pozo profundo

Capítulo 115

It was pitch black inside. Not just ordinary black, but a complete darkness devoid of any light. Even in the darkest of places, the human eye would eventually adjust and become able to vaguely see something. But this was not the case here. No matter how much time we had been inside, we still couldn't see a single thing.

Human fear often stems from darkness, or rather, from the fear of the unknown, while light is the key to guiding our understanding. But now, there is no light. I feel as if I'm walking in boundless darkness, and all I hear are screams, each one more heart-wrenching than the last, each one more chilling than the last.

"Ah...!" Teng Li screamed in agony as Zhou Zhou's hands wrapped around his waist. This intimate position made Teng Li feel like he was dying. Zhou Zhou's hands felt like two red-hot clamps burning his skin, the stench of burnt protein and the pain nearly making him faint. But at that moment, Teng Li wished he could just faint, so he wouldn't have to see Zhou Zhou's face aging rapidly, withering as if her life force had been drained away. Strangely, only her facial skin was withering and losing moisture; her body was radiating a strange glow, her skin as delicate and translucent as a baby's.

The stark contrast between these two parts made Teng Li feel nauseous, and his body convulsed as if in spasm. Meanwhile, Zhou Zhou's tongue, a tongue that had already turned black, was licking Teng Li's eye; he could only see something like a black snake swirling into his right eye!

The pain was excruciating!

This time, Teng Li couldn't scream because Zhou Zhou's hand was blocking his throat, preventing him from making a sound.

The remaining eye saw the dark shadows floating around Zhou Zhou, without any physical form, only the outline of a gaping, laughing mouth, seemingly enjoying the death of its prey.

"Wait a minute!" Fang Lei grabbed me. Then I heard Fang Lei chanting a spell in the darkness, followed by a pale purple light, and Fang Lei and I finally emerged from the darkness.

"Be careful." Fang Lei let the purple light dancing in her palm illuminate us. I could see our current location: the stairwell on the second floor. However, the light seemed to only illuminate a radius of a few centimeters around us. Outside the purple light, there was still writhing darkness. Yes, writhing darkness.

“When the gates of hell open, all the ghosts will revert to their original forms,” Fang Lei said.

"The original appearance?" I asked, puzzled.

"Ghosts don't actually have a physical form. The reason you see so many different kinds of ghosts isn't because they look like that," Fang Lei explained. "It's because the thought waves in the minds of people who left behind their will before they died create the appearance they make in your eyes."

"So that means..." I suddenly found it quite amusing, because the neural waves in everyone's brain can't be identical. Everyone has their own thought patterns. In other words... "The same ghost, depending on each person's own neural waves, will appear in different ways?"

"Hmm...that's basically how it's understood. However, this only accounts for a small part of the reason. The vast majority of the factors affecting the form of a ghost depend on its own will. But it also doesn't exclude the error forms caused by different individual thought patterns. This is why some bold people who don't believe in ghosts can't see ghosts. It's not that ghosts don't exist as they think, but simply because their thought waves automatically filter out ghosts."

How interesting! It's as amazing as everyone having their own Hamlet in their heart!

However, now seems not the time for me to marvel at how amazing human thought waves are. Those screams seemed much weaker than before, not because of fear, but because they seemed to be exhausted!

We needed to speed things up, and Fang Lei and I moved forward cautiously. The purple light was faint, but it at least gave us a sense of direction. However, what worried me was that Fang Lei seemed to be struggling to control the purple light.

"Now is the time when the gates of hell are wide open, and I must use three times the usual amount of magic power for it to be effective," Fang Lei explained.

"Then let's hurry!" I quickened my pace without even trying.

I finally reached the source of the screams. The screams from behind the door came and went. I touched the tightly closed door; it was so cold it sent chills down my spine. Most importantly, a thick layer of black mist seemed to float on it. But whenever I reached my hand over it, it would automatically drift away.

I pushed the door, and it only moved slightly. I looked back at Fang Lei, who was covered in sweat, and gestured for her to come closer. Then I kicked the door open.

With a bang, the door wasn't as sturdy as I'd imagined; it was kicked open in an instant. A gust of cold wind immediately swept in from inside, extinguishing the purple light in Fang Lei's hand.

Fang Lei! I tensed up, my hands clenching involuntarily, but I grasped nothing! Where is Fang Lei?

