Chapter 424: Chapter 362: Life-saving Benefactor
This sudden discovery turned Quan Doufeng’s legs to jelly, and Lu Youcheng, walking ahead, seemingly hadn’t realized his exposure yet, rapidly doubled back, extended his left hand towards Quan Doufeng, and urged, "Get up, we’re almost there!"
Now, Quan Doufeng had no choice left, at this life-and-death moment, he actually managed to suppress his fear, trying to make his expression seem natural, and similarly reached out to grasp Lu Youcheng’s left hand, pretending to leverage himself up, "Sorry, it’s dark, my foot... my foot just slipped."
But the moment their hands clasped, a chill shot through Quan Doufeng, too cold, Lu Youcheng’s hand was ice-cold, like it had just been taken out of a freezer.
Up close, with the help of a mysterious moonlight, Quan Doufeng finally saw clearly, Lu Youcheng’s arm, exposed beyond his cuff, was covered in large and small wounds, cleanly cut by a blade, but horrifyingly, not a single drop of blood flowed from these wounds, especially the gash at the wrist, bone-deep and the flesh inside turned white—this was a blood-drained corpse, the real Lu Youcheng had long been dead!
A gust of cold wind swept by, and Quan Doufeng shuddered violently, his hand gripping Lu Youcheng’s dead hand trembling non-stop, his body going limp, too scared to stand up, lest he knock into the embrace of a ghost.
At this moment, Lu Youcheng seemed to also realize something. Under the night sky, a vague figure gradually appeared behind him, Lu Youcheng’s toes started to unnaturally tiptoe, a pair of old-fashioned black cloth shoes appeared under his heels, his half-foot being pushed up stiffly.
To be precise, Lu Youcheng’s corpse was standing on the back of this ghost’s foot, akin to a puppeteer manipulating a puppet, the corpse in front, the ghost clinging close behind it.
When the ghost appeared, Lu Youcheng’s body gradually lost control, his facial expression becoming rigid, his eyes hollow and lifeless, his mouth slightly open as if he had unfinished words before his death, the next second, a ghost face, greenish-black, leaned out from behind Lu Youcheng’s head, his begrudging dead eyes slowly rolling downwards, staring at Quan Doufeng.
No longer able to pretend, Quan Doufeng’s eyelids twitched, he let go of Lu Youcheng’s dead hand and stumbled to his feet to run, his remaining sense of reason urging him not to run back, because it would be useless to do so, Yang Xiao and the others would never open the door for him no matter what, he could only run to the closer boudoir of Miss Du, as long as he could get inside the boudoir, he would survive, it was his only chance!
Going in the opposite direction from memory, Quan Doufeng ran as if flying, bizarre footsteps echoing from behind as if maggots were on his bones, following closely, Quan Doufeng felt that if he were to be caught, the Ghost Village Chief would give up Lu Youcheng’s corpse and take residence in his own body.
Of course, that would only be after killing him first.
People explode with astonishing potential in despair, Quan Doufeng never imagined he could run this fast one day, he seldom exercised normally, spending most of his time sitting in front of a computer, working his "money-making" little hands, slapping the faces of authors who violated rules.
Fast, just... almost there! Quan Doufeng was out of breath as he ran, but finally, he saw hope, the Ghost Village Chief behind him was always one step slower than him, Quan Doufeng silently prayed to all the gods in the sky, finally earning himself a slim chance to live.
The courtyard door wasn’t locked, it was left with a slight gap, Quan Doufeng rushed up the steps, violently pushing open the courtyard door, "Mi Shu, Tong Han sent me to save you!"
Quan Doufeng shouted as he entered, but the next second, he froze on the spot, the scene in front of him sent a chill through him, he saw dozens of figures densely surrounding the boudoir, blocking the doors and windows, each person holding a human head in their hand.
"Plop."
"Plop."
The footsteps of the Ghost Village Chief also caught up, stopping right behind him, he could sharply sense that chilling presence, almost clinging to his back.
Blocked by Du Family members in front and the Ghost Village Chief behind, Quan Doufeng’s last thread of endurance finally snapped, he couldn’t bear it any longer, and blacked out.
After an indeterminate amount of time, he awoke amidst a sensation of cold dampness, it took quite a while after opening his eyes for him to come back to his senses. The sight in the courtyard terrified him out of his wits, many corpses lay scattered haphazardly in the small courtyard, at a rough count, at least a dozen, the corpses in horrible states of death, some with necks wrung out, heads lying on the ground, some so brutally torn that limbs were missing, bodies in pieces, rotten innards strewn about, truly a scene of hell on earth.
Looking around, there wasn’t a single intact corpse, nor a complete head, this must be the Ghost Village Chief’s doing, for these Du Family Village’s neither-human-nor-ghost beings could find a new body to revive in as long as their heads remained, but if the head were crushed, then there would hardly be any chance at all.
Gulping huge breaths of air, Quan Doufeng glanced inadvertently under a tree, where half a corpse lay, after a moment he finally recognized the half-face, skull crushed, eyes wide in death—it was actually someone he knew, Du Huai of Du Family Village, the man who presided over the sacrifices, and undoubtedly the number two figure in the village, the one who made even Yang Xiao and the rest apprehensive.
