Chapter 77
Chapter 77
The group followed the compass forward. Guo Lan and He Xu walked at the very front, Wei Sen and the others stayed in the middle, while Liu Shuang and Zhou Jie brought up the rear.
The temperature in the forest was brutally low. The white mist everyone breathed out condensed in the frigid air, and even wrapped in thick down jackets, they still felt cold.
If they failed to find the inn before nightfall, they would no doubt freeze to death in this forest.
With every step Wei Sen took, her foot sank into the snow with a teeth-grating crunch. The snow here was even deeper than she had imagined.
She kept feeling as though something in the woods was staring at them from the shadows. She swept her gaze around from the corner of her eye, yet saw nothing suspicious.
But the moment she looked ahead again, that sensation of being watched returned. The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
“Sister Sen, something’s wrong with this forest.” Xu You had noticed it too. She moved closer to Wei Sen, compass in hand, and spoke in a low voice.
“So it is…” Wei Sen frowned. The chill crawling down her back had not come out of nowhere.
Wei Sen noticed that Guo Lan kept one hand tucked in her pocket, while He Xu also seemed to be gripping something tightly.
If she was not mistaken, they must have noticed the problem as well. That was why each of them had their own Anomalous Artifact ready in hand.
“Stay calm for now,” Wei Sen said. “Before that thing attacks, let’s not alert it.”
“Mm.” Xu You nodded.
Huang Xinze suddenly squeezed forward from behind. “Look at those trees.”
He pointed toward the dark, dense woods not far away, keeping his voice very low. “Their shapes are too strange.”
Everyone followed his gaze and could not help shivering.
Those spruces should have grown straight upward, but now they looked as if some tremendous force had twisted them. Their trunks spiraled in unnatural shapes, and their crowns tangled together, forming the outlines of distorted human faces in the fading daylight.
“Nothing in the Eerie World is normal anyway. Just stay careful, everyone. There are a lot of us, so even if we run into an Eerie Entity, there’s no need to be afraid!” Liu Shuang said, silently placing a hand over his chest.
The Crucifix he wore close to his body was an Anomalous Artifact capable of driving away Eerie Entities, but unless he had no other choice, he did not plan to use something so precious.
Keeping their guard up, the group continued north through the forest. The farther they went, the lower the temperature became.
It was not ordinary cold, but a sinister chill that seeped into the bones.
Wei Sen noticed there were no marks of bark being gnawed anywhere in the forest, nor were there any animal tracks.
She looked up at the tree crowns. There were not even any bird nests.
The forest was frighteningly quiet. Aside from them, there did not seem to be a single living thing.
After they had walked for a while, Lin Xiaoxue suddenly sucked in a sharp breath.
“What is that?” she asked, terrified, staring into the dense woods on the right.
Everyone froze.
“What’s wrong?” Liu Shuang asked, his voice taut.
“There was something white… moving behind the trees.” Lin Xiaoxue’s voice trembled. “It looked… it looked like a human figure.”
Everyone immediately looked in the direction she was pointing, but all they saw were layers upon layers of tree trunks and the increasingly thick dusk.
“Maybe a clump of snow fell from a tree,” Liu Shuang said, though he could not help swallowing.
“I’ve felt something off the whole way here, but I’ve been watching our surroundings and haven’t seen any people or Eerie Entities,” Huang Xinze said seriously.
“I didn’t see anything either,” He Xu said.
Lin Xiaoxue began to doubt her own eyes. After all, she had indeed been a little too tense the whole way.
“Th-then maybe I just imagined it.”
Guo Lan drew in a light breath and said, “Don’t worry. If there’s danger, I’ll protect you. Let’s keep going for now, before it gets dark.”
The group quickened their pace and continued forward.
After their figures disappeared, in the vast white snow, a skeleton lying prone in the snow lifted its head. Its empty eye sockets turned toward the direction the group had gone.
Its four limbs began to move like those of an arthropod. Agilely, it crawled across the snow and silently followed behind them, leaving four shallow trails in the snow. But as the snowflakes drifted down, those marks were soon completely covered again.
