457: 8.57 Dangerous!

8.57 Dangerous!

Lu Yizhou furrowed his brows. 'They smelled the same as the dolls in Ella's room?'0

'Yes, Daddy!' Ozzie's ears perked up as she sniffed the mannequin closer. 'Really similar meow!'

[666: So creepy… QAQ 666 doesn't understand what is happening here but 666 doesn't want to stay here any longer, Host. Can we leave?]

Of course, it was promptly ignored. Lu Yizhou pulled his hand back to let the woman's hair fall to cover her face. He moved on to the next one, already had a hunch on whose face he was going to find. And he was absolutely right. It was the other woman.

He moved again, finding more and more familiar faces. Lu Yizhou might not have remembered all of their faces, but he had a few recollections, especially the woman who had shoved a mouthful of soba noodle worms into her mouth with a blissful face. His heart sank along with the realization.

All of the doctors from the previous batch were here.

No — not only from the previous batch but also the ones from before. Who knew how many doctors from different batches had gathered here? Not only that, all of the chefs were also here. So that's why Lu Yizhou could never find their presence in the mansion…

What did it mean? Had they been turned and trapped in the body of a mannequin, the same as Madam Knox or… had they been a mannequin from the start? 

As soon as the idea formed in his mind, Lu Yizhou briskly turned to exit the storage freezer and grabbed one of the nearest knives from the holder before coming back inside. He took one of the women's arm and carefully grazed the tip of the knife along her fair skin. 

She bled. Crimson, cold blood. 

Hmm, interesting. Lu Yizhou twisted the knife to cut off a little patch of skin, grabbing it between his thumb and pointer. The texture was… definitely not humane. It was hard, solid and a bit tacky just like wax. The inside of her arm was also stuffed with something that resembled cotton, but now that it was soaked in blood, Lu Yizhou could not know for certain. 

He narrowed his eyes in contemplation. If Baines were indeed carrying a bloodied knife earlier, then he might be doing something inside the freezer. It could also explain why he always smelled of blood.

But what could he be doing here?

As he was trailing the knife over the mannequin's chest and wondering if he should cut one open to see if she had vital organs inside, his eyes suddenly caught sight of black ink peeking out of the woman's dress collar, almost hidden completely by the curtain of her hair. Lu Yizhou used the knife to tug her collar down and found a marking on her chest.

Lu Yizhou's eyes widened in surprise. It was the Soul Swapping Ritual's activating array! Lu Yizhou had practically committed every line and circle into his memory after reading it for the first time so he knew he would not be mistaken! What was it doing on this mannequin? This time, Lu Yizhou used his bare hand to stroke the black array, feeling out the uneven bumps and ridges of her skin. Rather than drawn, it looked like the circle of array was carved or even branded into her body!

He whipped his head to look at the rows of mannequin in the freezer. Could it be that all of them had the same array on their body? If that was the case then somehow, these mannequins had been used in the soul swapping ritual! 

—Wait a minute.

He recalled that wax could be used to preserve corpses and delay their decay. The Soul Swapping book had stated that the more the ritual was used, the faster the dark witch's vessel would wither. What if… What if the dark witch had come up with a method to maintain her vessel longer and she was creating these mannequins for experiment? What if, instead of one vessel, she used these mannequins so she could shift between bodies and gain as many vessels as possible to accommodate her magic?! 

Then it could explain the weirdness surrounding the two women when Lu Yizhou interrogated them earlier! They had been used as a sacrifice to the Soul Swapping Ritual and had practically become the dark witch's eyes! It was no wonder that there were some questions they could not answer even when Lu Yizhou was using the 'Devil's Whisper'; no wonder that Luca and Baines could catch him red-handed!

Lu Yizhou inhaled sharply. This place was dangerous! These mannequins could wake up at any moment to pounce on him. He had to get away as soon as possible!

"Ailín!" Lu Yizhou called out urgently. "We have to go—"

He halted in his tracks, heartbeat echoing in the empty space. 

When did he last notice Ailín's presence around him? He had been too engrossed in his own contemplation, finding out one shocking revelation after another and failed to realize that his surroundings had been utterly silent. Now, he could not sense anyone's presence aside from himself!

Lu Yizhou whipped around to survey the storage freezer once again. Was it only his imagination or did the chain in the corner of the room just sway earlier? 

"Ailín…?" He called out once again, voice barely in a whisper. There was no answer. Lu Yizhou cursed under his breath. He had been too ignorant thinking that nothing would happen just a few hours before the final fight! 'Where is he?' he asked Ozzie in an urgent tone. 'Can you follow his scent?'

'That's weird. He's definitely still here meow!' Ozzie jumped down from his shoulder to sniff around the ground. She then turned back to make eye contact with Lu Yizhou. 'Follow me, Daddy!'

Lu Yizhou nodded, his face somber. The freezer room was just so big that Lu Yizhou could inspect it in less than ten minutes. There were around forty to fifty dolls pressed together like sardines, or to be exact, like clothes in a rack. And that was what the mannequins were to the black witch, right? Clothes which she could wear and discard at her disposal. 

Ozzie led Lu Yizhou deeper into the freezer and it did not take long for her to find where Ailín's scent trailed off. It was around the area where Lu Yizhou had seen the chains moving. 

Ozzie ran around in circles. 'Here, Daddy! I can't smell him past here!' 

The innermost part of the freeze was so cold that every exhale Lu Yizhou puffed out formed into a billow of mist. He took a deep breath to regain his bearings. Calm down and think, Lu Yizhou, he told himself.

Firstly, he checked the wall, knocking and tapping to see if there was some sort of secret mechanism that could connect him to a secret underground room or something. There was none. His heart was thumping quickly now, almost hammering against its cage. Even though the room was cold, Lu Yizhou could not help but break out in sweats. 

Ailín had vanished without a trace and his scent was cut off here. There was no sign that he had been attacked. If he had just made the smallest sound, Lu Yizhou would definitely be alarmed and know that he needed help. But no. He just disappeared silently, so silent it was as if he was spirited away.

The line of Lu Yizhou's jaws ticked tensely. He finally turned to inspect the rows of mannequins around him. The majority of the mannequins' body was slim and slender, the image of youthful women in their prime of existence. And that was why it was so easy to discern the one that was different from others. 

Lu Yizhou heard Ozzie and 666 screeching inside his mind and he, too, was frozen in shock.

[666: This… This… What is happening here?!]

The man who had just been talking and walking together with Lu Yizhou a moment ago was now hooked on the ceiling with his feet dangling off midair, just like any other mannequin. His eyes were blank and a little smile was etched on his face. Ailín.

Lu Yizhou screwed his eyes shut and cursed out vehemently. "Fucking hell…!" 

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