Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 273: Deciphering

Chapter 273: Chapter 273: Deciphering

No one expected that Ou Zheng would be so bold.

Things took an unexpected turn. His small knife surprisingly plunged smoothly into an arm, and then a large amount of liquid gushed out from the arm.

The liquid carried a nauseating smell of blood, yet it wasn’t regular blood. Black, white, red, yellow, purple, green, blue, gray—all sorts of mixed colors sprayed out from the wound, instantly drenching Ou Zheng into a "bloody" person.

However, before Ou Zheng could get excited, the arm suddenly twisted bizarrely, grabbing Ou Zheng’s wrist in a reverse joint posture that humans couldn’t achieve!

Then... without any visible movement, it merely squeezed gently, and Ou Zheng’s right hand was directly severed at the wrist!

His wrist was instantly crushed to pieces!

"Ah!!!!"

The pain and terror brought Ou Zheng back to his senses. He fell to the ground, rolling and crawling away from the arm’s attack range.

When he crawled back to Bai Yanliang’s feet, his right hand was completely gone. Blood spurted continuously from the crimson stump, exposing the white bone fragments.

"Save me! Save me!" Ou Zheng, sweating profusely, with a complexion as pale as death, lay on the ground clutching his right wrist, begging everyone with his eyes.

With this amount of blood loss, if he didn’t receive immediate hemostasis, he would easily fall into hypovolemic shock, risking his life.

"Everyone, give me your shoelaces," said Bai Yanliang.

Although they didn’t understand Bai Yanliang’s intention, after what happened in the exhibit hall, Bai Yanliang had begun to establish some trust with the others. As soon as he spoke, Yang Xiaocan and Ruan Jie immediately took off their shoes and removed the laces.

Xu Zhifei was wearing black dress shoes without laces, so she stood still.

However... these few laces would suffice.

Bai Yanliang took the shoelaces and began to treat Ou Zheng deftly.

In this situation, where the hand’s arteries were severed, the only option was to apply pressure bandaging to block the blood supply.

Bai Yanliang tightly bound the artery in Ou Zheng’s arm joint with the shoelaces, and soon, the bleeding was greatly reduced.

Ou Zheng seemed to be numb from the pain. Seeing the bleeding lessen, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking his life was safe.

But Bai Yanliang suddenly spoke: "If it’s tied for too long, your entire arm could die from a lack of blood supply."

Ou Zheng’s face turned pale, and he couldn’t speak.

His expression was filled with despair, and his lips trembled uncontrollably: "We... can’t get out of here at all..."

The despair in his voice quickly spread to Yang Xiaocan and Ruan Jie, and Bai Yanliang made no attempt to comfort them.

He squatted down, ignoring Ou Zheng, and stared absentmindedly at a shoelace he hadn’t used yet.

The shoelace... was quite long.

Xu Zhifei was also lost in thought, but she was staring at the arms on the wall.

Her brows were furrowed, her eyes fixated unblinking on the arm Ou Zheng had pierced.

The arm had stopped "bleeding" and remained lifeless, hanging on the wall.

But Xu Zhifei knew that as soon as something entered the corridor and reached within its attack range, it would immediately "come alive."

Its strength and terror, Ou Zheng had already demonstrated quite well.

However... that arm looked very familiar to Xu Zhifei...

Not just that arm, all the arms in this passage were very familiar.

Identical in length, identical in size.

Just like... the arms in that painting of a woman.

After staring at the wall for a while, Xu Zhifei approached Bai Yanliang.

"I think it’s the person in the painting," Xu Zhifei said seriously, looking at Bai Yanliang.

Bai Yanliang glanced at her unexpectedly. He thought Xu Zhifei had given up on that idea, but unexpectedly, here she was bringing it up again.

The ghost in the painting...

Bai Yanliang had considered it too, mainly because the liquid oozing from the ghost hand Ou Zheng stabbed was utterly bizarre.

Apart from the nauseating stench of blood, it resembled more... like paint.

But even if they knew it was the ghost in the painting, or even if it was indeed the fierce ghost from the painting, how did it help the current situation?

That’s why Bai Yanliang was reluctant to delve into it.

He always felt that whoever set this deadly trap wanted to lead their thoughts toward the ghost in the painting, making them misjudge the situation or waste time and effort thinking about useless things.

Frankly, Bai Yanliang thought the ghost in the painting was just like that mission with Hu Chen, where the clues pointing to insects and disease were misleading, and the ones pointing to glass and mirrors were the real ones.

Xu Zhifei sensed Bai Yanliang’s skepticism and stood up, saying nothing more, retreating to the side.

Bai Yanliang continued experimenting. He had tossed many small objects, but the arms still reacted as swiftly as ever.

However, Xu Zhifei noticed Bai Yanliang muttering to himself: "Left, right, left, left, right..."

Ou Zheng, missing a hand, seemed deflated and silent, lying on the ground staring blankly at the ceiling.

Yang Xiaocan kept her head down. Although she was barely more than a meter away from Ruan Jie, this small distance felt like the ends of the earth.

A pervasive atmosphere of dejection and despair filled the room, only disturbed by Bai Yanliang’s low murmurings and the sound of small objects crushed by the ghost hands.

Until... Bai Yanliang suddenly stood up.

"Alright, let’s go," he said casually, catching everyone off guard. When they processed what he said, they all looked incredulous.

Yang Xiaocan flashed a radiant smile: "Yanren, did you find a way?"

Bai Yanliang didn’t respond to her but looked at Xu Zhifei.

"Throw to the left, and the right wall extends a hand. Throw to the right, and the left wall extends a hand. This is the only flaw and hint."

"Hiss... What do you mean?" Ou Zheng, clutching his wrist, looked at Bai Yanliang in confusion.

"In terms of distance, things on the left should be grabbed by the left arm, but this corridor is the opposite, with the right side extending the left arm, and the left extending the right. This implies a significant overlap in the areas the ghost hands on the walls cover."

They understood what he was saying, but despite comprehending his point, they wondered how this helped them navigate out of the area.

Bai Yanliang was too lazy to explain further. He squatted down, took out an unused shoelace, held one end to the left wall and the other to the right wall, pulling it taut.

The three watched Bai Yanliang in confusion—was he measuring the width of the corridor?

Only Xu Zhifei understood Bai Yanliang’s current move.

He was trying to find the center of the corridor.

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