Chapter 147: Death

Upon waking up.

Jian Qi immediately noticed that the candle had gone out.

However, despite the lack of artificial light, he could still roughly make out the interior of the carriage with the aid of the moonlight streaming in from outside.

"I'm going to sleep," Youman said, letting out a yawn before returning straight to his own seat to slumber.

On the other side, after Erin woke up Rot, the exact same thing happened.

Jian Qi and Rot exchanged a glance. Although they could not clearly see each other's expressions in the dark, they could easily understand each other's intent.

Each of them kept watch over one direction.

Jian Qi chose to watch the rear; after all, he was sitting in the third row, closest to the door leading to the back passage. Should anything untoward happen, he would be able to react instantly.

Time passed quickly, and during this period, no accidents occurred.

Yet, this was within his expectations.

In typical ghost films, unexpected horrors only struck after midnight, when people thought they were safe and everyone finally let down their guard.

He saw Rot over there push the emotionless man awake and hand him the pocket watch.

Jian Qi also stood up, walked to the first row, and woke up the rugged man.

"This time slot should be the most hazardous for you guys. Be careful."

Hearing Jian Qi's warning, the rugged man nodded without uttering a word.

Since he could not see the other man's expression, Jian Qi nodded in response as well, then returned to his own seat and resumed resting.

This time, the countdown timer in his vision had changed to 45:00.

Looking at the ticking numbers, Jian Qi prepared himself mentally to be jolted awake from his dreams at any moment.

Yet, reality turned out somewhat different from his imagination.

Until the countdown reached 30:00, he still had not woken up from his deep sleep.

This implied that no mishaps had occurred during this interval.

"Could this simply be a pure puzzle-solving instance?"

"Or were the two of them dealt with simultaneously, leaving them no time to even make a sound?"

Both possibilities existed.

For a moment, he could not distinguish which one was correct.

The good news, however, was that his countdown was still ticking, indicating that he was still alive.

The countdown reached 20:00.

Just as Jian Qi thought the night would pass by uneventfully, the countdown timer in his field of vision vanished instantly.

"Bang!"

A tremendous crash simultaneously resounded in his ears.

The moment the scene before his eyes cleared up, he sprang to his feet.

His gaze swept rapidly around the surroundings, and then he saw that the previously closed door at the front of the carriage had been forced open.

Vaguely, a huge, dark human-like figure was fleeing swiftly toward the front of the carriage.

"Pursue!"

Rot shouted, and without waiting for the others to react, he gave chase single-handedly.

The emotionless man followed closely behind, and the rugged man did the same.

As for Youman, he curled up in the deepest corner of his seat, trembling all over, crying out, "What happened? What on earth happened?"

Jian Qi glanced at him briefly before fixing his eyes on the three people still lying motionless in their seats.

With such a massive commotion, the couple in the first row and that girl Lina had still not gotten up.

This made Jian Qi feel that something was deeply amiss.

Lucy had also discovered this anomaly.

She looked at the two people lying ahead and walked straight over.

After shaking the pair slightly, she noticed a large amount of liquid on the table.

She sniffed the air, her pupils shifting.

"Beiyu and the others are in trouble," she shouted immediately.

Hearing the voice, Jian Qi did not look over there, but instead walked straight to Lina's seat.

Lina had been sitting with Erin.

By now, Erin had realized something was wrong and was gently shaking Lina's body with her hand.

However, the other girl showed no sign of waking up whatsoever.

Jian Qi swept his gaze across the area and spotted the candle and a box of matches placed on the table.

Without hesitation, he picked them up and lit the candle.

The situation inside the carriage instantly became clear.

"Blood? Why is there so much?" Youman shrieked in immediate terror.

Beiyu's table was covered entirely in blood, and not just blood—some white, viscous matter was mixed within it as well.

Meanwhile, the situation on Lina's side was no better than that of Beiyu and his companion.

Illuminated by the candlelight, the bruised, dark blue marks on the back of her neck were clearly visible.

Jian Qi reached out and pressed gently, only to find that the girl's neck felt as though it lacked bones entirely, yielding easily beneath his touch.

Clearly, the bones in Lina's neck had been instantly crushed into pulp.

Jian Qi directly flipped Lina's body over.

Sure enough, he discovered that all the color had drained from her face, and she was no longer breathing.

Seeing this, he immediately took the candle and walked over to the couple.

He illuminated them with the candlelight.

Only to discover that their manner of death was even more gruesome than Lina's.

Someone had grabbed them by the head and ruthlessly smashed them down onto the table until they were obliterated.

"What do we do now? This is simply not something a human being could possibly do."

Taking in the tragic carnage on the table, Lucy wore a look of panic on her face.

Jian Qi studied her face closely for a moment, unable to tell whether her panic was genuine or feigned.

After a brief silence, he spoke, "Let's wait until Rot and the others return before discussing it."

"Wait!?"

Hearing Jian Qi suggest they remain in this ghostly place, Youman's emotions finally erupted.

"You guys can stay here and wait for death! Even if I have to go outside and face those beasts, it's better than dying an obscure and incomprehensible death!"

With that, he got up abruptly and strode toward the rear carriage, having seemingly made up his mind to leave right then and there.

Seeing this, Erin wanted to step forward and dissuade him.

However, she was stopped by Jian Qi.

"He won't dare," Jian Qi said, glancing at Youman while meeting Erin's puzzled gaze, and offering an explanation.

Hearing this, Erin looked over at Youman and noticed that he had indeed halted right at the threshold of the carriage passage.

Seeing this, she paid him no further mind.

Realizing that no one was trying to talk him out of it, Youman felt rather awkward.

Going back was humiliating, pressing forward was terrifying.

In the end, he simply sat down flat on the floor.

With the troublesome Youman finally subdued into silence, an eerie quiet descended upon the carriage.

The atmosphere grew somewhat heavy.

After all, three people had died all at once, and their deaths were exceptionally gruesome.

To say their hearts weren't pounding with dread would be a lie.

Even though Jian Qi knew this was a game, he still felt a trace of a chill run through him.

Time ticked away swiftly amidst this somewhat bizarre and oppressive atmosphere.

Just as Jian Qi began to wonder if Rot and the two companions had also met with disaster, the three of them walked back with grim expressions on their faces.

"How was it? Did you see what that person looked like?"

Seeing the three return, Erin immediately stepped forward to ask.

When she had woken up, she too had caught a fleeting glimpse of that dark shadow flashing through the kitchen.

Hearing Erin's question, Rot sighed, and just as he was about to answer, his peripheral vision caught sight of Lina, who had already grown cold.

His expression instantly darkened even further.

"Her neck was crushed."

Seeing Rot look toward Lina's corpse, Erin stated, "That young couple had it even worse than her. Their heads were completely smashed."

It was as if Rot had not heard the latter half of Erin's words; he strode quickly to Lina's side.

After carefully inspecting her and confirming that she was truly dead, the rage burning in his heart spilled over uncontainable, as though the person who had died was his own wife.