Du Huai had been killed by the Ghost Village Chief, and that was certainly a great thing. Quan Doufeng barely moved his body, just slightly twisting his neck. As he lay on the ground playing dead, he seized the chance to check his surroundings. Fortunately, there wasn’t a single standing figure. Even the Ghost Village Chief and Lu Youcheng had disappeared. At this moment, the boudoir was pitch dark. The courtyard was left only with the stench of rotting corpses, eerily quiet.
Quan Doufeng refrained from any rash movements and quickly pondered the situation in his mind. He couldn’t help but feel that being a decent person had paid off and that Heaven had blessed him, allowing him to escape death. From the tragic scene around him, it must have been the Ghost Village Chief stumbling upon the people of Du Family Village. Given how much enmity there was, a bloody massacre ensued. The number of corpses had clearly decreased compared to what he saw earlier, leading Quan Doufeng to conclude that some members of the Du Family had taken the chaos to make their escape, and the Ghost Village Chief had gone after them.
This turned out to be to his advantage. Who could have imagined that he would survive such a scene? To have escaped from a major disaster meant there must be greater fortune ahead, and Quan Doufeng was so elated that he almost cried.
He knew he couldn’t stay here for long. It seemed certain that Mi Shu, who was in the boudoir, must be dead too; otherwise, there was no reason for the candle to have been snuffed out. Quan Doufeng slowly got up, his body covered in grime and bits of rotting flesh, but he paid it no mind and immediately headed towards the outside of the courtyard.
He had already thought out what he would say to Yang Xiao and the others when he got back. He would claim that he had seen through Lu Youcheng’s disguise ahead of time and, to protect the likes of Yang Xiao, had risked his own life to draw the Ghost Village Chief away. Then, with a clever trick, he pitted the Ghost Village Chief against the people of Du Family Village, using the Chief to eliminate the troublesome Du Huai.
These were genuine accomplishments and even if Yang Xiao and the others didn’t believe him, it would be confirmed by daylight. Heh heh, Quan Doufeng wasn’t useless; he was their lifesaver!
If you want to command respect in the Nightmare World and not be treated as expendable, thrown into the fray, you must demonstrate your value. And after this incident, his value could not be denied.
Quan Doufeng strode out of the courtyard with a light step, constantly perfecting his story in his mind. Yang Xiao and his group were quite cunning; he couldn’t afford to leave any loopholes for them to find. Otherwise, he wouldn’t just fail to take credit, he’d be targeted.
"Quan Doufeng!"
Just as he walked out of the courtyard, he heard someone calling him from behind, the voice very familiar. Unprepared, Quan Doufeng instinctively turned his head.
In fact, halfway through turning his head, he realized something was wrong, but it was too late. His peripheral vision had already caught sight of the people hiding outside the courtyard gate.
There were not a few, but more than a dozen, one of them holding a human head—it was Lu Youcheng’s head, and the call just now had also been made by the head.
The next second, the Du Family Village Chief holding the head charged at him. In the dark of the night, the cold light flashed, and a bloodstained broadsword chopped down towards Quan Doufeng. As the world before him began to spin chaotically, in the last moment before his consciousness faded, he saw a headless body standing not far away, with blood spurting several meters high from the neck stump.
That was his body, he recognized it.
After an indeterminate amount of time, a slight movement came from within the boudoir. Mi Shu slowly opened her eyes, lying face-up on the cold ground, her body stiff from being in the same position for so long.
Her mind was foggy, and it took her a long while to gradually recall what had happened. She only remembered being surrounded by the people of Du Family Village, and in order to die with value, she chose to run into the screen at the last moment.
But now, she was a few steps away from the screen. Little by little, she vaguely remembered that she seemed to have fallen at the last moment.
But even if she had fallen, the Du Family would not have spared her. Something else must have happened. It was pitch black around her, and Mi Shu didn’t dare to move, fearing what might still be there. After going through the events in her mind, she suspected there was a problem—her current position was face-up, her back on the ground, while those inhuman creatures of the Du Family needed a person’s back facing them to call out their name.
The courtyard was quiet, and the figures of the Du Family had disappeared from the windows and doors. However, Mi Shu still didn’t dare to be careless. She suspected that the Du Family hadn’t left yet because she smelled a strong stench of corpse rot, like that of a dozen rotten bodies chopped up and fermenting.
No matter what, to have survived was already extremely fortunate. Mi Shu took a deep breath and her body relaxed. Her thoughts turned to her teammates, particularly the three who had gone on a mission that night. She wondered if they were as lucky as she was.
In the Nightmare World, both strength and luck were indispensable for survival. She had seen and heard of many impressively talented individuals who, due to a moment of bad luck, met tragic ends during missions. In the Nightmare World, death was as common as could be.
Having rested enough, Mi Shu slowly moved her body, planning to turn over and sit up from the ground. But just as she put strength into her waist, her peripheral vision caught a horrifying sight. Between the gaps at the bottom of the screen’s frame, a pair of bluish-black bare feet faced her, writhing ceaselessly.
