Frightening Joke: Above the Mist
Chapter 59: Rotten Corpse

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: Rotten Corpse

Cold.

Chilling.

Li Mu could distinctly feel a terribly ominous and malicious presence staring at his back.

But... he couldn’t turn around.

What to do...

What should I do?

Li Mu was certain that among these people, there was definitely a ghost, but... he still didn’t know what the ghost had to do to kill him.

It must fulfill some condition, and that deeply hidden condition was his only way out.

Li Mu knew Huang Yourong was probably already dead.

Right now, he wanted desperately to know what happened to Huang Yourong before he died, if... he could find out, he could deduce the hidden path to escape.

But now, he could only take it one step at a time.

He could only... walk with the ghost.

...

Jixue Village.

While Li Mu was still trapped in the mountain forest at the village’s edge, something happened inside the village.

A dozen people gathered outside a house, and the Old Village Chief was quickly summoned.

Yu Hanzhou, Su Qian, Bai Yanliang, and Lin Yan also rushed to the scene upon hearing the news.

"What’s going on?"

Lin Yan asked first.

"I don’t know." Yu Hanzhou shook his head slightly, glancing at Bai Yanliang and Lin Yan, "We just arrived too."

Lin Yan frowned slightly, her expression a bit uneasy. She looked up at the sky, saying, "It’s almost noon."

Everyone understood what she meant.

They agreed to meet at noon, and by now, everyone should have started returning one after another, but... Li Mu, Huang Yourong, and Yu Sheng were nowhere to be seen.

Hope they... are safe.

The Old Village Chief tapped his cane, and the crowd automatically made way.

Today, his granddaughter did not follow him.

"Cough, cough... open the door."

The Old Village Chief said with a light cough.

Two villagers stepped forward silently and gently pushed open the door.

However, although there were many people present, opening the door still caused a commotion.

"Flap, flap, flap—"

A few black birds flew out the moment the door opened, scaring the villagers moving back.

However... the truly horrifying scene was inside the house.

The roof seemed to be leaking.

Dim light shone on the wet floor, eerie and desolate.

Water droplets flowed down the eaves and then pooled on the ground.

Perhaps due to soaking, the corpse lying on the ground emitted a strong stench.

"Ah!!!"

"Fourth Li! It’s Fourth Li this time!"

"How could this happen... How could this..."

Panic-filled cries rose one after another as Bai Yanliang and the others looked back and forth between the villagers.

It was the first time they’d seen such intense emotions in the strange-looking villagers.

The Old Village Chief’s gaze trembled slightly, but he ultimately forced himself to stay calm, "Stop shouting!"

"No... impossible! I just saw Fourth Li yesterday. How could he be decomposed like this today? Impossible... This is absolutely impossible!" a small, dark-skinned villager exclaimed in fear.

Bai Yanliang gave him a glance and stepped into the house.

Seeing this, Yu Hanzhou and the others followed him inside.

Bai Yanliang crouched down, carefully examining the body in front of him.

The stench reeked from him, and his skin and flesh were utterly decayed.

White maggots had even appeared, crawling over the corpse, in and out of his mouth, nostrils, and eye sockets; there were at least a hundred.

Su Qian couldn’t help but retch twice.

Lin Yan, being a woman as well, fared much better. She forced down her physiological discomfort and crouched down, examining the body carefully.

"From the state of decay, this person’s been dead for a long time, definitely not as that person described. He couldn’t have been alive yesterday."

Lin Yan stated.

"Hmm, the fatal wound should be here." Yu Hanzhou pointed to the heart area of the corpse, where there was an obvious wound, seemingly caused by some sharp object that pierced through the heart, leading to his death.

Bai Yanliang unemotionally cleaned out the decayed flesh and maggots from the heart area, examining it carefully.

He discovered another issue.

Just as he was about to speak, a mysterious sound emanated from beneath the corpse.

The corpse was trembling slightly!

Everyone present was shocked!

"It’s a zombie!"

"Run!"

The villagers’ cries of alarm echoed through the forest, and the Old Village Chief trembled all over, his lips twitching uncontrollably.

At that moment, a sound unexpectedly came from the body’s abdomen.

"Caw—"

"Flap, flap—"

A crow emerged from his clothing, flying out from within his abdomen!

"Get away!"

"Dead bird, get out!"

The crow fluttered above the villagers’ heads for a while before flying off.

Bai Yanliang and Yu Hanzhou simultaneously crouched down, lifting the clothing from the deceased.

Another wound was revealed; his stomach... had been cut open.

Precisely, his skin and flesh were gone, excavated to form a large gaping wound, and most of his organs were either decayed or missing.

That crow seemed to be trying to pull out an intestine before leaving, unable to, now hanging from his ribcage.

Seeing this scene, even Lin Yan could no longer hold back, rushing to the side to expel a few mouthfuls of stomach acid.

Bai Yanliang and Yu Hanzhou exchanged a glance and saw the certainty in each other’s eyes.

Skinning and flesh carving, Sacrificial Blood Heartless...

This hollowed-out stomach precisely confirmed the decryption’s first line.

"It’s her! It must be her! She’s back for revenge!"

A dark-skinned, rough-skinned villager shouted in terror.

"Bang!"

As soon as he finished, he was struck on the head with a cane, leaving him dizzy and barely able to stand.

"Stop spouting nonsense, get lost!"

Yu Hanzhou and the others were taken aback; this was the first time they had seen the Village Chief so angry.

All the villagers cowered, not daring to speak randomly, but Bai Yanliang and his group clearly felt these strange-looking villagers were filled with fear...

"Ladies and gentlemen... I must ask you to leave for now, this is a matter for our village," the Old Village Chief’s murky eyes fell upon them, speaking bluntly.

The four of them did not argue and nodded before leaving.

Just after leaving Fourth Li’s house, Yu Hanzhou stopped, looking at the others, and said, "Something’s off. From the way they were talking, it seems Fourth Li is not the first person in Jixue Village to die recently; someone else died before him."

"Exactly." Lin Yan’s eyes gleamed with astuteness, "Someone was shouting ’this time it’s Fourth Li’, implying there’s a last time and the time before last time."

"But... how exactly did Fourth Li die?" Su Qian’s face was full of questions.

Earlier, when they saw the body, because of the obvious wound on the heart, everyone thought that was the cause of death.

But after lifting the clothing, they discovered his abdominal flesh had been hollowed out, so then... how did he truly die?

"In my view..." Yu Hanzhou adjusted his glasses, frowning slightly, "He was first fatally wounded through the heart and then someone hollowed out his stomach, cutting off the flesh."

Bai Yanliang, hearing this, shook his head.

"No... I don’t think so."

"Oh?" Yu Hanzhou was taken aback, then looked at Bai Yanliang: "Mr. Bai, do you have any thoughts?"

Bai Yanliang lifted his head, pulling away from his thoughts, looked at the three, and slowly said: "He was killed twice."

"Once by a person, and once... by a ghost."