Chapter 60 Escaping Death and Reaching Safety

As Liu Zhongjun's physical body entered the chessboard space, a ghost-hunting squad from the Lin'an Branch of the Paranormal Affairs Administration located this warehouse.

Over the past two or three days, paranormal entities had descended frequently. Especially as night fell, strange occurrences happened everywhere.

The authorities received a call from a citizen reporting that a man with two human heads tucked at his waist had walked out of a certain warehouse rental company.

Without needing to guess, it was nine times out of ten a paranormal incident, so a squad was dispatched to investigate.

The squad consisted of five members. They cautiously walked into the only warehouse with its large door open and saw a woman in flowing white clothes suspended mid-air.

"A hanged ghost?"

The captain's expression turned alarmed as information regarding hanged ghosts immediately surfaced in his mind.

The authorities maintained a database summarizing anomalies that had appeared over the thousands of years. The very first lesson for every new recruit was to memorize all this information.

"A hanged ghost, and a female one at that. At the very least, it's a fierce ghost, possibly even a malicious one. We are no match for it. Retreat immediately and notify a senior squad."

Official hunting squads were graded. They were merely a junior squad capable at best of dealing with wild ghosts, and even then, not always successfully.

The hanged ghost before them was at least at the fierce ghost level, something they could not handle.

Being relatively decisive, the captain immediately ordered a retreat.

Unfortunately, they were a step too late. The hanged ghost drifted through the air and instantly blocked their path.

"Five elder brothers, won't you hang yourselves with me?"

A few minutes later, all five members of the squad were hanged at the warehouse entrance.

A gust of wind swept past, causing their corpses to sway back and forth.

After killing the men and devouring their souls, the hanged ghost did not leave. Instead, it returned to the warehouse and kept watch beside the soul-sealing chessboard.

It seemed convinced that someone would emerge from inside.

Inside the chessboard space.

Xia Tianqiong and Liu Zhongjun stood no more than ten meters apart.

"Rules of death come in all shapes and sizes. Among them, many share a similar characteristic known as survival of the victor."

Hearing these words from Xia Tianqiong, Liu Zhongjun's expression stiffened instantly, and cold sweat streamed down his back.

Xia Tianqiong, however, could not help the corners of his lips from curving upward, making him even more certain of his hypothesis.

"Such rules only allow one person to survive, or in the case of opposing parties, require one side to perish. Of course, there is another major possibility: killing the owner of this space will terminate the rules. Therefore, as long as I kill you, I can leave."

"That's impossible! You're purely guessing!"

Liu Zhongjun stubbornly kept up a front, but the beads of fine sweat breaking out on his forehead betrayed him.

Xia Tianqiong wasted no more words and directly deployed the Ropes Reaching the Heavens, binding him tightly.

"You can't kill me. I'm from the Liu family. I notified my family before coming in, and they will arrive soon. If you kill me, they will kill you too."

Liu Zhongjun was still making a final struggle, though he wasn't lying.

He had indeed called his family to report the situation here, and the family had told him to hold on for a moment while they immediately dispatched people.

Yet, surviving this moment seemed unlikely.

"Tell me the detailed information about this space and how to use it, and I won't kill you."

Xia Tianqiong was deeply interested in this place.

Not only did it feature various terrains and landscapes, but it also sealed many rare anomalies.

If he could master this space, he might acquire methods to seal anomalies. Even if that proved impossible, he could unseal them, either contracting them or killing them in exchange for gold.

In short, he had taken a fancy to this space.

"If I tell you, you'll definitely kill me anyway."

Liu Zhongjun was no fool; keeping silent might buy him a little more time, while speaking would result in immediate execution.

Xia Tianqiong frowned slightly. It seemed that without resorting to some means, he could not force the man to talk.

He then dragged Liu Zhongjun into the mirror space. "Which of you excels at torture and interrogation? Serve him well."

Just as the delivery ghost was about to speak, Xiao Ba darted out in a flash.

