CHAPTER 1160: CHAPTER 1159: LOST IN A GHOSTLY MAZE

The men in front of them, who looked like construction workers, were indeed the original workers here. They had just moved to another construction site this afternoon.

However, upon learning that everyone from this site had been evacuated, they were tempted by greed. They teamed up and sneaked back to this site, intending to steal some valuable building materials to sell.

Unexpectedly, the lights here were still on, and there were police officers watching the site. They were quickly caught by these officers.

"Captain Zhao, they claim they’re here to retrieve their belongings,"

one officer said.

Coming back in the dead of night to get their things? Only a ghost would believe that!

"Take them to the prefab building for now. We’ll deal with it tomorrow."

Zhao Ruxue said, deciding not to question them further for the moment.

These people might have intended to steal something, but they hadn’t managed to take anything yet due to the presence of the officers. These petty thefts wouldn’t typically be handled by the criminal police team and would usually be handed over to the local police station officers.

After the workers were taken away, Ye Qiu and Zhao Ruxue returned to the security room while the police officers continued to patrol outside.

"These guys are really bold!"

Zhao Ruxue remarked.

"They’re just trying to make ends meet. Seems like they wanted to sneak back and steal something to sell, but they didn’t expect to run into you guys."

Ye Qiu said.

With two or three months until the Lunar New Year, these people naturally wanted to scrape together some money to take home.

Back in the security room, Zhao Ruxue was watching the surveillance video, while Ye Qiu was just sitting there, not watching anything.

Into the early hours around two in the morning, Ye Qiu suddenly felt something different outside.

At that moment, a voice came over the police radio: "I saw a few more people again."

"What kind of people? What are they doing?"

"Not very clear, seems like they’re working on the construction site."

Working on a construction site in the middle of the night?

How is that possible?

Zhao Ruxue and Ye Qiu immediately found it strange.

"You guys stay there, don’t approach, we’re coming over."

Zhao Ruxue instructed.

According to what the officer said, it was exactly the same as what had been seen before the previous workers vanished.

Ye Qiu and Zhao Ruxue hurried out and went towards the place the officer mentioned. They only saw one officer there; the others were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are they?"

"They chased after them."

"This is bad!"

Ye Qiu said.

Ruxue had instructed them not to chase after, but to wait there. Clearly, what those officers saw was just an illusion.

"Which direction?"

"About ten meters ahead, we saw the figures working there. It’s not very clear, but their silhouettes look similar to those described by the informant."

The officer reported.

Ye Qiu and Zhao Ruxue went over immediately, with Zhao Ruxue and the officer following closely beside him.

When Ye Qiu was alone, nothing would happen for sure; however, with Zhao Ruxue and this officer around, he had to protect them.

After running about tens of meters, they didn’t see any figures at all, and there was no response when Zhao Ruxue called out on the radio. Could it be that something happened to those officers too?

This was really bad!

"Ye Qiu, what should we do?"

"Don’t worry, I feel like they must be nearby!"

Ye Qiu replied.

As long as they acted quickly, they should be able to find those missing officers.

As Ye Qiu, Zhao Ruxue, and the officer wandered the surroundings, they realized after a long while that they had been running in circles, ending up back where they started.

This indicated that they had been within this area the entire time and never left.

How could this be?

Zhao Ruxue and the officer were unsure.

But Ye Qiu knew — they had encountered the "Ghost Wall" phenomenon.

"Ye Qiu, what’s going on? Didn’t we run far away? How did we end up back here?"

"This is the ’Ghost Wall’!"

The "Ghost Wall"!

Zhao Ruxue and the officer had heard of it.

But it was the first time they encountered it.

Zhao Ruxue and the officer were both panting, obviously tired from the running. If this continued, they might be stuck running until dawn.

The missing officers were nowhere to be seen, and as for the shadowy figures they saw before disappearing, there was no sign of them now.

"I have a way to break it!"

Zhao Ruxue and the officer watched as Ye Qiu took out a Yellow Paper and some cinnabar, drawing talismans directly on the paper.

They had no idea what strange symbols Ye Qiu was drawing, but it looked similar to the talismans they knew about.

After drawing, Ye Qiu muttered a few words before throwing it, causing an explosion and a flash of light.

Then, Zhao Ruxue and the officer noticed that the scene looked different from before, and they saw those missing officers running around, seemingly aimlessly.

"Those are your colleagues; they’ve also fallen into the ghost wall trap."

Ye Qiu and Zhao Ruxue approached, and the officers stopped running when they saw them.

At this point, they still had no idea they had been running for almost forty minutes. They just felt extremely tired and assumed the site was so large that it was taking them a long time to run through. They didn’t realize they were just circling the same area, never actually leaving.

"Captain Zhao, we saw those figures and gave chase, but they vanished."

One of the officers said.

"Didn’t I tell you not to run around? What you saw were just illusions. If Ye Qiu hadn’t helped, you’d be missing like those workers by morning."

Only now did they feel fear and terror.

Of course, Zhao Ruxue and the officer didn’t know what Ye Qiu did with the Yellow Paper and cinnabar, nor what he murmured to make the talisman explode and change the scene they saw.

Ye Qiu knew that what they saw now might also be different from what they initially perceived.

"Let’s head back to the security room!"

Zhao Ruxue suggested.

"We might not be able to return after all!"

"Why not?"

"Look over there!"

Zhao Ruxue and the officers followed Ye Qiu’s gaze into the distance and indeed saw some worker-like silhouettes seemingly working.

In the middle of the night, with everything quiet around, how could there still be workers?

So, with Ye Qiu’s earlier reminder, Zhao Ruxue and the officers understood they were only witnessing illusions of pretend people.