Chapter 47: Rainstorm Wild Temple 9 Part 1
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On the outskirts of the night, it was pitch black without streetlights, and gloomy overcast clouds obscured the moon, leaving people on the road in complete darkness.
On the seemingly endless road, only one car was driving with its high beams on, piercing the lonely night.
Because they had spent too much energy lifting the car in the afternoon, the assistant director, Lun Dun, had eaten something and fallen asleep in the back seat of the car. He was awakened only when the car hit a bump.
But when he sat up, he was left dumbfounded.
“Where is the guest’s car in front? Where are we? Haven’t we reached Wild Wolf Peak yet?”
Hearing this, the other crew members turned their heads in surprise: “Assistant director, what are you talking about? The car in front is the guest’s car, and we’ve been following it all along.”
“Are you all crazy?”
The assistant director was bewildered, pointing at the illuminated road ahead. “Where’s the car? All I see is a rat!”
The driver rubbed his eyes and stared in confusion——
In front of the car, lo and behold, there was a plump, sandy-brown giant rat running ahead of them!
“Oh my god! How is this possible? I just saw it was the guest’s car!”
The driver was drenched in cold sweat from the fright and quickly slammed the brakes to a stop.
The rest of the crew was shaken by the abrupt stop, and their thoughts, which had been hazy just moments ago, suddenly cleared. They gazed blankly at the wilderness outside the car window.
It was pitch black outside the car window.
The mountainous region at night was eerily quiet. Even though they were in the mountains, there was no sound of cicadas or birds, and it was unnaturally silent.
It seemed like they were in a desolate area with no signs of civilization. There were no traces of villages, and they couldn’t hear any barking dogs. The crew members were stunned for a while before they seemed to snap out of it, their faces filled with fear.
“How did we end up here?”
“Where are we now? What about the director? Mr. Yan and the others?”
“Don’t panic. Let’s call the director.”
However, when they frantically took out their phones and tried to call the director and Yan Shixun, all they heard from the receiver was——
“The number you have dialed is powered off.”
The paramedic who had experienced the incident at Gui Mountain swallowed hard and said, “Could it be that something similar to what happened at Gui Mountain is happening again?”
Otherwise, how could they explain the fact that they mistook a rat for a car? With so many people and so many eyes, they all got it wrong. It was the assistant director who had been sleeping all along who noticed. Otherwise, where would they have ended up if they had followed the rat…
Many of them thought of this possibility and shivered, feeling the cold breeze seeping into the car parked in the wilderness, sending chills down their spines.
Everyone looked around in fear, they could see the terror reflected in each other’s eyes.
The assistant director was the first to calm down. He opened the electronic map to check their current location and found that they were very close to Wild Wolf Peak. However, the road ahead was marked in red on the map, indicating that this section was temporarily closed and impassable.
There was only this one road leading to Wild Wolf Peak, and it was blocked.
With the road closed and no contact with their companions, especially in the middle of the night…
One timid crew member asked with a trembling voice, “Are there wolves at Wild Wolf Peak?”
This question made even the previously composed assistant director restless.
Perhaps it was a psychological effect, but when they looked outside again, they all felt as if in the distance, those forests and mountains were filled with eerie green eyes, as if a pack of wolves was approaching them.
“It’s okay, don’t panic!” The assistant director’s heart was pounding from fear, but he forced himself to regain control and said with a quivering voice, “Look, there are farmlands on the side of this road. There must be locals living nearby. We can follow this small road to a villager’s house and ask for directions. Maybe they know of some dirt roads that can lead us to Wild Wolf Peak.”
“Once we reach Wild Wolf Peak, we can reunite with the director and Mr. Yan. With Mr. Yan there, he managed to save us in Gui Mountain last time, and he’ll surely be able to do it this time too. Don’t be afraid, start the car, and stay calm.”
In the darkness with no one around, it was easy for fear to take over and make them want to escape from this place.
