Chapter 16 Is this the underworld?
Seeing this scene, Qin Liu was greatly startled.
Chen Hao’s eyes widened even further, and he muttered in disbelief.
“Captain…”
His former comrade died before his eyes again. This blow was like adding insult to injury for the already severely injured Chen Hao.
He slumped to the ground, the despair and struggle in his heart impacting his mind incessantly.
Unfounded suspicions began to surface in his mind.
Could it be that his other teammates were also dead?
Could he be the sole survivor?
Could… the murderer be the young girl beside him?
His mind raced with suspicions, and the dual torment of physical pain and mental anguish almost caused him to faint.
At this moment, Qin Liu spoke.
“He seems to be holding something.”
Qin Liu’s words pulled Chen Hao back from the abyss of his thoughts.
He stared blankly at the young girl as she slowly pried open the tightly clenched fist, and then took out a note.
After unfolding the note, it bore the captain’s handwriting.
“Run! The fierce ghosts here are not something we can deal with…”
The handwriting ended abruptly, as if the police officer had met his demise after leaving the message.
Chen Hao suppressed the grief in his heart.
He had witnessed too many life-and-death partings, but seeing his captain, who was both a mentor and a friend, cruelly killed by a fierce ghost, he couldn’t hold back his tears.
“He’s gone.”
Chen Hao said with a choked voice, as if speaking not to Qin Liu, but to the corpse before him.
Soon, he turned around, trying his best not to look to the side.
Qin Liu watched the police officer walk away step by step, her heart filled with mixed emotions.
Then she took out her lantern, and guided by the light, the police officer’s soul entered the lantern.
After doing this, she followed them.
In the quiet passage, neither Qin Liu nor Chen Hao spoke. It was estimated that the police officer would need a very, very long time to calm his emotions.
After walking a distance along the passage, rapid footsteps were heard from the front.
Judging by the footsteps, there were three people approaching.
Qin Liu stared intensely in the direction of the passage entrance.
The faint light of the lantern penetrated the darkness of the passage.
Liu Haoyu and two unfamiliar police officers appeared before Qin Liu.
These two police officers were not injured, and upon seeing Chen Hao’s慘状 (tragic state), they quickly went to support him and asked.
“Chen Hao, what’s wrong… Where’s Captain?”
“Captain… is dead.”
Chen Hao’s simple yet extremely heavy four words plunged his two companions into silence.
After a moment of silence in the dark passage, Liu Haoyu finally spoke.
“Everyone, you should leave through the window over there. I’ll handle the rest.”
Liu Haoyu pointed to the window behind him, where a rope had already been set up, allowing them to leave the mall directly via the rope.
Chen Hao shivered when he saw Liu Haoyu looking like a midnight murderer.
Fortunately, the police officers present were more or less aware of this ghost exorcist, so they weren’t as helpless as ordinary police officers.
Facing Liu Haoyu’s confident demeanor, Chen Hao understood that he had reason to be confident. This man had almost cleared all the supernatural events in Beiming City, a true ghost exorcist.
His strength was on a completely different level from theirs.
“Be safe, we’ll call for backup immediately.”
After leaving these words, the two police officers took Chen Hao and left the mall through the rope.
In the dark passage, only the masked murderer and the red-clothed young girl holding a lantern remained.
“Casualties were still unavoidable. This is the fate of a ghost exorcist…”
Liu Haoyu broke the silence first.
It was precisely because of this that he was unwilling to get too close to too many people, especially those of the opposite sex.
Every ghost exorcist knew clearly that they could die like a dog at any moment, meaninglessly.
“By the way, are you alright?”
Qin Liu was stunned by Liu Haoyu’s sudden concern.
“I’m fine, it’s just… the way that police officer died just now made me feel very uncomfortable.”
The police officer’s death, stuffed into a mannequin, lingered in Qin Liu’s mind.
In fact, she had been frightened all along but had not shown it.
And after meeting Liu Haoyu, when her guard dropped, the suppressed fear resurfaced.
“Let’s go find Liu Zining quickly and deal with the fierce ghost in this mall along the way.”
“Okay.”
—
On the other side, Liu Zining was groping forward in the black mist.
The cold and terrifying feeling surrounding her made her shiver uncontrollably.
Even more strangely, the Bagua plate in her hand showed that within a hundred meters of her, there were no signs of life.
A hundred meters was not a large area, but it could cover more than half of the mall.
And she was on the third floor, in the center. As long as Liu Haoyu wasn’t in some hidden corner, the Bagua plate should have been able to detect his presence.
But now, the needle on the Bagua plate was still, as if she were the only living person in the entire world.
“Something’s wrong…”
Liu Zining immediately realized something.
She had been pulled into a ghost realm.
Perhaps this was even the underworld.
Although the black mist was very dense, Liu Zining could still see that she was still inside Tengda Mall.
But these empty malls seemed to be filled with invisible monsters.
They were watching her, with greedy and bloodthirsty eyes.
“Crack crack…”
A sound like bones grinding filled the air.
Liu Zining’s senses were on high alert. She held a lightning-attracting talisman, her gaze constantly scanning the surrounding environment.
Under her watch, a mannequin slowly walked out from a corner.
Upon seeing the face on the mannequin, Liu Zining’s pupils contracted.
“How could it be…”
She had seen many dead people, but this was the first time she had seen someone die so tragically.
Especially when the person was someone she knew well.
However, even so, Liu Zining’s mind remained steady. She hurled the talisman in her hand.
“Lightning Attracting Talisman!”
“Boom!”
A piercing explosion echoed through the black mist, shattering the mannequin monster into pieces.
Liu Zining looked at the corpse’s remains, then took out another Divine Fire Talisman.
“Rest in peace…”
Flames engulfed the police officer’s remains, but looking at the flames on the officer’s body, Liu Zining still felt a lingering unease in her heart.
And at that moment, she suddenly heard the honking of a bus.
Why would there be such a sound on the third floor of the mall?
