Chapter 427: Chapter 365: Gone Mad
The crowing of the roosters announced the dawn, and the lowing of the cattle signified dusk; Yang Xiao and others who were left in the room were awoken by the piercing sound of the roosters—day had broken.
The sky was overcast, draped in a layer of gloom; everyone remained silent. Sui Chengguo, the last member of the mission, had not returned, and the outcome was self-evident.
He was dead, just like Quan Doufeng and Lu Youcheng, perished during the mission. Not only had the previous night’s mission failed, but all those dispatched were utterly annihilated.
They had lost three people all at once—a heavy loss, no doubt. And with Mi Shu also missing, the prospects were grim.
Yang Xiao himself had experienced several nightmarish missions before, but never had he seen a loss of three or four people in one night. This was a first for him.
Wuma Haoming squatted alone in a corner, silently shedding tears, his body trembling non-stop. A sense of despair silently spread inside the room. Tonight’s mission, they feared, would be even more dangerous and terrifying than the last. And if a person like Sui Chengguo had died, what chance did they have left?
Outside the courtyard, a series of footsteps sounded—hasty and numerous. The mood was tense, and the door shook with their pounding.
"Open the door!"
"Open the door!"
"Patriarch Du, what is the meaning of this?" Cheng Cha was taken aback. As the door opened, Patriarch Du charged in, flanked by several strapping men, his face looking particularly ugly.
"It’s all because of the good deeds of you people!" Patriarch Du had abandoned his usual amiable demeanor, his expression twisted, almost losing control, "Your people brought back a ghost last night, causing the death of over a dozen of our Du Family Village people. It’s all your fault!"
Yang Xiao responded swiftly, immediately defending, "Impossible, none of our people came back last night, they all died trying to help your Du Family Village!"
"That’s right, we watched all night, and there was no noise from outside." Cheng Cha Tong Han naturally supported Yang Xiao, deliberately omitting any mention of Quan Doufeng and Lu Youcheng’s return the previous night.
"Nonsense! We heard the knocking, someone came back, you’re just making excuses!" A red-faced burly man yelled hoarsely.
Yang Xiao turned to look at him, his gaze unwavering, "Did you see it with your own eyes?"
The red-faced man hesitated, and after a moment, glanced guiltily at the patriarch. Patriarch Du didn’t bother with words, turned on his heel, and walked outside, signaling for Yang Xiao and the others to follow.
They quickly realized they were being led toward the young lady’s boudoir. Tong Han felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach—since the people of Du Family Village had not brought Mi Shu along, she must also be dead. Now, they were probably headed to find nothing but her severed head.
Passing through several courtyards and corridors, they finally arrived at the boudoir’s courtyard. The gate was ajar, and a stench of decay wafted from within. As they approached the gate, Yang Xiao keenly noticed fresh bloodstains on the steps in front of the door.
The bloodstains were too fresh to emit such a strong smell of decay, but as the man leading the way pushed open the gate, the scene inside shocked Wuma Haoming so much that he fell to the ground. The courtyard was littered with severed limbs and the stench of rot assailed their senses.
After observing, Yang Xiao confirmed that the bodies belonged to the people of Du Family Village because there was barely any fresh flesh amongst the corpses—mostly rot and disgusting pus, a condition unique to the creatures that were neither human nor ghostly from the Du Family Village.
Moreover, these bodies were significantly mutilated—no complete body to be found, even their heads were crushed and smashed. Indeed, it was the handiwork of the ghosts from Mangjia Village; Yang Xiao had had a taste of it not long ago at Du San’s house—the scene was identical.
It’s just that there were more dead here, and the scene was even more gruesome.
A row of smashed heads were lined up against the base of the wall. Cheng Cha, with his sharp eyesight, immediately recognized the first head in the line as familiar. After staring intently for a few seconds, he shuddered with recognition—it was Du Huai, the Du Family Village’s second authority figure, the one who oversaw the sacrifices.
For a person of his stature to die here revealed the perils of the previous night, and simultaneously ruled out any suspicion of a conspiracy staged by the people of Du Family Village.
Cheng Cha had always been wary of this man, suspecting that the faceless figures in the screen paintings in the boudoir were his doing.
"What happened here?" Yang Xiao’s eyes widened in shock.
"You ask us? We want to ask you!" one of the men jumped out and yelled, "We were sleeping peacefully last night when... when two of you came, knocking on the door to wake us up, saying it was urgent business. Du Huai led some people to follow them, and they didn’t return for the whole night. We didn’t dare to go out, and it was only at dawn when we went to check that we found this mess!"
"Who were the two that knocked on the door?" Yang Xiao asked knowingly.
The next second, someone behind threw two round, bloodied objects toward them, which rolled on the ground several times before stopping at Wuma Haoming’s feet. Wuma Haoming’s pupils dilated visibly and then contracted sharply as he broke into a scream—on the ground were two bloody severed heads, one of Quan Doufeng and the other naturally of Lu Youcheng.
"We found these two heads nearby, presumably a ghost must have possessed one of their bodies to sneak in, and then killed so many of our Du Family Village people." The man spat a loathsome gob of saliva towards the heads and cursed, "Worthless trash!"
