Chapter 218: Snake Swamp Ghost City (Middle): Sudden Change

Normally I don't smoke, only taking a few puffs when I'm really depressed, so I had never refilled this lighter since buying it. When it suddenly went out, I was terrified. In a place like this, without light, it's absolutely horrifying.

Just as I was wondering what to do, I heard a "gurgle" from above, like a woman laughing.

My neck suddenly felt cold. This basement was extremely low—I could touch the ceiling if I jumped up with my hand raised. Even though I couldn't see anything, I reflexively looked up.

Looking up, I saw nothing, but felt a tuft of furry thing hanging down onto my face. I grabbed it casually and was startled to find it was actually a clump of hair, wet and sticky.

Ever since the Underwater Tomb, I've had an extreme aversion to wet hair. That instant, I felt a crawling sensation in my throat, as if I had swallowed a rat. I quickly ducked down, wiped my face with my sleeve, and backed away, staring up at the dark ceiling with all my might.

It was so dark, I couldn't have imagined such darkness. Fear surged in my heart. I thought, what's going on? A woman on the ceiling? Could it be that the person from just now is now hanging from the ceiling? Damn, how is that possible? Is it a four-legged snake?

Things were getting more and more wrong. I touched the sticky stuff in my hand, smelled it, and got a strange odor. I couldn't recall where I had smelled it before, but reflexively, a very ominous feeling arose in my heart.

At that moment, the "gurgle" laugh sounded again, seeming to move toward me across the ceiling. I immediately stepped back a few steps and banged into the desk with a clatter, which sounded like thunder in the quiet basement, startling me into a cold sweat.

I steadied myself, and the sound was gone. I grew more and more tense; it wasn't ordinary tension. For some reason, I started trembling all over, as if my subconscious had already sensed that something extremely horrible was about to happen. Then, suddenly I felt an itch on the back of my neck, as if something was hanging down behind my head.

I gripped the lighter, couldn't hold back any longer. Trembling, I turned my head and forcefully struck the flint.

With a pop, sparks flew. In that extremely brief moment, the white light revealed the scene behind me: a large clump of hair hanging from the ceiling behind me. I looked up and struck the flint again, and saw, within the hair, a pale, ferocious face staring coldly at me.

The light of the sparks vanished in an instant, and darkness returned, but that image was clearly imprinted in my mind.

Jinpo! Suddenly I knew why my body had reacted like that. Damn it! There was a jinpo here! My mind went blank, all composure gone. I let out a strange yell and ran back, charging headlong into the darkness, with only one thought in my mind: escape this place. I hadn't run many steps before I slammed full-force into a wall—the kind of hit you'd use to kill yourself by bashing your head. With a bang, I collapsed to the floor. As I got up, I heard a series of clinking sounds above me, coming straight at me. Ignoring the blood streaming from my nose, I got up and sensed for the doorway I had entered from, and charged again.

This time I learned my lesson. I stretched my hands out in front and felt my way out, rushing into the corridor from memory, then along the wall to the exit, burst through the door, turned back and slammed it shut tightly. Then I rushed into the darkness, groping wildly, trying to find the staircase down.

But in such darkness, it was too hard to find that doorway. I fumbled for a long time and didn't even find a wall. As I groped, I suddenly bumped into something and almost fell. I lunged forward and landed on it, instantly realizing I had kicked a stone coffin.

I tried to stand up by bracing myself on the stone coffin, but as my hand groped over it, I suddenly felt something wrong—the shape of the coffin seemed to have changed. I felt again and immediately realized that the lid of the stone sarcophagus had been shifted open, leaving a gap. My hand was right on the edge of the opening.

How had the coffin opened? For a split second that question flashed through my mind, but by then my thoughts were a complete mess. I felt dizzy and had no time to dwell on it. After that fleeting thought, I stood up and continued groping forward.

Just then, something beside me moved. My nerves were at their limit; I was nearly scared to death. Just as I was about to brace myself, a hand reached out. Suddenly my mouth was covered, and my body was pinned, unable to move.

I struggled a few times, but my captor was extremely strong; I couldn't move an inch. At the same time, I heard a voice whisper in my ear, "Don't move!"

When I heard that, I was shocked. I immediately stopped struggling, my heart nearly exploding.

Although it was only two words, I immediately recognized who it was! It was actually Poker-face's voice.