Chapter 602: Chapter 508: Backlash_2
The girl lay on the ground, only the upper half of her left thigh left, which was barely longer than a palm, but it had miraculously stopped bleeding, and even more miraculously, the girl seemed to be in a better state than at the beginning.
Looking at the Ghost Duster in his hand, Yang Xiao realized the wonders of this treasure. It seemed designed specifically to torture people to the utmost, without easily threatening their lives unless forced by the user. In fact, it even bizarrely sustained the lives of those being tortured, with the girl being a prime example.
The girl lay face-up on the ground, still wearing a mask, so Yang Xiao couldn’t see her face, only hearing a faint voice emanating from beneath it, sounding like... she was saying thank you.
"No need to thank me, you’ve helped me out too." After working so hard for so long, finally hearing a word of thanks, Yang Xiao felt a deep sense of gratification.
The girl slightly shook her head, still emitting a weak voice. Curious, Yang Xiao bent down, pressing his ear close to her mask.
"Kill... kill me..."
"Please..."
Finally hearing the girl’s faint pleas, Yang Xiao’s face twisted awkwardly, overwhelmed by the psychological shadow his actions had cast on the girl.
But it didn’t matter, after all, memories would be erased once they left this place, and now, other than the missing woman No. 24, there were no other living people left, and the ghosts were restrained, meaning that the two of them were essentially safe now, and all they had to do was wait.
Wait for this competition to end.
Considering the frequency of ghost attacks, woman No. 24 should still be alive, but Yang Xiao wasn’t too concerned about her scheming; firstly, now that only three people remained, it satisfied the requirements to advance, and there was no need for her to act against them, and secondly, her capabilities were limited, and he now kept the Ghost Duster away, his right hand tucked inside his jacket, clutching the Human Bone Staff.
If he sensed any malice targeting him, Yang Xiao would not hesitate to squelch it on the spot. He had suffered enough from his previous complacency. Here, unlike in the Nightmare World, the partnerships were very fragile, and without the constraints of the Resentful Eye, in some sense, everyone was a ghost. This also led to a proliferation of power.
Yang Xiao was adept at addressing his own shortcomings and learning to adapt to new environments. In the real ghost scripts of the Nightmare World, to survive through cooperation, Yang Xiao could tolerate some hostility from his teammates, as long as they were useful. But here, it was different; next time, if a teammate showed hostility first, he would not hesitate to take them down immediately.
"What... what’s your name?" Just as Yang Xiao was pondering these matters, a stiff, faint voice suddenly came from beside him.
Yang Xiao turned his head to look at the girl and asked with a smile, "Why, you want to repay me by offering your body? No need for that, I, Mr. Yang..."
"When I get out, I’ll definitely kill you..." Despite her weak voice, the girl’s tone was decidedly firm.
"Hehehe..." Yang Xiao was taken aback at first, then lowered his voice, emitting an owl-like hoarse laugh. He remembered villains laughing like that. Then he taunted, "Let’s see if you can get out alive first, I’m a man of the Yu Yuan Sect. While you were unconscious just now, I already... heh heh heh!"
The girl’s head slumped to one side, and she passed out completely. Yang Xiao placed his hand on the pale side of her neck, feeling a still-strong pulse; she wasn’t going to die anytime soon.
Just as Yang Xiao stood up, bone staff in hand, intending to take a walk nearby, suddenly, he felt as if he perceived something and sharply turned to face the southeast direction of the village, where, inexplicably, a grey mist had begun to gather.
The mist approached with extraordinary swiftness, engulfing almost half of the village in moments. The mist twisted and tangled with itself, inducing a strong unease and an innate fear of the unknown just by looking at it.
Yang Xiao was almost certain that even if he entered that mist with his Ghost Lantern in hand, he would ultimately become lost.
His breathing became rapid, Yang Xiao’s face turned pale, his pupils constricted, and his hand clutching the Human Bone Staff trembled violently. He felt it, an extremely terrifying aura coming from the southeast of the village, within that patch of mist, and this aura felt eerily familiar to him.
There was no mistake, it was that creature from the Mirror World!
That arm!
Recalling that moment, Yang Xiao still felt chills. He only vaguely remembered it as a withered purple-black arm, its flesh dried up, like that of a mummy.
"Ah—"
The very next second, a heart-wrenching scream emanated from the mist-covered southeast, persisting for about half a minute before it stopped.
It was a woman’s scream, Yang Xiao heard it clearly, it was the missing woman No. 24. Unexpectedly... that terrifying creature had gone after her!
But... something was off, Yang Xiao suddenly realized. That terrifying creature should be in a bizarre world similar to the Mirror World, how... how did it come to this world where he was?
Moreover, according to his experience in the Nightmare World, there should only be one Core Ghost in any given Nightmare World. The ghost of this fishing village had already been disposed of by him, so where did this terrifying creature come from, and why did it feel so out of place in this world?
Yang Xiao hadn’t even made contact with this unknown ghost and had already sensed its terror. Not to mention himself, even a Ghost-level Apostle like Pingxi Marquis wouldn’t stand a chance against it, one could say, anyone who encountered this thing would die. Last time, his escape was purely due to taking advantage of the Soul-Capturing Mirror’s teleportation.
The terrifying aura came quickly and left just as fast. Soon, the village returned to silence, and the mist in the southeast dissipated. After hesitating for a moment, Yang Xiao decided to check it out. But when he carefully arrived, he was met with an extremely gruesome scene; half a bloody corpse lay in the street.
Yes, just half, and not top to bottom, but it was the left half only. The woman was torn apart by a terrifying force, one half of her body lay in the street, while the other half hung on a mud wall several meters away, with intestines and organs scattered all around.
The halves of the body weren’t neatly severed; it was not cut by a knife but ripped apart by some unknown immense force. Moreover, judging by the duration of the scream, it wasn’t instantaneous; the inhuman torment lasted a whole half minute.
Yang Xiao, still holding the Human Bone Staff, was relieved there were no malicious intents nearby. He cautiously approached the body. The woman’s mask had fallen off, revealing a face twisted in extreme fear.
The woman’s eyes were wide open, her mouth agape, and her pupils dilated, a visage of horrendous terror, making Yang Xiao wonder what she had seen just before her death.
Typically, a ghost’s method of killing is quite specific. For instance, the Sea Girl Ghost, restricted by Yang Xiao, killed people by entangling them in a fishing net before crushing them into pieces. No. 40, No. 9, and the old man No. 189 all died the same way.
From the corpse in front of him, it seemed that the terrifying creature’s method of killing was to slowly tear people apart with some bizarre force.
However, as Yang Xiao observed further, he noticed something unusual. Aside from being torn apart, the woman had almost no other injuries. The only peculiarity was her ankles; both of her ankles were broken, with bones shattered, twisted grotesquely in front of Yang Xiao.
Yang Xiao recalled something, the woman’s Magic Artifact was an ancient cast iron handcuff. Last time, when she used it against the Sea Girl Ghost, this handcuff had entangled the ghost’s feet tightly, significantly contributing to eventually tripping the ghost.
The woman didn’t seem to have died from an attack by another ghost, but rather seemed to have been killed by the backlash of her own Magic Artifact.
For a moment, Yang Xiao visualized this scenario: the woman’s ankles suddenly shackled by handcuffs, unable to break free, then the handcuffs, uncontrollable, pulled simultaneously in opposite directions, forcefully tearing her legs apart, and gradually, dismembering her.
