Chapter 304: Shadow Play

The air suddenly grew heavy, almost suffocating.

When Lu Xin spoke, his attitude was still calm, his tone matching his usual way of speaking.

But maybe because his expression was so blank, almost nonexistent as he said it, it gave off a strange gloominess.

Inside the room, Sun Gouzi, Little Zhou, and the others shivered inexplicably, feeling the temperature drop several degrees.

The atmosphere instantly froze, becoming tense.

Lu Xin stopped trying to look at the remaining people in the room. He even closed his eyes, leaning against the doorframe.

As if resting…

Yet everyone in the room felt a chilling sense of being watched by something unseen.

It was Sister. She had already started moving. Her small form climbed nimbly over the room’s walls, the ceiling, the pillars supporting the roof, the bedding, and even over Little Zhou and Sun Gouzi. Like a small beast in a white skirt, she observed the drifting smoke, checked here and there, exuding a gloomy aura as she searched for the invisible monster.

The skinless dog appeared from somewhere, cautiously trying to approach Lu Xin.

But one glance from Lu Xin sent it scurrying back, tail tucked between its legs.

Its job was to help alleviate Lu Xin’s emotions, but it could tell Lu Xin didn’t want relief right now.

…

For a long, long time, no one spoke.

No one moved.

A long while passed, and no one else vanished.

Amidst the extreme tension, a sudden feeling of unchanging stillness emerged, making everyone uncomfortable.

Just as the atmosphere stretched taut like a violin string, a heavy stench of blood drifted in from the courtyard. It was pungent, not the slightly sweet smell of fresh blood, but the foul odor of something left out for too long, beginning to rot.

The smell grew stronger, filling the entire room, as if something was drawing near.

“Cough, cough…”

Suddenly, a series of coughs broke the dead silence of the courtyard.

The sound was so abrupt it sent shivers down their spines.

Inside the room, both Sun Gouzi and Little Zhou instinctively turned to look. In the dark, spacious courtyard, a person had appeared out of nowhere. Her face was deathly pale, her lips bright red. The sudden sight was terrifying, making their hair stand on end. But looking closer, they couldn’t help but sigh in relief, simultaneously feeling the urge to curse.

It was the Boss’s wife from the motel. She wore a pink down jacket, her figure large and plump. Her face was caked in thick white powder, and her lips were painted a vivid red. Strangely, despite her size, she moved without making a sound.

“What are you all gathered for?”

The Boss’s wife slowly walked over, tilting her head to peer into the large dorm room. “I heard you shouting from way over there…”

Little Zhou and Sun Gouzi opened their mouths but hesitated to speak.

They both wanted to yell at her—what kind of timing was this, coming over and scaring people?

But considering Lu Xin was right there, they held back.

Accustomed to obeying their Boss, they knew when to speak and when to listen.

Lu Xin opened his eyes then and turned to look at the Boss’s wife.

His face was blank as he watched her quietly.

He watched the plump motel owner’s wife slowly sway her hips as she approached.

Her expression and demeanor seemed perfectly normal, yet there was an underlying sense of stiffness.

It was just a feeling, with no proof, so Lu Xin wasn’t anxious.

He simply observed her carefully, wondering about the source of the strange feeling she gave off.

There was no Mental Monster on her, so she likely wasn’t Polluted.

So, was an Ability User influencing her?

For Lu Xin, this made a big difference. He could directly see Mental Monsters, but there were exceptions. When a Mental Monster hid inside a Polluted person’s body, he couldn’t see it. Additionally, some Ability Users’ Pollution seemed inherently stealthy, undetectable not only to him but even to highly precise instruments.

In situations like this, he relied on intuition and… inquiry.

So, after a moment of silence, Lu Xin asked softly, “Are you working with the monster in the room?”

The Boss’s wife looked utterly confused. “Working with who?”

“I have a husband, young man…”

“…”

Hearing her words, a slight smile touched Lu Xin’s lips.

He asked, seemingly curious, “If you have a husband, why were you trying to seduce Old Zhou?”

The Boss’s wife’s expression instantly turned strange. “I… was I?”

“You weren’t.”

Lu Xin said, “Old Zhou’s back is bad; he wouldn’t fall for anyone’s advances. But you’ve exposed yourself…”

“The real Boss’s wife would just curse someone out…”

“…”

As his words fell, the surrounding atmosphere seemed to grow even heavier.

Though winter had set in, a chilling wind suddenly picked up.

The wind gusted into the large dorm room, instantly setting the light bulb hanging from the ceiling swaying.

Everyone’s shadows flickered strangely due to the swinging bulb, growing and shrinking, shifting and stretching.

