Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 1019: Chapter 712: Scapegoat

Leaning back, Yang Xiao stopped abruptly, nearly wrenching his waist. This body felt too fragile for him. Looking at the dark corridor ahead, Yang Xiao hesitated for a moment.

It wasn’t completely dark, just no lighting, but he could still vaguely see the empty end of the corridor.

This was the fastest way downstairs.

"Run!!" Captain Zhou shouted.

There was no time to think, as the bell sound grew louder and more piercing. Yang Xiao chose to trust "Captain Zhou".

He turned and dashed towards Captain Zhou, step by step, getting faster. Fortunately, he didn’t encounter the ghost. The bell sound, which was initially approaching, gradually faded away.

Beads of sweat, as large as beans, dripped from his forehead. Within those few seconds, Yang Xiao had truly brushed past the Ghost Gate. He bet right; Captain Zhou was trustworthy, and Yang Xiao also deduced some key information.

Captain Zhou’s team could see the female ghost, while his team couldn’t, but they could hear the bell. Though they couldn’t pinpoint it accurately, they could gauge the ghost’s distance by the bell’s proximity.

Additionally, his team could see Captain Zhou’s team, but not vice versa.

After running a distance, Yang Xiao sensed something was off. At his speed, he should have reached Captain Zhou by now. Instead, he had only covered a bit over half the distance, and the bell sound was quickly approaching.

"Where are you? The ghost is almost here, I have to leave!" Captain Zhou, sensing Yang Xiao’s trouble, quickly reminded, "Don’t take risks, hide in a ward. The last person did the same!"

After saying this, Captain Zhou hung up the call, turned, and ran out of the corridor towards the direction of the lounge.

"Ding-ling—"

"Ding-ling—"

The bell sound clung to Yang Xiao, coming from all directions like parasites, exerting immense pressure.

Judging by the bell sound, Yang Xiao knew he couldn’t possibly escape the corridor before the female ghost caught him. At the critical moment, he slammed open the door of a ward on the left, rushed in, and closed the door behind him. Instinctively, he tried to lock the door but found no lock after several attempts. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Of course, this was a hospital. With patients inside, it wouldn’t make sense to allow locking. Relying on his memory of opening the door, he groped in the darkness towards a half-height metal cabinet in the corner, opened it, and hid inside.

This was a single-person ward. A middle-aged man lay bound by straps on the bed, motionless, as if asleep.

Curled up inside the metal cabinet, Yang Xiao held his breath and dared not move, straining to listen for any outside sounds.

From the last bell sound, the female ghost couldn’t be more than three meters away, meaning he had barely managed to hide under its nose. This action was akin to mocking the ghost’s intelligence.

But he had no choice; either die immediately or delay death a bit. The key was Captain Zhou’s words: the previous person hid in a ward and escaped.

Undoubtedly, the last person here was Yu Kai, who wasn’t easy to deal with either.

Soon, Yang Xiao heard a light sound, like a door opening, but it wasn’t his. It seemed to be the opposite ward, along with the bell sound.

Yang Xiao was puzzled. He had hidden under the female ghost’s nose; why would it look elsewhere?

Could it be... the female ghost couldn’t see him?

Did it rely on feeling to chase its prey?

Daring not to move, Yang Xiao pinned his hopes on Captain Zhou. This task required the collaboration of two teams in different spaces; if they didn’t help each other, both would die eventually.

Soon, he heard his ward door being pushed open, and the bell sound drifted closer to Yang Xiao.

Just when Yang Xiao thought he would die under the female ghost’s power, the bell sound faded again. Another ward door down the corridor opened, seemingly the next room.

Yang Xiao understood: he was right. The female ghost couldn’t see him and was blind but could sense his general location. This sensing ability was very effective in a straight corridor, but once he hid in a complex area like a ward, the ghost’s perception weakened significantly.

However, based on his past nightmare experiences and Yu Kai’s death state, the female ghost’s perception or speed likely grew over time until she locked onto his exact position. That would spell his doom.

"Zzz... Zzz..."

"Captain Zhou, can you hear me?" Yang Xiao kept his voice low as he turned on the communicator.

"Where are you?" Captain Zhou’s voice quickly came through the communicator.

"Room 317. The ghost is nearby. She can’t see me but can sense my general location." Yang Xiao’s eyebrows furrowed as he heard heavy breathing from Captain Zhou’s side, "Why are you breathing heavily?"

"I’m hiding in the lounge. There’s a patient with me. I moved him from the special ward on the first floor during a shift change. Noise drives him crazy. He’ll attack the source of the noise. I prepared him for you. If you get into trouble, I’ll set him loose to buy you some time," Captain Zhou quickly explained.