Hearing this, a surge of anger suddenly flared up in Tong Han’s heart, "Watch your language. No matter what, they died trying to help Du Family Village. They are your benefactors!"
"Pah, benefactors my foot, someone who can help is a benefactor. If you’re useless or even make things worse, then you’re just a piece of trash!" The middle-aged man looked at Yang Xiao and the others with malicious intent. He clearly had murder in his eyes, probably because they had failed several missions in a row, he felt they could no longer be relied on, and couldn’t be bothered to pretend anymore.
"Du Da, shut up." The Du Family Patriarch turned his head and reprimanded the middle-aged man in a bland tone, but the latter didn’t care at all. He even turned his head and arrogantly gestured a throat-slitting motion to Yang Xiao and the others. The violent and cruel look in his eyes was almost spilling out.
When the map is unrolled, the dagger is revealed; it was just as expected.
Yang Xiao paid no attention to these distractions. He squatted down and examined the two heads on the ground. He quickly noticed something amiss—Lu Youcheng’s expression was cold and wooden, while Quan Doufeng’s eyes were filled with fear and disbelief.
In other words, Lu Youcheng had been killed by a Ghost, while Quan Doufeng had died at the hands of the Du Family people, a fact that could also be inferred from the cuts on the necks of the heads.
If that were the case, it meant their previous judgment had been severely misguided. Quan Doufeng was not the Ghost, but a human being. The real Ghost was only Lu Youcheng.
Before he could ponder any further, the next second, a noise suddenly came from the boudoir not far away, like something had fallen to the ground.
"Mi Shu?" Tong Han was the first to rush over, followed closely by the others.
But the door was locked and the windows had also been fastened from the inside. The Du Family people also came over and said that they had already called at the door when they arrived earlier, but there was no response from inside. From the Du Family people’s expressions, they were convinced Mi Shu must be dead.
It was understandable, after all, outside the door there was a veritable mountain of corpses and sea of blood, including Du Huai and a dozen other people dead. There was no reason to think a young girl like Mi Shu could survive.
Seeing the door wouldn’t budge, Yang Xiao took a step back and kicked viciously at the seam in the middle of the door. The wooden door was stronger than he had expected, and it didn’t give way with that kick, but he could definitely feel it had loosened. Just as he was about to kick a second time, he was suddenly embraced from behind by the Du Family people and quickly pulled aside, "You can’t kick it, you can’t kick it!!"
Several Du Family people were blocking Yang Xiao, visibly angry that he had tried to kick the door without asking them first. However, Yang Xiao could see the deep-seated fear in their eyes.
Rather than saying they were afraid of kicking the door open, it was more like they were afraid of startling something inside the boudoir. Yang Xiao immediately realized it must have something to do with the large wardrobe behind the screen.
"How are we supposed to get in if we don’t kick the door down?" Cheng Cha asked, "Or we could take the window apart."
"No, no, no." The Du Family people shook their heads vehemently, and finally, with a nod from the Du Family Patriarch, one of them brought over a strange thin bamboo strip with a copper hook at the top. The person knelt outside the door, inserted the hooked end of the bamboo strip into the door seam, fiddled with it for half a minute, then pulled out the bamboo strip, stood up, and gently pushed the door, which creaked open.
That scene sent chills down the spines of Yang Xiao and the others. They understood, finally, how Liu Haiping had died.
The first night, Liu Haiping must have also heard the sound of someone prying at the door. But due to the sham warnings of the Du Family Village people, she never turned around until someone stood behind her and chopped off her head.
The door was opened, but there was no one in the room, no traces of blood, or signs of struggle. Mi Shu had vanished.
"Has anyone found Mi Shu’s head nearby?" Yang Xiao turned around and asked.
"No." The Du Family Patriarch shook his head.
The next second, as Cheng Cha came to the bedside and squatted down, the scene before him suddenly filled him with surprise, "Here it is!"
Everyone quickly gathered around. Mi Shu was found curled up under the bed, completely motionless. Cheng Cha crawled under the bed and dragged Mi Shu out.
Thankfully, she was alive, with only minor scratches and no obvious wounds on her body. She seemed to have fainted from exhaustion.
Yang Xiao took Mi Shu on his back, intending to return to their room, but was stopped by the Du Family people. They brought a basin of clean water, wanting to revive her right there in the boudoir.
"The scene nearby is too horrific. I’m worried she won’t be able to handle it if she wakes up here," argued Yang Xiao, but the Du Family people insisted on awakening her there.
The water, likely drawn from a deep well, was very cold, so chilly that it cut to the bone. They drenched a cloth with the water and wiped it across Mi Shu’s face. Soon, Mi Shu’s eyes slowly opened.
But before Tong Han could feel relieved, Mi Shu’s eyes suddenly widened, and her expression turned ferocious. Then she shot up and bit towards Wuma Haoming who was beside her. Caught completely off-guard, he was bitten on the arm with such force that blood immediately began to flow, and she nearly tore off a chunk of flesh.
"Ah, ah!!" Wuma Haoming struggled and screamed, "Someone help, she’s gone mad, she’s mad!!"
