So, just in case, I'm just saying in case, if I can't come back to show you the way tonight. If you are really taken away by Master Hong later, you can light this candle."
Teacher Xu spoke in a very calm tone.
But after hearing these words, Li Xiu couldn't relax at all. He just looked at the teacher in front of him with great fear, and a sour feeling suddenly rose in his nose.
"It's lit...and then what? What happens then?"
Li Xiu asked.
Teacher Xu was silent for a moment, and suddenly, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
That smile was different from any Li Xiu had ever seen before.
At this moment, the smile on Teacher Xu's face was not gentle at all. It could even be said that there was a hint of strangeness, arrogance and rebelliousness in that smile.
The originally calm and tired middle-aged teacher, at this moment, looked like a fearless youth.
"I don't know either."
Teacher Xu winked at Li Xiu.
"I have no idea if my life can truly defeat that thing," the master of metaphysics explained briskly to Li Xiu. "But from my perspective, those old men from a decade ago shouldn't have hesitated and used their so-called slow-paced approach to deal with something so ferocious. Evil and deviant ways like this should be met with violence, fought with life."
"How can a human be afraid of ghosts?"
Hearing this, Li Xiu's eyelids twitched, and a bad feeling suddenly arose in his heart.
This candle that Teacher Xu just gave him...what is it used to burn?
As soon as this thought came to mind, Li Xiu felt that the candle in her hand was incredibly hot.
He subconsciously wanted to give the candle back to Teacher Xu, but the latter did not give him the chance.
In the moment when Li Xiu was stunned, the older man had already opened the car door with an expressionless face and walked straight out of the car.
The fog is so thick.
As soon as Teacher Xu stepped out of the car, he felt like he was completely swallowed up by a huge and terrifying monster.
His figure instantly disappeared into the mist. And those stiff, terrifying ghostly figures, as if sensing something, staggered away from the carriage.
"Teacher Xu!
Qiao Yang covered his mouth. Although he couldn't see clearly, he still stared at the direction where Teacher Xu got off the bus.
"…"
Li Xiu also kept staring out the window.
"It's okay, Xiu, Teacher Xu will be fine. Isn't he very powerful?"
In a tense state, Fang Qianan suddenly shook Li Xiu's hand. He said loudly to the young man.
Even though he was so afraid of ghosts, he still tried hard to appear calm in front of Li Xiu, although... not very successful.
"He's fine, I have a feeling."
"Yes, my teacher is very good."
Qiao Yang was also chattering non-stop in the passenger seat.
It seemed like he was talking to himself, but also like he was talking to other people in the car.
"I'm not saying anything, but he's the most powerful master I've ever met. I heard he took part in the zombie siege before. He's the youngest Heavenly Master. This time, he's just going out to explore... just exploring..."
If Qiao Yang hadn't been crying while speaking, his self-consolation might have been a little more convincing.
Time seemed incredibly long at this point.
Just as Li Xiu was staring out the window, feeling so nervous that she thought her nerves were about to break...
"Snap, snap."
He heard a crisp sound of applause.
"He's right outside!"
"He should be at the entrance of the Martyrs' Cemetery!"
Li Xiu and Qiao Yang sat up straight at the same time and shouted in great surprise.
The clapping soon started again.
"Hurry! The teacher must have used up his mana!"
At this moment, Qiao Yang seemed to have thought of something and hurriedly urged Fang Qianan and Li Xiu to get out of the car.
"I don't know how much longer the teacher can hold on in this situation. We have to get off the bus soon. Anyway, remember what the teacher said. When we are on our way..."
"Don't open your eyes."
"Don't open your eyes."
Fang Qianan and Li Xiu said in unison.
After hearing Fang Qianan and Li Xiu's answers, Qiao Yang forced a smile, then pulled off his tie, cut it in two pieces with a pocket knife, and handed it to the two boys in front of him.
"Tie it on," he ordered. "We should be leaving too."
Qiao Yang watched Fang Qianan and Li Xiu tie their ties around their eyes, then, with a hardened heart, he opened the car door.
After getting off the car, thick fog immediately enveloped the three of them, and the looming figures in the fog slowly turned towards them as they staggered forward.
"jingle--"
Through the sticky and humid fog, the ringing of the copper bells in the carriage was still faintly visible, which made Li Xiu feel a chill on his back.
The mist had a murky, damp smell, and Li Xiu felt as if every breath he took was like a wet rag pressed against his mouth and nose. The chilling sensation seemed to penetrate his pores and penetrate deep into his body.
