Chapter 75 The Enemy's Shadow Emerges 1

"No...no recovery!?" the strange man shouted in disbelief. "Why wasn't the damage transferred? This is impossible!"

Zhu Shi swung his sword at an empty space, shaking off the blood from the blade, then glanced at the strange man lying on the ground and said without any pity, "Zhuang Cheng, stop his bleeding."

Upon hearing this, I glanced at the strange man, and suddenly flames erupted from the severed surfaces of his limbs. The wounds were charred, and the blood stopped gushing out.

He let out a bloodcurdling scream, but he hadn't given up on survival and was still trying to manipulate the shadows around him. However, those shadows were destroyed by my flames as soon as they began to surge, rendering them useless.

It seems he can no longer trap us in the maze. It's very likely, as Zhu Shi speculated, that he used consumable items to accomplish what he did before. He has now truly been defeated.

However, how did Zhu Shi manage to prevent the other party from continuing to regenerate their body? I couldn't do that no matter what I tried before. It doesn't seem like the monster's "life force" was completely depleted. I wonder if Zhu Shi would be willing to tell me the answer if I asked him privately afterward.

Zhu Shi's eyes, which had been filled with a cold, clear blue light, returned to their normal color, and her indifferent expression disappeared.

I also exited my fire elemental form, walked up to her, and said, "Sorry, I took away your chance to shine earlier."

"I was just saying it casually, I didn't really mean to complain about you." She added quietly, "Although I did genuinely want to show off in front of you..."

“Aren’t you behaving very well right now?” I asked, looking at the strange man on the ground.

Zhu Shiye looked at the miserable enemy on the ground, but did not show any pride or sense of accomplishment. He just sighed with complicated emotions.

“You’re the weirdo who’s been murdering local elites for the past two months, aren’t you? We have some questions for you,” she said.

However, the strange man ignored him, only muttering incoherently, "Impossible, impossible, why... why hasn't it been restored, why was it able to destroy the maze..."

"You mean the way to destroy the maze? It's actually very simple, I..." I was about to explain when I was glared at fiercely by the person next to me.

Zhu Shi deliberately spoke in a harsh tone, "Senior Brother Zhuang, could you please not explain your techniques to the enemy?"

Why did you choose to call me Senior Brother Zhuang at a time like this...? I had no choice but to swallow my explanation.

Actually, I'm not unaware of the negative consequences of my actions; I did it knowing the repercussions. But even if I said that, she definitely wouldn't accept it. Since her attitude is so clear, I should restrain myself in the future. After all, it's not like I haven't done it before; I've fulfilled my wish list to some extent. It's no big deal to give in to a friend on such a minor issue.

Zhu Shi sighed again, seemingly exhausted.

"So, what should we do with him next? Capturing him alive won't work, will it?" I asked.

Before she could answer, a somewhat familiar voice suddenly came from the side: "Since he hasn't self-destructed yet, let's interrogate him like this for now."

Zhu Shi and I looked in the direction of the sound at the same time, and saw a young man wearing a dark blue outfit that mixed modern and traditional elements walk onto the playground from a distance and walk towards us.

"Lu Chan, what brings you here?" Zhu Shi asked in surprise.

I didn't sense Lu Youxun when I entered fire element form; he must have arrived after I returned to normal form.

“There were such intense and frequent fluctuations of magical power coming from here, and then they suddenly vanished. Of course I had to come and check it out.” Lu Youxun responded with a smile at first, then his smile faded, and he looked seriously at the strange man on the ground. “Is he that strange man?”

Zhu Shi nodded: "Yes, but he doesn't seem willing to answer our questions honestly. Do you have a way to get him to talk?"

"Leave it to me. This is my duty now." As Lu Youxun spoke, he took out a black ring from his pocket and put it on the middle finger of his right hand.

As he drew closer, I finally saw the ring clearly. It was a black ring, seemingly woven from wire, with traces of bloodstains on its surface. After he put it on, his right hand quickly became ethereal and unpredictable, like the hand of a ghost.

The strange man was still struggling. Lu Youxun moved in front of him, squatted down, and directly stabbed the man in the chest with his illusory right hand.

Despite how I blasted the monster to pieces and Zhu Shi cleaved it in two, its physical strength should actually be extremely high. However, in front of this right hand, the monster's body is as defenseless as tofu.

No, that's not right. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't that the monster's body was pierced and destroyed, but rather that Lu Youxun's right hand, as if it possessed the ability to pass through walls, had directly entered the monster's body. Judging from the position where his right hand entered, it seemed to have grabbed the monster's heart deep inside its chest.

The strange man was instantly immobilized, like a cat being choked by the scruff of its neck.

“I have his heart in my grasp,” Lu Youxun said calmly. “From now on, he will be unable to lie to us or remain silent about our questions.”