The driver immediately started the car and turned onto a small road beside the field.
However, after driving for a while, the driver shouted in trembling fear, “Assistant director! Assistant director! The rat we mistook for the guest’s car seems to be following us!”
The assistant director rushed to the window and leaned against the glass to look outside.
Sure enough, in the beam of the headlights, they could see the fat, earthy-yellow rat running madly alongside the car, its four paws off the ground.
When the light hit the rat’s eyes, those small, black bean-like eyes seemed to gleam with malicious intent.
The assistant director was so scared that he exclaimed, “Ah!” and urgently slapped the seat next to him while shouting to the driver, “Speed up! Speed up! Don’t let it catch up with us!”
Although he didn’t know what this creature was, his survival instinct told him that if that overly fat and enormous rat caught up with them, it wouldn’t lead to anything good.
The driver quickly stepped on the gas pedal.
“No, no, assistant director!” The driver yelled in desperation, “I’ve floored it, but that thing is still right beside us!”
“Then take a turn! Don’t stay on the same road with it!”
The high-performance minibus raced frantically along the rural dirt road, and its excessive speed caused the vehicle to rock back and forth, jolting as it encountered small stones on the road. It appeared as if they were desperately fleeing, with the car swaying left and right, kicking up a cloud of dust in its wake.
The large rat was equally fast, running alongside the vehicle and maintaining a position parallel to the car door, as if it were waiting for the right moment to break through the door.
Its small black eyes, when looked at from below, revealed a greedy and vicious glint, almost human-like.
“Squeak——!”
The sound of claws scratching the door abruptly echoed inside the car.
The crew members’ eyes widened as they trembled, turning their heads toward the direction of the car door.
And then…
“Squeak——!”
The grating sound resounded again, accompanied by a deep claw mark imprinted on the metal car door.
Whatever was scratching at the door from the outside had incredible strength to dent the metal.
Keep in mind that this was a thick layer of metal!
But that wasn’t all; the scratching sounds continued one after another, and the scratches on the door multiplied as if whatever was outside could break through the door at any moment.
The crisscrossing claw marks felt like a heavy weight on the hearts of the people inside the car, causing the pressure inside to drop with each passing second.
Finally, the crew member sitting closest to the car door couldn’t take it anymore and cried out in panic, “Driver! Driver, go faster, I don’t want to die!”
This shout seemed to break the tense and fearful silence inside the car, allowing the terrified passengers to release their fear through their cries.
“Driver! Driver!”
“Step on it, shake off that rat outside. AHHHHHH!!!!”
“Mommy, I want to go home, mommy…”
“Why is there a rat with such incredible strength? Is it really a rat?”
“Don’t stop, driver! Go faster, or we’ll all die!”
The cacophony of voices mixed into a chaotic mess, and the terrified assistant director, who was afraid for his life, was unable to control the situation.
The driver, who was being shouted at by everyone, was even more nervous, sweating profusely and slipping on the steering wheel due to excessive tension. The car veered into a long-abandoned field and headed straight for a dilapidated brick house on the edge of the field.
The people inside the car, witnessing this scene, were horrified.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
“Stop the car! Stop the car!”
The driver widened his eyes, trying to quickly change direction to avoid colliding with the farmhouse. However, under extreme stress, his mind went blank, and his limbs stiffened terrifyingly. He couldn’t do anything, only watching the car about to crash…
“Creak, screech—”
Suddenly, the dilapidated house, which appeared to have been uninhabited for a long time, lit up.
An old woman, hunched over and wearing faded, worn-out shawls, appeared at the door and stepped out of the small house.
At the same time, the terrified driver, who had closed his eyes in fear, suddenly felt the car lift off the ground for a moment, as if gentle hands were lifting it from the earth, and then gently lowering it.
In the midst of the car’s uncontrollable high-speed panic, it came to a steady stop right in front of the small house.
