Chapter 54: Scaring the Whole Room to Tears

Griffiths used every ounce of her strength, trying to take off those embroidered shoes,

but the embroidered shoes refused to budge an inch, as if rooted to her feet — every tug sent a piercing pain through her,

as though someone had raked sharp nails fiercely across her feet, leaving them covered in blood.

In the darkness, everything around was eerie and gloomy; the dim yellow light of the sheepskin lantern blurred the couplets into a smudge,

and on the door, that conspicuous character for "mourning."

Griffiths grew more and more panicked, desperately tugging at the edges of the embroidered shoes, itching to fling them off at once,

yet she felt that human strength seemed so feeble at this moment.

She looked up at Madame Báthory and cried out urgently:

"Quick! Come help me, I have to get these ghost embroidered shoes off!"

Instead, Madame Báthory glared at her with a stern face and nearly roared:

"Griffiths! What nonsense are you talking? What embroidered shoes?! And why are you tearing at your own skin?!"

Griffiths:!!!!

This moment was like a bolt from the blue!

She stood frozen on the spot, eyes wide as saucers, turning her stiff neck to look down at her feet.

Only then did she see clearly — there were no embroidered shoes on her feet at all; they were plainly a pair of bare feet, gouged raw by fingernails and dripping with blood.

"Heavens... oh heavens..."

Griffiths was on the verge of tears. She glanced around timidly, murmuring to herself, as if she had gone mad:

"No, no... this isn't real.

Where are the embroidered shoes? Where did they go? They were here just now — believe me, really, I'm not lying."

Griffiths clutched her head, her whole mind in a daze.

Encountering something bizarre was terrifying enough, but what was even more terrifying was that this bizarre thing had vanished in an instant, gone without rhyme or reason!

Before, when the embroidered shoes were still on her feet, she knew there was danger, but at least that danger was visible.

Now, this danger was nowhere to be seen.

Compared to a known danger, the fear of the unknown is the true fear.

Griffiths suddenly understood — even someone as terrifying as Madame Báthory couldn't help her with this,

because this ghostly thing was coming for her! Its target was her life!

"What kind of ghostly place is this!"

Griffiths grew somewhat angry, her heart so panicked she kept swallowing.

She couldn't understand why, from start to finish, she hadn't even caught a glimpse of a Summoned Creature's shadow,

yet the fear in her heart grew heavier and heavier, nearly crushing her!

No!

I have to escape!

I absolutely cannot sit here waiting to die!

Griffiths was a veteran of the Divine Ghost Killing Arena, after all. She clenched her teeth, forced down her fear, stood up, and looked around.

One look, and her expression grew even darker.

The previously cluttered village had vanished, replaced by a deep, gloomy forest.

They stood on a muddy path, and behind them was an ancient courtyard compound covering a thousand square meters, extraordinarily sinister.

The courtyard compound was old and weathered; its walls were built of stone blocks and plastered with lime,

and faintly visible on the walls seemed to be animal claw marks — three gouges running from top to bottom... though in the night, they were hard to make out clearly.

At the entrance of the courtyard compound stood two enormous stone lions,

but unlike the stone lions one would expect, these two had no heads!

Headless stone lions!

To be precise, their heads looked as though they had been severed in a single stroke by something sharp,

the cut surfaces smooth as mirrors, without a single edge or corner to the touch.

"Headless lions..."

Griffiths suppressed the panic in her heart and reached out to touch the smooth cut surface.

The next second, she was shocked to discover that this headless lion was actually warm,

as if it were a living lion freshly beheaded, blood-red fluid still oozing from the wound!

Pitter-patter!

Blood rain fell from the sky.

The blood rain carried the stench of mud, splatting on the ground, and also reeked of rot.

Splat—

A drop of blood rain arrived without warning and struck Griffiths. Immediately after,

she saw in horror that this rain was intensely corrosive! The moment it touched clothing, it could burn a hole right through.

It should be noted that the outfit she wore was a gift from Madame Báthory.

Though not equal to Madame Báthory's level of protection, it had absorbed a trace of the Madame's aura,

so that even an S Rank Summoned Creature couldn't get close to her.

Now, it was being corroded by the rain into tattered rags.

"No good. If I stay any longer, I will certainly die."

The thought flashed through her mind. Griffiths looked toward the courtyard compound — to survive, she had no choice but to go inside and take shelter.

