Lonelytree

  Millman97

  The flashlight was barely able to pierce the darkness around him. With the tugging of the black hair, Chen Ge was slowly being pulled to the thing that looked like a coffin.

  Before jumping into the dam, Chen Ge had no idea the dam would be so deep. He was running out of oxygen, and it showed with the lightness of his head. He moved the flashlight to shine around the coffin. The black ‘water weed’ danced at the bottom of the dam. After diving another two meters, Chen Ge realized that it was not a plant but human hair. It was weaved together into braids, and Chen Ge’s eyelids kept twitching as he observed them.

  Just as this thought floated up in his mind, his body could not help but shiver. The black hair climbed onto Chen Ge’s arm. As he parted the ‘water weed’ away, it revealed a bloated and pale face.

  Her eyes were closed, and she was floating vertically in the water. There was something that was wrapped around her ankle, tying her to the coffin. With a quick glance around, Chen Ge noticed a hole at the bottom of the dam. The coffin was stuck inside the hole and the bodies were floating above the hole. Their hair grew alongside the natural water weed, and they formed a large blurry shadow in the water.

  To enter the hole, one had to pass through the water weed and dead people’s hair. This was the first time that Chen Ge had come across such a creepy scene. Perhaps it was the nervousness that sped up the exhaustion of oxygen because Chen Ge started to feel his lungs constrict.

  Reaching out to push the weed and hair away, Chen Ge swam past the human bodies. The hole was very deep, and the coffin was stuck close to the entrance. Once Chen Ge tried to swim toward the hole, the hair around his arm untangled. Wen Wen’s sister was unable to get close to the coffin.

  Unable to speak, Chen Ge could only gesture with his hands. Thankfully, Xu Yin had worked with him many times in the past, and he soon understood what Chen Ge meant.

  A smear of red appeared in the water like someone had poured blood into it. Xu Yin tried to follow Chen Ge into the hole, but once he approached the hole, a weird gurgle came inside the hole like the monster hiding inside it was slowly awakening. Xu Yin wanted Chen Ge to retreat—he could sense the bad aura hiding inside the hole.

  The water slipped into his ears and his nostrils. Chen Ge was running out of time, and he needed to come to a decision soon.

  All of the ghost refused to get close to the hole, so something seemed to be wrong with it. No matter what it was, this was not good news for Chen Ge, who did not have the support of any ghosts with him. He was used to interacting with ghosts, and the only thing able to apprehend a ghost was a scarier, crueler ghost.

  Chen Ge was not good at diving. With no other option, he pulled on the water weed and dead human hair as support to yank himself closer to the coffin.

  The flashlight given by Zhang Dabo was not made for underwater diving. The light flickered on and off like it could go out at any moment. With the threat of no light and dwindling oxygen, every second that he spent underwater would increase the chance of Chen Ge getting into an accident.

  With his hands on the water weed and dead bodies, Chen Ge finally nudged through the hole. At the same time, he noticed that all of the dead bodies’ legs were shackled by rope, and all the ropes reached into the coffin.

  From the looks of it, it appeared like the dead bodies’ owner was hiding inside the coffin, and it had the say of these dead bodies’ life and death.

  After exhausting two seconds, Chen Ge finally gripped the coffin inside the hole. He adjusted his position and shone the flashlight deeper into the hole.

  The ray of light was unable to penetrate into the darkness, so he was unable to tell.

  Chen Ge intended to suggest that Captain Yan drain the dam, but he knew that the chance of that were not high. Eastern Jiujiang Dam was located upstream, and it was connected to many different branches of big rivers. Unless they could stop the running water at its source, there would not come a day when Eastern Jiujiang Dam would be dry.

  Due to the lack of oxygen, Chen Ge’s mind was wavering. His palm pressed on the coffin, and something sticky touched his palm. It felt very uncomfortable like he had stuck his hand into a vat of glue.

  Chen Ge lifted his hand to see—his palm had turned blood red. It was unclear whether it was a kind of red algae or something else completely. Chen Ge watched closer, and he realized that the red thing on his palm was still moving like it was alive.

  Chen Ge swam to the bottom of the coffin, and due to his experience at the Coffin Village, he was familiar with the construction of a coffin and could lift one open easily. Using the buoyancy of water and his own weight, Chen Ge shook the lid loose, and several seconds later, the closed coffin lid eased open a sliver.

  The lid was nailed onto the coffin—this was an old tradition at Jiujiang city, a practice called Coffin Sealing. This tradition was not often practiced because only those who brought shame upon the family name would get such a treatment.

  Even with all his might, Chen Ge was unable to peel the lid off. When he was desperate, a thick smell of blood smothered his nostril. Xu Yin had entered the hole and grabbed the other end of the lid. He purposely avoided the end of the coffin, like the thing inside made him uncomfortable or even afraid.

  With Xu Yin’s aid, Chen Ge slowly pulled the coffin open, and he shone the flashlight in.

  What he saw was something that he never would have imagined in his life.

  The coffin was filled with a collection of dolls. They did not look like the ones sold on the market, so they were probably hand-made. That was confirmed also by the extremely rough handiwork and the lack of company label. However, each of them was marked with a name.

  Chen Ge trained his full attention on the content inside the coffin.

  With the dwindling of time, Chen Ge could not stop to think, so he reached into the coffin. However, as his hand landed on one of the dolls, the coffin shook, and the ropes that reached into the coffin were pulled taut. He looked up, and the four dead bodies anchored to the four edges of the coffin had all turned to look at him.

  Four dead faces with the hair growing from their scalp weaving together to form something of a net. Chen Ge kept calm. At this point, there was no return. With a grit of his teeth, he yanked the doll out of the coffin. Weirdly enough, a string was pierced through each of the doll’s hearts, connecting them, and by taking one out, Chen Ge pulled the whole collection out with it.

  When he yanked out the dolls, Chen Ge felt his feet going numb like a school of fish just slithered past him. Considering where he was, he instantly felt unsettled. Turning the flashlight around, Chen Ge lowered his head to look, and a group of pale-faced children had gathered around his feet.

  Scanning them with Yin Yang Vision, Chen Ge soon realized that these kids barely counted as baleful Specters—they were lingering spirits hanging onto this world by a thread, and they had possessed the dolls.

  The incident was more serious that he had thought. Chen Ge pulled the children out from the coffin and prepared to swim to the surface.

  Without much hesitation, Chen Ge dislodged the coffin lid from the coffin. Since Xu Yin did not dare to get close to the end of the coffin, there had to something more to the lid. Thus, he decided to carry it back with him for a closer inspection.

  The dead bodies that were tied to the coffin did not stop Chen Ge. If anything, this felt more like a ritual. The deeper secret would only be revealed by exploring deeper into the hole.

  Chen Ge rarely did things that he had no confidence in.

  Under the protection of Xu Yin and the Vat Ghost, Chen Ge grabbed the coffin lid and the rope that strung through the dolls and swam through the black hair and water weed.

  Breaking the surface, Chen Ge took a deep breath. He tossed the dolls and coffin lid onto the boat and used the last vestige of his strength to haul himself on it.

  A slight vibration came from a corner of the boat. Chen Ge moved the clothes aside, and he was greeted by the lit screen of the black phone. A new message had come through.

  “Congratulations, Specters’ Favored, for completing the two-star Trial Mission—Twin Water Ghost! You have successfully unlocked the underwater scary scenario!”