Xyrin Empire

Chapter 128: Chapter 128 Exploration (Part 2)

First to appear before us was a pile of broken wooden planks.

They must have been furniture remnants used by the homeowners to block the front door, but in the recent tremors, they had turned into a pile of firewood. These once valuable woodworks now had no use other than for burning or making plywood.

The light in the hall was dim, everything was covered with a thick layer of dust, and spider webs crisscrossed in all directions, but we could still vaguely make out the former splendor of the decorations.

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Although the soft glow emanating from Alaya provided a certain degree of illumination, after all, Angel Sister was not an actual bulb, and we suddenly remembered that we had come out to explore without even the most basic lighting tools…

At this moment, Qianqian patted Little Baobao’s head and whispered something in her ear, and the little one immediately uttered a compliant response and then bowed her head, rubbing her hands together.

Three seconds later, accompanied by a comically cartoonish “ding” sound, a small glow stick appeared in Little Baobao’s hand. Then, the little one hopped over to me with the glow stick, bombarding me with a loli stare at a 45° angle of innocence.

...

I blandly accepted the surprisingly bright glow stick and expressed immense admiration for Qianqian’s creativity and the flexible use of her abilities.

With the source of light, the objects in the room became much clearer. We saw a spiral staircase on the right side of the hall, presumably leading to the second floor, and on both sides of the hall were doors that had been smashed open, behind which lay pitch-black corridors.

After a brief discussion, we decided to start exploring from the corridor on the left first.

By the door, there was a toppled lamp stand blocking our way, so Qianqian stepped forward and casually pushed the lamp stand aside, then… the bone-white remnant of an arm fell in front of her—it had been hanging at the top of the lamp stand.

I decisively stuffed the glow stick into Sandora’s hand and then covered my own ears with force.

“Ahhhh—”

Qianqian’s piercing scream echoed through the entire house!

A minute later, the dust scattered by the devastation of Qianqian’s sonic attack finally settled down, and I also lowered my hands—honestly, doing so was not very effective. I knew all too well how terrifying Qianqian’s scream was; that sonic attack, more piercing than any sniper rifle, could not be blocked by hands alone.

Though Qianqian had been toughened up by the war in the Otherworld and was much stronger than the average girl, demonized creatures were different from people. Qianqian could smash a dark and slippery slime creature without expression, but the sight of a segment of bone still shocked her into losing her composure.

Sandora was stunned, and it wasn’t until I nudged her shoulder that she finally came to her senses, and then babbled, “That’s a banned weapon, that’s absolutely a banned weapon! Even in the Empire’s conquest wars, this would definitely not be allowed!!!”

Cough cough, I mean, wasn’t it just a little scare? Is it that exaggerated?

The sight of something so visually shocking startled Lin Xue as well. Under normal circumstances, she definitely would have cried out too, but Qianqian’s preemptive scream had clearly shifted Lin Xue’s attention, and she probably still hadn’t come to her senses.

Little Baobao was another who was scared stiff, but the little one wasn’t petrified by the bone on the ground; rather, it was Qianqian’s scream that did it. Her eyes were wide open, her mouth slightly ajar, standing motionless, making me worry whether Little Baobao might be traumatized by Qianqian’s outburst.

In less than a few seconds, Lin Xue had calmed down. She stepped forward with a disgusted face and nudged the arm—once belonging to an unfortunate Catastrophe Soldier—with the tip of her shoe, and said, “There’s a strange energy residue on it, probably the power of the Dead Souls. But oddly enough, this arm has been severed from its body for so long, yet the energy hasn’t dissipated—seems the Dead Souls from the Otherworld differ from the Zombies on Earth.”

I immediately looked at her as if she were a monster.

“What are you looking at,” Lin Xue noticed my gaze and, with practiced ease, spun around and delivered an uppercut to me, “Miss here is a well-traveled Superpower Soldier. I’ve seen real, living Zombies, so this is nothing but Bone Strengthening Powder to me!”

