Chapter 87
Chapter 87
Even though Cheng Miao had prepared herself, the sight nearly killed her on the spot.
She bit the tip of her tongue, using the pain to remain conscious.
Sweat soaked her back, and loose hair clung to her cheeks. She hardly looked composed, especially beside the exquisite beauty who remained calm as a mountain collapsing before her.
The line of ghostly women slowly turned and drifted away.
Lian Ge gently swung her oil-paper umbrella. “Follow them?”
Cheng Miao exhaled, her gaze complicated.
She had survived because a special buff earned the dead women’s favor. What about Lian Ge?
She had been standing directly beside Cheng Miao and had done nothing except toy with her umbrella.
Cheng Miao looked at Lian Ge with admiration. Even if everyone else died in this instance, Lian Ge would surely find a way out unharmed. She had probably come tonight merely because it seemed interesting.
“We follow.” Cheng Miao steeled herself. The clue was walking in plain sight before them. How could they not pursue it?
They trailed the line of ghostly women. Cheng Miao realized they were heading in the same direction the Village Head had come from on the first night.
At the time, she had wondered why he would visit an area with nothing in it.
Now she knew.
Inside an inconspicuous building, Cheng Miao and Lian Ge followed the ghostly women through a hidden entrance beside a mill and down underground.
The tunnel was damp and hot, forcing Cheng Miao to stoop as she moved.
Few people could claim to have crawled through a tunnel behind ghosts. Cheng Miao could only amuse herself with the thought.
The smell of blood grew stronger until it made breathing difficult.
Cheng Miao formed a rough theory. This was probably where Zhangjia Village had manufactured the human-skin lanterns.
When they finally emerged, candlelight stabbed at Cheng Miao’s eyes.
A circular chamber spread before them. At its center stood a stone platform hollowed into the shape of a human body. It was easy to imagine young women bound there while their skin and bones were removed.
Thick scabs of old blood had seeped into the stone, forming cruel yet beautiful patterns.
Several weathered human bones and discarded lanterns lay scattered around the altar.
No one knew how many innocent young women Zhangjia Village had killed. Even the earth had mingled with their decaying remains and reeked nauseatingly.
Dozens of blazing lanterns surrounded the altar. The line of ghostly women who had led them there had vanished. Only the first remained, holding her lantern as she watched Cheng Miao and Lian Ge from beside the altar.
Faced with this hell on earth, Cheng Miao felt more sympathy than fear. She took two steps forward and softened her voice. “How can we help you?”
The ghostly woman did not speak. Wax tears like drops of blood fell from her lantern and formed words on the ground: “Destroy the lanterns, and we can enter reincarnation.”
Cheng Miao and Lian Ge exchanged a silent look. In truth, the solution to Zhangjia Village’s deaths was simple. Destroying the lanterns would allow everyone to live in peace.
But the villagers were too ignorant and too afraid.
They did not dare destroy the lanterns they believed protected them. They preferred twisted, heretical methods over sincerely repenting for their crimes.
The villagers had trapped both the spirits and themselves.
Cheng Miao nodded. “How do we destroy the lanterns?”
The ghostly woman suddenly lifted her mangled face toward Cheng Miao. Cheng Miao repeatedly warned herself not to show fear. Lian Ge watched with interest as terror froze Cheng Miao’s expression blank while she stared back at the ghost.
“Hee, hee, hee…” The bloody flesh on the ghostly woman’s face twitched as she released a shrill lament, half laughter and half a blood-soaked sob.
The lantern in her hand shook violently. Its wax tears spread across the ground and formed two words: “Use fire.”
Fire?
Cheng Miao frowned. Could it truly be that simple?
“It must be heartbreaking,” Lian Ge suddenly said. Cheng Miao looked over and found genuine pity and sorrow on her face. “Your own families trapped you for so long with such a crude method.”
Lian Ge’s expression rarely changed. The sight stirred Cheng Miao. So beneath it all, Lian Ge was kindhearted too.
The ghostly woman’s body trembled violently, as though Lian Ge had touched her deepest pain. It took a long while for her to calm and stand quietly again.
Lian Ge had already put away every trace of emotion, as if she had never spoken. “Let’s go.”
Cheng Miao knew there were no further clues. After one last look at the ghostly woman beside the altar, she followed Lian Ge out.
They moved swiftly and soon returned to their room.
Lying on the bed, Cheng Miao’s thoughts churned. Phones did not work inside an instance, so she could not tell Lin Zhu and the others she was safe.
Burning every lantern would not be easy. They needed to wait until the entire village gathered in one place.
The only such opportunity was tomorrow night’s ancestral ceremony.
But they would still need lanterns for protection during the day. The Friend of Ghosts buff had allowed Cheng Miao to communicate with the women tonight, but without lanterns tomorrow, everyone else would still die.
Cheng Miao thought with her eyes closed until she drifted into a hazy sleep.
At daybreak, Lin Zhu and the other two pushed open the door. Seeing Cheng Miao safe and sound as she drew water to wash, all three relaxed.
The lanterns had remained unlit last night, and no one had died. Everyone wore the relieved expression of someone who had narrowly escaped death.
The Village Head was another matter. He stormed over without even clasping his hands behind his back and demanded to know where the lanterns were.
Cheng Miao felt no goodwill toward anyone in Zhangjia Village now. She slowly poured out the water from her basin and replied coldly, “Are you going to search us, Village Head? What lanterns? There weren’t any outside our rooms this morning, but there weren’t any outside the other homes either. Why don’t you question them?”
The Village Head nearly choked on his anger. Lanterns summoned ghosts at night. Other than the ones outside the players’ rooms, who would light them?
“You must have taken them. If you don’t hand them over now, don’t blame us for what happens next.” As soon as he finished, Cheng Miao sensed someone approaching. Yan Qi and Yezi, unseen for days, appeared behind Qin Musong and Lian Ge from opposite sides.
Both held Items. Yan Qi carried an ax, while Yezi held a long syringe.
They possessed some martial skill and had approached without a sound, gaining leverage over the group’s two strongest fighters.
Qin Musong looked toward Cheng Miao. She gave a slight shake of her head.
With Qin Musong’s professional training, Yan Qi’s surprise attack offered little real advantage, and no one knew the limits of Lian Ge’s strength. But Cheng Miao wanted to see what the Village Head intended to do.
She pulled three lanterns from her Space Backpack and threw them onto the ground. The surrounding villagers cried out in alarm.
They lunged for the lanterns without regard for their lives. After inspecting them repeatedly for damage, they carefully gathered them up and glared viciously at Cheng Miao.
The Village Head finally discarded his disguise entirely. “Tie them up and take them to the altar!”