Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 249: Chapter 210: Dongzhou Apartment

Yang Xiao didn’t linger at the public office; he went straight back to the apartment. From Lu Youdao’s behavior, Yang Xiao suspected that what Fu Qingzhu had mentioned was true.

He even suspected that the Resentful Eyes of the Evil Cultivators who mysteriously disappeared in Rongcheng were hidden behind the doors on both sides of the hallway in the underground training center.

And Lu Youdao was the one guarding these Resentful Eyes.

Director Nalan must know about this.

After pondering for a moment, Yang Xiao took out the old iron box, retrieved the digital camera inside, turned on the camera, and the first photo was of the deformed clown inside the glass dome.

Yang Xiao tried to flip forward but a prompt popped up immediately, saying this photo was the only one stored in the album.

According to Lu Youdao, the camera had been used a total of 5 times, which meant that apart from this clown picture, there should be 4 more photos stored.

Now it seemed that the other 4 had been deleted by Lu Youdao in advance.

Yang Xiao stared at this only photo, recalling the words Lu Youdao had said to him, always feeling there was something very strange.

Moreover, there was one thing that made no sense: Lu Youdao said he was going to teach him how to use the camera, but in the end, it was Lu Youdao who took the pictures. Why leave such a good opportunity for him to not take advantage of it himself, especially since every opportunity to take a photo was extremely precious?

Also, Lu Youdao had him get close to the glass dome and didn’t warn him before taking the photo. If it weren’t for the fact that nothing seemed wrong, Yang Xiao would have thought he was the victim of Lu Youdao’s scheme.

His attention once again drawn to the photo in front of him, Yang Xiao focused on the clown, feeling that something was off.

He had seen a photo of the clown sleeping before; its posture was the same, yes, but... but this time it just felt awkward, as if the clown in the photo had something on its mind.

Yang Xiao continued to lean in, observing carefully. This is where the advantage of the digital camera came in; the image could be enlarged. He began to zoom in on the photo, and soon he noticed something strange: the clown’s hands rested on its knees with fingers together, looking very stiff.

Moreover, the smile on the clown’s face looked more and more unnatural the longer he looked at it, somewhat rigid, as if... as if it didn’t want to smile, but had no choice but to do so.

"Is this clown possessed?" Yang Xiao was full of question marks.

Suddenly, he noticed a small white dot on the clown’s shoulder in his peripheral vision, near the collar on the right side.

Yang Xiao didn’t know what it was; it didn’t seem to be a button since there wasn’t one at the corresponding left-collar area. He tried to continue zooming in, but unfortunately, he had already reached the limit.

The white dot seemed insignificant, perhaps a problem with the photo, but Yang Xiao sensed an inexplicable familiarity from it, although he couldn’t quite pinpoint why.

Abandoning the white dot, he began to search other areas. Due to the picture quality, this process was quite difficult, and about 10 minutes later, Yang Xiao seemed to find something on the glass dome beside the clown: a blurry, mist-like shadow.

He clicked here, zooming in bit by bit, and a moment later, the highly focused Yang Xiao’s palm trembled sharply.

He could see it clearly now—it wasn’t mist but a reflection.

Behind the clown stood a person.

At the same time, Yang Xiao also instantly realized that the white dot was not an issue with the image; it was a hand resting on the clown’s shoulder.

Because most of it was obscured, only a little white tip of the fingers was showing.

The next second, Yang Xiao fiercely turned to look at the backpack on the table, which lay there quietly, an image of peaceful years.

Without a doubt, the shadow that appeared behind the clown was the original owner of the Drama Robe. At this moment, he also understood the bitterness at the corner of the clown’s mouth: It wasn’t sleeping; it was awake the whole time but didn’t dare to move because of the figure standing behind it.

Looking at the clown in the photo, Yang Xiao suddenly felt that the figure wasn’t that scary after all. In fact, he felt a kinship with it, as if they were kindred spirits brought together by fate.

After calming down, Yang Xiao analyzed further: the owner of the Drama Robe wouldn’t act without reason; every appearance had a purpose. Master Yan Zhen’s visit was to threaten him to keep quiet, and during the last encounter with the illusion of the Great Black Buddha Mother, it even saved his life.

So what about this time?

After careful consideration, Yang Xiao had no specific clues, but he guessed that it must be related to Lu Youdao’s attempt to test him.

More importantly, if the test failed, his fate would be dire.

Now he and the original owner of the Drama Robe were on the same rope, like grasshoppers tied together. If he was found to be related to the Evil Cultivators, the Drama Robe would probably be confiscated and dealt with, which was certainly not what the original owner wanted to see.

In a trance, another thought suddenly jumped out of his head: did the owner of the Drama Robe taking action count as him using this Resentful Eye?

This was very important, as it related to the timing of when he would receive the nightmare script.

