Deep in the Living
Chapter 183 - 177: The Strange Corpse

Chapter 183: Chapter 177: The Strange Corpse

The elderly man in front of the coffin had neither movement nor expression, standing like a corpse, completely different from the bald man they had encountered earlier on the hillside.

Most importantly, there was no menacing aura emanating from the corpse, lying there motionless like an inanimate object.

Since the distance exceeded twenty meters, it seemed to be beyond Hua Yuan’s attack range.

Since the corpse showed no movement or killing intent, Hua Yuan waved her hand.

"Let’s go. if this thing doesn’t follow us, there’s no need to waste time... If it follows, we will deal with it then. There are many coffins in the forest, we don’t need to bother with each one."

"Hmm."

But just as they turned their heads, moving their gaze away from the corpse,

Rustle~

The sound of stepping on leaves immediately transmitted.

Both of them turned their heads back,

It only took a second to move their gaze away last time.

The elderly corpse had already moved more than five meters away from the coffin, eerily, his posture was exactly the same as before, showing no signs of running.

"Hmm?"

Hua Yuan was momentarily intrigued and approached the corpse.

She had seen similar tricks before. Her former sisters had a girl known as "Puppet", who made Geisha Puppets for perimeter monitoring and patrolling at gatherings.

These puppets behaved likewise,

They would remain still when sensing the prey’s gaze, and once the gaze left them, they would start the pursuit, revealing their horrific true form to prey upon the target when reaching a certain distance.

Hua Yuan suspected this corpse had similar attributes.

When she slowly approached in her little leather shoes, the expected scenario of the corpse suddenly revealing its true form and pouncing did not occur.

The corpse just stood there, remaining still.

Even as Hua Yuan stood directly in front of the corpse, it was indifferent, presenting no threat whatsoever.

Hua Yuan also tried to flaunt her beauty, imprinting it into the other party’s brain, but to no effect... The corpse’s brain had long decayed, unable to hold any thoughts.

"Hmm?"

This left Hua Yuan somewhat baffled, not quite understanding the purpose of this corpse.

She still held back from killing it, seemingly finding the investigation of this thing’s purpose more valuable than eliminating it.

Hua Yuan made a rather risky move.

She began to turn around, moving her gaze away, less than a meter from the corpse. Of course, the Spiritual Body surrounding her also covertly provided protection, ready to eradicate any threat posed by the corpse instantly.

As expected, the moment her gaze left,

The corpse moved!

But still no threat.

The corpse only leaned its body closer, its cold body and loincloth pressing against Hua Yuan’s back, with a faint yet strange touch.

This touch stirred some very unpleasant memories for Hua Yuan.

A stress response.

Buzz!

An invisible force completely crushed the corpse behind her, like a compactor.

Hua Yuan also immediately moved away to avoid any gases or parasites that might be released from the dead corpse.

However, still no threat emerged.

The crushed corpse quietly scattered across the forest, the plants bathed in starlight, like saprophytes, began to nibble and absorb the fragments of the corpse.

Within less than ten seconds, everything was cleaned up, even the scent of decay was gone.

However,

As the cleaning process completely ended,

The plants in the forest engaged in a synchronous activity.

Leaves, branches, and flowers all trembled together, their combined sounds forming an ancient, hoarse human voice, a whisper close to death.

≮En’othk uulg’shuul≯

Neither Hua Yuan nor Luo Di could understand this language.

After the whispers ended, everything returned to calm; the forest saw no substantial changes.

For some reason,

Even though there was no evident threat, cold sweat, like earthworms, trickled out of their cold, dry pores, compelling them to look around.

Even Hua Yuan felt uncomfortable, a discomfort towards the unknown, as if something should have happened, yet nothing did.

"Hua Yuan..."

"Hmm."

Luo Di whispered, "If we encounter these kinds of corpses again, try not to kill them if possible. Something feels off."

Normally, if someone spoke to Hua Yuan in such a tone requesting her to "not kill", she would not only kill the current target immediately but also shove the dead into the speaker’s mouth.

Yet now, she simply responded coldly, "Okay."

After observing the forest for another five minutes to ensure everything was normal, Hua Yuan then retreated back to the straight path they had chosen.

When she reached Luo Di’s side, his left hand suddenly reached out.

"Hold my hand."

The command was laced with a bit of seriousness.

A greasy, oily palm wrapped in pigskin stretched over, and when their hands touched, Hua Yuan’s expression did not change. She held on tightly, devoid of any disgust, to avoid being separated by some unknown force.

The two continued walking in a straight line,

And the so-called "straight line" was guided entirely by their instinct, as the changes occurring on the island were clear. Everything, from the trees to the natural stars, could move and mislead. Trusting themselves was the most reliable option.

But walking in a straight line also has a significant problem.

That is, the path is fixed, and along the way they are bound to encounter something.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before more coffins appeared in their view; some were less than five meters apart from the straight path they were walking, some were about thirty meters away.

These coffins were colored differently, each adorned distinctively, and belonged to the elders who had normally died in the villages.

Just like before,

whenever they tried to ignore the coffins and walk straight past,

Thump thump~

The knocking sounds from inside the coffins would start, and the corpses would immediately crawl out. Their appearances unchanged, with only loincloths as their covering and eyeballs dislocated from the sockets, the only difference being their genders.

Once out of sight, these corpses would rapidly close the distance.

"Hua Yuan, you lead the way. I’ll walk backwards and keep an eye on them."

"Hmm."

The two then walked back to back,

As Luo Di watched the group of corpses from behind, indeed they stood there motionless. But in the dark forest environment, visibility only stretched out about thirty meters.

As soon as the corpses moved out of sight, they would immediately chase from the darkness, always maintaining the maximum visible distance, impossible to lose regardless if there was one or more.

As they moved forward, the number of awakened corpses also increased. The dense presence of corpses made their scalps tingle with discomfort.

And this forest seemed to have no exit, with no end in sight.

When the number of following corpses reached thirty, Hua Yuan stopped her steps.

"Since the forest can engulf paths, perhaps it can also shift the ground under us, thus keeping us circling here forever, never able to leave.

The so-called ’game’ mentioned by people definitely includes this forest scenario.

Perhaps it’s impossible to get out simply by walking,

Maybe only by fulfilling certain special conditions can we leave this forest. Mr. Di, care to take a gamble with me? If we win, we earn more time to search for the Monster Avatar; if we lose, you might not be able to meet Isabella again, but instead, be buried here with me."

Luo Di had been pondering all this while, and he shared the same thought as Hua Yuan.

Allowing these corpses to follow behind is not a good thing.

"Let’s get moving."

After saying this, Luo Di turned his head away and no longer gazed at the corpses behind him.

Countless footsteps rapidly approached, and just as they were about to be encircled... Crack! Thirty corpses were all crushed, scattering around the ground.

The forest actions,

Corpses devoured,

Deeper, profounder, and more intense whispers emerged from within the woods.

≮En’othk uulg’shuul≯

Hua Yuan and Luo Di immediately braced themselves for battle, shifting their gaze from the scattered corpse pieces to the surrounding forest, trying to spot any emerging beings from the gloom, or possible anomalies in the trees.

But nothing happened, as if killing any number of corpses made no difference, it was just an illusion.

However,

When they turned their gaze back to the front, back to the supposedly "straight path",

At the edge of their vision,

a dark coffin had appeared out of nowhere...