"Fang Lei?" I called out anxiously. Only a distant, dark red ball of light shone in the darkness; all around me was darkness and silence!

There was no more screaming. Was the person who screamed dead? I reached out desperately to grab something, but I couldn't grasp anything. I couldn't even see my own hand.

What should I do? I tried to calm my panicked emotions and walked towards the only ray of light...

What is that...? In the only ball of light in the darkness, there seemed to be two figures entangled together. I couldn't see their faces clearly, but I could sense that it was a man and a woman with their bodies intertwined, and there was a faint smell of blood.

As I got closer, I seemed to see two naked bodies, the man on top and the woman on the bottom, and the man's hands were... gently resting on the woman's bare chest...

Huh? Who is this? I think I can see their faces clearly, but then again, I can't quite make them out... It seems like an extremely ambiguous scene. Just as I was about to turn my head away, the man's hands suddenly sank down!

*Thud!* A strange sound, the sound of being pierced through, and blood splattered clearly before my eyes. Those hands had just forcefully plunged into the woman's chest.

The man's face was obscured by long, black hair, revealing a smiling woman's face—beautiful...breathtakingly beautiful! It was a face that shouldn't exist in this world; it was her! I suddenly remembered her face, the face I saw under the influence of the alcohol in "Dreamlike Ideology," a face both familiar and strange.

The woman turned her face towards me, seemingly not feeling any pain, and simply smiled at me...

Teng Li felt Zhou Zhou's other hand pressed against his chest, and the sensation was like being branded on fire, making his vision blur! Even worse, he felt the fingers of those hands slowly digging into his skin, causing excruciating pain!

*Thud!* A strange sound, the sound of being pierced through, and blood splattered clearly before Teng Li's eyes. Those hands had been forcefully plunged into his chest.

Do people ever feel like their heart is being gripped? Teng Li felt it at that moment, a strange feeling that was both warm and cold. His heartbeat was more sensitive than ever before.

Am I going to die...?

With a snap, the light was switched back on, and... the sound of a heart being ripped from a chest...

Volume Three: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter Sixty: The Gate of Ghosts

Volume Three: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter Sixty: The Gate of Ghosts

"Hehehehe" was Zhou Zhou's silly laughter. Fang Lei and I were already standing there, stunned. The smell of blood in the air gave us a strange sense of warmth. Was it because the blood was warm? I wiped the blood that had splattered on the corner of my mouth; my skin still seemed to feel a slight stinging sensation.

Is it over? A life? I looked at the boy's body before me; around his open chest, there seemed to be faintly wriggling, living blood vessels and muscle tissue. Could it be that after the heart leaves the body, a person can truly continue to live for a while? I clearly saw his blood vessels still slightly opening and closing, like a door to memory, slowly opening.

The corpse before me seemed to have transformed into a woman's body. I saw her open chest, her heart gone, yet a strange smile remained on her face. Was it liberation? Love? Or hatred? Perhaps, the difference between love and hate is but a fleeting thought.

Love in a single thought? Hate in a single thought?

My hands suddenly felt warm and wet. What was that? I slowly looked down and saw bright red blood dripping slowly from my hands onto the ground.

Tick-tock

The moment the blood dripped onto the ground, darkness enveloped the surroundings, rippling outwards like water. Looking down, the ground seemed to become a mirror-like surface reflecting the image. Beneath the surface, the reflection was a familiar figure—one's own, only dressed in ancient clothing, wearing a strange expression. Love and hate, joy and sorrow, grief and rage were indistinguishable; only the dripping blood on the hand and the present self remained the same.

Tick-tock

Blood dripped from both his hand and his reflection's hand simultaneously, splattering into exceptionally beautiful blood flowers.

Five children in red surrounded me, one, two, three, and so on. Strangely, each of them had only one type of facial feature: one had only eyes, one had only a nose, and one had only ears. All that remained were pale skin and the faint black veins visible beneath it.

Slowly reaching out, her pale little hand suddenly cradled a still-beating heart! Then, she abruptly brought it to her face, and in that instant, all her facial features transformed into mouths in their original places, mouths with black and yellow teeth.

A strange sound, I don't know how to describe it, it sounded like food being bitten into something, which sent a chill down my spine. It felt like food was being bitten into my own heart.

"No!" It was Fang Lei's voice. The figures of the five little girls in red in front of me disappeared, replaced by the scene of Zhou Zhou biting off the boy's heart.

