Chapter 41 The Village Out of Which There Is No Way

"Head out of the village!"

Entering the village was completely out of the question; an immense horror was brewing within it. Walking in the opposite direction might offer a sliver of hope for survival.

The group immediately set off. The mountain path was treacherous, and they stumbled along. Xiong Wenwen, who was usually quite pampered, ended up being carried on Zhou Bin's back by the end.

They walked for hours. When the journey finally ended and the village came back into view, the sight before them struck a deep, primordial fear into their hearts.

"Fengmen Village!"

After wandering in circles, they had returned right back to where they started!

With no action taken and no next step available, Shen Lin's expression grew heavy.

They seemed trapped in an inescapable knot; no matter how much further they walked, they would always be brought back to the starting point.

The atmosphere of the entire village had turned bizarre. The previously clear sky was enveloped by a layer of dark clouds, with the light continuing to dim.

Countless gazes peered at Shen Lin and the others. Looking through the path leading into the village, it seemed as though swarms of dense, countless things were gathering here.

"Shen Lin! Let's go!" Xiong Wenwen screamed. Before setting off, he and Shen Lin had made a pact not to abuse his ability without instructions, but at this moment, he instinctively wanted to use it. This strange village exuded weirdness and evil intent at every turn.

"Don't shout, I'm thinking of a way." Shen Lin stared at the villagers before him, his eyes flickering continuously.

They had accidentally stumbled into this bizarre village, which he figured was likely caused by that eerie projector. Whether a rule had been triggered was still unclear, but one thing was certain: the longer one stayed in this damn place, the higher the fatality rate.

This was likely a special space formed by some unique Ghost Domain, used to replay a certain portion of the footage recorded by the projector.

Shen Lin currently only possessed the ability of the Inverted Ghost, and he wanted to test it out.

At close range, the inverted world manifested by the Ghost Aspect could partially resonate with the Inverted Ghost's own power.

Strictly speaking, their current situation and the Inverted Ghost were mirror images of each other, exceptionally close in distance. If played right, he might be able to leverage the Inverted Ghost to forge a path to the outside world within this realm.

"Keep watch and guard against attacks; I'll figure out a way to carve a path," Shen Lin said. They needed to escape this village as soon as possible. His intuition, honed by walking on the edge of danger multiple times, told him that a wordless terror was emanating from deep within the village, as if it could swallow people whole.

A dark red radiance enveloped them, but it flickered like a failing power supply. The power of the Ghost Aspect felt suppressed by some force—this was a direct suppression at the level of a Ghost Domain.

At that moment, the eerie, peering figures in the surroundings...

Moved!

They were numb and stiff, resembling corpses that had rotted for unknown years. Their eyes lacked whites and were filled with a pitch-black, deeply sinister aura.

They were right at the village entrance, less than tens of meters apart from the group. No one knew what would happen if these things got close.

"Hurry up! Hurry up!" Xiong Wenwen screamed. A child's unique voice sounded exceptionally piercing in this environment. Facing the slowly approaching villagers, he displayed the utmost terror.

Xu Fang and Zhou Bin braced themselves, ready to run away with Xiong Wenwen at any moment. Even if they encountered the ghost wall outside the village again, it was better than dying a violent death right here.

Time ticked by second by second. Fine beads of sweat broke out densely across Shen Lin's forehead. He was pushing the Ghost Aspect with all his might, but the results were negligible.

Wait! There was movement! It sensed something!

Just then, the advancing villagers suddenly stopped. Their bizarre, stiff bodies froze, their rotting heads tilted slightly to the left, and they all stared uniformly in a single direction.

Shen Lin abruptly looked toward that direction.

Where there had previously been bare ground, clusters of withered graves had appeared out of thin air. The grave soil was yellowish and overgrown with weeds, with most of them using small wooden boards covered in writing and crude drawings as makeshift tombstones.

Even stranger was the arrangement of these withered graves. They formed a semi-enclosed structure, surrounding something like stars clustered around the moon.

Through the gap, Shen Lin saw a person.

No, half a person!

It was as if someone had cleaved them straight down from the very center of the top of the head. That person was left with only a naked half, embedded in the ground like a wooden stake. Their skull, as thin and dry as a skeleton, drooped down as if in a deep sleep.

