Chapter 32: Ghost Mountain Villa 32
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The villa’s wine cellar was stocked with fine wines. The triumphant bandits were hugging the plundered riches from the villa, drinking and celebrating day and night, completely unaware of the approaching danger.
Outside the finely crafted and spacious floral windows, faint footsteps could be heard, along with the sound of some crawling creature slithering across the ground.
As bandit leader Zhou Shi held a glass of fine wine poured from an oak barrel, he felt a chill down his neck, sensing as if something was fixated on him. He quickly turned around, glaring furiously, only to find the living room window behind him, facing the blood-stained roses in the garden, with no one in sight.
Confused, Zhou Shi mumbled to himself and turned back.
Unbeknownst to him, at the very moment he turned, a ghost in a red dress suddenly appeared outside the window, staring fiercely at his retreating figure with blood-red eyes.
A bandit sitting across from Zhou Shi had blurry, drunken eyes that inadvertently glanced at the French window in the living room. He was startled by the intense hatred in those eyes and sobered up instantly.
However, as he focused again, there was nothing outside the window.
Only a fleeting blood-red silhouette seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye, like an illusion.
Just as the bandit relaxed, he saw Zhou Shi, the bandit leader, suddenly widen his eyes and look at him in shock.
“Leader?” the bandit asked in confusion.
But then he realized.
The leader wasn’t looking at him.
He was looking behind him.
—There was something right behind him.
That bandit swallowed, trembling as he stiffly turned his neck to look behind.
A strand of black hair smelling of blood suddenly dropped from above the bandit, landing on his face.
Then the bandit met the twisted, rotten face of a woman.
“Ahhhhh……!”
Sharp nails stabbed straight into the bandit’s eyes, piercing through his skull. White brains mixed with blood sprayed everywhere across the floor.
His terrified scream cut off abruptly as his body convulsed twice then stilled.
The sounds here drew the drunken, laughing bandits’ attention. Even Zhou Shi, stunned by the female ghost’s sudden appearance brutally taking life, reacted.
The shock sobered him from the alcohol, but he soon calmed down again, unaffected by the bloody brains on the floor. He narrowed his eyes, recognizing the half-obscured face beneath the female ghost’s hair.
“Aren’t you that woman I killed a couple days ago?” Zhou Shi grinned horribly standing up: “What, you turned into a ghost to get revenge on me?”
“Then come on! I’ve killed who knows how many, even I can’t remember. Not one has become a ghost able to kill me.” Zhou Shi scornfully looked at the female ghost standing amidst the bloody floor: “If I feared ghosts I wouldn’t be in this business!”
Drip… Drop…
Blood fell from the hem of the blood-red qipao, splashing into the puddle.
Xi Shuang lowered her head, crimson eyeballs staring at the bandit lying dead in the blood, eyes wide open in fear. Her trailing black hair obscured all expression, unable to discern whether the blood drops were sprayed onto her or were her blood tears.
Unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable…
These people heartlessly sit here alive after killing so many innocents, how can this be!
She hated them, hated them so much… She must, must kill them!!!
Xi Shuang’s finger nails hidden in her black hair suddenly grew long and extremely sharp.
She fiercely raised that blood-tear stained, rotting face and shrieked resentfully as she charged at the bandits in the main hall.
The sharp nails were like crimson daggers, easily shredding anything the bandits tried to block with.
The nails slashed towards a bandit’s neck as easily as cutting tofu. In an instant, a gaping bloody gash opened as the severed artery gushed blood like a fountain, drenching the stunned bandits before they could react.
No matter how desperately the bandit clutched at his neck, he could only despair as his life rapidly slipped away.
Mouth agape, he struggled to speak but could only collapse amidst the blood, gradually coming to feel the despair of all those who died by his hands.
The bandits who had stabilized their fright from the leader’s words now silently feared as they watched their companion killed in an instant by the female ghost.
Their hands trembled on the sabers and knives they usually used for killing, barely maintaining grip. Some even instinctively retreated.
None of them wanted to be the one to charge forward and face certain death.
But Xi Shuang, who willingly became a vengeful spirit out of hatred, would spare none of the bandits.
The bandits could only see a flash of red in front of their eyes. When they tried to focus, the blood-red female ghost was no longer standing where she had been. Instead, they heard the screams of their companions.
