Chapter 69 Shadow of the Past

On July 2014, 07, the 25th day of the sixth lunar month, at 05:11 in the morning, the sun and moon were dark.

A sunflower butterfly flapped its wings lightly, bypassing the hospital's security system, which had long been paralyzed, and arrived in front of the substation on the underground floor.

Ning Zhe took out a claw hammer from the toolbox hanging on the wall, smashed the fully sealed glass cabinet, and physically disconnected all the circuit breakers and transformers in the substation.

In an instant, the power supply of the entire hospital was cut off. LED lights went out one after another. The MRI room was the first to stop, and medical facilities such as oxygen generators and centrifuges were paralyzed one after another. The entire hospital was suddenly plunged into eerie darkness and silence.

At the same time, in the east, the half of the sun that had just climbed out of the horizon was emitting gentle light one second, and the next second all the light disappeared, and the whole "world" was shrouded in darkness. The sun went out, just like every LED light in the hospital that went out due to power outage.

On the commercial street in the center of Taoyuan City, a tall and thin figure hurried out of the hotel. He ignored the pitch-black darkness around him and went downstairs.

Ye Yao walked in a very relaxed posture, as if this dark place without light was the destination of his life. His tall and thin figure like a bamboo pole melted into the shadow like a ghost, and Ye Yao disappeared.

A few minutes later, Ye Yao appeared on the rooftop of a building just across the street from the hospital and did not move forward.

"It is able to sense the existence and movements of all shadows within a certain range. This is enough. If you get any closer, you will be easily discovered." Ye Yao took out his mobile phone, turned on the screen, and checked the current time.

In the pitch black darkness, even the faintest light seemed dazzling. The thin light from the mobile phone screen was blocked by Ye Yao's thin figure, casting a blurry figure on the floor. Because the human body was close to the light source, the figure appeared particularly tall.

But what was strange was that this tall and burly human-shaped shadow was incomplete.

Ye Yao's body was perfectly normal, without any functional defects or disabilities, except that he looked a little thin. However, the shadow cast by his body on the face was incomplete:
There is a huge gash on the right thigh
The left hand is disabled, the connection between the arm and the palm is broken
There is a circular gap on the left shoulder, as if a piece of flesh had been cut off by something.
Right hand relatively intact
Right leg...

Ye Yao's shadow was covered with scars, full of shocking injuries and deep gaps, but his body was intact, just a little thinner.

This incomplete shadow only existed for a few seconds. After confirming the time, Ye Yao turned off the screen of his mobile phone. He still had no intention of moving closer to the hospital - the street lights were still on. As long as he tried to cross the road, once his shadow appeared under the light source, there was a great chance that he would be discovered.

"It's really tricky." Ye Yao shook his head, but a smile appeared on his face under the mask.

At least the seller did not lie to him. The ability of Terang did perfectly suit his needs. This was exactly what he urgently needed. As long as he killed that person and obtained Terang, the countdown to his death would stop... or even reverse.

But soon, the smile faded. Ye Yao looked across the street at the hospital building and frowned slightly: "What's going on?"

The sound of car horns and noisy voices continued to ring out from all directions. The urban area of Taoyuan fell into panic and chaos because the sun was setting. The sound of horns was loud on the road, and densely packed windows on the tall buildings were lit up, like a Christmas tree covered with decorative light strips, shining brightly, lighting up the city from the night.

Taoyuan City had never seen such a dazzling scene before, as if entering a sea of neon lights.

But among the bright neon lights, there was only one place that was pitch black, and that was Ye Yao's destination, the Taoyuan West Branch of Qinzhou Medical College.

"The lights in the hospital are off..." Ye Yao frowned and hesitated for a moment.

There is no doubt that the power outage in the hospital was caused by the last two survivors and the young man who broke into the situation, but what made Ye Yao hesitate was their motive for doing so.

The holder of the special permit is equivalent to having an extra sense, and the activation condition of this sense is the light source. Without light, there is no shadow. The special permit rule is meaningless, which is equivalent to letting Ye Yao approach the hospital without any defense. This is a foolish act of cutting off one's own arm. It is difficult to make such a decision without sufficient reason.

So what is driving their decision to turn off the lights?
A possibility came to Ye Yao's mind: "Maybe they did this to... save their lives?"

"Assuming that one of the three of them has figured out the rule of 'cannot be looked at directly' and knows that I am about to approach in person, then they are turning off the lights now, plunging the hospital into darkness. Perhaps they want to limit the triggering of this rule by reducing visibility..."

Rather smart.

According to Tu Yu, they all encountered strange events for the first time during the Bishuiwan Manor incident. Before that, they were just ordinary people. In other words, being hunted by himself was the second time that the man with special powers came into contact with strange things.

He was able to reverse the rules soon after encountering strange events. An ordinary person has such strong psychological quality and logical ability... If he hadn't died, there might have been a familiar face with the code name Te Ran in the circle of upgraders.

"It's a pity that the direction of action is wrong and all efforts are in vain." Ye Yao shook his head, turned around and disappeared into the shadows.

A dark shadow quickly crossed the road, following the wall, and slipped into the hospital.

In the hospital, Ning Zhe was walking in the corridor with Bai Zhi, holding a shotgun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, intending to meet Feng Yusu who was still on the second floor.

Perhaps it was the tense atmosphere before the storm, the two of them didn't chat much, and walked silently through the corridor that exuded a faint sweet smell and went to the stairs - there was a power outage, so they could only take the stairs.

The two people who were walking in a hurry did not notice that in the pitch-black darkness on the first floor of the hospital, a shadow was moving secretly and quietly following them.

Ning Zhe and Bai Zhi went up the stairs. In the darkness behind them, a pair of eyes quietly opened. The left eye was golden like amber, and the right eye was silver-gray like metal. The beautiful eyes, shining brightly, looked straight at the back of the tall and straight man next to Bai Zhi.

So Ning Zhe stopped.

"Ningzhe, what's wrong with you?" Bai Zhi turned around and asked.

"I..." Ning Zhe's voice was low and hoarse, his hands were shaking, and the flashlight in his palm fell to his feet with a click and rolled down the stairs.

But the shotgun in his other hand tightened unconsciously.

"I must... kill..."

Ning Zhe held the gun with both hands and pointed it at his jaw: "I must kill..."

Then a gunshot blew Ning Zhe's head apart, leaving a bloody flower filled with the smell of gunpowder, and the pink brain and bright red blood spilled on Bai Zhi.

The strong smell of blood in the air already explained the content of the ideological stamp that Ning Zhe had been branded with:
[I must kill Ning Zhe]

　On shelves tomorrow

　　
　
(End of this chapter)

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