Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Ever since I was little, I had rarely felt fear.

The more dangerous things got, the less afraid I became.

At worst, I would die. And if I turned into a ghost, I would definitely be the most vicious of vengeful spirits.

But this time, for the first time, I felt a chill crawl all the way up my spine.

What scared me wasn’t the bizarre “people” gathered at the bottom of the pit, nor the nooses around their necks.

What scared me was the “thing” deep within that pit-something I couldn’t see or touch, yet somehow knew had once existed there, and might still exist there even now.

I didn’t dare look anymore. I spun around, shook out Tang Dong’s clothes, covered him from head to toe, and charged outside.

In truth, only a minute or two had passed. Lai Zhi was still collapsed on the ground, unable to get up, when I had already leaped out the window.

“Run!”

I yanked Lai Zhi, and he staggered to his feet, stumbling after me.

At that moment, the entire village “came alive.”

One by one, those pitch-black windows lit up.

Everywhere came the creak of doors being pushed open.

Lai Zhi clamped his mouth shut over his whimpers, not daring to fall even half a step behind me.

It felt like I had returned to twenty years ago.

Twenty years ago, I hadn’t seen anything, but after I rescued Tang Dong, it had been just like this.

I carried him on my back and ran for my life without stopping for even a moment.

Suddenly, it was as if I slammed into two walls. The space around me became cramped and packed.

It was as though countless people had appeared all at once on the wide village road.

They were walking in the opposite direction from us. Even when I crashed into them, their bodies didn’t pause in the slightest.

Lai Zhi was the same. He was too terrified, and his legs were already weak. After a few collisions, he was knocked to the ground.

I could only turn back and haul him up again. “If you don’t want to die, don’t stop!”

Lai Zhi opened his mouth with a sobbing grimace and nodded desperately.

But by then, the pressure around us was no longer all moving against us.

I could clearly feel that a lot of that force had turned toward me.

We couldn’t delay any longer. I drew the Soul-Whip, and faint flashes of lightning flickered through it.

I cracked it three times-snap, snap, snap-and the space in front of me instantly cleared.

“Go!”

I shouted at Lai Zhi and dragged him in a mad rush toward the outside.

Just then, another tremendous rumble boomed behind us, as though the surrounding mountains really were about to collapse.

I heard the cries and screams of many people. They wailed in despair, as if they had reached the end of the road.

Then something tripped my foot, and Lai Zhi let out a scream beside me.

Countless arms were reaching up from beneath the ground. Amid the crying and screaming, they clawed wildly in every direction.

“Watch out! Don’t slow down!”

I yanked Lai Zhi again and lashed the ground several times with the whip, barely clearing a narrow path we could run through.

Stumbling and crashing along, we rushed toward the village entrance.

At that moment, a thought suddenly struck me. Lai Zhi’s grandfather had said that after a few rainy nights, everyone in the village had disappeared.

Perhaps they hadn’t disappeared at all.

Perhaps they had truly been buried underground.