The tanned man stood before Jiang Cheng, and his actions spoke louder than words.
“We need to hurry,” Chen Xiaomeng urged. The door buzzed louder. The faded mist around the door leaked away. In less than half a minute, the door would be gone.
It was unclear what the tanned man did to the door. No matter how the villagers screamed and rammed into the door, the hidden door didn’t budge.
“There’s a hidden door in there. You can leave using that.” The tanned man pointed at the room corner. A large closet sat there. The closet was similar to the one in the abandoned building at the Qian Family Courtyard.
“You’ll see the door once you open the closet. Follow the passage and you’ll exit through the cake shop on the next street over. The village head only left two people there to stay guard. They can’t stop you,” He spoke quickly.
The mist curled around the iron door beside the hidden door. Light streamed through the gap, but the tanned man didn’t seem to see it. This should be a limitation caused by the nightmare rules. While Jiang Cheng was thinking, Chen Xiaomeng rushed towards the iron door. Every second in the nightmare realm was filled with danger. They had to return to the real world to be safe.
There was no farewell. The light flashed, and Chen Xiaomeng disappeared into the door. The tanned man was stunned. From his perspective, the woman ran into the wall and then… disappeared!
Did she phase through the wall?
Jiang Cheng didn’t have the time to explain the situation. He looked into the tanned man’s eyes and nodded. “Take care.” Then, he also ran into the door. However, when one of his legs crossed the threshold, he paused. His expression shifted because he remembered something. They didn’t discover Qian Jianxiu or the ghost.
The closet in the corner slowly opened a crack. A red eye appeared behind the crack. The next second, the closet door opened. A bloody corpse toppled out. It landed on the floor, and blood splashed everywhere. It was a headless body.
A twisted figure appeared inside the room. The snapped arms cradled a bloody head. The shadow howled with joy and anger. Then, it charged at the hidden door. The hidden door was shredded like a piece of paper.
The villagers’ curses vanished. Instead, they were replaced by screaming and the sound of the human bodies being torn apart. It was hell in the corridor.
Somehow, Jiang Cheng could look through the wall and examine what was happening inside the corridor. Perhaps it was because he was half inside the iron door.
Blood fell like rain. There were broken limbs everywhere. Those who tried to hide in the inn rooms weren’t spared.
She caught a man who was hiding under the bed. She dragged him out and grabbed him by his shoulders. As the man screamed, she tore him in half.
The whole inn was filled with murderous intents. The ghost had arrived with her extreme malice to punish those who had sinned. No rules could hold her back anymore. At that moment, she was invincible.
It suddenly dawned on Jiang Cheng. This was why the ghost hadn’t shown up before this. It was because of the rules. Once the ghost showed up, all of them had to die. The ghost was also waiting.
If they hadn’t entered the iron door within the time limit, or if they had opened the closet out of curiosity, they would have died. Inversely, if they didn’t touch the dresser, the ghost hiding inside it couldn’t harm them. She could only watch them leave. The ghost wouldn’t let you go because you helped them with their revenge. Like what Fan Li said in the first mission, the ghosts represented pure malice. The only thing that could constrict them… was the rules.
One lived inside the rules and died outside of them.
While Jiang Cheng parsed the information related to the rules in his mind, the massacre in the corridor halted for now. Only the village head, the bearded man and the tanned man remained.
The bearded man was so scared that his eyes rolled back. The ghost picked up the man who had peed himself and shook him at the village head. The village head was not much better. He leaned against the wall weakly, but the life had drained out of his life. He knew that this day would come. As the tanned man said, the debts eventually had to be cleared.
With the village head as her witness, the ghost fixed the bearded man with one hand and grabbed the top of his head with another. Then, she started to twist. A chilling sound came from the man’s neck. Blood spluttered out of his lips. The bearded man stared at his father, asking for help. However, he wouldn’t be able to do that for long because his head was twisted 180 degrees around. His head drooped as life left him.
The village head glared at the ghost. It was like he was the one out for revenge and not the ghost.
The ghost took her sweet time. She met the village head’s gaze. The fire in her eyes could raze the world. Killing the village head couldn’t satisfy her anymore.
Qian Jianxiu was tortured until she barely looked human. The ghost’s goal had been achieved.
She lifted her arm. She was a few metres from the village head, but she could somehow touch him. This illogical scene caused Jiang Cheng to frown.
The hand that shook from excitement caressed the village head’s chest. She felt his heart pumping from fear.
The twisted figure cackled. Jiang Cheng could feel her palpable excitement.
The ghost was laughing.
However, as the ghost turned her fingers into claws to dig out Qian Jianguo’s heart, a thick wooden stick fell from the sky and shattered the ghost’s hand.
The next second, the ghostly hand regrew on the ghost.
Jiang Cheng’s pupils shrunk as he saw the tanned man guarding the village head with a wooden stick.