Chapter 32: Night Stroll in Yin Village (Conclusion)

Chapter 32: Night Stroll in Yin Village (Conclusion)

No one replied.

The mortuary was eerily quiet, as if devoid of any living soul.

Only the eighteen black lacquered coffins lay silently in place, their lids firmly closed.

The village chief suddenly jumped in fright and hurriedly stepped into the courtyard.

What on earth is going on? !

Could it be that all the sacrifices have escaped?

That can't be, he clearly had someone keeping watch...

With a trembling hand, the village chief lifted the lid of the coffin in front of him, anxiety gripping his heart.

Empty!

The next... still nothing!

The village chief's breathing quickened, his eyes reddened as he stumbled towards another coffin.

This time, he was no longer faced with an empty coffin.

"Hey~"

As the coffin lid lifted, a clear male voice pierced through the silent air.

Inside the coffin, a young man, now dressed in Qing dynasty official attire, lay peacefully on his back, offering the village chief a broad, radiant smile.

"I've been waiting for you. Is the village sacrifice about to begin?"

The village chief came to an abrupt halt.

Perhaps Qin Fei's greeting had been too sudden.

Or maybe the village chief had just forced himself to mentally prepare for the possibility that "all the sacrifices have escaped!"

In short, the village chief was stunned.

An expression of disbelief appeared on his withered and emaciated face, making him look strangely peculiar.

"You, you..."

"What's wrong with me?" The young man blinked, answering casually, "I'm fine. I had a good nap this afternoon."

Village Chief: "...."

So, there was no commotion in the yard because these guys were taking an afternoon nap?

How could he believe that!

With one eyebrow raised, the village chief lifted the lids of the coffins one by one.

This one had someone inside.

This one didn't.

There were even people here...

It wasn't until all eighteen coffins in the courtyard had been opened that the village chief could confirm that the sacrificial victims were indeed still obediently waiting in the yard.

Everyone looked at him with sleep-dazed eyes, some even yawning.

"Are we leaving for the village ceremony now?"

"I'll get up right away then."

Amidst their chatter, they pretended to respond to one another dramatically.

The village chief hurriedly stopped them. "No need, no need. You can just stay inside."

"You don't have to move. Someone will come to take you to the temple. This is also part of the village ritual performance."

With that said, he turned nervously to face them.

He was already prepared for questioning.

After all, it was too bizarre to be lying in a coffin dressed as a zombie. In previous years, some visitors would always show reluctance at this point.

The village chief had prepared a set of persuasive arguments for these ignorant and foolish sacrifices who were about to walk into the lion's den.

But today, the sacrifices exceeded his expectations.

As soon as he finished his speech, everyone in the mortuary fell silent. No one spoke, nor did anyone move.

The village chief was momentarily stunned, then hesitantly asked, "You...?"

He looked down at Qin Fei, who was lying motionless in the coffin.

Qin Fei blinked, seemingly confused. "Didn't you say we don't need to move?"

Village Chief: "?"

Well, he had indeed said that.

Qin Fei continued, "How are you going to take us to the temple? Carry us? Or drag us? Just make sure to be steady while walking, or I might get coffin-sick."

Village Chief: "..."

Something must have gone awry in the process.

Dazedly, the Village Chief nodded. "Oh, okay."

The night was dark, obscuring many details. The Village Chief didn't notice the players' unnaturally pale complexions that made them seem almost inhuman.

He stepped out of the funeral parlor and waved at a distance from the entrance.

Soon, twenty-four coffin bearers entered in a steady stream.

...

This night was destined to be an ominous one.

Shouyin Village had always been shrouded in black mist at night, rarely basking in moonlight. But tonight was different.

Qin Fei lay inside the coffin, his body relaxed, his expression at ease.

The ghost infant emerged as well, mimicking Qin Fei's posture, laying on the person beneath him as if it were a bed.

Qin Fei was surrounded by a person on each side, and the four of them carried the coffin on their shoulders like they were lifting a palanquin. Their steps were steady and composed.

Silence reigned, and their vision was restricted by the coffin walls. Qin Fei, out of boredom, opened his eyes to look up at the sky.

A full moon hung in the air, immense and perfectly round, its crimson hue glaringly intense. Moonlight scattered, casting an eerie blood-red hue over the entire village.

The moon seemed to hang low on the horizon, as if it were about to plummet down at any moment.

Along both sides of the road, villagers had emerged from their homes, standing with their hands lowered and heads bowed in front of their doorsteps, as if they were specifically waiting for the arrival of the players.