"Pah—Pah—"
I don't know why, but after getting out of the car, the sound of Teacher Xu's slapping was much more faint than it had been in the car. The sound of the wind, the faint sobbing, and the faint whispering diluted the sound of the slapping into fragments.
Li Xiu had to stop and listen hard from time to time to barely discern the direction of the applause.
After walking like this for a while, he suddenly felt a slight pain in his shoulders.
"A Xiu…"
"Why are you walking with your eyes covered? Seriously, you'll fall if you walk like that..."
Grandma's old and worried voice sounded, and Li Xiu's heart skipped a beat.
"How can you reassure grandma with this?"
Li Xiuqiang held back her tears and pressed a copper coin on the back of her "grandmother's" cold and sticky hand.
Hula...
Li Xiu seemed to hear a sound similar to the rising of flames, and then, the shoulders that had become cold and stiff after being touched by "Grandma" suddenly felt a burst of burning warmth.
The weight that was originally pressing on Li Xiu's shoulders disappeared in an instant.
Li Xiu sniffed and walked forward as quickly as possible, taking advantage of the warmth.
"Pah-pah—"
Applause came from the front left.
But Li Xiu had only taken a few steps when he heard Teacher Xu's nervous call from another direction: "You're wrong, Li Xiu, don't go any further!"
The boy paused.
A shudder ran through his body and his stomach began to tighten slightly.
"That thing imitated my clapping sound. Li Xiu, come over here!"
Teacher Xu continued.
The tie on Li Xiu's eyes was soaked by the cold sweat that slowly dripped down the boy's forehead.
Li Xiu only stayed there for a few seconds before continuing to walk towards the front left. Then, he felt something brushing his cheek.
...like hair.
"Li Xiu! Stop! Don't go any further!"
"There's Red Lord in front of you!"
Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang's words came one after another.
A faint stench of decay rose from the damp mist.
"Pah…Pah…"
However, the applause still sounded in front of Li Xiu's left.
Li Xiu gritted his teeth and tried hard to control his urge to turn around.
Teacher Xu once said that you can't believe a single word of this kind of "thing".
The back of his neck was already itchy, and the sticky, wet long hair covered Li Xiu's neck, like a living thing, and was about to drill into Li Xiu's collar - Li Xiu found an opportunity and threw the copper coin behind him forcefully.
"Woo—"
A painful wail was heard, and the hair that fell on him dissipated.
Also disappearing were the panicked calls of Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang.
Li Xiu's knees gave way, and he nearly fell. He felt a wave of exhaustion, a symptom of excessive tension.
He knew his bet was right this time...but the voices weren't from Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang. But what about next time?
Will he be so lucky next time?
Also, can others not be deceived?
Countless thoughts swirled in Li Xiu's mind, but Li Xiu could only grit his teeth and try to move forward.
During this period, he would occasionally bump into some "people". Sometimes, he even felt that those things were right in front of his nose, staring at him with bloodshot, scarlet eyes.
And every time he would find the right time to give the copper coins out.
Every copper coin will dispel the ghostly and eerie feeling of being watched and the entanglement from another world.
However...
The further Li Xiu walked, the more he felt that Teacher Xu's applause seemed to be getting farther and farther away. How much longer would he have to grope in the darkness before he could escape this area? Li Xiu had no idea. He only knew that the handful of copper coins in his hand, once full, seemed to be dwindling as he walked.
As the copper coins disappeared, Li Xiu felt his heart tighten with every step he took.
"Pah-pah—"
Finally, when Li Xiu only had two copper coins left in his hand, he heard particularly clear applause.
This time, the applause was so close that it seemed to be happening right in front of him.
Li Xiu's spirits lifted as he realized that he was about to walk out of the night fog.
But the next moment, Li Xiu heard a whisper.
The eerie male voice that he had heard countless times in his dreams rang close to Li Xiu's ear.
"A Xiu, why are you so disobedient?"
The next second, a sharp pain came from Li Xiu's disabled right foot.
Something grabbed his ankle.
Li Xiu screamed uncontrollably and didn't even have time to throw the coin. She fell to the ground because she lost her balance.
The only two copper coins left in the boy's hand rolled directly out of his palm.
"Hmm—"
Li Xiu took a deep breath and began to frantically search for the lost copper coin on the ground.
However, what the fingertips touched was a face that had long lost its elasticity.
