Free Web NovelChapter 123: Chapter 121: The Groom
The heads dripped with fresh blood, both eyes gouged out, the scene remarkably horrifying.
There were four decapitated corpses holding their heads, clearly the players partaking in this Nightmare task; among them, Yang Xiao also saw Yu Shu.
Yu Shu and another woman stood side by side, each holding a human head in their hands, but not their own, rather two heads made of clay.
The clay head Yu Shu held was embedded with 8 eyeballs, sending a chill through Yang Xiao’s heart; clearly, these eyes had been dug out from their comrades’ sockets.
A headless corpse with greenish skin, seeming to be the leader, stepped forward from the group of corpses. It first approached the player’s corpse holding its own head, reached up from below, snatched the head when it felt it, and tried to place it atop its torso, but, clearly unsatisfied, tossed it away. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
The discarded head fell among the crowd of corpses, and was quickly seized by one of the headless ghosts and placed atop its headless cavity.
The player, stripped of its head, collapsed to the ground with a thud, transforming into a true corpse.
One by one, soon all four headless players had fallen, and next it was the turn of the female player standing beside Yu Shu.
The green corpse reached up from below to touch the clay head, snatched it, and placed it on its own head. At first, it seemed quite satisfied, but soon, as if realizing it had been deceived, it angrily smashed the clay head with a fist, then grabbed the woman and tore off her head with its bare hands, placing the bloody head on itself only to cast it aside again, sparking a scramble among the headless corpses below.
Finally, it was Yu Shu’s turn, and Yang Xiao’s heart was in his throat. The nine-eyed head in Yu Shu’s hands seemed to please the green headless corpse, which, surprisingly, spared her and led the other headless corpses into the cave. Yang Xiao now understood that this was the entrance to Yin Soldiers’ Cave.
But before Yang Xiao could breathe a sigh of relief, an unexpected change occurred; a piercing scream echoed from within the cave, and the leading green headless corpse burst through the bodies blocking the cave entrance, charging straight towards Yu Shu, its clay head cracking and disintegrating.
Yang Xiao suddenly realized that the clay head might be key; had it been embedded with nine eyeballs, they might have passed unnoticed.
But this was no time for such thoughts, Yang Xiao couldn’t bear to watch Yu Shu die there; he instinctively rushed towards her. At that instant, an unexpected scene unfolded, the green headless corpse suddenly stopped and seemed to look towards Yang Xiao.
It had no head and should have no sense of "sight," but it clearly turned its body towards Yang Xiao.
Suddenly, the sound of cheerful gongs and drums filled his ears, and red paper flowers drifted from above, falling to the ground like a shower of blood.
Behind him, a dense and rhythmic approach of footsteps brought his senses to a halt in that moment.
In the next second, a wedding procession, all dressed in red, burst out from behind Yang Xiao. The scene before his eyes transformed rapidly, and to his horror, he found himself straddling a paper horse.
The paper horse’s hooves were poised in a galloping position, yet remained motionless, as if the horse was stationary and the ground was pulling them forward.
Red garments draped over Yang Xiao; he recognized them as the Drama Robe, but in that moment, they clearly resembled bridal attire.
Red clothes paired with a white horse, countless servants and lackeys on both sides, some carrying lanterns, some waving festive banners, some beating drums, some sounding gongs, some carrying boxes of gifts—an extensive and well-prepared wedding procession, with Yang Xiao as the groom.
The wedding party was extremely festive, paper figures with painted eyebrows and cheeks wearing big red flowers, their bright red mouths stretched near their earlobes, their narrow eyes squinting to slits, their movements odd and stiff, yet surprisingly fast.
Yang Xiao even spotted a little girl, more festively attired than the average paper figure, carrying a Green Lantern, hopping along to the beat of the drums with two sticks of high braids swinging red flowers tied to them. The main attraction was at the front of the procession, a Big Red Blood Coffin that required the strength of eight people to lift.
This coffin charged towards the headless green ghost with incredible speed, shattering the headless ghosts in its path before collision. The moment the Blood Coffin hit the green ghost, it was sent flying into the air, disappearing midway, and in that moment, Yang Xiao, atop the paper horse, reached Yu Shu, seizing the opportunity to grab her and pull her onto the horse’s back.
Yu Shu had no reaction, her gaze vacant, like a puppet being manipulated. The wedding procession made a circle, stepping to the odd yet festive beats of the drums, and returned to the point where Yang Xiao had started.
After leaving behind Yang Xiao and Yu Shu, the procession led by the Blood Coffin continued on until it vanished into the distant mist.
Yang Xiao dared not delay, grabbed Yu Shu, and ran out of her room, across the corridor, back to his own room, shutting the door, and locking it all in one breath.
"It’s okay now, Yu Shu, it’s okay!"
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, Yang Xiao glanced down with the corner of his eye; just that glance sent a chill shooting through his body from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
He saw that the hand he was holding with his right hand was large and coarse, covered with calluses, the skin tinged with green, and it was holding a piece of peeling armor.
Suddenly lifting his head, Yang Xiao saw the headless green ghost standing by his side.
"Huh——"
With that, the dream shattered, and Yang Xiao woke up with a start from his bed, panting heavily. He was still in the previous room, outside it was already light, with Beibei lying face down on the desk, having apparently not wanted to wake him, staying up alone until she fell asleep.