"Master, I excel at torturing people. Hand him over to me. Whatever you want to ask, I guarantee I'll get the answers."

"Very well, then it's yours. I want to know all relevant information about this peculiar space and the method to use it."

"Rest assured, leave it to me."

Xiao Ba immediately went to work, and several other tavern waiters swarmed forward to help.

Terrified, Liu Zhongjun trembled all over and struggled desperately. "Don't touch me, I won't say anything! I am a member of the Liu family. As long as you let me go, we can negotiate any terms!"

He was finally afraid, but it was too late.

Ignoring him, Xia Tianqiong turned to Jiang Yu, who had been standing quietly to the side. "How are you? You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, I've been hiding in the courtyard the whole time."

When Jiang Yu had last parted ways with Xia Tianqiong at the express hotel, it had only been two days, yet he felt even more mysterious now.

Not only had he grown younger, but he also had so many ghosts calling him master—it was simply incredible.

What on earth was he?

Xia Tianqiong suddenly asked, "Tell me, what supplies have you bought over the past two days?"

Jiang Yu cast a stealthy glance at the screaming Liu Zhongjun, feeling rather frightened and daring not ask too much. Then she began recounting what she had purchased over the past two days.

While Liu Zhongjun shrieked in agony as the tavern waiters tortured him, the two of them stood chatting idly.

After a dozen minutes, Liu Zhongjun had been tortured until he looked as withered as an old man, with much of the flesh on his body having been bitten off raw by the tavern waiters.

Even so, he still refused to say a thing.

Xia Tianqiong lost his patience as well. "Forget it, put him out of his misery. We won't get anything out of him by continuing this."

Ultimately, Liu Zhongjun was torn apart and devoured piece by piece by the tavern waiters, vanishing from this world.

Xia Tianqiong immediately left the mirror space and felt a force of rules envelop his entire body, pulling him upward.

Suddenly realizing something, he slightly bent his knees, jumped with force, and propelled himself high into the air.

The scenery below rapidly shrank, and the earth gradually vanished, turning into grid after grid. Immediately after, he saw the warehouse and various supplies.

When the transformation ceased, Xia Tianqiong was standing once again in the corridor of the warehouse, a palm-sized chessboard floating before him.

A wave of joy surged in his heart—Liu Zhongjun was dead, and this paranormal artifact was now his.

A woman's voice suddenly came from behind him, "Little brother, won't you hang yourself with me?"

Xia Tianqiong turned his head and saw a pair of white embroidered shoes, almost pressing against the tip of his nose.

He quickly stepped back two paces and looked up. A white dress as pure as snow and an exquisite figure gave the illusion of a fairy descending to the mortal realm in the dim lighting of the warehouse.

Yet, as his gaze moved upward, he saw a pale, bloodless face and white, dead-fish-like eyes, instantly sending a creepy shudder down his spine.

Xia Tianqiong was startled, not expecting the hanged ghost to have lingered and remained so close to him.

The entity had already cast its rule of death, and a shred of rule power lingered around him. Even using Shadow Teleportation now would not allow him to shake it off.

He either had to break the rules or strike directly to eliminate it.

Xia Tianqiong understood the rules of the hanged ghost: there were no loopholes to exploit, and life or death depended entirely on luck.

He dared not gamble; the probability of death was too high.

Thus, his only option was to kill the hanged ghost and forcibly terminate the rule.

However, this entity might be at the fierce ghost level or perhaps the malicious level. If it were a fierce ghost, he could rely on the mirror ghost and tavern waiters to wear it down to death. But if it were a malicious ghost, that would spell trouble.

With the combat strength currently at his disposal, he might not be able to handle a malicious ghost.

Right, there was still the red bridal veil!

When the cat demon ghost had attacked him previously, the red bridal veil had automatically counterattacked and directly snuffed the cat demon out.

At this thought, Xia Tianqiong hurriedly retrieved the red bridal veil and cradled it in the palm of his hand.