Chapter 209: Heredity
——Thump thump
——Thump thump
In the darkness, Lu Jinzhao heard her own heartbeat for the first time in a long while.
A clear, steady sound that was not hurried.
Even though her sense of crisis made her skin tingle with faint prickles, Lu Jinzhao still maintained a relatively calm mind. She made no unnecessary movements, even though she felt a chilling wind slowly blowing over her from above.
It was as if, in the darkness, a face was leaning down and staring at her.
Cannot move.
The tablet being away from her body already meant danger, and violating the mission requirements would be even more suicidal.
Therefore, no matter what happened, it was best not to move.
Time passed bit by bit. Lu Jinzhao clearly felt something above her head, but that thing made no further movements.
“Is it because I didn’t violate the mission rules?”
The tablet being away from her body did invite trouble, but it didn’t seem too severe. At least, Silence offset most of the invasion from unknown supernatural power. The rest was quietly neutralized by ghost blood after entering her body.
“Perhaps because it’s still the early stage, the consequences of the tablet being away from the body aren’t too severe yet.”
She believed that not only she, but all passengers currently could cope with this erosion.
The key was what came next.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t think this mission had only this much danger.
Another ten seconds passed. The ghost seemed to realize belatedly that this kind of “scare” was useless, so it began its next action.
In the silence, Lu Jinzhao first heard a faint sound like something being touched, followed by a creak as wood slid across the ground.
Her heart jolted in shock, and she immediately realized the sound was coming from her tablet.
Her tablet was being moved.
This was bad news. Lu Jinzhao suddenly understood why the face she had seen earlier had such a terrified expression.
The mission had a time limit. She had to ensure that at the end of the time limit, she could immediately grab the tablet and leave, without interfering with the people who came in afterward. After all, the mission had a clear no teaming up requirement. Her staying in the ancestral hall would deduct life-buying money and also trigger the no teaming up mission requirement.
The shadow behind her was just the appetizer. What was truly dragging away her tablet was the real crisis.
Fortunately, Lu Jinzhao was not entirely unprepared.
Tan Meng’s limbs instantly stretched long, touching the tablet’s original position in less than a second. At first, Tan Meng didn’t grab the tablet, but Lu Jinzhao immediately judged its current position based on the sound, and Tan Meng’s hand stretched out right away.
Touched it.
But
The instant it touched the tablet, a hand also touched her shoulder.
The touch was very light, neither cold nor heavy, just like someone gently placing their hand on her shoulder.
But Lu Jinzhao knew this was impossible.
At this moment, in this room, there were absolutely no other living people besides her.
The hand on her shoulder showed no abnormality at first, just gently resting there, yet it still made Lu Jinzhao extremely vigilant.
Substitute and Nemesis swayed slightly—that was Lu Jinzhao unconsciously preparing to use them, the manifestation of the signal being received by them.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
The hand on her shoulder made no movement at all, but the more it was like this, the heavier Lu Jinzhao’s mood became.
What moved first was instead the tablet bound by Tan Meng.
Tan Meng’s hand only bound part of the tablet; the other part was still gripped by something invisible. The stalemate lasted only an extremely brief time, and then that thing began dragging the tablet again.
The instant it dragged the tablet, Lu Jinzhao immediately controlled Tan Meng to tighten its arm. But the dragging force on the tablet wasn’t so great that even using Tan Meng she couldn’t resist it. Instead, the hand on her shoulder suddenly began dragging her body.
Even her martial arts practice body couldn’t resist the ghost’s dragging at all. Ghost blood was more about hindering internal invasion and control of her body. Lu Jinzhao could only use the shadow puppet to resist this terrifying power.
But even so, she couldn’t completely offset this power. Every time the tablet was pulled, when she used Tan Meng to control it, the force from the hand on her shoulder would increase a bit more.
It wasn’t just dragging; the grip on her shoulder also grew stronger.
Even with Substitute and Silence both active, Lu Jinzhao still heard the sound of bones cracking. Worse, ghost blood was also circulating, meaning her body wasn’t just being physically dragged—unseen supernatural power was also invading.
“Not a coincidence.”
Lu Jinzhao could confirm that every time the hand on her shoulder increased its force, it was the next moment she hindered the tablet from being dragged away.
If she didn’t interfere, the tablet would be taken away by the thing in the darkness.
If she moved to grab the tablet, she would violate the mission rules.
Even if she stayed still and used other methods to keep the tablet, it would trigger the ghost’s attack, escalating step by step until the human body could no longer endure.
It was simply leaving no way out.
The only method seemed to be modifying the mission requirements.
Thinking of this, Lu Jinzhao gritted her teeth, feeling the pain of her body being pulled by two different forces as if it were about to tear apart, yet she had no intention of modifying the mission.
“One of the purposes of this mission is to consume our life-buying money, right?”
When Lu Jinzhao realized that escaping the current dilemma seemed to require modifying the mission, she also realized that this might be one of the purposes.
The cost of modifying the mission this time would surely be quite expensive.
Killing people, seizing tablets, consuming life-buying money.
“No matter which one, I don’t want you to succeed.”
——Rip
A cracking sound echoed in the ancestral hall.
One arm of Substitute Du Yu was torn off, replacing Lu Jinzhao’s arm.
The ghost’s power was already terrifying enough to crush human bones and tear bodies, but Lu Jinzhao remained unmoved.
Right now, if she withdrew the supernatural abilities of Substitute and Silence attached to her body, she would probably be dragged away by the ghost immediately. Only by having the shadow puppet confront the ghost could she stand safely in place. But in such a standoff, the ghost could continue indefinitely until it achieved its goal, while the shadow puppet could not.
Fortunately, the mission had a time limit.
She just needed to hold out until time was up.
The sound of skin tearing rang intermittently in this dark ancestral hall. When Substitute had lost two arms and cracks appeared on its body, the bulb overhead finally made a sound and lit up again.
Time was up.
When the light came on, everything in the darkness hid away again.
They seemed not yet ready to face the light.
Lu Jinzhao retracted Tan Meng; its overused “wrists” showed fine cracks. Silence had shrunk overall. Substitute had lost two hands, with several cracks left on its body.
But Lu Jinzhao herself was completely unharmed.
“It’s only the second mission.”
Continuing to be consumed by missions like this, even with numerous shadow puppets, she absolutely couldn’t sustain it.