Li Xiu could even feel that his fingers accidentally pierced into its already empty eye socket while groping.
The boy whimpered in fear again.
["Li Xiu——"]
Song Cheng's voice rang out.
["Little Cripple, if you have the guts to keep running—"]
Then came Wang Rongfa's vicious curse.
Li Xiu's knees went weak, and he felt something soft and boneless lying heavy and wet on his back.
The twisted knuckles bit into Li Xiu's neck little by little, strangling his breathing.
During the struggle, Li Xiu's tie had already fallen off.
Copper coins!
As long as you have copper coins, you can drive away these things that come over!
The desire to survive was mixed with intense fear, and Li Xiu could hardly control his instinct to open his eyes and look for the copper coins.
But he still couldn't find anything.
Will I... be trapped here?
Or will he be killed directly by the evil spirit?
The feeling of despair hit like a tsunami.
"Help… wu…"
Just when Li Xiu was about to give up and open his eyes, someone suddenly grabbed him hard and pulled him up from the ground.
"Don't open your eyes, idiot!"
A rough boy's voice exploded beside Li Xiu's ear.
Immediately afterwards, several copper coins were stuffed into Li Xiu's palm.
"Take it—and then go straight ahead! The exit is right ahead!"
Li Xiu heard Fang Qianan shouting at him.
The school bully's voice was still as domineering as ever, but Li Xiu could tell that Fang Qianan's voice was shaking badly.
Everyone was blindfolded.
Fang Qianan, how did he know he fell?
Li Xiu couldn't help but think.
Unless, after hearing his screams, he was stupid enough to tear off his tie and open his eyes.
Then, I found that he was in a desperate situation.
"Fang Qianan?"
Li Xiu subconsciously wanted to reach out and grab the boy, but Fang Qianan dodged his fingertips.
The boy pushed Li Xiu hard.
Li Xiu staggered a few steps and felt the air around him suddenly become lighter.
"Damn it! Fang—" Li Xiu also heard Teacher Xu's voice. It seemed that the other party wanted to call Fang Qianan, but he changed his words abruptly halfway through, "Li Xiu, don't stay, hurry, move forward!"
He even heard Qiao Yang's shout.
"Li Xiu, what are you still doing standing there? Move forward!"
Inexplicably, this time Li Xiu was very sure that the people who spoke were Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang whom he knew, and not imitations of the ghosts in the fog.
However, Li Xiu couldn't help but stop.
"Fang Qianan? Where are you? Did you run away?"
Li Xiu turned around and shouted while opening his hands to explore around.
"A Xiu, you idiot, I'm out, what are you still looking for, let's go——"
Fang Qianan was still scolding him.
But Li Xiu did not leave as Fang Qianan requested.
"sorry."
Li Xiu murmured to Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang who seemed to be not far away.
"I'm so sorry..."
He was breathing heavily, and a line of physiological tears seeped out of the corners of his eyes due to extreme tension and fear.
"I can't do it... I can't leave Fang Qianan here alone. He'll be killed by it."
Then, Li Xiu opened his eyes.
Two blurry shadows appeared right in front of him. Through the thin mist, Li Xiu could clearly see the sullen expressions of Teacher Xu and Qiao Yang. Teacher Xu's face was distorted, and he seemed to be shouting something at him.
However, Li Xiu heard nothing. The other party's face appeared for only a moment, and the next second, the thick fog surged in and completely obscured their figures.
Li Xiu sobbed and turned around trembling.
Then, he saw Fang Qianan's face, which was slightly gray.
When he met Li Xiu's gaze, Fang Qianan's eyes flickered slightly.
"I don't need you to save me... run away... ah... idiot..."
"A Xiu, run away."
An extremely weak whisper escaped from his gray lips.
Then, the brilliance in his eyes completely vanished. The 1.9-meter-tall boy's body sagged like a bag of flour, dangling from the tall, red figure's fingertips.
The face-blurred monster leaned forward slightly in the thick fog. In its huge, abyssal-like eye sockets, there seemed to be a pair of eyes that were staring intently at Li Xiu.
"A Xiu."
["My Ah Xiu…"]
It reached out and held Li Xiu's head.
Li Xiu faced it head-on while trembling.
"Brother...Brother." He struggled and spoke softly to the extremely terrifying monster.
*
"Ah Xiu, don't be afraid."
"This is your brother."
"As long as you treat him as your brother, he will never hurt you."