Chapter 119: Chapter 117: Footsteps
"Over the past few decades, there have been many bizarre incidents rumored to occur nearby. Initially, no one paid attention to this place, and the entrance to the cave was only discovered after a flash flood happened more than ten years ago, which exposed it."
"These are the summaries of supernatural events that have been sorted out, either officially verified or of high credibility. Take a look."
It was too inconvenient for several people to crowd around the computer screen, so Yang Xiao suggested that Zhuge Zhijie copy the file and send it to the group, but to his surprise, the request was denied, "Captain, it can only be viewed on this computer. The data cannot be forwarded or leaked, that’s the rule."
"All information related to the ghost script is under the jurisdiction of the technical department. We are only responsible for providing information and do not have direct access to the archives. They share with us the information they find based on the news we provide."
As an old and official organization, the Patrol Defense Bureau naturally had a mature confidentiality system, which Yang Xiao understood.
"Case one occurred 30 years ago when a local who went up the mountain to gather herbs got lost. He had to stay overnight on the mountain, building a fire to keep warm. But late into the night, as he was sleeping, he suddenly woke up to find the fire had gone out, and the mountain forest was pitch-black. In a daze, he heard footsteps."
"The footsteps were not far from him and sounded like many people. He thought they were fellow villagers who had come up the mountain to look for him, so he excitedly followed the footsteps."
"Parting the bushes, he saw a long line of people on the mountain path, but what was strange was that these people did not carry torches; they just walked silently. Apart from the footsteps, there was no other sound."
"He found it odd, as these people were dressed in tattered clothes that did not resemble local villagers; they seemed more like refugees fleeing disaster."
"Just as the man was about to approach them to inquire further, a gust of wind blew by, and he suddenly became much more awake. When he looked again at the procession in front of him, he was terrified out of his wits. He saw that the line of people was enveloped in a ghastly pale light, which was why he could see them clearly in the oppressive darkness. Even more horrifying was that these refugee-like figures were all headless, with bloody, empty necks."
"The man screamed and turned to run. He couldn’t remember how he managed to escape down the mountain, only that he ran for a very long time, never stopping, losing one of his shoes and abrasions on his feet and arms. When he returned, he fell ill immediately."
"After hearing the man’s story, the village elders suspected he had encountered the Yin Soldiers borrowing the path. A legend has long persisted in the area about Dragon Head Mountain, where a great battle once took place and many had died. The bodies of these people were never collected, so there was a lot of resentment."
"And the reason the man got lost was because he was blinded by the Yin Soldiers."
"Not long after, the man died of his illness, and it was said that his death was gruesome, his entire body looking as though it had been drained of water."
"Case two happened 12 years ago when a group of art school students, led by a few teachers, went up the mountain for inspiration. Unexpectedly, they were caught in a sudden evening downpour and became stranded on the mountain; three students became separated from the main group."
"It wasn’t until the third day that the search and rescue team found one of the separated students under a large tree. However, this student seemed to have been shocked into silence, answering no questions and only muttering to himself about ghosts, lots of ghosts, dead heads, and other incoherent things."
"The search and rescue team looked for the other two missing students for three days in the mountains to no avail."
"Although Dragon Head Mountain is not very high, its terrain is rolling and the mountain structure is extremely complicated, with many ravines, hidden gullies, and caves. If those two students fell into such places, even the local earth deity would be helpless."
"After some time of psychological counseling, the rescued student’s condition improved somewhat, and he could at least carry on simple conversations. According to this student’s recollections, after they got separated from the main group, they wandered through the mountains and accidentally found a cave in a very remote area where they took shelter from the rain."
"Exhausted and hungry, they ate something and fell asleep, but in the middle of the night, he suddenly woke up. His two friends also woke up; the rain outside had not stopped, and they were woken up by a strange noise."
"He didn’t know how to describe the noise; it was as if someone were scratching the walls with fingernails, making a creepy screeching noise that disturbed them to the core. The sound was coming from deep within the cave."
"Being timid, he urged his friends to pack up and leave quickly. He explained that he was born weak with a predisposition for losing his soul; when he was young, his soul had once departed, and it was only the shaman woman from the neighboring village who had called it back. Before the shaman woman left, she warned him that those who have lost their soul once have a lighter life force and are more susceptible to sensing those ’things’. She advised him to always be cautious and to keep his distance whenever he felt something awry."
