Chapter 208: Coach! |
She didn’t know how long she had been falling, and the strange colours within the darkness began to fade. She soon felt herself falling heavily on cold, hard ground, feeling as if her internal organs had been rearranged.
Of course, my flight powers don’t work here. How convenient.
She grumbled as she sat up, groping her body to check whether she was injured or not and whether her equipment was still with her. Breathing a sight of relief, she stuck her ear out.
Breathing, heartbeat, and the trickling sound of water in this endless darkness…
Looking around, she could see nothing but black. She took several deep breaths, finding it hard that her vision was lost.
The last time she entered this realm, she could see the pit from a high altitude—jagged, like a maw with sharp fangs. Fortunately, she wasn’t sliced in half by any of the protruding rocks, which is a blessing in disguise.
Thinking of this, she thought of Gu Qianqian.
She didn’t know if she had the same luck as her.
She remembered that the pit was filled with endless cave systems, and if she were to wander into one of them, it would be hard to tell if she would be able to navigate her way through.
Plus, she didn’t dare to conjure a pillar of fire to illuminate the way. The sudden appearance of light may act as a beacon for terrifying beings to pounce on her.
She breathed slowly in the dark once again.
Time becomes meaningless when you lose your sight.
She sat quietly, and soon, her eyes adapted to the darkness despite barely being able to see anything. Further away, she could see a blurry outline and darkness.
She felt uneasy despite her in-built night vision. Even the dark Shihekou High was clear as day to her.
It seemed that a strange power was obstructing her vision.
I need to do something. The longer I stay here, the more dangerous it is.
She vaguely remembered that some snakes could sense heat, which meant that hunting in the dark was no problem.
She didn’t know if snake gods had the same properties, so it would only be a matter of time before something slithered up to her.
Not to mention, her heart had been violently beating as if urging her to move forward.
Guess the only way is to move forward. She cursed silently, holding onto the rocky walls with one hand, groping the darkness with another. She could feel something strange going on the ground, and it was slippery to step on.
After walking for a while, she frowned as she could see a blurry outline ahead of her.
She retrieved her knife and held it in her hands before secretly breathing a sigh of relief.
It was a dark wooden box, presumably the one thrown overhead.
Wait, shouldn’t a box like this break into pieces from that height? And the sacrifices inside…
She crept closer, and sure enough, the smell of blood mixed with a faint stench came into her nostrils.
Inside the box was a deformed baby with one eye and one leg, and black scales seemed to cover its body.
She couldn’t help but feel bad for the baby. Born into the world, only to die shortly after.
Just as she was about to close the wooden box, a sudden cold wind rushed past her. The next moment, a black shadow flashed in front of her eyes, followed by the sound of music and bones colliding.
She looked into the wooden box once again, only to find that the deformed baby was now just a pile of white skeletons.
Something’s nearby… It just ate that baby.
A horrified haze swept through her mind, and she hurriedly supported herself against the rock wall.
Seeing vague outlines is the worst.
In such an environment, she could sense something within the darkness, but without proper sight, it was hard to track them down.
She concentrated on paying attention to the air around her, and she could feel the presence crawling and rustling within the darkness.
A low hissing noise made it to her ears, like a snake, but more like a human imitating the sound of a snake.
She cursed in her heart and took out a handful of charms from her bag, ready to throw.
In the darkness, the intervals of hisses got closer and closer to her, and they sounded like they were both crying and laughing.
Click!
A soft sound was in the darkness, like something kicking away rocks while moving quickly. Laying her eyes upon the scattered sounds, she could feel her eyes burning.
There is one!
Her eyes narrowed slightly, and without hesitation, she threw the charms in that direction.
The charms drew an arc in the darkness, followed by a dazzling emerald light. With the help of the light, she saw a group of strange, deformed figures.
They have a baby-sized body with swollen, rotten faces—no eyes, nose, or mouth—and only four black holes in place of them. Their bodies were covered in black scales, and their lower half had completely transformed into snakes.
There were many of them, but they were weak, fully subdued by a single swipe of charms.
But some managed to escape its dazzling light, staying away from the shimmering emerald light with fear, yet they refused to leave. They circled around the light, but far enough not to be harmed by it as they scattered to the stone walls.
They were crowded together, forming a dense mass like ants.
What made her more uneasy was not the babies but something else—black and shiny substances grew on the ground, like asphalt.