Fang Lei had already rushed over, seemingly trying to snatch the heart from Zhou Zhou's hand. For some reason, I actually reached out and grabbed Fang Lei.

"You?" Fang Lei looked at me in surprise.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful to eat the heart of your lover?" The casual tone seemed unlike my own, yet this thought was actually a desire deep within me.

Fang Lei didn't speak. I held her arm firmly. I just stared blankly at Zhou Zhou. In a moment, she had already devoured half of a heart. The way she looked so relished made it hard to believe that what she was eating was a human heart.

"Get off me!" Fang Lei shouted. Perhaps women can never tolerate what they consider disgusting. I calmly let go of her hand, watching Fang Lei rush over and knock the thing out of Zhou Zhou's hand, which fell to the ground with a thud.

"Ahhhh!" A deafening scream suddenly erupted from Zhou Zhou's mouth. She stared in horror at the corpse on the ground, then looked at me and Fang Lei.

From her eyes, it seemed as if she had already woken up? Before I could be sure, Zhou Zhou seemed to have felt something strange in her mouth and spat out the residue.

"Ugh!" Zhou Zhou vomited loudly. I stepped forward, wanting to kick the heart that had fallen to the ground away; it was best not to let her see it at this moment. Unfortunately, my movements were too late; Zhou Zhou had already seen what was on the ground.

His eyes, blank and suddenly lost their previous luster, became empty and unfocused, as if they had become the eyes of a blind person.

Zhou Zhou just grinned blankly, chuckling to himself. His once snow-white teeth were now bright red with blood.

Were we terrified? As Fang Lei and I stared at each other, bewildered, blood suddenly began to flow from that heart again, slowly trickling towards Zhou Zhou.

The blood seemed to come alive, its shallow flow turning into a writhing motion, as if countless tiny red worms were crawling towards Zhou Zhou. The once bright indoor light began to flicker. The ground began to sway from side to side, as if on a turbulent sea.

The writhing blood swayed from side to side with the shaking, as if it were moving along with the cup. As it swayed, the blood thickened, slowly revealing the faces of men—the faces of corpses. Their expressions—a mixture of crying and laughing, love and hate—gradually drew closer to Zhou Zhou.

I grabbed Fang Lei's hand and took a few steps back. The pungent smell of blood emanating from her blood-soaked face made me uncomfortable, and goosebumps rose all over my body.

The blood-red face was already near Zhou Zhou, and Zhou Zhou actually reached out to touch it. Suddenly, the blood-red face, which had been tightly closed, opened its massive maw and bit Zhou Zhou's outstretched hand.

"Ah!" Zhou Zhou managed to utter only a soft cry, enduring the pain as the blood-stained face bit down on him tightly.

The clattering sound seemed to be Bloodface chewing on his hand bones. I saw a mixture of pain and pleasure on Zhou Zhou's face. What should I do? Save her? The thought seemed to flash through my mind only briefly before disappearing. Somehow, I didn't even think about saving her; instead, I pulled Fang Lei away.

"What are you doing?" Fang Lei looked at me in surprise.

"Get out of here quickly, it's dangerous!" I said.

“Then we should take her with us.” Fang Lei pointed at Zhou Zhou.

"What happens after we rescue her? Do we make her accept the fact that she killed her lover with her own hands, and that she ate her lover's heart with her own mouth?" I asked.

"But this is..." Fang Lei shook her head vigorously, as if trying to shake my opinion out of her head. "Are we just going to let her die like this?"

“Sometimes, death isn’t a bad thing.” I watched Zhou Zhou’s increasingly calm expression. She did it willingly, didn’t she? Being consumed by the resentment of a lover is better than existing in this world in a daze. Fang Lei looked at me, then at Zhou Zhou. Just as she was about to say something, the entire building suddenly began to shake violently, as if it were an earthquake.

"What's wrong? An earthquake?" I exclaimed instinctively.

"No! No!" Fang Lei looked around and said, "It's because the Gate of Hell is about to close."

The gates of hell have closed? That's not a good thing; those ghosts are going back to the underworld. But my thinking seems too naive. Because along with the earth-shaking tremors came a strange and immense gravitational pull, a force unlike ordinary suction, capable of sucking out one's soul. A wave of nausea washed over me, as if everything inside me was being emptied from my body.

