Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I watched the fire in the west wing burn, the flames reflecting across everyone’s faces in a brilliant sheet of red.

So beautiful.

Amid that blaze, I saw a pair of red shoes shrink back in a corner.

So that was where it was hiding.

I kept a rat in this ancient mansion. As long as the players who came in could catch that rat and bring it before me, I might let them leave if I was in a good mood.

Of course, that did not mean I could not catch the rat myself.

After the players experienced the west wing where the paper effigies were stored, I watched them head toward the desolate rear courtyard. There was a dry well there, and inside the well were countless wronged souls.

Those souls would drag anyone who came too close to the well into it.

I remembered that some of the souls down there should also have been human players who had entered before. They had become part of this dungeon too, with no memories left, only instinct.

I did not understand why I was the only one who could clearly remember every cycle.

Another chorus of ghostly wails rang out.

A few fewer insects remained.

Elsewhere, Yang Xi and her group passed through the rear mountain graveyard. There, they found a large stretch of graves. Each tombstone bore the words: “Chen Ze’s Wife.”

Counting them carefully, there were eight or nine identical graves.

“So Chen Ze should be the name of the groom we’re looking for. Does that mean all these are the Ghost Bride’s graves? This many?” the man with glasses mused.

“They’re all Ghost Brides?” White Hair sounded incredulous. “There are nine of those ceiling-level fighters like the one we just ran into?”

Was this dungeon even giving them a chance to survive?

“Sister Xi, what do you think?” the man with glasses asked, looking at Yang Xi.

“Stop looking for now,” said Su Siqiong, who was dressed like a schoolgirl, her voice trembling. “Something is coming.”

She had some talent for sensing supernatural things.

As soon as she spoke, nine rope loops suddenly appeared in midair, dangling straight down. One of them happened to slip around White Hair’s neck and instantly tightened, hoisting him into the air.

“Li Muxing!” the man with glasses cried out and immediately moved to rescue him.

But those ropes seemed alive, chasing specifically after their necks.

In the chaos, Yang Xi threw a dart. It struck the rope around White Hair, and he fell from midair, dropping to his knees and coughing until he looked half-dead.

“Li Muxing, get up!” Yang Xi shouted.

The next second, White Hair, his eyes red from coughing, rose to his feet and warily scanned their surroundings.

After the hemp ropes were cut, they joined themselves back together. As the ropes writhed, nine brides in red wedding dresses suddenly appeared over the graveyard. None of them wore red veils. Their black hair hung loose, their heads bowed so their hair covered their faces. Their toes pointed downward, but they did not touch the ground.

A woman’s humming rose over the graveyard: “Red wedding dress, new bride, red candles burn, the groom laughs, the bride weeps, one wife each year…”

It was an eerie nursery rhyme.

Listening to it made goosebumps rise all over.

The long-haired brides abruptly attacked them. Each of the players had some life-saving skills of their own.

But they were outnumbered, and during the fight, they could see that the Ghost Brides all had different faces, yet every one of them was deathly pale, eyes shut tight. As the rhyme continued, bloody tears seeped from the corners of their eyes.

No one knew where the singing was coming from.

Yang Xi gave the order decisively. “Fall back first.”

There was no point in continuing to fight.

Once they retreated beyond the graveyard’s boundary, the Ghost Brides stopped attacking.

Their range of movement was confined to that area.