Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 1198: Chapter 803: The Dead

The morning sunlight poured down, penetrating through the gaps in the leaves of the trees outside the Outer Buddha Hall. A morning breeze swept through, making the leaves sway like ocean waves, shattering the light into patterns on the ground.

At this moment, the gate of the Outer Buddha Hall was wide open. A group of people gathered inside, yet there was not a trace of devout chanting. Everyone’s face was filled with an ominous expression. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

Kneeling on one knee on the cold bluestone slab, Yang Xiao, who was awakened early, had a heavy look on his face. In front of him now was a twisted corpse.

The corpse was bluish-black, its mouth agape, eyes bulging out, as if it had seen something extremely terrifying before its death. The body was hunched and shriveled, seemingly drained by something.

It was precisely Ahmed, who had come to the Outer Buddha Hall last night to execute a task.

Patuo Monk, the temple master, was also on site. According to him, Ahmed’s death looked exactly the same as those high monks.

The corpse was discovered by a monk who was sweeping fallen leaves nearby in the early morning. The monk first noticed that the gate of the Outer Buddha Hall was open, so he walked over curiously and peeked inside, unexpectedly meeting Ahmed’s lifeless eyes.

A paper lantern was dropped less than a meter away from the corpse, and the corpse’s left hand was tightly clenched, seemingly holding something in its palm.

Adila tried several times, eventually having to break a few fingers before everyone could see that in the palm was the last remaining stub of incense.

Yang Xiao took a deep breath, looking at the lifeless face in front of him, realizing he had underestimated this guy.

In such a situation, still able to clutch the incense tightly and not run around, it showed that the person’s psychological quality was quite good. This was unlikely to be a newcomer.

Later, there was a morning class, and leaving the corpse here was not acceptable. With the consent of Yang Xiao and others, Patuo Monk had several monks carry the corpse away, as he intended to perform a personal blessing for Ahmed.

But just as the corpse was removed, a roughly polished dagger fell from beneath it, with a bit of blood still on its blade.

Soon, the crowd dispersed, and Yang Xiao’s group also left the Outer Buddha Hall. Adila Musa Juan Datu and everyone were present; because they were called over suddenly, they had no time to communicate about what happened last night.

Last night, only one person died, and that was Ahmed.

However, Hafeez was quite unusual. He had injuries on his body, looked terrified, and his eyes were bloodshot and swollen, evidently not having slept all night.

He claimed that he got separated from everyone last night and did not return to his residence but hid in a tree hollow of a dead tree nearby, barely making it through the night.

According to the accounts of Juan Maria and Hafeez, Yang Xiao gradually pieced together what happened inside the Outer Buddha Hall last night.

They all encountered strange events, seeing a non-existent window and ghostly shadows outside moving like zombies.

The ghostly shadow moved silently. Observant Maria added that the ghost’s head was deformed, with a bizarre protrusion on it.

At the time, she was panicked and had no time to think deeply, but upon returning to her residence and pondering over it, she realized the ghost seemed familiar.

It looked much like the two corpses Yang Xiao and his team described seeing by the lake on the first night.

The two corpses were wrapped in white cloth, with a peculiar knot tied at the top of their heads, which according to Musa, was a local tradition.

Juan also agreed with Maria’s view, guessing that those bodies were the ones circling the Outer Buddha Hall counterclockwise last night.

"What about you?" Musa turned his scrutinizing gaze to the always silent Datou, "Did you see those ghostly shadows last night?"

"No, we didn’t encounter anything strange last night. After the incense burned out, the three of us just went back," Datou replied.

Yang Xiao looked at Davi and Sopa, who both nodded in agreement, proving Datou’s words were true.

Nothing happened in the Inner Buddha Hall, but something did in the Outer Buddha Hall, proving that the ghost had targeted Juan’s team.

In the Nightmare World, death is commonplace; Yang Xiao and the others were used to it. What they really wanted to figure out was why.

Why were Juan and his team attacked, and why was the person who died pretending to be a newcomer Ahmed?

"Should we...should we go back and rest for a bit? I haven’t slept all night..." Hafeez, rubbing his arms, barely got the words out before everyone was looking at him with distrustful eyes.

Adila suddenly moved, restraining the unsuspecting Hafeez with a grappling technique, while Yang Xiao skillfully took an incense stick from his pocket. Datou handed over the fire starter, twisting it open and blowing it, first lighting half a candle, and then using the candle to ignite the incense.

They held the incense half a foot from Hafeez’s terrified face, everyone nearby holding their breath until they saw no abnormality in the incense smoke, then they were slightly relieved.

Adila released him, and Hafeez, terrified, lay on the ground for a good while before slowly getting up, no longer daring to mention returning to rest.

This made Yang Xiao even more confused. Someone who was frightened and ran around last night did not die, but the rule-following Ahmed did.

"Could it be the candles?" Datou whispered, then shared Sopa’s discovery from last night.

Of course, he didn’t mention it was Sopa who discovered it, but said it was himself.

However, Yang Xiao was already prepared for this. After receiving the candles and incense last night, he had joined the experienced Imam Musa in thoroughly checking them; there was nothing wrong with the candles and incense.

Moreover, no one in Juan’s team lit any extra candles besides lanterns last night, yet Ahmed still died.