Chapter Thirty: Boss, Please Accept My Kneeling Respect

Shang Yi shook the military climbing hook in his hand. "If the plan fails, if the Hanged Man isn't hurt and your forbidden zone isn't lifted, then I certainly can't just wait here to die."

"Before the Hanged Man comes, I'll climb up to the top of the wall and watch what's happening from there."

"If the plan fails, I'll go over the wall and contact the police directly from outside."

"Only if the plan succeeds will I come down and continue fighting with you all."

"When I'm on the wall and well hidden, you can go talk to the Hanged Man."

"If you notice the forbidden zone is lifted, wave your hand vigorously toward me in this direction."

"Before you go to the Hanged Man, put your phone back in the bedroom, turn it off, and put away the charger."

Shang Yi was extremely meticulous in his actions, never overlooking any detail.

"Okay," Xue Ling replied, watching as Shang Yi used the climbing hook to scale a nearby wall. Once she was sure he was hidden atop the dark wall, she turned and headed to the main building.

Lying flat on the wall, Shang Yi stared fixedly at the main entrance, analyzing what to do if two people came out, and what if there were more than two.

Time ticked by. Sweat from nervousness soaked his hand gripping the climbing hook.

After a while, he vaguely saw two figures emerge from the main entrance—one was likely Xue Ling, the other seemed to be the Hanged Man. There was no third person. Luck was on his side!

The Hanged Man shone his phone's flashlight, accompanying Xue Ling toward the big tree in the southeast corner.

Shang Yi kept his eyes locked on the Hanged Man.

The Hanged Man soon reached the tree, illuminating the trap with his flashlight, but didn't spot the unconscious Shang Yi.

He stopped, looking around, showing no intention of moving forward.

He was now just one step away from the trap!

Xue Ling, not quick to adapt, had no idea what to do and began stomping her feet anxiously.

Seeing things go awry, Shang Yi immediately took out the skull-crushing hammer from his portable space and tossed it seven or eight meters in front of the Hanged Man.

Hearing a noise ahead, the Hanged Man shone his flashlight that way. Unable to see clearly, he instinctively stepped forward.

With a crash, he missed his footing and fell right in.

"Ah!"

His foot landed on a fruit knife, which pierced clean through, blood gushing out.

Shang Yi felt a surge of joy but didn’t act immediately; he waited for Xue Ling’s signal.

After a while, he could just make out in the darkness that Xue Ling seemed to be waving in his direction.

Meanwhile, the fallen Hanged Man appeared to be trying to climb out.

Shang Yi knew this was a critical moment.

He gripped the climbing rope and slid down at top speed, rushing straight to where the skull-crushing hammer lay.

Grabbing the hammer, he dashed to the edge of the pit, raised it high, and brought it down hard on the Hanged Man's exposed shoulder.

No matter how skilled the Hanged Man was, trapped in the pit, it was impossible for him to dodge the blow.

Shang Yi’s calculation was spot on—the hammer struck the Hanged Man’s shoulder squarely, driving him back down into the pit.

"Ah!"

Falling again, the Hanged Man's other foot landed on a fruit knife.

Shang Yi realized the Hanged Man’s screams could attract reinforcements from the main building. Quickly, he took out a multifunctional entrenching tool and struck the Hanged Man's head hard, twice.

After two blows, the Hanged Man could no longer scream, collapsing in the pit.

Shang Yi put away his tools and instructed Xue Ling to notify Xiong Xia, while he went to inform Tan Gong. Soon, one man and three ghosts gathered in the first-floor bedroom.

Looking at the three ghosts before him, Shang Yi’s eyes gleamed with the fervor of vengeance; regaining their forbidden domain meant an opportunity for payback.

Using his ghost-face skill, he gave them the expression of a wise and commanding leader, then slowed his speech deliberately.

"The Hanged Man is unconscious in the pit. We now have four enemies left."

"Fang Liang in particular is dangerous, and we don't know the extent of his power."

"So we'll try to avoid him for now and deal with the Hanged Man's other three subordinates first."

"With your abilities, even facing three living people with forbidden domains should be easy."

"But our goal isn't to kill them—we need to find evidence of their murders, have the police arrest them, and let the law execute justice."

"Since we have no direct evidence, we'll have to lure them into confessing."

"This won't be easy, so you must follow my instructions and not act impulsively."

"I can see invisible ghosts. I'll teach you some police hand signals; you can use them whether visible or not."

"Once we start, when speaking isn't convenient, these gestures will be invaluable."

