Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 316 You are the Ghost
After the arrangements were completed, Li Yin showed a satisfied expression.

He could never... entrust his life to luck!
"You can come out now."

The five filed out, while the others remained wary, watching Jiang Jin standing to the side and Li Yin, who remained calm.

"Hey, what's with these footprints on the ground?" Zhao Meiling suddenly said, "Li Yin, what's going on here?"

Upon seeing this, Li Yin trembled with fear and shouted, "Oh no! Quick, I have to wipe away the footprints!"

Qian Yong shook his head and said, "If everyone saw it, then the ghost must have seen it too."

"Li Yin, how could you be so careless?" Sun Miao rushed up and said, "Shouldn't we try to cover it up..."

Jiang Jin simply couldn't believe that Li Yin would make such a basic mistake. Putting aside his intelligence, even from the perspective of the protagonist's halo, he couldn't possibly make such a basic error!
Soon, the ten-minute countdown ended.

The demon clone appeared as expected. This time, it emerged from beside the shelf where watermelons were piled up, its rotting fingers moving with a chilling aura.

Its gaze swept across the shelves and over the footprints on the floor stained with peach juice... Finally, just as Li Yin had expected, its finger pointed to the pile of lychees near the rotten peach stains!
Identify the error!

Then, the ghost clone slowly disappeared.

Li Yin secretly breathed a sigh of relief and announced the answer: "Thank goodness... I chose watermelon."

"Good lad, so you were bluffing all along!" Wang Tianba gave a thumbs up. "So you did it on purpose!"

At this moment, Jiang Jin immediately stepped forward and said to Li Yin in a stiff tone, "Alright! You've chosen your fruit and fed it to them. Now can we talk? I've given you face! Next, it's my turn to choose the fruit!"

Li Yin looked at him, nodded, and said, "Jiang Jin, I have a general idea of ​​how to find the ghost. Jiang Jin, please feed it some fruit first, and then I will talk to you privately."

"Why can't we talk now?" Jiang Jin asked coldly.

"Wait, I'll explain to you later."

Hearing this, Jiang Jin's tone softened: "Remember your words!"

Next, Jiang Jin selected some fruit, while Qian Yong snorted coldly. Zhao Meiling and Sun Miao looked worried, and Wang Tianba cursed. They and Li Yin retreated back to the warehouse.

The door was closed, isolating the inside from the outside.

"What exactly is your plan?" Zhao Meiling asked impatiently.

Li Yin looked troubled: "What can I do? I need to keep him calm and buy him some time before I think of a solution!"

Hearing Li Yin's words, Wang Tianba and the others looked even more grim.

Not long after, Jiang Jin finished selecting the fruit and asked Li Yin to come out.

After Li Yin came out, Jiang Jin said to the other four people inside, "Each of you could be a ghost. Stay in the warehouse. I can't let the ghost hear how to find it!"

Then, Jiang Jin closed the door.

The group had no choice but to remain inside the warehouse, enveloped once more by darkness and unease. Time ticked by, but the outside was eerily quiet; the expected discussions were nowhere to be heard.

This silence only made people more anxious.

suddenly!

"what!"

A short, sharp groan, seemingly from Li Yin, came from outside the door!

Immediately following was Jiang Jin's low but furious voice: "You've been rambling on and on with all that nonsense, what do you mean by that?! I think you're just trying to fob me off, aren't you?! Or are you a ghost?! Do you know how much time you've wasted?! I have less than eight minutes left to choose fruit!"

Then came the muffled thuds of fists and feet hitting flesh and the sounds of struggle!

"boom!"

"Well…"

The four people inside the warehouse were horrified!

"They've started fighting?!"

"Why are they fighting?!"

"Go out and take a look!"

Qian Yong flung open the warehouse door, and everyone rushed out. In the center of the shop, Jiang Jin was pinning Li Yin to the shelf, one hand gripping Li Yin's collar, the other fist pounding hard into Li Yin's abdomen!
Li Yin's face was contorted in pain, and a trickle of blood even seeped from the corner of his mouth as he struggled desperately!

This scene shocked everyone!

Jiang Jin raised his head, his eyes bloodshot and filled with a furious rage at being deceived. He roared at the five men who rushed out, "What are you looking at! This kid is just playing me! He has no plan at all! He's just stalling for time! I think he's a devil!"

