Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 257: Seeing Through

Chapter 257: Chapter 257: Seeing Through

This is not good news.

Those monsters are neither human nor ghost, yet they are surprisingly agile, almost like a new species.

Yu Wenxuan remained silent, his gaze somewhat distant, as he was already planning his escape.

Staying at the village chief’s house was obviously not a good idea; those dense footsteps were headed straight there.

The thing leading them might very well be the baby lying in the yard.

That damn baby is undoubtedly a fierce ghost, that much is certain.

But what’s strange is, why did it turn Village Chief Kang into a recliner and lie on him?

Is it a punishment?

A punishment for Village Chief Kang’s offensive actions?

That possibility can’t be ruled out, but if that’s really the case, then this ghost is surprisingly sentimental.

The more Yu Wenxuan thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

Soon, he was certain that he had missed some crucial information, or perhaps...

His eyes turned to Bai Yanliang.

This man... is hiding something from him.

That’s right.

Yu Wenxuan guessed it right.

Bai Yanliang was indeed hiding something from him. The cause of the village’s abnormality wasn’t any ghost, but a key that appeared in the real world, unconnected to the Fog Gathering.

Its existence intrigued Bai Yanliang, so he chose to keep it a secret.

After all, from Yu Wenxuan’s personality and character, if he knew that the village’s strange source came from a key, and that the key might be on the ghost baby in the yard, he would definitely switch sides.

Bai Yanliang was sure of this; according to factions, Yu Wenxuan should be a lawful evil character. Bai Yanliang didn’t mind cooperating with him but would never trust him without reservation.

"Mr. Bai, are you going to stay here?"

Yu Wenxuan clearly expressed the intention of "I’m slipping away, do as you please."

At this moment, Bai Yanliang slowly opened his eyes, looked at Yu Wenxuan, and asked a question that surprised him.

"Do you think Lu Guo really died from the moonlight?"

This question...

Yu Wenxuan frowned, what did Bai Yanliang mean by this?

He recalled carefully, back then, Lu Guo’s toe was indeed exposed to the moonlight, triggering a mutation. Is there any controversy in that?

Bai Yanliang saw his expression and knew what he was thinking.

"We all overlooked something, when Lu Guo gazed at the ancient well on the little hill, he was also cursed, but there’s been no specific outcome, unlike Miss Xu, who almost immediately suffered the curse’s dreadful effects." Saying this, Bai Yanliang looked at Yu Wenxuan, "I’m wondering, isn’t it possible this was just a coincidence, that the curse triggered exactly when the moonlight touched his toes?"

Yu Wenxuan looked unexpectedly at Bai Yanliang, "You mean, being exposed to moonlight itself would produce no unusual effect? Lu Guo just happened to have the curse show up at that time?"

"Hmm." Bai Yanliang lowered his head, thinking instead about the mastermind behind this mission—Dark Abyss.

This wasn’t a Fog Gathering mission at all but an extermination action against everyone at Fog Gathering.

Why?

Why do they want to eliminate the people of Fog Gathering? And why leave behind Yu Sheng?

Understanding this wasn’t difficult, Bai Yanliang had long ago figured it out.

It was because... they had the same plan as Yu Wenxuan—to accelerate the process of Fog Gathering.

It’s just that their methods were much more intense compared to Yu Wenxuan’s.

Leaving only Yu Sheng alive and eliminating everyone else would mean... the end of Fog Gathering.

The key could only coalesce from the palm of Yu Sheng.

So, they went to great lengths to create a fake Fog Gathering mission, using a key’s capability combined with the strange village setting, to try and wipe out everyone from Fog Gathering.

The rules of this nightmare world were set by them; of course... they also had to adhere to some rules, so everything wasn’t completely unsolvable.

But they could mislead to the utmost, hence there was the phrase "Mountain Moon Hiding, fetch the coffin from the water’s depths" derived from the correct decryption of Fog Gathering. If it were a genuine Fog Gathering task, doing this should be fine, but this was just a trap.

So... it must be done in reverse.

In other words, not only shouldn’t we hide from the moon, we must instead actively expose ourselves to the moonlight!

"Earlier, you mentioned that after you and Jiang Li climbed over the wall, no commotion came from the other side where Lu Guo was, how do you see this?"

Yu Wenxuan had a vague understanding of Bai Yanliang’s intent, he quickly recalled the scene at the time.

"...Exactly, reasonably speaking, when Mrs. Wu, neither human nor ghost, encountered the mutating Lu Guo, there should’ve been conflict, but everything was calm and nothing happened. The only possibility... was that Lu Guo also got exposed to the moonlight, making Mrs. Wu treat him as one of her kind."

"So..." Bai Yanliang pushed the door open, and the moonlight suddenly poured in.

At the same time, what appeared before him were the swarm and multitude of eerie villagers!

Their crimson eyes filled with bloodthirsty brilliance, their twisted limbs sprawled on the ground, and the drooling saliva kept dripping, chilling to the bone.

These monsters... looked at them as if they were food.

Yet Bai Yanliang’s expression remained unchanged, as he stepped into the moonlight, he said, "According to Village Chief Kang, accepting the moon’s bathing is also part of the tradition..."

Yu Wenxuan, along with Xu Zhifei, who was in silence mode, closely followed Bai Yanliang, stepping into the courtyard under the dense, terrifying gazes surrounding them.

Bai Yanliang even squat down with interest, taking a close look at the mutated villager crouched beside his feet, clicking his tongue in wonder.

"Look, don’t they resemble those infected zombies from foreign movies?"

Yu Wenxuan didn’t share his enthusiasm; even though he was certain he wasn’t easily scared, walking among this yard full of anomalies, smelling the nauseating stench, and feeling their breath so close... It wasn’t an easy peace of mind.

Yu Wenxuan had a thought.

Could it be... Bai Yanliang is the real psychopath?

As soon as the thought appeared, he saw Bai Yanliang perform an incredibly terrifying action.

Bai Yanliang walked through a group of eerie villagers, crossing over numerous decaying corpses on the ground, and approached the terrifying ghost baby.

Then... he picked it up.

The ghost baby suddenly opened its eyes, its terrifying black eyes fixated on Bai Yanliang, with bulging veins, like twisted snakes, writhing madly on its head.

The surrounding temperature plummeted by several degrees, making Bai Yanliang shiver.

"Don’t look at me like that." Bai Yanliang held the ghost baby, looking down at it, "Turning the village chief into a chair, creating a massive illusion of decaying corpses, creating terrible scenarios where the sky and earth changed color, but you shouldn’t have summoned this group of villagers neither human nor ghost, because that only means..."

Bai Yanliang chuckled, "You still don’t have the power to harm us, little brother."

Yu Wenxuan also heard Bai Yanliang’s words, for the first time he felt sentiments like "don’t provoke him," "don’t be his enemy" towards Bai Yanliang, but he had to admit, Bai Yanliang was a rather formidable guy.

"Where are you taking it?"

Seeing Bai Yanliang carry the ghost baby, moving past the eerie villagers and almost out of Village Chief Kang’s yard, Yu Wenxuan quickly caught up and asked in a low voice.

Bai Yanliang glanced forward and said, "To take it home."