Free Web NovelChapter 1209: Chapter 809: Maggots Clinging to the Bones
At this moment, a gust of eerie wind swept through, causing everyone to shiver instinctively, which also cleared their minds considerably.
The wind brushed past the tombstones, producing sounds akin to a woman’s sobbing, as if emanating from the deeply buried graves, sending chills down one’s spine.
Adila’s eagle-like eyes surveyed the surroundings, her deep voice somewhat distorted at this moment, "So many graves, which one are we supposed to find tonight?"
Flipping the map in his hand, Yang Xiao re-determined the new route, according to the markings on the map, Ahmed’s grave was at the other end of the cemetery.
The cemetery was quite large, making it unrealistic to bypass completely. Yang Xiao and Musa led the way with torches, while the others followed closely behind, carefully avoiding the graves and tombstones underfoot, proceeding with caution.
On the way, Yang Xiao noticed that many of the tombstones had no names engraved on them, they were blank steles.
Even the tombstones that once had the deceased’s names engraved were mostly damaged, the names crudely scraped off, unrecognizable.
"Who did this?" Aisha, who was pulling a cart, looked puzzled, "The monks from the temple?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she stepped into empty air, suddenly lost her balance, and fell into the soil. As she struggled, she inevitably hit the cart’s handle, causing the already unstable cart to tip over instantly.
Immediately following this, in Adila’s terrified gaze from the back of the group, the coffin tumbled onto the ground with a loud "bang" as it fell with the cart.
Hearing the sound, Yang Xiao and Musa quickly turned around. At this moment, the cart was overturned, and Aisha’s entire lower body was sunk into the soil, only half of her body remained exposed as she continued to struggle.
"Help me! Help me!!" Aisha shouted loudly for help.
Surprisingly, it was Shari who first reached out to assist. Overcoming her initial fear, she immediately stepped forward, firmly grasping Aisha’s arm, pulling her outwards.
Yang Xiao instructed Imam Musa to stay alert, then proceeded to help. Together with Shari, they finally managed to drag Aisha out.
At this moment, everyone also noticed a hole where Aisha had fallen, showing signs of minor collapse at the entrance.
This hole wasn’t created by Aisha, but rather already existed, merely hidden due to rain and vegetation.
Aisha, once rescued, was pale. Her nerves had been highly strung since arriving at this graveyard, and such a sudden incident indeed frightened her greatly.
By the dim lantern light, Yang Xiao was startled to discover that the hole was quite deep, dark inside, and the walls bore marks of excavation, with clearly defined finger marks, as if dug out by hand.
Even more horrifying was that the marks indicated that it was dug from inside out.
A stench of decayed corpses wafted from within the hole; this hole led to a grave, and something buried in the grave had dug its way out.
Yang Xiao and the others suddenly recalled Monk Patu’s warning; bodies slain by those ghostly beings would be cursed, becoming zombies to kill others.
At this time, Adila, who was in charge of keeping watch, brought even worse news, he had found several more holes nearby.
Hearing this, everyone’s nerves instantly tightened. This wasn’t a Chaos Burial Mound at all; it was clearly a zombie nest! Yang Xiao even suspected that everything beneath was hollowed out.
No time to delay, Yang Xiao teamed up with Adila to right the overturned cart. Thankfully, the ropes were tightly tied, keeping the coffin intact.
The group moved forward, avoiding the holes while pulling the cart, finally reaching the location marked on the map.
There they found a pit, fresh soil mounds on both sides, and a black wooden token stuck at the pit’s edge, blank.
"No name on it..." Shari, supporting the injured-ankle Aisha, stared blankly at the wooden token.
Yang Xiao picked up some abandoned tools nearby, instructing everyone, "This is it, quickly, place the coffin down, then fill it with soil."
Having seen so many holes, Yang Xiao finally understood why there were no names on these tombstones. He had heard that these zombie-like creatures crawled out of their coffins at night to hunt for food but must return to their graves before dawn, or they would be killed by the sunlight.
If the tombstones were removed, or the names on them destroyed, these ghostly things would wander like headless flies, unable to find their way home, and when daylight came, they would perish.
Under Yang Xiao’s command, everything proceeded orderly, the corpse in the coffin was well-behaved, no mishaps occurred until they completely filled the grave pit.
At this point, the incense in Musa’s hand still had a short section left. Yang Xiao and others used this last bit of time to escape from the Chaos Burial Mound.
However, Yang Xiao didn’t take the return path; he chose a different route, the one they originally intended to take.
Yang Xiao dared not relax his vigilance in the slightest, and Musa, Adila, and others appeared as if facing a formidable enemy. The group huddled into a tight formation, slowly descending the mountain path, ever alert to the surroundings.
The seasoned players all shared the same thought: since nothing happened on the way to bury, the danger likely lurked on the way back.
The corpse incense in Musa’s hand also burned out at this moment, the dark red tip gradually extinguishing in the night, like a dying person exhaling their last breath.
...
An hour earlier, on a quiet, dark alleyway in town.
Davi skillfully hoisted a lantern and walked forward to slip scriptures under door cracks, this was the 44th house; she had been counting in her mind.
Distributing scriptures was their task for tonight; everyone had to do it. Since she was a newcomer, she was given 50 copies—now, with just 6 more, her task would be completed!
Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, Davi couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, this task was much more manageable than last night. The Buddha statues in the Buddhist Hall had made her uncomfortable even at a glance.
Davi stepped back, planning to proceed to the next house, but as the lantern swayed in her hand, she suddenly noticed a shadow cast on the nearby window.
