Something extremely cold and slimy crawled onto her back.
It was soft, as if it had no bones, winding tightly around her body like a snake.
"Mama, did you blind your own eyes?"
The voice came from right beside her ear, a slimy face pressed against the Mad Woman’s cheek. "Why? I was only joking with you."
"I can always, always find you."
Under the weight of extreme terror, the Mad Woman completely broke down, screaming and cursing. "Impossible! You have no eyes! You can't see!"
The child ghost laughed softly. "I can't see, but you are my mother. We are connected by flesh and blood. I don't need eyes to find you."
The Mad Woman howled and struggled like a lunatic, trying to shake off the terrifying sensation on her back, but it was useless.
"Hehe... Mama... I love Mama the most..."
...
"Aaaah!"
The woman’s blood-curdling scream pierced the night sky, echoing through the town.
Nan Yue stopped in her tracks. She didn't look back, only listening quietly.
That was the Mad Woman’s voice.
It seemed she had been found.
The Mad Woman did not die silently like the others before her. Her screams lasted a long time, circling over the town like a curse.
Eventually, they became low and weak, but the groans of agony never ceased.
Nan Yue ignored it and continued forward.
She held her lighter steadily, her footsteps extremely light and her breathing shallow. Unless one saw the flame in her hand, no one would think a person was walking through this resonant alley.
From a distance, Nan Yue saw a blurry, small shadow at the corner. She paused for a moment before walking toward it very slowly.
This was the only path back to the residence.
Nan Yue considered whether to extinguish the lighter, but doing so would put her at a disadvantage. Moreover, she had observed that the thing didn't seem to have noticed her movement.
Nan Yue stopped when she was seven or eight paces away from the creature. Her breathing was nearly non-existent, and even after seeing the thing's full appearance, her hand remained perfectly still.
It was an infant in a swaddle. It looked like it had only recently been born, wrapped tightly in a red cloth.
Its face was tiny, making the empty, hollow eye sockets look exceptionally eerie. Just looking at the infant made Nan Yue feel uneasy.
This thing was likely more dangerous than the child ghosts she had seen that afternoon.
When Nan Yue saw it clearly, she confirmed that the infant ghosts were indeed blind. She didn't need to close her eyes; the Mad Woman’s previous behavior was likely just a subconscious reaction born from the guilt and fear of a victimizer fearing retribution.
Nan Yue studied the infant ghost carefully. If not for the light revealing its gouged-out eyes, it really would have looked like an ordinary baby.
The infant ghost smacked its lips and suddenly opened its mouth, letting out a cry.
The baby’s cry was incredibly shrill. Hearing it at such close range was deeply unsettling, and anyone else might have made a sound out of sheer irritation.
Nan Yue let her mind wander. If a scavenger walking the night road heard a baby crying, many would instinctively go to investigate.
But the moment they went over, they would likely lose their lives.
The alley was silent except for the infant’s wailing. Perhaps because there was no reaction from the surroundings after crying for a while, the infant ghost stopped abruptly.
In the next second, Nan Yue saw the infant ghost crawl out of the swaddle. It moved on all fours, its mouth hanging wide open to reveal rows of overlapping teeth.
It didn't look like a child; it looked like some kind of insect.
The infant disappeared into the depths of the alley. Nan Yue glanced at the swaddle on the ground and then ran toward the residence.
By the time Nan Yue returned to the residence, it was nearly eleven-thirty. Gu Xiang Kai was standing in the courtyard smoking. When he saw Nan Yue, he took two heavy drags and crushed the cigarette butt.
"What took you so long?"
Nan Yue made a gesture, and the two of them returned to the room and shut the door. Nan Yue gulped down some water before recounting what she had seen.
They knew Nan Yue’s late-night excursion wouldn't be easy, but they hadn't expected it to be so perilous.
"The Mad Woman is likely dead. Don't worry about her. She at least knew how to avoid those things."
Gu Xiang Kai rubbed the stubble on his chin. "But you said you didn't find Pu Yuan’s body?"
Nan Yue nodded. "The two of them disappeared while going to the Evermercy Restaurant for food, and Jiang Ningning’s body was found not far from there. I suspect something happened to Pu Yuan inside the Evermercy Restaurant itself."
"We have to go there for a meal tomorrow anyway, so we'll see if we can find any clues then."
Nan Yue glanced outside. "Don't turn off the lights tonight."
No one knew what would happen once midnight passed. Since the child ghosts and infant ghosts in this town were blind, there was no need to turn off the lights.
After all, humans needed light.
For once, Nan Yue did not go to bed early. She had a feeling something was bound to happen tonight.
"Do you think ordinary objects can attack the ghosts in these missions?"
Gu Xiang Kai was the one who answered her. "Generally, no. Unless it's something that naturally has a suppressing relationship with ghosts. If you want to break through a situation with force in a mission, you either rely on an awakened ability or tools."
"Tools usually have a limited number of uses, and the damage varies depending on the strength of the ghost."
"There are also bound tools, but only the big shots can afford those."
"As for an awakened ability, using it relies directly on externalizing one's own power. The more you use it, the easier it is to suffer a backlash. If you aren't strong enough, you'll die very quickly."
While speaking, Gu Xiang Kai lightly touched the stud in his ear. The movement was so small that Zhu Xi Ning didn't see it, but Nan Yue did.
Gu Xiang Kai was reminding her that he had a tool. Based on what Nan Yue knew of him, it was likely a tool for a forceful breakthrough.
After all, Gu Xiang Kai’s fists were the hardest.
Zhu Xi Ning was currently just a mission partner; he needed to be on guard against her.
Nan Yue pondered for a moment. "No matter what happens tonight, do not act rashly. Stay close to me."
Gu Xiang Kai and Zhu Xi Ning exchanged a glance. Nan Yue’s words implied that tonight would not be peaceful and that they might have to run for their lives.
Nan Yue didn't have much certainty either. She looked down at the black mark on her hand. She had escaped a certain-death situation once before; she didn't know if she could do it again.
If that black mist really belonged to the thing inside her, could she utilize it?
No one knew better than Nan Yue how terrifying that thing was. Even the infant ghost she had just encountered wasn't even a ten-thousandth as oppressive as that entity.
If that thing could truly be utilized...
The sky outside grew even darker, like thick ink, devoid of any light. The scavengers felt the air grow turbid, as if something extremely horrifying was hidden within the celestial curtain.
A rustling sound came from outside. Now that everyone knew what was out there, it wasn't hard to imagine the hellish scene.
Countless children and infants, their eyes gouged out and their flesh gnawed clean, were crawling forward, swarming toward the residence at the highest point of the town.
Rate on N.U.