Is this the effect of that ring from before? I never knew there were props like that.

While I was still in shock, Zhu Shi seemed unfazed and asked the strange man, "Were you the one who attacked my brother... attacked Zhu Chang'an?"

The strange man's eyes darted around, seemingly searching for an opportunity to escape, while his mouth moved as if out of control: "Who is Zhu Chang'an?"

"You didn't do it?" Zhu Shi was shocked.

I took my phone out of my pocket, showed him a picture of Chang'an, and asked, "Do you know this person?"

The strange man seemed to be trying his best to control his mouth, but he still couldn't help answering, "I don't know him..."

Zhu Shi and I exchanged a glance.

The attackers of Chang'an were undoubtedly strange men, yet the strange men before them did not know Chang'an's name or recognize his face.

In other words, there are indeed many more oddballs in this city.

Lu Youxun took a photograph out of his pocket with his free left hand. I glanced at the picture; it was a headshot of Ma Zao. Detective Kong had also shown me the same photograph when he first visited.

He showed the strange man the photo and then asked, "So, do you recognize this girl?"

This was also a question I was eager to know. However, under the watchful eyes of Zhu Shi and Lu Youxun, I couldn't show too much eagerness or concern. Fortunately, Lu Youxun asked it for me early on.

However, if the strange man really has clues, it means that Lu Youxun will listen to them, which is unavoidable.

The strange man's eyes widened after he saw the photo clearly: "It's her!"

"Have you seen her?" I asked immediately.

“Last night, I was looking for prey in the new district when she suddenly appeared from the shadows and attacked me…” The strange man spoke with his mouth out of control. “The damage I caused her could be healed in the blink of an eye; but the damage she caused me, for some reason, could not be healed on the spot.”

"And in her presence, for some reason, I couldn't even enter the shadow world. I could only keep running and running, and I don't know how long I ran before I finally escaped..."

He really did see Ma Zao!

Why did Asaha attack him?

So, in Asaho's eyes, are the monsters a sign of the end of the world? Is the reason she attacked the monsters because she wanted to investigate evidence that the end of the world was approaching?

It sounds like Asaho possesses some kind of healing ability and can even prevent enemies from using their powers. But if she can heal, why didn't she recover when she was with me? Was it because she could only heal visible injuries, or was she so badly injured at the time that she couldn't even use her healing abilities until recently?

I immediately asked him where in the new city district he had met Ma Zao, and the strange man told me the truth.

Besides that, I also noticed another detail: "She can use the power of spatial teleportation, are you sure you can shake her off?"

"Spatial teleportation?" The strange man looked bewildered. "No, she didn't use spatial teleportation in front of me..."

"To actually manage to injure you and force you to flee, it seems that the girl with the amnesiac disorder must have at least a master-level skill. But are you sure you really escaped?" Lu Youxun said thoughtfully, "It's extremely difficult to shake off a spatial teleportation ability user using ordinary movement methods, and besides, that girl with the amnesiac disorder seemed to deliberately not display her spatial teleportation ability in front of you... Are you sure you weren't followed by her?"

Stalking was the method I initially planned to use against this weirdo; I never imagined that Asahi might also stalk someone.

However, this is indeed possible. Just as I thought of using the stalker to lure out Asaho, Asaho might also think of using the stalker to investigate clues related to the apocalypse.

In other words, could Asaha be nearby right now? I looked around, but couldn't see anyone else. I hadn't sensed anyone else when I entered elemental form earlier. Even so, I couldn't be sure if Asaha was monitoring the changes here from a more distant location.

Not only me, but Lu Youxun and Zhu Shi also seemed to be observing their surroundings discreetly.

Just then, the strange man made a new move.

Perhaps it was his intense will to survive that enabled him to display unprecedented observational skills; he seemed to realize that this was the moment for a final desperate attempt. He suddenly let out an incredibly loud roar, drawing our attention to him. Almost simultaneously, the shadows at our feet grew incredibly thick and expanded rapidly, and the ground instantly became as soft as a swamp.

He wants to drag us into a world of shadows.

However, even at this moment, I remained vigilant against this move. His final gamble was destined to fail. Even Lu Youxun showed no surprise, but quickly withdrew his elusive right hand, as if he wanted to do something.

Among us, Zhu Shi was the fastest to act. Without changing her expression, she swung her sword and stabbed it into the ground like lightning.

The shadow, as if struck in a fatal spot by a sharp sword, receded rapidly, like a rewind, returning to a completely unremarkable shadow.

Seeing this, the strange man finally revealed a truly desperate expression.

His strong yet grotesque body rapidly deformed and shrank, transforming into the appearance of an ordinary human. In stark contrast to this normalized transformation, in the next instant, his entire body underwent a shocking swelling, as if it were about to explode from within.

He's about to self-destruct!

(End of this chapter)