Death Is Everywhere (Revised)

In midair, a boy and a girl who looked seven or eight years old, their hair in little braids, their cheeks rosy, grinned and revealed a pair of small canine teeth. They looked rather cute.

But on closer inspection, beneath the surrounding red light, their reflections were nowhere to be seen on the calm, unruffled lake.

Zhao Ke's pupils contracted. He swiftly lowered the black curtain he had lifted, leaving only an inconspicuous slit. He flattened himself down, concealing his silhouette as much as possible, and secretly observed through the gap in the curtain.

The two children, dressed as flower attendants, held flower baskets in their hands and wore a pair of bells on their feet. As they walked, they grabbed handfuls of white paper from the baskets and scattered them. Zhao Ke took one look and saw that the white paper was actually joss paper money with square holes.

In the blink of an eye, it covered the entire lake. Under the bizarre red glow surrounding them, the white ghost money looked indescribably eerie.

The two flower attendants scattered paper money ahead, while behind them came wave after wave of gongs and drums. A low suona played a tune whose rhythm sounded quick, yet it carried an oppressive air of death. It sounded more like funeral music played during a wake.

A black, square sedan chair was carried by four men, following closely behind the two flower attendants.

Zhao Ke looked at the four men. They appeared strong and sturdy, but when he looked higher, he discovered that they had no faces at all. Their faces were smooth and blank, like the white tiles in mahjong.

Zhao Ke glanced at the river beneath their feet. Sure enough, aside from the floating sedan chair, the four men could not be seen at all. Behind them was also a band playing funeral music. It looked lively enough, yet apart from the shadow of the black sedan chair, nothing else was reflected on the river.

Could they be ghosts?

They said only ghosts had no shadows, but if they truly were ghosts, why were they carrying a sedan chair?

As the group of "people" drew closer and closer, Zhao Ke lay prone in the boat, carefully holding his breath. Both hands gripped his dagger until his knuckles turned white. His legs were slightly curled beneath him as he crouched inside the canopy, like a frog that had been storing strength for a long time. A cold, murderous glint flashed through his eyes from time to time, ready to deliver a fatal strike at any moment.

Thump...

Just then, Zhao Ke noticed that the small boat not far to his side suddenly jolted violently. Though it quickly settled down, the slight sway of its hull sent ripples spreading across the otherwise calm river.

Normally, this would have meant nothing. But with all the boats floating on the water, the scene felt like a frozen painting. The sudden ripples on the lake instantly became the most discordant element within it.

At once, the suona, gongs, and drums abruptly fell silent. The previously lively river turned deathly quiet in an instant. Pair after pair of icy eyes stared at that small boat, and the air seemed to solidify.

Run!

At that moment, a shriek came from inside the boat canopy. Two dark figures sprang out, one after the other.

The sudden appearance of the two people startled Zhao Ke.

One of them tapped the water's surface with his toes, then leaped sideways three or four zhang. He landed on a small boat, borrowed the force to jump again, and by the time his figure could be seen clearly, he had already reached another boat.

The other was even more straightforward. He plunged headfirst into the water. A splash erupted on the surface, and when Zhao Ke looked again, the man had vanished without a trace.

Postmen!

The two moved extremely fast, but Zhao Ke saw clearly. As they acted, a flash of light flickered behind each of them, like the mark that burst forth when a stamp ability was activated.

Zhao Ke's heart immediately sank. If those two were postmen, then... were there other postmen on the surrounding boats? Had his every move just now already drawn the attention of the other postmen?

Living people! Kill them!

The flower attendants floating in midair instantly lost their cheerful smiles, their expressions turning sinister. Fangs protruded from their mouths, and with a wave of a hand, black mist suddenly arose all around them.

Kill them!

Rotting human faces stretched out from the black mist, tangled together like gelatin. It rolled across the lake, split into two, and chased after the pair.

Damn it!

Seeing the black mist sweeping toward him from behind, one of the figures' expressions abruptly changed. He spun around sharply, and a pitch-black gun barrel appeared in his hand.

Bang bang bang...

A string of muzzle flashes burst forth. The black mist before him was instantly blasted through with three fist-sized holes. Moreover, black smoke burned around the edges of each wound. The bullets he fired clearly were not ordinary rounds.

A gun!

