Chapter 32: Loss Of Control
Wei Ling looked at her somewhat incredulously: “You have one?”
Xu Ruolin was startled by her suddenly raised voice, her body trembling for an instant, though she nodded: “Yes, yes.”
“Then why didn’t you use it yourself?”
Instead getting scared into this state?
Xu Ruolin’s voice trembled: “How was I supposed to know it was an illusion? I thought you all had gone mad!”
“And the price is too high, I didn’t want to use it.”
Her words left Wei Ling not knowing what to say.
“You mean this thing works, right?”
“Then if the illusion appears again, remind me, I’ll use it, okay?”
Xu Ruolin seemed completely terrified, unable to cling to Lu Jinzhao, so she thought of clinging to Wei Ling instead.
Wei Ling naturally didn’t resist a supernatural item delivered right to her door, she nodded: “When I tell you to use it, don’t hesitate, use it immediately, understand?”
Xu Ruolin nodded.
With this “assurance,” Wei Ling felt much more at ease, and even the suffocation within the oppressive atmosphere had dissipated somewhat.
And with Wei Ling as her support, Xu Ruolin’s mental state also seemed much more stable, no longer muttering those meaningless words.
Inside the Ancestral Hall fell quiet once more.
It was now deep into the night, pitch black outside the Ancestral Hall door, and the torch borrowed from the villagers had also burned out completely.
The moment the flames went out, inside the Ancestral Hall also plunged into darkness.
Only the eternal lamp on the altar provided a faint glimmer of light, preventing the place from falling into complete darkness.
All around was utter silence.
Only now did Wei Ling fully realize just how quiet Qu Xiang was.
Quiet to the point of dead silence, where nothing could be heard except their breathing.
In the darkness, several breathing sounds rose and fell.
—Exhale
—Exhale
—Exhale
Slightly to the left and farther away was probably Lu Jinzhao’s breathing, steady in frequency, calm, just like her.
A bit to the right, slightly rapid, occasionally disrupting the rhythm, was Xu Ruolin.
Probably the extinguishing of the torch made her feel a slight lack of sense of security, causing her to panic from time to time.
The one behind had a very long exhale, with the inhale sound almost nonexistent.
No.
Wei Ling’s whole body stiffened, cold sweat instantly beading on her forehead.
The one behind?
Behind her, where was there anyone?
In that instant, Wei Ling felt her body going slightly soft, a physiological reaction under extreme fear.
She gritted her teeth, recalling what Lu Jinzhao had said, and abruptly turned her head to look behind her!
In the dim candlelight, she saw nothing behind her.
No one.
Then where was that exhaling sound coming from?
—Exhale
Like a ghost, a faint exhaling sound came from near Wei Ling’s right ear, identical to the breath that had been behind her earlier.
Her scalp instantly went numb, and she immediately turned back toward the source of the breath.
Nothing there.
Cold sweat kept sliding down from her forehead, Wei Ling realized Xu Ruolin hadn’t lied.
The ghost had come in to find them.
It seemed she was the first one targeted.
The ghostly sound appeared behind her again, Wei Ling whipped around fiercely, only seeing the neatly arranged ancestral tablets and the altar table.
On the altar table, the eternal lamp was barely maintaining the faint light inside the Ancestral Hall.
—Exhale.
A long, especially distinct exhaling sound came.
The next moment, the lamp went out.
The ghost had blown out the only light source in the room.
Wei Ling was plunged into darkness.
All light and sound vanished, she gradually could no longer hear Lu Jinzhao and Xu Ruolin’s breathing.
As if the world held only herself and that ghost lurking in the dark!
Fear surged to her heart, in the pitch-black darkness where she couldn’t see her own hand, Wei Ling’s reason was collapsing and crumbling.
“.I’m going to die.” She was utterly certain.
She had been targeted by the ghost, perhaps she was about to die right now.
Should she use the supernatural item?
“No, that’s not right!” Wei Ling snapped back to her senses.
Illusion!
This might be an illusion!
“Xu Ruolin, use your supernatural item now!” she shouted loudly, not caring if Xu Ruolin could hear.
But fortunately, the ghost seemed able only to create illusions, not block her voice.
