Things Got Weird

A chilling feeling crept up Yu Xing's back. He hunched over slightly and glanced at the stalactites above his head.

For a moment, he thought that some kind of ghostly creature, adept at concealment, was hiding in the crevice, and that he had missed it.

No matter how carefully he looked, he couldn't find any clues in the nooks and crannies of these stones. It just seemed to be very cold here. Apart from that, he didn't sense any ghostly presence.

That's strange. The three knocks that came just now clearly came from outside the coffin. In other words, there must have been something outside the coffin before he opened it, maybe even lying on the coffin lid, just a board away from him.

Now, however, there's no trace of them.

Yu Xing then shifted his gaze to the corpses opposite, those with only flesh remaining on their heads. There were about twenty such corpses on the opposite cliff face; naturally, there would be more on his side as well, perhaps...

Which corpse crawled over and played with him for a bit, then went back to its own bed after he came out?

Yu Xing couldn't help but picture the scene in his mind: a head carrying his bones had come knocking on the door, and he wondered if it was a welcome and enthusiasm for the new neighbor.

Thinking about this, Yu Xing no longer found it strange. After all, everyone deserves a good neighborly relationship even after death; it's only human nature.

He stopped paying attention to the person knocking on the coffin and turned his attention back to himself.

"Never mind, figuring out where we are is the most important thing right now." Yu Xing stretched as he looked at the black coffin, then thrust his long sword into the surrounding stone wall, the tough blade penetrating more than halfway in.

His internal organs had almost fully recovered, at least they wouldn't hurt when he moved around. He lightly touched the ground with his toes and hung down under the long sword, swaying like a swing.

The surface of the stone wall was uneven, which made it easier for Yu Xing to climb. He glanced down, but it was too dark to see the bottom, so climbing down was not a good option.

Let's move upwards then.

With a flashlight in one hand and a long knife in the other, Yu Xing stepped onto solid ground and began to climb in the unfamiliar place.

Every so often he would climb a certain distance, and he would have to shine his flashlight on the path above. Just as he had guessed, the stone wall was also inlaid with several coffins of various sizes, and he would occasionally climb under one of them.

To avoid being pushed into the abyss by her overly enthusiastic neighbors, Yu Xing decided to take a detour.

And so, he climbed and adjusted his position, without slowing down at all. In just five or six minutes, he reached the end of the rock wall.

Yu Xing scrambled up a bit more, but instead of climbing over immediately, she poked half her head out to get a feel for what the road looked like above.

He shone his flashlight into the endless darkness, only to see an even deeper cave entrance. In front of the cave, a pile of broken stones lay scattered on the ground, as if they had once been some kind of handicraft, but were now ruined.

There doesn't seem to be much danger.

Yu Xing used her waist and legs to lift herself onto the flat ground silently, and walked around for a while, shining her flashlight on both sides.

In the silence, the sound of his footsteps echoed in the space. Even though they were faint, they were amplified infinitely, and even reverberated.

He yawned, finding the footsteps incredibly hypnotic.

When they reached the spot where the rubble was, Yu Xing squatted down to observe it.

The pebbles varied in size, with the largest being a third the size of Yu Xing, and the smallest only the size of a palm.

They weren't broken too badly, consisting of only about thirty pieces. Almost every piece was engraved with patterns, and the broken parts had strange shapes, indicating that they were once a single entity.

Yu Xing noticed that next to the cave entrance stood a low, inconspicuous base, also made of stone, rough yet heavy.

"..." He glanced at it again, then walked into the cave.

There's only one road nearby. Apart from this cave entrance, the surrounding path winds and twists, eventually leading to unremarkable stone walls that connect to the ceiling overhead – all dead ends.

It's almost as if they wrote "Hurry up and get here" on the cave.

This cave is quite narrow, only wide enough for one person to pass through at a time.

Not only was it narrow, but it was also low. Yu Xing, who was tall, had to bend over slightly to walk. The top was covered with stalactites, just like the outside. If he dared to walk with his back straight, he would surely get a bloody hole in his head.

Water droplets cascaded down from the stalactites, occasionally landing on Yu Xing's head, while the rest fell to the ground. The path beneath their feet was covered in water, making a soft sound when they stepped on it.

The falling water droplets created a faint ripple, carrying a natural coolness and an omnipresent chill.