If it did count, then things would become troublesome. During this period, he had used the Drama Robe at least three times and had also used the Ghost Lantern, which had been swallowed by the Drama Robe once.

Fu Qingzhu had warned him before leaving that frequent use of Resentful Eyes would greatly accelerate the arrival of the next nightmare script, especially with more powerful Resentful Eyes.

It’s not true that I wasn’t panicking, but Yang Xiao had no better plan. Taking deep breaths, his head started to hurt a bit, so he decided to go out for a walk to clear his mind.

There was a small park not far from the apartment, which he had visited a few times. The environment there was nice, and Yang Xiao planned to walk there alone.

Of course, he carried his backpack and gun with him, as it had become his habit.

The park wasn’t very large, with a pond in the center. Even though it was deep into the night, there were still lights on. Occasionally, some people jogging at night would run past Yang Xiao.

As he walked and pondered, enjoying the long-missed serenity, suddenly, he stopped. A cat’s meowing came from nearby.

Yang Xiao looked to the right, where a low bush shook, and then a completely black wild cat darted out. Upon seeing Yang Xiao, it immediately ran over.

"Hungry?" Yang Xiao set down his backpack and took out a sausage.

Yet the cat seemed uninterested in the lure of the sausage. It lifted its head, circling Yang Xiao anxiously and meowing urgently. freewēbnoveℓ.com

The black cat took a few steps toward the bush it had emerged from, then looked back at Yang Xiao. Only when Yang Xiao followed did it continue moving.

Yang Xiao understood. The black cat must have encountered something and wanted him to follow. All creatures have a spirit, and Yang Xiao had heard this from Yu Shu about these clever little beings.

Following the cat through the bushes for several dozen meters, Yang Xiao suddenly heard faint meows. The black cat became even more agitated, rubbing its head vigorously against Yang Xiao before running toward the source of the sound.

Yang Xiao followed. He discovered that the sound came from a trash can in a rather dark area.

Yang Xiao took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, but he hadn’t expected that the moment the light came on, a scream suddenly pierced the air.

The scream wasn’t far from Yang Xiao, a woman’s scream about 20 meters away to the left in a dim and secluded spot.

This sudden scream startled Yang Xiao as well. He immediately shone the light over and saw two figures on a nearby lounge chair hurriedly getting dressed.

Yang Xiao quickly turned off the light, muttered an embarrassed apology—obviously, he had interrupted the couple’s moment. "Sorry, I came here to..."

"Fuck your mother! Fuck your mother!!"

Yang Xiao was stunned for a moment.

Then a figure swiftly approached him, swearing as he walked, "Fuck your mother, are you blind! Are you looking for death?!"

The voice was very young, almost childish. As the figure came closer, Yang Xiao noticed it was a big teenager, glaring viciously, with dyed blond hair and an earring hanging from his right ear, wearing a blue school uniform.

Only then did Yang Xiao remember there was a high school nearby.

"Watch your mouth. Didn’t your parents teach you how to speak?" Yang Xiao was already feeling irritable, and he considered his response quite restrained.

"Fuck your mother!" the boy persisted, suddenly swinging a mineral water bottle he had hidden at Yang Xiao’s face. Yang Xiao dodged just in time.

Immediately after, Yang Xiao stepped forward quickly and before the boy could react, slapped him to the ground, "If you have no parents to teach you manners, I can substitute for them."

Stunned by the slap and clutching his face, the boy got up, opened his mouth to speak, but saw Yang Xiao raise his hand again. The boy turned and ran, not forgetting to pull the girl who had been hiding behind the trees. When they were far away, he yelled back at Yang Xiao, "Fuck your mother! You just wait!"

What was merely a minor incident didn’t concern Yang Xiao, but the boldness of kids these days surprised him—they would even seek thrills in a place like this.

When Yang Xiao turned back around, he realized that both the black cat and the meowing from the trash can had disappeared. He approached the can, and in the moonlight, looked inside.

The next second, Yang Xiao reacted as if he had seen a ghost, retreating several steps in shock. There was no trapped kitten in the trash can, just a black, bare box.

The nightmare script had arrived...

Although he had braced himself psychologically, such an abrupt occurrence still gave Yang Xiao quite a shock.

After calming down, he knocked over the trash can and took out the black box.

He took the box to a lit area and examined it under the light. The surface of the box revealed strange ripples, as if it had undergone countless years of sediment.

On the box, there was a painting of a building that seemed to have been done in oil paint. The building had over ten floors and was unreasonably wide. Against the dim night sky, it appeared like a colossal creature standing in the vast darkness. An occasional few windows were lit, not with the bright white of electric lights, but with a dim, lifeless yellow glow. There were also vague movements of people behind those windows.

The painting on the box evoked an indescribable feeling of oppression, as if the deathly still building could come to life at any moment and devour anyone in front of it.

In the upper right corner of the script box, four bloody characters were carved as if with an ax, and this was also the name of the script—Dongzhou Apartment.