Chapter 185: Clash
The entire aisle, in the space over three hundred meters long, had already been completely filled with one stone statue after another.
The number of these stone statues was so great that it far exceeded the number of rooms visible in the aisle, and this was far from the limit of the stone statues.
If Zhang Qian were here, he would discover that the appearances of the stone statues were not as uniform as he had imagined; their shapes could even be described as bizarre and varied.
Some had emaciated bodies like an old man on the verge of death, while others were obese like fattened pigs waiting to be slaughtered for the New Year.
But no matter what their appearances looked like, all these eerie stone statues made the same action at this moment.
Silently and soundlessly.
Hundreds of stone statues simultaneously raised their heads, their eyes obscured by palms seemingly peering through layers of obstacles to see that special exit.
The one-eyed stone statue blocking the doorway didn’t even have time to react before it was swept along by the dense stone statues through the door frame.
But beyond that door frame was not the music hall.
Clearly, the one-eyed stone statue had left the music hall smoothly, but now the other stone statues were having some issues re-entering.
The end of the passage did not lead directly to the hall where Zhang Qian was; instead, it led to that dark garbage room.
Moreover, it seemed because the stone statues had not achieved the pattern for leaving the aisle, no stone bridge appeared inside the garbage room to catch them.
All the stone statues began plummeting downward the instant they surged through the doorway.
One, ten, a hundred…
Until the aisle became empty again, and the room’s main entrance slammed shut automatically.
A long time later, rustling gnawing sounds came from somewhere unknown.
Even the portal leading to the aisle had disappeared, and in the pitch black space, there was no longer any trace of anything’s existence.
In the garbage room’s space of unknown depth, the stone statues sufficient to overturn the contemporary supernatural circle seemed unable to stir up much of a splash.
Under the dense gaze of the headworms, the stone statues couldn’t even move, let alone put up any resistance.
The stone statues that had fallen silent could only collapse to the ground, letting countless invisible teeth tear at their bodies.
Even though their material was extremely hard, under the tireless attacks of the headworms, bite marks began to appear one after another.
In the face of the endlessly numerous headworms, hundreds of stone statues didn’t amount to much; it probably wouldn’t be long before they were completely gnawed clean.
But would it really be that simple?
“Bang—”
Suddenly, a heavy object smashed viciously into the abyss’s valley bottom.
An insect that couldn’t dodge in time was smashed into fragments on the spot, dead beyond dead.
But one insect was truly negligible for the entire swarm, not even counting as a loss.
The maggots that couldn’t squeeze into the pile of stone statues immediately rushed forward.
These mindless things didn’t ponder why stone statues were still falling at this time; they just instinctively pounced on the struggling prey.
Appetite was the only thing in their heads.
However, in the next moment, more stone statues came plummeting down.
In the dark abyss, a heavy rain suddenly began to fall, except every drop of rain was a stone statue of bizarre shape.
These stone statues had blurred features, yet they bore a mouthful of sharp fangs, and their backs were raised high, as if coiled with a long worm.
The headworms’ line of sight controlled the stone statues’ actions, but it also triggered some eerie characteristics.
For every line of sight that fell on a stone statue, a new stone statue was produced.
And in the garbage room, the lines of sight numbered far more than one; in an instant, countless new stone statues were born.
Although these newborn stone statues couldn’t escape the maggots’ gaze and still couldn’t move, against things like headworms, the stone statues had no need to launch attacks at all.
“Bang—bang—”
Stone statue after stone statue appeared out of thin air and then plummeted into the depths; under the meteor shower-like offensive, countless long worms died from the aftermath of the falling stone statues.
Heads split open, bone fragments flying everywhere.
After losing life, the headworms’ corpses seemed unable to maintain their invisible state, with brain matter and blood splattering everywhere, staining the stone statues below with filth.
The slaughter was unfolding ceaselessly, but such slaughter didn’t instill the slightest fear in the headworms; instead, it aroused their appetites.
Some maggots that couldn’t gnaw on the stone statues even turned their attention to their own kind.
Looking at the slightly trembling brain flower in front of it, the invisible maggot at the valley bottom didn’t hesitate at all, opening its large mouth to swallow it.
But in the next second, before this maggot could taste its kin’s corpse, its body shattered into pieces first.
The head rolled on the ground for several circles, leaving only a few distinctly segmented vertebrae bones in place.
This maggot’s death was somewhat strange; it wasn’t smashed by a stone statue but seemed to have died under some supernatural attack.
At the same time, the severed arm stone statue deeply buried by the other stone statues twitched slightly.
But the other surviving maggots completely failed to notice this, frantically eating and eating to fill their forever-unfillable appetites.
Naturally, they also wouldn’t notice that more and more of their kin were dying under various attacks.
Some cracking open, some spontaneously combusting…
As the stone statues piled higher and higher, though their numbers still couldn’t match the headworms, they buried a portion of the stone statues.
After the headworms’ gaze was blocked, more and more stone statues gradually recovered their actions…
“Have you found anything special?” Zhang Qian scanned the area and asked the mannequin at his feet.
The music hall’s main entrance had closed after the one-eyed stone statue left, the entire process silent, so the one person and one ghost inside the music hall hadn’t noticed any abnormalities.
Currently, the two of them were working to leave the music hall.
With no leads, they could only use the brute force method, groping through the hall bit by bit.
“No.” The mannequin’s mouth opened slightly.
Due to height differences, Zhang Qian was responsible for searching the seats, while the mannequin handled under the seats.
Unfortunately, it found nothing.
The mannequin didn’t mind getting its hands dirty, scratched its head indignantly, and said, “Under this seat is too clean; not to mention clues, I didn’t even see a bit of cobweb or dust.”
Logically, this music hall hadn’t been used for a long time and shouldn’t look this new.
However, with the oil lamps overhead still burning, it didn’t seem so strange to be a bit cleaner?
Zhang Qian looked back and summed up, “Seats are all searched; I didn’t find any abnormalities here either.”
Now they had moved from the main entrance to in front of the stage, having searched at least several hundred positions in between.
Plus, for safety, the one person and one ghost hadn’t separated, so even glancing over many seats had still wasted quite a bit of time.
“We can only check up there…” The mannequin looked up to indicate.