Yu Xing walked, the cave got lower and lower, and he had to duck down.

After walking a little further, the cave became even more impassable without crouching down. Yu Xing crouched down and slowly moved forward, frowning as he did so.

For some reason, even though he clearly understood that the sense of being watched came from the corpses on the stone wall whose eyes could move, he could still feel a gaze upon him, continuous and relentless, pressing down on him.

After walking a short distance as if nothing had happened, Yu Xing suddenly shone his flashlight behind him and squinted as he turned around.

There was nothing behind him except the stone wall.

Yu Xing knew that she was already moving very fast, and that there were only two possibilities if she hadn't noticed anything despite being caught off guard.

Or perhaps there really is nothing behind it, and he's just being overly sensitive.

Either this thing is very special, completely without form, or its reaction speed is even faster than his.

Yu Xing touched his slightly damp chin and thought to himself, "Could it be that the one who knocked on the coffin has followed us?"

If the opponent is following him and preparing to attack, his current posture makes it difficult to form an effective defense; crouching forward, even turning around takes time.

But he had no choice but to go forward. The other party seemed to know this, that he wouldn't leave the cave, which was why they followed him so brazenly, not even bothering to look away.

When soldiers come, we'll block them; when water comes, we'll dam it. Since that thing wants to follow, Yu Xing will let "it" follow. Anyway, if it really attacks, it's not certain who will suffer the loss.

He continued forward; if he walked any further, he would have to be half-lying down.

"..." Yu Xing felt uneasy. He stopped, thought for two seconds, and noticed something.

As he entered the cave, the entrance became lower and lower, and his posture became increasingly "humble" as he went in.

First they bend over and lower their heads, then kneel and squat, and now they even have to lie down. If they want to walk, they have to crawl.

The design of this cave is as if it demands that outsiders pay a grand salute to the things inside.

Moreover, the path Yu Xing's flashlight shone towards was becoming increasingly narrow; if he continued for another two minutes, he would probably have to cut himself into several pieces to squeeze through.

"This isn't the right way," Yu Xing murmured, involuntarily taking a step back.

He had just stretched his ankle back a little when he suddenly felt something cover him. A force, neither too strong nor too weak, came from that thing. Through his pants, Yu Xing could roughly sense that it was a hand.

Sure enough, there was something following him the whole time!

Even Yu Xing hadn't expected that thing would follow him so closely, right next to him.

I don't know how I managed to evade his observation just now.

The hand not only rested on Yu Xing 'Yu Xing calf, but also gripped her slightly above her military boot, with long knuckles that circled her ankle.

Yu Xing's breath hitched. For some reason, he keenly sensed the emotion conveyed by the hand's movements, and he felt that the hand was toying with him.

He handled it with ease, even with a hint of schadenfreude.

Moreover, only after he held his breath did he hear another kind of breathing sound, hidden within his breathing frequency.

He wondered if the thing behind him sensed his presence, for its breathing faltered for a moment, and then Yu Xing felt an unmasked presence pressing against him from behind.

In an instant, the backpack on his back pressed against a body, and something vaguely resembling hair pierced Yu Xing's nape.

The hand gripping Yu Xing's ankle did not loosen; in short, Yu Xing was currently in a very dangerous and constrained position.

Yu Xing held back for a moment, then couldn't help but say, "... Hey, you're pretty arrogant, aren't you?"

The feeling of being mocked was even stronger. To be honest, if it were an ordinary ghost, a mere scratch wouldn't have given him this illusion. Didn't the bone vine also wrap around his ankle?

This time, however, Yu Xing clearly resonated with what was behind him; the other party's emotions could not escape Yu Xing's perception.

He taunted, "May I ask whether you were male or female in your previous life, and whether you had a partner?"

Judging from the size of the hand, he guessed that it must be a male ghost: "Even if you didn't exist in life, you can't just mess with me like that. Wouldn't it be better to have your family burn a paper effigy of a beautiful woman for you? I'm not a good person."

The ghostly thing behind him didn't answer him. It remained silent for a few seconds, then took another step forward.

A warm breath reached Yu Xing's ear, accompanied by the rhythm of her breathing, and a chilling coldness.

Yu Xing was taken aback, her pupils contracting.

Wait, that breathing... it's hot?

Living person?