It seemed alive, stretching and contracting as they wriggled on the floor, and it looked seemingly like the shadows the Old Lady was able to summon.
The emerald light began to dim as its power was drained, and she was plunged back into darkness. The babies began to crawl quickly, and waves of a fishy stench came over her.
It was more disgusting than piles of trash and worse than anything she had ever encountered.
Fear piloted her, throwing another set of charms into the darkness.
The emerald light rose up again, and once again, they screamed as their bodies were licked by the light, and she took the time to think.
They are obviously the babies from before but transformed into monsters. Are these the same babies?
No, I have never read anything about them in the Night Division Records. They are like mutants.
The emerald light began to flicker, and she threw more to keep the light alive.
If it were a mutant, it would be a bit strange since mutants require a real body, but these babies are sacrifices.
Could it be that the serpent god didn’t actually devour its sacrifices?
This revelation surprised her slightly.
And if it didn’t swallow any sacrifices, what was the point of the sacrifice? Something else must’ve answered the villagers…
Belief is power. This is drilled into every Night Division member’s head.
These villagers were worshipping a god that had long abandoned them, and through their bloodshed, they unknowingly created something bigger, something more sinister.
A sound of footsteps could be heard in the distance.
An earthy, yellow glow illuminated the surroundings, but Yibei was oblivious to it.
Gu Qianqian.
“System? Are you sure that an ancestral hall is inside the pit? That doesn’t make sense, and we’ve been walking for hours!”
“How could I not know the way? I know things better than anyone!”
The system retreated into its thoughts. They could clearly feel the ancestral hall nearby, but it felt as if they were walking in circles.
“System, look!”
Looking at where she was pointing, it could be seen that the steep rock wall near them was covered with corpses, and from a distance, they could make out a petite girl who held charms, throwing them out from time to time as if she were feeding carp at the park.
The system didn’t know if the Witch was trying to tame the monster or trapped surrounded by the monsters.
Forget it; just stay away from her. As long as she is involved, nothing good will come from it.
“Gu Qianqian, ignore her. Let’s take a detour.”
“But…”
“But what? Have you forgotten that she wanted to sacrifice you to the god?”
“Oh,” she responded, reluctantly glancing at the emerald light before walking away.
Clack!
She accidentally kicked a wooden box, and its lid was opened from the impact. A thin, malnourished baby rolled out, and it struggled uneasily before crying out.
Wah!
Although its cry was weak, in a silent environment, it could be heard from anywhere, which attracted the deformed babies.
“S-system! It’s a living, completely normal baby!”
“Gu Qianqian, watch out!”
She hurriedly looked backwards, and she could see a scarlet light in the darkness, hovering through her body and landing on the dying baby.
The Witch was weighing out what was more cost-effective: constantly throwing charms to carve out a route or casting a large spell stolen from her father. Suddenly, she heard a baby crying and stopped.
Immediately, she could see that the babies tormenting her retreated towards the cry of the baby, and their wails held resentment.
Looking at the direction in which they were heading, she could see a faint, yellow light.
Gu Qianqian?
She was stunned for a moment and chased behind the babies.
It was her instinct to rush forward to see her, but as soon as she saw her, she regretted it.
At this moment, the curse within Gu Qianqian’s body had long been cleared away, and she crushed each approaching deformed baby with her metal bat as if she were whacking a mole.
Under the golden, blessed light of the metal bat, the Witch could see blood stained upon it and a black, shiny substance intertwining with the roots on the floor. As the blood fell on these roots, something seemed to squirm beneath, like the vessels of a living creature.
In the dark cave around them, there were waves of heavy, muffled sounds, like a huge heart that pounded against its chest walls.
The Witch’s eyes began to burn with an intense pain, a pain that she had never felt before as she knelt on the ground.
Bizarre images kept flying before her eyes, and strong, negative emotions ate away at her brain.
The broken words murmured in her ears, but she couldn’t understand anything, and yet, a strong desire to destroy overcame her.
In the darkness, something stirred. It almost filled the entire cave with its ten-metre height, like mud.
Its slimy surface rolled and surged, morphing into various creatures that Yibei recognised as if it were a twisted imitation of animals.
Seeing such a nightmare forming before them, she had no time to warn Gu Qianqian or recite any spells, so she subconsciously shouted something out.
“Coach!”
And in the next moment, a dead silence fell between them.
