Chapter 90: Ghost Blows Out the Light

The moment the torch went out, the already dim space suddenly turned pitch black. I broke out in a cold sweat, and the torch almost slipped from my hand to the ground.

Master Liang was even more cowardly; he let out a strange cry and bolted. After only a few steps, I heard a "bang"—he must have hit a coffin, and he was howling in pain.

I took out my lighter and shone it on the torch. I saw that the fuel head hadn't burned out completely, so I didn't know why the flame had suddenly gone out. Could it have been blown out by wind? But there was no wind here.

Old Itch said gleefully, "Old Wu, your craftsmanship really sucks. This torch can't even last long; it goes out at the drop of a hat. Truly an African dad jumping rope—scared the hell out of me."

I cursed, "Stop your nagging, damn it. Instead of picking on me, go see how Master Liang is doing. Don't let him fall into a coffin." As I spoke, I relit the torch and lifted it high. I saw Master Liang lying on the ground, and one coffin had been knocked to pieces, with bones scattered all over.

I went over to help him up. His face was pale, and he was badly frightened. Old Itch patted him and said, "Master Liang, you're really amusing. With guts like yours, you still want to walk in the dark? Had your fill of fun now?"

Master Liang saw the torch burning again and breathed a sigh of relief. He said, "Don't... don't misunderstand, gentlemen. It's not that I'm afraid of the dark. It's just now—something seemed to blow cold air on the back of my neck. It was chilly. I thought a zombie had come out, and I was scared out of my wits."

Old Itch laughed loudly, "What cold air? I think it's just your cold sweat dripping down your neck. If a zombie was behind you, it would take a bite out of you, not blow on your neck. Damn it, do you think zombies are all young ladies?"

I also said, "Yeah, Master Liang, calm down. Don't scare yourself."

Master Liang saw that we didn't believe him and got anxious. He coughed and said, "Gentlemen, you must believe me. There was definitely someone blowing on the back of my neck just now. The feeling was truly terrifying. I think there's more than just the three of us here—there's something else!!"

Looking at his expression and recalling how the torch had suddenly gone out, I felt that Master Liang's words weren't completely unbelievable. A torch isn't like a candle; it's hard to extinguish without burning through the fuel head. Something must have been wrong with that sudden extinguishing. And in a place like this, it's always good to be cautious.

Thinking this, I gave Old Itch a wink, meaning we should go check it out to be safe. Old Itch nodded. We both drew our guns and walked one after the other toward where Master Liang had been standing.

Behind where Master Liang had stood, less than a foot away, was a row of coffins forming a coffin wall. I figured that if something had blown on the back of his neck, the only possible hiding place was the gaps between the coffins. Further back was another path between coffins, where the coffins were packed much more tightly; walking there would definitely make noise. Since it had been completely silent, we could rule that out.

Old Itch and I walked over carefully, first probing with the torch, then peeking sideways to see if anything might suddenly rush out. We searched one by one, and to our relief, found nothing unusual.

I sighed in relief, thinking that Master Liang must have just been spooked. But I couldn't blame him. In this kind of environment, if you'd never been to a place like this before, it's hard not to be afraid. Back in the Lu King's Palace, I was the same way. Courage is something you have to build up through experience.

Old Itch gave me a sidelong glance and shook his head. We turned around and were about to put our guns away when suddenly—puff—the torch in my hand went out again.

I was stunned. What was happening? This extinguishing was too sudden. Right then, in the darkness, Old Itch suddenly shouted, "Holy shit!! Old Wu, look out!! There really is something here!! Light the torch!"

I snapped out of it and hurriedly fumbled for my lighter. Before I could find it, I felt a sudden chill behind me, and a gust of wind struck like lightning. I thought, oh no—in the pitch black, I couldn't see what was coming. I quickly ducked, and the gust grazed the top of my head. At the same time, I stumbled backward and fell to the ground.

The fall wasn't very painful, but I bumped into a few coffins on the side, making a clatter. Something fell all over my face. Ignoring the disgust, I quickly took out my lighter and lit the torch as fast as I could.

Under the light, I saw Old Itch and Master Liang both lying face down, ashen. Master Liang was already scared out of his wits, mumbling "Amitabha."

