The Wound
Translator: CinderTL
Without a moment to hesitate, Du Feng turned and ran in the opposite direction.
He had no idea why the Ghosts had appeared here, nor did he understand why there were so many of them. But it was too late to ponder that now—all he wanted to do was run.
The faster, the better.
But what good would running back do?
He would still end up being chased by Ghosts alongside Huai Yi.
Between the two corridors was a lobby, not particularly large. As Du Feng ran through it, he suddenly heard a "ding."
Turning his head, he saw an elevator coming to a stop.
The elevator doors opened, revealing a Nurse standing inside.
The Nurse held a blue-covered clipboard, wore an old-fashioned white gauze mask, and had a nurse's cap on her head.
As Du Feng noticed the Nurse, she also saw him.
It seemed she caught sight of what was behind Du Feng, as her long eyes suddenly narrowed in fear. She then frantically pressed the buttons inside the elevator.
The blue-covered clipboard fell to the ground in her panic.
The elevator doors hesitated for a moment before slowly closing.
"No!" Du Feng shouted.
The sound of footsteps behind him grew closer. Without thinking, Du Feng immediately sprinted toward the Nurse.
Fortunately, he managed to squeeze into the elevator at the last moment. To his surprise, the several Ghosts outside the elevator stopped just a few meters away from him.
There were six Ghosts in total, each in a different pose, but none of them showed any intention of pursuing him.
Had they given up? Du Feng's mind was a mess, but he felt a sense of relief—he had finally escaped.
He turned his back to the Nurse and frantically pressed the floor buttons in the elevator.
Second floor.
He needed to return to the second floor to regroup with the others.
He had already made up his mind: he would persuade the others to come and rescue Huai Yi, but he himself would absolutely not return.
As for whether the others would agree to help, that was their decision.
Sacrificing more lives for Huai Yi, who was almost certainly doomed, didn't seem worth it to him.
"Phew—"
Seeing the button for the second floor light up, Du Feng let out a long sigh of relief.
He felt something under his foot and looked down to see the Nurse's blue clipboard on the ground. "Did I scare you?" Du Feng asked as he bent down to pick it up.
But just as he grabbed the clipboard and was about to stand up, he caught a glimpse of something through his legs—a pair of feet.
A real pair of feet.
Bare feet.
They were an eerie bluish-black, with horrifying frostbite on the toe joints.
A pair of thick blue-and-white striped pants hung loosely, covering the ankles, swaying gently in the faint breeze inside the elevator.
Du Feng's pupils constricted sharply.
It was a hospital gown, the kind worn by patients.
Just like the ones worn by the Ghosts who had been chasing him.
Damn it. Du Feng's observational skills and experience were far inferior to Jiang Cheng's. If Jiang Cheng had been here, he would have noticed the tag tied to the big toe of the right foot of the person behind him.
It was a Corpse Tag, usually tied to the ankle or big toe of a deceased person.
It contained the deceased's name, age, cause of death, and other necessary information.
Following folk customs, it was typically tied to the left foot for men and the right foot for women.
Du Feng was terrified. Even if he wasn't the sharpest, he knew he had just walked into a Gate of Ghosts.
From the moment he entered the elevator until now, there had been no sound from behind.
The elevator was deathly silent.
He stiffly straightened up, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Du Feng stared intently at the floor numbers displayed on the elevator panel.
Just passed the 4th floor.
Now at the 3rd floor.
The elevator continued its descent.
The Ghost hadn't made a move yet, but Du Feng had already planned to dash out the moment the elevator stopped at the 2nd floor and the doors opened.
Faster, faster! Finally, the elevator reached the 2nd floor.
But just as Du Feng was about to rush out, he was stunned—the elevator didn't stop at the 2nd floor. Instead, it continued descending.
1st floor. It didn't stop until it reached the basement level.
A sound finally came from behind him, a series of "crack-crack" noises, like bones shifting.
Du Feng screamed and turned around, witnessing the most horrifying scene of his life.
The female Nurse was gone. Standing behind him was a woman with an eerie, bluish-gray complexion.
Her hair was disheveled, and she wore a hospital gown, barefoot, her height almost matching his.
Because she was wearing a mask, her face was hidden.
But it didn't matter anymore, because in the next second, the mask was torn off by an immense force. When Du Feng saw her face, he was so terrified that he fell to the ground.
He frantically pressed the door-open button, but it was useless.
The woman's teeth were stark white and razor-sharp. Even more horrifying was that they were constantly writhing, like some deep-sea monster. She actually extended half of her oral cavity, her mouth opening at an angle completely impossible for a human.
"No! No!" Du Feng's eyes widened, his body convulsing wildly. "Ah! Ahhh!!"
"Crack-crack!"
The screams abruptly ceased.
"Ding!"
One minute later, the elevator returned to the 6th floor.
The doors opened, and a corpse slumped out, pressed against the elevator door. Blood gushed endlessly from the headless cavity.
The corpse held its own head in its hands, a scene utterly gruesome.
Among the six people outside the elevator, apart from Jiang Cheng and Lin Wan'er, the others' faces could only be described as deathly pale.
Weiwei's face drained of all color, and Yu Yu swayed violently. Jiang Cheng grabbed her arm to steady her.
Cao Yang took a deep breath, as if trying to suppress the urge to vomit.
Wang Changguo hid behind everyone else.
Just moments ago, they had been chased by a series of eerie footsteps in the stairwell. But as they turned a corner, they ran into Du Feng, who was fleeing in panic.
For some reason, Du Feng seemed to see them as if they were ghosts, immediately turning and running away.
In the end, he even dashed into the elevator.
The moment Du Feng rushed into the elevator, Jiang Cheng knew he was doomed.
No one dared to approach the elevator, only watching as the doors slowly closed.
As the doors shut, Jiang Cheng faintly saw a blurry shadow appear behind Du Feng.
Just as they were about to leave, no one expected the elevator to come back up.
When the doors opened, this was the scene that greeted them.
It was like stepping into a hellish abyss.
Du Feng's head was cradled in his own arms, his face frozen in terror. It was unimaginable what horrifying sight he had witnessed in his final moments.
Jiang Cheng slowly walked over, seemingly careful not to let the flowing blood stain his shoes. Lin Wan'er stood only at the edge of the blood pool.
Looking down, she silently observed Du Feng's mutilated corpse.
After a brief inspection, Jiang Cheng stepped back. "There are no additional wounds on the body," he said, tilting his chin to indicate everyone should look at Du Feng's head.
Clearly, decapitation was the only fatal injury.
This also aligns with the intelligence previously gathered.
The three male medical staff members who had been killed by the Ghost were also found decapitated.
Looking at the gruesome wound on Du Feng's neck, Cao Yang couldn't help but swallow hard.
The exposed, ghastly white bone fragments and the tangled muscles were a horrifying sight, making it hard to imagine the inhuman treatment he had endured.
(End of the Chapter)
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