Before them lay oil lamps and white candles, all lit, casting flickering flames that dotted the area.

Those specks of light connected into lines, then into a patchwork, illuminating the entire village's pathways as bright as day.

One after another, the procession carrying the coffins moved forward steadily.

As the six coffins left the mortuary, the villagers followed silently, the only sound on the road being the uniform footsteps.

Soon, the group arrived at the entrance of the shrine.

In the courtyard of the shrine, an altar had been constructed for a ritual, with a long staircase reaching nearly two meters high.

The players were lifted onto the platform, and the coffins were placed upright in the center. The players stood within them, facing the villagers below.

Hundreds of people crowded together, all standing in identical postures with their heads lifted at the same angle. Their dark circles and pale complexions made them appear more like zombies than the players themselves.

Someone walked up to the stage and pulled a cloth in front of the coffin, blocking most of the view from the audience below.

Of course, it also blocked the players' view.

As the person left, Xiao Xiao couldn't help but whisper his dissatisfaction, "They still talked about the best viewing spot."

This was ridiculous – they couldn't see anything at all! The lie was too careless.

Qin Fei's coffin was situated at the very back, so his field of vision was much better than Xiao Xiao's.

Before the village chief arrived at the mortuary, Qin Fei had already disassembled his string of bells and distributed them individually among the players.

Yet, with the situation unclear, none of them dared to act rashly, for fear of alarming the villagers. Thus, they remained obediently inside the coffins, not daring to budge.

Qin Fei's eyes darted around, attempting to observe the surroundings within his line of sight as much as possible.

Although the altar beneath them was makeshift, it was intricately arranged.

Black velvet carpets covered the ground, and the corners of the pillars were adorned with meticulously crafted patterns.

The edge of the altar was littered with white paper money, piled layer upon layer, spreading from the altar to the ground.

The six coffins in the annex were also moved and placed in the memorial hall right by the entrance of the ancestral temple, at the positions corresponding to their spirit tablets.

The secret within the coffins remained undiscovered as the entire ritual proceeded in an orderly fashion.

Qin Fei had reason to believe that, come midnight, the players' names would appear on those other six spots.

"Clang!"

The gong sounded again.

The twenty-four pallbearers encircled the coffin, whispering incantations from behind the black cloth.

Their voices were too soft for Qin Fei to discern, yet he sensed the prolonged chanting stretching beyond normal limits. The dark clouds above shifted and dissipated, the blood moon appeared and vanished, but the chanting persisted uninterrupted.

After an indeterminate time,

They finally fell silent.

"It's time."

From below the altar, the village chief's rough and aged voice echoed, laced with subtle anticipation.

What a smooth year it had been!

Bountiful harvests and favorable weather!

A figure stepped up onto the altar, wielding a knife in hand.

He walked steadily towards the players, his eyes devoid of any pity. His gaze upon Qin Fei was akin to that of a butcher eyeing a slab of pork on the cutting board.

Qin Fei had long noticed that during the lengthy incantation, his body had become immobile.

It wasn't like a zombie who couldn't move because they didn't hear the bell.

Instead, it was as if he was bound by something.

Presumably, these people had used this method in the past to effortlessly kill their "sacrifices."

However, today was different.

The villagers of Ghost Village were destined to be disappointed.

With a swoosh, a sharp blade slit Qin Fei's throat.

The ghost infant trembled, seemingly startled by the somewhat inappropriate scene.

Qin Fei blinked reassuringly at the little one.

In truth, the scene was merely terrifying to witness. Qin Fei, who had been transformed into a living zombie, felt no pain at all.

The wound was long and deep; under normal circumstances, it would have easily severed both a person's veins and the carotid artery in their neck.

Yet, as time ticked by, not a single drop of blood flowed from Qin Fei's wound; instead, it visibly began to heal.

The villager holding the knife stepped back in astonishment.

What was going on?

Confused, he glanced at Qin Fei before approaching the adjacent coffin.

With another swing, he struck at Lin Ye's neck.

Still, no blood appeared.

He finally realized something was amiss.

Seeing an abnormality on the altar, the village chief hurried over. "What happened?"

The man turned to the village chief, his hand trembling as he pointed at Qin Fei's neck.

On that pale, slightly protruding skin, no signs of any injury remained.

Qin Fei gazed at the two of them.

A slow, enigmatic smile curved at the corners of his mouth.

What was going on?

Just what in the world was happening?!!

An overwhelming premonition of calamity surged within the village chief's heart.

