Chapter 5: Ghost Claw

Not long afterward, the street lamps along the roadside all lit up.

These lamps were lighting devices fueled by “Brown Oil,” which was extracted from a perennial tree known as the Stonefruit Tree.

Once the tree reached twelve years of age, it would bear stonefruit. The fruit’s outer shell was as hard as rock, while the inside contained thick, high-energy oil known as “Stonefruit Resin.”

After refinement, it could produce Brown Oil. The leftover residue, when mixed with wood chips, could be compressed into honeycomb fuel. Brown Oil itself could also be mixed with tree resin to create candles.

In short, it had countless uses.

Cheng Han felt that Stonefruit Resin was somewhat similar to petroleum from his previous life.

The difference was that petroleum was pumped out of the ground, while Stonefruit Resin literally grew on trees.

Ten minutes later.

Cheng Han rode his bicycle to the main entrance of Shanyi District.

The so-called “Shanyi District” was a government-built welfare housing area. The civilians living there were all low-income families, totaling over one hundred and sixty households. Orphans like him were relatively rare.

Cheng Han hopped off the bicycle and pushed it toward the gate.

“Woof! Woof!”

Loud barking sounded from the entrance.

Two majestic large dogs, each as tall as an adult man’s waist, trotted over from opposite sides.

They were Spirit Mastiffs, possessing intelligence comparable to fifteen-year-old teenagers and capable of understanding human speech.

Spirit Mastiffs were officially registered working dogs belonging to the Patrol Bureau. The bureau assigned several Spirit Mastiffs to each residential district to act as security guards.

Cheng Han immediately called out,

“Taozi! Lizi! It’s me!”

The two Spirit Mastiffs wagged their tails friendly.

The one named Taozi circled around Cheng Han once before bringing its nose close to his backpack and sniffing it carefully several times.

This was a routine inspection.

This world contained many dangerous items connected to Evil Gods. One of the Spirit Mastiffs’ duties was identifying such things and preventing them from being brought into residential areas.

“Woof!”

Taozi barked once and tilted its head toward the gate, as though saying: You can go in.

Its behavior was practically supernatural.

Cheng Han waved at the pair before walking through the entrance.

“Woof! Woof!”

The two Spirit Mastiffs barked in response while watching him enter the district.

The small apartment where Cheng Han lived had one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen, and one bathroom, with a total area exceeding thirty square meters.

Until he turned sixteen, he did not need to pay a single copper coin in rent. Every month, he also received twenty jin of rice, ten jin of flour, and four hundred and fifty copper coins.

By comparison, the tiny room he rented in his previous life had only been ten square meters, yet the rent alone had cost fifteen hundred yuan, consuming one-third of his salary. After deducting food, transportation, clothing, and other expenses, he had barely anything left each month.

Although this world lacked many electrical appliances and was far less convenient in daily life, the pressure of survival was vastly lower than in his previous life.

After setting down his backpack, Cheng Han began preparing dinner.

First, he poured a small amount of Brown Oil into the stove and ignited it. Then he added a piece of honeycomb fuel. Before long, blazing flames burst forth.

After rinsing some rice and placing it atop the stove, he grabbed a handful of White Umbrella Mushrooms and washed them twice before stir-frying them together with several pieces of salted meat in an iron pan.

Just like that, dinner was ready.

Cheng Han tasted a piece of White Umbrella Mushroom and nodded slightly.

“The flavor is pretty good.”

White Umbrella Mushrooms contained a variety of amino acids, and the oil fully brought out their umami flavor. Their deliciousness was absolutely no inferior to truffles from his previous life.

He deeply felt that humanity in this world had developed and utilized plants far beyond the standards of his previous world.

The Stonefruit Tree was one example. Fungi were another.

Ever since transmigrating here, Cheng Han had seen no fewer than five hundred varieties of mushrooms in the marketplace alone.

After finishing dinner, he entered the bedroom and lay down on the bed. Before long, his breathing became long and steady.

The school’s meditation classes had taught a technique called the “Mountain Subduing Breathing Method.” According to Qiu Yuan, anyone who mastered the technique could enter deep sleep within three minutes.

However, the technique demanded extremely high talent. In the entire class, only one student had barely reached beginner level, and even then, they could only rapidly enter deep sleep once or twice out of every ten attempts.