Zhao Ke frowned. He had considered before whether modern weapons could be converted into the Post Album, but such items were tightly regulated in China.

Even if Lei Ke had not resigned, obtaining a handgun for him would have involved risks and difficulty too great for either Zhao Ke or Lei Ke to bear.

And the other man was clearly an expert marksman. Whether drawing his gun or firing it, every movement was nearly flawless.

It hurts!

Wounded by the man's special bullets, the faces in the black mist twisted together. Shrill cries rang out—male and female, old and young—like a crowd of women and children screaming and wailing.

Hmph!

Seeing this, the man sneered. Relying on his extraordinary speed, he darted quickly between the boats while raising his handgun and continuously firing single shots into the black mist.

Bang bang bang...

The bullets traced strange paths through the air. Even while moving at high speed, every shot struck the black mist with precision. The angles were tricky and unpredictable; calling it a one-sided slaughter would not have been an exaggeration.

Every bullet blew a hole through the black mist. The mist, originally half a person tall, was reduced to scattered fragments in the blink of an eye.

But at that moment, Zhao Ke suddenly heard a series of giggles above his head. Looking up, he saw the pair of flower attendants suspended in midair lightly clap their hands.

Clap clap...

A chilly wind blew over, and the large red lanterns on both banks of the river went out simultaneously, plunging the entire river into darkness.

However, the extinguished lanterns soon lit up again. Only, the lanterns had previously been red, while now... every last one of them was white.

For some reason, the sight of the lanterns lighting up again immediately gave Zhao Ke a strong sense of danger.

He instinctively drew himself deeper into the boat canopy, clenched both hands into fists, and glanced sideways at the flower attendants overhead. Zhao Ke immediately froze.

Of the two flower attendants that had been floating in midair, only the girl remained. Under the candlelight, her little face looked deathly pale. She stood in the air, letting out a string of silver-bell-like giggles.

The sound of her laughter sent chills down one's spine.

Clearly, the postman darting rapidly between the boats had no idea that one flower attendant had disappeared. He was suddenly struck by the bright white lights around him. The abrupt glare made it difficult for his eyes to adjust, and he could not help but pause in a daze before slowing down.

The instant he stopped, a strange hee hee hee laugh suddenly sounded behind him. Upon hearing it, the postman's face stiffened at once. It was as if someone had shoved a venomous snake down his collar, making every hair on his body stand on end.

He spun around and saw the half-person-tall little boy standing behind him, though no one knew when he had appeared there. Even stranger, the boy held a bright red heart in his hand, beating powerfully against his palm.

Looking down, he saw that a bowl-sized hole had appeared in his chest at some point.

He froze slightly, then tipped backward. With a splash, his body fell straight into the river. Water sprayed up around him, and afterward, only his bewildered face floated on the surface.

Blood dyed the surrounding river water a dark red. He was obviously dead beyond any doubt.

At the same time, a stream of bubbles suddenly rose from the water at the other end of the river.

Gurgle gurgle...

Someone beneath the water seemed to be struggling desperately. A hand stretched out from the river and flailed forcefully in the air a few times before it was dragged back underwater.

Not long afterward, a mass of black mist emerged from the depths. A fresh human face had appeared on it, its eyes hollow as it opened its mouth and groaned weakly.

Zhao Ke hid inside the boat canopy and drew a deep breath. By now, his back was drenched in cold sweat.

The instant the little boy attacked, Zhao Ke had even felt as though someone were gripping his throat, leaving him unable to breathe.

The two postmen's strength had completely surpassed his own. With that bizarre marksmanship, if it had been him, he probably would not even have had a chance to escape before being riddled with bullets.

Yet such an expert had turned into a corpse in just a few short breaths.

It made Zhao Ke realize that even with the abilities granted by special stamps, dreaming of running rampant through the horror space was nothing but a joke.

With the two troublesome living people dead, cheerful smiles returned to the flower attendants' faces as they shook the bells on their feet.

The band behind the sedan chair began playing again, slowly passing over Zhao Ke's head and continuing along the river.

Seeing this, Zhao Ke could not help but let out a long breath. He reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead, when a purple handkerchief was held out before him.

Zhao Ke instinctively reached back to take it, but halfway through the motion, his face suddenly turned pale. His eyes followed the handkerchief upward, and he saw that a woman had appeared behind him at some point.