Chapter 8

Yang Jian quickened his pace and continued to move forward in the darkness.

"Thud, thud~!"

But the clear footsteps behind him still followed at a steady pace.

No matter how fast Yang Jian sped up, he could not shake off those footsteps. As time passed, the footsteps grew closer and closer.

At first, the footsteps were about five to six meters behind him.

But then, the footsteps seemed to be about three meters behind him.

As he continued to move forward, the footsteps were almost just one meter behind him.

Yang Jian clutched his phone tightly, not daring to let the screen go dark, as he was always ready to open the audio file.

If that ghost really attacked him again,

The knocking sound from the audio file was his only means of survival.

His whole body was tense, ready to repel the ghost at any moment.

However, things did not go as Yang Jian had expected. The footsteps always stayed about one meter behind him, neither leaving nor getting any closer.

And no matter whether Yang Jian sped up or slowed down, the footsteps always maintained this subtle distance.

"Could that thing be waiting for my phone to run out of battery?"

Suddenly, Yang Jian's face changed. Looking at the phone, which had less than 10% battery left, he felt increasingly uneasy.

If that were the case, he would die at the hands of that ghost sooner or later.

There was no way he could survive and leave this place.

Looking at the phone screen, the battery was now at 7%.

"Below 5%, it could shut down at any moment."

Yang Jian now regretted playing with his phone carelessly during the day, which drained the battery.

"But now is not the time to think about that. If I don't want to die here, I have to run out of this place before my phone runs out of battery, or else..."

With a determined bite of his lip, he started running.

He ran as fast as he could in the direction of the dripping water sound.

"Thud, thud thud~!"

The footsteps behind him followed closely, refusing to be shaken off.

Yang Jian could even feel the cold, chilling air and the faint smell of decay coming from behind.

The ghost was like a shadow, relentlessly pursuing him.

As he ran at full speed, the dripping water sound grew closer and closer.

But at that moment, the phone screen automatically lit up.

Battery: 5%.

The message on the screen read: "To prevent the phone from shutting down automatically, please charge it promptly."

"Damn it."

Yang Jian panted, drenched in sweat, and his heart grew more and more anxious.

Despite being very tired, he dared not stop.

Stopping meant certain death.

He continued to run with all his might.

Suddenly, a faint light appeared in the darkness ahead.

This light was a pale red, standing out clearly in the darkness, like a spark in the night, though weak, it was particularly noticeable.

"That is..."

Yang Jian's eyes lit up, and his heart filled with joy, as if he had seen a glimmer of hope for survival.

However, at that moment, his phone vibrated, and the screen lit up again.

The message on the screen read: "Shutting down automatically."

Although there was still a bit of battery left, the phone had already started to shut down.

But just as the phone screen went completely dark,

Yang Jian felt a cold, chilling aura envelop him from behind, and the footsteps quickly approached... that thing, which had been one meter away, suddenly came right up to him.

Right behind him.

Although he couldn't see in the darkness, he could feel a cold, pale hand reaching out, passing by his ear, and grabbing for his neck.

No matter how he ran, he couldn't shake off this hand.

"Am I going to die here..." Yang Jian could already feel the cold fingers touching the skin on his neck.

A chill like ice spread through his body, causing goosebumps.

A faint smell of decay filled his nostrils.

There was no way out.

The red light in the darkness became even more noticeable.

Suddenly, the footsteps behind him stopped and instantly disappeared. The cold hand that had just touched his neck suddenly froze, not strangling him.

After running a few more steps, Yang Jian felt the thing behind him pull away.

It seemed that the ghost had stopped pursuing him.

"What just happened..."

After running a bit further, Yang Jian was too exhausted to continue. He stopped, panting heavily, drenched in cold sweat, still in shock.

Recalling the terrifying moment,

He was certain that his survival was not due to luck, but because the ghost had given up on pursuing him. But why?

He listened carefully.

The footsteps that had been following him no longer appeared.

He seemed to be temporarily safe.

"Let's not worry about it. Since that thing hasn't come after me, it means I'm safe for now. No matter what, I need to leave this place as quickly as possible." Yang Jian caught his breath, looked up at the position of the red light, and walked over.

Soon, he reached the source of the red light.

"Light bulb? Glass bead?" Yang Jian was puzzled; in the darkness, he couldn't see clearly what it was.

He tried to touch the source of the red light.

"Ah~!"

Instantly, Yang Jian felt a sharp pain and quickly pulled back his hand.

"This isn't a light."

What terrified him was that the red glass ball stuck to his hand and began to wriggle wildly, drilling a hole and burrowing into his hand.

Cold and pain instantly enveloped his entire body.

Yang Jian fell to the ground, the pain causing his body to convulse, as if his muscles were being torn and his soul crushed.

But amidst the pain, Yang Jian noticed a change in his surroundings.

The darkness around him began to rapidly recede.

He could see clearly...

Everything around him was clear.

It was as if he suddenly had night vision.

The pain came quickly and went just as fast.

After struggling for less than three minutes, Yang Jian felt the pain begin to ebb like a tide.

He lay on the ground, nearly exhausted, panting heavily, and his muscles still twitching from the pain.

"What's going on?"

After a while, Yang Jian, who had narrowly escaped death, struggled to sit up.

But when he saw everything around him clearly, his eyes widened in shock.

In front of him was a tree.

A pale, bone-like tree.

The tree was hung with tattered human skin, dirty rags, and desiccated heads, as well as strange paper banners... But what terrified him even more was the figure lying on the trunk of the tree, which was about four meters tall.

No, it wasn't a person.

It was a shadow, a shadow with a human-like outline, seemingly formed from condensed darkness.

This tall, dark shadow was motionless, hanging upside down on the tree, head down.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that a thick iron nail, like those used in coffins, was nailed into the shadow's chest. The coffin nail, which had been nailed to the tree for who knows how many years, was rusted and seemed about to break.

"Drip, drip~!"

Black blood was flowing from where the shadow was nailed.

The dripping sound he had heard on his way here was actually this.

But when Yang Jian saw the head of the large dark shadow, he felt a chill run down his spine.

The head of the dark shadow had no facial features, only a hollow, which seemed to be the position of its eyes. The red light he had seen earlier seemed to be its eyeball.

Yang Jian looked at his hand.

"Gulp~!"

The torn flesh was stretched open, and a red eyeball appeared, turning a few times. At the same time, a strange perspective appeared in his mind.

It was as if a real eye had grown on his hand, and the image from this eye could be transmitted to his mind.

It was eerie, bizarre, or perhaps an unknown ability.

But as Yang Jian looked at the strange bone tree, the human skin, the desiccated heads, and the large dark shadow nailed to the trunk,

"This place is very strange. No matter what this tree is, it's best to leave as soon as possible."

He vaguely felt that the large dark shadow nailed to the tree was even more terrifying than the old man.

Moreover, he sensed that the hollow eyes of the desiccated heads hanging on the tree seemed to be watching him in the dark, giving him a chilling feeling.

He looked at the red eyeball on his hand, and a sense of gloom enveloped his heart, refusing to dissipate.

But now was not the time to worry about this.

The darkness around him seemed to have faded, and Yang Jian could clearly see everything around him.

It was a dim, endless space, empty except for the bone tree.

It seemed like another world, not the school he knew.

But when he looked back, he could see a door in the direction he had come from, which was... the bathroom door.

It turned out that the door was so close, and he hadn't noticed it before.