Free Web NovelChapter 789: Chapter 591: Old Beggar_2
"Crack—"
"Crack—"
Just as Yang Xiao was planning his next move in his mind, the footsteps outside suddenly quickened. This time, the sound became closer and closer, heading straight for the temple door, and a blurry figure gradually emerged behind the mist. Yang Xiao instinctively held his breath.
As the figure drew nearer, the next second, Yang Xiao was stunned. A chill rapidly crawled up his spine. The person approaching was none other than Fang Zhou!
Fang Zhou at this moment was dirty, as if he had rolled in a mud pit, his body unnaturally hunched over, slightly lowering his head, his neck also tilted, one shoulder higher than the other, his steps stiff, his knees barely bending, nothing at all like a living person’s gait. He was unmistakably a ghost!
It seemed he had become a Fierce Ghost, filled with unresolved resentment after his death, coming for vengeance against them. This scene also took Jiang Qingluan and Chang Chuchu by surprise.
Yang Xiao held his breath and focused. He noticed that Fang Zhou’s lowered shoulder was the left one, and it felt as if some ghostly entity had placed its hand on his shoulder, clinging close behind him.
Yang Xiao immediately thought of a saying: ghosts cannot enter certain special places, such as Daoist temples or occasions like wedding and longevity feasts, but they can use corpses, especially those they have recently killed, to access these locations. The ghost would hide behind the corpse, standing on the tips of its toes behind the corpse’s heels, manipulating the body to enter these places, where to outsiders, the corpse appeared no different from a living person.
Fang Zhou was getting closer and closer to the temple door, and his steps were accelerating. It was too late to think of escaping now; the temple was not large, and there weren’t many places to hide. Yang Xiao and Jiang Qingluan had no choice but to try to conceal themselves further inside, inadvertently moving closer to Chang Chuchu.
But Chang Chuchu was not foolish. Seeing that something was amiss, she immediately grabbed a candle base covered in dust from the ruined offering table, pulled out the remaining stub of a candle, revealing the sharp pins beneath, and held it in her hand inverted, prepared to use it for self-defense.
Of course, ghosts are not afraid of such things. She was guarding against people. She knew all too well the caliber of the veteran players who had completed the mission multiple times.
The next second, when she tried to climb onto the stone platform, an accident occurred. The edge of the platform was in disrepair, the bricks loose. Jiang Qingluan inadvertently broke off a corner of the platform, and not only nearly fell herself but also knocked off several bricks. The bricks hit the ground with a loud noise.
Under normal circumstances, nobody would have cared about such a sound, but in the deathly silence of that moment, it was practically the sound of a death knell.
Indeed, Fang Zhou, who had almost reached the temple door, suddenly stopped, his chin lifting little by little. However, what the others did not expect was that what followed was not the assault of the Fierce Ghost.
"Yang, is... is that you guys?" Fang Zhou’s voice was excited, filled with repressed ecstasy, and upon closer listening, one could also detect a whiff of grievance.
Yang Xiao felt a pang in his heart; he didn’t understand why the ghost would call out his name when it was Jiang Qingluan who had caused the noise.
But that didn’t matter anymore because Fang Zhou, with his stiff gait, quickly arrived outside the temple door. Yang Xiao, hiding in the shadows, watched the temple’s threshold intently. Ghosts’ knees were not good at bending, and they generally found it hard to step over high places or turn corners, which is why some homes would raise their doorsteps and build a screen wall right behind the front door to ward off such Evil Spirits.
Indeed, Fang Zhou stopped before the threshold, and at that moment, Yang Xiao and the others could finally take a slight breath of relief.
"Yang? Miss Jiang, Miss Chang, is that you?" Fang Zhou asked from outside the door.
Only a fool would answer. Yang Xiao kept his mouth shut, even trying to breathe as softly as possible. It seemed this ghost was not so clever.
But what happened next nearly made Yang Xiao’s jaw drop. After a few fruitless inquiries, Fang Zhou bizarrely bent his body and, gripping one of his legs with both hands, forcefully lifted it and placed it over the threshold.
At that moment, Yang Xiao was stunned; he had never anticipated such a move. However, with just a moment’s hesitation, Fang Zhou had already "moved" both legs over the threshold and thus entered the temple. Due to the angle, Yang Xiao saw a very fine thread tied around Fang Zhou’s left wrist. The thread floated mid-air, extending out into the fog outside. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Yang Xiao didn’t know what to make of this, but he understood that something formidable and frightening must be connected to the other end of the thread.