He had witnessed that villager with the knife slice across Qin Fei's neck with his own eyes.

There was absolutely no way that could have been mistaken.

So...

A wave of dizziness swept through the village chief's mind.

And soon, something even more bewildering occurred.

"Village Chief! Village Chief—!!"

Someone rushed out of the shrine in great distress.

Disregarding the halfway-through sacrificial ritual, he scanned the crowd, locked onto the village chief's figure, and dashed straight up to the altar.

What now???

"Village Chief!!" The villager's voice was shrill, even bordering on piercing, "Those six sacrifices! Those six sacrifices—"

"Vanished without a trace!!!"

He finally uttered the words that the village chief was most reluctant to hear.

The village chief's vision blurred, and he reached out to steady himself on the nearby pillar.

"What nonsense are you spouting?!"

The man with the knife by the side was startled too and immediately retorted, "Those six coffins were carried into the sacrificial hall under everyone's watchful eyes. They were fine then, so how could they possibly be missing now?"

"No, no."

The villager, already anxious, stumbled over his words as he tried to explain, "It's not that the coffins are missing, it's the people inside them! The people inside the coffins are gone!"

This ritual to suppress the Corpse King consisted of two parts: the Corpse Sacrifice and the Living Sacrifice.

The Corpse Sacrifice took place within the sacrificial hall, while the Living Sacrifice occurred on an open-air altar. Both ceremonies unfolded simultaneously.

Let's set aside the earlier events. Normally, when both rituals reached their final stages, the blood of the six living sacrifices on the altar would be drained.

Their blood would flow down the altar into the sacrificial hall. Then, at midnight, the villagers would seal the hall's doors with talismans, cinnabar, and glutinous rice.

In this way, the sealing against the Corpse King for the year would be reinforced.

For the next half a year, the villagers could live in peace without fear every night.

Just now, while they were reciting the witch curses in the temple, someone noticed something unusual.

According to previous years' rituals, when the incantation reached this point, the corpses inside the coffins would violently rattle. It was the resistance of their departed spirits against Lin Shouying's devouring.

But this year, the six coffins were eerily silent.

It was too abnormal. Approaching for an inspection, he discovered that the corpses had vanished from the coffins at some unknown time.

The man turned his head towards the temple, fear overwhelming his gaze.

The ritual had strict time constraints; each step needed to be performed at the precise moment.

Otherwise, it would fail.

If the ritual couldn't be completed...

"AHHH—!!!"

A piercing scream echoed from within the temple, causing everyone on the altar to turn pale!

Illusory fantasies were utterly shattered.

They had squandered their time, and the ritual had failed.

Below the altar, the previously silent villagers could no longer contain their whispers.

The fabric of the crowd began to stir. From his vantage point on the platform, Qin Fei could clearly see that a small fraction of people were already pushing against the flow, attempting to leave the area ahead of others.

One had to admit, these few individuals possessed remarkable disaster response awareness.

Qin Fei silently gave them a mental thumbs up.

Inside the main hall, a scream dozens of times more harrowing than the previous one tore through the air.

"Run, run for your lives!"

The person yelled at the top of their lungs.

"He's back, Lin Shouying's ghost is killing again!"

Familiar sounds echoed in Qin Fei's ears, causing his muscles to tense instantly.

Fortunately, perhaps due to the change in his aura after becoming a zombie, Lin Shouying didn't focus solely on attacking Qin Fei this time.

A colossal figure burst through the barriers, cracking the walls and roof of the temple, sending splinters of wood and chunks of stone flying.

The altar, where blood should have been flowing, was strangely clean, while blood continued seeping from the cracks in the temple walls.

The crowd was instantly thrown into chaos, their orderly formation disintegrating as they scrambled about like headless chickens.

Some instinctively looked up at the altar, hoping to see how the village chief would direct them.

Unbeknownst to them, the village chief had already vanished from the altar like a gust of wind the moment Lin Shouying appeared, rushing off in an unknown direction.

"Should we run too?" Lin Ye gazed at the pandemonium before him, momentarily at a loss.

Qin Fei promptly rejected the idea. "No need."

All the villagers were gathered below the platform, with only a narrow entrance to the temple.

They rushed out in a panic, only to block the door shut.

Qin Fei was certain that, for a short while, the courtyard of the shrine would remain congested.

If they were to leave the altar now, there was no way they could push their way through.

Instead, they would trap themselves in a dilemma with no escape.

"Then let's not run," Lin Ye, ever obedient to Qin Fei, instantly dismissed the idea.

