12: Fear comes from insufficient firepower

Just as the broken noose was about to touch Han Li's neck...

He moved.

With an extremely clumsy somersault, he rolled to the side.

The air, which had been tense to the point of solidification, was instantly broken by this comical movement.

Han Li got up from the ground, patted the dust off himself, and then, facing the phone camera, forced out what he thought was a very handsome smile.

"How about it, folks?"

"My acting, not bad, right? Doesn't the Oscars owe me a little gold man?"

Lin Zhengguo's haggard and kind face completely froze at this moment.

He slowly, inch by inch, turned his head, and in his empty eye sockets, two clumps of eerie green ghost fire burned.

The temperature of the entire room suddenly dropped.

"How did you... see through it?"

His voice was no longer hoarse and calm, but became sharp and piercing, filled with incomprehensible malice and ruthlessness.

Han Li curled his lips in disdain.

"I say, Uncle, your script is too old-fashioned, isn't it? American horror movies from ten years ago don't even act like this anymore, and you're still playing the tragic drama card here?"

"Haven't you kept up with the times?"

Lin Zhengguo was stunned by his words.

"Script?"

A hint of confusion actually appeared on his distorted face.

"Eighty percent of the story I just told was true! Only a small part was made up! How could you possibly have found out!"

Han Li was amused.

He aimed the phone camera at Lin Zhengguo, then flipped it back to himself, looking like a travel Streamer who had found some rare animal.

"By myself, of course, I couldn't have found out. I almost believed your nonsense."

"But did you forget?"

"Behind me, there are tens of thousands of viewers helping me brainstorm! You, a country bumpkin trapped in this broken house for over a decade, still want to play mind games with us?"

"Tens of thousands... viewers?"

Lin Zhengguo was completely bewildered; this term was beyond his comprehension.

The emotion of anger and humiliation instantly overwhelmed his confusion.

"You're asking for death!"

He let out an inhuman roar, his entire body began to turn ethereal, and the surrounding eerie wind stirred up dust from the ground, forming small vortices.

"I'm going to kill you!!"

Han Li looked at his menacing posture, not only unafraid but instead sneered.

"Kill me?"

"If you really had the ability, would you need to act with me for half a day here?"

"You'd probably have rushed up and torn me to shreds by now!"

After speaking, Han Li raised his right hand, and the yellow safety talisman, soaked in his sweat, was particularly conspicuous under the flashlight's beam.

"You're afraid of this thing, aren't you?"

Lin Zhengguo's illusory figure suddenly froze, his expression so dark it could drip water. He stopped speaking, just staring intently at the talisman.

Seeing his reaction, Han Li felt more confident.

He cleared his throat and began his "case-solving statement."

"What you acted out at first was indeed very convincing. With all that emotion, you almost fooled me and the tens of thousands of viewers in my live stream."

"Unfortunately, no matter how much you planned, you didn't account for a particularly meticulous viewer in my live stream."

A smug expression, like a fox borrowing a tiger's might, appeared on Han Li's face.

"While you were tearfully recounting your tragic experience, that viewer had already investigated you and all the people you mentioned."

"Your business partner Wang Hai, your company's operating status, and even the architectural blueprints of your villa from back then—he dug it all up!"

For the first time, shock and disbelief appeared on Lin Zhengguo's ghostly face.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

"Why impossible?" Han Li looked at him as if he were an idiot. "I say, Uncle, this is the era of big data and the internet. As long as you want to investigate, there's no information you can't find!"

"The story you made up was almost flawless. The only flaw was your death!"

Lin Zhengguo was stunned.

Han Li held up his phone, reading aloud word for word the bullet comment Xie Wangsheng had just sent on the screen.

"That viewer, Xie Wangsheng, found police photos of the murder scene from back then online."

"In the photos, this Master bedroom where you supposedly hanged yourself was neatly arranged. Forget about a struggle, there wasn't even a trace of a fallen chair!"

"Moreover, your poor wife and three children, their bodies were all found in the children's room next door!"

Han Li paused here, then looked up at Lin Zhengguo with an expression of extreme disdain.

"Does this match what you said about being forced to retaliate, about tearfully killing your wife and children after a chaotic fight?"

"Therefore, there is only one truth!"

Han Li's voice suddenly rose, filled with the pleasure of exposing a lie.

"You, Lin Zhengguo! Are not some damn victim at all!"

"You're just an idiot who believed the nonsense of that so-called 'Master'! For your pathetic ambition, for Immortal Ascension, for power, you personally sacrificed your wife and children!"

"You thought by sacrificing them, you could achieve the Dao and Immortal Ascension?"

"And what happened?"

"They crossed the river and tore down the bridge, even killing you along with them! You are the most pathetic sacrifice!"

Han Li looked at the final deduction Xie Wangsheng had posted in the live stream, and shouted it out word for word, with all his might!

After Lin Zhengguo heard this, all expressions vanished from his ghostly face.

Malice, regret, madness, unwillingness... countless emotions alternated on his face, finally transforming into a sinister viciousness.

"The deduction is... absolutely correct!"

He squeezed these words through his teeth.

The bullet comments in the live stream completely erupted at this moment.

"Holy crap! The encyclopedia is awesome! This is practically Sherlock Holmes reborn!"

"God-like deduction! I'm bowing down!"

"Streamer, well done! You exposed this scumbag!"

Just then, Lin Zhengguo suddenly let out a burst of wild laughter.

"Hahahahaha! That's right! That Formation was the Great Blood Soul Formation that sacrificed my entire family! And it's also the cage that traps me forever in this house!"

"And that safety talisman in your hand is the only key to breaking the Formation!"

Before he finished speaking...

A fierce gust of eerie wind swept through the room, black blood seeped from the walls, and the furniture began to shake violently.

Lin Zhengguo's body, which had maintained a human form, instantly swelled and twisted!

His skin turned dark and shriveled, his ten fingers grew into blade-like nails, and his mouth split open to his ears, revealing dense fangs inside.

A complete monster appeared before Han Li.

"Give me the talisman!"

The monster roared, transforming into a black shadow, and lunged fiercely towards Han Li!

However, Han Li merely looked at him with a calm expression.

After understanding everything, the last trace of fear in his heart also vanished.

Just as the black shadow was about to pounce on him...

Han Li crouched down, and with another roll, he accurately dodged the monster's pounce.

Immediately after, without any hesitation, he used the momentum from his roll to swing his right hand, which held the safety talisman and flashlight, from bottom to top, smashing it hard towards Lin Zhengguo's jaw!

The movement was clean, crisp, and full of the ferocity of a street fight!

Bang!

A dull thud.

Lin Zhengguo's massive body was actually sent flying backward by this blow, crashing heavily against the wall.

Sizzle—

Where the flashlight and safety talisman had made contact with his jaw, a puff of black smoke rose, making a sound like roasting meat.

"Ah—!"

Lin Zhengguo let out a painful roar.

He looked at Han Li, who was unharmed and even striking a boxing stance, his eyes, burning with ghost fire, filled with terror and incomprehension.

"You... you're really not afraid of me?"

Han Li grinned broadly, revealing a mouthful of white teeth.

"Afraid?"

"Fear comes from insufficient firepower, from the unknown!"

"Now that I know how to deal with you, why would I be afraid of you, you big ghost!"