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Chapter 74 - Escaping from Burial Grounds (V)

Editor: Kitty

It was a duel that involved magic and not just a simple duel.

Feng YuLan understood this even faster than Duan Li because he had taken on the main role in this duel. When he stood on the battlefield between reality and hell, the world was black and white, the laws were all reversed, and all the rules that should have been obeyed were smashed.

But in the very beginning, the surroundings were pitch black.

At first, Feng YuLan felt like he was in a patch of dense forest that was extremely dark. He looked up and could barely see the sky. Far away, there were two white lights in the gaps between the branches and leaves. It was unclear whether it was sunlight or moonlight; the light was so pale that it felt lifeless.

All around him were trees with huge and strong trunks, dry leaves that blanketed on the ground, and soil on the ground that he felt was slightly soft when he stepped on it. In the distance, there seemed to be the sound of running water, wind, and insects. Within the quiet of the night, a trace of horror could be felt.

When it was very quiet, Feng YuLan heard a crow’s cry. It had a monotonous tone.

“Monochrome world.” While Feng YuLan was puzzled by the environment he was in, someone suddenly spoke. He turned around and found that there was a person standing beside him. However, Feng YuLan previously did not see that a person was standing beside him. Thus, this naturally surprised him.

“Who are you?” It was too dark in the forest. Even as Ah Lan tried hard to adapt, all he could see with his naked eyes was black, white, and grey. He could only see the black outline of the people near him. It was as if colours had been extracted from everything around him and the entire world had really become a monochromatic world.

“I am you,” the man answered Ah Lan’s question with hints of a laugh in his tone. The voice sounded familiar.

The other party’s answer sounded funny, but magically, Ah Lan did not doubt it. He found that he didn’t think his answers were dubious or suspicious! He even nodded and said without hesitation, “You are me.”

The other party merely smiled.

Ah Lan frowned and thought, then said, “Since you are me, what should I call you?”

“You can think of me as your shadow, so call me Shadow,” Shadow said to Ah Lan. Then he held out his hand and grasped Ah Lan. Ah Lan only felt that something cold was attached to his wrist, which made him shiver uncontrollably.

“Well...... Shadow...” Ah Lan asked as he shivered: “Do you know where this is?”

Compared to the tomb located deep underground, this patch of forest was slightly brighter, but the lighting here was too pale and cold. It did not give out any feelings of warmth. It was wet and cold here, and Ah Lan felt that this patch of forest was even scarier than the tomb.

“This is limbo.” Towards Ah Lan’s doubts, Shadow answered him sincerely, but instead, Feng YuLan felt even more confused and frowned: “Limbo? What is that? “

“The edge of hell.” Shadow pressed Ah Lan’s wrist, and his tone became gentler: “Aren’t you an English major graduate? What we should know is that this word can refer to a prison, and it also has the meaning of hell. Theologically, it refers to the location of those souls who are too transient and thus are unable to enter the real hell where souls belong, which is also called the edge of hell.”

“Alright, I know that, but what I don’t understand is...... Why am I here?” The words of Shadow made Ah Lan confused. He scratched his head and said, “I should be in the tomb. How did I appear in the forest? What’s more, you say that this is the edge of hell, so do you mean that I’ve half stepped into hell and I’m going to die?”

“Of course not. You’re not dead.”

“Then why am I here?”

“Because your soul has been driven out.” Shadow smiled and looked very optimistic regardless of the mood of the listener. Feng YuLan had an expression that showed he was on the verge of breaking down. He pointed to his nose and said, “My...... My soul? Was driven out?”

“Yes. It seems that your soul has been driven out by the stalker’s skill. That is, your soul is currently ‘homeless’! And because...... all burial grounds are the best entrances to hell from the human realm, but you are alive and could not be sent to hell, so you arrived at the border of reality and primal chaos—the edge of hell.”

The Shadow’s explanation made Feng YuLan feel a little cold inside. He murmured, “Mommy, I just died and came back to life, and after coming back to life, I’m going to die again. Exactly how much suffering will I have to go through before this ends?”

“Don’t worry. It might be a good thing,” Shadow said. He patted Ah Lan’s shoulder to comfort him: “Now that you are here, it’s time to shape how your ability develops in the future.”

“What do you mean?”

“Haven’t you noticed?” Shadow said, “The range of magic spells you use is too varied. They can be used as buffs or there are spells where you can act as a wet nurse. Sometimes, you can also cast one-time explosive spells. Learning that many spells of different ranges will obviously affect your progress, so if you want to be strong, you have to abandon what you don’t need and specialize in one type to step onto the right track.”

Feng YuLan listened to Shadow, thought what he said was very reasonable, nodded, and said, “So what should I do?”

“You simply need to think about what you want to specialize in. Do you want to be a mage with powerful attacks and explosive power that can kill enemies instantly and HOLD the whole battlefield? Or stand in the back of the team silently, always taking up the duty of protecting your teammates? As long as you have decided on this, the road you walk on will naturally be smooth.”

“This...” Feng YuLan was obviously unable to make such a critical decision instantaneously. He shook his head and said to Shadow, “Right now, I’m not able to clearly think about it, and...... shouldn’t we think about how to get out of this place right now? ”

“You want to go out?”

“Of course.”

“First of all, I can tell you that there are only two exits to this place: one to reality and one to hell. We don’t know which direction leads to which, so we are unable to move forward. If we head in the wrong direction, we will end up in a state from which we will never be able to return. It’s better to stay here obediently and let your teammates outside try to kill the stalker. As long as the spellcaster dies, your body will naturally call out to your soul, and you would be able to return easily.”

Feng YuLan shook his head: “But are we waiting for our deaths here? If Duan Li can’t kill the stalker, am I really going to hell?”

