Chapter 1147: Lin Sanjiu the Competent Corpse

Everything transpired too swiftly. Lin Sanjiu was about to shout for Hei Zeji when the abruptness of the scene nearly caught her off guard. Without delay, she expanded her hypersensory state to its fullest extent, enveloping every detail within a dozen meters—air currents, branch movements, dust settling on book covers—all vividly captured in her heightened sensory perception.

Yet, the corner where Ya Jiang vanished was eerily quiet. No signs of his breath, heartbeat, or body heat were detectable. Not even the sound of the mop handle hitting the floor when he disappeared reached her. It was as if a dark abyss lay behind the wall.

After a brief pause, Lin Sanjiu re-entered the bookstore, maintaining her hypersensory state.

Her body was on high alert, her blood pulsing rapidly, causing a p.r.i.c.kling sensation on her scalp where her wound hadn"t fully healed, akin to being poked by needles. Approaching the corner, she craned her neck to peek behind the wall and found another small hall lined with bookshelves, the front row marked with a "Psychology" sign.

The mop was nowhere to be seen.

"I"m a hundred percent sure," she muttered to Mrs. Manas out of habit, "there was no one in this bookstore when we entered... d.a.m.n, it"s still empty!"

Mrs. Manas offered no response, but suddenly Lin Sanjiu"s nerves tensed, and she abruptly turned towards the second floor. "There"s a sound!"

Her reaction was faster than a bullet. Knowing exactly where the escalator was, she didn"t hesitate. In an instant, she transformed into a blur, darting towards the escalator"s heart. She whizzed past several bookshelves, halting in front of a display counter adorned with Star Wars models. There, precariously leaning against a counter corner, was Ya Jiang"s mop, still sliding downwards.

Lin Sanjiu gripped the wooden mop handle, her fingertips sensing a faint residual warmth.

He was just here a moment ago, and he had just released this mop!

While she couldn"t fathom Ya Jiang"s attachment to the mop, the fact he had abandoned it suggested he was in trouble.

Swiftly transforming the mop into a card, Lin Sanjiu held onto it, straining her ears for any sound.

The same situation played out again: every bone in her body was screaming that there was no one else in the bookstore except her. This was the conclusion of her intuition and experience, honed from years of combat. She trusted it implicitly. But the question remained: where was Ya Jiang, and why did he leave the mop behind?

With her hypersensory state still active, she examined the card closely. Surprisingly, the mop had no link to any Special Items.

[Wooden Mop]

A simple, old-fas.h.i.+oned mop with a wooden handle and a bundle of cloth. The cloth was soiled, and without proper cleaning, it would only make floors dirtier.

The only notable detail was a small line of text beneath the description: "Imbued with the scent of its owner, Ya Jiang."

What advantage could there be in infusing a mop with one"s scent?

As she stored the card in her card inventory, her ears picked up an extremely faint noise. It was so subtle that without the tremor from her hypersensory state, she might not have discerned its direction.

Rus.h.i.+ng out the bookstore"s back door, Lin Sanjiu surveyed the scene. She found herself on a narrow street, starkly less opulent than the previous shopping district. Light transport trucks lined the street, each marked with the name of a different store.

Whatever had made the noise had vanished.

Maybe she had taken too long descending from the bookstore"s second floor. Those few seconds were enough to lose the sound"s origin.

Did her shouts for Hei Zeji attract the arm"s owner?

Lin Sanjiu pondered, realizing she likely wouldn"t find Ya Jiang today without help. She inhaled deeply and activated [No Coincidence, No Story].

"Ah, it"s been a while since you last used it," Mrs. Manas said, sighing.

Merely activating the ability was insufficient; Lin Sanjiu needed to take further action. She paused to think, then randomly chose a direction and began walking, gently calling out, "Hei Zeji? Is that you? Are you nearby?"

Regrettably, there was no response from Hei Zeji. It was then that Lin Sanjiu recalled why she seldom used [No Coincidence, No Story]. While it intertwined various fates and initiated coincidences, it offered no a.s.surance about whether these coincidences would be favorable or detrimental to the user.

Before her left foot even touched the ground, she sensed something amiss in her peripheral vision. Turning her head to the right, she was stunned. She remembered having two shoulders at birth, but now her right one was missing — her right arm and half of her body had vanished, leaving only a faint ring of black mist outlining where her body should have been.

It was as though her right side had been instantaneously severed. Attempting to move her right fingers felt like sending signals into a void—there was no response.

"What"s happening?" exclaimed Mrs. Manas, just as Lin Sanjiu lost her balance. In that brief moment, her entire body involuntarily s.h.i.+fted to the right. Now she stood on an empty sidewalk, unopposed by anything. Then, in an instant, her world plunged into darkness.

When she regained her vision, she found herself pressing down on someone in complete darkness. She struggled to move but couldn"t; her consciousness was the only thing active. While she could see again, every other part of her body felt detached and unresponsive, as if she were just a consciousness inhabiting an immobile form.

"What"s happening?" said a new, unfamiliar voice. As Mrs. Manas fell silent, the stranger continued to murmur, "How did this woman get in here?"

The girl, evidently accustomed to living alone for an extended period, seemed to have developed the habit of talking to herself regardless of her thoughts. She was the only one mobile in the darkness. Reaching out, she grabbed Lin Sanjiu"s collar and hauled her up with some effort, saying, "Why are you as tall as a man?"

This girl was barely 1.65 meters tall. After hoisting Lin Sanjiu up, she balanced both Lin Sanjiu and Ya Jiang on her shoulders, resembling a small hunter laden with two large catches.

"Let"s go. I have many questions for you," she muttered. Finding the correct direction, the dense blackness before them dissipated like fog, revealing the outside world. Lin Sanjiu recognized they were still in the same commercial district, albeit not on the street where she had been engulfed by darkness. The previously sizable light transport trucks now appeared as mere toy-sized boxes.

The slender girl, bearing the immobile bodies on her shoulders, stepped out of the black mist onto the red brick-paved sidewalk. Across the way, another thick black mist rose, churning as if waiting for her.

"Feet..."

The girl stood between the two black mists, akin to portals, struggling to glance back at the lower halves of the two bodies. Due to their height difference, Lin Sanjiu and Ya Jiang"s ankles were dragging on the ground, still submerged in darkness.

The girl hesitated momentarily, then decided, "This won"t do."

With a shrug, Ya Jiang slipped from her shoulders and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Despite the resounding impact, he remained silent, unable to even groan. The girl continued to carry Lin Sanjiu alone, laboriously pus.h.i.+ng her back into the darkness until only Lin Sanjiu"s waist and lower body remained in the black mist. Gently laying Lin Sanjiu down on the brick pavement, she grabbed her arms, seemingly preparing to drag her from one mist portal to another.

"Why go through all this trouble?"

Just moments earlier, if she had taken one more step, she could have carried both herself and Ya Jiang into the next mist together. Why then bother dragging them one by one?

At that moment, Lin Sanjiu was effectively a lifeless body, being pulled along as her vision s.h.i.+fted with the rustling sounds. Her thighs emerged from the darkness, followed by her calves. From her initial position, before her feet could fully emerge, her head would be pulled back into the darkness.

Wait, what did she say about the feet just now?

Instinctively, Lin Sanjiu replayed the girl"s movements between the two mists in her mind.

"I know!"

Her subconscious seemed to unravel the puzzle before her conscious mind did, and Mrs. Manas voiced unexpectedly, "She has to drag you in one by one because, this way, part of your bodies will always remain in the darkness, right? If your body gets out of the darkness, will your ability to move be restored?"