Old Itch, still shaken, said to me, "Shine the light around. What the hell was that just now? How could it move so fast!" I clenched my teeth and stood up, holding the torch and turning around. I found that aside from a few more coffins we had knocked over, nothing had changed. There wasn't even a footprint. I was horrified. That gust of wind had been as fast as lightning, meaning whatever it was had been very close. But with coffins everywhere, in the time it took to light the lighter in complete darkness, even if it had fled at top speed, there should have been some trace. Then I thought, damn, were we dealing with a ghost?

The torch had gone out twice. Was this ghost trying to imitate "Ghost Blows Out the Light," treating my torch as a candle? But that was unprofessional—if it was going to blow, this wasn't the time.

I lowered the torch to my shoulder to prevent it from being extinguished again, then helped Master Liang up. He was already in a daze, unable to stand straight no matter how I pulled—like a lump of mud. I tried a couple of times and couldn't lift him. Old Itch had no choice but to step up and slap him twice.

I was afraid Old Itch would hit too hard and quickly stopped him. At that moment, Master Liang finally came to his senses. He looked around and wailed, "Oh my mother! I really asked for it. I should have stayed home in peace. Why did I have to learn to rob tombs? Now I'm screwed, dying in a strange land—"

Old Itch saw he was going on and on and covered his mouth, cursing, "Enough already! At your age, aren't you ashamed? If you keep making noise, we'll leave you here and you can crawl back yourself."

Master Liang had lost control of his emotions. After crying a few times, he had vented. Scared by our threat, he wiped his face and dared not make another sound. Old Itch turned to me and asked, "Old Wu, what was that thing just now? Did you see clearly? Was it a zombie?"

I waved at him and said, "No. Look, we had a face-to-face encounter and didn't even see a hair of it. A zombie wouldn't be that fast."

Old Itch said to me, "Look at all these coffins. It's hard to believe there aren't any zombies. I heard zombies come in different ranks. Maybe this time we've run into a master of light-footed zombies."

I didn't want to argue with him. I walked over to the coffin that Master Liang had knocked apart, used my gun to poke at its contents, and said to him, "Stop bullshitting me. Look, the environment here is so damp. The body inside is nothing but bones, covered in black mold. This thing can never become a zombie. I guarantee it with my head."

Master Liang had finally calmed down a bit. Sniffling, he said, "Gentlemen, whether it's a zombie or not, that's not our concern. I think while we still have the torch, we'd better climb back up to the cliff as fast as we can. We'll figure out the rest later."

I knew he couldn't take the stress and was thinking of retreating. I patted him and explained that for now, the enemy was in the dark and we were in the light. If we tried to climb the cliff now, who knows when we'd get hit again. With no place to hide, we'd end up crying to the King of Hell in the underworld. So unless the situation became clear, we shouldn't act rashly.

Old Itch said, "Old Wu is right. Besides, we still have guns. Even if it's a zombie, we're not afraid of one or two."

Master Liang was a mess of snot and tears, shaking his head. "Don't console me, gentlemen. With just these two guns, we're as good as dead if we meet a zombie. It'll be hard even to leave a whole corpse."

I had never encountered a real zombie, so I didn't know if bullets could stop one. But since they're made of flesh, I didn't believe they could be harder than bullets.

Master Liang was still worried, but his expression had relaxed a bit, not as tense as before. I thought about it and decided that staying here was not an option. We had to move forward. If worst came to worst, we could dismantle the coffins—we'd already knocked over quite a few, and the bodies inside had rotted away, so there was nothing to fear. As for moral concerns, if we couldn't save our own skins, I didn't care.

Old Itch heard this and agreed it was the best option under the circumstances. So we propped up Master Liang, loaded our guns. Old Itch led the way, I brought up the rear. The three of us clenched our teeth and followed the path deeper into the coffin array again.

The traces from our last trip were still there. I remembered that in a few places, Old Itch had deliberately stomped footprints into the muddy ground. We followed these marks all the way and indeed found no forks. As we walked, I suddenly felt something was off. Why were the coffins rotting so unevenly? Each coffin had a few spots that were particularly decayed. I was about to call them to stop and take a closer look when suddenly—bang—a coffin beside me collapsed. I was startled. As I turned, I heard puff, and the torch in my hand went out for the third time.

Having learned from the last time, I immediately crouched down. At that moment, I heard a commotion beside me. Old Itch shouted, "Holy shit!! I caught it!!"