Days pa.s.sed.Finally, the group of students was a couple of miles away from the village. All of them looked weary since, on the previous night, ghosts kept terrorizing them even in their sleep. Having not enough rest, it was no wonder when they had ushered the next day, they were without much energy, looking like walking corpses with hunch backs, slightly reddish eyes, and bleak expressions.
After hours of trekking through the jungle, they could barely lift their legs. "This is supposed to be a fun group tour." They could no longer count how many times they exclaimed these words.
When the sun was about to set, the male lead"s sister, Fan Lan grimaced and anxiously reminded them. "Everyone. It"s nightfall again…"
Without her needing to elaborate, the rest knew what she wanted to say. Their body became tense. There were four boys and four girls in the group. None of them noticed one of their hands subconsciously reached for the talismans given to them.
Everything was silent. Until one of the guys couldn"t take the tenseness anymore and cursed.
"Dammit! This is simply h.e.l.l! We went the opposite direction to return to civilization but this G.o.dd.a.m.n forest seems alive and brought us deeper into it! If we do this, when are we going to reach the exit?"
Fan Zheng glanced at him, his face darkened. After thinking for a moment, he shook his head and said, "I don"t know what"s happening. But I agree with you, this wilderness is special. My guess is that there are more evil things here than expected. Probably a long time ago, before nature took this place back, it is actually a cemetery or a war camp of some dynasties hundreds of years ago."
"The ghosts are all women." His sister retorted.
"Well, that"s precisely why I said it might be a war camp, not the battlefield. You should know, soldiers are vulnerable to stress so some commanders allow girls in the flesh business to stay in the barracks and only leave them behind in times of war."
The boys laughed and whistled at his answer while the girls glared at them.
Fan Zheng wryly smiled, "Anyway, what I want to say is their spirits might be the ones troubling us. They are giving influencing us or our surroundings, giving us no choice but to walk in circles. Our priority is to either find a settlement or an exit. If not, then at least find our way back to that temple."
This was, unfortunately, easier said than done. From the moment they realized they kept getting closer to the mountain, they turned around with the intent to go back to the temple, but where were they now? They were still in the forest!
If thought seriously, the original goal had been to climb the mountain up the forest. Yet now, all they wanted to do was get away from it. This fact would make their adventurous group a laughingstock to their acquaintances, but what else could they do?
Looking upon the sky, Fan Zheng sighed and announced, "Let"s walk some more. Perhaps in a few more minutes, we"ll see that temple again."
While the rest nodded weakly, Guo Hanying, a slim girl with long red-tea colored hair suddenly yelled with arms spread wide, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! I really hate the coming of the night!"
Her companions instantly glared at her.
Fan Lan said with urgency, "Hush, sis, don"t shout. You might attract them earlier than we would want!"
"Yeah, shut your mouth, red horse. Don"t bring upon us another calamity," An Ming, the oldest but most immature guy in their midst, followed up in a somewhat sharp tone. He called her horse not only because of her untamed personality, but because of her large eyes, prominent cheekbones, and chin that was quite longer than normal. Red was obviously from her hair.
An Ming also said to her in a discontent voice, "One trouble is enough. Can you please be content already with the previous one? Without that d.a.m.n board of yours, our sight will remain normal and we won"t have to see those annoying ghosts."
Guo Hanying replied indignantly, "Hey, that"s foul. Everyone consented with the game!"
"But remember, it"s you who invited us. What did you call those who refused at first? Killjoy."
"You still can"t put the blame on me! It"s not as if the ghosts have all been summoned in that seance session!"
An Ming coldly laughed, "Fan Zheng already said one possible reason they flocked towards us because they sensed that we could see them. So why again did our third eyes opened?"
The blaming game started until it was no longer only the two bickering. The others joined. Everyone had been friends for years, but because they were in a sh*tty position, they couldn"t help but find a way to vent their frustration.
The exchange of hurtful words ensued until the girl with red-dyed hair burst into tears. She sat down to hug her knees and buried her face in her arms. As she had no idea that even if she didn"t bring an ouija board the plot would still make them do another form of a seance, Guo Hanying thought that it was really her who was mainly responsible for their suffering. The notion was actually painful for her and kept making her guilty.
However, her words earlier, although said chiefly in poor defense, still holds true. As all of them were already adults, they should be responsible for their actions.
After sighing, Zhan Rong, the female student who left the most impression on Jiang Li., tried to pull her up and calmed her down.
"Ying-Ying, stop crying. It"s okay. We all know you never intended to harm us. It"s An Ming who is simply being a jerk here, not realizing how uncool it was to throw all the responsibility to a little girl. He even led others to bully you even though he knows he"s also at fault. Sickening." Her voice was calm, contrary to her face that had undisguised disdain written on it
A scowl appeared on An Ming"s face, unappreciative of the stare from the pretty girl.
