Chapter 302: The Yellow-Haired Corpse

"I understand!"

Jian Lingyu adjusted her sunglasses and said with sudden realization.

"Since the killer's goal is murder, they must leave traces after killing—traces that are extremely obvious to Da Huang, which is why Da Huang was the first victim."

"In other words… the killer is one of the four survivors in the main house."

At these words,

everyone's gaze fixed on Wei Hengbo, Wei Qinglan, Li Juxian, and Gao Fushuai; even among themselves they began to suspect one another—even the most dim-witted now understood Wu Xian's meaning.

Li Juxian drew the most suspicion.

His ferocious appearance when slaying the water ghost had been seared into everyone's mind; no one could doubt he was a fugitive serial killer.

Being stared at like this,

Li Juxian felt wronged, his breathing quickened, and he immediately proposed a possibility to prove his innocence.

"According to this logic, it's still very likely that Aunt Miao did it—she has the ability to block Da Huang's senses, but there's no evidence she got blood on her after killing, so she could still fool Da Huang's nose!"

Jiang Chun glared angrily at Li Juxian, thinking he was making excuses.

"Li Juxian makes a good point, and I've considered this possibility too…"

Wu Xian endorsed Li Juxian's claim.

"But if Aunt Miao was the killer, after successfully killing one person and one dog, what reason would she have to let the monster under the moonlight in?"

Li Juxian stamped his foot in anger: "Who knows what a ghost thinks?"

Du E shed her previous timid college-girl persona and said with a hint of sarcasm: "Evil spirits all relish the feeling of killing humans—if she could quietly kill you one by one in the dark, she'd never share the kill with another spirit… So the only logical explanation is she can't do it!"

Since Aunt Miao couldn't do it, the previous victim couldn't have been killed by her either.

Even Li Juxian had no rebuttal now.

The six from the thatched hut all stepped back, putting distance between themselves and the four from the main house; the four from the main house also spread far apart, especially Gao Fushuai, who retreated as far as possible, terrified someone might suddenly turn into a spirit and devour him alive.

Wei Qinglan asked calmly: "If the killer is truly among us, is there any way to identify them?"

Du E smirked: "Give me a strand of hair and a drop of blood, and I can tell you who it is."

Based on the previous Guan Daorong incident, Wu Xian always felt Du E's method had ulterior motives.

Jian Lingyu also offered a solution: "I can poison you all with something that only affects evil spirits."

Both methods sounded good.

But Wen Chao shook his head.

"Every night, we're transported into coffins—this should be a gradual process of being replaced by pale ghost shadows. The killer may already have been replaced, nearly indistinguishable from a human, so ordinary methods might not detect them."

People spoke one after another; the situation gradually became clear.

Su Xuan remained silent, thinking through his deductions in his mind—he had reached an answer, and raised his head to stare at one person as a dagger crawled out from his sleeve.

Wu Xian no longer dragged it out.

"If Master Wen is right—that the killer has been replaced by a spirit—then we have two ways to find them."

"The first is to ignore the spirit's identity and treat Ran Qiuhua's death as an ordinary murder, using every detail at the scene to determine who has the greatest motive."

"The second method is even simpler: even if the killer can fool us, he can't fool…"

"Ugh!"

Wu Xian fell silent.

He looked behind the four from the main house—his eyes first confused, then enlightened, then turned to the eleven altar tables before him, and a smile slowly spread across his face. "Perhaps the killer doesn't need us to find him!"

The four from the main house saw nothing.

But from the perspective of the six from the thatched hut, it was clear: Ran Qiuhua's corpse, standing behind the four, was rising in a grotesque posture.

Ran Qiuhua hunched upright.

Her once slender female body twisted and deformed, sprouting messy yellow fur, her eyes glowing like a beast's, her nose and mouth protruding into a dog's muzzle, her hands growing sharp claws…

She looked entirely like a bipedal dog monster!

Unlike Hei Gu, who naturally stood like a large dog, this one was more brutal, appearing more combat-ready, with many patches of exposed human skin…

If you had to say it:

Hei Gu was like a humanoid animal from a healing anime.

This one was like a mutated monster from a depressive film!

"Roar… howl!"

Before the four from the main house could react,

the dog monster lunged at Gao Fushuai, the nearest, pinning him down and tearing at his flesh—within seconds, Gao Fushuai was a bloody mess.

Wei Hengbo immediately drew his blade.

But Wei Qinglan pressed her hand on his.

"Brother, wait—last night's killer was probably Gao Fushuai…"

"Think back carefully—when he rushed at you then, was he really trying to open the door for light?"

Wei Hengbo suddenly felt icy cold, his back prickling with chills.

Until just now, his mind had been a fog—he'd even suspected his own sister—but now that she'd pinned the killer as Gao Fushuai, everything clicked.

Gao Fushuai was the first to be transported away, yet the last to return—even later than Ran Qiuhua. That extra time was likely when he was being replaced by the pale ghost shadow.

He refused the altar's reward on purpose, perhaps to avoid exposing himself.

During the day, he carried Da Huang outside, pretending not to mind the dirt—but he was using Da Huang's blood to mask his own traces.

If that's true,

then his sudden mental breakdown last night had a very simple explanation!

After Ran Qiuhua died.

Everyone was extremely vigilant, instinctively counterattacking at the slightest disturbance nearby.

So Gao Fushuai casually found an excuse to openly approach Wei Hengbo—as long as he was together with Wei Hengbo and his sister, there would be as many chances to act as he wanted.

If Miao the Auntie hadn't been inspired by Gao Fushuai and opened the door first before he could make his move, the next one Gao Fushuai killed might have been Wei Hengbo…

Wei Hengbo figured it out, and within a few seconds Gao Fushuai had let his cover slip.

Under the successive attacks of the dog-man monster.

To save his life, Gao Fushuai could no longer bother hiding—his body instantly turned deathly pale, even his eyeballs were white, exactly like the pale ghost figure everyone had seen in the coffin! But even though he had already ghostified, under the suppression of the dog-man monster's strength, he still had no power to resist whatsoever.

One claw of the dog-man monster had already driven his head into the ground, while the other claw and his head kept tearing and shredding, destroying the murderer—the pale ghost figure—along with all his organs…

(End of this chapter)