When Liang Long heard about the girl again, she was already dead. She saw her corpse. She was stuck into a dresser the size of a child. Her eyes were open, and her body was gaunt. The doctor said… she died from a sudden heart attack, but Liang Long knew the true culprit was Chen Ran.
Because… inside the dresser were a lot of carved words. They were maddening and twisted… Each word carried endless fear and hatred. They were Chen Ran and the disciples…
Liang Long’s body shook. How did the disciples get involved?
A sudden crack snapped Liang Long out of her reverie. She quickly retreated into the shadows. She lowered her body and hid behind a broken stone pillar as she looked around nervously. Her first reaction was the people from Black Stone Town had returned because the sound she heard came from the door.
Even though she had closed the front door, they could still jump through the window. Even though the lobby was huge, there were a lot of hiding places provided by the broken statues and shattered pillars. Of course… that was if the thing that made the sound was human.
She held her breath as she glanced around. Using the light from the fire, she noticed the geography of the lobby was more complicated than she thought. There were more stone pillars and statues than she realised. She blinked with confusion… But something didn’t feel right.
She had purposely picked this spot because it was to the right of the building. Her line of sight was clear, and it would help her take stock of her surroundings. When did the other objects appear?
It suddenly hit her. Stone statues?
Her eyes slowly scanned the statues. A scary thought appeared in her mind. The statues were of different sizes. The bigger ones were four metres, and there were also two metre ones. The only similarity was all the statues looked scary. Some of them had fish bodies and wings. Some looked like an amalgamation of lizard and toad… They looked like some mythical creatures. Their creator must be… quite eccentric or mad.
It was a stone statue. It was less than two metres. It was barely noticeable among the rest. The statue was chipped and cracked. With a touch, it might crumble. However, the thing that unsettled her was the statue had a pair of symmetrical, insectoid eyes that seemed to follow her every move.
“It’s just a statue…” She comforted herself before forcing herself to look around. She moved to the fire. She slowly stood up to look out the window. However, her body suddenly froze. “Why am I standing up?” Earlier, when she was seated by the fire, she could glance out the window without moving from the seated position. It was one of the reasons why she picked that spot. So why did she need to move this time?
She turned to the window and realised why. A strange crawling statue blocked part of her sight.
Then, as the reality dawned on her, Liang Long’s teeth started chattering. She moved her stiff neck. She was greeted by a scene that she’d never forget in her life. All the stone statues within her sight had titled their necks to stare at her.
Beside a dying pile of fire, a large figure stood there. His shadow was reflected on the ground.
“Could Liang Long have escaped because she was scared?” Fatty asked nervously.
Jiang Cheng knelt on the ground as if he was studying something. Then, he stood up and said, “She couldn’t have escaped in the dark, right?” Jiang Cheng pointed at a secluded corner where a burnt stick was. It was one of their makeshift torches. They wrapped the cloth around one end of the stick and dipped it in the fat. When they came down the stairs, four of them carried one torch each.
Even though there were dry sticks on the ground, having a torch was much more useful.
Jiang Cheng took a few more steps. Thanks to his nose, he caught a very special scent. He found a puddle less than two meters from the fireplace. The puddle was small, but the smell was pungent.
Fatty bounced over. He made sure he was always within three metres of the Doctor.
“Did Liang Long… leave this here?” Fatty didn’t phrase it like a question. He thought Liang Long was quite careful. If it were him, he wouldn’t stray too far away from the fire either. There were not that many things that could be of comfort in the nightmare realm. The warmth of the fire was one of them.
“Since she even chose to pee here, she wouldn’t have left for no reason,” Fatty pinched his nose, “She must have encountered something that pushed her to leave.”
“Or she might have died beside the fire,” Chen Ran said.
Fatty, who stood closest to the fire, was scared. He moved away from Chen Ran. He went to Jiang Cheng and whispered, “Doctor, do you think the people from Black Stone Town have caught her?”
“No.” Jiang Cheng answered easily.
Fatty blinked. “Why?”
“I can’t figure out why they’d do that.” Jiang Cheng explained, “Do they want to get information from her? But why her? We delivered ourselves to them. Why would they waste time going after Liang Long?
“Or do you think Liang Long is more precious than the three of us?”
Fatty gave it some thought and nodded.
“Mr Hao,” Chen Ran’s voice came from behind. “Look at what I found.”
A metallic athletic watch appeared in his hand. He pointed at his feet, signifying that was where he found it. Chen Ran shrugged, “It looks like luck has run out for Miss Liang.”