The players simply huddled within their coffins, observing the situation below with bated breath.

Amidst the crowd, Lin Shouying's ghost was wreaking havoc, slaying all around him.

The courtyard, apart from the main gate facing straight ahead and the sacrificial hall at its back, also had corridors extending to either side, connecting to the rear of the ancestral hall.

Lin Shouying poised himself at the entrance of those two passages, like a cat toying with a mouse, devouring every villager who dared to attempt passage through them.

The scene unfolding was reminiscent of what Qin Fei had witnessed behind that crimson door in the ancestral hall.

A colossal demon rampaged through the shrine, leaving trails of blood and echoing cries of pain in its wake.

Initially, everyone was frantically pushing their way outside.

But soon, they realized that something was amiss.

Those closest to the shrine's entrance, for some inexplicable reason, didn't flee outward but started turning back, rushing into the heart of the shrine instead.

Behind them, the bloodthirsty demon lurked.

Before him stood a solid wall of people.

The villagers trapped in the courtyard were utterly helpless, unable to call for heaven's aid or earth's response.

"Get out, hurry up and get out!!! ——"

Someone, upon witnessing their companion being torn in half by Lin Shouying, lost control of their emotions, screaming in agony.

That voice was so shrill and piercing that it quickly drew the attention of the ghosts.

The shadow of death engulfed the person in the next instant.

Pfft!

It was as if someone had squashed a mosquito with their bare hands.

In the blink of an eye, a living person was reduced to a puddle of blood.

Those on the periphery were unaware that the speaker had already met their demise and continued to respond angrily, "Why are you running? Something's coming from outside too!"

Outside?

The players on the altar were taken aback.

The altar was now packed with people.

To avoid being blocked, the players had all stood at the edge of the altar.

Qin Fei lifted his head and gazed outward.

Amidst the flickering oil lamps and candles in the shrine, he seemed to have truly seen something entering from outside.

Those creatures, with their distorted bodies and four limbs on the ground, were advancing slowly yet with a grand and overwhelming momentum, almost as if they were capable of destroying everything in their path.

The villagers nearest to the shrine's entrance began to scream in terror.

Someone shouted, "Block the door with the corpses!"

Yet, it didn't work.

In no time, those entities broke through the feeble defense at the entrance and even climbed over the high walls, scaling them to get in.

Qin Fei immediately grasped the situation.

The ritual to suppress Lin Shouying had failed, releasing Lin Shouying's lingering spirit.

At the same time, the Zombie King's intimidation over the group of malevolent ghosts in the burial ground vanished as well.

With Qin Fei having taken away the ghost infant earlier, those undead ghouls were now completely free and charged fearlessly towards the shrine to seek revenge against the villagers who had deceived them.

Xiao Xiao and Lin Ye stood there, stunned, but by the time they regained their composure, the undead ghouls had already reached the altar.

Unlike the struggling villagers, these creatures moved with ease, causing everyone in the shrine to instinctively retreat, inadvertently creating a path for them.

Before long, the courtyard was entirely occupied by the undead ghouls.

"This is really…"

Xiao Xiao was speechless. How could the villagers be so useless?

On the altar, Xu Yangshu was so terrified that he almost wet his pants. Xiao Xiao jumped towards the edge of the altar, shaking his bell, and threw a black cloth over Xu Yangshu, covering him inside the coffin. "Don't make things worse."

At this point, the players had no choice but to face the situation head-on.

Having turned into zombies themselves, they all understood the inconvenience it brought. Despite carrying bronze bells, they found it challenging to utilize them effectively during combat.

Qin Fei, jumping around, used his chest to push away an undead ghoul attempting to climb up the platform. He gritted his teeth and whispered to the ghost infant, still perched on his shoulder and watching the chaos. "Don't you have any solution to deal with this?"

Fortunately, zombies lost health at a much slower rate than when they were still humans. Otherwise, with their current combat power, they would have perished a thousand and eight hundred times over.

It was utter chaos!

The ghost infant shook its head honestly.

It had already left the burial ground, and the seal on its head was removed.

It no longer held any intimidation over the ghasts in the burial ground.

Moreover, they weren't in a burial ground right now, so these zombies had no reason to obey him at all.

Qin Fei sighed and reluctantly dodged the incoming attack.

Fortunately, the village ritual for sealing the Zombie King was performed with great ceremony, with peach wood swords hanging around the altar. The players were spared from having to fight the zombies bare-handed.

