Mystical Revival: Starting by Controlling the Person-Hiding Ghost, Part 39
Honggong Is Not a Salted Fish
It's Simeng
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Los Angeles Lone Wolf
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Siliu Alpha NANA
Poxel
God Is Not Human
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What Has Wealth and Honor to Do with Me
Silent One-Way Street
LeBron Zhanms
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Chapter 60: Unpredictable Terror (Thanks to Zhuxu Zhuxu Dandan for the tip)
A melodious ringing and a muffled tapping echoed in their ears.
Jiang Li followed close behind the two people ahead of him, keeping a constant watch on their surroundings.
Almost five minutes had passed since they entered the cave, and they had covered nearly half the distance.
The cave was roughly shaped like a gourd. The space on either side was wide near the entrance, but as they went deeper, the rock walls on both sides drew closer and closer together.
The two groups had set off in opposite directions, one left and one right, to prevent the two people luring the ghost from accidentally meeting up with the main group.
According to the plan, the fierce ghost would be lured toward the master, but that was only a plan in theory. No one could predict what would actually happen when they put it into practice.
The slick rock walls pressed down on them, creating a stifling, suffocating atmosphere. They also had to watch out for sharp stones jutting out in places, as well as the increasingly noticeable stench of corpses around them.
Jiang Li glanced back slightly and said to Zhang Mao in a hushed voice:
"Keep track of where we are so we don't lose our way in the cave later. If you notice anything, tell me right away."
Zhang Mao nodded, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.
Suddenly, the tapping and the ringing stopped at the same time. Their lingering echoes reverberated for a moment before gradually fading away inside the cave.
The entire group immediately stopped in its tracks. No one made a sound.
Jiang Li frowned deeply, and the ghost on his shoulder gradually appeared.
In the cramped, dark cave, all that remained was the group's short breathing and the sound of liquid dripping from somewhere.
The intermittent dripping filled them with an indescribable sense of oppression.
But before anyone could do anything else, the melodious ringing sounded again. This time, however, it was not accompanied by the tapping of the wooden fish.
Everyone immediately understood the signal the sound conveyed.
The ghost wasn't being drawn in anymore. Had it started wandering around instead...?
The two people leading the group immediately hesitated, unsure whether they should continue forward.
"Don't stop. Keep going deeper," Jiang Li said quietly. "That thing isn't up ahead. If it shows up, I'll tell you."
"But..."
Chen Mo and Shen Sheng, who were leading the way, were visibly hesitant and didn't dare continue.
The constant dripping seemed to be coming from the darkness ahead, where something seemed to be hiding.
Seeing their indecision, Jiang Li wasted no more words. He put a hand on Chen Mo's shoulder and pushed him aside.
"If you don't dare keep going, someone else will lead the way."
"Zhang Mao, you and I will take the lead."
Zhang Mao swallowed, then gritted his teeth and walked forward with his flashlight.
Chen Mo and Shen Sheng exchanged a glance and silently followed behind Jiang Li.
The darkness around them grew thicker, suffused with an eerie aura, and the flashlights became less and less effective.
At first, they had been able to illuminate more than ten meters ahead, but now they could barely reach three. It was hard to imagine what the darkness here was made of.
To Jiang Li, the feeling wasn't entirely unfamiliar.
This darkness felt somewhat like the Hunger Ghost's Ghost Domain back then. Both were darkness that could not be dispelled by ordinary means.
His rough guess was that this was a Ghost Domain that appeared only at night, fused with the entire cave. That was why the cave was completely different by day and night; they could be said to be two entirely different worlds.
Suddenly, Zhang Mao stopped.
Something hung from the rock wall overhead ahead of them, steadily dripping liquid onto the ground.
Jiang Li said nothing. He walked forward alone and held his flashlight almost against the thing, finally seeing what it was.
Half a bloodstained Taoist robe.
Blood on it kept running down the sleeve and dripping onto the ground with a patter.
At the sight, Jiang Li frowned deeply. Then something suddenly occurred to him, and he reached out and gripped the bloody sleeve.
It had not yet gone completely cold.
Looking at the ground beneath the Taoist robe, he saw a withered, faintly stinking corpse lying there. Its entire face had become a flattened skull, and its clothes were covered in mildew, making it impossible to identify.
