Chapter 227: When a Person Dies, the Lamp Goes Out

Folklore says that living people have Yang energy, which burns on the body as three Yang lamps, located respectively on the top of the head, the left shoulder, and the right shoulder.

The divine lamp on the top of the head is where the heavenly spirit resides; mortals are protected by the Heavenly Dao, and there are gods three feet above one's head.

The flames on the left and right shoulders are nameless fires, the size of which is influenced by a person's physical condition, whether they have illnesses, their mood, and other factors.

Sick people are physically weak, the injured have faint breath, the elderly are at the end of their rope, and children have immature hearts and bodies; thus, their Yang fires are withered, they are entangled by Yin energy, and they easily attract ghosts and monsters.

Those who have just experienced great sorrow or pain, those whose emotions fluctuate wildly, and those who are restless are also prone to this.

The opposite is true for young men and strong men in their prime; they are healthy, their blood is vigorous, and their Yang fires burn fiercely, thus evil is repelled and all ghosts find it hard to invade.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe still remembers hearing from the elders in town that when walking on a night road on a cloudy day when the moon cannot be seen, it is best not to wear a hat, as that will suppress the divine lamp and attract evil spirits.

If you hear someone calling your name on a night road, try not to respond. Even if you want to look back, it is best to turn your whole body, not just your head—turning your head without turning your body causes the shoulder lamp to be pressed by your chin, allowing evil spirits and ghosts to take advantage of the situation, bringing in Yin wind, blowing out the Yang fire, and harming one's life.

When a living person is "lamp-blown" by a ghost, the mildest outcome is a serious illness, and the worst is the loss of life.

Besides ghost lamp-blowing, being patted on the shoulder by someone also disturbs the Yang fire. If you encounter a ghost patting your shoulder, it will directly extinguish the Yang fire, with consequences similar to ghost lamp-blowing: either a serious illness or the loss of life.

Therefore, the Yang fire on a human body is also called the "Life Lamp." When a person dies, the lamp goes out; when a person lives, it burns like a candle. As the name implies, ghosts do not have Life Lamps.

But Old Li does.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe looked down at the surveillance footage in his hand, his gaze serious. In the shaky footage, one could see a ghost standing upside down on the floor, covered in blood, its face dripping with gore. It was a corpse possessed by a ghost—or so Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had originally thought.

But in the surveillance footage Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had filmed himself, three pale flames were clearly flickering on the body of this "corpse," located on the corpse's head, left shoulder, and right shoulder respectively.

Unlike Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's vigorous spirit, the Yang fire on Old Li was weak, withered, and dim, like a candle in the wind that would extinguish at a light blow, looking as if it were on its last breath.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had guessed right; Old Li was indeed still alive.

He had also guessed wrong; Old Li, possessed by the ghost, was already half-dead.

Looking at the Inverted Ghost standing upside down in the footage and that tiny, precarious flame, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe pondered for a moment and discovered a pattern:

"Earlier in the prison, the Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost ignored the other prisoners and chose to prioritize extinguishing my lamp."

"Just now in the bathroom, the Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost changed its target, ignored me, and chose to prioritize extinguishing Old Li's lamp."

Why?

"Because I was using Wang Jingli's identity in the prison, and at that time, I was a woman..."

Feudal superstition holds that women are naturally heavy in Yin energy, and their Yang fire is naturally not as vigorous as a man's. The prisoners in Chenyu Valley Prison were all male, and there were almost no elderly prisoners like Old Li.

In other words, in the prison at that time, the Wang Jingli that Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had transformed into was one of the people with the weakest Yang fire in the room. But when he arrived at the prison guard lounge and the Inverted Ghost caught up, Wang Jingli was no longer the person with the weakest Yang fire.

Old Li, who had been tortured to the brink of death by the ghost, had an exceptionally withered Yang fire, even weaker than Wang Jingli, the woman.

"The Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost prioritizes extinguishing the weakest Yang lamp in the room." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's expression was as calm as water, his eyes unblinking as he watched the transparent, formless Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost in the surveillance footage gently extinguish the flame on Old Li's shoulder. He had already seen through this ghost's killing rule: "The Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost bullies the weak and fears the strong."

Before the words had even faded, in the pitch-black darkness, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's muscles rapidly bulged, and he transformed on the spot into a muscular man with a tiger's back and a bear's waist.

Now, he was the person with the most vigorous Yang fire in the entire prison.

——From encountering the Strange and narrowly escaping death, to peeling the cocoon and discerning the rules, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had only spent less than half an hour. Perhaps even Fen Wu, who was fishing for ghosts from beyond the world, would not have expected that this weak prey, which he considered only slightly troublesome, could achieve such a degree.

And now, the situation had reversed.

"The Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost is a wild Strange attracted by the prisoners of Chenyu Valley Prison. It has never been captured by anyone, at least not by Fen Wu." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe extinguished the screen in his hand and took a deep breath: "I know the Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost's rules, but Fen Wu does not."

Having been played in the palm of Fen Wu's hand until now, he had finally grasped his first advantage.

Fen Wu had deliberately turned all thousands of prisoners in the prison into bait to attract ghosts, just to expand his own advantage and trap Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe here to death.

But luck intervened; Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had quickly unraveled the Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost's rules with incredible efficiency, turning this murderous ghost that had entered halfway through into his own advantage.

It seems Fen Wu's luck isn't very good.

In the pitch-black darkness, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe smiled lightly: "Although my luck isn't very good either, clearly, Fen Wu's luck is worse than mine."

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Fen Wu, you... "moved the grave," didn't you?

After figuring these things out, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe kicked open the door, walked out of the warehouse, and exposed his burly, robust body to the midnight moonlight.

The reason he dared to be so swaggering was that he no longer needed to worry about the Inverted Ghost's pursuit.

"Earlier, the Inverted Ghost ignored other prisoners and targeted me, chasing me all over the prison. In fact, it wasn't because I triggered the Inverted Ghost's killing rule, but because the one chasing me from the start wasn't the Inverted Ghost, but a living person."

Ghosts are fair, humans are not.

As he walked, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe sorted out his thoughts, and the fog before his eyes became clear:

"Fen Wu likely used some method I don't know to control Old Li's mind, then made him be possessed by the Inverted Ghost, artificially creating a Gridder who rides a ghost to chase me."

Fen Wu controlled Old Li, Old Li controlled the Inverted Ghost, and now, Old Li's Life Lamp had been extinguished by the Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost, which meant... the Inverted Ghost had already broken free from Fen Wu's control.

Having lost the restraint and control of the Gridder, the Inverted Ghost had returned to being a rigid rule that only operated according to logic. Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe no longer needed to worry about the mad-dog-like targeted pursuit from before; there were plenty of people in the prison, and it wouldn't be his turn to be killed first.

"It seems your luck really is very bad... Fen Wu." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe looked up at the vast earth hanging high above, revealing a smile that was uglier than crying.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe suddenly liked this Lamp-Extinguishing Ghost a bit. With its arrival, the dead end where he was fighting like a trapped beast suddenly became lively. Fen Wu began to have bad luck, and a glimmer of survival began to appear.

"Perhaps this guy is my lucky star." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe took a step, walking further and further away.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 228 =====