I pressed my hand against my stomach, but I still couldn't resist the sudden suction that felt like it was drawing the contents of my stomach out of my body, and my skin started to swell. But what was worse was that I couldn't vomit anything; only the intense urge to vomit filled my entire body.

Although we are forensic pathologists, because we frequently deal with corpses, we are more resistant to vomiting than the average person. However, this time it seems there's nothing we can do. Looking at Fang Lei, she also seems unable to resist, her face pale as she covers her mouth.

The suction force gradually pulled Fang Lei and me to our knees. Looking up at Zhou Zhou again, it seemed like there were two Zhou Zhous. Was I seeing things? Looking closer, I realized that one of the Zhou Zhous was very blurry and overlapped with the other. Was this what it looked like when a soul was sucked away? I wasn't sure. I only saw more and more arms appearing from the ground, transparent and grayish-black, firmly gripping Zhou Zhou. Whenever those fingers pressed against Zhou Zhou's body, many bloody marks appeared. Strangely, these bloody marks only appeared on the blurry Zhou Zhou, that is, on Zhou Zhou's soul, while the original body remained untouched.

I tried to stand up because transparent gray-black arms were gradually appearing around us. What terrified me even more was that I actually saw two Fang Leis. Although the knowledge test was momentarily blurred, a blurry shadow of Fang Lei appeared, and the face of this shadow was actually the original Fang Lei's face! Her soul was still the same! This was great, but now was not the time to celebrate. I had to leave this place with Fang Lei as soon as possible. If this continued, I was afraid that Fang Lei's soul would also be extracted.

Thinking this, I immediately used all my strength to back away, resisting the suction and walking towards the door, gripping Fang Lei's hand tightly with one hand. Fang Lei's hand seemed unusually cold, a sign that my soul was about to be pulled away?

I swallowed hard, closing my eyes to avoid looking at Zhou Zhou's bloodied body and at Fang Lei's increasingly distinct double silhouette. I felt the screams of Zhou Zhou fading from my ears, and Fang Lei's calls fading away. A dull, buzzing sensation, like water suddenly filling my ears, made me dizzy, and the surroundings grew quiet.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw a pair of strange eyes—Zhou Zhou's eyes. Her mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear a sound. What was she trying to say? I looked closely, and it seemed to be, "Kill me!"

Kill her? My heart tightened immediately. At that moment, something grayish-black rose from the ground. What?! It was a grayish-black hand-shaped object, resembling a flower bud about to bloom! A flower bud formed from a pile of lifeless, dead arms—was it the flower of death?

Gradually, the outermost layer of gray-black arms stretched outwards simultaneously, as if petals were blooming, followed by the innermost layer, and then the innermost layer. This slow unfolding and blooming motion had an eerie and stunning quality.

But after the flower fully bloomed, the inside was a red stamen, not a person! A child, a little girl in red?

I immediately gasped. The little girl in red had a face and arms that were ashen and cold, flat, as if a mechanical voice was speaking: "A new soul can accelerate the closing of the gates of hell."

A new soul? A faster closure? I looked down at Fang Lei's clearly visible two figures, and then at Zhou Zhou! Was she the new soul? A newly deceased person? The creation of a new soul would allow the gates of hell to close faster, ensuring Fang Lei and my safety!

Kill her? I looked at Zhou Zhou; her lips seemed to be saying, "Kill me!"

But was this her true thought, or just my hallucination? My palms were sweating. The little girl in red slowly handed me a dagger, and I actually took it.

If I don't kill her, her soul will eventually be sucked away by these suction forces. Even if it isn't, these arms will tear her soul to pieces. Since she's going to die sooner or later, let me help her!

If I just throw it, I can stab her! I slowly raised my hand, and I seemed to hear Fang Lei's whimpering. Was she trying to stop me? But it was too late. I had already thrown the dagger in my hand with all my might.

When the dagger pierced her body, with a loud bang, the remaining half of Zhou Zhou's soul, which had been attached to her body, was immediately shot backward like a rocket and disappeared in the blink of an eye. The countless gray-black arms, like the supports used to launch rockets, were instantly burned to ashes by a burst of black flame.

The suction vanished instantly, and Fang Lei and I both slumped to the ground. Cold sweat streamed down my face; I felt so cold.

Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 61: Guardian

Volume 3: Delicacies of Hell, Chapter 61: Guardian