Chapter 17 Tragedy

Jiang Cheng didn't hide this from Chen Hao. After receiving the news, Chen Hao and the others felt their hearts sink to the bottom. The thing they were most reluctant to see had finally happened.

Without hesitation, Chen Hao pondered for a moment and immediately sent a message to Pang Xiaofeng: "Xiaofeng, I have something to tell you. Don't be afraid, you must stay calm."

Pang Xiaofeng gripped his phone tightly, feeling even more frightened.

"Your feeling wasn't wrong. There is indeed a problem with the corpse in the coffin behind you. Wang Fugui said that the direction of the corpse you saw was the opposite of his. The corpse may have been moved, or the corpse itself... moved."

Imagining the latter scenario, Pang Xiaofeng's shoulders twitched violently. Although he was afraid, he hadn't completely lost his composure. Chen Hao continued to send messages: "How much incense do you have left?"

Steadying his mind, Pang Xiaofeng peeked at the incense burner. "There's... there's about a third left."

"One incense stick lasts about half an hour, so a third is about 10 minutes. You have to hold on for the last 10 minutes." Chen Hao was trying his best to comfort him. "I believe you can do it. All of us will leave this hellhole alive. Xiaofeng, you have to believe in yourself."

"Pang Xiaofeng, we have to hang up. A long call isn't good for you. We can't help you much. It's up to you." Du Moyu leaned in and hung up the phone with a stiff tone.

Although he was a bit conflicted, Chen Hao understood that Du Moyu was right. They weren't on the scene and couldn't give Pang Xiaofeng better advice. Instead of letting Pang Xiaofeng rely on them, it was better to give him the power to decide for himself.

Inside the mourning hall, Pang Xiaofeng took a deep breath and clenched his phone. He forced himself to calm down. "As long as I get through the last 10 minutes, just 10 minutes, I can leave here!"

"The previous three people were fine, so I'll be fine too. And... there's still one last person who hasn't come. That A Biao drew the worst lot; he's the one with the worst luck! Not me!"

But just as Pang Xiaofeng was cheering himself up, he suddenly heard a sound. He immediately located the source of the sound—right behind the white cloth, in the direction of those coffins!

Here it comes again…

Pang Xiaofeng's face was deathly pale, but this time, he didn't dare to go over and look no matter what, because this time, he not only heard the sound, but also saw something even more terrifying.

One by one, distorted shadows were projected onto the back of the white cloth. They were abnormally bloated all over, clearly the corpses from those coffins!

The shadows left on the white cloth became clearer and clearer, swaying left and right, accompanied by the sound of "splish, splash" of treading water, approaching the white cloth.

With only a layer of white cloth separating him from these strange things, the pressure on Pang Xiaofeng was unimaginable. His face was deathly pale, and he even forgot to breathe from the tension.

But just as he was in extreme fear, waiting for the corpses to lift the white cloth and rush over to kill him, fate seemed to play a joke on him. The corpses not only didn't lift the white cloth, but mysteriously disappeared in the next second.

"They're gone..."

After realizing this, Pang Xiaofeng quickly looked around, above his head, and even behind him, but he couldn't find those corpses. That eerie sound of treading water... had also disappeared.

"Hoo--, hoo--" Pang Xiaofeng wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He didn't know why this had happened, but he knew that he shouldn't be dying for the time being.

That was enough.

He looked at the burning incense, which only had a small section left.

Five minutes.

In just five more minutes, he could leave!

He never wanted to come to this damned place again in his next life.

Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed the burning white thick candle. At some point, the candlelight had turned a faint green, looking like a will-o'-the-wisp from a mass grave.

At the same time, the burning speed of the candle had also increased a lot, shortening at an almost visible rate.

Pang Xiaofeng suddenly realized that if it continued to burn at this speed, the candle would burn out before his incense went out. And he didn't even dare to think about what would happen after losing the candle.

A moment later, staring intently at the candle, he made another chilling discovery. The candle seemed to not only be burning faster, but also thinning constantly, and thinning irregularly.

A little less on this side, and a little less on that side.

It felt as if someone was squatting on the ground, slowly scraping it off with their fingernails, bit by bit.

The moment this image appeared, Pang Xiaofeng's head buzzed. He suppressed the breaking heartstring in his mind, trembling, and reached into his pocket, slowly, slowly taking out something.

It was the little thing the night watchman gave them, reminding them to use it at a critical moment.

And now, Pang Xiaofeng believed that he had definitely reached a life-or-death moment.

He tried to steady his arm so it wouldn't shake, and stretched one corner of the thing towards the flame of the candle. The night watchman had reminded them that this thing needed to be burned with fire to be effective.

A moment later, the candlelight suddenly flickered violently, and a plume of blue smoke rose, accompanied by the smell of something burning.

But for Pang Xiaofeng at this moment, none of that mattered anymore. The scene in front of him caused his brain to crash, and that trembling heartstring finally couldn't bear it any longer and snapped.

Several abnormally bloated figures squatted on the ground in strange postures, huddled around the candle, constantly dripping water down along their cuffs and trouser legs. What was even more bizarre was their current action. A drop of candle tears trickled down the candle and was quickly licked off by a tongue. After licking it, an extremely strange and satisfied expression actually appeared on that rotten dead face.

Gradually, one by one, the bloated figures uniformly and slowly turned their heads to look at Pang Xiaofeng's face.

Under the backdrop of the ghastly green candlelight, they grinned.

The next second, the candle "poof" and burned out.

……

"Doctor." Fatty swallowed and asked in a low voice, "How is it?"

Jiang Cheng had been staring at his phone since just now, and they still hadn't heard the bell.

"Something must have happened." Jiang Cheng put away his phone and looked worriedly behind the door. It had been 45 minutes, and Pang Xiaofeng still hadn't rung the bell. He had no emotional connection to Pang Xiaofeng, and was just worried about what was going to happen next.

It was hard to guarantee that what happened to Pang Xiaofeng today wouldn't happen to him and Fatty.

Jiang Cheng's mind flashed with Yu Chengmu's face, which resembled tree bark.

Pang Xiaofeng didn't ring the bell in time. The person who was most worried was naturally not Jiang Cheng. Lei Mingyu was pacing back and forth in the room, making Chen Hao's head spin. "Why hasn't he rung the bell after so long?" Lei Mingyu couldn't help but ask, "Could something have happened?"

Chen Hao and Du Moyu, who was next to him, didn't answer. This was a very obvious question, but none of the three of them were willing to accept this outcome.

Until a burst of hurried footsteps sounded outside.