Then, he pulled out the fruit knife and pinned Li Yin against the wall!
"Get out of my way, all of you!" Jiang Jin roared at the four people who rushed out without turning his head, his voice almost hoarse. "There's not much time left! I have no other choice! Conventional methods can't find this thing, so I have to use the most direct method—a physical test to see if you're human or ghost! Let's see if this white knife goes in and comes out red!"

Li Yin's face flushed red, but he still struggled to explain, his voice broken and intermittent: "Jiang... Jiang Jin! Calm down! Even if a ghost is attacked, it will probably pretend... pretend to be injured or even dead! You killed someone, so it can just lie down and pretend to be a corpse, and then watch to see what fruit you choose to feed it! Your method won't work!"

"Won't work? That's just your speculation!" Jiang Jin retorted sharply, the muscles in his arm tensing, the tip of the knife advancing another half a step, the gleaming fruit knife only inches from Li Yin's carotid artery. "I have no other choice!"

A hint of almost insane determination flashed in his eyes, and he gripped the knife tightly, about to plunge it down towards Li Yin's neck!
"do not want!"

"stop!"

Qian Yong and Wang Tianba rushed forward almost simultaneously! Qian Yong grabbed Jiang Jin's waist from the side, trying to pull him away, while Wang Tianba grabbed his arm holding the knife!
"You're asking for death!" Jiang Jin roared, twisting his body violently. His powerful core strength exploded instantly, and combined with his skillful grappling techniques, his elbow slammed backward like an iron hammer into Qian Yong's ribs!

"Ugh!" Qian Yong groaned in pain, and his arm involuntarily loosened.

Almost simultaneously, Jiang Jin flipped his wrist, deftly breaking free from Wang Tianba's grasp. With a flash of light, the blade slashed back towards Wang Tianba's arm! Startled, Wang Tianba hastily retreated, narrowly avoiding the attack.

Seeing Qian Yong at a disadvantage, Sun Miao mustered her courage and lunged at Jiang Jin from the other side, trying to grab his leg. As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Jiang Jin lowered his center of gravity and delivered a swift and precise side kick to Sun Miao's shinbone!

"Ah!" Sun Miao screamed and fell to the ground clutching his leg.

However, the attack did not stop! Jiang Jin seemed to be in a killing frenzy. In the instant he forced Wang Tianba back, he saw that Sun Miao, who had fallen to the ground, was right in his attack range. Without hesitation, he slashed downwards with the fruit knife in his hand!
A long, gaping wound instantly appeared on Sun Miao's arm, blood gushing out and staining his sleeve and the ground beneath him. "Ah! My hand!!" Sun Miao screamed in agony, writhing on the ground in pain.

This scene completely stunned everyone!

He means it!
Jiang Jin is really going to kill someone! To find out if they are human or ghost!

Zhao Meiling screamed and backed away in fright, while Sun Miao turned pale and dared not go forward again.

Jiang Jin stood with his knife in hand, his chest heaving violently, his eyes sweeping over the terrified crowd like a ferocious beast ready to devour its prey!
He pointed a blood-dripping fruit knife at everyone, his voice cold and threatening: "See that? Anyone who dares to stop me, I'll kill them first! Even if all five of you come at me together, you won't be enough to take me down!"

This is not an exaggeration.

Everyone could see that Jiang Jin's professional fighting skills and the enhancement of his weapon gave him an absolute advantage in close combat.

Wang Tianba is a street thug with no fighting skills, Qian Yong is hot-tempered but knows nothing about combat, Sun Miao is completely powerless, Zhao Meiling is weak as a chicken, and Li Yin is just an online writer. Even with five against one, and Jiang Jin fighting desperately with a knife, their chances of winning are slim.

Despair, like an icy tide, engulfed them once more. Were they to die at Jiang Jin's hands before being killed by the demons?
Just as Jiang Jin cast another fierce glare at Qian Yong, whose face was pale and who could barely stand up straight after being elbowed by Jiang Jin, Li Yin, who was being held down on the shelf, used all his strength to shout hoarsely, "Jiang Jin! Stop! Really, I really have a way! I've thought of a way! Please don't kill anymore!"

His voice cracked slightly with urgency, but it carried an undeniable urgency and... a hint of certainty, as if he had found a way out of a desperate situation.

Jiang Jin's movements abruptly halted. He slowly turned his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Li Yin, the blade still embedded in Li Yin's neck. His tone was filled with suspicion and violence: "What did you say? Verification? You'd better not be playing me! Tell me! What method?! If you're lying to me, I'll kill you first!"