His gaze suddenly darkened, and he shone the flashlight behind him again.

But the moment he turned around, his presence vanished like the wind, the sensation on his leg disappeared, and the flashlight beam only illuminated a patch of black rock; apart from that, he saw not a single ghostly figure.

After provoking them, they dare not show their faces?

"Looks like there's a very interesting guy here." Yu Xing smiled instead of being surprised. He admired the other party's suicidal attitude, especially since he possessed strength that piqued his interest while doing so.

He wasn't sure if the other person had left, and wondered to himself, "Was it alive, a resurrected being, or someone who came after me like myself?"

With his mind clearing, Yu Xing was no longer sleepy. He chose to retreat little by little, no longer playing mind Yugi with the person who designed the cave years ago.

Yu Xing took a few small steps back, her hand tracing a path across the ground, then suddenly stopped.

He shone his flashlight down and saw that several new simplified Chinese characters had silently appeared on the ground beneath him.

"Male, no, knows."

Holy shit.

Yu Xing laughed out of anger. The arrogance of the person behind him was almost on par with his own; how dare they write a response to his mockery?

These three words correspond to the questions he just asked, "Is he male or female?", "Do you have a partner?", and "I'm not a good person."

Having interacted to this point, Yu Xing guessed that this seemingly living thing didn't harbor any ill intentions towards him; otherwise, he would have already taken action. However, he couldn't understand why the other party was following him and hadn't shown itself yet.

Is it meant to convey some kind of message?

It doesn't seem like it.

Forget it, I'll stop thinking about it for now. Whatever the other party's purpose, that thing will definitely appear on its own at the right time.

Soon, Yu Xing retreated outside the cave. His hair was very damp, clinging to his forehead and the back of his neck in clumps, and his coat and skin were also covered with a fine layer of water.

Having encountered something strange in the cave, Yu Xing was in a very good mood. He casually pulled out a towel to wipe his face and hair, and then returned to the pile of rubble.

"We should be able to put a chance..."

Yu Xing currently has no specific purpose and is not wasting any time.

Even his entry into the tomb was solely for investigating the very vague mission given by the studio—to uncover the tomb's secrets.

As a force existing within the simulation world, it certainly wouldn't eliminate those who didn't complete their missions like the simulation itself would. Yu Xing estimated that even if he didn't find the source of the resurrection rumors, and reported to the studio that he could get here after sleeping in the coffin, the studio's head wouldn't say anything.

After all, isn't that a secret?

It is precisely for this reason that this simulation has a variable number of participants, who may be reduced or supplemented at any time. Yu Xing finds a way out and goes straight back without participating in the later plot, then he has left midway.

So, with no time to lose, Yu Xing began trying to restore the broken pieces to their original state, wanting to see what the stone carving that had originally been placed at the cave entrance actually looked like.

Yu Xing started searching from the bottom. The largest piece of stone fit perfectly into half of the empty space on the base. Relying on his strength, he moved the stone onto the base by hand. Sure enough, the stone stood firmly, as if it were attracted to each other by a magnet.

He raised an eyebrow, found another much smaller stone, filled in the pattern on the bottom, and then slowly pieced it together.

The stones gradually returned to their original appearance, and the cracked lines became smooth and continuous. When Yu Xing placed the last stone on top, the entire stone sculpture attracted each other and was restored into a single, exquisite statue that showed no signs of being broken.

However, Yu Xing looked at the statue with a somewhat unpleasant expression.

The statue is about two meters tall and depicts a person carrying a grotesque corpse on their back. Bone vines intertwine and tightly bind the person's legs, leaving only the incomplete upper body exposed.

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Dead tree insects clung to the bone vines, some lying dormant, others fluttering their wings as if about to take flight; the sight was nauseating.

Beside the swarm of insects, there were also dead birds hanging upside down, densely packed together.

At the very top of the bone vine, a large flower unfolded its petals, obscuring the person's head.

The statue was filled with all the repulsive elements from the vicinity of the Heavy Yin Mountain, which made Yu Xing dislike it, even though its carving technique was superb.

The person, shrouded in these affairs, had only his head clearly visible; the rest of his body was more or less obscured and covered, making him look like a dying man trapped in Mud Swamp.

The strangest thing was that the face of the dying man resembled Yu Xing by seven or eight points.