The group kept heading north for nearly half an hour before they finally saw the village entrance marked on the map.
A stone stele stood there, carved with the words “Aurora Village.”
Beside the stele was a shrine about half a meter high. Inside it, a Buddha statue was enshrined.
Its body was blue-black, with three eyes wide open, its mane standing on end, and a crown of five skulls upon its head.
Its two arms were held before its chest. In its left hand, it held a skull bowl filled to the brim with human blood; in its right hand, it gripped a crescent-shaped knife. A short staff lay horizontally between its arms. It stood on both legs, with raging flames burning behind it.
Everyone stopped in front of the shrine. The temperature seemed to grow even colder, the chill seeping through their thick clothes and into their bones.
“What is this thing they’re worshiping? It looks terrifying.” Xia Susu frowned and edged a little closer to He Xu.
“I don’t know either, but ever since we got here, all the hair on my body has been standing up for no reason,” He Xu said.
Zhou Jie’s expression turned grave. “Now that you mention it, same here.”
“This is Mahakala, a Buddhist guardian deity.” Xu You stepped forward and studied the shrine, then said to the others, “His great vow is to ‘grant wealth to the poor,’ so he’s also regarded as a god of wealth, one who can bring riches and blessings to all beings.”
“A god of wealth?!” Xia Susu, who had still been a little scared just moments ago, instantly lit up. She took a step forward. “Well, since we’re here, might as well pray!”
“Legend also says he was once a war god.” Xu You watched Xia Susu with the look of someone enjoying a show. “According to the stories, he has countless ghostly and divine attendants. They can all turn invisible, fly, and obey his commands.”
Xia Susu’s eyes went wide, and the hands she had just pressed together immediately dropped. “Couldn’t you have said all of that at once?!”
“You were the one in too much of a hurry.” Xu You shrugged and looked back at the shrine. “Those spirits protect the beings who pray to him during war. What were you thinking?”
Xia Susu’s face looked awful. After that emotional roller coaster, she had completely lost the urge to pray.
“All right, let’s keep moving. We’re already at the village entrance, so the inn shouldn’t be far,” Liu Shuang said, raising his voice.
The others did not linger either and continued forward. By then, the snow was gradually falling harder.
Before leaving, Wei Sen took a few more looks at Mahakala. She felt that when she looked at it, those eyes seemed to be staring right back at her. A chill crawled up her spine.
Wei Sen did not stay any longer. She quickened her pace and followed the others farther north.
After another ten minutes or so, Lin Xiaoxue suddenly stopped. Xia Susu pricked up her ears and pointed ahead. “Listen, there are voices over there!”
He Xu said, “We should be close to the inn!”
Joy appeared on everyone’s faces, and their steps grew even faster.
Soon, they emerged from the forest. What came into view was a wooden house, four stories tall, standing quietly in the snow-covered woods. It had the feel of a Japanese-style hot spring guesthouse.
In front of the house stood twenty other Order Keepers, all wearing Black Watches on their wrists. Like them, they were dressed in thick clothing and carrying luggage, clearly in the role of tourists.
“Better lucky than early! Perfect timing-everyone’s here now.” A tall, skinny man spoke as he walked out from another direction in the forest with one man and two women. They arrived almost at the same time as Wei Sen’s group.
Wei Sen looked around at the crowd. It seemed they had all cleared at least a few Instances. At the very least, they had basic common sense. Not a single one had chosen to go to the villagers; all of them had come to the inn.
“Well, damn. Someone actually dares to go Lone Wolf in an S-Rank Instance?” The tall, skinny man checked the information in the Instance’s main group chat, making no attempt to hide the mockery in his voice. “Do they really think everyone can be Legend Lin?!”
Lone Wolf?
Hearing that, Wei Sen also checked the information on her watch.
They had been rushing to reach the inn before dark earlier, so none of them had had time to look at the main group chat.
Now that she looked, she realized…
Someone was actually a team of one!