Chapter 658: Chapter 525: Phone Call_2
Unexpectedly, the silver-haired man refused, throwing a complex glance at his subordinate, he whispered a warning, "Stay away from them and do what you’re supposed to do."
Seeing that these three were about to leave, Yang Xiao called out to them, pleading, "Gentlemen, could you please do us a favor? You should have the list of residents, right? Prisoner number 3 is a psycho killer, extremely dangerous. He’s trying to kill us, could you..."
"Don’t worry, I will find him," said the silver-haired man.
With this assurance, Yang Xiao felt at ease. He needed to deal with Prisoner number 3 before confronting the Ghost in order to face the followers of the Black Buddha Mother. As it stood now, even if he and Lu Wencheng were tied together, they might not be a match for them, and the offer of help from the silver-haired man couldn’t have been better.
After giving the instructions, the three silvery-haired men departed. At this moment, Lu Wencheng gave Yang Xiao a look, raised his hand, and mimed the action of lifting a lantern. Seizing the opportunity, Yang Xiao took out the Ghost Lantern and, with all his strength, maneuvered the green light to fly swiftly behind the three men.
As the green light touched them, Yang Xiao’s brow twitched. He saw that the trio had completely changed appearance. The two girls standing to the left and right were split at the waist, their upper bodies swaying like seaweed following their footsteps, as if the next second they might fall off. The silver-haired man in the center was covered in wounds, his limbs severed, looking like a rag doll barely haphazardly stitched together.
These three weren’t ordinary people; they were ghosts, killed by the Source Ghost and doomed to remain here forever!
What was more terrifying was that their perception was far stronger than Yang Xiao had imagined. Almost the moment the green light shone upon them, the girl and young man reacted. Their split, crudely reassembled upper bodies suddenly twisted backward. It was too late to retract the lantern now. In a critical moment, an arm reached out and steadied the two "people’s" shoulders. The silver-haired man in the center didn’t turn back but instead spread his arms out to embrace the other two’s shoulders, and the three slowly walked away together.
Yang Xiao and Lu Wencheng were shocked by this scene and took a long time to recover. However, their survival was crucial. Yang Xiao took Lu Wencheng to his own home. After entering the house and closing the door, they didn’t turn on the lights. Instead, carrying the Ghost Lantern, they searched the room thoroughly to make sure there were no issues before inviting Lu Wencheng to sit down and asking if he really was a disciple of the Ru Lin Academy, or if he was deceiving them.
"Of course it’s true. I wouldn’t dare to deceive them," Lu Wencheng recalled the scene just now, still feeling frightened.
Yang Xiao then asked if he knew Yang Cha, and as soon as he heard the name, Lu Wencheng’s expression changed, "That’s my junior brother!"
"You... are all disciples of Elder Qingmu?" Yang Xiao was surprised as well.
"Yes, I also have a younger sister. All three of us are disciples of Elder Qingmu." Lu Wencheng wasn’t worried about leaking secrets since their memories would be erased if they managed to leave.
"By the way, how do you know my junior brother?" Lu Wencheng was curious.
After briefly explaining the situation to Lu Wencheng, Lu couldn’t help but marvel at the incredible coincidence that they actually had this connection.
"It’s a pity, once we leave this place, our memories will be erased; otherwise... we could have sat down and made friends," Lu Wencheng lamented.
"Wherever in the world we may meet, if fate decrees it, we will surely find each other again," Yang Xiao consoled. Yang Cha’s senior brother seemed to be a decent person with strong abilities. He already had as many as three Magic Artifacts on him, truly a distinguished disciple of Elder Qingmu.
As they talked, Lu Wencheng voiced his suspicion about the identity of the three silver-haired persons—they might be official personnel who had been involved in handling this supernatural event, members of the Patrol Defense Office, whose identity was indeed real. However, something must have gone wrong during the handling, resulting in their deaths. As for why they could still use Magic Artifacts and weren’t assimilated by the Source Ghost, Lu was unclear. But he observed that the three still retained some of their instincts, which was very rare. Lu boldly guessed that this might be related to the ability of the man with silver hair.
