Nightmare Light

Chapter 69: The Man in the Withered Forest
It was only at this time that Lin Wang breathed a sigh of relief. After relaxing his mind, he observed the surrounding environment.

All around was a dark and muddy area with hundreds of tombstones lying crooked and broken, some even stuck upside down in the soil, revealing their stone bases.

The land was rotten, mist and gray smoke were rising, and some tombstones were tilted and broken. Not far from the soldiers, there was an intact tombstone, on which lay a faded paper man, with shiny black eyes, and tilted head looking in the direction of the crowd.

The paper figure was wrinkled, faded and shriveled. It was obviously not a "living thing" like a paper bride, but just a memorial item.

Suddenly, a few pitch-black crows flapped their wings and flew into the sky. One of them was extremely fat. It flew a short distance before landing on a dead tree. It made a few strange cries and went back to preening its feathers.

"Meow, if you had let go just now, you would have been buried here!" The cat girl got on all fours, rubbed her face on Lin Wang's arm, turned her head and said to Lao Qiao, and suddenly became thoughtful midway, "That crow is so fat... Is there a lot of rats in this cemetery?"

Old Joe's face turned pale, and he didn't know whether he was frightened by "buried here" or "the crow is fat". He shuddered, put on a serious expression, and asked the Mist Tribe member: "Mist Tribe member, you just said that you can help us. How exactly do you help us?"

Playing around aside, everyone was still very clear about the destination of this trip - to find the village of the Mist People.

"Since I've decided to help you... from now on, you should address me by my name." The Mist Tribe member said in a deep voice, looking around at the people around him, and slowly raised his hands to clasp his fists.

"Gu Shuchuan."

After greeting everyone, Gu Shuochuan said, "Ever since I passed through the hole and came to this world, I can feel the presence of my people, but..."

He looked a little confused. "It's just that it felt strange. Very strange."

Lin Wang asked him, "How is it so strange?"

"That feeling is like... like..." The mist-tribe man's face was covered with mist and he looked confused. After struggling for more than ten seconds, he shook his head.

"Normally, my people can sense each other's vitality."

Gu Shuochuan gestured with his hands, trying to make his description more accurate. "If the tribesman across from me is happy, you can feel his aura strengthen. Similarly, if a tribesman is sad, hurt, or afraid... I can sense it too."

"But now, the auras of those tribesmen on the opposite side are always steady, without any fluctuations."

"It's like tying the aura of my people to a bunch of puppets."

His words sent a chill down the spines of the Light Chasers.

Lin Wang also frowned.

Why does this phenomenon occur?
If these people were still alive, why was their aura so calm? If they were dead...

Then there should be no breath!
Lin Wang shook his head, threw the thought out of his mind, and said to everyone, "Let's go and take a look, and you'll know."

The soldiers stood up one after another. The cat girl squatted beside Lin Wang. Azhi climbed up Lin Wang's trouser leg, but was caught by Lin Wang from the head and placed on his shoulders.

Gu Shuochuan pointed in a direction: "The breath comes from that side."

In the direction of his finger, the dark hills twisted and undulated, almost completely connected to the equally dark sky. Only in the dividing area was the outline of the skylight, allowing people to distinguish between the sky and the ground.

"This place is even more depressing than the fog." A soldier muttered.

"I feel fine." Gu Shuochuan looked around. "I feel like this place is so airy. It makes breathing much easier."

"You've been in the fog for too long!"

"I also feel that this place is depressing, but it's not because of the fog. It's because this place... is lifeless." Old Joe continued, frowning and looking around.

As far as the eye could see, there was no living thing on the entire land. There was only black soil, white stones, dead trees, dry grass, rotten mud and walls. Except for the few crows from before, the world seemed to be completely dead.

Of course, this is not the first time they have entered this world, but in everyone's cognition, this is the first time they have entered this world "awake", and the feelings in their hearts are naturally different.

"Hurry up and move forward. Let's find those villagers as soon as possible. This place... is hidden!" Lin Wang suddenly shouted before he finished his sentence.

