Chapter 1 Suppressing the Rotting Smell

Forcibly enduring the rotten stench, Yao Shunyu used a branch to hook the backpack up. He hadn't expected it to be so heavy.

But when the backpack was opened, everyone present was dumbfounded. The seemingly ordinary backpack had a hidden compartment inside, lined with a special waterproof cloth. Once opened, neatly stacked brick-like objects were revealed, each slightly larger than a bar of soap.

Judging from the decay of the corpses, this thing had been buried here for quite some time, but the contents inside were almost unaffected by moisture due to the layers of wrapping. This was enough to prove its reliability.

Upon seeing the brick-like objects, Li Bai's face paled instantly. "Move the torch further away! This might be dynamite!"

Hearing this, Wu Qiang, who was holding the torch for illumination, quickly retreated, stopping three meters away from the group.

After carefully disassembling one of the brick-like objects, Li Bai's suspicion was confirmed. She exhaled slowly and looked back at the anxious crowd. "Fortunately, it's plastic explosive. This type of explosive is very safe."

Sure enough, during the subsequent search, she found another moisture-proof bag containing a dozen smaller explosives, each with a detonator inserted.

According to Li Bai, these were ordinary explosives, because plastic explosives were extremely stable and difficult to detonate even when placed in fire. These small amount of ordinary explosives were used to detonate the plastic explosives.

Watching Li Bai manipulate the explosives and detonators, Yao Shunyu had new speculations about her identity, but none of that mattered now.

"So, it's explosives and detonators. What are these people up to?" Huang Jun squatted by the pit, nervously staring at the corpses, but they had already rotted into a pile, making them impossible to identify.

Li Bai took out a piece of explosive, her eyes unusually dim. "Ordinary explosives can be explained, but this type of brick-like plastic explosive is rare outside, usually only for military use."

Luan Lihui looked at the explosives, then at the corpses, and said in surprise, "Military... were these people soldiers?"

Looking at the extremely modern backpack on the ground, and the thorough preparations inside, Yao Shunyu found it hard to believe that these people were too. He guessed that they had come prepared, but something went wrong and they all died here.

This also confirmed Yao Shunyu's long-held suspicion that the country and the military had their own professional units exploring and resolving Nightmare Assault tasks, and that Mr. Luo's Dark Army was only one of them.

"Look, there's a map here." Lü Zhangyuan squatted on the ground and pulled out a map with a branch.

The map was covered with a layer of film, which prevented it from rotting. Wu Qiang stared at the map, then scratched his head. "Strange, does it show several big smokestacks?"

The smokestacks were covered with all kinds of seemingly professional markings, which were dazzling.

"Those aren't smokestacks; they look like bridge piers." Li Bai carefully compared the drawing, the markings on the bridge piers attracted her attention. The next moment, she suddenly understood. "These people seem... seem to be planning to blow up the bridge. They're marking the detonation points for planting explosives."

This discovery coincided with what Li Bai and Yao Shunyu had discussed before. They had originally planned to find a way to collapse the bridge when the Blood Maiden Shehuo team passed by, throwing everyone in the team into the Blackwater River.

"Hiss—"

Just as everyone's attention was drawn to the parcels and corpses on the ground, Wu Qiang suddenly gasped, followed by an excited voice. "Look, the road, the road is out!"

Looking in the direction of his voice, everyone was surprised to find that the woods behind them had disappeared at some point. Now a winding path appeared before their eyes, and in the distance below the mountain was Blackwater Village.

Yao Shunyu turned back and saw a mountain wall a hundred meters away, the blurry black holes resembling holes on a rotting corpse, making people feel uneasy.

Who would have thought that they had walked for so long, only to travel a few dozen meters.

No, that's not right, Yao Shunyu lowered his head to look at the footprints in the mud, the overlapping footprints all circling around the crooked-neck tree.

"The Wraith Road has disappeared, it seems these people wanted us to find their backpack." Li Bai couldn't help but sigh. "They hope we can complete the mission they didn't finish."

Before the two groups separated, Yao Shunyu insisted on taking some explosives. Li Bai couldn't refuse, so she combined the detonator-equipped ordinary explosives with the plastic explosives, giving Yao Shunyu three sets, and told him how to use them: just pull the pin, but be careful of the delay time.

On the way to the Zhusheng Niangniang Temple (Childbirth Goddess Temple), Yao Shunyu kept one on him, and gave the other two combined explosives to Huang Jun and Luan Lihui. "Take these with you, just in case."

Yao Shunyu didn't overemphasize anything, because when they were truly facing a fate worse than death, they would make their own choices.

Unlike Huang Jun and Luan Lihui, Yao Shunyu had personally witnessed how the Zhusheng Niangniang (Childbirth Goddess) killed people, the thick, fleshy tentacles piercing into the mouth were more terrifying than the Qing Dynasty's cruel punishments.

The mountain road was rugged and difficult to walk. After a lot of tossing and turning, the three of them finally returned to Blackwater Village, but when they arrived in front of the Zhusheng Niangniang Temple, the scene before them almost scared Huang Jun to death.

Several large red lanterns hung outside the not-so-large courtyard, and under the lanterns were all kinds of dead people.

That's right, dead people. These corpses were scattered all over the place, their faces and bodies covered in blood. Some could barely stand upright, some were lying face down on the ground, but without exception, these people died in terrible ways.

Some had a kitchen knife chopped into their heads, some had a pair of black iron scissors stabbed into their eye sockets, the sharp blades completely piercing through, leaving only the handles outside. Some had an axe stuck in their shoulders, and several had half of their faces smashed by angular stones, the angular part deeply embedded in their faces.

In the reflection of the red lanterns, Huang Jun thought he had come to hell.

But he couldn't understand how the people in the village had all been killed in just a few hours, and... and in such a cruel way.

Just as he mustered the courage to look at a corpse not far away, the corpse looked as if it had been greatly frightened before death, its eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace, but in the next second, the corpse's eyeballs suddenly turned towards Huang Jun.

Huang Jun's heart skipped a beat, he opened his mouth wide, almost shouting out, but Yao Shunyu was faster, directly covering his mouth, "Don't shout, and don't be afraid, these guys aren't dead."

Perhaps hearing Yao Shunyu's words, these corpses began to move, some posing in strange shapes, some twitching constantly, and some writhing and crawling on the ground like snakes, as if a group of demons were dancing wildly.