Mysterious Recovery: Starting by Controlling the Person-Hiding Ghost

This time, the collateral was two arms.

But the next moment, the slip of paper was returned again, and it showed even less patience than before.

Sun Xin clutched the paper, his eyes wide with shock, looking utterly unable to believe it.

"How is this possible?!"

"A single attack from this ghost is more than twice as terrifying as one from other ghosts? Are you kidding me?!"

Suddenly, Sun Xin remembered another messenger from the ghost casino.

That messenger had also obtained a collateral loan slip, but he had failed to make it out alive.

That was because he had been gambling against three ghosts at once, and his luck had been so bad that he had lost to all of them twice in a row.

That time, he had even pledged every organ below his neck as collateral, yet he still failed to meet the three ghosts' demands. In the end, he died a horrific death at the gambling table.

"Damn it, I'm afraid I've triggered more than one of this ghost's killing rules. Other hostile ghosts generally have only one killing rule, but this Cave Ghost is covered from head to toe in rules that mean certain death."

"If I'd known, I never should have entered this cave in the first place. But it's too late for regrets."

Sun Xin's expression turned hideous, and he completely lost his usual air of composure.

Cold sweat covered his head as he wrote, cursing Guo You, who lay on the ground where Sun Xin had knocked him unconscious.

Damn Guo You. At such a critical moment, he couldn't even lead them down the right path. He was no fucking use at all. Sun Xin was about to die, and he was still lying on the ground sleeping.

By now, several lines had been crossed out on the paper, and almost all the blank space had been filled.

Sun Xin looked at the last line left on the paper. At last, he seemed to reach a decision and pressed down hard as he wrote the final line in blood.

Then he held the paper out in front of him once more.

Unlike the previous times, his face no longer showed fear or despair. He was perfectly calm, as though he had finally accepted something.

The next moment, a large, rough hand covered in livor mortis spots reached out of the darkness. It pinched a corner of the paper and took it back into the dark.

Some mysterious supernatural power began to take effect the instant it touched the hand.

Soon, the terrifying stench of corpses gradually faded, and Sun Xin, who had handed over the paper, vanished along with it.

Only the unconscious Guo You remained. Not a trace of Sun Xin, a messenger from the second floor of the Ghost Post Office, could be found.

This time, Sun Xin no longer had the luck he had enjoyed at the ghost casino. He lost everything, dying without even an intact corpse.

Chapter 63: You're Still Alive?! (Please keep reading)

Less than a few meters from Guo You, Zhang Mao was crouched in a recessed corner of the rock wall, trembling.

Although Jiang Li had told him the basics about ghosts before they entered the cave, his understanding of them had still been limited to what he could imagine.

Now, everyone else had vanished without explanation, and his flashlight had stopped working. Zhang Mao was so frightened that his legs wouldn't stop shaking. All he wanted was to stay crouched in the corner until daybreak.

Just now, he had heard a terrifying dragging and scraping sound a few meters away, and smelled the foul stench of a dead body.

Zhang Mao had intended to ignore it.

But the pair of large, dark bluish-black feet had stopped in front of him for a long time.

The crushing strain on his nerves, combined with the corpse stench washing over him, had nearly made Zhang Mao vomit on the spot.

Fortunately, the feet hadn't stayed too long. Before long, they had walked away with heavy steps.

Just as Zhang Mao was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he inexplicably noticed that the foul stench hadn't diminished. Instead, it had grown even stronger.

Immediately afterward, the sound of something being dragged rang out again, right in front of Zhang Mao.

Then a corpse dressed in an old-fashioned caving suit slowly appeared before his eyes, being pulled along by one foot.

Zhang Mao took only a brief glance at its face, and his soul nearly flew out of his body in terror.

It was the face of a dead man, purple and wide-eyed, staring fixedly at Zhang Mao with a gaze full of malice.

Suddenly, as though he had remembered something, Zhang Mao jerked his face away and opened his phone's photo gallery to check.

He quickly confirmed that the ghost in front of him was the corpse that had been stuck hanging upside down in the cave.

But Zhang Mao was deeply puzzled.

What on earth were these two ghosts doing?

Didn't every hostile ghost have its own killing rule? Had that ghost waited here so long just for the other ghost to be pulled out, so it could drag it around everywhere?

Zhang Mao clutched his head, his thoughts in utter turmoil. He couldn't make sense of it at all.

All he wanted now was to get away from these terrifying hostile ghosts as quickly as possible and find Jiang Li, the guy who made him feel safe.

But as the hanging corpse was gradually dragged away, an even stranger sight appeared before Zhang Mao.

The hanging corpse's hands were also gripping another corpse tightly by the ankles, pulling it toward Zhang Mao.

Soon, another unfamiliar corpse was dragged in front of him. Its face was severely decomposed, and even a brief glance was enough to make him physically ill.

And that wasn't all.

Its arms were stretched behind it, likewise gripping a terrifying corpse, forming a long chain of bodies.

Three corpses, four, five...

Nine corpses.

The corpse-dragging hostile ghost was now dragging a full nine different corpses in its grasp.

Among them, Zhang Mao even saw the corpse he had nearly kissed before. Its eyes were open now too, and its cloudy pupils were filled with deathly stillness.

At once, an extremely terrifying possibility occurred to Zhang Mao.

