Chapter 96
The snowstorm outside grew more violent. The cold wind, carrying snowflakes, howled and poured in through the cracks in the door, making the old wooden door creak.
Such a discordant sound in the middle of the night cast a shadow over everyone’s heart.
Tang Rui shivered for no reason, staring at the broken stone statue circled in blood. He felt that the bright red color was strangely terrifying, and it looked even more horrifying in the flickering candlelight.
“While the residents are still asleep, shouldn’t we go find my sister first?”
Even if they were all separated, they now had the identity of doctors. The locals would take any outsiders they saw to Qiaose’s house. It made no sense that Tang Ruo and Xu Meng were still missing.
The situation in the instance was not right, and he was a little worried about whether Tang Ruo could handle it on her own.
“Yeah, if they knew the mission, they would definitely go to the clinic. It makes no sense that we haven’t met them yet,” Jiang He followed up, his expression slightly heavy.
Jiang Liu wrapped her coat tighter. She didn’t speak upon hearing this, just scanned the entire empty church, her lips pressed tightly together.
Putting Xu Meng aside for a moment, Tang Ruo was never one to sit and wait for death. Could it be that—she couldn’t move at all?
She looked down at her phone, which still had no signal. The time on the screen already pointed to 2:30 AM. Although this town wasn’t large, it would still take them a whole day to search house by house.
She had planned to rest first and ask the townspeople for information the next day. But before she could speak, a sound suddenly came from the tightly closed main door.
It wasn’t the wind or anything else, but rather sounded like someone knocking.
Jiang Liu’s gaze instantly fixed on the door. The others around her also fell silent, carefully listening in the direction of the sound, their hearts instantly in their throats.
In the middle of the night, who would appear outside the church door in this kind of weather?
The sound only lasted for a moment. The cold wind blew against the wall lamps, and a row of candles was instantly extinguished. The entire church darkened. Amidst everyone’s tension, Jiang Liu silently took two steps forward and tried to ask, “Who is it?”
There was no answer from outside, but soon three more sounds followed. Unlike the previous muffled sound, the crisp sounds indicated that someone was indeed knocking, echoing endlessly in the empty church.
Jiang Liu gripped her dagger and silently approached the back of the door, her body slightly tense, ready to attack. But just then—
The door opened.
It was as if an invisible figure was standing in front of Jiang Liu, opening the main door from the inside. The wind and snow instantly rushed in, and the temperature in the hall dropped another two degrees.
Most of the wall lamps near the main door were instantly blown out. In the flickering light, Jiang Liu squinted her eyes and could vaguely make out a thin figure standing outside the door, a stooped old woman.
She was holding a thick Bible in her hands. She first bowed deeply towards the inside of the door, as if she hadn’t seen Jiang Liu standing guard behind it, and walked straight into the church.
“Who are you?” Zhao Ziming swallowed and boldly shouted at the old woman.
—There was no response.
The old woman seemed completely unaware that there were other people in the church. With a heavy expression, she bowed towards the statue, then walked straight ahead and stopped under the Holy Wall, kneeling piously.
“She doesn’t seem to see us?” Jiang He scratched his head, puzzled by the situation. He subconsciously followed the old woman and tried to touch her. But the moment his finger touched the old woman’s hat, it passed through without any resistance, as if he had touched a mass of air.
Jiang He’s eyes widened. Had he seen a ghost?
Seeing this scene, Jiang Liu put away her knife and strode to the old woman’s side to try and touch her. Her finger passed through just as easily, as if through nothing.
The old woman, unaware of the figures behind her, just knelt piously and quietly at the Holy Wall, muttering something. It sounded like some ancient, difficult-to-pronounce scripture from some unknown country in the world.
Her voice was hoarse and obscure, her intonation extremely strange. She spoke very slowly, as if performing a mysterious and solemn ritual. When it reached the ears of the group, it instantly gave Zhao Ziming goosebumps.
His intuition told him that the scriptures and spells that appeared in this kind of instance were not good things.
Fortunately, the old woman showed no signs of attacking them. He glanced at Jiang Liu, who was fiddling with her phone and not moving, and could only temporarily suppress his unease, anxiously waiting for the end of the spell.
Time seemed to pass for a long time, yet also in an instant. The old woman’s voice gradually lowered, the last few words slow and profound, as if she were repeatedly repeating something.
As the final words fell, the old woman finally looked up and used her sharp fingernails to forcefully carve some words on the wall. From the strokes, it was a language they were familiar with.
She wrote very slowly, with such force that her fingernails were about to break off, but she seemed to feel no pain, continuing to write stroke by stroke.
This time, Jiang Liu finally saw clearly the words she wrote—
“I pray, please grant me a youthful and beautiful appearance.”
Jiang Liu repeated it word for word, a flash of light in her eyes. The more she looked at the old woman’s stooped figure, the more familiar it seemed, just like the girl named Qiya at the clinic.
