Chapter 23: Tanaka

Satsuki probably wasn’t in trouble. So, the head he saw earlier must have just been an illusion.

Then, what kind of power caused him to have such a realistic illusion?

…A ghost?

This thought emerged from the depths of his confused mind.

Actually, deep down, he probably always wanted to dismiss such thoughts.

As a typical modern person, he normally wouldn’t even consider things like supernatural forces. But given the current situation, he couldn’t hold onto that belief anymore.

Indeed, he couldn’t keep thinking in the same old way.

He couldn’t simply deny the existence of supernatural phenomena in this world.

Now, he had to actually take this issue into account.

“Regardless of anything else, I need to find Satsuki first.”

Fang Jing took out his phone at the same time. He decided to call his mother Motoko first.

But when he took out his phone, he found there was no service.

“There’s no landline at home. This is troublesome! Do I have to go ask the neighbor…?”

His sister was missing, and he couldn’t make calls. Fang Jing was also frustrated.

(What to do… If this were a horror movie, the biggest problem would probably be in this building, and in our own apartment. That means my best choice is to leave the building…)

Of course, this was just using “knowledge” gained from horror movies. The best approach now was to leave the building and seek help.

But… could “knowledge” from horror movies be useful in a real supernatural event?

He felt deeply doubtful about that.

What if he encountered sudden danger while leaving the apartment building, or ran into another weird illusion?

After running through several ideas in his head, he decided on the safest approach.

“First, go to the neighbor for help. I remember those two housewives said earlier that the problematic one should be room 405. The other rooms should be fine…”

He calmed his fear, picked up the Bamboo Sword that had fallen on the floor, and resolutely decided to go out.

The Tanaka family was in room 406, very close to his own door.

Fang Jing almost didn’t think twice before knocking on the Tanaka family’s door.

“Strange… the door is open.”

Fang Jing was surprised because the Tanaka’s door opened when he pushed it.

There were no lights on in the room, but Fang Jing used his phone screen for illumination.

“Is anyone here?”

He called out a couple of times. The room was silent, as if there was no sign of any living person.

An ominous chill seemed to drift in the air.

Fang Jing’s gaze also turned sharp. He realized things were getting serious.

“The Tanaka house also seems a bit off. Should I retreat now—”

Perhaps that was a wise thought, but Fang Jing didn’t act on it. Because his eyes glanced around the room and he actually spotted something.

“The Kinugawa Black Buddha.”

Yes, on the beige coffee table placed on the Tatami mat sat a black Buddha statue.

Fang Jing naturally recognized what this was. It was the work of that somewhat famous sculptor Kinugawa.

For some reason, the Ichinose Apartment unexpectedly had these strange wood carvings. No one knew the origin.

(Maybe the deceased landlord, Uncle Yuasa, knew quite a bit about this. Unfortunately, he’s dead…)

Uncle Yuasa was dead after all. Dead people naturally couldn’t talk, so that lead couldn’t be pursued further…

“Finally found another Black Buddha. No matter what, I need to get it first.”

He rushed forward a few steps, grabbed the Black Buddha in his hand, and at the same time, secretly activated the Yin Devourer fragment’s absorption ability.

But this time, he unexpectedly gained nothing.

“Why—?”

Fang Jing’s face turned very grim. He held the Black Buddha, weighing it in his hand, his brows tightly furrowed.

He had a feeling that the Black Buddha seemed to have lost some kind of “mass.” It was an indescribable feeling, as if something substantial inside had been stripped away from the Black Buddha.

As he weighed the Black Buddha back and forth in his hand, he also noticed a detail.

“What’s with this crack on the back of the Black Buddha?”

Unlike the Black Buddhas he had handled before, this one in his hand had a crack on its back. For some reason, a thought surfaced in Fang Jing’s mind: it was like a silkworm cocoon that had split open, as if something had broken out of it.

“No Yin Energy? Why is this? Could it be that each Kinugawa Black Buddha is different?”

A nameless suspicion arose in Fang Jing’s heart.

“What’s that smell?”

He sniffed a smell similar to rust. Fang Jing turned around and noticed a faint scent of blood coming from the direction of the bathroom.

Fang Jing thought for a moment, then decided to investigate.

As long as it wasn’t a ghost or something, he felt he could probably still put up a fight.

Moreover, since there was a Black Buddha in this house, it was even more necessary to investigate.

Summoning his courage, he headed to the bathroom. As soon as he stepped inside, his foot slipped on something slimy, and he almost lost his balance.

“Blood…”

The patterned tiles on the floor were covered in blood. The showerhead nearby was turned on, spraying hot water, washing over the floor.

Fang Jing glanced at the white bathtub and gasped. Before his eyes was the body of a murdered woman. She was naked, her left arm and right leg chopped off, her chest ripped open, half of her internal organs removed and thrown into the bathtub.

He frowned. It was a truly gruesome sight. The murderer was probably still dealing with the body, but for some reason, had suddenly left…

Anyone else would probably be terrified by this scene.

Luckily, Fang Jing had experienced even more brutal scenes in his previous life. An experience abroad had shown him a more horrifying human slaughterhouse, so he had some resistance to things like corpses.

“The deceased… seems to be Mrs. Tanaka. Wait, then the murderer couldn’t be Tanaka—”

Suddenly, his ears perked up. He heard a noise outside. Fang Jing quickly crouched down, moving as nimbly as a cat close to the ground, and darted to the kitchen cabinets opposite the bathroom.

Thud!

Footsteps were approaching. Fang Jing peeked out and saw a thin man carrying his sister Satsuki over his shoulder, throwing her onto a nearby sofa.

“Tanaka?”

Why was he doing this? And why was Satsuki captured by him?

Tanaka found a chair and sat down. He held a glass, poured some Shochu into it, and drank slowly.

Fang Jing never imagined… someone could act so leisurely after committing murder.

Forget it, it’s none of my business. First, subdue this murderer!

Fang Jing noticed Tanaka had no weapons, and the guy hadn’t noticed him hiding in the kitchen.

This was naturally a very good opportunity.

If Satsuki remained in his hands, Fang Jing would be restricted. Better to end this quickly, knock this guy out first.

He crept quietly to the back of the sofa, found the right moment, and struck the back of Tanaka’s head hard with the Bamboo Sword. With his current strength, that one hit was just enough to knock Tanaka out.

Fang Jing also let out a sigh of relief. He hurried to Satsuki’s side to check on her condition.

He first patted Satsuki’s face, but she showed no signs of waking up. Puzzled, Fang Jing carefully examined his sister’s body up and down, but found she didn’t seem injured either.