El decimonoveno nivel del infierno

Capítulo 11

Tao Rujiu felt that "it" appeared close to his right cheek, then swept across his mouth and nose, and then disappeared into the left well wall—which was almost the diameter of the narrow well opening.

In other words, this strange, filamentous object simply appeared from the well wall and then vanished into thin air within it.

How could real objects possibly be like that?

The shock lasted only a second before Tao Rujiu suddenly realized that it was definitely not a trap. He began to struggle to get away, but the fierce pressure on him thought the young man was just afraid and pressed down even harder.

"Let go of me! Let go of me!"

Completely forgetting the stern warning, Tao Rujiu struggled to raise his head slightly and shouted loudly.

He freed his right hand from its clippings and tried to brace himself against the well's edge; however, in the darkness, he couldn't reach the edge of the well, but instead grabbed a tangled mass of thread-like material on its side.

The same thin, long threads that had just been brushed over were now more numerous and tangled, growing wildly and clinging to the arched hard shell.

The other side of the hard shell is made of softer, smoother leather.

It was a human head, a human head with long hair.

Tao Rujiu jerked his hand back as if electrocuted, but the sensation of the long hair remaining in his palm remained vivid. The head was embedded in the well wall less than twenty centimeters from his face, but he couldn't see anything in the darkness. Tao Rujiu could only feel the head exhaling gusts of cool air spraying on his face, while the long, disheveled hair meandered from the left side, like countless tentacles, slowly wrapping around Tao Rujiu's head!

Then, without warning, something else, even more terrifying than a strand of hair, pressed against them.

It was a face, loose skin, cold and slightly sticky, that suddenly bumped into Tao Rujiu's right cheek, then slowly ground down, squeezing the rotting skin and flesh into a foul-smelling paste that stuck to the young man's cheek.

At this point, Tao Rujiu could no longer make a sound. His only free right hand reached back and grabbed the sharp collar.

Ling Li pressed Tao Rujiu against the well's edge, intending to show him the water ghost kappa inside. It was an ugly, frog-shaped mechanism, more grotesque than terrifying. Ling Li chose it simply because all the other attractions were open during the day, and the terrifying atmosphere could only be created indoors; this deep well, connected to the underground palace below, was the only mechanism in the exterior area.

Under normal circumstances, once the mechanism is activated by the sound, the kappa will slowly climb up towards the well opening, and then the green landscape lights at the bottom of the well and in the river monster's mouth will be turned on. Just describing it makes it sound like a boring show.

However, contrary to his drastic expectations, the mechanism did indeed climb up, but the effect lights remained off for a long time. Just as he was feeling something was amiss, he felt the young man beneath him tremble violently for a moment, and then suddenly fall silent.

"Tao Rujiu, Tao Rujiu, what's wrong with you? Tao Rujiu?"

Sensing something was wrong, Ling Li immediately released his hands and pulled the young man from the well to a pillar. He then picked up the flashlight that had fallen to the ground and shone it on Tao Rujiu's face, where he met a pair of terrified and helpless eyes.

In the darkness, Tao Rujiu kept his eyes tightly shut until Ling Li lifted him up and dragged him to the pillar.

The incredibly real sensation from one second vanished into darkness the instant the light arrived. For a long time, Tao Rujiu's limbs were weak and powerless, and she could barely stand by leaning on Ling Li.

"What's wrong with you?"

Seeing the young man's pale face, Ling Li began to reflect on whether he had gone too far. However, after considering it several times, he did not think that he had really gone that far.

"You're too easily scared!"

He complained as he helped Tao Rujiu walk a few more steps and sit on a stone bench on the other side of the rammed earth road.

Tao Rujiu remained silent, repeatedly touching his left cheek with his hand.

There was no slime on it.

The two sat on the street for about five minutes. Ling Li glanced at his watch; it was almost eight o'clock.

"If we don't go to the melon field soon, the opera troupe will come looking for us."

He complained, then looked down and asked Tao Rujiu, "Can we set off now?"

The young man did not answer.

"Or would you like to go back first?"

Tao Rujiu still did not respond, and Ling Li quickly became impatient.

"Then come with me."

Without a word, he dragged the young man toward a small house at the end of the ghost town, then took out the key tags he had prepared beforehand and tried opening each door one by one.