The next moment, she heard a finger snap, followed by the darkness before her gradually dissipating, and she saw Xu Ruolin looking at her with concern: “Are you okay?”
“You were so scary just now.”
“But I heard you call me, so I used the supernatural item.”
Wei Ling looked toward the altar table; the eternal lamp was still burning, not extinguished, she breathed a sigh of relief—it seemed the illusion was dissipating?
No.
Why was the eternal lamp’s flame growing more vigorous?
The flames grew brighter and brighter, the fire growing taller and taller, and before long, the flames ignited the Ancestral Hall.
“.What’s going on?” Wei Ling stepped back a few paces, away from the flames, even though she felt no heat from them.
“It’s fine, this is the illusion dissipating.” Xu Ruolin seemed accustomed to it: “After using my supernatural item, the illusion dissipates with very obvious anomalies to remind me it’s an illusion.”
“But… hasn’t the illusion already dissipated?”
The darkness had receded, so what was the situation now?
Was there still an illusion present that she hadn’t noticed?!
Ashes from the burning flames fell from above the Ancestral Hall, and amid the snow-like ashes, the Ancestral Hall gradually twisted, deformed, the ground and wall surface materials shifted, objects dissipated and reforged, ultimately transforming into its original form.
A cold, dark altar.
That humanoid statue stood right before the two, gazing at them.
“.An altar?!”
Xu Ruolin cried out in shock: “How can this be an altar?!”
Wei Ling wanted to ask too.
How could this be an altar?
She turned her head, then witnessed a horrifying scene.
Corpses littered the ground.
Those companions she thought had escaped the Ancestral Hall lay dead in gruesome states on the ground.
“We’ve been tricked!” Xu Ruolin’s voice broke.
“This isn’t the Ancestral Hall at all! They’re all dead, next it’s us!”
Wei Ling’s brain buzzed, she was almost unable to think, but she desperately held herself together to avoid collapsing.
“No, we haven’t died yet, there’s still a chance.”
“Right.” Xu Ruolin suddenly rallied: “The ghost used an illusion to deceive us, making us think we’d reached the Ancestral Hall, but now the illusion is broken, we can head to the real Ancestral Hall!”
“Run!” With that, Xu Ruolin ran off.
Wei Ling lagged behind her, for some reason she didn’t start running immediately, but the next second, she felt something approaching her.
An ice-cold hand landed on her wrist.
It was the ghost.
She had run too slowly, falling behind Xu Ruolin, so the ghost chose to kill her first.
No, she couldn’t die here!
In an instant, Wei Ling erupted with intense will to survive, actually breaking free from the ghost’s hand and dashing toward the altar’s doorway.
But she had endured too many shocks, her legs were unbelievably weak, and at this critical moment, she stumbled!
Damn it!
Wei Ling’s heart turned ice-cold, nearly despairing.
Because she felt the ghost catch up.
She was grabbed.
Those ice-cold hands throttled her neck, suffocation hit, and she gradually couldn’t see the scene before her clearly.
—Am I going to die?
Her vision blurred, Wei Ling inwardly cursed the train nonstop, and in the face of impending death, a final doubt arose.
Why… was this mission’s difficulty so immense?
Was this really Class C?!
“Wake up!”
“Wei Ling!”
A familiar voice suddenly sounded by her ear, leaving Wei Ling somewhat dazed.
She… hadn’t died?
Her stalled brain started working again, she opened her closed eyes, and saw… Lu Jinzhao’s face.
“Running toward the door, are you trying to die?”
A hint of impatience and anxiety appeared on that always-calm face opposite her; Wei Ling was momentarily dazed, then struggled a couple times upon feeling the suffocation.
The hands choking her neck loosened.
Not the ghost, it was Lu Jinzhao.
But why?
Wei Ling sensed something wrong again; the furnishings around her were off.
Wasn’t this the altar?
The eternal lamp’s flame was still flickering faintly on the altar table, everything around so familiar.
Why… was she still inside the Ancestral Hall?
Right, Lu Jinzhao—since earlier, she hadn’t heard Lu Jinzhao speak again.
As for Xu Ruolin…
Wei Ling looked around.
Where was there any sign of Xu Ruolin?
