Chapter 393: Artificially Created 

Raising his arm, Xiao Yu grasped at empty air, then shook his head. This couldn’t have been done by conventional means. That much was obvious to him, and surely to Wang Dong and the others as well. That’s precisely why they’d concluded it was impossible. But Xiao Yu smirked. They were thinking in terms of normal methods. Outside that box, there were still plenty of ways to pull it off.

Shifting his gaze, Xiao Yu looked at the second body. Male. His entire face was a mess of blood and torn flesh. The facial skin was largely missing—his features shredded beyond recognition. Bite marks were clearly visible. Human bite marks. But judging by the angle and spacing of the teeth impressions, whoever did the biting had opened their mouth unnaturally wide. So wide… that a normal human jaw couldn’t possibly manage it.

They looked like human bites. 

But were they really? Not necessarily. There were still ways to achieve that effect.

Next was the third corpse. Similar cause of death—stab wounds, along with tearing and gnawing marks.

By the time he finished inspecting all six bodies, Xiao Yu had identified one common factor: each victim had been killed by a bladed weapon. However, all the bodies also showed highly irregular signs of tearing and biting—unnatural, irrational, unscientific.

It was occult. Supernatural. Ridiculous.

Xiao Yu chuckled and shook his head.

Wang Dong caught that smile and narrowed his eyes. “That grin of yours, looks like you’ve figured something out?”

“Let’s talk outside,” Xiao Yu said, already heading for the exit. It was freezing in here.

Wang Dong blinked. 

‘Damn, now he’s putting on airs?’

Still, seeing Xiao Yu walk off like that… the guy really did look like a boss from behind.

***

Outside the cold storage, inside the business vehicle.

“The six victims were killed by a person,” Xiao Yu said, staring directly at Wang Dong, voice firm.

“You think I’m blind?” Wang Dong stared at him, incredulous.

“You’re not hearing what I’m saying,” Xiao Yu replied with a smile. “They were killed by a human.”

Wang Dong’s irritation was rising. Anyone could see they were murdered—wait… what?

“Killed… by a human?” Wang Dong froze.

Xiao Yu nodded. “Not by a ghost. The methods were unusual, sure. Not something ordinary people could pull off. Very bizarre, even supernatural on the surface, but in the end, all of it was physical trauma.”

Physical damage.

Wang Dong blinked. Got it. Like in games, there’s physical damage and magical damage. If a human causes it, that’s physical. If a ghost does it, that’s magical.

“You’re saying it’s possible?” Wang Dong’s eyes lit up.

“Possible,” Xiao Yu confirmed. “Let’s head back to the crime scene.”

There was no need for further explanation—none of it was the key just yet.

***

Twenty minutes later, back at the crime scene.

“What exactly is a plate spirit game?” Xiao Yu began. “Simply put, it’s a method for drawing out someone’s secrets—or deceiving them. From the moment it was invented, it was rooted in fuji—the traditional practice of spirit writing—and used as a tool to mislead.

“Plate spirit summoning can’t predict the future. But it can answer any question that at least one participant already knows the answer to. As long as everyone plays by the rules, it’s always possible to get the ‘correct’ result.

“And that… that’s the true purpose of the game. It manipulates people by invoking ghosts and spirits, stirring fear, tapping into the darkest corners of the human mind. That’s how it works.

“Of course, the underlying mechanism is still fuji, and fuji is very real. With it, you can even condition the plate to move in certain ways. Think of it as a kind of reverse-engineered mechanism.”

As he spoke, Xiao Yu glanced at the bloodstained paper diagram on the table and let out a cold scoff. “These kids clearly had no idea what fuji really is.”

Wang Dong stood there, blank-faced. 

‘What the hell is he even saying?’

Lying to people—that he could understand. But this talk of fuji and reverse mechanics was completely lost on him.

“Let’s take a look at how they did it,” Xiao Yu said, squatting down. 

Activating his Falcon Eyes, he studied the table and the diagram stained with blood. There were clear signs of sliding, marks on the paper indicating pressure. This suggested that the plate, at the time of the incident, had been moving under real weight. Such details were impossible to see with the naked eye, but not with Falcon Eyes.

He crouched further, checking the underside of the table. No scratches, no mechanisms. Which meant nothing had been done to the table itself.

“Get me two magnets,” Xiao Yu stood and said. “And a similar table, same thickness.”

Very soon, two magnets were brought over, along with a matching table.

Xiao Yu placed one magnet on the surface of the smooth table. Then he held the second magnet under the tabletop. As he moved his hand, the top magnet slid along with it, drawn by magnetic force.

“This was likely how they controlled the plate in the surveillance video,” he said. Standing back up, he frowned slightly. “But what I still can’t figure out is how they controlled the arrow on the plate to point to the exact characters they wanted?”

Wang Dong nodded. “We knew the theory too. That’s why it seemed so unbelievable.”

Did they think National Security agents just sat around eating rice? Of course, they’d tested this before.

Not just once—they’d tried it several times.

But like Xiao Yu said, no matter how they experimented, they couldn’t get the arrow on the plate to precisely point to specific characters.

Which was why the conclusion was: unscientific. Supernatural.

“The issue must be with the plate itself,” Xiao Yu said, smiling coldly. “In the surveillance video, after that red-dressed woman appeared, she held the plate in her hand or at least, what used to be a hand.”

“That’s not the main point,” Wang Dong shook his head. “The real question is how the hell was she floating?”

That’s something any rational person would question.

How could a person float?

Xiao Yu lifted his eyes to the high points in the room, checking the ceiling, the rafters. No visible marks. No traces of wires or suspension rigs. No possibility of traditional harness setups.

So then—how?

How do you make a person float without any gear?

Eliminate supernatural powers. Eliminate spiritual nonsense. What then?

It was impossible.

Xiao Yu’s brain went into overdrive.

Two minutes later, he smiled.

“What if,” Xiao Yu said slowly, eyes glinting, “the woman in red wasn’t a person to begin with?”

Wang Dong’s expression changed. “You mean… she was a ghost?”

“Brother Wang,” Xiao Yu grinned, “your logic circuit is fried.”

“Can’t it be something besides a ghost?” Wang Dong was stunned.

“What if,” Xiao Yu said, enunciating clearly, “it was an artificially constructed floating object, made to look like a person?”