My House of Horrors

Chen Ge was very satisfied with Bei Ye’s reaction. He turned to the rest. “Is there anyone else who objects?”

Practically half of the people there were on Chen Ge’s side, so they naturally had no issues with his arrangement. The small minority who objected were too afraid to voice their real opinion. Even if they did not agree with Chen Ge’s action, they were too weak to go against it.

“Since there’s no objection, we should not waste time and start moving. If we wait longer, more weird stuff might be attracted here.” After Chen Ge said that, he took the pair of high heels on the counter and placed them inside his backpack. He then called for the white cat and Scissors before heading to the door.

“Didn’t you notice how comfortable he is at this place? When all of us are assaulted by this feeling of discomfort, he is like a fish returning to the water. It feels like this chaotic and bloody small town is somewhere that is home-like to him,” Jia Ming whispered to Lee Zheng.

“What are you trying to say?” Lee Zheng frowned deeply.

“Isn’t it obvious‽ He is the shadow; this is where he lives; this place is his home!” Jia Ming kept trying to convince Lee Zheng. “I know that he’s not going to lead us to the exit—his real goal is to kill all of us. You might not believe me now, but time will prove that I’m right. I hope you’ll be more alert so that you won’t cause me my death.”

“Before you point fingers at others, you’d better take a good look at yourself first. The shadow escaped from your body, so of everyone here, you are the most suspicious.” Lee Zheng had interacted with many cunning criminals before. He understood one thing—the more mentally twisted the person was, the more unreasonable their worldview was. A part of their brain was flawed, and from a certain perspective, their ability to study and learn was much greater than their emotional control. A real mad person could weave an unbelievable lie that they put their full trust in without showing any remorse or guilt.

Obviously, Jia Ming and the shadow who had committed more than a few murders fell into this category.

“You’ll regret ever trusting that man, and trust me, that day is going to arrive soon.” Jia Ming did not stop with his persuasion. He realized that it was incredibly hard to shake Lee Zheng’s conviction—this inspector had a resoluteness to his belief, and he was much harder to break through than he had anticipated.

I’ve cleared most of the dangerous spots mentioned by the black phone. It is time to go take a look at the door.

Chen Ge led the passengers out from the hotel, and the tattooed man followed close behind them.

“Are you sure you want to bring all of them?” The tattooed man looked at the large group of ‘people’ behind them, and he felt unsettled.

“What are my other options? Are you suggesting I kill all those who refuse to cooperate?” Chen Ge fired the question back to the man.

“You have a point. If we keep them around, we can use them as cannon fodder when there’s danger.” Tattooed man convinced himself. He started to question his decision of cooperating with Chen Ge. However, the arrow had already been loosed. His only choice now was to follow Chen Ge to the end of the road.

“Please move faster, stop wasting time. One second wasted here reduces the hope of us escaping by one more percent.” The tattooed man turned to yell at the rest. His eyes landed longer on Lee Zheng. There were many mad people at Li Wan City, one could have one’s pick of criminals, but they had never encountered a police officer. “No matter the history between any of you, no matter why you’re here, I hope you can put that aside until after we leave this place. Now we are a shared body, and if there’s anyone who wishes to drag the group down, we’ll have no use but to cut them loose.”

When the tattooed man spoke, the five female skulls on his arm seemed to grin wickedly like they were anticipating a shower of blood. Everyone left the hotel. The high-schooler and the student walked at the back—it was clear that they were the most unwilling.

“Is that everyone?” Chen Ge turned back to look, and he noticed that the woman in the red raincoat had disappeared. The rest, including the smiling man, were following behind him. “With numbers comes strength, I will lead you all out of this place provided that none of you do anything stupid.”

If not for him being worried about Fan Chong’s safety, Chen Ge would actually have cleared out the entire small town, not leaving even a single room behind. If he did that, he would have been confident that he could convince the residents of the town to join his camp.

Unfortunately, I’m starved for time. I can only pick the important things to do, but from the looks of it, I still have the upper hand. Chen Ge surreptitiously glanced behind him. His shadow had completely changed. After consuming the gluttonous woman’s heart, the wound on Zhang Ya’s arm seemed to have recovered. If she can hear my voice, then I have everything under control.

Chen Ge had the courage to face any difficulty that came his way, but that did not mean that he was overconfident. After the glutton monster was consumed, the balance of power was tipped. It was natural for the shadow to do something to revert the balance. Since the shadow temporarily could not harm Chen Ge, then the logical thing to expect the shadow to do was for him to harm Chen Ge’s helpers.

After the group left the hotel, they definitely created a scene. There were shadows in the blood fog watching them, but since Chen Ge’s group was so ginormous, none of them dared to approach.

“Hey, look there.” When they passed the first junction, the drunkard, who was carrying the doctor, pointed ahead and whispered to Chen Ge. At the other end of the street, there was a human shape that looked very similar to the drunkard, waving at them.

“This thing again. I wish to let you go, but you’re presenting yourself to me.” Chen Ge did not hold back this time and activated the recorder. When the sound of static appeared, Chen Ge pointed at the shadow across the road and said, “Xu Yin.”

The scent of blood caressed his nostrils, and Xu Yin stood guard next to Chen Ge. He did not rush forward as if sensing danger. After several seconds, another blurry silhouette appeared at the opposite side of the road. This new shadow though looked suspiciously like Scissors.

“A second one? No, wait! There are more!” The drunkard was already traumatized from dealing with these monsters who would wave at him. When he saw more human shapes appearing one after another, he could feel his legs going weak. In the blink of an eye, several shadows appeared on the opposite side of the street. Other than Chen Ge, almost everyone in their group was copied.

“What kind of monsters are these?” The drunkard, carrying the doctor, hid behind Chen Ge.

“These things are called Seizing Souls. They can mimic the shape of our shadows. They are formed from the excess negative emotions that overflowed out of the ghost focus. Remember, do not stare at them for too long, or they might seize the soul out of your body, and if that happens…” The tattooed man lowered his head. “If so many of them appear at the same time, it can only mean that our movement has been discovered by the shadow.”

“Seizing Souls? Such horrid things, but…” The drunkard turned to Chen Ge with confusion. “How come none of them copied your shadow?”