Feng YuLan refused to compromise. The dark forest constantly made him feel uneasy. If he remained in place, he felt his whole body become cold. Therefore, Ah Lan began to walk around aimlessly with Shadow. However, his line of sight was constrained since the trees and other things were all colored in black, grey, and white. Occasionally, as he was walking on the rough grass patches that had grasses as sharp as a knife’s edge, there would be a half-rotten corpse filled with maggots beneath his feet that he stepped on. Flies flocked around the corpse. The abominable scene looked like it came straight out of a horror anime.

This time, Feng YuLan finally believed that this place may really be the ‘edge of hell’ as Shadow had said because it was strange that there was the buzzing of the insects but no chirping of birds...... No, he could hear one or two crows croak occasionally, and it was as if there was a regularity in the crows’ croaking. This felt extremely strange.

This was not all. Although one could see light in the forest, one could not distinguish day from night. All the objects in sight were indistinct. It seemed like a scene one would see in a dream, yet it appeared so real that it was terrifying.

After walking silently for a while, Feng YuLan only heard his footsteps and turned back to look at Shadow. He felt as if Shadow was floating and not standing on the ground. Then, they walked for a long time. Actually, Ah Lan completely did not feel the passage of time. He felt that in this strange forest, his sense of time seemed to be weakened to the minimum. No matter how long they walked, it seemed to him that only a brief moment had passed.

He heard the crow’s cry again, but after Ah Lan looked left and right, he was surprised that he could not even see the crow’s shadow.

On the other hand, there were several corpses hanging on trees. There was a strange, white silk thread that appeared like a spider’s that had wrapped around the corpse. Layers and layers entwined around it until it looked like a huge cocoon. After Feng YuLan raised his head and took a few glances, he felt his back turn cold. Shaking his head, he absentmindedly walked forward.

After a while, Ah Lan saw a black figure sitting under a huge tree. He came closer to him to take a look. It was actually a middle-aged man who was handcuffed, had his feet shackled, and wore ragged clothes. However, because of the dark surroundings, he could not clearly see the middle-aged man’s face.

Ah Lan asked him, Who are you? Even after asking for a long time, Ah Lan did not get an answer. The man absentmindedly sat there and remained motionless.

Shadow suddenly said, “It’s probably the soul of a funeral accompaniment who was buried in the tomb. I don’t know why he was not sent to heaven or hell, but in the end, he was shackled here.”

Ah Lan used a strange expression to glance at Shadow: “How do you know that?”

“After your soul was driven out, you were sent directly to this patch of forest. It can be seen that the edge of hell is connected to that tomb. Let’s look around. Maybe the secret chamber has left some clues here.”

“Do you realize that the edge of hell can also be seen as a secret chamber?”

“A secret chamber within a secret chamber.” Shadow held out a finger and said with a smile, “It’s just like a game. When you were sweeping the field, you unlocked a hidden quest. Now, you can say that this place is within the hidden quest!”

Hidden quest? Feng YuLan seemed to be somewhat enlightened. He simply stopped asking about the middle-aged man in front of him. He reached his hand out and touched the man’s pocket. The middle-aged man was wearing a ragged and old suit with a pocket on his pants. Feng YuLan found a calligraphy brush that had lost all its hair and a compact-sized book. He opened the book and found that the book was filled with words that Ah Lan could not decipher.

“Can you read ancient scriptures?” Ah Lan asked Shadow, who was beside him. Shadow shook his head and said, “I can’t read the words, but there are pictures in it.”

“Let me see what’s drawn...... Well, it’s a wolf that had a ghost head.” Feng YuLan’s face turned a little black: “It’s this again. I saw this in the six tomb vaults that we were circling around. What exactly does the ghost-headed, wolf-bodied person represent?”

“Obviously, it represents the ‘ghost.’”

“But the note that the secret chamber gave us said that the people believed in a god, so why the hell would they draw so many pictures of a ‘ghost’? It seems more like they were building a tomb for the ghost,” Feng YuLan said while flipping through the small book in his hand. In the process of turning through the pages, a piece of paper fell out from the compact-sized book.

Feng YuLan was stunned for a moment. He picked up the paper and found it was the usual piece of paper printed with purple patterns that the secret chamber used!

And what was amazing was that the surroundings were clearly monochromic. Even the leaves and grass that should have been green were in shades of black and white. However, only this printed paper had colour. The purple print on it clearly displayed a beautiful color under the pale and cold light.

The note read:

[Dear adventurer:]

[Welcome to the secret chamber within the secret chamber, the hidden secret chamber—the edge of hell.]

[Surely, you already know that this is a forest that you are unable to walk out of. This is the boundary between life and death. All lost souls wander here. There are only two exits. One leads you back to your teammates and the other towards the embrace of the god of death. Unfortunately, if you see this note, it means that you do not have much time left. You have about two hours, during which you have to escape from the forest.]

[But I would like to solemnly inform you that there is no tool to tell time in this patch of forest. If you cannot escape from the forest within this limited time given to you, I’m afraid that by then, the gates of hell will definitely have its doors wide open for you.]

[Hint: Pay heed to things that act regularly.]

[With that, good luck.]

Feng YuLan bit his lips and turned the note over. On the back of the note, the contents were as written:

[The souls that were buried alive are not willing to reincarnate, and they remain in the blurred boundary between life and death. In order to break up the hundred-year dispute between the ghost that is being hated and the god that is being yearned for, the people have decided to bury them underground together for the sake of mutual containment to achieve eternal life!]

Feng YuLan did not even blink as he read the entire paragraph. He paused momentarily, seemingly a little shocked. He said, “Could it be that this underground tomb...... is a...... joint tomb...... for a ghost and a god?”