Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Sailing in the Fog

What’s going on?

Did both groups also find the Third Young Master?

Su Tingting’s face was bloodless, and her entire body wouldn’t stop trembling. She was terrified, by the inexplicable eerie situation before her eyes, and the angry Yang Xiao.

In fear, people can do unpredictable things, and Yang Xiao knew he couldn’t scare her any longer. He slowly let go, and Su Tingting fell to the ground, her lips trembling as she kept apologizing, her eyes reddening, "I’m...I’m sorry, I just wanted to leave this place quickly, I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would..."

Glancing at the reed marshes, the Third Young Master still looked like a ghost, his back turned to them, emitting weird crying sounds.

Yang Xiao took a deep breath, slowly squatted down, and gently embraced her under Su Tingting’s fearful gaze, "Don’t be afraid, I know you didn’t mean it, now please, be calm."

Panic begets chaos, and chaos begets mishap; Yang Xiao understood this well. Ensuring that Su Tingting remained calm and did not do anything foolish was of paramount importance.

Once Su Tingting stopped shaking, Yang Xiao lifted her face, making her look into his eyes, "From now on, you listen to everything I say, I will take you home, okay?"

Hearing the words ’home’, Su Tingting’s dim eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously. Compared to the alienation her other teammates made her feel, Yang Xiao was an angel at this moment.

"Okay, I’ll listen to you," Su Tingting was very cooperative, "So what do we do now, we leave this place first, right?"

Yang Xiao shook his head, "Not yet, do you remember what Steward Liu said, besides the Third Young Master’s disappearance, what else?"

Su Tingting immediately caught on, "There were also two paper doppelgangers of the Third Young Master." ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

"Right, I think among the three Third Young Masters that our three teams encountered, only one is real. The other two must be paper imposters."

The unspoken implication was clear. If they accidentally took a paper doppelganger onto the boat, it would mean dire consequences for everyone aboard.

After a moment’s hesitation, Su Tingting asked the most crucial question, "Then, in your opinion, is this Third Young Master real or fake?"

"I don’t know; he’s facing away from us, so it’s hard to judge." Yang Xiao instructed Su Tingting to keep an eye on the boat’s lantern and Life-Extending Incense while he stood up, took control of the punt-pole, and decided to change direction to get a clear look at the true face of this Third Young Master.

The sound of the pole stirring the water did not attract the Third Young Master’s attention at all, which was odd, but considering that the Third Young Master had gone mad, that fact alone couldn’t serve as a reliable clue.

However, after changing direction, both Yang Xiao and Su Tingting fell silent; they still couldn’t see the Third Young Master’s face, as his posture had changed as well.

He was half-crouching, body tilted askew, one arm stretched out diagonally, the other bent, with the wide sleeve of his robe hanging down, conveniently covering his face. The creepy sobbing sound came intermittently from behind the sleeve.

This obscure scene was devoid of any beauty despite the intrigue of mystery it could suggest elsewhere. Instead, it filled Yang Xiao and Su Tingting with intense fear.

Yang Xiao maneuvered the pole, and the boat slowly moved towards the Third Young Master, startling Su Tingting. She looked at Yang Xiao with eyes full of terror.

Yang Xiao gave her a reassuring look. At that moment, he could even hear his own heartbeat, but he had to move closer because if this Third Young Master turned out to be real, the consequences would be dire, potentially jeopardizing the teammates on the other two boats.

When only 3 or 4 meters away from the Third Young Master, Yang Xiao immediately steered the boat to retreat at a speed several times faster than their approach. Su Tingting might not have seen anything, but she knew Yang Xiao must have discovered a clue and confirmed that this Third Young Master was a fake.

Only when they had put some distance between them and the Third Young Master’s figure had completely disappeared into the mist did Yang Xiao finally breathe a sigh of relief. It was then that Su Tingting started to ask questions.

"Was that Third Young Master a fake?"

"Mhm," Yang Xiao nodded.

"How did you notice?"

As the boats drew near a moment ago, I caught a good look at his clothing by the light of the lantern. His clothes were dry, even the hem," Yang Xiao sat down by the boat’s cabin, tightly clutching the punt pole in his hand. "Unless it’s that kind of thing."

Su Tingting suddenly realized, "A paper effigy?"

"Right, only paper effigies fear water."

At that moment, Su Tingting couldn’t help feeling fortunate to be grouped with this person named Chu Xi, truly a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. "You’re really amazing, not at all like a newbie."

"The gap between a newbie and a veteran isn’t that big. You should pay attention to observation, trust your own judgment," Yang Xiao rarely felt inclined to give Su Tingting some advice.

"Hm?" Su Tingting’s expression paused, then she pointed excitedly behind Yang Xiao, "Look quick, someone’s coming."

Yang Xiao immediately stood up and looked back to see a white speck floating and bobbing in the hazy mist, drawing closer to them.

It was another boat with a White Lantern hung on its bow. Yang Xiao figured it must be one of the other boats that had seen the Red Sky Lantern they had released and had come over, but he didn’t know which one.

"I hope it’s Kuang and Ms. Xu Su," Su Tingting said, her face full of anticipation. On this vast lake, there was nothing she looked forward to more than meeting up with teammates.

As the two boats neared each other, Su Tingting could make out two blurry figures standing on the opposite boat, but at that moment, Yang Xiao sensed something wrong.

He gripped the punt pole firmly, trying to change course, and instructed Su Tingting, "Quick, extinguish our lantern!"

Once that was done, the boat in the mist became gradually clearer; first emerged a large White Lantern breaking through the fog, followed by a black-awning boat nearly identical to the one under their feet.

But in that moment, Su Tingting’s heart might as well have stopped, for the two people standing on the boat were not their teammates at all, but two servants.

Both were soaked, their hair dripping water downward as if they had just been pulled out of the water, and more terrifyingly, the one at the front was none other than Sun Amao, the handyman who had drowned not long before!

Su Tingting still remembered the name; they had almost clashed with the household staff over this person’s death just recently.

The one in the back had clearly been dead even longer, the whole body swollen and bloated by water, the skin burst open, the face a blurry mess.

The two corpses just stood stiffly on the boat, unmoving.

Through Yang Xiao’s maneuvering, the two boats barely managed to miss each other, which left them shaking with fright afterwards. Had they been any later, they might have collided.

Yang Xiao swallowed hard. As the boats brushed past each other, he had seen clearly. The boat on the other side was their teammates’ boat; its bow still had the incense burner, with clutter scattered haphazardly on board, and a short blade leaning diagonally against the boat’s rim, its bloodstains distinctly visible.