Chapter 82

Chapter 82

After being trapped in this godforsaken place for three days, with this big hole as their only lead, they didn't hesitate long before agreeing to go down and investigate.

Peering down from above, the cave wasn't particularly deep—the bottom was only about two or three meters below—but the light was extremely dim, and they could barely make out what seemed to be another passage on the left side of the bottom, though where it led was unclear.

Not knowing how dangerous it might be, the eight of them split into three groups.

Jin Qingqing and Chai Ming took point to scout ahead, Ou Yangmu and the other three ordinary people walked in the middle, while Xu Muchan, carrying Wei Xilou on his back, brought up the rear.

The three groups kept a distance where they could see and hear each other, but still close enough to dodge and react if danger came.

Jin Qingqing had a military-grade flashlight. She and Chai Ming used it to light the way ahead, feeling their way along the cave walls as they moved forward, while the others followed cautiously behind. The narrow cave was filled with nothing but the group's tense, heavy breathing and footsteps.

Xu Muchan walked at the very back carrying Wei Xilou, his eyes fixed on the lit path ahead, his brow furrowed slightly—he could see better than the others, and beyond the flashlight's beam, everything was still pitch black, the path ahead unclear.

Up ahead, Jin Qingqing was quietly asking Chai Ming, "How long have we been walking since we entered?"

Chai Ming said, "Ten minutes."

This wasn't a good sign. This eerily long passage led who knew where.

Just then, a strange sound came from behind once more. Xu Muchan looked back, puzzled, but saw nothing.

The sound was intermittent—like breathing, or some kind of weird moaning. Xu Muchan glanced at the people ahead; no one looked back. It seemed he was the only one who could hear it.

Xu Muchan turned around again, searching for the source of the weird noise.

The sound grew louder. Xu Muchan's pupils faintly tinged with crimson, and in the dim light, deformed heads emerged one by one from the narrow, rugged cave walls.

They were the chicken-head people from the village.

One of them suddenly locked eyes with Xu Muchan. After a blank moment, it abruptly opened its mouth wide and let out a terrifyingly shrill scream—

The scream was piercing, and the other chicken-head people still burrowing through the walls frantically scrambled out too, tilting their heads back and joining in.

Amid the almost eardrum-shattering shrieks, the cave walls began to writhe like living flesh, countless deformed arms reached out from within, accompanied by wet squelching sounds as the flesh churned and squeezed.

It was that monster from the village.

Xu Muchan snapped out of it and shouted to the oblivious people ahead, "Run!"

With that, he took off running, Wei Xilou still on his back.

The squelching sounds came in rapid succession, mixed with the familiar sound of surging water. Xu Muchan passed two people, glanced back, and his pupils suddenly contracted—

Behind the monster, black water surged like a wave in slow motion.

Jin Qingqing's shout came from up ahead, muffled and indistinct: "There's an exit ahead, I can see it!"

Xu Muchan looked ahead and sure enough, saw a glimmer of light—not from the flashlight, but sunlight.

He pressed his lips together and sprinted toward the light with Wei Xilou on his back, but the black water seemed faster than him. Behind him came short, terrified cries that quickly faded—seemingly from the two people who had fallen behind.

Xu Muchan didn't look back, keeping his eyes fixed on the light ahead as he ran for his life.

The people ahead—Jin Qingqing and the others—had already disappeared, presumably having made it out. But just as he was about to cross the exit, a thin, paper-like figure dropped down from above the cave entrance, grinning coldly as it reached for him—

It was Ou Yangmu.

Xu Muchan had no choice but to dodge aside, and in that split second, the black water caught up from behind, flooding the narrow cave in an overwhelming surge.

Xu Muchan was engulfed by the water, and in that instant, all his thoughts seemed to slip away from him. His eyes wide open, limbs limp, he tumbled and sank in the churning black water, no longer knowing who he was or where he was going.

Countless voices whispered in his ears, countless hands caressed his body, as if trying to drag him deeper...

His pitch-black pupils suddenly trembled, and crimson rapidly spread across them. Xu Muchan lost control and fully ghosted out. His long black hair writhed through the black water like snakes. Realizing his situation, he struggled desperately to the surface, only to see an endless expanse of black waves.

The boundless black water churned, and a huge pale moon hung overhead like an eyeball, coldly watching from above.

Xu Muchan bobbed on the surface, and after a moment of confusion, realized the weight on his back was gone—Wei Xilou's body had vanished.

In that moment, Xu Muchan even forgot his own danger. He dove back into the black water, trying to find Wei Xilou, but visibility in the black river was almost zero. He couldn't see anything, so he surfaced again, wiped his face frantically, and looked around desperately.

"Brother!"

"Wei Xilou!"

