Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: The Curtain Falls

"What are you doing, Blessing Guest?"

Taoist Priestess Xuan Li’s voice exploded behind Yang Xiao, and she was almost glued to his back. In that instant, Yang Xiao’s mind went blank. He bit his tongue to force himself to calm down and turned his head in astonishment, "Priestess, what are you doing?"

"What were you just doing?" Taoist Priestess Xuan Li asked with a cold face, her complexion faintly turning green.

Yang Xiao raised his left hand, holding the cracked teacup lid in his palm, and spoke somewhat embarrassedly, "I... I accidentally dropped the lid, and I was picking it up."

Taoist Priestess Xuan Li stared at Yang Xiao for a few seconds before slowly shifting her gaze until she saw the teacup lid. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

Su Tingting clenched her fists, not even daring to breathe out. She had seen Taoist Priestess Xuan Li abruptly stand up and walk behind Yang Xiao in just a few steps, at a speed that was frightening.

"Before the hour of Xu tonight, everyone must sit here honestly, otherwise it will be detrimental to Master Feng." With a wave of her sleeve, Xuan Li returned to her seat with an indifferent face.

Yang Xiao watched as Taoist Priestess Xuan Li walked back, but there were no wet footprints on the ground, and her feet were also normal.

Now, Yang Xiao had a good idea of what was going on. Taoist Priestess Xuan Li claimed that she encountered an evil spirit not long ago, and it wasn’t a lie. However, the outcome was not as she had described, that she had escaped the danger; instead, she was killed by the evil spirit, and now Xuan Li was a full-fledged malicious ghost.

Yang Xiao suspected that the current Xuan Li was impersonated by Ms. Chun.

Having recognized Xuan Li’s true face, Yang Xiao felt not fear but relief, knowing that their chance for the three of them had come.

If they didn’t have outside help that night, they were certain they couldn’t escape from the tight net that Master Feng had cast. Ms. Chun’s appearance changed everything. Ms. Chun’s vengeful spirit’s primary target would definitely be the Feng Family, which provided them a chance to escape.

Master Feng was still feasting, his eating and drinking becoming more exaggerated. Grabbing food with his hands, he devoured an entire roast chicken without tearing it apart, not even spitting out the bones.

Steward Liu was even more absent-minded, pouring glass after glass of wine for himself. Soon, the two jars of wine beside him were empty. Yet, Steward Liu’s face wasn’t red at all; on the contrary, it was getting paler, as if he had been bled dry by a knife.

"He’s been possessed!"

Yang Xiao was pondering over how to escape when, at that moment, the play reached its climax. The actors screamed at the top of their lungs, and a figure being hanged appeared on the white cloth, struggling violently but to no avail.

The rope was tied to the left foot of the figure, hanging the person upside down—it was an imitation of Ms. Chun being dragged down to the bottom of the lake with the boat, the struggle she went through before her death.

But soon, Yang Xiao realized something was amiss. Behind the white cloth, small round shadows began to appear—shadows of different sizes that quickly rose with the figure’s struggles and finally burst open... these were clearly bubbles!

One after another, more figures appeared behind the white cloth, all of them tied by the left foot and hanging in midair, struggling desperately.

Amidst the chaos, there were also intense slapping noises and splashing sounds, creating a scene of extreme confusion.

This sight terrified everyone. It didn’t seem like an act; these actors looked like... they were really drowning!

It didn’t take long for all the figures to stop moving, each one hanging behind the white cloth in a different posture, the scene eerily quiet. Su Tingting dared not even breathe.

The next second, the entire white cloth hanging above fell, revealing the scene behind the stage. The breaths of the onlookers halted, and what they saw were actors, their bodies drenched, faces heavily made-up, strung by rough hemp ropes around their left ankles, suspended high in the air. Their arms dangled; dirty water constantly streamed down from the cuffs around their wrists, and covering their faces—faces that had died with their eyes wide open—was wet, matted hair.

The wooden stage was completely rotten from the soaking, filthy, with patches of dark mud everywhere, along with some torn aquatic plants.

"Ah! Ahh!!" A young maid, who stood at the side with a basin, let out a piercing scream as she dropped the basin onto the floor, "There are dead people!"

This shout seemed to jolt everyone awake, and the scene instantly descended into chaos. Master Feng and Steward Liu, who had been feasting, snapped to their senses.

"Stop her!"

With a roar from Steward Liu, before the maid could make a run for it, she was cut down by Master Zhao, who reacted quickly, spraying blood across his face.

It was now or never. Yang Xiao forcefully overturned the table while Kuang Hongyi was not slow to act either, grabbing a chair and charging toward the side room.

Their target was the Young Lady; as long as they delivered Ms. Chun’s relics to her, the mission would be complete.

The guards stationed outside the side room were quick to react, unsheathing their swords to strike. Kuang Hongyi knocked a guard over with the chair, but not without taking a slash to the shoulder. The two tangled and crashed into the side room.

Yang Xiao and Su Tingting followed closely behind. Inside the side room, only two old nannies stood, stunned silly, and the Young Lady, whom they had once met, lay on the bed with a huge belly, panting heavily, clearly about to give birth.

By the time Master Feng and Steward Liu led people charging in, Yang Xiao already had a short knife pressed against the Young Lady’s throat, "Take another step, and I’ll slaughter her!"

For a moment, Master Feng dared not move. It was then he thought to seek help from Taoist Priestess Xuan Li—the opera singers were all dead, clearly the doing of a vengeful spirit, but... but the performance was personally orchestrated by Taoist Priestess Xuan Li herself, so how could it be...

As Master Feng turned to look for Taoist Priestess Xuan Li, the scene behind him sent chills down his spine. There stood Taoist Priestess Xuan Li, along with the hanged actors, as more than a dozen drenched figures blocked the hall’s entrance. Even Taoist Priestess Xuan Li herself was soaked, with a huge puddle of water at her feet.

"This... this..."

Master Feng cried out loudly for help, but before he could call out much, he choked, grasping his throat as he began to vomit profusely. At first, it was the chicken, duck, and fish he had eaten that night, but soon after all of that came out, he started vomiting aquatic plants and foul-smelling mud.

Steward Liu tried to help, but he too quickly clutched his throat, collapsing to the ground in agony, kicking and struggling wildly as mud streamed from every orifice, a sight too gruesome to watch.

The remaining guards and martial masters, who had never seen such a thing, scattered like birds and beasts, but the Drowned Ghosts had no intention of letting them go. The not-so-large hall turned into a living hell.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiao wasn’t idle. With a slash, he cut the Young Lady’s arm and placed Ms. Chun’s relics over it. The moment the fresh blood soaked the relics, Taoist Priestess Xuan Li seemed to receive some signal, her body swelling grotesquely, bursting through her clothes, revealing maroon bridal attire beneath—it was Ms. Chun!

Ms. Chun charged straight for the Young Lady, pulling her into an embrace.

Yang Xiao and the other two quickly retreated to the side, and Su Tingting let out a sigh of relief, thinking with the mother-daughter bond they shared, Ms. Chun would likely not strike at them anymore.

But what happened next was beyond Su Tingting’s imagination. Like an octopus, Ms. Chun wrapped herself around the Young Lady. As the embrace grew tighter, the already paralyzed Young Lady began to struggle violently. "Crack!" First, her slender arms were broken, then her shoulders caved in. The Young Lady spat blood, unable to stop screaming until finally, with a "splat," her belly burst open.

Even then, Ms. Chun did not let go, crushing the Young Lady’s body into pieces, her swollen form dripping with blood.