Chapter 81: Escape

The distance was too close; Yang Xiao had no time to react before the footprints reached him, and in that instant, Yang Xiao's heart turned cold.

"Lucky Guest Chu, can you see me?" A human voice rang out from the position of the footprints.

Yang Xiao was scared out of his wits; asking if he could see him—even if he could, he wouldn't dare say so. He quietly moved his feet, stepping away from the spot the shoe tips were pointing at; he knew that some ghosts identified people by their shoe tips.

Yet, as Yang Xiao changed his position, the coachman's urgent voice sounded again from the footprints, "Lucky Guest Chu, you must not be able to see me. You have been bewitched by the Hanged Ghost. How about this: turn around, follow my voice, and walk backward the whole way. Remember, I am not letting you look back, so you must absolutely not look back."

The other party actually didn't attack him directly; this was something Yang Xiao hadn't expected. He steeled his heart, said nothing, and simply nodded.

Then Yang Xiao turned his back and truly followed the coachman's voice, stepping backward one step at a time, while Kuang Hongyi and Su Tingting, having no other choice after being cornered by the Hanged Ghost, had to follow Yang Xiao.

Su Tingting stood in the middle, one hand pulling Yang Xiao's left hand and the other tugging at Kuang Hongyi's clothes; the three of them intended to fight for their lives, as staying here would be death anyway.

After retreating for several dozen steps, just as Yang Xiao's patience was about to run out, suddenly, the view before him cleared up. He saw that the mist surrounding them had dissipated quite a bit, and not far from him stood a crooked-neck tree.

The crooked-neck tree had long since withered, and at this moment, its twisted branches were hung full of corpses, including Martial Master Zhao, who had died with his eyes wide open.

"You can turn around now." The coachman also let out a sigh of relief.

Turning around, before them was the very coachman who had driven their carriage, but the coachman's condition at this moment was not good either; one arm was broken, and there were bloody scratch marks on his face.

"Why are you here?" Having escaped death, Su Tingting's face was full of surprise.

Hearing this, the coachman pulled a long face, "Aiya, don't even mention it. I was originally coming to the accounting office to collect my silver, who knew how this... If I hadn't been carrying grave soil with me, I would have been done for."

Yang Xiao hurriedly felt his body, only to find that his silver was all spent. Seeing this, Kuang Hongyi immediately took a silver ingot from his person and shoved it to the coachman, "Brother Wu, you know the way, please take us in that direction." Kuang Hongyi pointed his hand toward the southeast.

"Good, good, good, I also want to go that way, we are all going the same path." Casually accepting the silver, the coachman led the way in front.

Yet no one noticed that at this moment, Martial Master Zhao under the crooked-neck tree had turned around at some point, his face slanted toward the direction where Yang Xiao and the others had left, his pair of resentful eyeballs staring fixedly at the coachman's back.

Once Yang Xiao and the others had walked far away, this sinister crooked-neck tree and the corpses upon it vanished once more into the mist.

After walking for not long, Yang Xiao couldn't help but frown, "Brother Wu, this road doesn't seem to be in the direction of the southeast?"

Brother Wu didn't look back, only complaining incessantly, "Aiya, how could we dare to walk straight there? Wouldn't we run into those filthy things again? We'll take a slightly longer route; it's safer this way."

Kuang Hongyi placed a hand on Yang Xiao's shoulder, squeezed it hard, and said with a chuckle, "Brother Chu, let's listen to Brother Wu. Brother Wu is an old hand at the Feng Mansion; he knows the way."

"That's right!" Brother Wu's mood visibly improved along the way.

Suddenly, a bamboo fence appeared before them. Brother Wu lowered his body, crouched by the fence, and waved to the three of them, "You all climb over first, I'll keep watch for you."

This bamboo fence was not very tall, reaching about to Yang Xiao's waist, and the material was nothing special, but its location was somewhat strange. Normally, a fence would be used to block something, but there was nothing here; both inside and outside the fence were gravel paths, as if this fence had been moved here from somewhere else.

"Quick, hurry, you all climb over first." Brother Wu urged repeatedly.

Just at this moment, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, and the rain grew heavier. A few seconds later, Yang Xiao's brow furrowed; he suddenly realized a very critical matter.

He had only seen the lightning, yet he had heard no thunder.

No, the three of them were still inside a Ghost Wall! Or... or rather, they had entered a new Ghost Wall!

"What are you dawdling for? Do you not want your lives?"

Brother Wu stood up anxiously and looked into the distance, where faint screams could be heard, and they were moving toward this location; the situation was extremely critical.

Yang Xiao stepped back a few paces, picked up a large rock from the ground, and threw it fiercely toward the other side of the fence. The next second, the rock vanished into thin air, and immediately after, a loud thud rang out.

"Splash!"

Such a large sound of water; it sounded muffled, and the water was not shallow.

At this moment, even Su Tingting knew something was wrong. The three of them retreated rapidly, moving away from the coachman, who stood by the fence without moving.

As the next bolt of lightning tore through the night sky, thunder rang in everyone's ears, and the scene before them changed in an instant. They saw that behind the fence was a pitch-black pond of no great size, and in the pond, a capsized carriage was vaguely visible.

And at this time, Brother Wu was wearing a grim face, water oozing from his entire body, staring fixedly at the three of them, before his body fell straight backward and tumbled into the pond.

No need to ask, it was another Drowned Ghost looking for a scapegoat; the coachman had just saved them earlier only to enjoy this feast alone.

The three of them dared not delay and continued to run toward the southeast. As the distance grew shorter, the feeling in their hearts became increasingly obvious.

Suddenly, a high courtyard wall appeared in the mist before them, with a large gate in the middle. The gate was wide open, and that strange feeling was not far behind the gate, likely only a few dozen meters away.

Yet, looking at the gaping gate, the three of them could not help but feel some worry; there wasn't a single shadow of a person nearby, which was far too clean.

Kuang Hongyi's eyes turned red bit by bit; he intended to force his way through. After all, the exit had a limited duration, and if they delayed any longer, even if they reached it, the exit would have disappeared.

While staying vigilant, the three of them approached the gate. Suddenly, the sound of running came from behind them, footsteps light and fragmented; it was not just one person.

Two figures supporting each other emerged from the mist, their bodies filthy and in a sorry state; they were actually two women.

Seeing Yang Xiao and the others, the two women were also startled, but upon seeing the gate behind the three, the women's faces turned deathly pale in an instant, "Quick, hide! You cannot go through that gate; there are monsters behind it. We were just attacked by those things! There are only the two of us left!"

Saying this, the women stopped caring and fled, supporting each other, toward another direction, where there was a patch of weeds and several large landscape stones—a good place to hide.

Slowly, a miserable green ghostly light actually lit up in the mist outside the gate. The hearts of Yang Xiao and the others rose to their throats; they ignored the women's beckoning and turned to hide in another direction.

Just as they hid, they saw that green light arrive before the gate. The next second, Su Tingting's breathing stalled; she saw a squad of dead children with topknots jumping into the gate, the one in the lead holding a sickly green Paper Lantern.