Even across the entire school, the number of beginners did not exceed fifteen.

Naturally, the original owner of the body had not been among them.

After transmigrating here, Cheng Han once had a sudden idea and used his skill to analyze the breathing method. Surprisingly, he received feedback indicating that adjusting a certain detail would help with mastering it.

After trying it out, he discovered that his sleep quality had improved slightly.

Overjoyed, Cheng Han decided to comprehensively improve the breathing method. After half a year of deductions and analysis, he ultimately created an entirely new breathing technique—

The Cheng Breathing Method.

More importantly, it was a technique perfectly suited to himself.

Not only did it work every single time, its effects were astonishingly good.

He could enter deep sleep in only two minutes, making it vastly superior to the Mountain Subduing Breathing Method.

One hour later.

Cheng Han woke up.

At this moment, he felt completely refreshed, with not the slightest trace of dizziness remaining in his head.

After checking his status, he found his Spirit Value had recovered to 7.2/13.2.

Compared to before, he had restored a full 6.6 points of Spirit Value.

This was the benefit of deep sleep.

Imagining the black cat from earlier, Cheng Han silently muttered,

“Using the black cat I encountered earlier as a clue, deduce what will happen to it over the next few days.”

A cool sensation immediately spread across his scalp.

However, no information appeared.

The deduction had failed.

His Spirit Value decreased by 0.3 points.

After taking several deep breaths, Cheng Han tried a second time.

“Deduce.”

The cool sensation appeared once more.

Yet there was still no feedback.

Another failure.

This was actually normal.

Based on past experience, the failure rate when using the Omniscient Eye was roughly eighty-five percent. Success was the exception rather than the rule.

Cheng Han tried five consecutive times. Only on the sixth attempt did he finally receive feedback.

His vision blurred, and a somewhat vague phantom scene appeared before him.

The black cat leapt down from atop the wall and landed lightly on the ground. It let out a sharp cry before sprinting frantically into the distance.

One second later, a sudden horrifying change occurred.

A pitch-black shadow abruptly appeared on the ground. A dark ghostly claw shot out from within it and lunged toward the black cat at terrifying speed.

The black cat seemed to sense the danger. At the critical moment, it leapt high into the air.

The ghost claw instantly changed direction, lightning-fast as it brushed against the black cat’s body. Immediately afterward, it dissolved into a wisp of green smoke and vanished completely.

Then something utterly unbelievable happened.

The black cat’s body suddenly seemed to transform into a leaking balloon, rapidly deflating.

Plop!

An intact cat skin fell from the air and landed on the ground with a soft sound.

Its flesh and blood had mysteriously vanished.

The scene froze briefly before disappearing.

A line of information flashed through his mind:

“Proficiency +4. Current proficiency: 20/1000. Spirit Value: 2.4/13.2.”

Cheng Han felt chills run down his spine.

“My earlier premonition wasn’t wrong. There really is something wrong with that black cat. Could that shadow and ghost claw actually be the power of an Evil God?”

He had never imagined that a chance encounter on his way home would involve something as terrifying as an Evil God.

After calming himself down, Cheng Han began analyzing the vision.

“In the phantom scene, there was light rain falling from the sky. That means the ghost claw will appear on a rainy day.

“Judging by the black cat’s actions, it probably encountered something horrifying inside the wall and fled in panic, but ultimately failed to escape its fate.”

He could no longer remain seated.

“There’s a textile factory inside those walls. Something terrible is probably going to happen there.”

The ghost claw could instantly drain a black cat dry, so killing humans would naturally be effortless. Factories were densely populated places. If something truly happened there, many people would undoubtedly die.

Cheng Han once again used the Omniscient Eye.

“Deduce when it will rain.”

The result came quickly—

A light rain would fall three mornings later.

That also meant the disaster would occur three days from now.

After pondering for a long while, Cheng Han made a decision.

“Although I currently lack the ability to stop the disaster, anonymously reporting it to the authorities should still be possible.

“First, I’ll gather detailed evidence, then find a way to notify the officials.

“The black cat is the victim shown in the vision. Its fate is closely tied to the ghost claw, making it the perfect correlated object. It can greatly increase the success rate and help me deduce more information.

“Tomorrow, I’ll first take a day off from school and find a way to catch the black cat. Then I’ll use the Omniscient Eye for further deductions.”

(End of Chapter)