That half-corpse seemed to be biting down on something in its mouth—it looked like a slender skeletal object, about a foot wide, but the distance was too great for them to see clearly.

Terror, immense terror. That was what Shen Lin's inner voice was telling him.

The moment he laid eyes on that half-corpse, he felt a fear like never before.

The next second, Shen Lin felt the figures around him trembling. Rotting flesh dripped down amidst the trembling, and a stench filled the air.

They had disturbed something! Shen Lin's eyes widened slightly.

This village was like a sleeping entity, and their arrival had disturbed everything.

The sudden arrival of outsiders had disrupted all the established rhythms here.

Now, it was as if a long-dormant ferocious ghost was about to awaken, about to break out of its cage.

"Clang~ Clang~"

A sound seemed to echo from the void, coming from all directions. It had an indescribable familiarity to it, sounding like a wooden fish being struck, or even bamboo stalks colliding.

Something was coming.

Xu Fang was the first to display terror and madness. He looked around frantically, fear filling his heart to the brim.

"It's coming. That thing is coming."

This was the terrifying ghost Xu Fang had learned about from the female corpse with blood flowing from its seven orifices. Even though that ghost wasn't even present at the time, its peerless terror had almost left Xu Fang dead on the spot.

Xu Fang was terrified; his fear penetrated to his very bones. That was a horror human beings could never hope to fight against.

As if it wasn't enough to face misfortune on top of misfortune, Shen Lin narrowed his eyes, a fierce look flashing across his face.

They had encountered the worst possible scenario. They were caught in a pincer attack by two horrifyingly powerful ghosts—a desperate situation with virtually zero chance of survival.

It appeared! It was a person, a thin, gaunt figure draped entirely in tattered, pitch-black robes. Shen Lin couldn't see it clearly.

Its footsteps were exceptionally slow. Wherever its feet passed, the world visibly turned pitch-black, restoring the commercial street to its original appearance.

The eyes of Shen Lin and the others widened.

This was a scene beyond their comprehension.

The Fengmen Village, which they had tried every conceivable method to break through without success, was dissolving inch by inch as this ghost walked past.

Terror—indescribable terror. This terror struck straight at the soul, and Shen Lin couldn't even muster the thought of fighting back.

They couldn't fight it. They definitely couldn't win.

Holding their breath and steadying their minds, the group forgot how to breathe out of sheer tension, trembling as they stayed rooted to the spot.

They couldn't move; doing nothing at all was the safest course. If you don't act, you won't make mistakes. The ferocious ghost was inches away, and you never knew what action might trigger its rules.

It was close—very close. That foot stepped onto the ground, yet it felt as if it were treading directly upon their hearts.

Beneath the body draped in the pitch-black robe, Shen Lin felt a decay that did not belong to this era—a decay capable of destroying everything.

The hearts of everyone leaped into their throats in unison. They knew all too well that if the ghost chose to attack them at this moment, none of them would survive.

Fengmen Village shattered inch by inch beneath the ghost's feet, and the entire street returned to normal.

The moment the darkness spread, the old-fashioned projector in the center of the street seemed to suffer some kind of impact. Black and white lines appeared on the screen, just like an old television with poor signal whose image was about to collapse.

Zhou Bin instinctively used the Drunkard's ability, trying his utmost to do something, but the effect seemed negligible.

Wait, Shen Lin caught a glimpse of something. The ghost seemed to be holding an object in its hand, but shrouded in the black robe, he couldn't see it clearly and didn't dare make any excess movements.

*Plop, plop.* The crisp sound of footsteps echoed exceptionally loud in this silent space. The ghost walked straight ahead step by step, as if it didn't see them at all, walking away step by step.

This allowed Shen Lin and the others to let out a long sigh of relief. The worst-case scenario hadn't happened; they must not have triggered its rules.

The terror level was simply too high. They didn't even dare to harbor thoughts of resistance, and even the ghosts within their bodies were trembling.

Shen Lin couldn't help but check the time. Four minutes. It wasn't long, but it had been an asphyxiating four minutes that had nearly crushed the life out of them.

Watching the ghost walk further and further away, Shen Lin and the others slowly relaxed their tense bodies. Just as they were about to say something, they heard that strange sound once again.

"Clang, clang!"

It was that ghost! It was striking something!

Shen Lin was startled. He quickly looked over, only to be met with a horrifying sight.

That ghost...

Had turned its body around!