Didn't every hostile ghost have its own killing rule?

With the Corpse-Dragging Ghost wandering around with a full nine hostile ghosts in its grasp, didn't that mean a full ten killing rules could be triggered?

Was this a joke?

Was that something a person could deal with?

If ghosts were this impossible to deal with, how the hell was he supposed to stay alive? He might as well squat here and wait for death.

Though that was what he thought, Zhang Mao still quietly began moving his legs, which had gone numb from squatting, and crawled on all fours in the direction opposite to the one the Corpse-Dragging Ghost had taken.

Suddenly, he felt some liquid on the ground beneath his hand. It was a little strange.

It might have been corpse fluid that had leaked from one of the bodies. Though that sounded disgusting, at least it wouldn't kill him. Disgust was better than death.

At first, Zhang Mao didn't pay it any mind and simply kept crawling forward.

But he hadn't gone far when his hand found another hand in the dark. It was callused and icy cold to the touch.

Zhang Mao was startled at first, but then a possibility occurred to him. Trembling, he switched on his phone's built-in flashlight and brought it close to the corpse's face.

His guess was soon confirmed.

It was Master Huijue, who had long since passed away. He lay peacefully on the ground, his body cold, without any sign of life.

The eyes that had once been full of compassion were now peacefully closed, rather than staring wide like those of the corpses Zhang Mao had encountered earlier. Perhaps he hadn't wanted to frighten others with the sight of himself after death.

Zhang Mao also noticed that many small scraps of clothing were scattered beside his remains. The kasaya behind his body was badly worn and bore obvious drag marks.

The wooden fish he had carried with him was no longer in his hand. Perhaps it had been left somewhere in the cave.

Even so, Zhang Mao noticed a thin cord tied to one of his hands. It seemed to be attached to something.

Zhang Mao reached out and gently pulled the thin cord, drawing a small bell toward him.

It was Daoist Priest Simu's Three Purities Bell. Its surface was smeared with mud and blood, but when gently shaken, it could still produce that ethereal ringing.

He carefully picked up the bell, then turned to look at Master Huijue's face again. At once, he understood exactly why the bell's ringing had been intermittent earlier.

Daoist Priest Simu had probably been the first to run into trouble.

After he could no longer shoulder the responsibility of luring the ghost, Master Huijue had taken the wooden fish and the Three Purities Bell and done the work of two people on his own.

As a result, after something happened to the master, the Corpse-Dragging Ghost had followed their group while dragging the master's remains, causing the Three Purities Bell to keep ringing.

That had caused everyone to misjudge the situation inside the cave and press blindly onward in optimism.

If they hadn't continued forward then, but had chosen to turn back instead, perhaps all of them could still have made it out alive?

At that thought, Zhang Mao couldn't help shaking his head.

It probably wasn't that simple. Otherwise, the previous groups that had entered the cave wouldn't have been wiped out.

The most urgent thing now was still to find Jiang Li as quickly as possible. He was the one Zhang Mao could rely on. No one else could be trusted, not even He Tianxiong, the boss of the club where he worked.

With this bell, he would have a little more confidence when he met Jiang Li again. At least he wouldn't have to remain a burden, doing nothing but follow behind others and hold them back.

Zhang Mao picked up a piece of rag from the ground and covered the master's face. Then, clutching the bell, he set off forward again.

After walking more than ten meters, he saw another figure sitting by the rock wall, a meter or two away. He couldn't tell whether the person was dead or alive.

Zhang Mao steeled himself and cautiously approached with his phone, intending to shine its light on the person's face and see who he was.

As the phone's light drew closer, a pale face with a little stubble appeared before Zhang Mao.

When he saw the man's face clearly, Zhang Mao grew excited and spoke with delight:

"Daoist priest?"

"You're still alive?!"

Chapter 64: Changing Hands (Please keep reading)

"..."

Daoist Priest Simu managed to lift his head and gave Zhang Mao a weak look, then reached out a hand to him.

By the flashlight's faint glow, Zhang Mao saw the state of the hand. His face instantly turned deathly pale, and he didn't know what to say.

Part of the left hand that had once held the Three Purities Bell was now missing. The entire palm was gone, leaving only mangled flesh and exposed, ghastly white bone.

Looking at the hideous wound, which was still seeping blood, Zhang Mao couldn't help speaking in a trembling voice:

"Daoist priest... your hand..."

Before he could finish, the listless priest suddenly frowned. A fierce light flickered in his eyes as he glared at Zhang Mao, like a badly wounded tiger.

Before Zhang Mao could react, the bloody stump thrust forward and clamped firmly over his mouth.

Zhang Mao instinctively tried to struggle, but suddenly he heard an exhalation beside his ear. It sounded like a sigh, carrying a dead person's numbness and chill.

Sigh...

Zhang Mao's whole body went rigid. He didn't dare move again, only glancing fearfully to the side.

The Corpse-Dragging Ghost had appeared behind him again, without warning.

It was slowly walking in a particular direction, dragging the corpses behind it. It did not seem to be moving aimlessly.

As he sensed the corpses being dragged past behind him, Zhang Mao silently counted them one by one.

A full twelve corpses.

In those few short minutes, the ghost had found several more corpses. It was impossible to imagine what it would become if this continued.

Before, he had only thought this might be a cave containing one or two corpses.