Chapter 448: Protection Failed

Rainwater streamed down the broken floorboards into the basement.

Concrete dust hung in the air, compressed into a thin mist by an invisible force.

Zhang Yuanqing lifted his head, his right hand still holding a cutting stance.

The rule line, so fine it was almost invisible to the naked eye, halted a half‑inch before Xu An's throat and would not descend further.

Because Chen Shao had arrived.

The man stood above the breach, his black coat drenched by rain, his slicked‑back hair unmussed, the crimson Demon Eye in his right eye turning as cracks spread in concentric circles.

He looked down at Zhang Yuanqing, his tone flat without a hint of inflection.

"You cannot kill him, nor can you kill him."

The words fell.

The entire basement sank half a meter.

It wasn't that the foundation couldn't hold.

It was Chen Shao's telekinetic force pressing down.

The air was squeezed into visible ripples; the fine rule threads surrounding Zhang Yuanqing, which had been slicing the remnants of Xu An's domain, were now forcibly snapped, emitting a dense cracking sound.

Zhang Yuanqing's shoulders sank.

His knee smashed through the iron fence floor.

Half‑kneeling.

His back was pressed downwards, his bones grinding with a sour‑tooth ache.

Members of the Spade Group who saw the scene almost shouted the four words "Boss is awesome."

Xu An half‑kneelt in the pool of blood, blood seeping from the stitched corner of his mouth, his pale face expressionless.

But those hollow eyes showed a change.

Chen Shao landed.

His boot soles pressed on the rubble; the stones did not shatter, but were pressed into the ground, flat as if cut by a machine.

He did not look at Xu An, only stared at Zhang Yuanqing.

"Indeed, to deal with a Behind-the-Scenes Mastermind of your caliber, one must unleash the whole nest."

Zhang Yuanqing lowered his head, his shoulders trembling.

It wasn't fear.

It was a smile.

"Behind-the-Scenes Mastermind?"

He strained to lift his face; his glasses were half shattered, the eyeballs behind the lenses streaked with blood, yet the crimson still glared painfully.

"People like you have a very interesting flaw."

"You always like to find an answer you can understand for yourselves."

Chen Shao's right eye flicked.

He amplified his telekinetic force.

The ground beneath Zhang Yuanqing emitted a low cracking sound; three ribs snapped, his left arm hanging at an awkward angle.

But he did not fall.

He even slowly pulled his knee out of the earth.

Click.

Click.

The joints dislocated within flesh and then returned to place.

Zhang Yuanqing stood up.

Unsteady.

Unsightly.

But he held his ground.

Chen Shao lowered his brow.

Someone in the Spade Group felt their Adam's apple twitch, raising and lowering the gun barrel, daring not to fire.

Chen Shao stared at Zhang Yuanqing's right hand.

Beneath the skin of that hand, red symbols were flowing.

They belonged to no recorded Weird system.

They were not of the Gospel Church.

They were not of the Deceiver.

Nor were they of conventional horror tales.

"Did you create a Cavity Person?"

Chen Shao asked.

Zhang Yuanqing spat out a mouthful of blood; the blood fell on the iron fence, somehow forming half of a broken surgical sigil.

"I have created many things."

"For example, the flower on Song Deniann's chest, Liu Peizhi's opened ribs, and the mouse in Qian Guangming's tongue root."

He raised his hand and wiped the blood from his lip.

"These works, I am very satisfied with."

Chen Shao took a step forward.

"Don't beat around the bush with me."

"Cavity Person, Ghost Hitting Wall, Symbiosis, these source files all point to Jiang Hai City."

"You have a forensic background, you have a motive of a wrongful conviction, and now you still hold the authority that can rewrite Strange Tale rules."

"Zhang Yuanqing, I perhaps should thank you for giving me the power I have now, but for me to have a future in which I can protect someone important, you should not continue to live."

Zhang Yuanqing stared at Chen Shao, his smile widening.

"Continue to live?"

"I died three years ago."

"The one standing before you now is merely a corpse that seeks revenge."

Chen Shao raised his hand.

Zhang Yuanqing's limbs were bound by psychic force, and his whole body lifted three inches off the ground.

His bones deformed, his chest cavity collapsed.

That kind of crushing is not mere force.

It treats the human body as material, pressed on an experimental table to be reshaped.

The members of the Black Spade Group felt their scalp go numb.

They have known Chen Shao for a long time and have seen the boss commit murder.

But Chen Shao, so restrained in his fury, is rarely seen.

Because Xu An was almost killed.

Because Chen Yao got tangled in this thread.

And also because this Zhang Yuanqing looks too much like the answer.

He resembles too closely the god‑maker standing behind the weird source.

But the problem lies here as well.

It's too similar.

Chen Shao's right eye turned slower and slower.

The instinct of a top‑class hunter hammered inside his chest cavity.

Wrong.

If Zhang Yuanqing truly is the source that created Cavity Person and Ghost Hitting Wall, why, when he was surrounded in this basement, was there not even half a high‑level Strange Tale escort?

Why was the force of his counterattack so weak?

Why was his scheme so crude?

Murder, leaving clues, revenge, awaiting capture.

This is not the work of a deity.

It looks more like......

Chen Shao stared at him and whispered, "Who gave you this power?"

Zhang Yuanqing was pressed until his throat deformed, his speech fragmented.

"You guess."

Chen Shao curled his five fingers together.

Zhang Yuanqing's right leg bone dislocated on the spot.

"I don't like riddles."

"Then just kill me."

Zhang Yuanqing's smile grew increasingly odd.

"Anyway...... you arrived too late."

