Liwan Town was a small place tucked in the eastern suburbs of Hanjiang, yet the Shadow had specifically chosen it—there had to be a reason.
The humanoid stains on the corridor walls were distributed without any discernible pattern. Chen Ge had no idea why they had been branded into the walls, recording in such a strange way the suffering their owners had endured.
"Are these obsessions?" Chen Ge stood beside one of the stains, holding up the Red High Heels as if to touch the wall. Without warning, black-red droplets of blood began seeping from the heels—the look of it was like someone shedding bloody tears after being pushed past every limit of humiliation.
Seeing the Red High Heels react, Chen Ge immediately pulled them back. "These stains on the walls are unclean. Even the Red High Heels doesn't want to get close to them. This is definitely no ordinary obsession."
He checked each room one by one, but Chen Ge couldn't find Scissors or the others. "The residential building isn't that big—where could they have gone? Were they pulled into the walls too? Turned into humanoid shadows?"
The group continued all the way to the top floor. The humanoid stains on the walls grew denser and darker, as though they were on the verge of crawling right out.
"Every single one of these humanoid stains has a severely twisted body. What kind of agony did they suffer before dying?" Whatever had happened in Liwan Town's past had been forgotten. There was nothing about Liwan to be found online, as though someone had deliberately sealed off all information.
"They're not in this building. They might have been transported out through some hidden passage." The tattooed man was getting uneasy. "Let's leave the housing complex first. As long as we're alive, there's still hope—if something happens to us too, there won't be anyone left to rescue them."
"When one of the passengers was just dragged away, I noticed that the hands gripping his body looked very much like the hands of these humanoid stains on the walls—twisted, deformed, pockmarked."
"What are you trying to say?" The tattooed man couldn't guess what Chen Ge was thinking.
"You've lived in Liwan Town for years—have you never seen these stains before?" Chen Ge shot back.
"No, I haven't! To be honest with you, I came to the Liwan Hospital residential complex once on my own. But when I was here back then, these stains weren't on the walls."
"So they just appeared." Chen Ge wasn't about to let his guard down. He knew these humanoid stains—even the Red High Heels refused to approach them—were one of the Shadow's trump cards. Before Chen Ge had even shown his own, the Shadow had already been forced into playing a killing move.
"Something unexpected must have happened in Liwan Town. Otherwise, the Shadow wouldn't have resorted to his trump cards." Chen Ge ignored the stains on the walls and opened the iron door leading to the roof, stepping out with his backpack on.
The wind howled, and the oppressive feeling vanished in an instant. Chen Ge looked up at the sky shrouded in blood mist and slowly shifted his gaze.
The blood mist over the entirety of Liwan Town seemed to have been stirred by something, surging toward the eastern side of town like a tide—as though it were trying to block something from entering.
"The mist looks a lot thinner." This was the second time Chen Ge had stood on the rooftop looking down at Liwan Town. Compared to last time, the view was considerably clearer, and he could see much farther even through the Yin Eye.
"You've got other allies?" It was the Smiling Man who spoke. The situation was now quite clear—just as Chen Ge had predicted, a third force had appeared in Liwan Town, and the moment it showed up, it had drawn the bulk of the Shadow's attention.
Chen Ge had foreseen this, and it put the Smiling Man on edge. He was worried that this newly arrived force might be connected to Chen Ge, which would shatter the already fragile balance of power entirely.
"That's not my ally. If I'm right, this newcomer is also my enemy. His desire to kill me probably isn't any weaker than the Shadow's." Chen Ge stated his assessment with complete candor.
"Your enemies really do get around—even in a situation like this, someone shows up to settle a score. I can't tell if you're lucky or cursed." The tattooed man forced a grin. The fact that Chen Ge could attract the wrath of so many terrifying entities at once only confirmed one thing: the man was an absolute monster.