The small house that looks exactly like a haunted house from the outside is actually the rest room of the Soul Society administrator.

He opened the door and reached out to fumble for the switch on the wall, but after a mechanical click, no light came on.

"Seeing ghosts"

The man cursed under his breath. Now he knew why the background light hadn't turned on; the power seemed to have been cut off shortly after the mechanism was activated.

"never mind."

With one hand supporting Tao Rujiu and the other holding a flashlight, he swiftly tossed the young man onto a chair in front of him. At the same time, he didn't forget to look around.

This is a room of about 20 square meters. There are several tables and chairs by the door, and a water dispenser, refrigerator and microwave oven are placed against the wall on the right. It seems that the supervisor on duty during the day has lunch here.

Tao Rujiu sat quietly in the chair. He hadn't spoken since leaving the dry well, and Ling Li had neither the time nor the inclination to ask him what he had seen. He simply gave the order before leaving:

“Sit here and wait for me to come back. If you’re brave enough, you can walk back by yourself.”

He turned on a flashlight and shoved it into Tao Rujiu's arms.

"But I bet you wouldn't dare."

Tao Rujiu gripped the flashlight blankly; even such blatant provocation failed to rouse his spirit or fighting will. He was indeed terrified by the head; the lifelike touch convinced him it wasn't an illusion.

It was a ghost; he encountered a ghost.

What should I do after encountering a ghost?

Tao Rujiu came to her senses and found herself sitting indoors. Ling Li was gone, and only the desolate yellow light of her flashlight kept her company. Outside, deathly silence returned, as if nothing had ever happened.

Slowly recalling what Ling Li had just said to him, Tao Rujiu stood up unsteadily, only then realizing that his right ankle was throbbing with pain, probably from a sprain. He slowly walked to the window facing the street. After the earlier commotion, his glasses were covered in dust, forcing him to press close to the windowpane and peer outside.

The dry well stood silently in the shadows of the distant pavilion, appearing from afar like a dwarf or a motionless child. To the left of the well's edge, he could vaguely make out a dark gray object.

Will it still be that long-haired head?

Although she was afraid, her curiosity was also growing. Tao Rujiu held her breath and pressed her face against the fine windowpane, looking out.

He suddenly saw a pair of ghostly eyes.

It was a deep green, just outside the window, less than five centimeters from his eyes.

The ghost's eyes were looking into the house.

Startled, Tao Rujiu desperately covered her mouth, stumbled back a few steps, and fell to the ground. The flashlight fell to the ground with a thud. And the door, which Ling Li had only lightly closed when he left, was silently pushed open after that thud.

Tao Rujiu felt he had nowhere to escape.

He was now sitting in the rest room of the Corpse Soul Town administrator, the door of which was slowly and silently opening. Tao Rujiu hid in the darkness, nervously looking at the area behind the door, about a person's height. He knew that at that height, there was a pair of ghostly eyes.

To his surprise, the door was only opened a tiny angle, barely enough for a toddler to pass through. Meanwhile, the ghostly eyes that had been glaring at him through the windowpane practically slid into the room, skimming close to the ground.

Although Tao Rujiu was hiding in the darkness, it meant nothing to the Ghost Eye. It silently walked towards the direction where the young man was hiding, and was illuminated by a flashlight that had fallen to the ground, revealing its "true form".

It turned out to be Da Afu.

The white cat stood proudly in front of Tao Rujiu, its tail held high, its wide-open golden eyes even carrying a hint of disdain. However, upon seeing him, Tao Rujiu felt relieved and even delighted, forgetting the cat's temperament of not letting anyone touch it, and crawled over to hug Da Afu into his arms.

Strangely enough, Da Afu was unusually docile tonight, automatically jumping into Tao Rujiu's arms. The cat's higher body temperature calmed Tao Rujiu slightly, but just as he was about to pick up the flashlight, a low moaning sound came from outside the window on the other side. Tao Rujiu, holding Da Afu, hid in the darkness of the south corner of the hut.

A low moan echoed about ten meters outside the south window. The sound was thin, sometimes more like a simple gasp, long and eerie, with a chilling nasal tone.

It was very quiet all around, making breathing particularly clear, occasionally punctuated by the soft scratching of fingernails against tree trunks, and some fainter, strange sounds of water splashing.

