Chapter 814: Chapter 606: Threat_2
The sound of the well rope grew more and more shrill, and the swing of the winch handle became more and more exaggerated. The ghost below moved quickly, as if impatient.
Although Yang Xiao had decided to stay, he couldn’t just wait for death. He had made the worst-case plan. From his previous observations, he guessed that the ghost’s way of finding people might have something to do with shadows. Considering this, he simply lay on the ground, reducing the area of his shadow to a minimum.
Yang Xiao lay straight behind the door in the corner, turning his head to stare fixedly at the mouth of the well. Claiming he wasn’t scared would be false, but at this moment, all he could do was wait.
"Snap!"
As a sodden, pale hand slapped onto the edge of the well, Yang Xiao’s hanging heart finally died. He had lost his bet, never expecting the well to be real and not some Blinding Technique. The ghost truly climbed out from within the well.
But now it was too late for anything. The ghost moved quickly, shaking its swollen body and limping toward the hall where Yang Xiao was.
At this time, Yang Xiao finally got a close look at the Drowned Ghost. It was indeed a woman, but her face was so blurred it was unrecognizable. Her clothes were exactly the same as the statue he had seen in the Land Temple, and her body kept dripping with liquid—not water, but a disgusting, nasty mucus that emitted a foul stench.
With the life-saving incense in his mouth, Yang Xiao held his breath, trying his best to control his heartbeat, not daring to make a move. This incense stick given to him by the Director was a full one; if all went well, it should suffice to last him a while.
All he could do now was to drag things out in the hope of a turnaround.
The female ghost wandered aimlessly inside the room. Yang Xiao felt immensely relieved; thank goodness he had laid down behind the door in the corner, or the ghost might have stepped and revealed his presence.
Moreover, Yang Xiao noticed something; the female ghost’s accuracy in pinning down his location was much worse compared to that of Director Nalan and his companion. It seemed to know only that he was inside the room, completely unable to pinpoint his approximate location. This likely had something to do with his hidden shadow.
All of a sudden, the female ghost came straight to the back of the door. Yang Xiao, since he didn’t dare to move, could only sweep his gaze using his peripheral vision, just making out a small portion of the ghost’s back.
"Thud!"
This sudden dull sound clenched Yang Xiao’s heart violently.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
Yang Xiao quickly realized the noise was the female ghost body-slamming the door. The door was very old, and the latch behind it had already come loose. If this continued...
"Bang!"
Before Yang Xiao could think any further, a wave of cold moonlight poured in along with the breech of the door which had been knocked open.
The sudden moonlight made Yang Xiao subconsciously close his eyes.
"Tap."
A foot of the female ghost stepped over the threshold.
"Tap."
Her whole body left the room, stepping outside.
"Tap."
"Tap."
"Tap."
Yang Xiao kept his eyes shut, listening as the footsteps gradually faded away. One small consolation was that the steps were not heading toward where Nalan Shuo and Xiang Fengchen stood by the well, but in a different direction.
When the footsteps had nearly vanished, Yang Xiao finally exhaled and slowly opened his eyes. He turned his head to look outside the door, but what he saw scared him nearly to the point of a heart attack. His pupils trembled, even his heartbeat skipped a half-beat, as a swollen ghost shadow stood rigidly outside, its large head hanging low, staring dead at him.
The next second, Yang Xiao watched wide-eyed as the massive shadow leaped up like a Zombie, jumping toward him.
"Thud!"
The female ghost’s taut toes struck hard against the threshold, failing to jump inside.
"Thud!"
Another attempt, still unsuccessful.
Unable to bend her knees, the female ghost hit the wall three times without success. Then, under Yang Xiao’s verge-of-collapse gaze, she stiffly turned around and disappeared from his sight.
The candlelight was too dim to leave a shadow, but the moonlight could. Yang Xiao felt icy all over. He thought of getting up but couldn’t bring himself to move. Craning his neck from his position, he could only make out the silhouette of a sparse moon in the night sky.
But how could such a threatened "sparse moon" possibly shed such cold, clear moonlight? Yang Xiao instantly realized there was something seriously wrong with the moonlight.
No wonder the female ghost had to knock down the door—it was to let this moonlight fall upon him!
Once again the wet footsteps stopped at the old spot, just outside the wall, between the two Ghost Gate Gods. This time, with just one hit on the wall, the noise of water and the sound of a rope being pulled from the well echoed once again. The ghost had re-entered.
After all this disturbance, Yang Xiao had figured it out; the ghost couldn’t enter through the threshold, but it could go through the wall guarded by the Ghost Gate Gods.
However, this time was different from the last; previously, the ghost hadn’t confirmed his position, and that had allowed him to escape, but this time, the ghost had seen him from outside.
Thinking this, Yang Xiao no longer hesitated and immediately started moving his stiff, numb body, forcing himself to leave and find another place to hide.
"Damn legs, crawl faster!"
In a state of desperation, Yang Xiao could only move like an insect, stretching and contracting his body as he struggled to flee his position. By the time the female ghost climbed out of the well again, he had already half wedged himself under a table.
The candle on the table flickered faintly, a case of ’invisible in the light’ for him.
"Tap."
"Tap."
Dull footsteps sounded inside the house. Yang Xiao lay tense under the table, not daring to budge.
As expected, the ghost headed straight for the spot behind the door where he had been hiding. Thick feet, nearly as rotten as its legs, stomped messily around, as Yang Xiao’s scalp went numb at the sight.