The scene inside the shrine became quite dramatic.

Humans were running for their lives inside while the zombies wielded peach wood swords to slay ghosts.

"Hold on just a little longer!"

Cheng Song, who was usually aloof, surprisingly took the time to reassure the other players in this critical moment. "There are only two minutes left!"

As an experienced hunter, Cheng Song wouldn't make empty promises. It seemed he must have relied on some sort of item to accurately predict the remaining time.

These words indeed brought a significant amount of comfort to the players.

Only two more minutes!

They could endure it!

No one wanted to lose their lives after surviving for seven grueling days, only to fall in these last two minutes. Each player was now fueled with determination, like chickens injected with adrenaline.

Lin Shouying had already noticed the altar. With his massive frame, he lunged towards it.

Beneath the altar, blood had already formed a river.

It was as if a pack of starving wolves had been unleashed into a pig farm. The crowded masses were being ruthlessly slaughtered by the zombies, and the once tightly packed space gradually opened up. More and more zombies converged around the altar.

Qin Fei had no choice but to take a step back to avoid being dragged down by the swarming ghouls reaching for him.

This spacious platform now seemed like a solitary island in the midst of a vast, lifeless sea.

The players gritted their teeth and struggled through the gaps between the monsters.

Ten seconds left!

Everyone was counting down inwardly.

Three.

Two.

One!

Right at the last second, Ling Na, who had been silent all night, suddenly shook her bronze bell and dashed towards a corner of the platform with unparalleled determination. With a final burst of strength, she pushed the scarred man off the altar as if she were willing to perish alongside him!

Qin Fei's eyes suddenly widened.

Below the platform, Blade Scar was already buried beneath layers of ravenous ghouls who had pounced on him guided by scent alone.

Even with the zombies' seemingly endless health bar, being torn to shreds would still mean death.

Ling Na, on the other hand, clung to the edge of the altar, her body swaying precariously, on the brink of meeting the same fate as Blade Scar.

Several players leaped towards Ling Na's position simultaneously.

In a split second, a figure dashed past, a strong and steady arm grabbing Ling Na's wrist and pulling her back from the ghouls' jaws.

Qin Fei heaved a sigh of relief.

He could tell that Ling Na hadn't truly intended to meet the same end as Blade Scar.

When Ling Na made her final dash, she had attempted to grab onto a nearby pillar for support to regain her balance.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to her lack of familiarity with her zombie body, she missed her grip.

Ling Na, still trembling with fear, lifted her gaze to see the person in front of her, and was unexpectedly surprised.

"You..."

Before she could express her gratitude, a tidal wave of darkness silently descended, engulfing everything within its reach.

Lin Shouying, the zombie, the villagers, Xu Yangshu, and the shrine... everything vanished swiftly.

It seemed as if only the players remained in the world.

Before them appeared a massive silver door.

"The live broadcast of Dungeon 0039 has ended. Please exit the stage in an orderly manner, host."

The cold electronic female voice sounded exceptionally warm and comforting at this moment. Xiao Xiao was almost moved to tears. "The broadcast is over! Let's go, let's go, we need to leave quickly!"

The order in which they entered the door wouldn't affect their final score calculation. Xiao Xiao skipped and dashed forward, using his straightened arms to forcefully push open the door. Without looking back, he leaped into it.

Behind him, the others couldn't help but laugh at his eager demeanor.

Indeed!

The live broadcast had ended, and they were still alive!

How wonderful!

How exhilarating!

Even Cheng Song, who had gone through dozens of live broadcasts, couldn't help but feel his heart pounding with excitement at this moment.

They entered one after another. Qin Fei followed behind Lin Ye, taking the last step into the door.

Just as he was about to enter, his figure suddenly froze.

Something's not right.

Although Qin Fei had never experienced the ending process of a live broadcast before, his sharp intuition allowed him to sense something amiss right away.

When the others went in, he clearly saw their backs disappear.

Their footsteps were distinct, each step taken with remarkable stability.

Yet, the moment Qin Fei stepped into the entrance, there was nothing but emptiness beneath his feet, as if he would plummet downward with a single misstep.

He quickly retracted his foot.

But it was too late.

The solid ground beneath him vanished, and he suddenly found himself suspended in mid-air.

In the next second, an intense sensation of weightlessness engulfed him, accompanied by the howling wind in his ears. The darkness below seemed to exert a powerful gravitational pull, relentlessly dragging Qin Fei downward.

Before hitting the ground, a single thought surged through Qin Fei's mind:

Damn it!