The shadow startled Davi, but upon careful inspection, her heart calmed. The shadow appeared to be a normal person, not one of the rumored grotesque ghostly figures.
The shadow was also moving, seemingly reaching for something, definitely not displaying the erratic behavior of ghostly shadows.
With her mind slowly at ease, Davi continued to the next house, but after delivering to several more houses, she noticed a shadow in every window. The eeriest part was that each shadow’s actions were similar, as if infinitely replicated.
Realizing this, Davi’s heart grew cold. If not for the faint light from her lantern slightly dispelling the gloom in her heart, she would have immediately turned and fled.
But the next second, Davi seemed to suddenly realize something, staring at her lantern for several seconds, and then abruptly lifted her head to look at the shadow behind the window.
The lantern was in her hand, and the people behind the windows hadn’t lit any lamps, so how could there be shadows cast on the windows?
Davi, terrified, immediately turned around to look for her teammates, but those who were cheering her on not long ago were now all gone.
According to their agreement, they should have been nearby, delivering scriptures from house to house behind her. How could... how could they suddenly disappear?
There wasn’t a single shadow on the bluestone road behind her, and the few intersections not covered by moonlight were unusually dark, like a pool of ink that wouldn’t dissolve.
It felt more like something was hiding within them.
Davi was so frightened that she called out the names of her teammates.
"Big Brother Datou?!"
"Juan... Mr. Juan?!"
"Maria?!"
...
But only her own voice echoed in the desolate alley, and after hearing it for a while, the tone seemed to change, as if someone else was mimicking her voice.
Davi could no longer endure this fear, and she ran back the way she came, frenzied.
Yet she did not notice at all, under the flickering lamplight, those eerie figures behind the windows had all disappeared at this moment.
Not far from the alley where Davi was, in another alley, three figures leaned against the wall, huddled closely together.
In the dim light, cold sweat drenched their faces.
The one leading was Juan, followed by Maria, and then Hafeez.
The three wore expressions of terror, their eyes frantic and disordered, constantly observing from side to side, as if being hunted by some unknown horror.
Juan was also somewhat at a loss now; he didn’t understand why the ghost was targeting them tonight, even though it was another team’s duty to escort the coffin for burial.
More precisely, both teams had separated shortly after reaching the town’s edge, and then their side encountered a supernatural event.
As veteran players, their vigilance was clearly much more than Davi’s, and they discovered the abnormality earlier. Davi’s task was personally assigned by Juan; he needed someone to divert the ghost away. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Of course, this couldn’t be said openly, at least not to the newcomer Hafeez, who thought everyone had scattered due to an unexpected event.
Indeed, something unexpected did occur midway, causing them to lose contact with Datou and Sopa. They didn’t know where those two were now.
They had no time to worry about them; Datou heard Davi’s cries, and after a few calls, it stopped, which likely was a dangerous signal.
If nothing unexpected happened, Davi was already dead at this moment or about to die.
In the Nightmare World, once a newcomer was left alone during a task, the consequences were almost inevitable.
Juan and Maria both demonstrated the composure of veteran players, lying in wait silently in the dark until they confirmed Davi’s voice was no longer there, only then choosing to leave.
The direction they chose to leave was also away from where the last shout came from.
"That Datou is unreliable," Juan lowered his voice, brainwashing the newcomer Hafeez. "I suspected he noticed something wrong long ago but didn’t tell us."
"Exactly; otherwise, Davi wouldn’t have died. She’s very likely a ghost by now."
Maria, following behind, chimed in. Both of them wanted to keep the only remaining newcomer, Hafeez, under their control, gaining trust so they could use him in crucial moments.
"Davi was replaced by a ghost, Hafeez, you must be careful."
After listening to them, Hafeez, who had already experienced the creepiness of ghost shadows, immediately had the terrifying images from last night flash through his mind, and he almost unconditionally obeyed them. "Big Brother Juan, Sister Maria... I will listen to you, definitely not act rashly."
"Mm, don’t worry, we’re a team, and we must help each other. Don’t be afraid; we’ve been through this stage too." Juan walked ahead with a lantern, listening carefully to the surroundings.
There weren’t actually that many scriptures to deliver; Juan had played a small trick at the beginning of the task, giving Davi a lot of his share. Now, his scriptures were all distributed.
Now... he was going back, Maria was also out of scriptures, only Hafeez had a few left, but he seemed to have forgotten.
"Get your scriptures delivered quickly, just stuff them into any door crack," Maria reminded, not wanting anyone to delay the team’s progress.
"Okay, okay." Still shaken, Hafeez walked a few steps quickly, folded the remaining scriptures, and shoved them into the door slit of a house.
Juan stood not far behind him, holding the lantern to illuminate and guard.
But just as Hafeez finished stuffing the scriptures and was about to turn around, Juan seemed to notice something with his peripheral vision, his pupils suddenly shrinking.
There, on the paper window not far from the door, was a dim shadow!
But how could this be? The house he chose was a dilapidated old residence, most likely abandoned. When he walked over earlier, the paper window was even missing, only tattered frames left.
At that moment, the hairs on the back of Juan’s neck stood up, and Maria almost simultaneously noticed the shadow.
No, it was a ghost shadow more like it!
"It’s followed us again..."
Maria’s horror at this moment was no less than Juan’s,
There, on the paper window not far from the door, was a dim shadow!
But how could this be? The house he chose was a dilapidated old residence, most likely abandoned. When he walked over earlier, the paper window was even missing, only tattered frames left.
At that moment, the hairs on the back of Juan’s neck stood up, and Maria almost simultaneously noticed the shadow.