Accompanied by screams and the sound of blood gushing, one by one, the bandits fell in despair. They convulsed in the pool of blood, crawling toward the direction of the bandit leader Zhou Shi. They had managed to plunder so much gold, silver, and jewelry, and a good life was within reach. They didn’t want to die; they couldn’t bear to die!
However, whether it was Zhou Shi or others, their weapons were as fragile as tofu when facing the female ghost. They were easily shredded into useless pieces by her sharp nails.
Blood and brains spattered everywhere in the main hall. Even the lofty crystal chandelier dripped blood that had sprayed onto.
The originally exquisite, luxurious decor and furniture were covered in thick blood and gore, their original appearance unrecognizable.
The bandits sprawled in their own blood puddles, crawling with difficulty to escape. They desperately stretched out bloody arms towards the nearby door. Though the distance was so short, they couldn’t reach it no matter how they struggled.
Some clung to Zhou Shi’s pants, looking up at him in despair. Though their vocal cords could no longer speak, they still forced out “Ah ah” sounds, begging Zhou Shi to think of some way to save them.
Only to be kicked down into the bloodbath by Zhou Shi.
This bandit leader who had been ferociously boasting of his fearlessness just earlier never expected the weak woman Xi Shuang to become so sinister and demonic in death. Tens of murderous bandits couldn’t withstand one blow from her. Neither saber nor blade could injure Xi Shuang. They simply couldn’t aim at this female ghost.
One glance she was there, but when their knives slashed over she had already vanished, appearing behind them to slice open their heads and arteries with her sharp nails.
Zhou Shi was afraid.
In all his years, this was the first time he experienced true terror.
A vengeful spirit’s fury and bone-deep hatred for its tormentors was not something to be settled in a brawl between the living.
Zhou Shi frantically looked around, covered in the blood sprayed from the others. Then he discovered all the sworn brothers he killed and plundered with were either dead or grievously wounded. Those still living had been scared out of their wits by this female ghost, abandoning their sabers to flee in panic, desperate to escape her pursuit.
The killer and killed had switched places.
Xi Shuang, only able to watch her loved ones die in agony, powerless to resist while she was alive, finally obtained her desired strength in death.
Even if the price was confinement here, unable to enter the mortal realm again.
In the bloodbath, black hair ensnared every bandit struggling to crawl away, trapping them, not allowing their escape.
Xi Shuang chased the fleeing bandits, finally feeling a shred of satisfaction from the terror and panic on their faces.
That’s right, this was how it should be!
They had killed so many, how could they complacently enjoy the spoils, smug in their sins?
They should regret this, they should experience the pain and despair she once felt. She wanted their souls, eternally tormented and unable to reincarnate!
Severed limbs and blood were everywhere in the villa. The walls and ceiling were also coated in thick blood layers, continuously dripping down.
White fragments scattered from shattered skulls into the bloodbath, mixing with the body parts and being trampled into smaller pieces by the struggling, barely survived bandits.
This was the eighteenth level of hell.
An interrogation chamber prepared by the vengeful spirit for her resentments.
“Thump thump thump…”
Amidst the wails gradually weakening and fading in the villa, Zhou Shi could clearly hear his own heartbeat.
He knew it would be his turn.
The woman he chopped to pieces had returned for him as a ghost!
Zhou Shi finally hesitated no more. Abandoning his blade, he turned and ran for the villa doors. Sworn brothers and treasure meant nothing in this place, only escaping this mad banshee alive mattered!
But Xi Shuang had never forgotten about Zhou Shi.
He flung her nanny to death before her very eyes, then killed her and chopped her into pieces tossed into the woodshed.
This man had ruined all her hopes and happiness!
“Where do you think… you’re going?”
The gloomy voice floated ethereally from behind Zhou Shi.
“A life for a life, it is righteous principle. It’s time for you to repay the lives of me and the others you took.”
“—Repay with your life!!!”
The vengeful spirit shrieked with maddened fury. Her long black hair wildly thrashed, blanketing the entire villa. The raging gale shook the trees violently outside. Everything in the villa rocked ceaselessly. Shattering glass and whipping cloth blocked Zhou Shi’s every path of escape.
Xi Shuang’s long sharp nails repeatedly left hideous wounds on Zhou Shi’s body. Zhou Shi howled in pain but there was nowhere to flee, he could only watch the nails approach closer and closer to him…
“Squelch!”