The old woman had a weathered, emaciated figure, draped in old, faded fabrics. Her face was layered with wrinkles, but her eyes were as bright as stars in the night sky.
She looked coldly at the darkness beside the car and spat out, “Get lost!”
From the darkness, there came the sound of claws scraping the ground as if a serrated creature was preparing to attack.
It sounded restless and hesitant.
In the end, a pair of green-glowing eyes from the darkness glared viciously at the old woman before turning and fleeing.
The faint, scraping noises disappeared instantly. In front of the small house, peace and quiet were restored.
The old woman let go of the door frame she was holding and, with her trembling, emaciated body, walked shakily towards the car. She knocked on the car door and said, “What are you waiting for? Open your eyes. There’s nothing there.”
Hearing someone’s voice, the people who had been too scared to open their eyes finally cautiously opened them.
Then, the staff member who had been sitting by the car door suddenly made eye contact with the old woman outside the car window.
The staff member who had been sitting by the car door suddenly screamed and scrambled inside.
The old woman, who could see clearly, let out a displeased cold snort. “Judging people by their appearance, you youngsters nowadays. Is this how you treat the god who saved you? People these days are truly getting worse with each generation.”
The exaggerated reaction of the staff seemed to displease the old woman. She turned away and shook her head as she walked towards the small house, muttering to herself in a low voice, “In the past, people knew how to offer sacrifices to the gods. Even the poorest families would prepare a bowl of rice. But now? They drink blood and crush bones and still complain about the god’s appearance. If it weren’t for them if it weren’t for them… where would the gods be…”
As the old woman’s figure was about to disappear outside the small house, the people remained bewildered, looking at the car door that no longer produced strange sounds. It was as if they were waking up from a dream.
“Are we… out of danger now?”
“Did that thing just leave? Haven’t heard it scratching the door anymore?”
“Did that lady scare away the outside rat?”
“Considering how she looks, she might have been living here for a long time. Maybe she knows a way to drive away the rats around here.”
“Could she be from a nearby village? We could ask her for directions to Wild Wolf Peak. She might know.”
The people cautiously approached the car door, waited for a while without hearing any more noises, and then tentatively cracked the door open to look outside.
After not seeing the chubby, earthy-colored rat, they breathed a sigh of relief and slowly opened the car door.
The assistant director walked up to the dilapidated wooden door that had been closed after the lamp was extinguished. He politely knocked on the door.
“Hello, ma’am? Thank you for your help earlier. Our friend was frightened by the rat and accidentally bumped into you. I apologize on his behalf.”
“We are just passing through this area, but it got dark, and we lost our way. Could we trouble you for directions?”
After hearing the assistant director’s polite thanks, the door was reopened.
“Squeak, creak…”
The old latch made a grating noise as the damaged wooden door opened, and a faint candlelight inside the room flickered back to life.
The old woman bent forward, expressionless, and gazed at the assistant director outside. Her tone was unfriendly as she said, “Ask your question.”
The assistant director didn’t suspect anything and immediately asked, “We want to go to Wild Wolf Peak, but it seems the main road is blocked, and we can’t proceed. Are there any other routes to get to Wild Wolf Peak?”
Unexpectedly, the old woman’s face changed dramatically. The expression that had become somewhat less intimidating moments ago turned dark again.
She raised her eyebrows and seemed to be getting angry.
“Wild Wolf Peak?”
“There’s no Wild Wolf Peak!” the old woman shouted angrily. “It’s dead, dead! They killed the god! It’s devoured by karmic retribution!”
Her rage was like that of an enraged deity, and her presence was intimidating.
The assistant director was shaken to the core by this powerful outburst. He broke out in goosebumps, his scalp tingling, and involuntarily took a few steps back. However, he stumbled on a stone on the dirt road and fell awkwardly to the ground.
He looked up at the old woman standing at the doorway, and at that moment, he suddenly felt that this hunched and old woman appeared as towering as a mountain.
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