Chapter 16 Evil object
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Lin Zhaohe regained consciousness and realized he was alone in the team. Zhuang Lao, who should have been beside him, had disappeared.
The tense environment made Lin Zhaohe anxious. He hurriedly took out his phone, wanting to call Zhuang Lao.
He dialed the number, but no one answered. Lin Zhaohe wiped the rain off his face, licked his lips, and dialed another number.
The busy tone surprised Lin Zhaohe. He had dialed the missing Zhang Xiaoxiao’s phone, which had been switched off but was unexpectedly on now.
While contemplating the situation, Lin Zhaohe heard another faint sound amidst the pouring rain– Zhang Xiaoxiao’s phone ringtone. The sound came and went, seeming distant yet nearby.
After listening carefully for a while, Lin Zhaohe confirmed that Zhang Xiaoxiao’s phone sound was coming from the coffin behind him.
None of the other mourners had heard the sound or reacted. Lin Zhaohe had initially wanted to stop and take a look, but he was continuously pushed forward by the people behind him.
He lifted his gaze and saw a towering mountain peak ahead, shrouded in shadows. The peak’s silhouette was sharp, resembling a wide-open mouth, and their destination lay at the center of that mouth.
The melancholic and mournful music grew louder, and the surroundings gradually became clearer. Lin Zhaohe noticed numerous graves scattered around the mountain peak, indicating the presence of a village cemetery.
Lin Zhaohe intended to continue observing carefully, but the people behind suddenly grabbed his arms and forcefully dragged him forward.
Soon, Lin Zhaohe was dragged to a small clearing in front of the graveyard. At the back of the clearing stood a pitch-black cave, accompanied by a massive stone wall with densely engraved text. The darkness of the night made it difficult for Lin Zhaohe to see clearly.
The remaining villagers did not follow. They stood at a distance, surrounding the platform.
It was only then that Lin Zhaohe noticed a giant, deep pit in the center of the clearing, seemingly prepared for two coffins. He remembered the phone ringtone that had emanated from the coffin earlier and shouted, “Zhang Xiaoxiao is in the coffin. You buried the wrong person.”
The village chief looked at him coldly, unmoved by Lin Zhaohe’s cries. Then, he made a gesture. The other villagers standing nearby rushed forward, lifting Lin Zhaohe and forcefully opening another coffin. Ignoring Lin Zhaohe’s struggles, they forcibly shoved him inside.
“Help, help—someone save me! What are you doing—damn it!” Lin Zhaohe struggled with all his might, but faced with too many villagers, his fists were no match for their hands. He was quickly locked inside the coffin, followed by the sound of pounding nails, as if someone was sealing the coffin shut.
Lin Zhaohe was in extreme pain, not because he was trapped inside the coffin, but because his previously strained neck had been twisted again. He angrily cursed while kicking the coffin with his feet, causing it to shake uncontrollably, as if an enraged giant frog was trapped inside.
Qi Ming watched all of this from a distance. He and his boss crouched on the hilltop, speaking in low voices. “Feels like the coffin is going to be smashed by his kicks,” Qi Ming said.
Boss Zhuang Lao: “Wasn’t it supposed to be your job?”
Qi Ming: “I talked to him, and suddenly his conscience kicked in…”
Zhuang Lao: “…”
Qi Ming sighed in distress, “Now we’re in trouble. Should we try to rescue him?”
Zhuang Lao: “How is Xu Yuan doing?”
Qi Ming glanced at his phone and said, “Almost there.”
Just as he finished speaking, a figure emerged from the shadows. It was Xu Yuan, who had been missing for a day and a night. His face remained concealed in the darkness, making it impossible to discern his expression.
“You’re here?” Qi Ming said.
Xu Yuan nodded and lifted his gaze toward a distant mountain hollow. He saw numerous people dressed in black, surrounding the hollow like restless spirits.
The two coffins originally prepared for his parents now held someone else.
Near the pit, there stood a pitch-black stone wall. Xu Yuan had seen that wall before, covered with the names of all the clan members, except his own. He had once asked his parents what the purpose of the wall was.
“You’ll find out, my baby,” his mother mysteriously smiled, gently stroking his head. “Only the best people in the village have their names written on it.”
Something on the stone wall wriggled, capturing Xu Yuan’s gaze. He saw a stone sculpture—a sculpture identical to the one in the ancestral hall—emerging and squirming out from within the wall. It started with hands resembling human limbs, followed by a massive body, and finally, a head…
If Lin Zhaohe were here, he would recognize this stone sculpture as the deity he had seen in the ancestral hall.
Xu Yuan was fixated on the deity as if enchanted. He noticed several white paper figurines emerging from the crowd, lifting the coffins, preparing to lower them into the pit.
Upon seeing the attire of the paper figurines, Xu Yuan’s body trembled involuntarily. Two of the figurines were dressed exactly like his parents, and he even saw glimpses of his other relatives in different figurines.
Xu Yuan couldn’t comprehend what these paper figurines were. The music had ceased, leaving only the sound of rain in his ears. He stood still, his rigid posture resembling that of the villagers.