The nails stabbed straight into Zhou Shi’s eyes and skull.
Zhou Shi couldn’t endure the pain, screaming out before Xi Shuang severed his arms, feet, thighs…and finally, his head.
As Zhou Shi had cruelly dismembered Xi Shuang’s corpse seven nights ago beneath the cold moon, tonight Xi Shuang repaid this agony in full under the bright full moon.
Kindness? Forgiveness?
No, she would make the murderers experience the unbearable pain and despair of being sliced apart bit by bit!
“Scum like you don’t deserve to pretend to be human wearing others’ skin,” Xi Shuang said, using her sharp nails to directly flay the bandits’ entire faces.
The heavily wounded bandits screamed and begged for their lives to no avail, unable to sway the long frozen vengeful spirit.
In the end they became skinless blood-red monstrosities barely resembling humans, drained dry of blood until dead in the villa.
Xi Shuang carried those faces and buried them under the rose bushes in the garden.
The originally white roses had long been dyed red by the blood of the villa’s servants when they died, carrying their deep resentment and bitterness.
As each piece of human skin was buried, the rose bushes trembled violently, as if in anger and as if in tears.
—Finally, their hated enemies who killed them met the death they deserved.
The root tendrils of the rose bushes spread and grew in the soil, tightly binding the buried human skins, not allowing them to escape.
They died here, unable to leave due to their resentment.
So let their enemies be forever confined here.
——Until their hatred dissipates, until they willingly enter the next cycle and depart.
Or perhaps, they will never forget the hatred of their deaths.
The blood on the rose bushes gradually faded, from a murky red-black to pure white, swaying in the moonlight.
However, upon closer inspection, one could discern that the layers of pristine white rose petals faintly formed the outline of a face.
They seemed to be screaming in agony, cursing in despair, but unable to escape even an inch from the roses.
As for the bloody remains and flesh, they were all stuffed into the wine barrels in the cellar by Xi Shuang.
Revel in it, continue your revelry in the alcohol you love, full of sins and blood! You have disregarded life as worthless, and your hands are stained with irremediable blood debts. The people you’ve killed cry and wail every moment, you should not be forgiven!
Your flesh and souls will remain here forever, recalling your pain and despair at every moment!!
……
The blood that splattered throughout the villa was carried by the wind, blending with the mountain mist to obscure the moon.
The bloody Moon weeped.
Yan Shixun watched the memories presented before him through Xi Shuang’s perspective, finally understanding why those blood-red humanoid creatures and the bandit leader Zhou Shi feared Xi Shuang so much.
It was because Xi Shuang, after her death, became a vengeful spirit and killed all the bandits involved in that brutal massacre.
As for those blood-red humanoid creatures, they were simply bandits from whom Xi Shuang had forcibly removed human skin. And the human-face roses served as vessels for the bandits’ souls. That’s why they feared even looking at the shed in the garden where Xi Shuang and the skeletal remains of the mansion’s servants were kept. Even the bandit leader Zhou Shi, disguised as the old steward, dared not step into the garden.
Because there, lie the restless souls and remains of the people he had killed.
Inside the Ghost Mountain villa, the rules haven’t changed; it’s always the killed who fear the killer.
That’s why there’s this peculiar dynamic within the villa and garden where several forces dare not encroach upon each other’s territory.
Xi Shuang’s resentment and murderous intent towards the deep red room on the right side of the villa stem from the fact that it was claimed by the bandits during their lifetime and still occupies the right side, where the wine cellar is located, even after death. Xi Shuang considers anyone residing in the right-side rooms to be part of the bandits’ gang, which was why she launched an attack and made those remarks to Ding Xi.
As for the left side, it is close to the garden and also where Xi Shuang’s master bedroom was located. The bandits were afraid of the garden’s lingering spirits and they also fear Xi Shuang on the left side. So they never enter the rooms on the left. Even if they want to kill the people in the left-side rooms, they can only lure them out of their rooms before daring to take action.
Conversely, Xi Shuang held a relatively friendly attitude towards the people in the left-side rooms.
Yan Shixun suddenly remembered Xi Shuang’s attempts to kill him on several occasions and couldn’t help but tilt his head in confusion.
— He also stayed in a left-side room, so why didn’t Xie Shuang treat him the same way as she does Bai Shuang?