The scarlet in Chen Shao's right eye spread into the whites of his eye.

"What does that mean?"

Zhang Yuanqing gave no answer.

He only looked at the old watch on his wrist.

The hand pointed to 11:59.

The other side.

Half‑Mountain Villa.

Su Ming's final Containment Doorplate cracked.

The pale barrier shattered into paper scraps everywhere; in the corridor outside the safe house, Blood Mist crawled along the ground.

Liang Wen collapsed at the stairway entrance.

The black Windcoat was torn to only half, the knife still gripped in his hand, the dark‑purple flame pattern on the blade dimming to near extinction.

He had three wounds across his chest and abdomen.

With each breath, blood spurted outward.

Yet this guy kept laughing.

"Tsk...... my condition is subpar today."

Su Ming stood before the safe house door, a piece of flesh bitten off his left shoulder, his right short blade reduced to half.

Around him lay a dozen empty Containment Boxes.

There were copper bells used to suppress resentment.

There was an old pocket watch that could delay Strange Tale actions.

There were substitute paper surrogates.

All gone.

The money is completely burned.

The deck is also empty.

The most disgusting thing is that the amalgamated bodies outside the door aren't finished yet.

They aren't in a hurry to rush.

They are waiting.

Waiting for Chang Jianping in the safe house to completely collapse.

Because the Core target of this ghost-story revenge is neither Su Ming nor Liang Wen.

It is that old thing.

Chang Jianping curls up in a corner of the safe house, hugging his head with both hands, and can only repeat one sentence.

"Save me...... save me...... I'll give you money...... I can give a lot of money......"

Su Ming turned his head and gave him a glance.

There was no pity in his eyes.

"Your greatest value now is to stay alive and testify."

Chang Jianping cries until his snot and tears blur together.

"I speak! I say everything! Zhang Yuanqing wasn't done by me alone! Also Song Deniann, also Liu Peizhi, also Qian Guangming! They forced me to sign, I only signed a character!"

Liang Wen lies on the ground, coughing up blood foam, and still doesn't forget to add a stab.

"Classic, just a signed character."

"Is the next line 'I have no choice, I'm just a wage worker'?"

Chang Jianping collapses.

"I'm wrong! I'm really wrong!"

Su Ming ignores him.

He is looking at the lower side of the door crack.

There is a Shadow there.

It belongs to neither the light nor a person.

Very thin.

Gliding along the floor.

Su Ming's pupils constrict.

Stealthy ghost story.

It doesn't slam into the door, nor break the wall.

It grows out from the shadows of the safe house.

This thing bypassed all anchor points.

It also bypassed the frontal defense that Liang Wen sealed with his life.

Su Ming flips his broken blade and thrusts it into the ground.

Too late.

In the corner, Chang Jianping suddenly stops crying and shouting.

The next second, his shirt in front of his chest bulges.

Something inside is gnawing.

It is not attacking from outside.

It starts eating from within his body.

Chang Jianping lowers his head, watching his chest sink in little by little, his mouth opens, a half-scream stuck in his throat.

Then, flesh and blood are burst out from inside.

A black face without features emerges, teeth densely packed, chewing his ribs.

Creak.

Creak.

The safe house Communicator transmits a harsh chewing sound.

Su Ming's hand stops in midair.

He does not rush forward.

It's already too late.

The stealthy ghost story implanted itself into Chang Jianping's body.

Killing ghost story will take Chang Jianping away.

To save Chang Jianping, one must first open his chest cavity.

No equipment, no time, no second chance.

Chang Jianping's hand reaches toward Su Ming, Nail scratching a blood mark on the floor.

"Save...... save......"

The black face opens its mouth.

It bites and crushes his heart and lungs in one bite.

Chang Jianping's scream abruptly stops.

Su Ming holds the Communicator, veins bulging on the back of his hand.

He hears Liang Wen cursing low at the Stairway Entrance.

"... damn."

In this battle, they lost.

And they lost in a terribly grim way.

Not only did they fail to protect the key figure who should have been the bait, the criminal and the witness, they didn't even see Zhang Yuanqing's true form.

If they had seen Zhang Yuanqing's true form, they could at least have assessed the target's danger and used the combat data to model Zhang Yuanqing.

Even if they lost this fight, they could still prepare for the next.

But, in the end, they got nothing.

Su Ming's expression darkened as he lifted the Communicator.

In the communication channel, Su Ming's voice was hoarsely rough.

"Target Chang Jianping dead."

"Witness silenced."

"Mission failed."

Basement.

Chen Shao's face did not change.

Only the Demon Eye in his right eye paused its rotation for half a beat.

Zhang Yuanqing hung in midair, his body a mass of broken bones, and a low laugh suddenly forced out of his throat.

The laughter grew louder.

It grew increasingly reckless.

In the end, his whole body convulsed under the force of mental power.

"Hahaha......"

"Dead."

"Finally dead."

"Chang Jianping is also dead."

"Not one missing, not one missing!"

Chen Shao raised his hand, and Zhang Yuanqing's entire body was pressed back to the ground.

The ground cracked, revealing a spider‑web pattern.

"What are you happy about?"

Zhang Yuanqing lay on the ground, half his face pressed against the blood.

He laughed until his shoulders trembled, his tears mixing with the rain.

Chen Shao leaned forward, his right eye close to Zhang Yuanqing.

"Who gave you authority?"

Zhang Yuanqing lifted his eyes.

The crimson in his eyes suddenly surged.

"Finally, finally, your speed is still a step slower than me!"

"I've been waiting for this moment, this very moment!"

"Hahaha—"