But the sound never approached the hut.

Although only two steps away from the south window, Tao Rujiu still didn't have the courage to look out. Outside the south window was the woods they had traversed on their way there, with several makeshift graves inside, the closest of which seemed to be to the left or right of this small hut.

On a moonless night, who is groaning in a desolate forest overgrown with graves, and what kind of sharp claws are scratching at the tree trunk?

Tao Rujiu suddenly remembered the night he first went down into the underground palace.

Xiao Li once said that there were unclaimed corpses dug up from the nearby area in the skull wall outside the underground palace. So the long-haired head we just saw and the ghost groaning in the forest now could be the spirits that were once buried in this land.

Perhaps their souls have always harbored resentment because their burial sites were looted.

The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, and the young man even began to look forward to Ling Li's return.

Huddled in the corner, he took out his phone to tell the man what was going on, but after shakily typing out the message, he realized that there was no signal in the room.

Tao Rujiu covered his mouth again, "Lingli, Lingli, come back quickly." He could only call out in his heart.

Perhaps because Tao Rujiu had exerted too much force in his panic, Da Afu could no longer bear it and broke free from the young man's embrace, lightly leaping onto the windowsill. The cat's eyes turned into two eerie green pupils in the darkness, staring straight at the distant woods.

Tao Rujiu shuddered and hurriedly scrambled over to pick up the white cat. A glance out the window at the woods revealed a sight that stunned him.

The white figure that had only appeared in his dreams now stood vividly in the woods less than ten meters away. The broad back leaned slightly, pressing another familiar figure against an old tree.

"bloom!"

The young man desperately tried to stifle his surprised shout.

A crescent moon pierced through the clouds, illuminating the dark forest. The boy, pinned down by the white shadow, had his shirt wrapped around his arms, but was completely naked from the waist down, entangled with the white shadow in an extremely exaggerated posture.

Even Tao Rujiu, who had no experience whatsoever, could tell that he had stumbled upon a sexual act in the wild.

Hua Kai's slender hands clung tightly to the tree trunk, her back arched and her smooth legs spread wide. Her upturned face was a mixture of pain and pleasure.

Although the white figure was dressed in a strangely styled robe, Tao Rujiu could still tell that he was moving in and out between the wide-open legs in some subtle way. The strange moan he had just heard was coming from the boy's throat.

It was actually a low moan of pain and pleasure during same-sex intercourse.

The boy was not forced. On the contrary, Tao Rujiu saw him slowly turn around and understood the boy's intention. Bai Ying also turned her face slightly to kiss the boy passionately.

Tao Rujiu then saw the profile of the white figure, the face that wore half a silver mask in the dream.

He saw the flowers bloom and kiss him.

No, the flower did not kiss the white figure. The boy's lips merely touched the face beneath the silver mask, and then, as if touching an illusory image, passed right through it without any hindrance.

Tao Rujiu then realized that the white figure was not human. It was a ghost, the ghost that had appeared on the third underground level of the underground palace.

The intercourse between the human and the ghost, the passionate movements and gasps, everything was just a realistic performance. It was a scene of enchanting beauty and sensuality in the night.

The initial shock and shyness quickly turned into an indescribable fear. Because the only audience member for this play was Tao Rujiu.

Just then, Da Afu, which Tao Rujiu had pulled back into his arms, suddenly let out a low growl. It was the first time Tao Rujiu had ever heard this white cat cry; it was mournful and chilling, like the cry of a baby.

The young man immediately left the window frame, crouched down, and hid in a corner on the other side of the small room. There was an object resembling a bookshelf covered with a large white cloth, and the drooping corner of the cloth was just enough to cover Tao Rujiu.

The sounds in the woods stopped immediately after hearing the cat meow, and were replaced by a series of approaching footsteps.

Ghosts can't leave footsteps; the only thing coming this way right now is Hua Kai.

Remembering Hua Kai's usual gentle and lovely nature, Tao Rujiu hesitated whether to confront him. Perhaps the boy was merely possessed by a ghost, and Da Afu's shouts had already driven the ghost away. Then, Hua Kai, suddenly awake, would need her care instead.

So he mustered his courage and crawled out of the white cloth, climbed back onto the windowsill, and cautiously looked outside.

The flower blooms less than five meters outside the window.