As the last stroke was completed, the old woman knelt there in a daze, as if relieved, her eyes fixed on a blank space on the wall, as if expecting God’s mercy.
Zhao Ziming and the others also held their breath, wanting to see how the legendary Holy Wall would respond to the old woman’s request.
Several pairs of shining eyes were fixed on the wall. The blank plaster seemed to sense something, and suddenly a black dot appeared in the center, as if something was gathering there, gradually spreading out.
It looked like a painting.
Jiang Liu widened her eyes, trying to see the content clearly. Unexpectedly, a cold wind blew in, and the remaining lights were instantly extinguished. She was suddenly plunged into darkness. Before she could react, she heard Tang Rui scream.
“Am I blind?” he waved his hands in the air, only to hear Jiang He scream right after, “Don’t come over!”
“What is it?” Tang Rui’s heart tightened. He fumbled in the dark and didn’t know what he had grabbed, but he quickly yelled and slapped it.
The terrified screams were endless, completely dispelling the originally somewhat solemn atmosphere. Jiang Liu’s temples throbbed, and it took a great deal of effort to control herself from throwing the two of them out.
She silently turned on her flashlight and shone the light directly at them. “Stop messing around!”
Not far away, Tang Rui’s hands were tightly gripping Jiang He’s left shoulder, and there was a red palm print on the latter’s face.
Seeing clearly who he had hit, a sheepish smile appeared on Tang Rui’s face. He scratched his head embarrassedly and took two steps back. “Uh, sorry about that.”
Jiang He touched his face and hissed, his face dark, unsure whether to hit back or not.
Jiang Liu ignored their nonsense and just frowned at the corner of the wall. “She’s gone.”
Not only was the old woman gone, but even the ink marks on the wall had disappeared without a trace, as if it had just been a trick of her eyes and nothing had ever appeared there.
“She probably wasn’t human, right?” Zhao Ziming corrected, tilting his head to look at the main door and saying uncertainly, “So that was a haunting just now?”
Jiang Liu didn’t speak, just stared at the blank wall with a frown. After a moment, as if she had thought of something, she turned to the others. “Close the door and light the lamps.”
When Zhao Ziming and the others had relit the lamps and returned, they saw that Jiang Liu had actually sat down under the Holy Wall, making a shushing gesture with her finger.
What was she doing?
The group exchanged puzzled glances, but then they saw her take out her phone and tap on some interface. After a moment of static, the old woman’s hoarse and strange voice came from the phone, echoing once again in the church.
A series of question marks popped up over Tang Rui’s head. He stared blankly at the leisurely seated Jiang Liu, for a moment not knowing whether to stop her or not.
Seriously, how could this girl be so bold?
She hadn’t even figured out what the other person was chanting, and she dared to repeat the ritual directly?
When on earth did she take out her phone to record it?
Tang Rui poked Zhao Ziming and asked with his eyes what to do.
The latter shrugged, indicating that he didn’t know either. Instead, he watched Jiang Liu’s actions thoughtfully. If there was even the slightest strange movement, he would also desperately knock Jiang Liu out and run.
But the bizarre scene they had imagined did not appear.
As the spell gradually came to an end, Jiang Liu held her dagger and thought for a moment before raising her hand and carving word by word, “I pray, please tell me my companions’ whereabouts.”
As she finished, the others didn’t even dare to breathe, staring intently at the blank wall—
The ink dot appeared again in the center and spread out at an extremely fast speed. The splashing ink sketched out the appearance of a room. Jiang Liu saw a European-style fireplace, and even the flames in the center were depicted.
Soon, a slender figure appeared in the picture. Judging by the length of the hair, it looked like Tang Ruo. She was sitting by the window, cautiously looking outside. Not far away, Xu Meng was sitting in a chair. The two of them looked safe for the time being.
“Holy crap, this…” Jiang He was stunned by the scene before him, stammering, not knowing how to describe this miracle.
Could it be that this wall was alive?
Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by an anxious-looking Tang Rui.
Tang Rui quickly took a step forward, not caring about the consequences of the ritual, and stared at Tang Ruo in the picture, anxiously calling out, “Sis!”
Of course, the wall couldn’t respond to his words. His mind raced, and a sentence quickly came out, “How do we find them?”
As soon as he finished speaking, another ghostly gust of wind blew open the main door. The newly lit candles were extinguished again. Fortunately, they were prepared this time, but when Zhao Ziming raised his flashlight to shine it over, his heart still sank to the bottom.
Jiang Liu was gone.
Her phone was still on the ground, showing the recording interface, but she had disappeared in an instant, just like the ghostly old woman, without a trace of her existence.
Zhao Ziming’s face turned pale, and his heart sank.
If Sister Yang found out about this, wouldn’t she kill him?