Chapter 186: Possessed

This was essentially my first time on watch.

I leaned against the rock behind me, occasionally tearing off a corner of my notebook to toss into the small fire. Though the flames were low, it was enough to keep the fire going.

Sitting there alone, it was inevitable that I’d start to feel drowsy. I couldn’t let myself fall asleep, so I decided to find something to do. I borrowed Tian Xiaoqi’s medical kit, took out some gauze, alcohol, cotton balls, and tweezers, then rolled up Lu Ayao’s sleeve to clean his wounds.

My bandaging technique wasn’t nearly as good as Tian Xiaoqi’s. I ended up tying an incredibly ugly knot. I felt Lu Ayao’s arm and found that his temperature had stabilized quite a bit. I breathed a small sigh of relief, then quickly pulled his sleeve back down to act as if nothing had happened. If He Yu woke up and saw that knot, he would definitely mock me mercilessly.

Tending to the wounds only took half an hour, and I was back to having nothing to do. I could only stare blankly into the pitch-black surroundings. He Yu’s snoring soon rang out. Everything else was silent. That strange human voice we had heard in the tunnel didn’t reappear; the place seemed to have returned to its most primal state.

My blade lay across my lap. I didn’t want to miss even the slightest sound from the darkness, but I couldn’t maintain that level of alertness forever. Whenever my eyelids started to fight me, I’d tear off a piece of paper and throw it into the fire. After a while of this, the drowsiness would return. Without realizing it, several hours passed, and the paper in my hand was gone.

I don’t know exactly how much time went by, but a cold wind suddenly made me shiver, jolting me awake from my slumber. I rubbed my eyes groarily and realized the fire in front of me had long since gone out.

I suddenly felt that something was wrong. I immediately turned to check on the others. Tian Xiaoqi was still curled up to my right, sleeping soundly. Lu Ayao was leaning against me, his breathing steady. I looked past Lu Ayao to check on He Yu, only to find that his spot was empty!

My eyes snapped wide open, the shock instantly clearing my head. No wonder I felt something was off. Without He Yu’s snoring, the place had become deathly silent. One hand instinctively reached for the knife on my lap while the other grabbed the flashlight to scan the area.

I didn’t know when I had fallen asleep, and I found it strange. Where would He Yu go in the middle of the night? Since he wasn’t there, maybe he’d gone to relieve himself. But logically, he should have seen that I was asleep. Why wouldn’t he wake me up?

Just then, I spotted a dark figure in the distance along the edge of the moat. The shadow was staggering along the riverbank, moving further away. I quickly propped Lu Ayao up, scrambled to my feet, and ran a few steps to call out.

“He Yu! What are you doing over there? Get back here once you’re done!” I hissed at him, but he acted as if he hadn’t heard me at all. Instead, he quickened his pace, continuing along the river.

I watched his silhouette. His head was tilted, his back was hunched, and his hands were tucked behind him. He wasn’t using a flashlight. In the oppressive darkness, he ignored me completely, walking silently along the water. Watching him like this made a shiver run down my spine. I knew something was wrong.

I rushed back and shook Tian Xiaoqi awake with two sharp jolts, my knife still in hand. She had been sleeping comfortably and looked at me with a face full of confusion.

“He Yu’s been possessed. I’m going after him. Watch Lu Ayao and wait for me to get back. Don’t move from this spot until I return!” I gave her a few quick instructions, then turned and sprinted toward the riverbank to catch up with He Yu.

He Yu wasn’t walking fast, but he had already put some distance between us. I chased after him with my flashlight on, shouting as I went, but he didn’t pay me any mind.

This eerie behavior didn’t look like sleepwalking; possession seemed far more likely. I didn’t dare stop. My chest was already hurting, and after chasing him all that way, I felt like I was going to cough up a lung when I finally caught up.

I grabbed him and yanked him around to face me. The sight nearly made me faint. His pupils had rolled all the way up, leaving only the whites of his eyes visible. He was clutching a shovel head in his hand, clearly unconscious. His mouth was hanging wide open, fixed in the exact same grin as those Ancient Corpses.