Was it because he stayed in the nanny’s room?
However, that’s not important for now, so Yan Shixun temporarily set it aside.
The story from a hundred years ago had finally been presented before him through two different perspectives, and the missing pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together.
But there’s still one thing missing —
When all the people in the villa died, and the bandits’ bodies were all stuffed into the wine cellar, why did the villagers who went up the mountain see bandit corpses covering the hillside?
What happened to cause those rumors of death? How did the deaths of those villagers and passersby lead to the formation of the name “Ghost Mountain”?
Based on Yan Shixun’s observations of Xi Shuang, even though she has become a vengeful spirit, she doesn’t seem capable of wanton killing.
So… could it be the actions of those bandits after their deaths?
But didn’t Xi Shuang say to the ghostly figure that she wouldn’t let the bandits leave here to harm others when she transformed into a vengeful spirit?
Just as Yan Shixun’s brain was racing with these thoughts and he was deep in contemplation, the memory world began to collapse.
Spiderweb-like cracks spread from the corners to every inch of the villa, emitting a teeth-gritting cracking sound.
The strange noise immediately snapped Yan Shixun out of his contemplation, and he sharply looked towards the source of the sound.
It wasn’t just the villa; the entire mountain was shaking as if in an earthquake.
Yan Shixun had a moment of astonishment.
In the memory world he had previously entered using Zhou Shi’s identity, the collapse of the memory world was caused by Xi Shuang’s distress when her nanny left. So, why was it happening now?
He was currently utilizing Xi Shuang’s own identity.
Unless… Xi Shuang herself was wavering, or some external force was attacking her in a space outside the memory world.
Yan Shixun’s heart sank, and he immediately began to silently recite a banishing spell. This time, he didn’t hesitate to separate from the fragile memory world as he did when detaching from Zhou Shi’s identity. Instead, he urgently aimed for a swift resolution and promptly separated himself from Xi Shuang.
Just as Yan Shixun’s slender figure reappeared not far from XieShuang, the entire memory world collapsed with a deafening roar, plunging into darkness.
Before his vision could recover from the pitch-black darkness, Yan Shixun heard a sharp, prolonged scream coming from Xi Shuang.
“ZHOU SHI——!! You bastard, daring to come to me! I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!!”
The scream was filled with anger and hatred, each word carrying a deep-seated grudge.
What made Yan Shixun even more vigilant was the content of Xi Shuang’s words.
A hundred years ago, Xi Shuang had already used the spirits of the villa’s servants and the alcohol the bandits had celebrated with to suppress the physical bodies and souls of the bandits. Those entities had always feared Xi Shuang, not daring to step into the area under her control, let alone appear before her.
But now, Xi Shuang seemed to be agitated, shouting for Zhou Shi to come see her.
Yan Shixun’s initial reaction was that Zhou Shi had entered the fourth floor to find Xie Shuang.
However, Zhou Shi had previously shown fear towards Xi Shuang, not even daring to step into the garden, so how could he enter the fourth floor, an area that not even the nanny could access?
No, something was amiss!
Yan Shixun suddenly realized something.
——There were several different forces within the villa, each maintaining their balance according to their own rules for centuries.
However, now there was an additional force within the villa.
The crew members of the reality show.
Zhou Shi had been persistent in feeding the crew members with flesh and blood. The terrified male actor who was driven insane, Liu Yiyi, who had drunk blood and then been wounded…
The balance had been disrupted.
Using the crew members as a medium, Zhou Shi might have gained the power to confront Xi Shuang.
Moreover, he had forcibly broken the barrier blocking access to the fourth floor, using the nanny as a breakthrough. This not only provided him with information about the villa from Xi Shuang but also severely unsettled her.
Since the disappearance of the old steward Zhou Shi after breakfast, he was most likely lurking in some corner, patiently waiting for the gathering of the forces he needed. After the barrier on the fourth floor shattered, he would seize the opportunity to enter and step onto the fourth floor.
In the blink of an eye, Yan Shixun figured everything out.
Then, a light gradually brightened at the end of Yan Shixun’s perception.
He slowly opened his eyes.
And found himself facing the face of the old steward, with wrinkles and postmortem marks, several meters away.
The old steward forced a stiff smile and said, “So, the guest has made it here.”
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