Chapter 166: Prison Break

“So that’s how it is…”

A chill shot up from the soles of her feet straight to the crown of her head. Yin Zhen instantly understood everything about this place.

This wasn’t an ordinary prison cell at all!

The Abnormal Investigation Bureau captured ghosts to use as resources, feeding them with the extreme terror of the inmates. Every prisoner wore a collar engraved with a talisman around their neck. Facing these Fierce Ghosts, the inmates might not die, but they would definitely suffer through the two hours before dawn.

Yin Zhen couldn’t wait for Bai Qiang’s intel anymore. She dodged another attack from the ghost security guard, glanced at the metal cover on the ceiling that was about to close, and darted behind the toilet partition.

Transformation and Shadow Instant Teleportation activated one after another!

Having transformed into a cat, Yin Zhen successfully slipped through the narrow gap into the upper ceiling layer at the very last second before the cover closed, leaving her collar behind in the toilet stall.

Meanwhile, inside the monitoring room.

The young prison guard, Li, watched the terrifying pantomimes playing out in each cell through the small screens on the wall. On the screens, some inmates were hoisted up by invisible ropes, some curled up in corners strangling themselves, and others knelt on the floor, kowtowing madly at thin air. They screamed silently for mercy, their faces covered in snot and tears.

“Old Zhang, even though these people are murderers and deserve what’s coming to them, isn’t the Abnormal Investigation Bureau being a bit too cruel?”

The veteran guard, Zhang Qiang, was slowly sipping his hot coffee. Hearing this, he sneered. “Cruel? Li, you’re still too young.”

Old Zhang set down his mug and pointed at one of the screens, which showed a burly man frantically waving his arms at empty space. He then pointed to another screen where a man was almost gouging his own eyes out.

“That guy killed two college students, dismembered their bodies, and dumped the pieces. His methods were so brutal that even the seasoned forensic doctors threw up. When he was killing for fun, do you think he cared about the word ‘cruel’?

“And that second guy. To commit insurance fraud, he left his paralyzed, bedridden elderly mother at home to starve to death. When the old lady was found, she was nothing but skin and bones, and her fingernails had scratched bloody marks all over the bedboard. Is she pitiful?

“These beasts are wearing human skin, but the things they’ve done are a hundred, a thousand times more vicious than any Fierce Ghost! The little bit of torture they’re suffering now is just them getting a taste of the pain they inflicted on their victims, with interest! The innocent people they tortured and murdered—they are the truly pitiful ones!”

Left speechless by Old Zhang’s words, Li had to agree; these murderers did not deserve sympathy.

Just then, Li’s gaze swept across one of the screens, and he frowned in confusion. “Old Zhang, why has the ghost in this cell stopped moving?”

Li quickly manipulated the mouse, enlarging the cell’s feed onto the main screen. The Abnormal Investigation Bureau’s specially made high-definition cameras could capture the traces of ghosts. In the footage, the ghost security guard stood before the toilet’s half-wall partition, holding an axe and remaining completely motionless. The camera couldn’t film the inside of the partition; the prison had left the inmates one last shred of privacy.

Old Zhang abruptly stood up from his chair. “Crap! If the Fierce Ghost isn’t moving, the prisoner is most likely dead. Stay here, I’ll go take a look.”

Old Zhang grabbed his gear and rushed out of the monitoring room. Li hurriedly pulled up the file of the inmate in that cell. Seeing Qiao Mu’s young and innocent face, Li found it hard to believe. Such a seemingly timid seventeen-year-old girl was actually a violent murderer? Li wondered if there had been some kind of mistake.

Less than five minutes later, Old Zhang’s panicked panting came through the walkie-talkie.

“Li, sound the alarm! The prisoner has escaped.”

“How is that possible? How did she do it?”

“Just sound the alarm! We’ll know how she did it once we catch her.”

“Oh, right. Okay.”

Li hurriedly pressed the glaring red button on the console and typed the prisoner’s ID number into the system. Piercing sirens instantly echoed throughout the entire prison block, and the red warning lights atop the monitoring room and hallways all flared to life.

“Monitoring room calling Security Team One! Abnormality in Cell 7, Block B! Inmate Qiao Mu has suspectedly escaped! Repeat, Inmate Qiao Mu in Cell 7, Block B has suspectedly escaped! Immediately lock down all exits in Block B! The target is extremely dangerous, authorization granted to use Weapons!”

Back inside the ventilation ducts.

Yin Zhen scrambled through the shafts in her cat form. The layout inside was rather complex, riddled with forks and dead ends. She couldn’t find an exit to the outside right away.

Over the previous two hours, she had devised two escape plans.

The first was to fake a suicide to attract the guards, overpower them when they opened the door, and take them hostage to get out of the block. However, this route would inevitably expose her Identity.

The other plan involved the metal cover on the ceiling. When the cover was closed, the talismans inside the cell formed a complete whole, isolating all Extraordinary Abilities. When the cover opened, this whole would be broken, allowing shadows to penetrate through. The cell’s designer had been very meticulous; a normal human body couldn’t fit through that gap.

She initially thought this cover was a window for delivering meals. She had planned to wait until the morning when the cover opened, hide behind the toilet partition, use Transformation to shrink into a cat, and teleport inside.

Who would have thought the Abnormal Investigation Bureau was so ruthless as to release ghosts into the cells in the middle of the night? Interrogating prisoners with ghosts, punishing prisoners with ghosts… would they also use ghosts to track down escaped prisoners?

For a moment, Yin Zhen didn’t know whether to be afraid or to sympathize with these ghosts. They toiled as oxen and horses in life, only to become Oxhead and Horseface in death!

Yin Zhen turned another corner, her four paws suddenly slamming on the brakes. Less than two meters ahead, that worn, filthy pink rabbit doll had unexpectedly appeared again.

“I LOVE U.”

Yin Zhen’s fur stood on end as a sickening chill shot up her spine to the top of her head. She wondered what on earth that thing was.

Without any hesitation, Yin Zhen abruptly turned around, only to be startled once more.

A child with bruised, ashen skin was curled up in the narrow duct. Its eye sockets were deeply sunken, lacking any whites—there was only pure darkness. It looked exactly like the child from that classic horror movie!

The instant their eyes met, the ashen child opened its mouth in a hiss and crawled toward her on all fours at a terrifying speed. A bone-chilling, foul wind blew against her face, carrying a heavy stench of resentment and death!

She had to run!

Confronting this kind of unreasonable supernatural entity in a narrow duct was tantamount to suicide. The rabbit doll blocking her path had vanished. Unleashing a feline’s ultimate speed, Yin Zhen fled desperately along the shaft, pushing herself to the limit to put distance between them.

Amidst the wailing sirens, Yin Zhen turned an unknown number of corners before the inescapable, icy sensation trailing behind her gradually faded.

Breathing a slight sigh of relief, Yin Zhen cautiously approached a larger ventilation grille and peered down through the slits.

It was the monitoring room.

A young prison guard was staring intently at the computer screen in front of him, reading a file beside his hand with utmost concentration. It seemed he was currently the only one in the room. This was a godsend.