Lin Chubai’s soul detached from the young boy’s body, floating upward toward the azure blue sky as if about to merge with it, while countless tiny specks of sunlight fell upon the boy before him.
He saw the boy returning home with his younger sister, whom he had fished out of a garbage bin. Opening the door was a kind-hearted, honest middle-aged man with gentle features: “Xiaobai and Nanzhi are back. Let us eat.”
In a daze, the boy brought his sister inside, staring straight at the middle-aged man in front of him as though he might vanish at any second.
Seeing him still standing there in a daze, the middle-aged man could not help but chuckle: “What is wrong? Let us eat first.”
The boy walked forward slowly, pulled his sister to sit at the dining table, and looked at the simple yet steaming hot food before him. His eye sockets turned red once again.
“Dad.” The boy murmured in a low voice. Lin Chubai’s lips moved along with him, his legs seeming bewitched as they walked forward uncontrollably.
Suddenly, Lin Chubai stopped in his tracks. The scene before him instantly shattered and dissolved, a whimsical mist swirling until it enveloped him completely.
Every pore on his body relaxed, as if eager to absorb the mist. It felt so comfortable. He seemed to hear his father calling him again, his consciousness gradually sinking away as his memories quietly faded.
At that moment, he was slipping into a perfect dream, one that made him never want to wake up.
No. There was still something left to do.
Lin Chubai struggled. In an instant, the mist that had felt like it was nourishing his bone marrow turned into sharp blades, as if trying to carve his entire body to pieces.
This is impossible. It is all fake. Fake.
Reason pulled his sinking soul back. Memories returned, and the incomparably cruel truth tore apart the perfect dream, leaving behind only a bloody reality.
His dad was long dead.
The whimsical mist vanished once more, replaced by a purgatorial landscape. With a wave of his hand, he used vines to sever the chains binding him, lifted his foot, and stepped inside.
“Put me down.” The person on his shoulder murmured softly, their voice muffled as if their mouth were full of water.
Ye Zhou glanced back. There were no pursuers behind them. Dingxiang was still in the center of the village engaged in a mutual beatdown with the village chief. He slowly came to a halt and set Lin Chubai down.
Lin Chubai’s complexion looked just as usual, except for the remnants of a sunset-like flush at the corners of his eyes that had yet to fade.
Before he even had a chance to speak, the dense sound of wings beating against the air echoed from behind. That annoying flock of crows had caught up out of nowhere, forcing the two of them to start sprinting once again.
As the crows descended, the skeletons lining both sides of the roadside seemed to spring back to life, mechanically writhing toward them and reaching out to grab their trouser legs while uttering piercing, desperate cries of agony.
It was just like souls trapped and locked within purgatory, burning in towering flames with no hope of reincarnation.
“Head down!” Out of the corner of his eye, Lin Chubai caught sight of the crows closing in behind them and shouted angrily.
Ye Zhou instantly lowered his head as a crow brushed past the top of his head at lightning speed, catching a few strands of hair in its wake.
A single crow catching up meant the main flock had already arrived.
Sure enough, a pitch-black swarm had gathered behind them, while the path ahead was already choked with shattered corpses.
Lin Chubai instinctively released his vines, but it was not enough. There were simply too many. There was no time to deal with them all.
Before the first batch of fallen crows could even die properly, a second wave surged forward.
No. They could not afford to get bogged down in a protracted fight right now; they could not beat this many.
Ye Zhou grabbed Lin Chubai’s hand and forced his way straight into the horde of corpses ahead. In mere seconds, his pristine white clothes were stained red with pigments.
Fortunately, this brainless flock of crows had charged in too recklessly, failing to brake in time as they crashed headfirst into the pile of corpses.
Once the crows collided with the corpse pile, the mindless corpses began to retaliate, instantly erupting into a chaotic brawl between the two sides.
However, the corpses further back had no idea what was happening and still clung tightly to the two of them.
Lin Chubai led the way, the vines sprouting from his back looping around daggers to form a natural meteor hammer of blades. The flashing cold light of the daggers harvested a circle of heads around them.
Ye Zhou was not to be outdone. Moving with extreme speed and cooperating with his small knife, he hacked a bloody path right up to Lin Chubai’s side, clearing away any corpses that had managed to escape the harvest.
10 meters! 5 meters! The restless horde of corpses was finally thinning out. Both of them were dripping from head to toe in bright red blood, as if they had just been swimming in a pool of gore.
Ye Zhou shoved Lin Chubai out of the corpse swarm. Lin Chubai’s vines also exerted force, dragging the remaining entities out from inside, and the two resumed their frantic sprint.
The sound of the wind whistled past their ears. After breaking past the crowd, the street grew chillingly silent. The further outward they ran, the quieter it became, yet the lingering aura of danger all around them kept the two from daring to stop.
