Above his head, the sun blazed fiercely.

Han Bingjie followed Zhong Shenxiu, walking over the exact spot where Liu Dacheng had vanished amid screams, and felt goosebumps all over his body.

He forcefully stomped on the ground, finding the earth solid, with no tunnels or traps.

"Brother Gui... I'm a little scared!"

His voice broke into an involuntary whimper.

He didn't understand why his legs always seemed eager to run into danger.

"If you're scared, you shouldn't have followed."

Zhong Shenxiu used a black umbrella as a walking stick, already turning into the passageway they had come through.

From this angle, the side of grave number 27 was visible.

And it was deserted.

Yet the white delivery package had already been opened.

He nodded and walked over.

There was still a camera hidden there, which should have captured everything that happened before.

The truth might lie within!

...

"Supernatural beings kill through shadows... but hiding one's own shadow doesn't guarantee safety!"

As Chu He moved, he kept a cool head, analyzing, "As long as there's light, shadows exist... Covering one's own shadow with that of another object could possibly evade the supernatural being's attack, but it's more likely to attract it because that too is a shadow..."

Indeed, it wasn't long before he heard Miao Yingying's screams, "Hypothesis one is correct! Shadows are indeed the key..."

He looked up at the blazing noon sun and suddenly laughed, "If we had chosen to come at night, we might have fallen into the most horrific traps, because then, half the earth is shrouded in shadow... The being could appear anywhere to kill!"

"The company really wants to play us to death this time!"

"Even more, they've lifted the restrictions, allowing the 'being' to kill an employee and then immediately move on to the next..."

"Every one of us has a shadow, and with the being's speed of killing, no one on this mission can survive!"

"Total annihilation is the only outcome."

"This is... an unsolvable trap!"

Having understood this, Chu He stopped in his tracks.

He was not physically strong, and running too quickly earlier had left him gasping for breath.

Now, he suddenly turned in a different direction, "Since it's death either way, I might as well go to the grave and see if there are any clues in the camera before..."

Just then, he felt a palm grasp his ankle.

Chu He looked down and saw from within the shadow of his heel a large, bluish-black hand reach out and grab him.

A bitter smile couldn't help but emerge on his face.

Before death, all were equal.

The being wouldn't spare him as the last victim simply because he was wise.

Unfortunately, he had become the 'target'!

'Is this my death?'

'I still wanted to go to the board meeting, to unravel the company's deepest secrets...'

'Forget it...'

It is said that before death, people rapidly reminisce over their entire lives.

Chu He had no such inclination.

He was filled with only regret.

But the next moment, that icy feeling vanished.

He looked at his shadow and realized that the large hand had somehow retracted back.

'I survived?'

He adjusted his glasses, his voice slightly trembling, "I didn't do anything special, it's unlikely I accidentally found the path to life, so then... did someone else attract the being's attention more, drawing it away?"

...

"Brother Gui, I..."

Han Bingjie caught up and suddenly saw a dark green hand extend from the shadow behind Zhong Shenxiu, he couldn't help but shout, "Watch out!"

Almost simultaneously with his words, it was as if Zhong Shenxiu's head had eyes on the back, as he stabbed the dark umbrella directly backwards.

He was the kind of person who had premonitions of danger!

The attack might have seemed bizarre, but he had actually reacted in advance.

The glossy black tip of the umbrella pierced straight into the hand, nailing it to the ground.

From the shadowed area on the ground, there was originally a twisted human figure, seemingly the 'strange' entity itself!

But when the umbrella tip hit the ground, it seemed to freeze in place, immobilized.

"It's done!"

With a slight effort, Zhong Shenxiu planted the large black umbrella into the ground, like a gigantic black nail.

Then he let go of the handle and walked toward grave number 27.

Han Bingjie watched everything in a daze, observing how the shadow under Zhong Shenxiu's feet kept stretching and deforming, and the portion of it containing the dark green hand was pinned in place by the big black umbrella.

The 'strange' hand, along with the figure in the shadow, lay still as if dead.

'It's a pity... it's just utilizing positional suppression.'

'If I were to release the seal, I wonder if the tip of this cursed object could kill the immortal 'strange' completely...'

'It seems... there's only this one 'strange' creature. After it was sealed, I no longer sensed any danger.'

Zhong Shenxiu touched his brow and approached grave number 27.

He saw the white delivery package had been opened, but the contents were still inside.

Inside the large box, there was only a black and white portrait photograph.

It was of a teenage boy with a look very similar to Cao Liuyu.

Zhong Shenxiu held the photograph over grave number 27 and found it fit perfectly into the recess there.

The tombstones of graves number 26 and 28, although mostly blurred, were now barely recognisable, both apparently bearing the surname Cao.

"I have a bold theory, the real Cao Liuyu died in the year Fengling Village had the disaster, and his body lies in this grave..."

"That makes it interesting, then. The thing that survived, who is it?"

"Where is the 'strange' entity that Fengling Village has always been sealing?"

Zhong Shenxiu seemed to be talking to himself, yet also as if addressing Han Bingjie behind him.

Han Bingjie felt a chill down to his bones, as his common sense crumbled.

"You, go take out the memory card from the camera, we'll know once we play it back..."

With trembling hands, Han Bingjie took the camera from the corner, removed the memory chip, and used a converter to play it on his phone.

Upon opening it, at first, there was static, but then an image appeared.

Before grave number 27, the white package always present, unopened.

Then Cao Liuyu's figure appeared. He pounced over and tore open the parcel.

But at the moment he saw the photograph, his expression gradually stiffened and turned a shade of dark green, as if melting into his own shadow...

"Indeed... Cao Liuyu was a 'strange'? Have we been living with a 'strange' creature all along?"

Han Bingjie suddenly felt an urge to cry.

"It seems that years ago, this 'strange' massacred Cao Liuyu's entire village, then arbitrarily chose this identity, impersonating him to leave Fengling Village... Or rather, Cao Liuyu didn't even know he was a 'strange', he was just a skin created by it, possessing the memories and identity of the real Cao Liuyu!"

"The moment this skin realized the real Cao Liuyu was dead, that it itself was a 'strange', it would be torn apart... and the real 'strange' would come out to kill..."

Zhong Shenxiu analyzed, "Even... the fact that Cao Liuyu survived the last annual meeting wasn't because he was lucky or had strong reasoning skills, but because he was a 'strange'!"

"Then... his lover, his brothers..."

Han Bingjie found his voice growing incredibly hoarse.

"They might have died from other incidents, or perhaps... they inadvertently discovered Cao Liuyu's identity and were unconsciously killed by him..."

Zhong Shenxiu shrugged his shoulders.

"This... is too terrifying, too scary."

Thinking back to Cao Liuyu's grief and madness, which didn't seem feigned at all, Han Bingjie's thoughts became even more disordered.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.