“He Yu?” I called out.

He Yu smiled at me. Then, he grabbed my arm and pointed into the distance, gesturing for me to look behind him. I followed his finger, and my jaw nearly hit the floor.

I had actually followed He Yu quite a long way. We had reached the end of the moat. Before me was a massive pit that had been dug out by hand. The original stone bank of the moat had been completely smashed away. The ground at the end was extremely muddy, and three rusted water pumps sat by the edge of the pit. They were covered in corrosion, clearly having been abandoned for a long time.

Finding modern tools in a place like this was rare, but as I was thinking, He Yu suddenly snapped. He flung my hand away and leaped directly into the mud of the great pit.

“What are you doing!” I was startled by his move. Fearing something would happen to him, I quickly followed, jumping down with my flashlight.

The mud in the pit offered no solid footing. As soon as He Yu landed, he began crouching down, using the shovel head to dig frantically into the earth, letting out bursts of laughter every now and then. I struggled through the muck to reach his side and try to stop him, but he shoved me away with surprising force.

“Taisui! The Taisui is down there! Dig! Dig faster!” He Yu kept muttering.

“He Yu, wake up!” I grabbed his clothes, but he continued to dig desperately in the mud. A moment later, the shovel head struck something solid.

He Yu gave a sudden heave and shoveled the object out from under the mud. Immediately, an incredibly foul stench hit my nose. He had unearthed a highly decomposed corpse. Its limbs were missing; what he had just hit was the head.

I realized instantly what I might be standing on. I lunged forward, snatched the shovel head from He Yu’s hands, and threw it several meters away. Then, using every ounce of strength I had, I started dragging him toward the edge of the pit.

“Are you crazy? Wake up! He Yu! He Yu, you’re possessed! Wake up!” I grabbed his shoulders and forced him to face me, shaking him violently and slapping his face, trying to bring him back to his senses.

The moment I finished shouting, his head suddenly tilted to the side, and that eerie smile on his lips deepened. I immediately realized something was wrong and tried to step back to maintain a safe distance, but he was a step faster. He tripped me and grabbed my collar, slamming me down into the mud.

“Taisui! You’re the Taisui! It’s the Taisui! I found it, I finally found the Taisui!” He Yu grinned hideously, his hands clamping around my throat.

“What Taisui?”

“Eat the Taisui, and the dead shall rise! Rise from the dead!”

He was truly trying to kill me this time. The blood rushed to my head instantly, and for the first time, I felt the terror of true suffocation. The strength drained from my body in a flash. My knife fell into the mud, landing right where I could see it, but I didn’t have an ounce of strength left to reach for it. I could only instinctively claw at He Yu’s hands.

I thrashed beneath him in the mud. The harder he squeezed, the stronger my survival instinct grew, and a surge of fury quickly followed. I thought to myself, You bastard, you really want me dead! If I can’t talk sense into you, then I’ll beat it into you!

In that moment, I found a sudden burst of strength from nowhere. I tucked my legs in and kicked upward with everything I had. I didn’t hold back a single bit, sending He Yu flying off me. As his grip loosened, I lunged for the knife in the mud, gripped it tight, and delivered another kick to He Yu as he tried to scramble up, knocking him back half a meter.

He sprawled in the mud. I grabbed him by the collar, hauled him up, and slammed a fist into his face, sending him face-down for the third time. I dragged him by the back of his clothes back up to the riverbank and threw him onto the ground. I pinned him down, ready to strike again, only to realize he had completely blacked out.

I forced myself to calm down, warning myself not to let the bloodlust take over. My raised fist slowly lowered. I gave He Yu a shove; his body swayed, but there was no reaction. It looked like he was truly unconscious.

Only after confirming this did I finally let myself relax. I reached up to touch my neck and winced in pain. He Yu had squeezed with terrifying force. If I hadn’t fought back just now, my neck might have been snapped by now.