Chapter 45: Corpse Worm

Chapter 45: Corpse Worm

This situation was utterly bizarre.

As a dedicated office drone, no matter how exhausted Sang Xu was, his biological clock unfailingly woke him at 8:30 every morning. This godforsaken place had actually allowed him to sleep for seventy-two hours straight—it was terrifying.

As for the other missing people, Sang Xu wasn't concerned about their safety. And Zhou Xia—his words in the dream-within-a-dream indicated that Sang Xu should be more worried about himself than about Zhou Xia. Judging by Zhou Xia's tone, he might indeed be in trouble, but escaping was only a matter of time.

"Sleeping here is dangerous," Shen Zhitang revealed all the information she had. "My teammate is unreliable—that Lao Guo harassed me—I was afraid he'd try something while I slept, so I never dared to sleep. After we came down, on the first night our team rested, someone went missing. At the time, we didn't realize it was related to sleeping. On the second night, another person disappeared. By the third night, only Lao Guo and I were left. I stayed fine the whole time, so I suspected the key issue was sleeping."

After a moment's thought, she added, "It's not just sleeping—you can't doze off or get too tired. If your consciousness isn't clear enough, you might also disappear. Earlier, I saw on the detector that your red dot hadn't disappeared but wasn't moving at all, which was strange, so I didn't dare come find you. Just now, when I heard you looking for your companions on the channel and knew you were safe, I finally came to find you."

She paused, then with a puzzled expression, asked, "Brother Jian Guo, how did you manage it? Why didn't you disappear?"

Sang Xu shook his head honestly. "I don't know either."

As he spoke, a flash of inspiration crossed Sang Xu's mind.

He frowned and asked, "Have you checked the coffins in the other rooms?"

"No." Shen Zhitang took out her thermal imager and walked to another apartment door. "You know my principle—I don't stick my nose where it doesn't belong. Look, the coffins all contain something alive, breathing—I didn't dare open them. Hey..." Shen Zhitang stared at the detector's screen. "Wait, the one in this apartment is dead."

She moved to the next apartment door and scanned the interior with the detector. "This one's dead too."

Sang Xu followed Shen Zhitang as she scanned a row of apartments along the corridor. All the members of the Sang family inside had lost their body heat and stopped breathing.

At that moment, Sang Xu finally understood why all the other Zhou family outsiders had ended up in trouble, while he alone remained safe.

In the dream within a dream, the figures in white turned into drifting fluff and flew into his chest.

At that moment, Sang Xu should have been done for. In just an instant, all the figures in white made the same decision—to trade their lives for Sang Xu's.

Sang Xu felt a complex mix of emotions. He truly couldn't imagine what kind of person would give up their life to save another. He had never met these Sang family ancestors; they were pretty much strangers to him. Perhaps, to Sang Xu, even Liu Jianguo felt closer than them. Sang Xu also couldn't comprehend how they had lain in those coffins, not quite dead or alive, for who knows how many years, just to suppress the sacrificial meat beneath this building.

So, this is what the Sang family is like.

Sang Xu finally understood why Zhou Xia said he wasn't worthy of being a Sang family member.

"Brother Jian Guo, what do we do now?" Shen Zhitang asked.

"We've checked all the other floors. The exit must be on the next level." Sang Xu took out the drone from Zheng Shitou's bag. "I'll use the drone to scout downstairs."

When he started the drone, he found the battery was almost dead—it couldn't take off.

Crap, this place had no way to recharge.

Shen Zhitang checked the time. She had four hours left before she hit ten days.

"I'll go down and take a look," she said, making a tough call.

Sang Xu objected. "There's something down there, and it's troublesome. Our team leader is really strong. Wait for him before going down."

"I can't wait any longer. No one knows what happens if an outsider stays in the dream for more than ten days. Some say you'll be found and eaten by the evil spirits in the dream; others say you'll turn into one yourself. I don't dare gamble on that." Shen Zhitang tied a climbing line around her waist. "Brother Jian Guo, will you wait for me upstairs? If I call for help downstairs, haul me back up."

"Just wait a bit longer," Sang Xu said, glancing at the stairwell. "The stairwell is jammed up with sacrificial meat. You can't get down."

Shen Zhitang opened her backpack, and a black cat jumped out, climbing onto her shoulder.

The black cat looked weirdly familiar. Its pair of green eyes gazed at Sang Xu, glowing like fireflies in a forest, giving off an eerie, unsettling vibe.

"This is the little ghost you sold me," Shen Zhitang said, unzipping the black cat's back. Inside the furry suit was the baby ghost. The baby ghost was drooling while staring at Sang Xu's shoulder. Shen Zhitang zipped it back up and pointed at the stairwell. "Black Girl, go eat."

The black cat leaped toward the stairwell and began chowing down on the blocking sacrificial meat.

Soon, it had cleared a tight path, and the black cat's belly was noticeably fuller.

Sang Xu checked the time. "Wait two more hours. If my boss hasn't returned by then, you can go down."

