Chapter 1264: Chapter 837: Found You
His heart skipped a beat, and Yang Xiao immediately sensed something was wrong. He quickly picked up a candle and spun around in place, but failed to find where the ghostly shadows were hiding.
Moments later, a chilling hypothesis formed in his mind, "Sopa, come here, come shine the light on the shadow behind me!"
Once Sopa arrived, he crouched down and lowered the candle, and the sight that followed made Sopa’s face turn pale instantly.
Yang Xiao’s shadow on the ground became distorted under the candlelight, and it was clearly visible that two shadows, one light and one dark, were overlapping.
The most terrifying part was, the distorted dark shadow raised its hand and clasped Yang Xiao’s shadow’s ankle in a way no living person could manage.
Datou also hurried over and decisively lit all the candles on site. As the candlelight gradually strengthened, the twisted ghostly shadow slowly faded, eventually receding into the darkness, disappearing completely.
As the ghostly shadow departed, Yang Xiao’s legs went weak, almost making him collapse to the ground. He gritted his teeth and once again used the candle to examine the shadow behind him, but what he saw next chilled his heart.
His shadow’s feet were now blurred, the damage far worse than his shoulder.
The task of delivering the shadow ghost was complete, and now they needed to escape Ghost Island as quickly as possible.
Footsteps approached from the direction of the cave entrance; it sounded like Hafeez and the tavern owner coming over.
Before the two approached, Datou extinguished the candle in his hand, and Yang Xiao did the same with the candle beside him, leaving only one candle to fend off the direction where the ghostly shadow disappeared.
The tavern owner was panting heavily as he reported that ghost village people had appeared on the mountain path outside the cave.
"Hafeez, take care of Chu Xi, grab your things, we’re retreating!"
Datou packed up the candles, supported by Sopa, and instructed the group to gather their belongings. They quickly evacuated the cave, heading for the lakeside.
The group rushed with all their might through the complex forest terrain, and at this moment, the once silent Ghost Island seemed awakened by some force.
The fog that had enveloped the entire island dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye, with eerie, terrifying howls filled with pain and despair echoing from all directions.
"Brother, hold on! We will definitely make it out; we’ll go home together!" Sopa hoisted one of Datou’s arms over her shoulder to share his burden.
Sopa knew well that no matter how severe the injuries sustained in the Nightmare World, as long as they could step into the portal to leave, they could recover.
If she could get her brother off the Ghost Island, he would have a chance to survive.
Over the years, the siblings had relied on each other, with her brother always looking after her. Today, she had to risk everything for him.
The tavern owner led the way, Sopa supported Datou, and Hafeez was even more direct, carrying the nearly numb-legged Yang Xiao on his back.
To dispel Yang Xiao’s concerns, Hafeez, exhausted and panting, repeatedly promised he would never leave him as long as he had breath.
The tavern owner ran so swiftly that those behind him could barely keep up. Sopa asked him to slow down; after all, he didn’t know where the boat was hidden.
But as she finished speaking, the tavern owner’s eerie voice drifted over, and it was this sentence that surprised Yang Xiao and Sopa greatly.
"Follow me; I hid a boat before. I’ll take you there!" The tavern owner sprinted without looking back.
This sentence wasn’t there last time. The tavern owner who appeared last night didn’t even know there was a lake.
...
A few hours earlier.
Just after Yang Xiao and the others sailed away from the shore, Musa and Adila encountered pursuit by corpse ghosts. According to plan, the two split up and ran in opposite directions.
Adila chose the route to the left, where there was a slope and many trees in the forest, providing a complex environment, which was advantageous for someone with good skills like him.
Musa went to the right, where the terrain was flat and trees were sparse, making it unfavorable for hiding, and there was a small cliff almost sheer and vertical.
From the perspective of evading pursuit, Musa was clearly at a disadvantage, but there was no other choice since his legs were not well-suited for climbing.
On the left slope, Adila ran, panting heavily, finally shaking off the corpse ghost behind him. He took advantage of a brief respite to lean against a large tree, gasping heavily, his eyes full of confusion.
This was already the fourth wave, and these corpse ghosts were different from before, as if they had gone mad, relentlessly pursuing him.
Moreover, what was even stranger was that among the corpse ghosts chasing him, he saw familiar faces: Juan, Aisha, Shari, and even Maria, who had died by his hand.
Yet, he had seen the Ghost Ship land before, with at most a dozen ghosts aboard, and certainly none of these former teammates.
Things were starting to go awry. This time, the number of corpse ghosts chasing him far exceeded the previous two occasions, confirming that more than one Ghost Ship had arrived.
Although his physical strength was quite sufficient now, if this continued, he would inevitably be killed by the pursuit of corpse ghosts.
What perplexed him even more was how Musa, with limited mobility in the open terrain, was managing to survive.
What was his secret?
If Musa had been killed, then these corpse ghosts should have already retreated, so Adila confirmed this old man Musa was still alive.
At this thought, a cold glint appeared in Adila’s eyes; he had planned to eliminate this bothersome old guy, and now was the time.
Without hesitation, Adila briefly identified his direction, then used the forest trees and mist as cover, decisively heading towards the area where Musa was fleeing.
The journey was treacherous, needless to say, as he again dodged pursuit by corpse ghosts twice. Moreover, he keenly noticed that these corpse ghosts seemed to be provoked by something; their movements were not as swift as before, their limbs were disordered, quite uncoordinated, yet their murderous intent towards living people had grown several times more ferocious.
Adila roughly inferred that Yang Xiao and the others might have succeeded.
The source, "River Immortal Village," had a problem, causing the abnormal behavior of these corpse ghosts.
Adila wasn’t fond of Yang Xiao, but he had to admit to Yang Xiao’s abilities; having such a teammate was generally advantageous.
But not now; now the task was nearing completion. Players like Yang Xiao and Musa, who made significant contributions during the task, shouldn’t survive.
They deserved to die.
If these two guys were dead, then he could obtain the rewards from this Nightmare task.
As for Sopahafiz, if he could conveniently dispose of them, it wouldn’t be unfeasible.
But honestly speaking, Adila didn’t really regard those two. Frankly, Datou was decent, but unfortunately, his luck was bad; he was already dead.
"Rustle, rustle"
Adila perked up his ears, ever alert to his surroundings; these corpse ghosts weren’t as challenging as before and would occasionally let out ghastly screams, consequently exposing their positions.
The area Musa fled was large, coupled with the mist cover, finding a hiding person in such an environment was akin to searching for a needle in a haystack.
But Adila had a way; he followed the ghostly screams to locate, as he knew without a doubt that Musa wouldn’t move frequently because of his leg injury.
The reason Musa survived to this point was likely because he found an excellent hiding spot, and what Adila had to do was drag this old fellow out of hiding and cripple his legs.
Soon, Adila pinpointed an area, as the ghostly screams there remained unchanged, making it highly suspicious.
Following the eerie screams, he carefully advanced in the mist and finally arrived at a cliff edge.
Adila hid behind a tree, held his breath, and peered out with half his face. The first thing he saw was over a dozen corpse ghosts gathered below the cliff, pacing back and forth aimlessly like headless flies.
Due to the mist cover, it was difficult to discern the situation on the cliff face, so he boldly moved closer, simultaneously retrieving a candle from his bosom for backup.
If surrounded by ghosts, this candle would be his lifeline.
Drawing nearer, he raised his gaze, and suddenly his eyes froze. He saw a figure standing on a protrusion of the cliff, about five to six meters above the ground-level corpse ghosts; it was Musa.
"Found you..."