The soldiers all squatted down. One soldier who was closer to Lin Wang came over and looked ahead, and asked him in a low voice: "Brother Lin, what did you see?"

"There are people over there." Lin Wang pointed to the eleven o'clock direction, between a low hill and a dead tree forest.

"How can you see so far?" Old Joe muttered, making a shelter with his fat hands, staring with wide eyes, looking in the direction of his finger.

After a closer look, everyone noticed something: there were indeed people moving around in that dead forest, and there was more than one person.

There were about a dozen people gathered in a group in the dead woods, busy with something unknown. "What are they doing?" Old Joe asked.

"Captain Qiao, it's too far away and we can't see clearly." "I can't see clearly either." Several soldiers shook their heads.

"They're cooking," Lin Wang said. "They might be afraid the fire might attract something, so they dug a hole in the ground and had several people surrounding the fire with things..."

"You can even see this clearly?" The soldiers were shocked. "Are the eyesight of the people from the North so bad?"

Old Joe thought for a moment and formulated a simple battle plan: "We'll split into two teams, sneaking over to the left and right sides and observing closely! The specific actions will depend on my signal."

He dared to make such a plan because he had enough confidence in the Light Chasers' warriors - these soldiers were all top elites, and although they had suffered some setbacks before, that was because they were facing unknown and strange phenomena.

If the opponent is human, the Light Chasers are confident that they can defeat an enemy five times their number.

Old Qiao assigned the tasks: he would lead a few soldiers to attack from the left, and an experienced soldier would lead Lin Wang and his three companions to encircle from the right.

After making a plan, everyone headed towards the woods.

They were wearing paper bride bracelets, which already suppressed their aura to a very low level, and they deliberately leaned against the mound to block the view.

They reached the edge of the woods, but no one inside noticed them.

Old Joe hid behind a rock and looked into the woods.

In the dead woods, more than a dozen lay teachers, both male and female, with various oil paints carved on their faces, were standing in front of the fire pit, holding huge black felt in their hands.

"It's just as Lin Wang said... That guy's got some good eyesight..." Old Qiao muttered to himself, then thought, "These guys are obviously just ordinary masters. Although I can deal with them, they have more people after all. I have to come up with a safe strategy..."

Then, he saw that on the opposite side of the woods, the tall northerner suddenly stood up and walked towards the woods with a swagger.

"Fuck! Why is this guy so reckless? The other side has more people than us, and he'll suffer if he's so reckless!" Old Qiao was immediately shocked and cursed inwardly, "Didn't I send Xiao Zhao to follow him? Why didn't that guy stop him?"

Looking again, he found Xiao Zhao following behind Lin Wang, his face full of anxiety and helplessness.

understood.

I tried to stop it, but I couldn't stop it.

"The northerners are so reckless... Let's find a way to save them." Old Qiao quickly made some tactical gestures. "Brothers, when I give the order, we'll rush in and save them first!"

"Uh... Boss, who should we save?" a soldier asked weakly.

"Who are you saving? Save our own people! Save Lin Wang!" Old Qiao was furious and growled at the soldier, "You silly kid!"

"But, Boss, I feel like Brother Lin doesn't need anyone to save him. Instead, it's the other party..."

The soldier pointed forward.

Old Joe was stunned and then turned his head.

Not far away, as Lin Wang strode out, the group of people in the woods responded immediately.

But the way they responded was far beyond Joe's expectations.

The group of people suddenly threw away the felt cloth and rushed towards Lin Wang, and then...

They held their heads in their hands and squatted down not far in front of Lin Wang.

The leader was a burly man with a full beard. He rushed to the front, squatting but with his arms outstretched, like an old hen, blocking the brothers behind him.

At the same time, he shouted at Lin Wang:
"Brother! We surrender! Surrender! Don't kill us!"

Old Qiao looked shocked and confused: "What...what's going on?"

Then, another thing happened that confused him even more.

He heard Lin Wang's puzzled voice from the other side: "Huh?"

(End of this chapter)