26: Chapter 26 How can you people be so selfish!

People got out of the vehicle.

The field operative who drove Lin Ye and the others over gave a final warning:

"After going in, everything depends on yourselves. If anyone feels they can't hold on, find a way to retreat the same way you came. The boundary of the Ghost Domain is unidirectional to the breath of the living. Walking outward will let you out, but walking inward, no one can save you."

That was what they said, but everyone knew that pulling out meant failing the trial.

Failing the trial meant never being able to become a true trial-taker.

For these young people who had scrambled back from the other world with their lives on the line, this price was harder to bear than death.

Lin Ye raised his head to look at the mountain before him.

More than half of the entire mountain's silhouette was swallowed by thick grayish-white fog, leaving only the branches of a few dead trees at the foot of the mountain stretching out from the fog, twisted into bizarre arcs.

Amidst the fog, dark red blood-colored light occasionally rolled out, which was the resentment seeping from the depths of the Ghost Domain.

"When looking at the data yesterday, the coverage range of the Ghost Domain hadn't reached the halfway point of the mountain yet."

Su Tang's expression was solemn. "Today, it has already pressed down to the foot of the mountain. It expanded by at least double in a single night."

"Let's go, stop dawdling."

The group stepped into the fog.

To everyone's surprise, the interior of the Ghost Domain actually looked no different from the outside.

On both sides of the mountain path were ordinary shrubs and weeds.

The sky overhead was hazy gray, but it wasn't as dark as inside the fog; one could even see wisps of sunlight leaking down from the gaps in the clouds.

"This... isn't that scary either."

Wang Zheng walked in the middle of the group, raising his hand to brush aside the branches stretching out from the roadside. "I thought as soon as we came in, there would be skeletons all over the ground or something."

"Don't let your guard down."

Zhou Peng's gaze swept around the surroundings. "The more normal the Ghost Domain is, the more it indicates there's a problem."

Lin Ye walked at the very back of the group.

His eyes were fixed on the dead trees that appeared every few steps along the roadside.

On the trunks of those dead trees, a thin trace was carved.

It looked like it was scratched out by fingernails, and the depth and length of every single trace were identical.

Naturally formed tree scars wouldn't be so regular.

Someone, or rather something... was marking this path.

After walking for less than ten minutes, footsteps suddenly came from ahead.

Everyone stopped at the same time, and their weapons flashed brightly in unison.

A hunchbacked figure walked out from the fog.

It was an old man in gray cloth clothes and straw sandals, leaning on a crooked branch cane in his hand, his face full of wrinkles and his eyes turbid.

"Someone is here! Someone is finally here!"

The old man tremblingly stretched out his hand toward them. "I've been trapped here for three days, and no matter how I walk, I can't get out. Can you take me out? I know where the exit is, it's just not far ahead..."

Su Tang furrowed her brows, and just as she was about to speak, someone in the group had already moved first.

"Are you alright?"

He Zhipeng from the Psionic Plane strode toward the old man. "How did you get trapped alone in a place like this? Don't panic yet, come with us, we'll take you ou—"

"Stop!" Lu Wanqing shouted loudly.

It was too late.

He Zhipeng had just stretched out his hand to help the old man when the old man's arm, which looked withered and scrawny, suddenly expanded violently.

Like a gray giant python, it coiled around He Zhipeng's right arm, and then violently twisted it.

Crack.

A bloody mist burst open!

He Zhipeng's miserable scream exploded on the mountain path, his right arm snapped completely off from the shoulder, and fresh blood spurted all over the ground, splashing onto the old man's gray cloth clothes and rapidly seeping in.

The old man licked his chapped lips, and a trace of scarlet light flashed in his turbid eyes.

He grinned, revealing a row of dense fangs in his mouth.

"Step aside!"

Jiang Xiaohong stepped forward, his right hand's five fingers abruptly spreading open. A purplish-black spell power light sphere rapidly condensed in his palm, and the moment it was compressed to the size of a fist, it blasted out of his hand.

The spell power sphere cut through the air with a sharp tearing sound, accurately slamming into the old man's chest.

Hiss——!!

The purplish-black spell power exploded on the old man's chest like a splash of molten lava poured onto ice.

The old man let out a shrill scream that was neither human nor beast, and a bowl-sized hole was corroded into his chest.

His hunchbacked figure twisted for a moment, turning into a gray afterimage and disappearing without a trace.

"Good!"

Wang Zheng shouted loudly, "Brother Jiang is awesome!"

"...Indeed strong; the speed and precision of the spell power compression just now were a large chunk higher than yesterday."

Someone nearby sighed sincerely.

Jiang Xiaohong withdrew his right hand, the lingering ripples of spell power between his fingers still slightly jumping.

His gaze swept past He Zhipeng's figure, crossed the crowd, and landed on Lin Ye in the very back row.

He didn't speak, but that look clearly said: "Did you see that? This is the real skill!"

"You're so great, why didn't you make a move earlier?"

Su Tang couldn't help saying, "You were just watching from the side when he walked up?"

"He rushed up there by himself."

Jiang Xiaohong glanced at her indifferently. "Trials are not exercises. Having reached this step, everyone must take responsibility for their own judgments."

Having finished speaking, he turned around and continued walking forward.

He Zhipeng lay on the ground with weak breathing.

Lu Wanqing said, "Excessive blood loss, ghost Qi has already entered his body. Carrying him back now can still save him. But it's impossible to continue participating in the assessment."

Jiang Xiaohong looked back and glanced: "Put him on the roadside, leaning against the tree. It's impossible to spare manpower to carry him down the mountain now; wait until we finish the mission and come out before taking him away."

"Put him on the roadside?"

He Zhipeng's lips trembled. "You can't leave me here... What if that ghost comes back..."

Jiang Xiaohong didn't answer.

Wang Zheng patted Jiang Xiaohong's shoulder.

"Brother Jiang is right. If we split manpower to carry him down the mountain now, everyone won't be able to finish the mission. Clean up the bloodstains and put him by the roadside. The ghost's attention should follow us up the mountain and it won't turn back to look at an injured, half-dead person. This is the most reasonable plan, and that's how things are handled on the battlefield."

"..."

He Zhipeng thought to himself:

How can you people be so selfish!

In the end.

He Zhipeng was propped against a tree trunk on the roadside, with several layers of dead leaves and rags spread beneath him, barely isolating the moisture of the ground.

The team continued walking up the mountain, and the atmosphere had clearly changed.

The few people who were still chatting and laughing earlier all closed their mouths, holding their weapons tightly in their hands without loosening their grips again.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the group walked out of the mountain path.

The view suddenly widened, and a huge detached villa appeared on the hillside platform.

The villa had a total of three floors, its exterior walls covered with withered vines, and all the windows were dark except for a window right in the middle of the second floor which emitted a faint red light.

The main door was wide and thick, with two red lanterns hanging from the lintel. The red light inside the lanterns flickered on and off, resembling two beating hearts.

On the entire platform, gloomy winds blew in gusts, ghost Qi soared to the heavens, and a putrid stench oozed from the gaps of the stone bricks on the ground.

Just at this moment...

Then everyone saw that below the red lanterns, a figure appeared at some unknown time.

A woman!

Her figure was tall and enchanting, with a silk nightgown hanging loosely over her shoulders, revealing a large expanse of fair, plump snowy whiteness on her chest, as well as her slender legs...