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墨書 Inktalez
As I hurried to get home, I found the corridor, just a hundred meters long, stretching out infinitely. The exit was right in front of us, yet we seemed to be stuck in place, unable to reach it. Li Zhisheng seemed to sense something was off and asked me with confusion, "We took less than five minutes to come in, but now it feels like we've been walking for over ten minutes, right?"
Since I hadn't paid attention to the time when we left the Morgue, I couldn't be sure how long we had been walking. But one thing was certain: the time we had spent walking now was definitely longer than when we entered.
Hu Fang also noticed something was wrong. Hearing our doubts, she chimed in, "Could it be that we've encountered a Ghost Wall?" "A Ghost Wall?!" Li Zhisheng repeated Hu Fang's words. I guessed he must know something about it and pressed on, "Do you know what's going on?"
After hearing me out, Li Zhisheng raised a hand to stop us from moving forward any further and fell into deep thought. "If this is a Ghost Wall, we should leave quickly," he began. Not wanting to interrupt his train of thought as he continued speaking endlessly, I gestured for Hu Fang to be quiet and wait patiently. Hu Fang understood and closed her mouth.
In the dim light of the corridor, I noticed Li Zhisheng's expression darkening. His brows were furrowed tightly as his gaze fixated on the exit ahead. At that moment, I realized something was off; the Emergency Exit sign that had been glowing green at the end of the corridor was gradually turning red.
Then I heard Li Zhisheng's voice beside me, low and somber. "I've only seen scattered records of this situation while studying some esoteric arts in the past. This isn't a Ghost Wall at all; it's another entity resembling a Ghost Wall!" He raised his tone slightly as he spoke. I could feel the gravity of the situation; he wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued, "The Ghost Gate distorts certain spaces in the human realm into a 'return' shape, trapping people inside to gradually weaken their vital energy. It then waits for an opportunity to occupy their bodies and devour their souls. What we're encountering now isn't caused by a Ghost Wall but is indeed an Elder's Ghost Gate!"
Hearing him articulate those three words so deliberately made me tense up as well. I opened my mouth to ask, "What is a Ghost Gate? Why is it appearing here? Could it be Onizuka?" In my anxiety, I spilled all my questions at once. Hu Fang's nerves, which had just started to settle down, tensed up again as she looked at me anxiously. "So what do we do now?"
I shook my head at her, indicating that I didn't know either. However, Li Zhisheng ignored Hu Fang and continued, "This place shouldn't be Onizuka; the conditions for establishing Onizuka are too stringent—at least not here for now. As for this Ghost Gate, it's similar to a Ghost Wall in that it traps people inside. But unlike a Ghost Wall built by ghosts, this Ghost Gate requires a place filled with heavy malice and is opened by Evil Spirits. Once trapped inside, the further you go forward, the more your soul will separate from your body until you ultimately enter the Underworld and rest eternally in hell. If you don't believe me, just look back."
Upon hearing this, Hu Fang and I turned around simultaneously. The sight sent chills down my spine; not far behind us stood two figures—one was Hu Fang herself and the other was Li Zhisheng—but what startled me was that there was no sign of me.
Li Zhisheng turned around as well. "The reason you're not there might be due to your Void Spirit combined with the Nine Star Diagram's effect, which prevented your soul from being separated. This should also explain why you were able to return unscathed after entering the Underworld Gate earlier. The figures standing ahead are our bodies."
The two lifeless shells stood expressionless under the flickering lights like wax figures. Hu Fang's eyes widened in shock as she waved her hands helplessly; no matter what she did, her body merely stood there staring intently at us.
I stopped Hu Fang's frantic gestures: "It's useless; don't waste your energy. If what you say is true and this is opened by Vengeful Spirits, then what I saw in the Morgue can confirm that they are indeed ghosts. But now that we know our predicament, do you have any way to help us get out?"
Li Zhisheng shook his head helplessly, a hint of despair crossing his face as he said, "As far as I know, this place only has an entrance and no exit. The purpose of this place is to completely separate the living from their souls and draw them into the Underworld, where they are refined with some ghosts to create more powerful Vengeful Spirits. In short, the only thing we can do now is to enter Hell."
