Chapter 186: Possessed

This was essentially my first time keeping watch.

I leaned back against the rock behind me, occasionally tearing off a corner of my notebook to toss into the fire in front of me. The flames were small, but 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 skills weren’t nearly as good as Tian Xiaoqi’s, and I ended up tying an incredibly ugly knot. I felt Lu Ayao’s arm; his body temperature felt much closer to normal. I breathed a small sigh of relief, then quickly pulled his sleeve back down to act like 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 then I was back to having nothing to do. I could only stare blankly into the pitch-black darkness around us. He Yu’s snoring soon started up. Everything else was dead silent. That strange human voice we had heard in the tunnel didn’t appear again; the place seemed to have returned to its original state.

My blade lay across my lap; I didn’t want to miss even the slightest sound from the darkness. But I couldn’t stay on high alert forever. Whenever my eyelids started drooping, I’d tear off a piece of paper and toss it into the fire. After tearing paper for a while, I’d get sleepy again. Before I knew it, a few hours had passed, and I’d used up all the paper in my hand.

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

I suddenly felt that something was wrong and immediately turned to check. Tian Xiaoqi was still curled up on my right, sleeping soundly. Lu Ayao was leaning against me, his breathing steady. I looked past Lu Ayao toward 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 had no idea when I’d fallen asleep. Where could He Yu have gone in the middle of the night? Was he taking a leak? Still, he should have noticed I was asleep. Why didn’t he wake me up?

Just then, I spotted a dark figure in the distance along the edge of the moat, swaying unsteadily as it walked away along the riverbank. I quickly propped Lu Ayao up, got to my feet, and ran forward a few steps to call out.

“He Yu! What are you doing over there? Hurry up and get back here once you’re done peeing!” I kept my voice down as I yelled after him, but he acted as if he hadn’t heard me at all. Instead, he just kept going, walking further along the river.

I stared at his back. His head was tilted, his shoulders hunched, and his hands were clasped behind his back. He wasn’t using a flashlight. In the pitch darkness, he ignored me completely, walking silently along the water. Seeing him like this sent a chill right through me. Something was very wrong.

I hurried back, knife in hand, and shook Tian Xiaoqi awake. She had been sleeping comfortably, so when she woke up, she looked completely confused.

“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 frightened me out of my wits. His eyes were rolled all the way up, showing wide expanses of white. He was holding a shovel head in his hand, clearly out of his right mind. His mouth hung 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 bank of the moat had been completely smashed away. The ground at the far end was extremely muddy, and three rusted water pumps sat by the edge of the pit. They were caked in rust, clearly having been abandoned for a long time.

Finding modern tools in a place like this was rare, but while I was still trying to make sense of it, He Yu suddenly broke out. He flung my hand off and leaped straight down into the muddy pit.

“What are you doing!” I was shocked by his move. Fearing he would get hurt, I quickly jumped down after him, flashlight in hand.

The mud in the pit offered little footing. The moment He Yu landed down there, he bent over with his rear in the air, using the shovel head to dig frantically into the ground, letting out bursts of laughter every now and then. Stumbling through the deep muck, I reached his side to stop him, but he shoved me away with surprising force.

“Taisui^[1]! 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 struck 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, he suddenly tilted his head at me, the eerie smile on his lips deepening. I instantly realized something was wrong and tried to step back to keep a safe distance, but he was a step faster. Tripping me up, he grabbed my collar and slammed me right into the mud.

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

“What Taisui?”

“Eat the Taisui, and the dead come back to life! Come back to life!”

He was truly out for blood this time. The blood rushed to my head instantly, and for the first time, I felt the terror of real suffocation. All 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 try to pry He Yu’s hands off.

I thrashed in the mud beneath He Yu. The harder he squeezed, the stronger my survival instinct grew, and a surge of fury quickly took over. I thought to myself, You bastard, you really want to kill me! If talking sense won’t wake you up, then I’ll beat you awake!

In that moment, I don’t know where the strength came from, but I tucked my legs in and kicked upward with everything I had. I didn’t hold back a bit, sending He Yu flying off me. As his grip loosened, I lunged for the knife in the mud, grabbed 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 out, and slammed a fist into his face, sending him face-down for the third time. Dragging him by the back of his collar, I hauled him back up to the riverbank and threw him onto the ground. I pinned him down, ready to strike again, only to realize he was completely out cold.

I forced myself to calm down, warning myself not to lose control and completely see red. 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, wincing in pain. He Yu had squeezed with ruthless force. If I hadn’t fought back just now, he might have snapped my neck.