After steadying his mind, Yang Xiao lifted his blanket to get up and hadn’t even opened his mouth to speak when he froze in place. At that moment, he was wearing the red Drama Robe.
Just when one wave had settled, another surged up. Yang Xiao felt utterly unwell, but this time he had experience, quietly took off the Drama Robe, stuffed it into his backpack, and then went to wake up Beibei.
Beibei, who was woken up, looked confused and wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth. "Hmm? How did I fall asleep? Didn’t you take over my shift in the middle of the night?"
Yang Xiao explained with a guilty conscience, "What are you talking about? You didn’t call me either."
"Forget it then."
"All that drool... dreamed of something nice?" Yang Xiao ventured a question, not that he didn’t trust Beibei, but he was starting to get scared by the Drama Robe. If things continued like this, he feared he might blur the boundary between dreams and reality.
"I don’t remember, my head is so dizzy." Beibei knocked hard on her head, trying to clear it.
Seeing nothing wrong with Beibei, Yang Xiao felt assured. The two of them went to Yu Shu’s room. Beibei knocked on the door and called Yu Shu to come out for breakfast—they still had to climb the mountain today.
But after several shouts, there was no movement inside the room. Yang Xiao was shocked, and Beibei also realized that something was off. Together, they barged through the door, only to see Yu Shu lying quietly on the bed, his hands placed steadily on his lower abdomen, as if he were sleeping.
"Yu Shu!"
With no response to their shouting, they rushed over to check on him. He was alive, uninjured, but they couldn’t wake him up.
"What’s this all about?"
Beibei was panicked. She reported the situation to Zhuge Zhijie, who was staying behind, and Yang Xiao didn’t idle either, immediately calling for an ambulance.
Yang Xiao and Beibei followed the ambulance to the hospital, where a few medical personnel who had been waiting immediately took Yu Shu away for emergency treatment. Not long after, Zhuge Zhijie’s call came through, reporting startling news over the phone. According to the latest information from the Yin Soldiers’ Cave monitoring station, the abnormal signal there had disappeared. It was certain that the paranormal event had been resolved.
This meant that Yu Shu had entered the Nightmare World task the night before and had survived successfully. Regrettably, Yang Xiao and Beibei had inspected Yu Shu’s room and hadn’t found anything strange—meaning that Yu Shu hadn’t acquired the Resentful Eye.
Beibei was still analyzing, saying that the Resentful Eye must have been obtained by one of the other survivors. Too bad—they were sure there must be something significant about this Resentful Eye from Yin Soldiers’ Cave.
Yang Xiao didn’t dare to make a sound at all, remembering what he’d seen in his dream. There were six players in total. Apart from Yu Shu, the other five had died, their heads torn off.
Going by that, the Resentful Eye should have definitely ended up with Yu Shu, the sole survivor of the task, but that wasn’t the case.
Then... where did the Resentful Eye go?
Swallowing hard, Yang Xiao looked at his shoulder bag, feeling a bit queasy inside. "Beibei, keep watch. I’m going to... go to the bathroom."
Once in the restroom, Yang Xiao chose the stall furthest inside, closed the door, locked it, and listened for a while to ensure it was safe nearby before he opened his backpack and took out the Drama Robe.
On close inspection, there was no change to the outside of the Drama Robe; the only new pattern was the Green Lantern he had obtained last time.
But when he flipped the Drama Robe over to reveal the Nether Garment, Yang Xiao made a discovery. A spirit money that should have been in the place of a spirit coin was gone, replaced by a Nine-Eyed Skull, also embroidered onto it.
"Holy shit!!"
Yang Xiao’s hand shook, nearly dropping the Nether Garment into the toilet. The embroidery of the Nine-Eyed Skull was extremely lifelike. No matter which direction he looked from, the nine eyes were fixed on Yang Xiao.
Now Yang Xiao was stupefied; this wasn’t his task at all, so how had this item come to be in his possession? With a thought, he knew it must be related to last night’s dream, where he had grasped the Headless Green Ghost’s hand and brought it into his own room, even double-locking the door.
But he distinctly remembered pulling in Yu Shu, so how did it turn into a headless ghost once they entered the room?
The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more his head ached—and something else was amiss. The place of the Nine-Eyed Skull was wrong; it appeared on the side of the Nether Garment, replacing the position of a spirit money, but the Paper Lantern that was absorbed was on the Drama Robe side. Was there perhaps another explanation hidden within this?
Yang Xiao was growing more and more fearful of this Drama Robe, which seemed to contain too many secrets. What exactly was in that big red Blood Coffin? The Nether Garment and the Drama Robe both featured the Blood Coffin, and Yang Xiao even wondered if the previous owner of this robe might be lying inside—or if it could be a terrifying, unsolvable Fierce Ghost?
His mind a mess, Yang Xiao took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Now he could roughly confirm that the reason Yu Shu had survived might be because of him, or more precisely, because of his Drama Robe.
Wearing the side of the Nether Garment allowed one to remove the paper money tag from a ghost, summoning a funeral procession to take the ghost away. And wearing the red Drama Robe side seemed to call forth a wedding procession, which appeared capable of invading someone else’s Nightmare World and extracting the ghosts from within.
This was a precious treasure, and Yang Xiao had a feeling that its previous owner might well have been a Great Heretic Cultivator with a long-standing reputation.