Li Zhisheng slowly lowered his head, but at that moment, I sensed something was off. "If the person who designed this trap has such powerful abilities to control Vengeful Spirits to open this ghost gate, why not directly control them to kill us? Why go through such a complicated method to draw us into Hell? Is it because of the Void Spirit within me? Does he want to use my Void Spirit to combine with the ghosts and create an even stronger Vengeful Spirit? But my Void Spirit and soul haven't separated from my body..."
Just as I was lost in thought, Hu Fang tugged at my sleeve, pulling me back from my reverie. I saw tears glistening in her eyes, yet she fought against her fear and remained calm as she said to me, "Then let's go retrieve our bodies, right?"
Upon hearing this, Li Zhisheng smiled wryly. "Even if you are next to your body, you cannot return to it. According to records, once a person's soul is completely separated, it is nearly impossible for it to return to its original body." He sighed deeply at this point.
"Since that's the case, let's take a trip to the Underworld and see if we can find a way out. If I can't save you all, I will certainly accompany you in death!" With that, I clenched the blood-stained Box in my hand and prepared to head toward the exit. But just as we took our first step, the already dilapidated lighting above us exploded with a loud bang. Immediately afterward, darkness enveloped us like ink.
In the darkness, I felt Hu Fang gripping my arm tighter; perhaps due to overwhelming fear, she could no longer scream and could only cling desperately to whatever she could grasp nearby.
Li Zhisheng seemed to have already accepted that there was no way out once we entered this place. In extreme despair, he abandoned his instinct for survival and remained silent.
In this boundless darkness, even when I held my hand in front of my face, I couldn't see anything. If it weren't for Hu Fang's tight grip causing me pain, I might not have even felt my own existence. In such circumstances, I had lost the ability to feel fear because I began questioning whether "I" truly existed in this world.
However, this darkness that stripped away even self-awareness did not last long. In fact, I had no idea how much time had passed; I only felt that it hadn't been long because I could still feel my heartbeat and counted it.
Suddenly, the darkness before me seemed to be torn apart as a massive and irregular crack appeared. The crack gradually spread apart, dispersing all the Dark around us in an instant. At that moment, I was astonished to find that we were no longer in the hospital; Hu Fang and Li Zhisheng were also staring wide-eyed in disbelief.
The sky was a deep crimson color, as if stained with blood. Numerous gigantic swirling clouds filled the air, surrounded by countless objects resembling humans. Most of these objects were semi-transparent and displayed red and white colors, with a few appearing black. They densely surrounded the clouds and slowly followed their rotation into the center of the vortex. The sheer number of them was overwhelming.
But just as I turned back to look at Hu Fang and Li Zhisheng, they were already entranced by those swirling clouds and did not respond no matter how much I called out. A sense of dread washed over me—could it be that they would also enter those swirling objects like everyone else?
Just when I was at a loss, the gray earth suddenly began to tremble violently. What was once an endless gray plain transformed as dark red peaks erupted from the ground. These peaks were more like dark red volcanoes, with their summits all featuring sunken craters.
In an instant, the plain had turned into a stone forest composed of various volcanoes. Yet the trembling of the earth did not cease; some of the fully formed volcanoes were continuously spewing forth red liquid.
As the liquid flowed closer to us, I realized it was not just red liquid. It was mixed with all sorts of internal organs and skinned corpses, some of which were reduced to mere skeletons.
I wanted to grab Hu Fang and Li Zhisheng and run, but the moment I touched them, I felt a chill. At the same time, my hand passed right through their bodies.
I didn’t know when it had started, but their appearances had begun to change as well; the skin on their faces was peeling away bit by bit, revealing blood-red muscle underneath. Even though I knew they were merely souls, my heart tightened involuntarily. I thought to myself, "This transformation they are undergoing is likely what Li Zhisheng mentioned before—the process of refinement. If I let them continue like this, it’s very possible that I won’t be able to pull them back to the living world. At that point, I would only be able to accompany them in death."
Although I understood that I couldn’t let them continue down this path, I couldn’t even touch them; I felt utterly powerless. Just as I was anxiously stamping my feet, two hideous ghosts suddenly lunged toward Hu Fang and Li Zhisheng. They shrieked with an ear-piercing sound, reminiscent of the mournful cries of a Night Owl.
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