"This is 'received,' this is 'understood,' this is 'not understood,' this is 'stop,' this is 'go up,' this is 'retreat,' and this is 'safe'..."

Patiently, Shang Yi taught the three ghosts the most common police hand signals.

Worried they might forget or misuse them in the field, he had the ghosts practice on each other and confirm by speaking.

Seeing the ghosts so engaged, Shang Yi remembered there was still something important to do now that all his skills were restored. He told the ghosts and went alone to the southeast corner of the yard.

He checked the Hanged Man, who was still unconscious, shone his flashlight, and carefully climbed into the deep pit, stripping off the Hanged Man's clothes, shoes, and mask.

He also gathered up all the fruit knives below.

Behind the mask was a horribly disfigured face, so gruesome it was hard to look at.

Just as he was about to leave, he thought of something and hurriedly took out the forbidden domain detector. After lingering near the Hanged Man for a while, data appeared:

Current Host: Lan Ran
Host Type: Human
Host Level: Gold
Forbidden Domain Type: Life Domain
Forbidden Domain Rank: Ultra-High Risk
Forbidden Domain Name: Rune Curse
Seal Effect: Any target seen by the host will have its forbidden domain abilities sealed and unusable, within a thirty-meter radius. God-level domains are immune.
Seal Removal: The host can actively remove the seal from specific targets. If the host is injured, or the target moves more than thirty meters away and out of the host's sight for over thirty minutes, the seal automatically lifts.

Deviation Curse: If the seal is active, all directional forbidden domain attacks from the target will deviate sharply from their aim. Regardless of whether the seal is active, any human who sees the host will have all directional non-forbidden domain attacks deviate sharply from their aim.

Isolation Curse: If the seal is active, as long as the host can see the target with the naked eye, he can attack them, requiring two seconds of chanting before each attack.

After capturing the Hanged Man’s forbidden domain data, Shang Yi studied it carefully and finally understood why he’d regained his skills in advance.

He had been more than thirty meters, in a straight line, from the Hanged Man’s room and out of his line of sight for over thirty minutes.

Seeing the isolation curse’s effect, Shang Yi drew a sharp breath.

If he hadn’t lured the Hanged Man into the pit and crippled him, with that isolation curse, the Hanged Man could have killed him from afar with a single knife from the fourth-floor window.

Most of Shang Yi’s skills had been sealed, meeting the curse’s activation conditions.

He noticed that previous forbidden domain ranks had been low-risk, with the highest only being medium-risk.

The Hanged Man’s, however, jumped straight to ultra-high risk.

The detector clearly rated the Hanged Man’s forbidden domain extremely highly—no wonder he was the leader of this group of people and ghosts.

Shang Yi packed the fruit knives, kitchen knives, bedsheets, and all other trap-related items into his portable space, took all the Hanged Man’s gear, and returned to the first-floor bedroom.

After donning the Hanged Man’s clothes, shoes, and mask, he called the three ghosts to scrutinize him for differences from the real Hanged Man.

At first, the ghosts thought impersonating the Hanged Man was impossible because he’d give himself away as soon as he spoke.

But when Shang Yi used a voice identical to the Hanged Man’s, the three ghosts were stunned.

"The hair’s a bit different," one ghost finally said after a long look.

Shang Yi checked his hair with a selfie, then used his ghost hand skill and the scissors on his multi-tool to trim his hair.

Within minutes, his hair was nearly indistinguishable from the Hanged Man’s, astonishing the three ghosts all over again.

"Boss, I’m kneeling before you," Tan Gong said, thoroughly impressed.

Looking at the three ghosts, Shang Yi recalled the Hanged Man’s conversations with the black-faced guard and formulated a plan.

"Now for assignments. First, we’ll deal with the black-faced guard."

"Xue Ling and Xiong Xia, who have offensive forbidden domains, will go in with me. If necessary, follow my signal and subdue the guard on the spot—but don’t kill him."

"Tan Gong's domain is supportive. If we don’t need you immediately, keep watch at the door."

"If anyone—human or ghost—approaches, alert us at once with a signal. If we need your domain, we’ll call you."

"After we leave the room, stay invisible unless I signal otherwise."

"Keep me updated with hand signals; the police may arrive soon, so we have to hurry!"

One man and three ghosts went to room 203 on the second floor, outside the black-faced guard’s door. Shang Yi took the key ring from the Hanged Man’s clothes, found the key for room 203, and walked right in.

The black-faced guard was watching videos on his phone. Seeing the Hanged Man walk in with a key without so much as knocking, he immediately sensed trouble.

"Boss, has something happened?"