novelsite Chapter 16 What are you doing?!
Chapter 16 What are you doing?!
Xiao Jiming listened and then felt it.
"You've never been picky about the supernatural before," Pei Zhaoye said coolly, still fanning the flames from the side.
But Xiao Jiming suddenly realized the purpose of his question: "I can't subdue them."
The smile on Xiao Jiming's face gradually faded. He narrowed his eyes and said calmly, "What did you guess?"
"Just now, a shadow puppet suddenly stopped moving while attacking me," Pei Zhaoye recalled the pause that gave him the opportunity. "Shadow puppetry, shadow puppetry... then who's controlling it all?"
Pei Zhaoye raised this question but did not answer it.
Jiang Xingni turned to the next page and was caught off guard to see himself again.
After all, Jiang Xingni is not the main character. The comic omits the entire process of her being attacked and then fighting back, leaving only the final scene where Jiang Xingni kicks Zhou Shengnan unconscious.
In the instant Zhou Shengnan lost consciousness, the shadow puppet attacking Pei Zhaoye at the western village entrance also stopped abruptly, like a robot that had run out of power.
The episode ends with Jiang Xing smilingly tying a group of children together, then prying out their true purpose with a few words, and finally sitting down on the ground.
I don't have time to browse the forums anymore.
Jiang Xing turned off his phone screen, glanced at the few children whose eyes were darting around restlessly, tilted his head, and gave them a gentle smile.
"Disobedient children will be punished, you know?" Jiang Xingni chuckled and said.
Then, without any mercy, he knocked them unconscious one by one with a chop to the neck.
If she loses control of her strength and dies, so be it. Anyway, she now has an important reason to "protect her companions." As for what the four people being protected might think, Jiang Xingni really doesn't care.
However, things did not turn out as Jiang Xingni had predicted; he lost control of his strength and accidentally killed the group of people.
Jiang Xingni sighed, unable to tell whether he was disappointed or relieved.
Just then, the ancestral hall door was pushed open again. Xiao Jiming looked around and saw a group of children who had been tied up by Jiang Xingni.
"Are they the ones in control?" Xiao Jiming asked abruptly.
Jiang Xingni nodded, his face still bearing that smile—which, according to analysis, was the most mysterious and gentle.
Fortunately, she read the comic in time, Jiang Xingni thought deeply, otherwise she would have just given a casual answer and then made up for it later.
Jiang Xing, who had just tied them up, loosened the ropes and nodded with a smile: "Yes, it seems you've all taken care of those shadow puppets?"
Pei Zhaoye nodded, his gaze lingering on the group of unconscious children, their heads and shoulders pressed together as if they were asleep. He then looked at Jiang Xingni and asked, "When did you find out?"
Jiang Xingni shrugged: "Guess?"
—Of course, Jiang Xingni only found out after they asked the question.
She pieced together the clues in her mind and pointed to the unconscious children: "The manipulator."
"A curtain," Jiang Xingni said, pointing to the wordless book.
"Shadow puppets." She pointed to the shadow puppets in the distance that the four of them had wiped out. Although her finger couldn't pass through the wall, they all knew where she was pointing.
Finally, Jiang Xingni pointed to the five people present: "We are characters in a shadow puppet show."
He Jingtong scoffed, not denying Jiang Xingni's speculation, but his gaze swept coldly over the child who had fallen to the ground.
"You've let them off too easily," He Jingtong said.
Jiang Xingni's smile remained unchanged: "After all, this is a society governed by law, and they are still children."
Upon hearing this, Pei Zhaoye stared at Jiang Xing for a moment, then suddenly smiled: "You certainly know how to talk."
He was implying something, but Jiang Xingni pretended not to understand the underlying meaning in Pei Zhaoye's words.
"This wordless book." Xiao Jiming, oblivious to the undercurrents among them, approached the wordless book and examined it closely. "It's a strange object, not a monster."
Xiao Jiming's ability can only subdue monsters; monsters are actually not within his subjugation range.
"So there are no real monsters in this village?" Song Juexiao, who had been silent all along, took out his phone, typed out a line of text with practiced ease, and pointed it out to Xiao Jiming.
"No." Xiao Jiming shook his head, denying his guess.
Because of his special ability, Xiao Jiming can be considered one of the people who can distinguish between strange objects and monsters the fastest.
"Those dark things, and the shadows that followed us, should actually be considered ghosts—but the human skin shadow puppets are not. In my perception, shadow puppets are closer to... the concept of ghosts?" Xiao Jiming frowned slightly. This time, the abnormal events were not as clear-cut as before, but more confusing—especially in terms of classification.
"As for these children," Xiao Jiming glanced at them and said calmly, "they give me the impression of being human. Perhaps they've been somewhat corrupted, but it's not a big deal. They are definitely human."
"Stop thinking about that." Song Juexiao continued typing, then held it up for Xiao Jiming to see. "Let's deal with this blank book first."
The red-haired girl's gaze fell on the wordless book. As an inanimate object, it could not sense the danger of its surroundings and simply floated in mid-air.
Jiang Xingni heard Song Juexiao's words, and her intuition told her that this matter—what they called an abnormal event—would definitely not end so simply.
However, Jiang Xingni did not stop them, nor did he have any reason to stop them.
Xiao Jiming nodded, and with a slight twitch of his fingertips, the strange creature that had been following him like a fledgling suddenly sprang up, its sharp claws, almost as big as Jiang Xingni's entire body, lunging towards the direction where the wordless book was hiding.
Just before contact, the energy inside the wordless book suddenly exploded, coalescing into a protective shield in an attempt to safeguard itself.
A few beads of sweat appeared on Xiao Jiming's forehead, but he still urged the monster to continue its destruction. The tools, lacking self-awareness, would only mechanically obey Xiao Jiming's commands.
The claws poked into the protective shield, and under the pressure, the shield shattered inch by inch. At the same time, the originally sharp tips, which could almost be seen to gleam with cold light, were gradually worn away.
When the protective shield completely shattered, the released energy swept through the entire ancestral hall.
The pupils of Song Juexiao and Xiao Jiming, who were closest to each other, dilated slightly. Song Juexiao suddenly opened his mouth, and a sharp voice burst out. The monster summoned by Xiao Jiming used its last bit of strength to block Xiao Jiming and Song Juexiao.
On the other side, the three people who were further away—Jiang Xingni, Pei Zhaoye, and He Jingtong—stopped their sarcastic remarks and turned around to see this scene.
Jiang Xingni: ...?
No, what are you doing, male lead!
The tracks intersected and connected to form a golden expanse, and Jiang Xingni's gaze landed precisely on the area with the least light.
At the same time, He Jingtong made a hand seal, and a gentle light blocked the way in front of the three of them.