Footsteps in the Darkness

Chapter 31: Footsteps in the Darkness

In this clapping game, the order of clapping was crucial.

To prevent chaos from multiple people clapping simultaneously and violating the game's rules, the six survivors were each assigned a number.

Wu Xian was one, Shi Ji was two.

Yue Mei was three, Wen Chao was four.

Su Huilan was five, and Su Huijin was six.

The order was determined by a lottery draw for the rooms. Wu Xian, representing room 403, drew the number one. The person with number one would clap their hands forcefully once, number two would clap twice, and so on.

The next person to clap had to do so within ten seconds of receiving the signal.

The male corpse crawled past rooms 401 and 402, finally stopping at the door of 403.

As the footsteps drew closer, Wu Xian clapped his hands again, letting the ghost mother know his location. The ghost mother then moved towards Wu Xian.

The chanting outside the window stopped, and the occasional strange cries of evil spirits also vanished. All Wu Xian could feel was absolute silence and darkness.

Each time a hand touched Wu Xian, countless images flooded his mind. Most of these images were faces: men and women, old and young, faces at the moment of death.

Wu Xian swallowed.

In just two seconds, it stood before Wu Xian, the two faces separated only by a tongue's length.

Clap, clap, hiss...

Some wept, some raged, some wailed...

If more than ten seconds passed and the next clapper hadn't clapped, it meant an accident had occurred. The person after that had to clap within the next ten seconds to maintain the game's progression.

Time is a strange concept.

Splash, splash...

Often, when people wish time would slow down, to prolong a pleasant experience, it rushes by like a wild horse.

This wasn't footsteps; it sounded more like hands slapping the ground, dragging a body along.

A puff of air on the eyelids was the signal to switch searchers.

At this moment, every second felt like an eternity!

In the absolute silence, Wu Xian's hearing became even sharper. He could hear his own heartbeat, the ticking of the clock, and the restless stirrings from other rooms.

The moment it turned around, a pair of pale hands smeared across its face.

One slap seemed to silence the entire world.

The first evil spirit of this world, the child-seeking ghost mother!

The sound of so many chains colliding suggested how restricted the child-seeking ghost mother was by the blessed land. Compared to her, the breaking door wraith was practically free.

But even such a mindless evil spirit...

The skin on its arm split open, and its bones grew into a bone blade laced with blood, aimed at Wu Xian's abdomen. He could already imagine how refreshing it would be to have new internal organs installed in his body.

The male corpse grinned sinisterly.

Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, his heart filled with turmoil.

The male corpse's voice vanished.

The male corpse had no internal organs, making its movements strenuous. Only when Wu Xian stopped moving did it slowly make its way here.

He could only pray that after the male corpse touched him, he would have a chance to activate the Golden Crow Feather and repel it with fire.

Suddenly.

All five other survivors, besides Wu Xian, simultaneously felt a cold, foul breath blow on their eyelids.

"Found... found them, my internal organs."

As the ghost mother approached, it also felt an inexplicable fear. Wu Xian, who was right beside it, lost his allure. It turned around, wanting to escape.

It was that empty-bellied male corpse!

It had found them!

It had come to find Wu Xian at this damned time!

Cold hands fumbled over Wu Xian. The male corpse's bloodshot eyes were also stained.

Conversely, the more people want time to pass quickly, to get through difficult moments, the slower time crawls like a snail.

After about five minutes, Wu Xian heard other sounds.

New sounds emerged, the clanging of dense chains, accompanied by the sound of a woman's footsteps.

It wasn't a normal evil spirit. Its internal organs had been hollowed out, and its head was an empty shell. It was driven only by the instinct of an evil spirit, which was why it dared to enter the ghost mother's domain.

The child-seeking ghost mother stepped over the corpse, waving its blood-stained pale hands, groping forward. It finally found the source of the clapping sound: Wu Xian.

Wu Xian closed his eyes, but he could still sense the Male Corpse's presence from its sounds.

The crawling sounds of the Male Corpse sent shivers down the spines of the six survivors, adding a dangerous variable to the already perilous clapping game.

As long as the two remained in contact, these negative emotions would continue to flood in.

This kind of Wandering Wraith, if he could just open his eyes, with his Copper Coin Sword and its remaining eighty Blades, he could easily chop it into mincemeat!

But the most critical thing was that he was waiting for the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother.

She had arrived.

Despair and fear, madness and regret, countless negative emotions assaulted Wu Xian's mind. Wu Xian even had the thought of simply opening his eyes and ending it all.

Wu Xian kept his eyes shut, gritting his teeth and enduring.

For Wu Xian.

So he had to find Wu Xian to become whole again!

Since Wu Xian had smashed his internal organs, he would fill his empty abdominal cavity with Wu Xian's internal organs!

Now, Wu Xian had become the new seeker.

It didn't dare to move, staring intently at the thing before it, then watching as two pale hands plunged into its own eye sockets!

Splash!

But at this very moment, the Male Corpse froze.

Under the dim yellow light.

So Wu Xian could only quietly clench his fists.

A hollowed-out Male Corpse climbed onto the fourth floor of Ping'an Hostel. Its limbs were incredibly strong, and its ruptured abdomen dragged along the ground, leaving a trail of blood behind it.

He hated himself like this.

He rubbed his numb palms, which were sore from gripping too tightly, and waited in absolute darkness for the Evil Spirit to find him.

Upon receiving the signal, Shi Ji immediately clapped his hands twice.

He didn't dare to open his eyes at all!

He didn't even dare to use his Copper Coin Spear for defense. The Copper Coin Spear would heat up when encountering spirits, and it was too long. If the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother found Wu Xian, accidentally injuring him with the Copper Coin Spear might be considered an act of aggression.

Clap!

The clap was crisp.

The Male Corpse immediately became restless.

The Ghost Mother quickly found Wu Xian's eyes. She measured the position of his eyelids with her hands, leaned her body forward, and blew a breath onto Wu Xian's eyes.

Wu Xian closed his eyes, prepared himself, and suddenly clapped his hands loudly.

Seeing that the time was almost up.

It transformed from a prone position to a hunched stance, its speed suddenly increasing without making a sound. Its terrifying face was filled with greedy longing.

The Male Corpse fell to the ground, its body beginning to rot at a speed hundreds of times faster than normal.

Since the Male Corpse had no lungs, it couldn't breathe. Wu Xian hadn't even noticed its approach, still waiting for it to crawl over so he could seize an opportunity to throw a punch.

Wu Xian knew Shi Ji's location. After fumbling in the darkness for two seconds, he found Shi Ji. He felt for his eyes with his hands and then blew a breath onto them.

Since Wu Xian had brushed his teeth properly, everyone smelled the fresh scent of toothpaste.