his breath and focus solely on moving forward.

“Your hamster signal is too weak. Shian needs more time to analyze it,” Yin Ren casually remarked. “Your quality control is not up to par, Zhong Ge.”

The phantom looked at him intently, eyes unblinking.

“Don’t think I won’t hold you accountable for your little secrets. Once we catch the sniper and bring you back, I’ll dig up your past, and then I can…”

Yin Ren didn’t finish his sentence and instead pursed his lips.

“How boring,” he murmured. “It’s all your fault. I can’t concentrate on anything now… If it were you, where would you start the investigation?”

Yin Ren raised his head again, looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar black eyes of Zhong Chengshuo’s phantom.

The phantom of Zhong Chengshuo gradually changed form, and a slightly scary cartoon rabbit mask appeared next to his head, with his shirt turning into a loose, casual outfit.

The phantom held the Evil Fruit in his left hand, and his right hand simulated a gun gesture. The faint light shimmered on the Evil Fruit and a string of colorful bubbles emerged from the muzzle of the simulated gun. Illusory bubbles drifted toward the dark ceiling, disappearing before they popped.

That was the outfit Zhong Chengshuo wore during their first encounter with a sniper.

At that time, the sniper had killed Bai Yongji, who was only a half-step away from becoming a Charon, with a single shot. He had only fired two shots at them to intimidate them, like a well-fed cat toying with a mouse.

At that point, the sniper probably noticed them for the first time.

Yin Ren put down the boring data on his hands and looked across with a piercing gaze.

“Very good,” Yin Ren murmured. “Then came the second time…”

The rabbit mask, the Evil Fruit, and the bubble gun disappeared at the same time, and Zhong Chengshuo’s loose casual clothes turned into a suit that highlighted his figure. He held an unopened bag of chocolate chips in his hand, and the smiling face on the package was a little dazzling.

The Archive.

Yin Ren had read through the reports of Unit 7. At that time, he himself had gone crazy in the ghost fetus and almost turned into an Evil Spirit. Zhong Chengshuo had returned to the ghost fetus alone and brought him out.

During his most out-of-control period, the report indicated that there was an obvious feeling of being peeped at by the gray-black vortex in the sky.

If that was also the sniper’s line of sight. Were they being watched at that time?

Zhong Chengshuo nodded gently across from him, and the phantom stretched out its hand as if to hand over the chocolate chips.

It was just a projection of his subconscious, and Yin Ren looked away.

The phantom’s movement froze in mid-air, and the brightly colored packaging in its hand evaporated in an instant, replaced by dust and dirt. Zhong Chengshuo’s clothes were torn apart, revealing many abrasions.

Gengsheng Town.

Qi Xin warned them to be careful of “Mr. Qiu.” They had analyzed before that Mr. Qiu was very likely the sniper.

Qi Xin, whose origin was unknown, was obviously acquainted with Mr. Qiu. If they had contact with Qi Xin, the sniper… Mr. Qiu might also know. After all, “Qi Xin” appeared in Shian’s report so it wasn’t difficult to investigate.

“But why didn’t he attack me?”

Yin Ren looked at the phantom covered in wounds, and his hands slowly clenched.

“You were just investigating your sister’s death, and your purpose was very simple. The mysteries around me are obviously greater, and attacking me would easily cause chaos…”

Was the sniper really just randomly killing people?

Yin Ren repeatedly chewed on the information he had obtained.

Bai Yongji, a scumbag who seemed to be at odds with Sunken Society. The guy had not been in contact with the core of the metaphysical world for long and didn’t have anything special besides the ability of the “Charon” branch.

But the ability of the “Charon” branch could allow him to touch “the Other Side”.

Wait, “the Other Side”…

The Archive was also… It was full of weird artifacts that were closely related to “the Other Side”, and it may have a certain degree of connection with “the Other Side”. If he really became an Evil Spirit in the Archive, it was hard to say whether he could come into contact with “the Other Side”.

The three-part league of Shian used metaphysical entities as test questions. Fu Wuya himself was an ancient Charon, similar to Bai Yongji’s situation, and also closely related to the Other Side.

“The sniper is very interested in ‘the Other Side’,” Yin Ren pondered.

“This is a breakthrough point. Wait until Lu Xiahe and the others wake up…”

Before he could finish speaking, the phantom of Zhong Chengshuo changed again.

This time, it was a figure that Yin Ren wasn’t familiar with, only appearing in a photo he had seen before—

A young Zhong Chengshuo sat at the table, his arms neatly folded together. He was wearing a clean, plain T-shirt with soft hair hanging down. He looked like he was still in elementary school. He wasn’t wearing glasses back then, and his features were gentle and delicate. His eyes looked much older than his age, still deep and dark.

