Eternal Night

Chapter 17: Conch's Merit
"not good!"

Wu Xianxiao was about to pull the three people away immediately, but the next second, the sky turned bright, the red light disappeared, and everything around him returned to normal. There were still pedestrians and all kinds of noisy sounds, but there was no longer any of the previous eerie and terrifying feeling.

But the four of them were covered in cold sweats, and for a moment they could not tell the difference between reality and illusion.

After a few seconds, Xu Rongyu screamed, "What was that? What were those just now!?"

Wu Xianxiao didn't say anything, while Yamade and Xu Shilan both had grim expressions. Then the Chirp on his shoulder suddenly flew up, circled around, and then flew towards the city gate.

Wu Xianxiao said, "This is not the place to talk. Let's go out of the city!"

The three of them were now at a loss, so they naturally followed Wu Xianxiao's advice and followed him, walking quickly out of the city.

It was not until the four of them left the city that the omnipresent sense of being watched and the terrifying coldness disappeared. Only then did Jiujiu fly down from the sky and continue to stay on Wu Xianxiao's shoulder.

During the previous meal, Jiujiu also ate a lot of peanuts and the shredded meat torn off by Wu Xianxiao. At this time, it showed its magical powers and led the four people out of the city.

The three of them calmed down a bit and looked at Jiujiu. Even Xu Rongyu made a sound of "tsk tsk" and said, "This bird is so magical. It actually knew that the strangeness would disappear after leaving the city. It seems that there must be a big demon in Xuanhua City."

Wu Xianxiao reached out and gently touched the bird's feathers and said, "This bird comes from the world of baseline reality 0.7, so it is naturally different. But you are wrong. It's not the Xuanhua Prefecture that has a problem, but all the people have a problem!"

Xu Rongyu didn't understand, but Yamade and Xu Shilan did. Xu Shilan immediately said, "Is it a nightmare? All life could become its carrier?"

Wu Xianxiao shook his head and said, "It's not clear yet, but when we got to a place with few passers-by, we didn't have the eerie feeling we had before. Obviously, it must have something to do with the large number of people. Regardless of whether it is or not, we have to avoid the crowds from now on!"

At this moment, a group of horsemen passed by the four people and went towards the provincial capital from the official road. As the horsemen approached, the four people indeed felt that eerie feeling of being spied on again, and as the horsemen moved away, the feeling disappeared again.

At this point, everyone no longer had any doubts and hurried away from the city.

After walking for at least two hours, they finally stopped outside a forest on the side of the road. Looking at a post station not far away, Xu Rongyu asked, "Master, is there really something weird in this world?"

Wu Xianxiao was speechless. The tone and content of the words sounded just like the wealthy people in some Hong Kong movies questioning those swindlers.

Wu Xianxiao said seriously: "The fact is that those things really exist, but they are just lurking on weekdays. Of course, it may also be our problem. After all, we are different from you."

Yamade and Xu Shilan were both in deep thought at this time, and Yamade said, "How are the defenses of these things? Can they resist missiles? What about plasma weapons? What about supermagnetic weapons?"

Wu Xianxiao was speechless for a few seconds before he said, "No, where are you going to find these weapons?"

Yamade said seriously: "I know some simple weapon assembly skills, but they require steel, parts, and energy sources. If that doesn't work, I can do something simpler. I'm also good at mechanisms, traps, and long-range cold weapon modification. At the same time, I also have experience in positional warfare, defensive warfare, and weapon platform modification."

Wu Xianxiao remained speechless, but he began to think seriously in his heart.

At this time, Xu Shilan asked, "Didn't they say that the first five days were the safe period? Why did we encounter a nightmare so soon?"

Wu Xianxiao replied, "It's not a safe period, but it's hard for the nightmare to sense our exact location in the first five days. The main brain probably protects and interferes with our location to some extent, unless we are face to face... and we just happened to be face to face with a nightmare."

Xu Rongyu aside, the other two were puzzled. They asked, "When did you come face to face with Nightmare?"

Wu Xianxiao said with a gloomy face, "Didn't those red-dressed women from the Red Lantern Festival perform a ritual with talismans? At that time, I saw a human-shaped shadow looming, but it was quickly dispelled. I didn't think much of it at the time. Now that I think about it, that shadow was probably a nightmare, at least one of the nightmares, and we were discovered."

Yamadea and Xu Shilan then remembered a detail.

They didn't see the paper man before, it was only after Wu Xianxiao pulled them and touched Wu Xianxiao that they could see it. In other words...

"Second level of inspiration?" Yamade and Xu Shilan asked thoughtfully, almost in unison.

