Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 693: Chapter 540: Morgue

"I found you."

"I found you."

"I found you."

...

Dozens of messages burst onto the phone screen, chilling one to the bone; Yang Xiao promptly put away his phone.

Faced with a ghost that could only kill by scent, he had to keep moving; staying hidden in one spot would eventually lead to capture.

Retreating was not an option, as a wall was just a few meters behind him; his only choice was to move forward, trying to get as close as possible to the morgue’s iron door and exit through it.

Having a plan for escape, the next step was implementation. Three paths lay before Yang Xiao—the first was to pass through the middle of the two rows of mortuary beds in front of him. This path was the most spacious and offered the best visibility and ease of movement.

The second path entailed moving to the left, sticking to the wall and then nearing the door. Compared to the first path, this one was slightly more troublesome.

The third path involved turning right, getting close to the direction of the body cabinets, first shaking off the ghost, then seizing the opportunity to run to the door, making it the most difficult.

Yang Xiao had three paths, and similarly, the ghost trying to approach and kill him would definitely take one of these three paths. The worst-case scenario would be for Yang Xiao to inadvertently choose the same path as the ghost, encountering it face-to-face.

His gaze continuously surveyed the three paths. The left side near the wall was darker, the middle path provided the best visibility, and the right side near the body cabinets had the poorest light, almost shrouded in a hazy gloom.

Considering stealth, the path by the body cabinets was the best, followed by the path along the wall. However, considering the ghost’s characteristics, relying on the darkness to hide was merely self-deception.

Yang Xiao’s gaze resolved, and he chose the middle path, passing through the gap between the two rows of mortuary beds.

He wasn’t sure if this path was right or wrong. Perhaps the ghost would do the opposite and ambush him on the most spacious and visible path. In any case, he had only one chance; a wrong choice would mean certain death.

But before that, he had another task to complete—he took out his cellphone, quickly deleted Qu Muzhi’s number, and cleared all messages.

After finishing, Yang Xiao took a deep breath, lightened his footsteps, and took the middle path. The scent of burning grew stronger; he was certain the ghost was nearby, no more than 3 meters away.

There was some hesitation; perhaps... the ghost was already standing in front of him, only he couldn’t see it. But this thought barely surfaced before Yang Xiao suppressed it, knowing well that hesitation was the root of all disasters at such moments.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

...

Yang Xiao braved forward until he was out of the range of the mortuary beds and only 5 meters away from the iron door through which he had entered. He finally breathed a sigh of relief, realizing he had guessed correctly; the ghost indeed had not taken this seemingly most spacious and straightforward path. freeweɓnøvel.com

"That was close..."

The scent of burning wasn’t as strong anymore. But that was only relatively speaking; the scent of burning was still present, signifying that the ghost was still nearby. Yang Xiao couldn’t help but feel relieved, thankful that the morgue was spacious. If it had been a smaller room, the consequences would’ve been unimaginable.

Through this first confrontation, Yang Xiao had gained some understanding of the ghost’s abilities. The rag doll was right; the ghost could rely on scent to find people, but it wasn’t infallible. Every time he moved, the ghost needed time to reconfirm his position, and this interlude was his chance!

"Little Ghost, goodbye!" Taking advantage of the burnt ghost’s search, Yang Xiao swaggered to the iron door. At this moment, an inappropriate question popped into his mind: how many steps to escape the morgue?

Answer: Three steps, open the door, step out, close the door.

He reached for the door handle, ready to enact the first step, but as he confidently pressed down on the handle, an unexpected event occurred; the handle seemed to get stuck as though something was blocking it. After pressing halfway, it wouldn’t press down any further.

Yang Xiao panicked instantly, tugged at the handle hoping to pull the door open, but after several attempts, all was in vain; the iron door seemed to be welded to the wall.

"It’s locked..." Yang Xiao was stunned, followed by a surge of intense fear and despair. Unclear how the ghost managed it, but it had locked the door, trapping both him and the ghost inside the morgue.

Yang Xiao was clueless as to what he had done to offend the ghost to such an extent, meriting such drastic measures from it. Perhaps that was the ghost’s true prowess, and now he finally understood why that woman had died at the ghost’s hands—this creature truly was bizarre.

In those brief moments of hesitation, the scent of burning abruptly intensified; the ghost had sensed Yang Xiao changing positions and was now chasing towards the door.

Facing the same choice again, to avoid being cornered behind the door by the ghost, he had to flee back into the depths of the morgue, which meant choosing one of the three paths again. Last time, he had successfully taken the middle path, and this time... he decided to bet on it once more!

Perhaps in order not to give himself time to fear, Yang Xiao didn’t conceal his footsteps this time; he rushed directly through the middle path to the farthest wall of the morgue and stopped, gasping heavily. It seemed he had won the bet again.

Indeed, the scent of burning had almost completely vanished. According to Yang Xiao’s estimation, the ghost was probably just reaching the iron door now.

This creature had bizarre abilities but was very slow, the slowest among the three ghosts. Furthermore, relying on scent to find people also had some delay. If one were to encounter this ghost in an absolutely open area, it would pose almost no threat. Upon smelling the wrong scent, the person could have long since fled.