Just as she was about to push the door open, Madame Báthory suddenly grabbed her hand and whoosh—dashed into the main hall of the courtyard house.

Griffith wanted to turn back and ask Madame Báthory what the rush was,

but suddenly discovered that the places on Madame Báthory's body that had been struck by the rain also had holes burned through them!

What terrified Griffith the most was that on Madame Báthory's neck, at some unknown point, a pair of...

embroidered shoes had appeared!

Fuck!

Again?

Griffith blinked frantically—how strange—had her eyes been playing tricks just now? That pair of embroidered shoes had vanished without a trace.

Madame Báthory was a top-tier horror figure;

her movements were as fast as lightning, and in the blink of an eye she had flashed from the gate to the main house.

Hiding here, at the very least, would temporarily spare them from the assault of the blood rain.

But what was the point?

They still couldn't escape.

No matter how long they hid, they couldn't avoid death.

They had to find a way to slip away!

Griffith and Madame Báthory had the exact same thought pop into their minds simultaneously.

By the way,

the audience outside the arena had also begun having nightmares one by one.

The arena had long been dyed blood-red, and the embroidered shoes Zhang Cheng summoned

cloaked the entire arena in a layer of eerie, terrifying aura.

This atmosphere induced hallucinations, dragging all the audience into a bizarre space created by the embroidered shoes.

At this very moment, every audience member was facing the same predicament as Griffith!

The barrier of these embroidered shoes didn't lock onto Griffith alone.

It locked onto every audience member present!

Therefore,

as soon as the challenge match began, the center of the arena fell into a dead silence.

Some audience members were so terrified they passed out on the spot.

Everything they were experiencing, though not life-threatening,

was merely Zhang Cheng wanting them to get a taste of Dragon Nation's embroidered shoes, to experience a little of that charm.

Of course, it was also possible.

Perhaps some audience members from Daxiong Nation and the Xiao Han Republic might accidentally be scared to death for real.

Who could say for sure about that?

Looking at those terrified faces in the audience, the Mysterious Judge, who was keeping far away, suddenly had his curiosity spike,

"What exactly are the embroidered shoes Zhang Cheng summoned?"

"How could they scare the entire audience's fear value off the charts?"

Since the Divine Ghost Killing Arena opened, this was the first time the Mysterious Judge had witnessed such a shocking scene.

Could this be the legendary depth of Dragon Nation?

At this moment, he noticed Zhang Cheng in the center of the arena suddenly turn his head to look at him, the corner of his mouth curling into an intriguing smile.

As if asking:

"Want to give it a try?"

The Mysterious Judge hurriedly waved his hand, "No, no, I'll pass."

……

Inside the barrier.

Torrential rain poured down, mercilessly pounding the ground.

In the courtyard of the courtyard house, the water level was rapidly rising.

Griffith and Madame Báthory hid beneath the eaves,

when they suddenly noticed a mass of blue-green mist surging in from outside the gate, converging toward the courtyard.

In the blink of an eye, it was about to surround them.

This mist... was unusual!

Madame Báthory's senses were extremely sharp.

But she felt utterly wretched inside.

What the hell kind of place was this?

The yin energy was terrifyingly heavy!

Moreover, Madame Báthory felt

as if an invisible force kept pushing the two of them toward the main hall.

Could there be an even more terrifying secret inside the main hall?

A sense of crisis surged through them—no time to think—the two shoved open the main hall's doors!

Before their eyes, it was pitch black.

However,

they had just stepped into the main hall and hadn't yet collected themselves.

Two bangs.

The door shut itself!

Right after, in the center of the main house, two candles mysteriously lit up.

The candlelight was dim; inside the house with doors and windows tightly shut, the flames kept swaying, as if something were blowing on them breath by breath.

Drip…

A drop of water slid down from the eaves.

It hit squarely on Griffith's back of the head;

The gloomy atmosphere plus a bone-chilling cold made Griffith shiver; he reached up to feel the back of his head and leaned in for a closer look.

In his palm, a patch of bright red!

Fuck!

It's blood!

Griffith let out a scream and jerked his head up.

He saw only:

On the sturdy wooden beams of the main house hung corpse after corpse!

Their necks were wrapped with hemp rope, hanging from the beams.

Their deaths were gruesome.

Each had tongue protruding and eyes wide open.

Bloodshot eyes stared fixedly in Griffith's direction, as if it were a meticulously staged performance!