A familiar earthen shield rose from the ground, carrying the faint fragrance of weeds to block the pursuing crows. In an instant, the earthen shield was stained with shocking, vivid streaks of red.
The two looked back and saw Song Siyun erecting the earthen shield behind them. Looking forward, they realized they had already run all the way back to the village chief’s house.
“What the hell! How on earth did you guys provoke a bunch like this?” Song Siyun shouted at them while holding up the earthen shield. “Get inside the house quickly! There is a protective barrier!”
Once inside, Song Siyun saw that both of them were covered in blood and immediately told them to sit down. He frantically rummaged through the shelves for medicinal herbs, his tone laced with a hint of agitation:
“I have looked at the runes in that basement. They are a life-sacrificing curse. Put simply, unless the person who drew the formation breaks it themselves, anyone else who touches it will experience agonizing, heart-rending pain.”
Panting heavily, Lin Chubai and Ye Zhou stripped off their blood-stained clothes and casually changed into some spare robes buried at the bottom of their packs. Hearing Song Siyun’s words, Lin Chubai could not help asking: “Is there really no other way?”
“No. Hey! Put the medicine on first!” Song Siyun turned around only to see the two of them almost done dressing, and hurriedly spoke up.
“How did things go on your end?” Song Siyun asked while applying medicine to their wounds.
Ye Zhou briefly recounted what had just happened to Song Siyun. Meanwhile, Lin Chubai remained silent, one hand resting on his chin as if pondering something.
Dingxiang. After her death, was she really trapped here just for revenge?
What kind of relationship did Granny have with Dingxiang? And what about the old man?
Where was that son-of-a-bitch bastard Li Ba?
Where on earth were those trapped souls?
Layers of fog surrounded Lin Chubai’s mind. A familiar set of facial features belonging to Dingxiang flashed through his thoughts, alongside the box the village chief had guarded with his life, inspiring a bold conjecture in his mind.
Dingdong, congratulations to player Lin Chubai for investigating the truth of the world!
Hidden Quest: Investigate He Village progress at 100%!
Rewards will be distributed uniformly after the game ends.
Instantly, two gazes turned to fixate on him in unison, but before he could offer any explanation, a sharp sound rang out in their ears.
Ye Zhou looked out the window. Dingxiang, who had still been in the center of the village earlier, had already walked all the way over here and was scratching frantically at the barrier outside the house.
“This was set up by the village chief. The focal point of the array is the basement entrance,” Song Siyun explained.
To everyone’s surprise, Lin Chubai acted as if he had not heard a thing. He lunged fiercely toward the carpet, yanked it up, and exposed the glaring runes beneath. After hesitating for two seconds, he pressed both hands straight onto them.
A wave of pain surging straight to his brain hit him, causing his eye sockets to flush slightly. His fingers paused as he gritted his teeth and cursed in a low voice: “What an absolute madman.”
Suddenly, another voice echoed in his mind. Did Dingxiang make them suffer so miserably? Is it really worth it?
It felt as though hours had passed, yet only a fraction of a second ticked by before he began clawing at the yellow paper talismans once again.
After all, this was not Dingxiang’s fault. It was what that Li Ba and the village chief had done.
Large beads of sweat rolled down his clean jawline, making it impossible to tell whether they were tears or sweat.
Suddenly, two more pairs of hands joined in. Lin Chubai turned his head and saw Song Siyun catching his gaze, gritting his teeth as he shouted: “Although I do not know what you figured out, Dingxiang’s past is too damn tragic!”
As for Ye Zhou’s reaction, it was much more subdued. He simply applied steady force to the pile of yellow talismans, tearing away as many as he possibly could.
Dawn always ushers in daybreak, and darkness is worth being redeemed by the light.
Just as the three of them felt blackness dancing before their eyes from the pain, as if they were on the verge of fainting, they finally caught sight of the corner of the stone slab’s true body.
Lin Chubai grabbed that corner, the veins on his hands bulging, his eyes burning red, and ripped upward with all his might.
The immense pain made his entire body feel distorted. In a daze, he could only feel two trails of liquid flowing down from his nose. He lightly pressed his lips together, and a faint taste of blood filled his entire mouth.
His vision turned entirely white, accompanied by a buzzing sound of electrical current in his ears. His heart felt as though it had stopped beating, and the entire world grew dead silent.
Before he could recover, a fierce momentum tackled him to the ground, but the person was very careful, padding the back of his head with a hand.
Within seconds, the near-death sensation quietly faded, and his consciousness gradually returned. The first thing that met his eyes was Ye Zhou’s alluring adam’s apple, while the other’s body seemed to be trembling slightly.
“Big Sis!” Granny’s voice rang out from behind, instantly jolting Lin Chubai’s shattered consciousness back to reality.