The two locked eyes in the flashlight's beam. Shen Zhitang gazed at Sang Xu's calm face and nodded.

They sat on the ground waiting, silent. Neither was particularly talkative, and in this atmosphere, there wasn't much to say. Time passed minute by minute, and Zhou Xia still hadn't returned. Sang Xu noticed her periodically pressing her arm. Meeting his puzzled gaze, she rolled up her sleeve and said, "I cut my arm. If I feel drowsy, I pinch the wound."

She had been down here for five days, using this method to avoid sleeping. The bandage on her arm was already soaked through with blood.

She wanted to live, but fate always messed with people—letting those who shouldn't die perish and those who shouldn't live survive.

The alarm rang. Two hours were up.

"Any messages for me?" Sang Xu asked.

Shen Zhitang thought for a moment and said, "If I don't make it, tell Brother Han to inform my boss to kill my brother."

Sang Xu: "..."

He thought Shen Zhitang would tell Shen Zhili to live well or something.

Instead, she wanted him dead.

This sibling bond... truly touching.

Shen Zhitang explained, "My brother is a madman. While I'm alive, I can control him. If I die, no one will keep him in check. Better to bring him along with me. It was our mother's dying wish too." She stood up. "I'm going."

Sang Xu didn't argue further. "Be careful."

When Zhou Xia woke up, he found himself standing in front of a coffin. It was a Sang family coffin, already eroded by sacrificial meat and broken into pieces. Inside lay a figure in white, hands forming a triangle, with a thing that looked like a glass bead belonging to Zhou Xia placed at the center.

Zhou Xia knew right away what it was—it was his corpse worm.

But he didn't step forward to take it. He looked around; the surroundings were silent and empty, with only the rhythmic squirming of the sacrificial meat. Clearly, while he was invited into the dream within a dream by the Sang family ancestors, something had taken control of his body and brought it here. Few dared to touch things he had marked; whoever did this wasn't human at all.

He suddenly remembered the old woman from 1115 with her grandson on her back.

She struggled out of the pipe outlet and said to him in a language he had never heard but somehow understood—

"Become whole. Return to the fog."

Zhou Xia didn't have to wonder; there was definitely something fishy going on.

The old woman was controlled by something when she said those words to him. And now, that same thing had waited until he was gone to control his body and find his corpse worm. Those tenants with strange looks in their eyes were also controlled by it.

And that thing knew Zhou Xia.

Why did it want him to become whole? Why did it want him to go into the fog?

Return?

Did he come from there?

Just as he hesitated, a figure came bursting out, frantically devouring the sacrificial meat on the coffin and swallowing his corpse worm.

"Where did this trash come from?" Zhou Xia roared, grabbing the person by the hair, pinning them to the ground, and digging into their mouth.

He pulled out a large chunk of sacrificial meat, and the corpse worm bead clattered out. Zhou Xia took the bead, turned him over, and realized it was Fang Lanze. The guy had stopped breathing, his body deathly cold, like a corpse. Zhou Xia pressed on his stomach—it was bloated—and realized he had likely swallowed more than just that mouthful of sacrificial meat.

Zhou Xia didn’t hesitate; his nails grew sharp and long. He sliced open Fang Lanze’s belly, cut into his stomach, and cleared out all the sacrificial meat he had swallowed. Then, he dug through his pockets, pulled out a Heaven-Mending Pill, and fed it to him. Thanks to the pill, the bleeding stopped, the gaping wound instantly closed, and his body temperature returned.

"Hey, dumbass," Zhou Xia slapped his face, "wake up."

Fang Lanze’s eyes snapped open, and he said, "Return to the fog."

Zhou Xia slapped him hard across the face.

"Damn," Fang Lanze finally woke up, "how did I get here?"

"You were just controlled," Zhou Xia stood up, his face grim, "Hurry, we need to find your brother."

As Fang Lanze tried to get up, a sharp pain shot through his stomach. Lifting his shirt, he saw a large hole in his abdomen, still in the process of healing. His face pale, he said, "I need to rest for a bit."

"Get up," Zhou Xia said coldly.

"Ancestor," Fang Lanze looked up at him. Zhou Xia’s jawline was sharp and elegant, and despite his arrogant demeanor, he possessed an unusual handsomeness. Fang Lanze crawled over to his feet, tugged at the hem of his pants, and whispered, "My brother always angers you and doesn’t truly love you. Why do you still care about him? Let me follow you instead. Whatever he can do, I can do too, and I’ll do it even better."

Zhou Xia glanced down, his golden eyes gleaming as if carefully scrutinizing him.

That gaze was as sharp as a blade, seemingly able to see right through a person. Fang Lanze managed a smile, trying his best to appear more appealing.

"Whatever he can do, you can do too?" Zhou Xia asked abruptly.

Fang Lanze nodded eagerly.

Zhou Xia curled his lip into a cold smile and said, "Your brother eats shit. Can you do that?"

Author’s Note:

Fang Lanze: I really can’t do that...