He stared at Yin Ren, tilting his head slightly.

“Yeah, if you were here, you would definitely think one step further.”

Yin Ren clumsily operated the complicated machinery, enduring the throbbing pain in his head, trying to connect the overwhelming amount of information.

Under the manipulation of magic, the paper files automatically floated in mid-air. They were suspended by red threads, similar to the intelligence wall in Zhong Chengshuo’s basement.

“The reason why the sniper chose to attack you instead of me…”

Zhong Chengshuo used school research as an excuse for his hunting of evil spirits, but perhaps this wasn’t his main purpose and was just incidental. He had been studying the “Divine Descent” and had indeed been to several places that were related to the Divine Descent.

Such as the nearby city of Luotian, which was close to Gengsheng Town, where he had solved the underground corpse nest as “King Yama”.

Another example was the western suburbs, where the Municipal Hospital was located, where Zhong Chengshuo had also dealt with the hundred-year-old ghost there.

All these places had one thing in common—a large amount of remaining Evil Force, with an abnormally high index of evil qi, directly related to the “Divine Descent.”

…And the “Divine Descent” was exactly tied to “the Other Side.”

Through the connection of the red threads, Yin Ren seemed to have caught something.

The sniper, rather than “being very interested in the Other Side”, was more like maintaining it. From his actions, it seemed that the guy was monitoring and eliminating all humans who might approach the Other Side.

Yin Ren twirled his hair and fell into deep thought.

“The difference between you and me… We have both been in contact with the Other Side. But you took the initiative to investigate the Divine Descent. You might have already been on the sniper’s watch list.”

Young Zhong Chengshuo’s eyes curved a bit, as if he were smiling.

“But these are all speculations. I still need to verify Auntie Tao’s information.” Yin Ren stood up, his hand stopping at the phantom’s head. The phantom looked up at Yin Ren’s hand curiously.

Yin Ren remained silent for a long time before slowly retracting his hand.

“Wait until dawn. I will go find someone to check the information. Will you wait for me?” he said.

The phantom remained silent.

……

Haigu Branch Sunken Society, underground corpse vault.

Minister Zou from Technical Department 2 stood at the entrance of the underground corpse vault, wiping the sweat off his forehead. It was almost dawn, but he dared not leave work yet.

His subordinate, Zhang Wei, was supposed to maintain Zhong Chengshuo’s body, but he hadn’t returned yet. The rules and regulations of that ghostly place were strict, and Zhang Wei’s phone was outside, with no way to contact him. Fortunately, there had been no alarms from the advanced vault at the deepest level, so the situation shouldn’t be too serious.

“We saw him go in, but he hasn’t come out since.” The human guard wiped his nose. “Last time, he also took a long time to maintain it. That place is at the very bottom. Maybe he just got lost.”

“Can you go in and look for him?” Director Zou gritted his teeth. “If something happens, I can’t bear the responsibility.”

“You can’t bear it? If we go in and the defense is lax and someone who shouldn’t be let in breaks in, won’t the blame fall on our heads?” the zombie guard shouted loudly. “Besides, you know this place. The morgue loses two or three people every year—if they’re lost, they’re lost. Just don’t lose the valuable corpses.”

Then he muttered a string of complaints mixed with profanity.

“Who would break into this ghost of a place?!” Minister Zou had a headache.

Sunken Society wasn’t an ordinary organization. If something went wrong, it wasn’t as simple as deducting your year-end bonus. Everyone here was involved in transactions with the high-level executives of Sunken Society—some even more than one—and if something went wrong, “death” would be the easiest outcome.

After all, when Minister Zou first came here, the zombie guard wasn’t even a zombie yet.

Some things were confidential, and he couldn’t be too clear with the guards.

For example, the body of Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t just precious materials, but a hot potato that was thrown over directly by “Mr. Qiu” after being provocatively identified by Shian. While Zhong Chengshuo was a small character, it was uncertain if Shian would try to trace the corpse.

Everything related to that unlucky body made Minister Zou extremely nervous.

What if Zhang Wei was Shian’s spy? What if he made a mistake? The more Minister Zou thought about it, the more he got a headache. He wiped his face and said, “Forget it. I’ll go in and find him myself, okay?”

The two guards looked at each other and shrugged.

“It’s not impossible,” the human guard said seriously.

“But you know the rules.” The zombie chuckled. “You can’t make mistakes in time, route, and way of walking. It’s especially strict down there. If you make a mistake, you will be responsible for the consequences.”

“Okay, enough talk. Let me in quickly.”

Minister Zou felt annoyed.

“I will definitely find that kid.”

The author has something to say:

Minister Zou, there’s hell ahead!