The moment they saw the pattern, the three of them realized that this so-called "Eye Offering Ceremony" was actually a way to strengthen the dungeon's power. Without even seeing actual eyes, just the drawing alone made their eyes feel like needles were stabbing into them. Their bodies instinctively wanted to escape, yet a strange urge drove them to keep looking.
"How are you doing?" Xu Huo asked Yi Pei.
Yi Pei shook her head. Her poor eyesight offered no advantage right now—if she couldn't see clearly, she felt an impulse to lean in and look closer!
"Let's go!"
The three quickly moved away from the flower carriage. They hadn't gone far before encountering other players who had also retreated. After the flower carriage appeared, the other residents began hanging various eye-pattern banners in their courtyards. Those things didn't look particularly remarkable, but they carried an oppressive weight that was impossible to ignore.
Some players tried destroying the banners. But even without directly touching them, anyone who damaged a banner instantly suffered a dizzying impact.
"I think I heard a bell..." The hooded-shirt player tried twice, then didn't dare touch the banners again.
The players tried to walk around the banners, but there wasn't a single spot in the city that didn't have the eye pattern. When they thought about escaping to the forest outside the county, it was as if the residents had anticipated their plan—they came holding banners, smiling and shoving them into the players' hands.
The closer they got, the more the players could no longer hear the residents' laughter and chatter. Instead, they heard a distant, echoing sound from afar—layered and overlapping, clearly coming from far more people than were present.
"I can't take this anymore!" The hooded-shirt player leaped onto a wall and bolted toward the forest.
The other players also jumped out of the encirclement one after another. Xu Huo glanced back and saw the people standing on every street turning their heads to watch the players flee. Their eyeballs looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets, paired with exaggerated smiles—an utterly grotesque sight.
But hiding in the forest wasn't any better. That clamor still drilled into their ears, near and far, stirring up an uncontrollable fury. Yet the stronger their emotions surged, the louder the sound became. It no longer came from the county's direction—it surrounded them, three hundred sixty degrees, a full stereo assault.
To block out this hypnotic noise, the players put on headphones. This was standard equipment—almost every player had a pair—but they weren't very effective. None of them looked relaxed.
The players kept some distance from each other—close enough, but still wary. Under this eerie atmosphere, more than twenty pairs of eyes darted around. No one wanted to speak for a while, until the lights came on in the county.
Garish red and green lanterns hung high and low, casting an unsettling glow over the entire county. A few minutes later, footsteps of varying weight echoed from the distance.
"Someone's coming!" The players shot to their feet and used binoculars or items to check the source of the sound. A sharp gasp filled the air!
"Corpses! They're all corpses!"
Countless corpses emerged from every direction. They moved toward the county in orderly fashion, like living people. Their clothes were a mix of old and new, but every single one had hollow eyes and empty upper torsos. Their bodies showed varying degrees of decay—some even oozing corpse fluid and stinking to high heaven!
"What the hell is this?! Zombies? Jiangshi?" Several players couldn't help blurting out.
Xu Huo and his group climbed trees to observe the corpse procession from above. The black-shirted player said, "They're evenly spaced—no direction has more or fewer."
"And no gaps either. No idea where they're all coming from."
"Fog is forming around the county's perimeter." Xu Huo scanned the surroundings, then looked toward the water pool. Nothing unusual there—just rows of corpses marching past.
All the players hid, but the corpses weren't coming for them. They stumbled into the county, and moments later, a horrifying scene unfolded inside—the living and the dead celebrating together. The county's original residents seemed completely oblivious to the fact that they were face-to-face with corpses. Some embraced and kissed the dead, smearing corpse fluid and rotting flesh across their faces without a care.
"What a human tragedy—they're sucking the remaining scalp dry!" The hooded-shirt player was referring to an elderly couple locked in a "passionate kiss."
The man's upper body was nothing but a layer of skin. After kissing twice, he went limp and drooped over the woman's arm, but she didn't even notice. When the corpse fell to the ground, she went looking for another one, acting like it was her family member.
Meanwhile, the pair surrounded by the grandmother and grandson clearly didn't match the people in the photo either.
Xu Huo felt a slight relief. If these corpses could accurately find their own families, he'd have a real headache.
"These corpses don't seem sentient." Yi Pei subconsciously looked at Xu Huo.
"Then it's not necessarily corpses that were blocking us." Xu Huo pointed at the ground. "They left traces where they walked." Yesterday, there were none.
"Then what's the point of bringing so many corpses?" Fang Penghui frowned.
"Maybe to scare... or disgust people." Wei Xian lowered his binoculars.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, a drumbeat rang out.
The players fell silent. Liu Shiyan said, "Sounds like it's coming from the water pool."
"There's not just a drum—there's water sounds too." Xu Huo was about to head toward the water pool when Fu Danhong suddenly shouted, "They're all looking this way!"
The family reunion activity in the county had paused for the moment. Every living person and every dead person turned their heads simultaneously, their faces aimed directly at where the players were hiding. The next second, the county answered with another drumbeat. All the flower carriages, ceremonial lanterns, and people began to move. One by one, wooden cabinets were carried out. As their doors swung open, a crimson glow erupted from the ritual procession!
"Don't look!" Fang Penghui yelled.
"Almost got me!" Tian Kunwen quickly lowered his head, but when he turned sideways, he saw Cao Dong beside him, eyes bloodshot, staring at the county. He dropped the item in his hand and walked forward.
"Get him undressed!" Fu Danhong waved at Cao Dong. His pants fell down, tripping him instantly. The hooded-shirt player behind him moved in swiftly, stabbing straight through his heart!
"What are you doing!" Fang Penghui kicked at him. The hooded-shirt player retreated, his expression grim. "He clearly lost his mind! If he got controlled like the other living people and turned on us, what then?!"
Regardless of his intentions or whether he had a point, now wasn't the time to argue—because the ritual procession was leaving the county. Those crimson-glowing eyes stared straight at the forest. After the light shifted, every player present felt their minds grow hazy.
"Pfft! Pfft!" Several sharp sounds rang out as flames erupted in the procession. A few wooden eyes exploded on the spot. Xu Huo leaped down from the tree. "Destroy those wooden eyes!"
The others followed suit, closing the distance and using items to destroy the enshrined eyes. But once the front ones were taken out, the rear ranks formed a human wall to protect the remaining wooden eyes. And then the corpses in the procession went berserk, charging straight at them!
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