Chapter 118: The Trap of Shadows
by xennovel“Zhang Xuemei..!?
After a brief moment of distraction, Yenir took a deep breath, struggling to calm the shock in his heart.
Damn it! He finally understood the source of that constant unease inside him. The system had played them once again—no, rather, misled everyone!
“Where did you go before?! Weren’t you supposed to have jumped into the river, according to the Settlement people?”
He blurted out the question at lightning speed. The woman hesitated for a moment, and only after noticing the Military insignia hidden on Yenir did she speak, her voice laced with confusion:
“Jump into the river?”
“No…”
“Do you mean a few days ago? I had planned to catch some fish by the river, but a sudden downpour swept me away. Luckily, it only carried me to the far bank, where someone rescued me…”
“After I got up, someone from the Settlement asked if I wanted to do a gig in the Safe Zone, so I went…”
As she spoke, the woman gripped the bag in her hand even tighter—it seemed to contain the meager food she had bought from the Safe Zone.
Without asking any further, Yenir felt the puzzle of his earlier doubts suddenly snap into place.
Yes…
The torrential rain… it found her… and the ruthless ghost was killing indiscriminately…
Zhang Xuemei’s body had never been found from the start; her death was merely assumed by the people in the Settlement.
So the corpse that was brought back belonged to a different ruthless ghost—it wasn’t Zhang Xuemei at all! Naturally, it wouldn’t follow a list when killing; it would slaughter anyone!
That list was completely wrong—even if it were adhered to, it would worsen everything! This was a trap!
After sorting his thoughts in mere moments, Yenir instinctively knew he had to contact Chen Yong and the others, urging them to stop and escape immediately. The situation was too dire; he didn’t even have time to check previous messages.
But just then, a message from Chen Yong came through once more:
“Ye Lin! A ghost! The ghost is out! It’s going to kill all of us! Everyone on the list is dead!!”
There was no time to send any more.
On the other end of the line, when the massive female ghost appeared, the group felt as though they had plunged into an icy dungeon, unable to comprehend the turn of events. They were clearly helping the Little Girl seek revenge, yet now even they were doomed.
Seeing the girl with blood smeared across her face, they felt as if they were staring at a demonic apparition.
In that moment of collapse, they all realized they had to run—immediately!
But as the female ghost split her jaws open, a powerful, chilling pull suddenly engulfed them, relentlessly dragging their bodies backward. In this inescapable situation, despair was written on every face.
………
“They’ve already started killing… Everyone on the list is dead…”
After quickly reading the message, a heavy dread sank into Yenir’s heart. Gazing at the Settlement as fog began to spread, he couldn’t help but hesitate.
From the current state of affairs, it was clearly hopeless. Even if he now knew that Zhang Xuemei wasn’t dead, it would be meaningless.
Give up? Just let Chen Yong and the others escape on their own?
No, that can’t be. There must be a solution!
His expression darkened in dismay.
In an instant, Yenir clenched his fist tightly and frantically retraced every clue in his mind, ready to reverse-engineer the mystery.
He reasoned that even if they hadn’t exacted revenge for the Little Girl according to the list, the ruthless ghost would still have commenced its killing spree. Once it had eliminated everyone on the list, it would simply continue its rampage. Without a clear cause for the ghost’s madness, even if Zhang Xuemei reappeared or they learned immediately that the deceased wasn’t her, the outcome would remain unchanged.
But that wasn’t logical! This was just a prototype instance—dungeons always have a way out. The system would never design an unsolvable scenario!
So… who could stop the ruthless ghost? What could be the solution?
His thoughts raced to their limit.
Instinctively, Yenir glanced at the visibly anxious Zhang Xuemei in front of him and mentally replayed the moment they arrived together to meet the Little Girl.
“Would showing the Little Girl that her mother isn’t dead… help?”
“No, it wouldn’t work… The killer is an unknown ghost. Even if she realizes the ghost isn’t her mother, it means nothing…”
“Unless we uncover the ghost’s origins, understand her cause of death… or perhaps have…”
“Wait!”
In that moment, Yenir’s heart froze as an implausible idea suddenly sprang to mind.
“Tracing its origins is definitely too late! And no one can eliminate a ghost.”
“But…”
“Ghosts can! Two ghosts can battle each other!”
In a frenzy of reverse reasoning, Yenir completely overturned his earlier assumptions; in that instant, he felt as if he had uncovered the entire truth.
What did it mean that Zhang Xuemei wasn’t dead? How did the Little Girl bring back the body?! And why did the survivors keep fetching water…?
The clues reassembled like a fragmented spiderweb, stitching together the final answer.
Yenir took a deep breath, suddenly realizing where they had all gone wrong!
“Li Rou!”
“That Little Girl is also a ghost! She drowned while searching for her mother by the river!”
“From the very beginning… there were two ghosts in this whole ordeal! The first, a female ghost that killed indiscriminately; the second was Li Rou! After drowning, she instinctively tried to retrieve her own body, which forced the humans in the incident to keep fetching water in search of a corpse!”
“That’s why Fang He’s information warned against provoking the Little Girl! Searching for a corpse was correct—but they were looking for the girl’s corpse!”
Having pieced together the full truth, Yenir didn’t hesitate to grab Zhang Xuemei and dash toward the Settlement.
He still had one Resentment Orb’s worth of defensive power left.
As soon as they found the Little Girl’s corpse and brought Zhang Xuemei over, the girl would realize that the ruthless ghost was not her mother.
Next up…
……….
“Help me!! Ahhh!! Help me, please!!”
They frantically bolted for the exit.
As the massive female corpse advanced relentlessly and its pull grew stronger, the group, snapping back to reality, desperately tried to escape in sheer terror.
No matter how much spiritual energy they unleashed, the powerful pull from behind remained inescapable.
Soon, amidst a chorus of screams, the weakest Second-Stage Awakened among them was swallowed whole by the female corpse, like an ant caught in a storm.
As bone-chilling chewing sounds filled the air, the female ghost’s aura grew even more terrifying.
Compared to when Yenir had first fled, the female ghost had obviously grown much stronger with all the human casualties.
“It’s over…”
“Everything is over…”
Fighting back with bursts of spiritual energy, Wang Zheng used every limb to claw his way out of the ghost’s pull, yet he felt like a trapped mouse. Without the special tool on him counteracting the force, he was convinced he’d be the next to die.
His face ashen, even Chen Yong—one of the more capable survivors—felt a surge of despair.
They wouldn’t last much longer.
The female ghost kept drawing nearer, and its pull only grew stronger.
Meanwhile, the Little Girl stood calmly, watching their pitiful, disheveled state.
Though she couldn’t quite understand why her mother would kill even these outsiders, if Mama wanted to kill someone, so be it…
The Little Girl turned her head and gazed fondly at the decaying giant face, lost in thought.