His anxious shouts echoed across the water, but Wei Xilou was nowhere to be seen.

Xu Muchan clenched his jaw, fighting the river's pull as he swam forward aimlessly, when an ice-cold hand suddenly gripped his ankle. A heavy body pressed onto his back. Xu Muchan instinctively tried to turn his head, but two hands held his face in place.

The person behind him wouldn't let him look back.

But the cold, eerie presence was very familiar—it was his brother.

His emotions swung wildly. Xu Muchan's eyes grew hot, and his voice trembled slightly: "Wei Xilou, is that you?"

The person behind him didn't answer, but something ice-cold brushed against the edge of his ear.

The hands holding his face moved up, covering Xu Muchan's eyes. A familiar voice sounded in his mind—Wei Xilou's voice. "Close your eyes. Don't move."

Xu Muchan obediently stopped and closed his eyes.

The cold aura completely enveloped him. It was Wei Xilou holding him, sinking straight down into the depths. The intense weightlessness made Xu Muchan instinctively want to grab onto something, but his arms were restrained even more firmly. As the freefall accelerated, Xu Muchan felt like he was on a drop tower, plummeting straight down.

When the drop tower hit bottom, he felt like he'd burst through some kind of barrier. His body jolted violently, and intense light hit his eyelids.

The cold aura behind him began to fade. Xu Muchan murmured unconsciously, "Brother..."

"Achan..." The voice seemed to want to say more, but it faded away. Xu Muchan's eyes snapped open, and he squinted against the harsh light.

Jin Qingqing, Chai Ming, and the others crowded around, looking at him with concern. "You awake?"

Xu Muchan's gaze swept over each of them, pausing briefly on Ou Yangmu at the back before moving on. Then he looked down at himself—he was lying on the altar of the ruined temple, and Wei Xilou was nowhere to be seen.

"What happened in the cave? Chai Ming and I were in front—we only heard you shout for us to run, but we didn't see anything else."

"And your brother?"

Xu Muchan propped himself up, pinched the bridge of his nose, and said in a low voice, "The monster from the village caught up with us. The two people behind me... and my brother... none of them made it out."

Jin Qingqing was silent for a moment, then said, "I'm sorry for your loss."

Xu Muchan said nothing. His gaze moved past Jin Qingqing and Chai Ming, landing directly on Ou Yangmu. "When I was about to get out, a paper figure blocked my way. That was your doing."

Ou Yangmu put on a confused, innocent look. "What paper figure?"

Jin Qingqing and Chai Ming looked back and forth between the two of them, baffled, their brows furrowing. "What's going on?"

Xu Muchan recounted his encounter with the paper figure in the cave, and Jin Qingqing couldn't help but look at Ou Yangmu: "Could it be a misunderstanding? You two have no bad blood... And Mr. Ouyang is just an ordinary person, he wouldn't know how to do stuff like that... Are you sure the paper figure looked exactly like Mr. Ouyang? And are you sure it wasn't an illusion?"

Xu Muchan pressed his lips together, seeming swayed by her words, and his expression turned hesitant: "I'm not sure."

Ou Yangmu breathed a small sigh of relief and said, "Maybe it was an illusion. That cave was creepy; we were in there for so long, it's no surprise we'd start seeing things."

Xu Muchan forced a smile and said, "That's true."

He offered his hand to Ou Yangmu: "Sorry, I was just too tense."

Ou Yangmu shook his hand warmly: "It's fine, I understand."

"Since we're out, let's head back and report the situation. I checked the time—it's been two days since we got here. I wonder what the situation is like in the city now," Chai Ming said.

Just as he spoke, Jin Qingqing's phone rang. She answered, hung up after a moment, and said with a grave expression, "Something's happened. The institute wants us to rest up in the city and then head straight back to HQ."

On the way back to the city, Jin Qingqing finally explained the contents of the call.

The chaos in the city had been brought under control, and the authorities were trying to calm the public down.

What had truly prompted the institute to urgently recall everyone was that the bird-headed corpses originally stored in the hospital morgue had suddenly turned into black water, flooding the entire morgue and sweeping away the staff who were on duty in the morgue at the time.

And that was just the beginning. While everyone was scrambling to figure things out, the institute's newly developed tide prediction system suddenly issued widespread alerts.

"Sister He said the alerts covered the entire country, with over fifty tide locations of varying sizes—large ones spanning an entire city, and small ones enough to cover a village... It's still unclear whether the system is malfunctioning or if there really will be this many tides..."

If the predictions were accurate, this unprecedented massive tide would be enough to swallow half the country... Even as a wild guess, that possibility was too terrifying to think about. Jin Qingqing swallowed hard before continuing, "Until we confirm the predictions are wrong, everyone has to return to headquarters and stand by, ready to support any tide location at a moment's notice..."