Lu Xin’s shadow did the same.

He sat by the door, and as the light bulb swayed, the shadow beneath his feet suddenly stretched out, merging with the darkness outside.

It seemed like a natural occurrence.

What wasn’t natural was that when the bulb swung back, Lu Xin’s shadow didn’t retract with it.

*Shhhlick…*

If one looked closely, they would notice a shadow in the darkness outside, distinctly darker than its surroundings.

It slithered through the darkness, instantly elongating and lunging straight for the Boss’s wife.

“Heh heh…”

But just then, a strange laugh echoed from outside.

The laughter came from the Boss’s wife, but her plump flesh was visibly trembling, and her mouth hadn’t opened.

Her rather plump body suddenly tumbled sideways with startling agility, easily dodging the shadow’s attack and landing steadily on the ground. A voice spoke up: “You really are an Ability User, and a strong one at that.”

Lu Xin frowned, looking at her, realizing she hadn’t spoken. The voice came from behind her.

“Really strange…”

Lu Xin murmured, still sitting steadily by the door.

After all, he had to guard this door and prevent the monster inside from escaping.

He had to keep his word.

But the shadow beneath his feet suddenly dispersed, hugging the ground, seemingly making a sizzling sound.

“Eh?”

“Not even going to chat first?”

The voice continued speaking from behind the plump Boss’s wife, while her surprisingly agile body kept dodging and leaping at astonishing speed. What felt particularly strange to Lu Xin was that she always seemed to move just a step ahead of his shadow. Every time the shadow lunged, she had already dodged in advance, incredibly flexible.

This was the first time his shadow couldn’t clean up an opponent because it couldn’t catch them.

If that’s the case…

Lu Xin thought to himself and then stood up.

The moment he stood, his body almost blocked the light bulb behind him. His shadow instantly swelled, surging towards the Boss’s wife like a black tide. She screamed, retreating almost tens of meters. Her plump body forcefully stepped onto the front of a car, launching her into mid-air before she executed a neat turn and landed steadily on the ground…

*Crack…*

A sharp cracking sound came from her ankle.

…Although her movements were agile, her physical conditioning couldn’t keep up. Under the pressure of her immense weight, her ankle twisted.

“Heh heh…”

A smile appeared on Lu Xin’s face as his shadow lunged forward again.

A pained and panicked expression crossed the Boss’s wife’s face. Under the control of some power, she seemed able to ignore the pain and continue dodging, but her injured foot inevitably hampered her movements. It was now impossible to evade the shadow’s attack.

Just as the black shadow was about to crawl onto her, engulfing her completely…

But at that moment, Lu Xin suddenly turned and reached up to grasp the wildly swinging light bulb.

The bulb steadied, and the shadows abruptly stopped flickering.

The shadow that had reached the Boss’s wife stopped instantly and rapidly flowed back towards Lu Xin.

The Boss’s wife choked, making a rattling sound in her throat, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed face-first onto the ground.

Her rear end stuck high in the air.

And behind her, a tall, thin figure appeared, quietly watching Lu Xin.

Only now did the source of the Boss’s wife’s strangeness become clear.

She had appeared to be alone, but someone had been hiding behind her large body the entire time.

This person’s every move mirrored the Boss’s wife’s, using her as a shield.

Just now, even if Lu Xin had killed the Boss’s wife with his shadow, it wouldn’t have actually harmed this person. That’s why he retracted the shadow.

This person seemed to realize Lu Xin had discovered them, and with the Boss’s wife injured, they stopped controlling her.

The two faced each other silently, separated by more than twenty meters.

“You’re a kind person. You don’t like harming the innocent. I like people like you.”

The tall, thin figure spoke softly, “So why don’t we stop first and have a proper chat?”

Lu Xin quietly watched the person in the darkness. They stood just outside the light spilling from the room, but under the faint moonlight overhead, Lu Xin could vaguely make out their appearance. It was a man in a crisp suit, tall and slender. In the darkness, Lu Xin could sense his bright gaze… indeed, an extremely bright gaze. There was none brighter.

Because on his head, there were no facial features, only a single vertical eye.

That eye was twenty centimeters long and over ten centimeters wide. Its pupil was pitch black, and the white part was riddled with blood vessels.

The rest of the head was entirely composed of eyelids, left and right. Reddish, wrinkled flesh formed the entirety of the head.

No hair.

Such a bizarre existence looked indescribably strange in the dark night.

…

“Chat about what?”

Lu Xin stared at this person for a good while before his body gave a sudden, almost imperceptible shiver.

His expression turned peculiar. “You’re actually… kind of cute…”