Chapter 7 of the Netherworld Corpse Battle

Anticipating that tonight might not be peaceful, I ate my meal with extra enthusiasm. The middle-aged woman, assuming I simply loved her cooking, beamed with delight.

After dinner, she led us to an inner room off the side of the main hall to rest. Without asking whether we intended to sleep together, she ushered us both directly into the same room. I raised no objections; staying separated from Yao Hui was out of the question tonight.

In my heart, I prayed that nothing untoward would happen, even if it meant remaining wide awake until dawn. As long as we avoided any misfortune, I would consider us lucky.

Recalling the people crouching inside that back room earlier still sent a shudder of icy dread through my spine.

Once we lay down, Yao Hui asked me what had actually happened in there.

Reluctant to frighten her, I initially considered keeping it to myself, but realized she needed to be prepared. "I'll tell you, but you must promise not to get scared."

Before I even finished the sentence, Yao Hui stared at me with wide, anxious eyes. Perhaps my own expression had already terrified her. As soon as I recounted what I had witnessed in that room, her entire body began to tremble violently.

"Th-then let's leave right now," she stammered, casting uneasy glances around the room, as though someone were watching us from the shadows.

"It's far too late now. Where would we even go? At any rate, I won't sleep tonight, and you shouldn't fall into too deep a sleep either. If anything happens, we'll run immediately."

"Then I won't sleep either, Yuan Jie. I'm scared." With that, Yao Hui wrapped her arms around me even tighter.

All thoughts of romantic comfort had vanished from my mind. While offering her soothing words, I strained my ears to catch any sounds outside.

Nights in the countryside are always profoundly quiet. For a long time, I heard nothing out of the ordinary. Bathed in the tranquility and feeling the warmth of Yao Hui clinging tightly to me, I began to grow drowsy.

Knowing I couldn't afford to stay lying down—lest I drift off entirely—I gently pushed Yao Hui away, sat up on the edge of the bed, and lit a cigarette.

Yao Hui remained awake, shifting closer to me as I sat up.

"It's hard on you, having to live in such terror," I said, feeling a twinge of guilt as her face looked all the more alluring in the dim light.

"How can this be your fault? It's all because of my illness..." She began to reproach herself instead. "If I hadn't tagged along with you, you certainly wouldn't be facing all this trouble."

"Hmph. If you hadn't come with me, I probably would have pissed my pants from sheer terror back in that room."

At my remark, Yao Hui let out a small laugh. "I thought you were quite brave."

Just as I was about to reply with a nonchalant "I get by," a sudden realization struck me—was there a hidden meaning behind her words? After chatting for a few moments, the heavy tension between us began to dissipate. Just as the romantic mood was beginning to rekindle, however, the sharp cry of a young child pierced the quiet night.

"It sounds like that little girl," Yao Hui whispered.

I nodded, though I found nothing particularly strange about it. A baby wouldn't be a baby if it didn't cry a few times during the night.

"She probably wet the bed," I muttered offhandedly.

The child's wails instantly restored our mutual anxiety. After a long while, I noticed the crying showed no signs of stopping; if anything, the volume kept increasing.

Listening to it for so long, I began to feel that this wasn't the ordinary cry of a child at all. Why did the sound feel so deeply unsettling?

"Yuan Jie, do you think something's gone wrong?" Yao Hui asked, her voice tight with fear.

I reasoned that wasn't possible. If trouble came, it would surely be directed at Yao Hui and me. The middle-aged woman knew everything—how much trouble could there possibly be?

Yet the relentless crying seemed endless, deepening the unease churning in my chest.

"Stay here in the room. I'll go check what's happening," I said.

Yao Hui immediately shook her head. "No, I want to come with you. I'm afraid of being left alone."

"Don't worry, I'll just take a quick look from the doorway." After giving her a reassuring nod, she finally released her grip on me.

Moving on tiptoe, I crept stealthily toward the door and gently lifted a corner of the curtain.

Pitch blackness greeted me outside; at first, I could make out nothing at all. Only after a protracted moment did the silhouettes of the courtyard furnishings slowly emerge in the gloom.

There was no one in the main hall. The weeping was clearly originating from the middle-aged woman's bedroom. I intended to venture further forward, but right at that moment, a faint, grating screech—the sound of someone pushing open the front door—echoing through the hall.

Sensing danger, I hastily pulled my foot back and reached out to switch off the light in our room.

The sudden disappearance of our inner light made the exterior seem relatively brighter. A short while later, a short, frail, dark shadow shuffled over from the direction of the front hall.

Though facial features were indistinguishable, the build strongly suggested the old man.

Following the sound of the crying, the old man crept on stealthy feet toward the middle-aged woman's room. Stopping at the threshold, he called out in a low voice, "Third daughter-in-law? Is everything alright?"

No one answered from within. Strangely enough, the moment the old man finished speaking, the crying inside the room abruptly ceased.

The old man paused for a fraction of a second, then called out the woman's name again in a low murmur as he pushed the wooden door open.

Seeing him enter, I quietly slipped out of our room as well, edging closer to eavesdrop on whatever was happening inside.

I had barely taken a few steps when I heard the old man let out a sharp, choked gasp—"Ugh!"—followed immediately by absolute, deathly silence from within the room.

By this point, terror paralyzed my feet; I dared not advance another step. I intuitively knew something horrific had occurred in that chamber. Above all, keeping Yao Hui safe was paramount—I had to get her out of this place immediately.

Just as I spun around to retrace my steps, however, I caught sight of something crouching in the corner beneath the door curtain: a small boy, his entire body tinged with a sickly gray hue.

It was precisely the same child Yao Hui and I had encountered earlier.

His face turned directly toward me, and his skin seemed to emit a faint, ghostly luminescence in the dark. Within his eye sockets, a pair of oversized eyeballs stared unblinkingly at me. At the same time, a low, guttural growl emanated from his throat, much like a starving wolf preparing to pounce.

My body temperature plunged nearly to freezing point. After locking eyes with him for what felt like an eternity, I finally managed to squeeze a sentence through my clenched teeth: "Li-little friend, what are you doing crouching here?"

The moment I finished speaking, the child abruptly stretched his mouth wide, flashing a grotesque, utterly horrifying smile in my direction.

I drew in a sharp gasp of air. In the next instant, his figure flickered and vanished completely from my sight.

For a terrifying second, I thought he was about to hurl himself at me. Realizing he was gone, I bolted back into our room without hesitation.

"Yuan Jie, hurry, something is wrong!" I called out in a frantic whisper. Yet, no voice answered from the dark.

Stunned, and assuming Yao Hui had fallen asleep, I hurriedly switched on the electric light. A glance around revealed the room to be entirely empty. Yao Hui was nowhere to be seen.

My heart instantly leaped into my throat.

"Yao Hui!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Still, there was no reply. Driven by panic, I rushed out of the room and sprinted straight toward the middle-aged woman's quarters.

The moment I reached the threshold, my foot slipped in a puddle of wet, viscous liquid. A convulsion of terror racked my body, halting my advance entirely.

My experiences of late had made me acutely sensitive to the presence of such entities. At that very second, the pitch-black room reeked heavily of a sickening, metallic stench.

After freezing for a few seconds, I reached behind the doorframe and began fumbling along the wall for the light switch.

*Click.*

The light flared on.

What met my eyes was a floor drenched in blood, alongside the mutilated, dismembered remains of the middle-aged woman, the old man, and the little girl. More than twenty gray figures squatted in a circle upon the floor, each gripping a chunk of flesh torn from the three bodies, turning their cold, malevolent gazes back to stare straight at me.