Jiang Li guessed that the Taoist priest might have accidentally tripped over the corpse and been attacked by the fierce ghost.
Wait.
The corpse on the ground also seemed to be a ghost, a dormant fierce ghost.
"..."
Taking advantage of the fact that no one behind him could see, Jiang Li grabbed the corpse and tossed it into the wooden box.
A bizarre sight immediately followed.
The entire withered corpse twisted and was stuffed into the little wooden box without any obstruction.
"It works. Looks like it really is a ghost."
Jiang Li nodded slightly and put the wooden box away with satisfaction. Then he turned his gaze back to the gruesome trail of blood on the ground, which stretched all the way into the depths of the darkness.
The Taoist priest suffered such serious injuries. Could he still ring the bell and drive the ghost away normally?
Besides, the master was clearly with him. Why couldn't he protect him with the wooden fish at the critical moment?
After a moment's thought, Jiang Li immediately fell somewhat silent, a silence that made his pupils tremble violently.
That's impossible.
Just then, the melodious ringing stopped again, as if to confirm some of his suspicions.
Zhang Mao came closer and asked quietly:
"The people behind us are urging me to keep going. What should we do next?"
Jiang Li didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned and looked closely at the people behind him.
Their flashlights were still on, illuminating one another's faces and allowing Jiang Li to make out their condition.
His gaze swept over the faces behind him before settling on He Tianxiong at the rear of the group.
Something looked very wrong with him.
His head hung low, and he stood stiffly in place without moving, as if he had fallen asleep.
Yet his eyes were fixed upward, constantly on the verge of rolling back into his head, and he seemed very agitated.
Jiang Li was just about to ask him something when he caught sight of something behind him.
It was a foot, a bare foot.
Although he couldn't make out the other details clearly, that no longer mattered. After all, no detail could prove that there was a living person above that foot.
Clearly, this was the fierce ghost, the fierce ghost hidden in the cave. It had come up behind He Tianxiong without anyone noticing.
But strangely, if the ghost was over here with them, why had the Three Purities Bell stopped ringing on its own? This was completely different from what they had agreed on before entering the cave.
Surely the ghost couldn't have attacked both groups at once.
Just then, Liu Qingqing pushed past Chen Mo and Shen Sheng and walked slowly over to Jiang Li's side. In a low voice, she said:
"Things are starting to get out of control. The ghost seems to be somewhere near us."
"Do we go out now, or keep going? You decide. Whichever you choose, I'll agree, but once we're out, you have to keep your promise."
Jiang Li gave He Tianxiong at the rear a long look, then said quietly:
"Keep going."
"Zhang Mao, keep leading the way."
The group of eight set off again, heading deeper into Nut Cave.
Not long after they started moving, the clear ringing of the Three Purities Bell sounded once more.
The bell rang ethereally, leaving them at a loss.
Several people in the group didn't understand what was happening. Hearing the bell, they all breathed sighs of relief. Only Jiang Li and Zhang Mao at the very front remained tense, walking faster and faster.
Chapter 61: The Corpse Hanging Upside Down in the Cave (Please Keep Reading)
"The bell's ringing again. Does that mean the Taoist and the monk are actually fine, and they only stopped ringing it for a while because they ran into some minor trouble? It was all just a scare, right?"
As they walked, Zhang Mao suddenly asked, his voice noticeably trembling.
"Don't overthink it. Keep walking."
As Jiang Li spoke, he continued to steal glances back at He Tianxiong from time to time, watching his reaction.
The moment the Three Purities Bell had rung just now, he had guessed at an extremely terrible possibility.
The worst-case scenario Master Huijue had spoken of had probably already happened. The one holding the Three Purities Bell and making it ring was probably a ghost by now.
Although he couldn't sense it very clearly, Jiang Li was certain that the ringing was now coming from behind He Tianxiong.
But the current situation couldn't explain why He Tianxiong hadn't been attacked by the fierce ghost. He was plainly exposed right under the ghost's nose, and he was now visibly moving, yet the ghost still hadn't attacked him.
That was highly abnormal.
Could I have gotten the ghost's pattern of behavior wrong before? After all, I was only listening at the time. I inferred from things Guo You, Zhang Mao, and the Taoist priest said that the ghost would attack people who moved. There wasn't much information to go on, so it would be reasonable for that conclusion to be mistaken.