"Jiang Jin, next I'm going to whisper a sentence to each resident to verify who might be the ghost. I have a plan so that even if the ghost appears, it won't guess which fruit you're feeding it!"

"Are you playing me?" Jiang Jin clearly didn't believe Li Yin at all. "Can't you ask me to my face?"

"What if you're a ghost? If you're worried, hold a knife to my neck later. If the ghost guesses the fruit you're feeding me, just slit my throat!" Li Yin patted his chest and said, "Is that alright? No matter how powerful you are, can you guarantee you'll kill every single one of us in the following time?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Jin put the knife back on his person.

"Okay! Go ahead and ask!"

Then, Li Yin pointed to the warehouse door: "Okay, Qian Yong stays. The rest of you, go to the warehouse first."

"What warehouse?! From now on, no one is allowed in the warehouse! Just pull them aside and talk to them one by one. After all, aren't you verifying that ghosts don't have super hearing?"

"Perhaps the only way to block out a ghost's sight and hearing is inside a warehouse?"

"Why are there so many things to do! Then hurry up!"

After everyone else went into the warehouse, leaving only Li Yin and Qian Yong in the fruit shop, the latter quickly walked up to the former and asked, "What do you want to tell me? Are you really so good at making it impossible for a ghost to guess the fruit he chose?"

Li Yin lowered his voice: "Where would I get that ability!"

"Then you just said that?"

"I'll find a chance to hide in the warehouse, use those odds and ends to barricade the door, and stall until the ghost comes out!"

"Then, then this..." Qian Yong lowered his voice further, "What if the ghost doesn't guess the fruit he chose? Can't he still come and kill you? This warehouse isn't even locked!"

"What if... the ghost guesses correctly? Then the ghost can help us get rid of him!"

"Ah You?"

"You saw it yourself, this guy surnamed Jiang is a madman! If he survives, it'll be a long time before it's his turn to choose fruit again! He might really take a knife and kill us all one by one!"

"Yes...yes..." Qian Yong looked shaken. "But how could you make the ghost guess which fruit he chose? The blood oath forbids us from spying on residents choosing fruit, so we have no way of knowing which fruit he'll pick!"

"So, listen carefully... to what I'm about to say. Actually, I minored in psychology in college, so I know how to analyze micro-expressions. I was just chatting with him for a while, saying things like, 'What fruit did you feed him? Dragon fruit? Pineapple? Cantaloupe?' But when I asked about cantaloupe, I could tell from his expression that he chose cantaloupe!"

"What? Micro-expressions? Then you can't figure out who's the ghost?"

“Ghosts are probably even better at disguising themselves. I conducted micro-expression analysis on you several times when I asked you questions before.”

"Then why are you telling me? When the ghost comes out, you can just tell it directly."

“I won’t be able to see the ghost from the warehouse. There’s only a short time between its appearance and identification. I’ll also have to explain why I know it’s a cantaloupe, so the timing might be off. If you notify me from outside, there will be the same time difference. Besides, it could also kill you from outside.”

"Then tell me it is..."

"I'm not telling you, I'm telling the ghosts! I don't know which of you is the ghost, but I'm telling you all one by one that Jiang Jin will choose the cantaloupe next! Then the ghosts will point to the cantaloupe! Originally, I figured out that the fruit he was feeding him was just in case, but he's so ruthless now, so don't blame me!"

"Holy crap!" Qian Yong gasped. "You're using someone else to do your dirty work!"

“I have no choice. I have to talk to each of you individually. Otherwise, if I send Jiang Jin to the warehouse and then pull all four of you over for a private chat, he'll figure out I'm plotting against him if he's not stupid. Alright, go into the warehouse and call Zhao Meiling out!”

……

Finally, the time is almost up.

Jiang Jin kicked open the door, and after everyone came out, he strode forward to grab Li Yin!
Li Yin hurriedly tried to get around him and escape into the warehouse, but he was grabbed and a knife was held to his neck!
"You little rascal, you really are a cheat! You better pray that the ghost doesn't guess right next, otherwise, I'll send you straight to meet the King of Hell!"

Before long, the lights started to flicker on and off!

The moment the ghost's figure appeared behind a shelf, everyone instinctively started to back away!

Then, the ghost raised its hand and pointed...

Dragon fruit with green leaves!

"what!"

"Why is it dragon fruit?"

Then, Li Yin shouted, "Jiang Jin, identify... Wang Tianba!"

Jiang Jin immediately raised his hand and pointed at the man covered in tattoos!

"Wang Tianba, you're the ghost!"

(End of this chapter)