Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 341 Doomed

Almost the instant Yang Yi finished speaking, Jiang Jin's hair stood on end. His hunter's instincts made him act without hesitation, and he instantly drew his Moon Shadow Longsword, slashing towards the back of himself!
Then he felt the blade slice through something cold and invisible!
At the same time, Yu Tianlun reacted extremely quickly, brandishing his peach wood sword and chanting an exorcising incantation, the tip of the sword pointing directly at Jiang Jin's back!

Li Shang formed a strange hand seal, and a sinister black aura emanated from his body. The power of the black magic was ready to be unleashed, attempting to interfere with the terrifying spirit!
However, just a split second before the three launched their attack—

"Clap! Clap! Clap!"

The fluorescent light tubes on the corridor ceiling cracked one after another, plunging the entire corridor into absolute, chilling darkness!

The darkness lasted for less than two seconds.

"Zi la..."

Accompanied by the noise of unstable current, the lights suddenly turned back on, the blinding light causing everyone to squint.

"Huh? Where did they go?!"

Kong Huaizheng was horrified to discover that his teammates who had just been standing next to him—Jiang Jin, Yu Tianlun, Li Shang, Xu Yinqiu, Lian Xuan, Lian De, Gao Gongwei, and even the child Yang Yi—had all disappeared!

The once slightly crowded corridor was now completely empty, with only him left!

A strong sense of isolation and fear instantly overwhelmed me.

"It's alright, it's alright. At worst, I'll just forgo any reward and use the return-to-town rune!"

He felt lucky at the time. As the only reincarnator of the curse class in the team, he was given a return rune that the team leader had extorted from the Blood Lord. He had already bound it and could use it as soon as it was triggered.

At the same time, he recalled the handwritten copy of "One Hundred Solutions to Cursed Curses" that he had been reciting recently. It was the copy that the Nirvana team had opened from the bloody treasure chest of Li Zhen, the curse master of the Shadow Blade team, after killing him in the [Head Balloon] dungeon.

This manuscript contains 108 methods for making talismans, including secret techniques such as the "Copper Coin Soul-Locking Array" and the "Blood Glutinous Rice Evil-Breaking Technique" to combat evil spirits.

"We can't just sit here and wait to die!" Kong Huaizheng gritted his teeth, forcing himself to calm down. He quickly took out two treasured items from his Reincarnator Watch, which he had originally opened from Li Zhen's treasure chest. Yu Tianlun had valued his amazing talent as a sorcerer and bestowed these items upon him.

The first is the Five Emperors' Amulet Nails, a set of five, each made of a special metal. The nails are engraved with the ancient characters "诛" (zhū), "戮" (lù), "禁" (jìn), "镇" (zhèn), and "灭" (miè). When driven into a living creature, they can trigger the corresponding terrible curse. The nails are also wrapped with amulet knots woven from black dog hair and virgin hair, radiating a chilling aura.

Secondly, there is a resentful scarecrow, a rough and simple-looking straw figure, but an excellent medium for carrying curses. As long as the birth date and time of the cursed person are attached, each nail driven in will directly reduce the other party's SAN value by 5%. As for evil spirits, the birth date and time are not required to kill them, making it a vicious spell that can kill without leaving a trace.

He swiftly grasped the scarecrow in his left hand, while his right hand gripped the five cold, venomous nails. His gaze warily swept across the empty corridor, where the light seemed even paler than before.

He was prepared to fight Sadako to the death.

Subconsciously, he glanced at the Reincarnator's Watch on his wrist, and the SAN value reading on it made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave—35%!

Moreover, the numbers are still fluctuating slightly and show a continued downward trend!
“It has already fallen so low…” Kong Huaizheng was sweating profusely.

A SAN value of 35% means he's already halfway into the abyss of madness, deep within the Lost Layer. If it falls below 30%, he'll inevitably be pulled into the Annihilation Layer where Sadako resides—a certain death sentence!

Just as this boundless fear was about to engulf him, the space around him twisted strangely, and Yu Tianlun's figure staggered out, his face as pale as paper, the peach wood sword in his hand dimming.

"Commander!" Kong Huaizheng exclaimed in surprise and delight, "How did you find me? This Lost Layer space is chaotic..."

He then asked in confusion, "Why not send Li Shang? His black magic might..."

Yu Tianlun, breathing heavily, interrupted him, taking out an ancient yin-yang compass from his robes. The compass needle was spinning wildly. This was something he had taken from the treasure chest of Zhu You Lin Ping after killing Shadow Blade!
"There's no time for words! I've used this to temporarily pinpoint your location. Li Shang... he's our last trump card. His black magic comes at too high a price; we can't use it lightly. We must save it for the most critical moment to have any chance of survival!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly raised the Bagua mirror in his hand, pointed it at the empty space in front of the corridor, and rapidly chanted the nine-syllable mantra: "Lin! Bing! Dou! Zhe! Jie! Zhen! Lie! Zai! Qian! Zhu Xie!"

As soon as the words "Exterminate evil" were uttered, the Bagua Mirror instantly burst out with dazzling golden light, and a blurry, distorted shadow wearing a white dress and with long hair was forcibly reflected on the mirror surface!

