Chapter 115: A World of Hideous Eyes
Number Six was remarkably efficient.
Before long, he returned from the bamboo cabin with a length of hemp rope. Yellow Hair stepped forward to help, and together, they bound the still-muttering Lu Bowen until he was trussed up like a festival pig. They paid special attention to his hands, wrapping them several times before cinching the rope into a dead knot.
A fresh wave of fear washed over Lu Bowen, but he clamped his mouth shut, refusing to reveal what had transpired. A venomous, unnerving smile twisted his lips.
"You'll regret this," he hissed, his voice dripping with malice. "The power of that person is far beyond anything you can comprehend. Just you wait. You'll all die, just like the others before you."
Yellow Hair spat on the ground. "This kid's acting like he's possessed. He's even more annoying than before."
"Down you go!"
With a sharp kick, Yellow Hair sent Lu Bowen tumbling into the well. He and Number Six then gripped the rope, carefully lowering their captive into the darkness below.
The rope slid down, bit by bit.
Lu Bowen's venomous curses continued to echo from within the stone walls of the well, the sound growing increasingly distorted and hollow as he descended. Just as his voice began to fade, suggesting he was nearing the bottom—
"Ahhh—!!!"
A brief, piercing scream, so sharp it barely sounded human, erupted from the depths.
Number Six reacted in a flash. His arms bulged with sudden force as he yanked on the rope, but the moment he pulled, the weight on the other end vanished completely.
Snap!
The hemp rope, which had seemed perfectly sturdy just a moment ago, parted just below the well's edge. The break was ragged and uneven, as if it had been torn in two by a pair of powerful hands. Thrown off balance by the sudden lack of resistance, Number Six stumbled back several steps, clutching nothing but a useless, frayed length of rope.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
Haruto's brow furrowed. He strode forward to examine the broken rope, then leaned over the lip of the well, peering into its bottomless maw. A deathly silence had fallen, so deep it was as if the scream had been a mere illusion. He expanded his perception, but there was no longer any trace of Lu Bowen's presence.
Reaching into a gap that shimmered into existence beside him, he retrieved a talisman card. It depicted a solitary half-phantom—the card of Youmu Konpaku. After a brief hesitation, however, he let it fade and pulled out another. The surface of this one was a dizzying collage of countless half-open, half-closed eyes. It was Yakumo Yukari's.
"Everyone, close your eyes," Haruto said, his tone uncharacteristically stern.
The others were taken aback, but the gravity in his voice was obvious. They immediately complied.
The talisman card dissolved between his fingers.
In the next instant, a truly shocking scene unfolded—though only for Haruto. One hideous, disembodied eye after another materialized from the void. More and more they appeared, a dense, swarming mass that blotted out the small courtyard, the bamboo forest, the sky, and every conceivable corner of the world.
'Everything is normal?'Haruto's brow furrowed even deeper. The scan revealed nothing but Sadako and her flock of "rabbits" in the forest. There was nothing unusual about the broken rope, either. If there was any anomaly at all, it was the energy signature inside the cabin—though to call it an'energy signature'was a stretch. It was more of an'existence.'
This alone would have confirmed his suspicions, as it fit his reasoning perfectly. But... Haruto's gaze drifted to Kaguya, who stood silently beside him. He mulled it over, about to speak, when Yotsuya Miko's voice cut through the silence.
"Brother Haruto, can we open our eyes now?"
Only then did Haruto remember that the others were still waiting in self-imposed blindness. "You can open them."
Yotsuya Miko and the others slowly opened their eyes, only to find their surroundings completely unchanged.
Curiosity getting the better of her, she couldn't help but ask, "Brother Haruto, what did you just do?"
Every head turned towards him, their eyes all asking the same question.
"Just a simple scan of the area." Haruto gave up on questioning Kaguya for the moment. He shrugged, his gaze falling on a young woman who had slumped to the ground, her face a mask of insanity. A helpless look crossed his face.
"Didn't I tell you not to open your eyes?"
Only then did the others notice the woman curled into a ball on the dirt. Her expression was distorted and vacant, as if she had witnessed the ultimate horror.
This... was the result of just opening her eyes for a moment?
An icy chill climbed up their spines.
Yellow Hair, in particular, felt a wave of cold dread wash over him. He had been a hair's breadth from peeking himself. Fortunately, he had reasoned that if a powerhouse like Haruto gave an order, there had to be a good reason for it, and had managed to restrain himself.
It was important to remember that everyone here had cleared at least one instance; their mental fortitude was not to be underestimated. Yet a single glance was enough to shatter someone's sanity. Had an evil god descended upon them just now? Though they had been suspicious when Haruto told them to close their eyes, none had expected the consequences to be this terrifying.
Tao Shou secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had guessed that Haruto was about to use one of the powerful talisman cards he'd heard about—an item from his family's elders. Because of this, he had squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as possible, not daring to open them until he heard Haruto's voice.
"Brother Haruto, is there any hope for her?" Yotsuya Miko asked, her voice a mixture of annoyance and pity. Despite the clear warning, someone just had to look.
"If it were a physical injury, I could treat it. But for this kind of mental damage, there's really nothing I can do," Haruto said with another shrug. Then, as if remembering something, he added, "I can, however, manifest a Boundary of Calmness. Whether she wakes up or not will depend on her own luck."
With a snap of his fingers, a shimmering strand of Boundary Power drifted down and settled onto the young woman. Instantly, the tortured lines on her face began to smooth out, her expression softening like that of a soothed infant.
Yellow Hair cautiously stepped forward and waved a hand in front of her eyes. Seeing no reaction, he was about to turn away when the woman suddenly let out a shrill, blood-curdling scream, startling him so badly he nearly fell on his backside.
"What the hell is wrong with you!" the blond youth cursed.
The woman paid him no mind, her hands clawing at her head, yanking out clumps of her own hair.
"Eyes... eyes everywhere..." she babbled, her voice trembling. "Dense voices... the whole world is full of them... they're laughing, they're talking..."
Though her words were incoherent, the fragments of information were enough for everyone to paint a horrifying picture in their minds—an entire world covered in hideous eyes that not only laughed but also spoke.
Instantly, a fresh wave of terror gripped them all.
Yotsuya Miko immediately thought of the elder Haruto had mentioned, Yakumo Yukari. The description was identical to the pattern on her parasol, only magnified into something infinitely more terrifying.
"I've done all I can," Haruto said with a final, helpless shrug.
The blond youth quickly chimed in, his tone urgent. "The boss did everything he could. She wouldn't listen to orders, so let's just let her recover here. We need to get a move on." He remembered that the Sadako of this instance wasn't going to wait seven days; she was set to revive within a single day.
If they didn't hurry, they really were all going to be killed by her.
Yotsuya Miko cautiously approached the edge of the well and peered down into the darkness.
"So, did that guy fall to his death?"
"A dry well this deep? A fall like that would definitely kill him," Tao Shou analyzed. "Not to mention Sadako might be down there. Even if he could fly, he wouldn't be able to escape." He then added, "And even if he somehow grew wings and flew out, he probably would've been scared to death on the spot by the boss's technique."
The others nodded in grim agreement. None of them believed for a second that Lu Bowen could have survived.
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