Lin Zhaohe and Zhang Xiaoxiao’s coffins had already been placed in the grave. The deity on the stone wall writhed with excitement, like a beast about to feast on its prey, eager to rush forward and tear the offerings apart.
“What do you see?” Qi Ming asked him.
Xu Yuan: “Can’t you see it?”
Qi Ming shook his head and said, “Of course, I can’t see it.”
Xu Yuan briefly described what he saw and asked Qi Ming what he saw. However, Qi Ming replied that he couldn’t see anything except a group of motionless people standing there.
“Then who do you see carrying the coffins?” Xu Yuan asked.
Qi Ming: “The villagers.”
Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment and provided a simple description of the villagers’ features. Qi Ming nodded and said, “Yes, didn’t you see it clearly?”
Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan’s shoulders began to tremble uncontrollably. It looked like he was laughing, yet also crying. Tears mixed with rainwater on his face, making it difficult to distinguish. He said, “I didn’t die unjustly either.”
Qi Ming furrowed his brow and said, “We can’t wait any longer. We have to go.”
Zhuang Lao spoke indifferently, “There are too many villagers. We can’t defeat them.”
Qi Ming: “What should we do then? Should we just watch them bury Brother Lin and Xiaoxiao alive?”
Zhuang Lao: “Let’s wait a little longer.”
Qi Ming couldn’t help but think, “What are we waiting for? We might as well wait until Lin Zhaohe’s body sprouts.” However, he didn’t have any particularly good solutions at the moment, so he could only patiently follow Zhuang Lao’s advice and wait a bit longer.
As the sacrificial offerings were lowered into the pit, they became the food for the deity. A greedy smile appeared on the deity’s once benevolent face. It set aside the torso it held and extended its hand towards the coffins in front of it. It opened the first coffin and grabbed the person inside, who turned out to be the missing Zhang Xiaoxiao.
Zhang Xiaoxiao was terrified by everything before his eyes. That day, he suddenly lost consciousness and woke up later only to find himself lying in a sealed coffin. Judging from the frequency of the shaking and the sounds around him, he deduced that he was on his way to be buried. Then Zhang Xiaoxiao’s phone rang. It was a call from Lin Zhaohe. Overjoyed, Zhang Xiaoxiao answered the call, but it suddenly disconnected. He tried calling back, but the signal seemed to be affected, and he couldn’t get through no matter how many times he tried. Just as Zhang Xiaoxiao thought he was about to be buried alive, the lid of the coffin was suddenly lifted. However, the smile that had just appeared on his face, thinking he was saved, didn’t last for three seconds before he burst into tears again. What the hell was this thing? He had never seen anything so horrifying in his entire life.
“Help! Help!” Zhang Xiaoxiao screamed in terror as he was grabbed around the waist. All around him were people dressed in black, none of whom he recognized. He saw the monster holding onto him reach towards another coffin, seemingly preparing to open it and grab the person inside.
However, the following scene completely caught Zhang Xiaoxiao off guard. The entity reached out its hand, piercing straight through the coffin. It couldn’t actually touch the coffin.
All the villagers who witnessed this scene were stunned, and Zhang Xiaoxiao was no exception. He even forgot to struggle.
That entity—Zhang Xiaoxiao really didn’t want to refer to it as a deity—clearly became enraged by this unexpected turn of events. It let out a piercing roar and once again reached out towards the coffin… unsurprisingly, it failed to make contact.
The villagers, their faces filled with extreme fear, saw this and especially the village chief, who was standing at the front, almost screamed, “Impossible, it can’t be… how can he not have faith…”
“It must be an issue with the coffins! You, open the coffins!” The village chief’s voice trembled as he knelt down and repeatedly knocked his head against the stone sculpture before him.
Others scrambled and crawled towards Lin Zhaohe’s coffin, almost smashing it apart as they went. Within moments, the lid of Lin Zhaohe’s coffin was completely shattered.
Lin Zhaohe, who was still kicking the coffin lid, was left dumbfounded by the sight before him. He was contemplating whether he had exerted too much strength or if the quality of the coffin lid was poor, when a group of seemingly insane people forcibly dragged him out of the coffin.
“What are you all doing?” Lin Zhaohe was taken aback. “I was perfectly fine lying in there…”
Just a moment ago, they insisted on stuffing him inside, and now they were crazily pulling him out again. It frightened him.
“He’s here! He’s here!!!” The village chief rushed up to Lin Zhaohe, attempting to push him forward.
Lin Zhaohe, completely confused, said, “Are you crazy? What’s going on?” He looked around and noticed that all the villagers were trembling, kneeling before a stone wall, as if there was some terrifying monster on the wall.
However, no matter how Lin Zhaohe looked at it, it was just an ordinary stone wall. His colleague, Zhang Xiaoxiao, was stuck to the wall, shouting for help.
“It’s over!” Lin Zhaohe clapped his hands, giving the classic answer from a domestic horror film. “We’ve been mass poisoned!”
Zhang Xiaoxiao: “…” You’re really something.
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