"Now!" Yu Tianlun roared.

Kong Huaizheng understood, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and aiming at the reflection in the mirror, he used all his apotropaic power to shoot a apotropaic nail engraved with the character "诛" (to kill) fiercely towards the location of the white figure in the void!

The power of curses transformed into invisible nails of curses, piercing through and striking the target directly!
However, the scene of Sadako being injured, as expected, did not occur.

The moment the "Execute" nail was fired, countless twisted, crawling human figures suddenly emerged from the floor of the corridor ahead, like a spring!

They crawled on the ground in all sorts of ergonomically unnatural positions, moving at an astonishing speed, swarming towards Kong Huaizheng and Yu Tianlun! Their faces were indistinct, but they all exuded a strong aura of resentment and death.

"No?!" Kong Huaizheng's pupils shrank sharply. "These are not 'her'! They are evil spirits whose souls were imprisoned and wandering in the Lost Layer after being killed by 'her'!"

They immediately recalled the videotape of people crawling with their bodies contorted!

Sadako uses these wandering evil spirits as substitutes and shields in the Lost Layer!

"This is troublesome!" Yu Tianlun's expression changed drastically. He brandished his peach wood sword, and golden light swept towards the crawling evil spirits. Each strike could temporarily dissipate an evil spirit, but there were simply too many of them. They kept coming one after another, seemingly endless.

Kong Huaizheng didn't care about saving resources and shot out the curse nails like darts. The "Slaughter" nail and the "Forbidden" nail were launched one after another. Each nail entered the body of an evil spirit and made it scream in agony before being annihilated. It was then withdrawn, but this also greatly consumed his SAN value.

After a fierce battle, Kong Huaizheng felt his mental energy was almost completely drained; his SAN value had dropped below 33%, heading towards the critical point of 30%. Yu Tianlun was also panting heavily; the light of the Bagua mirror was growing dimmer, and the cracks on the peach wood sword were increasing.

At this moment...

A cold, slippery sensation unexpectedly wrapped around his neck.

It's hair!
A long, black, wet hair, smelling of well water, tightened precisely and swiftly around his neck, then snapped upwards!

“Uh…ah…” Kong Huaizheng’s eyes bulged out, and the resentful scarecrow and the remaining curse nails fell to the ground!

He frantically tried to grasp at the incredibly tough, ever-tightening lock of hair with both hands, but couldn't budge it an inch.

"Huai Zheng! Use the Return to Town Rune!" Yu Tianlun's eyes were bloodshot as he tried to rush over to help, but more crawling evil spirits entangled him.

Just as Kong Huaizheng was about to completely lose consciousness, he saw... behind those densely packed, crawling evil spirits, at the end of the corridor, in an even deeper darkness...

The figure dressed in white with long hair covering her face stood there quietly, seemingly watching everything indifferently.

Kong Huaizheng felt a powerful mental force attack him, rendering him unable to move his hands and feet and unable to retrieve the return-to-city talisman!

Seeing that there was no hope of rescue, and that Kong Huaizheng's pupils were beginning to dilate, Yu Tianlun let out a mournful roar, cut his palm, and smeared his blood on the already cracked peach wood sword. The sword burst out with a final, dazzling golden-red light, temporarily repelling the surrounding evil spirits!

……

After a long time, when Yu Tianlun reappeared in the corridor of the NHK TV station's material floor, he almost collapsed to his knees and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

When he entered the Lost Layer, Xu Yinqiu cast a healing aura on him, which allowed his SAN value to return to the Material Layer.

At this moment, the peach wood sword in Yu Tianlun's hand had broken into two pieces and lost all its spiritual power. The Bagua mirror was also covered with cracks, and there was even a hole in the center, making it completely unusable.

"Captain!"

Jiang Jin, Xu Yinqiu, and the others hurriedly gathered around.

"Where is Kong Huaizheng?" Lian De asked urgently.

Yu Tianlun raised his head, his face drained of color, his eyes filled with grief and lingering fear, his voice hoarse: "He...didn't come back. We were dragged into the Lost Layer, besieged by a large number of evil spirits, and... 'her' sneak attack. Huai Zheng didn't even...he didn't even have a chance to use up a return rune..."

"what?!"

These words struck like a bolt from the blue, resounding in everyone's hearts!

Return to Town Rune!

This is their biggest advantage in daring to enter this high-risk instance! It's their trump card that allows them to forcibly escape the instance and return to White Plum Hospital when facing dire situations, even if they have to pay a certain price! Theoretically, they have a chance to use it as long as they aren't instantly killed.

And now, Yu Tianlun is telling them that Kong Huaizheng, an experienced sorcerer, died inside without even having a chance to use a return-to-town talisman?!
This means that Sadako's attack may be so fast that it exceeds the limits of reaction, or it may contain some kind of "no escape" rule!

Their biggest trump card has failed?!
An unprecedented sense of terror, like an icy tide, instantly engulfed everyone present.

Having lost their last lifeline, the Return-to-Town Rune, every action they took in this terrifying dungeon truly became a death game on the edge of a knife!
(End of this chapter)