Yang Xiao had already calculated in his heart that it was not possible for no one to die today. Their whole team might very well be annihilated here. He was waiting, waiting for the ghost to make a move. If the target wasn’t him, he hoped to save at least one person as best as he could.
On one hand, it was for the sake of the team—the more people alive, the more hope they had. Besides, he also had selfish reasons; with the fog outside still hiding who-knows-what, in a dire situation, he would need a good teammate to help draw the Ghost away.
"Miss Chang?" Fang Zhou looked intently towards where Chang Chuchu was hiding, his voice filled with delighted surprise, "Is that you, Miss Chang?"
Without delay, as Fang Zhou walked toward Chang Chuchu’s hiding spot, Yang Xiao stealthily came out, planning to seize the chance to slip away.
"Yang!"
However, Fang Zhou’s next call rooted him to the spot. By now, Fang Zhou seemed to have realized the issue with everyone avoiding him. He revealed a bitter expression and instinctively stepped back, "You guys... don’t be afraid, it’s me, Fang Zhou. We got separated just now, and I finally managed to find this temple after much difficulty."
"Yeah, we got separated. We even went looking for you, but after a big search, we couldn’t find you at all." Jiang Qingluan feigned calm as she emerged from behind the Protective Deity Statue, flashing a rare smile at Fang Zhou, "Now that you’re back, we can rest easy."
"Miss Jiang, your method wasn’t bad, but why didn’t you tell me in advance that we had to go so far?" Fang Zhou’s tone carried a hint of reproach, "If I hadn’t been tripped by an old man, I wouldn’t have known where to go."
"An old man?"
"Yeah, an old man. He’s a beggar who fled from the manor. He was the one who pointed me to the temple nearby," Fang Zhou stated with conviction.
"Where is this old man?" At this, the three of them, including Yang Xiao, panicked, fearing that Fang Zhou would turn around and point to an empty space behind him, saying he was right there.
Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Fang Zhou awkwardly lifted his arm, gesturing to the string wrapped around his wrist, "The old man’s legs weren’t good; he couldn’t walk anymore, so I went ahead to find the temple. Once I found it, I was going to follow this string back to get him."
After a conversation, Yang Xiao tried to get him to step outside, to cross the threshold. Although Fang Zhou didn’t understand why, he did it anyway. Seeing him standing outside—confused, looking back at them—they too became uncertain whether Fang Zhou was human or a Ghost.
"What happened to you?" Yang Xiao was the first to ask.
"I fell." The look on Fang Zhou’s face turned odd, as if recalling a terrifying image, "I did as Miss Jiang instructed, singing while walking without looking down or turning back. As I walked, I kept feeling there were people behind me, not you guys, but... many, many people, and they seemed to be dragging at me."
"My steps became slower, and my body colder. My legs were almost too stiff to move, as if frozen, and my consciousness was growing increasingly blurry. Then, I was tripped by something, and when I woke up, the fog had thinned quite a bit, and there was a blind old beggar lying at my feet. Just now, I stepped right on him."
"Right, you guys wait here for me, I’m going to go back and get him." After speaking, Fang Zhou moved his body in an unnatural way, attempting to walk back into the fog.
"Come back!" Yang Xiao stopped him and dragged him back into the temple, vigilantly watching the fog outside the door, "You know who he is and you still dare to go back to him?"
"Who could it be?" Fang Zhou’s body was very cold; he stared blankly at Yang Xiao, who suspected that Fang Zhou was either frozen stupid or had been deluded by the Ghost.
Jiang Qingluan stepped forward, pressing down on Fang Zhou, and Chang Chuchu joined to help. Ignoring Fang Zhou’s struggles, the three of them stripped off his shirt.
"Hiss—"
Chang Chuchu sharply inhaled, seeing a dark bruise shaped like a handprint on Fang Zhou’s left shoulder, the color so deep it seemed etched into the flesh.
Moving Fang Zhou’s head, Yang Xiao made him look for himself, "You know what you’ll find if you go back? You’ll find a Ghost. It let you return to find us, to ensnare us all in one swoop, not sparing a single survivor."
As soon as the words fell, Fang Zhou, pinned to the ground, seemed to sense something and suddenly lifted his left hand. The previously slack string was now taut, a faint tugging sensation coming from it. Something in the fog was following the string towards them.
