Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 1811: Chapter 1035: Going Home (Part 2)

So the female ghost’s arrival actually followed a pattern; it’s just a pity they’d never noticed it.

But that was understandable. After all, the old players were extremely wary of mirrors and anything similar. Every time they reached a new place, they would put away any mirrors and anything that could reflect a human figure in advance; if it couldn’t be stored, they’d cover it up, and if that still didn’t work, they’d destroy it.

It was precisely these seemingly valuable bits of experience that, this time, completely blocked off their escape route.

As for the new players, there was even less to say. At the noises the child Ghost made, they were already scared out of their wits, too busy running to even think, let alone observe carefully.

This was why they didn’t realize there was a second Ghost for so long; it wasn’t until Tong Han personally saw the female ghost appear and slaughter people in the Ghost Dream that this intel was finally brought out.

"Let’s get out of here. I want to find a more comfortable place to rest for a while," Yang Xiao suggested.

The two of them casually found a guest room on the second floor. Yang Xiao lay on the bed, Jiu Shan Sha Yue sat on a chair. No one spoke; only the sound of breathing remained in the room.

As time ticked by, Jiu Shan Sha Yue did think about bringing a mirror over and setting it up beside them. That might very well allow them to discover the female ghost ahead of time.

But rationality stopped her. Nothing could be allowed to go wrong tonight. Who could guarantee the female ghost wouldn’t be affected by the mirror? She worried that once the female ghost noticed something, maybe she would no longer take them into the Ghost Dream tonight, and that would ruin everything.

The wait made time stretch unbearably long. One in the morning, two, three—there was still no sign of the female ghost. They didn’t feel any sudden drowsiness either.

A sense of foreboding surfaced in the minds of Yang Xiao and Jiu Shan Sha Yue. The Ghost Dream... seemed to have changed this very night.

Yang Xiao sat up from the bed, brows knitting slightly. Just as he was about to ask Jiu Shan Sha Yue for more details about what she’d seen of the female ghost before, he suddenly felt a dizzy spell crash through his mind.

In that final second before losing consciousness, he saw Jiu Shan Sha Yue topple forward out of her chair.

"Huff—"

"Huff—" ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Yang Xiao was leaning against a wall. In front of him lay a dilapidated little mountain village. The sky was pitch black, rain drifting down in the night, icy and bone-piercing on his body.

Thanks to the experience of the previous few times, Yang Xiao confirmed that this was Chao Wei Village from a hundred years ago. In under a minute, he found and regrouped with Jiu Shan Sha Yue.

The two of them quickly got a rough fix on their current location and, more importantly, on the direction of the coastline.

"I’m counting on you," Jiu Shan Sha Yue said without wasting any words, then turned and sprinted toward the coast. Her shoes stepped into shallow puddles, sending muddy water splashing. freёwebnovel.com

There was no way the two of them could reach the end together; Yang Xiao had already tested it several times during the day. Which meant that tonight, one person had to stay behind as bait to buy time for the other.

That was exactly what Beiyu Ye had done before—his newbie teammate Takeuchi Tomoya had served as his Substitute Death.

Without hesitating further, Yang Xiao began running in another direction. He had chosen Asakura Yodou’s home; behind that house was the mountain.

As expected, the child Ghost appeared very quickly. Little footsteps chased after him, making a "pat-a-pat-a" sound, like a scythe claiming a life.

Once, twice... Yang Xiao ran with everything he had, enduring the child Ghost’s attacks while silently counting time in his head.

He soon reached the foot of the mountain. The mountain was hidden deep in the fog, looming there with an overwhelming sense of oppression, exuding ominousness from every inch.

Yang Xiao rushed into the mountain and began to climb. Because there was almost no path and the ground was wet and slippery, the ascent was difficult. But this was nearly no obstacle for the child Ghost. It chased after him, about three meters behind, occasionally launching another attack.

At last he came to a relatively flat patch of ground. Yang Xiao stopped to catch his breath, but the child Ghost was more anxious than he was, closing in again to strike him, then pushing him from behind with an icy little hand.

The direction that small hand pushed him in was exactly the direction of the coastline. Yang Xiao knew this child wasn’t bad by nature. Even though he’d been buried alive by the villagers, the obsession he’d left behind was still to save people.

"I know, I know. You’ve worked hard. But... I still have something more important to do." Knowing full well the child Ghost couldn’t understand, Yang Xiao still instinctively explained. He didn’t want to see any act of kindness betrayed.

Next the child Ghost came up and gave him another hard shove, even letting out a hoarse roar behind him, as if trying to threaten him. To play along, Yang Xiao had no choice but to walk in the direction of the coast.

By his calculations, Jiu Shan Sha Yue should be close to the end by now.

Sure enough, after he changed direction, the child Ghost stopped attacking him, but kept pushing him forward with its little hands. Yang Xiao could feel how anxious the child was, just shy of outright speaking to urge him to run faster.

"Asakura Yodou, you’re a good kid. Tonight we’re going to end this nightmare and set you free once and for all."

"You have someone you want to protect, and so do I. Tonight I’m going to do something big and vent your anger for you. Just wait and see." Yang Xiao spoke without turning his head, letting the child Ghost push him onward.

Until the child Ghost gave Yang Xiao a vicious shove and then turned and rushed into the curtain of rain, its footsteps quickly fading away.

Turning around, Yang Xiao knew his final moment had come. But he wasn’t afraid at all—that was exactly what he’d been waiting for. He picked up a jagged stone from the ground, weighed it in his hand—the weight was just right—then narrowed his eyes, searching the rain for that damned silhouette.