The big guy continued arguing, much to the headache of the male lead, "I simply stated the facts earlier. What? Truth hurts? Don"t forget our situation we are in now. Also, don"t forget it"s you who talked the most at that time."
To this, the girl rolled her eyes. "So it"s my turn. And how do I know that a ghost can actually appear in a temple? Go ahead, blame everyone else you can think of, besides yourself. I"m also telling this to you, guys. I promise I won"t judge. I understand that it"s human nature to look for someone to blame to feel better in a bad situation."
As Zhan Rong was also p.i.s.sed at this point, she still didn"t raise her voice, but sarcasm overflowed in it.
Fan Zheng tiredly commented, "... Our gracious Lady Rong, can"t you just say in a subtle way that blaming won"t take us anywhere?"
"I"m just copying a certain someone"s manner of speaking. I"m still being polite," she said before walking past him while still hugging Guo Hanying. The male lead exchanged glances with his sister then shook his head to his other friends who had lowered their heads.
Night fell no matter how unwilling they was.
In the end, they had to accept the fact that they could only camp in the wild and pray that the ghosts would give them a peaceful night. Of course, even they were aware this was merely wishful thinking.
Their prayer did not come true as eerie presences began to disturb them two hours before midnight.
More than a hundred spirits showed up around them this time. All had hideous appearances, wearing various styles of clothing from different eras. The sight simply intimidating as for the past few days, they only encountered ten at most.
However, it was not solely due to the quant.i.ty of the wandering spirits that Fan Zheng and the rest momentarily froze in place, feeling like every cell in their bodies was screaming of indescribable despair.
No. It was because, at the center, an eye-catching female ghost slowly appeared, towering over others and surrounded by a thick air of malice that could frighten both humans and ghosts alike.
Her head was bent to the left, barely attached to her neck. Her long hair hid her face, only showing her red left eye that seemingly wanted to jump out of its socket. Her white dress was stained with blood, the pale legs underneath just as b.l.o.o.d.y. Compare to the others, her appearance was not as painful to look at, but the air around her just simply evoked a sense of dread that kept ringing the alarm in the students" brains.
"It"s a very strong ghost! Run!" Fan Zheng yelled in fright before pulling his sister away.
The faces of the other paled and their bodies were trembling prior to Fan Zheng"s shout. When they heard his voice, they came back to their senses and picked up their stuff, then hurriedly scrambled to their feet while screaming their hearts out.
"It"s the devil!"
"Run, run!"
"Don"t come near us! Stay away! Ahhh!"
After that, various profanities and incomprehensible stuff from the mouths of those youths once again tore the silence and peacefulness of the forest, joined later by the strange noises from the spirits and the cries of birds.
Jiang Li temporarily ignored the students who had all abandoned their tents and ran away.
From where he was hiding, his eyes flickered to the leader of the ghosts, recognizing a being at the same level as him. However, his change of expression was not because of worry for the life and death of the stupid bunch.
"Hmm... Among this little army, that one seemed to be capable of thoughts," he thought. His form slowly materialized. "She is a rare one who is not driven by some remnant desire."
Wearing a frown, he came out of his hiding and tried to get near the gathering of ghosts. Thankfully, despite the other spirits not being familiar with him, they did not do anything to obstruct him, probably because they only saw him as a fellow ghost or because he was stronger than them.
His sight never left their leader. Upon reading the female ghost"s lips from the distance, he was surprised by what he had decoded.
"Don"t go there….. Go back." She seemingly said in desperation. The movement of her chappy bloodless lips that were barely not concealed by her hair was exaggeratedly slow.
"Danger..."
"Please... don"t run... that way..."
"Foooollllllsssss!"
"No... Not... there..."
The female ghost kept chasing, so were her followers.
Whenever the leader of the spirits opened her mouth, the rest would also try to do the same, hoping their growls and ravings could convey their message.
Seeing that all the evil spirits were sporting the same anxious expressions despite appearing scary, Jiang Li shook his head. He then silently flew over to attach himself to one of the girls in the group.
His expression was complicated when he looked back at the crying female ghost. All of a sudden, he was truly annoyed at the stupid bunch.
Why do people never entertain the idea that ghosts could also not be bad?
The ones in this area were really nice. Or at least nice to people from outside. The haunting was due to these deceased beings" pure intention to save. Even though one of the students, that show-off male lead, acted disrespectfully towards them, their stance did not change. They still wanted no foreigners, especially girls, to venture deeper to become another victim of those devils.