Wu Xianxiao nodded, his face still gloomy and ugly. He said: "And the seniors have reminded me many times, that is... when we see them, they also see us. Now the nightmare has clearly known us, so it will definitely attack in the next few days. I just don't know what level this nightmare is, is it a level one nightmare or a level two nightmare."

Xu Rongyu had been listening to the conversation between the three people. He didn't understand many of the words, but the good thing about Chinese is that you can understand the meaning of the words, so he didn't understand much. He immediately shuddered and said, "No, Master, I'm just a hostage kidnapped by you. Although ten thousand taels of silver is a lot, I'm the only son of my father. He has to pay this money. These monsters are not something my little body can fight against. Master, just treat me as a fart and let me go!"

Wu Xianxiao smiled cheerfully and said, "Just go."

After hearing this, Xu Rongyu didn't dare to take a step forward. It wasn't because he was afraid that Wu Xianxiao would beat him to death with one palm, but he was really afraid of the weird and terrifying thing that happened before.

Not to mention that people of this era are generally superstitious, even in the 21st century when Wu Xianxiao was born and grew up, if someone really saw monsters and demons, they would be scared half to death. This is not a question of courage or not, but as long as human beings are living things, they will feel fear of these non-living things.

Although Xu Rongyu was curious about these things, he had only listened to them for fun in the past. He had killed many people and slept among the dead, so he naturally did not think that there would be any wronged ghosts seeking revenge. But now that he had seen and felt it with his own eyes, it was immediately different. He actually knelt down and kowtowed to Wu Xianxiao three times, then said in a low voice: "Master, please give me a real trust. If I leave now, those things will let me go, right? After all, this thing is coming for you. I, a nobody, am insignificant, right?"

Wu Xianxiao looked at him with pity on his face and said, "I won't hide it from you. To be honest, I'm sorry, but now you are also the target of that thing. How should I put it... You don't think that those things also rely on their eyes to see things, do you?"

Xu Rongyu was stunned.

Even though he didn't understand science, and was influenced by the feudal superstition and ignorance common to that era, he would not think that those magical and strange things were seen with the eyes. There must be some kind of immortal magic, or some terrifying demons and monsters looking for living people.

Wu Xianxiao continued, "When we see them, we are indeed 'seeing', or sensing, so they also 'see' us, but in their field of vision, God knows what we are, perhaps food, or some images, special color markings, and you are standing with us, are you going to bet whether it can distinguish you clearly?"

"Another thing, don't believe what's said in those operas about fairies repaying favors, or about never doing bad things in life, or not being afraid of ghosts knocking on your door at night. They're teaching you to be good people, but if you really encounter a ghost, will you still believe the ghost's nonsense? Then I really admire you."

This was also the reason why Xu Rongyu knelt down and wanted to escape. He really remembered what was said in the operas. However, when he heard this, he remembered the phrase "nonsense" again. He immediately stood there in a daze, his face changing from gloomy to bright.

At this time, Xu Shilan asked: "What should we do next? We need to stay away from human habitation and survive for five days, right?"

Wu Xianxiao thought and said, "We need to stay away from people. Now we need to collect food. Do you see the post station in the distance? Take away as much food as possible, whether by buying or robbing. We can't care about so much now. We need to get as much food as possible. Then we need to find a place with few people and few people coming and going, but not a completely desolate wilderness without any shelter or buildings. We need to conserve our energy and have certain defensive facilities..."

Wu Xianxiao also had a headache when he talked about this.

Because such places are so rare. Wherever there are buildings, there are basically people. Even in abandoned temples in the wilderness, there are many pedestrians staying and traveling there, whether they are merchants or beggars. It is impossible that there are no people.

Suddenly, Wu Xianxiao thought of something and took out a conch from an ordinary cloth bag around his waist.

The three of them looked at him in confusion. Wu Xianxiao suppressed his shame and said, "Magic Conch, where should we go to find a place with complete buildings that can shelter us from the wind and rain, and can be used as a defensive stronghold, and where few people pass by or come? Or is there any way to avoid contact with a large number of people?"

The conch trembled, and a female voice mixed with the waves came out from the conch: "Stay away from the living and stay close to the dead."

Wu Xianxiao almost crushed the conch with his fist. He was so angry that he laughed and said, "Okay, okay, well said. It's better to listen to your words than to listen to your words! I know to stay away from the living, but you want me to get close to the dead, close to the dead... close to the dead!?"

An idea flashed through Wu Xianxiao's mind, and he immediately looked at Xu Rongyu and asked, "What is the place where you pay for the meat tickets you mentioned before?"

Xu Rongyu didn't understand for a moment, he subconsciously said: "The charity cemetery."

Wu Xianxiao laughed and looked towards the post station and said, "Let's go buy food, or grab food, and then..."

"Let's go to the charity cemetery to survive these five days!"

(End of this chapter)