"This guy must be someone with a reputation, with a record at your Patrol Defense Office. Unfortunately, even if we survive, our memories will be erased; otherwise, we could have checked," Lu Wencheng said with a self-deprecating smile. "Anyway, given his status and level, even if we tried to investigate, we could hardly find anything. His security clearance must be extremely high, and your Provincial Office probably doesn’t have his records. From what he says, he seems to know a lot about our Ru Lin Academy, but he interacts with people of a higher status than my master."
"Considering this world’s timeline, it must have been at least 30 years ago. Don’t be fooled by his youth; he is indeed from the older generation. It’s normal that he doesn’t know your master," Yang Xiao reasoned after some thought. The last sight of the silver-haired man embracing his companions had left a deep impression on him.
For some reason, Yang Xiao felt an almost inexplicable trust in the silver-haired man; it seemed that even if the other was a ghost, he was not so terrifying.
After a while, a fog started outside. The fog came suddenly, and by the time the two of them noticed it, it had quickly spread, engulfing the outside world, and through the mist, they could barely make out the silhouettes of the other four apartment buildings.
Raising his hand, he pointed toward another building not far away, where a room on the high floor had its lights on, it was positioned even higher than the room Yang Xiao was in. Lu Wencheng explained that it was his own room.
However, before the two could continue their conversation, something unexpected happened. The light in Lu Wencheng’s room suddenly went out, all in the blink of an eye.
"What’s going on?" Lu Wencheng was startled.
Yang Xiao narrowed his eyes, gazing at the distant building. With the separation of the mist, it became even more alien and terrifying, "Something has entered."
"It could also be a person," Yang Xiao added.
"Could it be those three from the Patrol Defense Office?" No sooner had Lu Wencheng spoken than he shook his head to dismiss the idea, those three guys were unlikely to waste effort on such a thing.
"Dinglingling—"
The sudden sound of a telephone ringing in the darkness was like a giant pair of scissors, instantly cutting through their tense nerves. The black and white screen of the old-fashioned telephone lit up eerily, displaying a familiar number. Lu Wencheng’s eyes stalled; this... this call was actually from his room!
His first impulse was to hang up the call, but reason reminded him that doing so now would only reveal to whoever was on the other end that there was a living person on this side.
The phone rang for a long time. In the dimly lit room, neither dared to move an inch, until the ringing finally ceased.
It was also at this moment that Yang Xiao and Lu Wencheng finally took deep breaths. The tension and strangeness of the atmosphere were almost suffocating.
"This is bad..." Lu Wencheng suddenly said.
Yang Xiao sensed something was awry, "What’s wrong?"
"I... I was worried I’d forget, so I wrote down the phone number you gave me in a notebook, and your room number... it’s just under the landline phone." Lu Wencheng’s tone was clearly panicked.
Yang Xiao hadn’t expected that someone who seemed so shrewd could make such a basic mistake. Why wouldn’t he carry something so crucial on his person?
But now was not the time for reproach. From experience, this didn’t seem like the work of a ghost, but a human. This person searching for Lu Wencheng’s room was certainly not there to reminisce; they had come to kill. Unfortunately, they had come up empty. Yang Xiao speculated that the person had stumbled upon the phonebook while searching the room.
If this was the case, then the problem was serious. This person, daring to come knocking, must have great confidence in their abilities. The first thing Yang Xiao thought of was Prisoner Number 3.
The silver lining in their unfortunate situation was that the address Yang Xiao had initially left with Lu Wencheng was fake; he had given him the number of the room opposite his.
Leaning over to look down from the window, Lu Wencheng sighed with relief, "The mist hasn’t cleared, that person shouldn’t dare to come over now. Once the mist is gone, those three from the Patrol Defense Office should arrive. By then, with those three here, whoever comes will have to die."
No sooner had he spoken than Lu Wencheng abruptly held his breath, his expression changing as well. From the direction of the stairwell came the sound of iron chains clanging, as if a prisoner with heavy foot shackles was coming upstairs.
"Clattering—"
