Chapter 116: Inheritance
She hung the bell on her wrist, and the moment she fastened it, the effect of this Supernatural Item began to take hold.
At the same time, its side effect also began to take hold, and Lu Jinzhao’s body began to rapidly change into a corpse.
Because she had already used it for a relatively long time, at this moment, obvious corpse spots began to gradually appear on the surface of her body.
But the feeling of being controlled by the music disappeared.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t dare to waste time; she quickly walked forward to her master’s side, of course, not too close, about the same distance as Zhong Sui and Fu Xuesheng at that time.
Then, she didn’t assemble the shadow puppet right away; instead, while the bell was still taking effect, she quickly took out the wooden box and opened it, then used the small knife to cut the skin on her ankle. Because her body was already almost that of a dead person, not much blood flowed out, but she only needed a wound.
After doing this, Lu Jinzhao took out the parchment and candle from her pocket, casually tossed the parchment far away, and when she bent down to fix the candle in place, she also placed the wooden box next to the wound. The blood that flowed out slowly dripped into the box, but the box showed no reaction.
This was expected.
Because of the bell’s existence, she was now a “dead person,” and the wooden box wouldn’t make a transaction with a dead person.
Then, she lit the candle.
Lu Jinzhao’s breathing was already almost gone; after all, where does a dead person need breathing?
But at this moment, she still held her breath slightly.
Fortunately, the candle lit normally and burned at a very normal speed.
“As expected.”
Because of the bell’s existence, she herself hadn’t encountered the ghost’s attack, so the candle naturally wouldn’t burn faster.
She was certain the bell couldn’t withstand her master, so she needed the wooden box and candle as backups.
Even so, Lu Jinzhao didn’t feel she was safe yet.
But she had done all she could.
All the preparations were done in only half a minute.
Lu Jinzhao could feel her body was already extremely cold, her heartbeat almost nonexistent, and her blood probably wasn’t circulating in her body anymore; after all, she was almost out of breath.
But miraculously, she could still stand, still move, and still think.
What kind of existence was Supernatural Power exactly?
Lu Jinzhao had no time to think about these; they were just fleeting blurry thoughts, and then all her attention focused on what she needed to do next.
The night was already very deep.
The sky inside the platform was starless and moonless, pitch black.
In the ancient house hiding terrifying secrets, bursts of music typical of shadow puppet performances came from the center of the house.
Numerous red lanterns hung throughout the house, their hazy light unable to illuminate the mansion, only making it seem more eerie and terrifying.
Accompanied by urgent drumbeats, the ghost with a head obviously mismatched to its body stood motionless in place, just wearing a horrifying smile as it looked at the girl not far away.
The white candle burning on the ground, the girl’s hand tied with the bell for dead people holding a crudely made shadow puppet, her slowly bleeding ankle, the wooden box next to her ankle, and her black hair falling behind her, along with her pale skin that had developed corpse spots.
For a moment, it was hard to tell whether one person and one ghost or two ghosts were standing here.
Lu Jinzhao’s movements were quick; her action of slipping the right control rod onto the shadow puppet’s hook was very precise, as if practiced a thousand times, but something was even faster than her!
In the instant she moved, the accompanying drumbeat suddenly struck hard!
An invisible gale arose!
The candle that had been slowly burning in place was instantly blown out.
No, not blown out, but instantly burned up completely!
Lu Jinzhao’s heart went cold; she looked at the ghost ahead. Even with several platform experiences, directly facing a ghost and clashing with it was still her first time.
As expected, something unexpected happened.
The candle had gone out directly.
This also meant that just now, she had experienced a nearly fatal attack.
But it was blocked by the candle.
She was clearly still wearing the bell.
This showed that the ghost’s attack was deliberate, targeted at her; even if she was a corpse, it would attack her this “dead person.”
Completing the shadow puppet action had indeed angered the ghost?
Even though the candle had gone out, Lu Jinzhao’s movements didn’t hesitate for a moment; the next second, the right control rod hooked on, and she completed the shadow puppet assembly.
Thus, in that instant, immense fear surged into Lu Jinzhao’s heart. Her gaze was still on her master; clearly, the previous second, the other was a ghost terrifying yet dare-to-look-at, but the next second, just looking at it made endless fear and cowardice well up in Lu Jinzhao’s heart.
She only wanted to run.
Because her brain, at this moment, had its reason completely seized by sharp Instinct for survival.
She couldn’t even hear the sound of the music anymore; just looking at the ghost ahead made her unable to move.
It wasn’t an illusion, nor muscles out of control from fright; it was real—she couldn’t move.
Her body had been taken by the ghost.
Lu Jinzhao realized this, but now she couldn’t move and couldn’t make any countermeasures.
It seemed she could only wait for death.
But… she wouldn’t die yet!
Because she had already made preparations.
Blood began to gush wildly from the cut on her ankle, and the wooden box, which had been indifferent to the blood before, finally began to absorb Lu Jinzhao’s blood at this moment.
When the candle had gone out and the bell could no longer protect her, the wooden box would take effect.
If it were just the wooden box, or only the bell, Lu Jinzhao would undoubtedly die at this moment, but with both Supernatural Items working together, plus the fact that she hadn’t used the most crucial skin to make the shadow puppet, reducing the ghost’s influence on her by at least half, she had a slim chance of survival!
“Display”
This word appeared in Lu Jinzhao’s mind. Clearly, she had already assembled the shadow puppet but hadn’t heard the train’s whistle, meaning she hadn’t completed the mission. She had thought of this long ago because the mission explicitly mentioned the word “display.”
Under the dual effects of the wooden box and bell, no longer fully controlled by the ghost, Lu Jinzhao raised the control rod in her hand and swung the control rod in a “display” manner.
Then, she heard the most beautiful sound in this world.
The distant whistle of the train approaching the station.
This meant she had completed the mission.
But…
Clearly having completed the mission, the attack she was suffering showed no sign of weakening; in fact, her master, who had only been standing not far away watching quietly, suddenly moved!
The accompaniment changed.
No longer intense, no longer uplifting, but instead… abnormally weird.
Her master’s speed was fast; it was rapidly approaching Lu Jinzhao.
“This is bad.”
Lu Jinzhao realized that completing the mission wasn’t the end.
In fact, because she completed the mission, she would face an even more terrifying pursuit and kill from the ghost!
“If you don’t want to pass on the secret technique, why take a disciple?!”