Lin Xue’s outburst somewhat eased the atmosphere, and Qianqian laughed awkwardly, seemingly also feeling that her reaction had been a bit exaggerated.

Actually, her reaction was not exaggerated at all. It’s just that the presence of a cadre of boss-level Superwomen made her natural response seem a bit prominent.

“Let’s hurry past this thing; it’s so disgusting…” Qianqian said as she carefully dragged my arm, skirting around a hand bone on the ground and walking forward.

“I thought you were about to call it quits,” I whispered in her ear.

Qianqian sneakily glanced back at Sandora, who followed with a nonchalant expression, and said, “Then wouldn’t I have lost?”

Truly… an incomprehensible form of competition.

This certainly was an enormous house, worthy of its former status as the private estate of Dalaran County’s wealthiest. The dark corridors seemed endless, which could be an illusion, but the length of this hallway was a bit excessive.

Guided by the blue light from Little Baobao brand cold light lamps, we could see many oil paintings hung on both sides of the corridor, featuring various people and landscapes. It seemed that Fowler had been a great art enthusiast, though that wasn’t necessarily the case.

There must have been a battle in this corridor, as we saw many dark brown bloodstains on the walls. The paintings, once bright and beautiful, looked grotesque with blood smeared on them.

At that moment, Sandora suddenly stopped and motioned for us to look at the wall beside us.

Only then did we notice a series of blurred handprints, mixed with the large dark stains. They were handprints formed by congealed blood, starting a few meters behind us and extending forward, vanishing on a dark green side door beside the corridor.

Clearly, the marks had been left by someone injured and fleeing for their life, possibly with pursuers behind them, for the handprints appeared disorganized. Then the person must have hidden in the small room by the corridor, locking the door behind them. As for why the Dead Souls chasing him hadn’t destroyed that rickety wooden door— it was obvious. The one who’d fled was injured by the Dead Souls, and soon after locking himself inside, the plague’s power must have activated, turning him into a Zombie, void of a living person’s scent. The Dead Souls outside naturally lost interest. As for why the door was never reopened from the inside, there might have been another exit in the room, or the newly transformed Zombie didn’t know to come out, still wandering inside—bear in mind, low-level Zombies lack awareness. Without the scent of living people nearby, they can stand in place for years, until they rot into a skeleton, finally turning into a pile of Bone Strengthening Powder.

The increasingly eerie atmosphere around us made Qianqian cling tightly to my arm, and I could distinctly feel her soft body trembling slightly—so 80% of male fellows are keen to take their girlfriends to watch horror movies and visit Ghost Houses. It makes a lot of sense!

And the remaining 20%?

Well, maybe you’ve forgotten, but there’s this awkward thing where a guy brings his girlfriend to a horror movie and ends up diving into her arms at the first scene, while the girlfriend who should be scared is laughing at the Zombies on screen—after all, not every man is unafraid of ghosts.

I took a deep breath and then kicked the decayed wooden door open with a swift foot.

Immediately, Pandora held her Rotary Cannons and charged in, carefully scanning the surroundings.

“Safe.”

Seconds later, Pandora concluded, and we filed in after her.

This room appeared to be for servants to rest, with simplistic furnishings and no decoratives. The entire furniture consisted of a single wooden bed on the right side of the room, an empty table against the left wall, and two long-legged chairs toppled on the floor. Facing us was a pitch-black window, barred haphazardly with wooden strips just like those we’d seen outside the mansion, probably nailed by the house owner as the town fell under Dead Soul attack. It seemed, however, that they ended up trapping the owner inside.

********************************************* Here’s a tiny spoiler *********************************************

Oh, hehehe… wow, it finally appeared, but—pay attention to this dramatically pivotal word, but!

This is not the beginning of the Azeroth world, although it will appear; a little patience is still needed…

Besides, can we discuss something? I’m not delusional about this niche book, misplaced, misnamed, and miscategorized, shaking the Galaxy, but could the brothers and sisters who like it help promote it a bit? At least give me some motivation…

Moreover, the next novel has already started its unabashedly wild fabrication stage. Which genre do you guys like? Let me know.