"But his two friends refused and ridiculed him for being old-fashioned and superstitious. One of them had wilderness survival experience and deduced, based on the natural environment and the cave’s condition, that there wouldn’t be any large predators inside. They also had torches, and he decided to delve deeper into the cave with a torch to see what was there – maybe they could find a snake to satiate their hunger."
"The other friend also tried to persuade him, saying that since it was still raining outside, they had nowhere else to take shelter, and hypothermia in the wild could be fatal."
"So in the end, he stayed behind, guarding the mouth of the cave, while each of his two friends carried a torch and walked into the depths of the cave."
"The inside of the cave was much larger than he had expected. At first, he could still see the silhouettes of his teammates, but soon, even the light from the torches disappeared."
"At that moment, he suddenly felt afraid, as if the cave was alive and had swallowed his companions."
"He waited a long time, at least over an hour, growing more and more anxious. He didn’t know how to describe the feeling, but it was an eerie sensation, as if he had a very bad premonition."
"Just as he was fighting the fear and about to go look for his two friends, there suddenly came the sound of footsteps from deep within the cave, and soon after, he heard one of his friends calling his name. It wasn’t until then that he began to feel relieved."
"He was just about to respond when, in the next second, his heart seized in a powerful spasm. He realized something was wrong; his friend’s voice was light and cold, whereas he remembered his friend as a bold and loud person with a strong presence."
"Gradually, as the footsteps grew clearer, he began to panic because he realized these were not the footsteps of two people—there were at least a dozen."
"Where did so many people come from?"
"Moreover, in the darkness, the sound of footsteps and his friend’s calls grew closer, but he saw no light from any torch. It was impossible for his friend to navigate the complex cave in pitch blackness."
"Realizing this, he made a split decision to run out of the cave. He didn’t get far before hiding behind a large tree not too far from the entrance, keeping a close watch on the cave mouth."
"Moments later, the orange glow at the cave entrance gradually dimmed and finally went out—that was the fire they had lit. With the faint glow remaining, he saw two figures emerge from the cave; it was his two classmates, no doubt—he could see their faces clearly."
"The two continued to call out his name, their voices seeming to have some magical power; several times he felt an uncontrollable urge to come out of hiding, but he forcefully suppressed it each time."
"The next second, lightning slashed through the darkness, and he froze, trembling uncontrollably. He saw his two classmates; their faces were indeed those of his friends, but not their bodies. These bodies were dressed in tattered clothes."
"It took a moment before he realized that these unfamiliar bodies were topped with the heads of his classmates."
"One after another, about a dozen headless corpses walked out of the cave. After scattering and searching the area, finding nothing, they retreated back into the cave."
"But the man still didn’t dare to move. He remembered that nearly 20 headless corpses had come out to search, but less than 15 returned. The numbers didn’t add up."
"Sure enough, after hiding in the rain for another half hour, five more headless corpses staggered out from behind the trees near the cave entrance, and his two classmates also reemerged before finally retreating back into the cave."
"This sight terrified the man hiding behind the tree. He clearly saw his classmates’ heads swaying unsteadily on those bodies, as if they might fall off at any second."
"Only after the cave entrance completely quieted down did the man turn to flee. He ran down the mountain in the pouring rain, stumbling countless times. He couldn’t remember what happened afterward; when he came to his senses, he was already in the hospital."
"The man didn’t recover well; he would be lucid at times and delirious at others; during severe episodes, he even needed to be injected with sedatives. In the last few days, he often spoke nonsensical words that terrified the doctors and nurses present; he said he could hear footsteps at night, in the corridor, and it had to be the two missing classmates—they had come for him!"
"From that day on, the hospital specially arranged for security guards to patrol at night, but nothing unusual was discovered. The man’s condition worsened by the day, growing thinner until he fell into a coma."
"One early morning, a doctor patrolling the wards suddenly discovered that the man had vanished. Despite searching the entire hospital, they couldn’t find him. Eventually, it was through surveillance footage that they saw the man in his hospital gown leaving through the hospital doors. Strangely enough, there were several security guards on duty in the gatehouse, but none of them noticed the man leaving."
"After zooming in on the surveillance video, they made a startling discovery: the man hadn’t left on his own. His movements were stiff and lifeless, and his feet were off the ground, as if he were being carried out by someone on either side."
Zhuge Zhijie opened a photo. It was somewhat blurry and had a sense of age to it; the background suggested it was taken at night. "The last time the man was caught on camera was in a small town called Xi Mountain Town, located at the foot of Dragon HeadMountain—a necessary route for entering the mountains. The technicians deduced that the man had gone back into the mountains, to Yin Soldiers’ Cave."
