Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Circling the Tower
After getting off the carriage, the three of them saw a Buddha stupa standing in the woods from afar, only the earthy-yellow spire was visible due to the trees obstructing the view.
The coachman set aside his whip, looked towards the stupa with eyes full of reverence, and swallowed before explaining, "Blessing Guests, the place where we stand now is relatively safe, but once we get close to the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda, we will have to... we’ll have to hold a mouthful of this stuff."
As he spoke, the coachman pulled out a yellow paper packet from his chest and shook out some grave soil.
The martial master from the other carriage jogged over, bowed politely, and said, "Blessing Guests, we won’t follow and add to the chaos. Once you have finished your task, just come back here to find us; we will all return to the estate together. Master Feng is looking forward to welcoming you!"
Yang Xiao put on an air of superiority, with his hands in his sleeves, carelessly glanced at the martial master, "We don’t care much about being welcomed, but the agreed-upon silver must not be short, otherwise don’t blame me for turning hostile!"
"Of course! Of course!" The martial master with the surname Zhao agreed readily.
After taking the grave soil from the coachman’s hands, Yang Xiao and his companions slowly walked towards the Demon Suppressing Tower. As soon as they stepped into the woods, out of sight of the martial master, they found a spot to sit down and start discussing.
"They don’t plan to let us go back. We’ll be dead after the task is finished," Kuang Hongyi suggested, "After we complete the task, we run, heading deep into the forest, trying to delay as long as possible. With the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda here, they wouldn’t dare to follow us too closely."
As newcomers, Yang Xiao and Su Tingting were not familiar with the rules within the Nightmare World, "Kuang, once we’ve completed the task, can we immediately return?"
"Almost. At that time, a rift will appear in this world, which is the exit. This exit could be a door, a window, or something like a hollow tree or a well; it could be anything. As long as we enter the exit, we can return to reality."
"However, remember that the rift will only exist for a short while. If we don’t get through before it disappears, then we’ll be trapped here forever and never be able to go back."
Upon hearing this, Su Tingting grew somewhat afraid, realizing the situation was more complicated than she thought, "Then... how do we find this exit?"
Kuang Hongyi reassured them, "Don’t worry about that. Once the exit appears, all survivors will sense it."
"Enough dawdling, any delay could bring change, I can’t stand this ghostly place for another minute." Standing up, Kuang Hongyi opened the paper packet, "Hold the grave soil in your mouth, let’s quickly complete the task and go home."
The two words ’go home’ seemed to possess a special kind of magic, involuntarily lifting one’s spirits.
Yang Xiao noticed Su Tingting was holding the grave soil in her hand without intending to put it in her mouth and frowned, "What’s wrong?"
Staring at the grave soil in her hand, Su Tingting hesitated for a moment, "You... you said the Feng Family are so bad, could they have tampered with this grave soil, deliberately mixing in some sleeping or poisonous drugs, and once we consume it, we would..."
Hearing this, Kuang Hongyi couldn’t help but laugh and cry, tapping on Su Tingting’s head, "Can you not add your own drama? Poison, sleeping drugs? With the matter still unresolved, what good does it do the Feng Family to knock us out? Then would Master Feng be waiting to die directly?"
The three of them held the grave soil in their mouths; although it wasn’t their first time tasting it, the flavor still made Su Tingting involuntarily frown.
As they drew closer, the full view of the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda finally revealed itself to the trio. It was a rather spectacular pagoda, towering at least 10 meters high, with its main structure composed of wooden beams and brick, capped with hanging eaves at the top, while the rest was reinforced with yellow mud. Embedded all around the body of the tower were Buddha statues of various sizes, made from materials ranging from wood, stone, clay and even the rarer porcelain. However, due to many years of exposure to the elements and lack of maintenance, the entire tower had been severely eroded, the paint on the Buddha statues had long since peeled away, and the faces of several clay Buddhas had crumbled away.
Gazing at these Buddha statues in varied poses, Su Tingting didn’t feel any sense of refuge; instead, she felt a chill down her spine.
Kuang Hongyi took a deep breath and turned his head to look around, finding the area eerily silent. There were none of the usual sounds of insects or birds that one would expect to find in a forest; it was as quiet as death itself.
Yang Xiao made a gesture to Kuang Hongyi, first pointing at a nearby tree, then gesturing towards the distance. With those movements and his expressive eyes, Kuang Hongyi quickly understood the message: the vegetation near the pagoda was noticeably more robust than the surrounding trees and plants.
The reason was simple, the land around here had an untold number of corpses buried beneath it; it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the plants were nourished by human blood.
As Yang Xiao and Kuang Hongyi approached the pagoda, they noticed that its exposed bricks were etched with numerous slanted and crooked characters. Upon closer inspection, they recognized them as names. Looking around, the names were densely packed and numbered in the hundreds.
This was not a job for Su Tingting. Yang Xiao and Kuang Hongyi had a clear division of labor. Yang Xiao picked up a sharp-edged stone from the ground and, after circling the pagoda, finally found a blank space. He started carving the words "Ms. Chun" into the brick, and for good measure, he even added her full birthdate behind the name.
After Yang Xiao finished, Kuang Hongyi lifted the old clothes they had taken from Ms. Chun’s grave with both hands and knelt down respectfully before the pagoda, bowing his head to it.
Then, with hands pressed together before him, Yang Xiao led the way, with Kuang Hongyi carrying the clothes behind him. They circled the pagoda clockwise, mentally reciting auspicious phrases, hoping Ms. Chun’s soul would return to this place and reunite with her mother as soon as possible.
But after more than ten rounds, the clothes in their hands showed no sign of activity. Stopping in his tracks, Yang Xiao could acutely sense some changes around them.
At first, the feeling was vague, but it quickly became clear to him. There were several ghastly stares fixed upon him.
He looked around, but didn’t find anything.
Kuang Hongyi’s face also changed color, moving exactly like Yang Xiao. Yang Xiao knew that he had felt it too. This was not a good sign. Ms. Chun hadn’t come, but instead, they had attracted the attention of something else.
Without further hesitation, Yang Xiao, Kuang Hongyi, and Su Tingting made an immediate retreat. Su Tingting, who had cemetery soil in her mouth, could only widen her eyes in confusion, having no idea what was happening.
Once they had walked a good distance away, Su Tingting couldn’t help but look back, but that one glance sent a shiver through her.
She saw that, out of nowhere, dozens of dark figures had appeared around the previously empty pagoda. The figures varied in height, build, and shape, all with heads bowed and hands clasped, forming a circle and slowly inching around the pagoda.
But unlike Yang Xiao and Kuang Hongyi before, these figures were moving counter-clockwise around the pagoda, creating a silent and eerie scene.
After they had left the area of the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda, Kuang Hongyi was the first to spit out the cemetery soil from his mouth, "Something’s not right. Ms. Chun’s belongings didn’t respond. That child... that child is not in the Soul-Suppressing Pagoda!"
