Translator: CinderTL
"Is this what they meant by 'gouging out eyes'?" The thought flashed through everyone's minds.
Fatty couldn't help but shiver as he stared at the empty cavity where Liang Shan's brain had been. In the past, the Doctor's constant reminders had often made him suspect his own mind was hollow, but after witnessing this horror, those doubts vanished.
Shi Xiaoya's abdomen had been emptied, and Liang Shan's brain had been scooped out. It seemed the Ghosts in this mission had a particular fondness for this gruesome act.
"He could have survived," Gao Yan sighed regretfully. "He just wasn't calm enough. What a waste."
Everyone dismissed the old man's words as meaningless ramblings.
Time was running out. The surrounding space began to distort, and the rain gradually subsided, making it clear that the ordeal was nearing its end.
Meng Yumian, who had killed Liang Shan, stood panting in the rain, her crimson dress soaked in blood and her pale hands dripping with it.
Then, what she did next sent a jolt of terror through everyone's hearts.
She opened her palm to reveal a glistening, spherical eyeball. As she lifted her head, her long hair whipped back in the wind, granting everyone their first clear glimpse of her face.
The face was a shattered ruin, the left cheekbone collapsed, the nostril torn, and the eye socket ripped open. Jiang Cheng's first thought was that it had been smashed by a sharp-edged stone.
Where the eyes should have been were now just two bloody sockets, oozing blood like crimson tears streaking down the face.
Meng Yumian carefully inserted her left eye back into its socket. It fit perfectly, snug and seamless. Everyone knew this was the eye she had desperately snatched back from Liang Shan at the moment of her death, clutching it tightly in her hand as her own.
Next, using both hands with sharp fingernails, she gently cupped Liang Shan's right eye and carefully inserted it into her empty right socket. Her movements were painstakingly cautious.
The scene defied description. Fatty turned deathly pale, staggering back a few steps and swallowing hard to suppress the urge to vomit. The others looked equally horrified, a collective wave of primal discomfort washing over them.
Thump.
Thump.
With both eyes restored, Meng Yumian hopped away, her stiff, crimson figure disappearing toward the equipment room—presumably returning to the mirror.
The urban legend hadn't been vanquished, but at least... they had survived.
"Look!" Shen Mengyun suddenly pointed toward the small grove where she had hidden earlier.
The rain gradually subsided, and visibility improved. Through the gaps in the foliage, they glimpsed something in the distance.
"It looks... it looks like a person," Fatty blurted out, his eyes widening unevenly.
Sure enough, when they rushed over, a pair of legs protruded from the depression Shen Mengyun had discovered earlier, the upper body buried beneath a layer of withered leaves.
Jiang Cheng immediately recognized her by the athletic pants and steel-spiked running shoes.
Xiaolin.
The girl they had been searching for, trapped within the urban legend of the abandoned sports field.
Shen Mengyun brushed aside the leaves, revealing a serene face.
It was indeed a girl.
Huai Yi stepped forward to help, dragging Xiaolin out of the depression and laying her to one side.
She was dressed in athletic gear, her physique noticeably more muscular than the average girl, with defined muscle tone suggesting regular exercise.
Like Xiaoting, whom they had found earlier, Xiaolin bore no visible injuries. She looked as peaceful as if she were asleep, but her breathing had ceased.
"Her body is still warm," Gao Yan said, withdrawing his hand and examining Xiaolin's corpse. "She died recently, no more than half an hour ago."
"Which means... she was still alive when we first arrived," Shen Mengyun said, frowning.
All eyes were fixed on Xiaolin. Strangely, her calm face inspired even greater terror than Meng Yumian's.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to describe it as unease.
Instinct told them Xiaolin's death had nothing to do with Meng Yumian. It looked more like suicide.
Xiaolin's hands lay at her sides. Jiang Cheng noticed her right hand was clenched into a fist. He hurried over, knelt down, and pried open her fingers one by one.
The fist was clenched tighter than he expected. He had to pry open each finger one by one until a bloodied eyeball appeared in her palm.
"Holy shit!" Fatty startled, already traumatized by such round, grotesque objects.
Xiaolin had been clutching an eyeball in her right hand.
After Jiang Cheng pried the eyeball out, he squeezed it between his fingers. He then looked at the others for confirmation and said calmly, "It's real."
Fatty looked like he might throw up.
Wang Qi stared at the eyeball for a moment before saying in a peculiar tone, "So this must be Meng Yumian's missing right eye. I never imagined she'd find it."
"But according to the mission rules, whoever finds Meng Yumian's missing right eye can end the Urban Legend. Why is Xiaolin still trapped here?" Shen Mengyun asked a pertinent question.
Huai Yi nodded in agreement. "Exactly. It doesn't make sense."
"Heh heh, maybe we should look at this from a different angle," Wang Qi said, staring at Xiaolin's peaceful face, as if a long-held suspicion had just been confirmed. "Perhaps... Xiaolin herself doesn't want the Urban Legend to end."
Because of past events, Huai Yi remained wary of this man. He frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"
"Xiaolin can only survive within the Urban Legend. If it disappears, or if she leaves the world it created, she'll die," Jiang Cheng said, standing up and turning to face Wang Qi.
A sinister smile slowly stretched across Wang Qi's face, making his expression almost grotesque.
"You... what on earth are you two talking about?" Fatty stared at the Doctor and Wang Qi, finding their cryptic exchanges utterly infuriating.
"Let's go! If we wait any longer, we won't be able to get out!" Fatty glanced at the time on his phone, his voice cracking with urgency.
But the next moment, he realized everyone was staring at him with peculiar expressions.
The doctor's gentle gaze held a hint of pity, a look Fatty vaguely remembered seeing on a public service program about children with intellectual disabilities.
Fatty watched helplessly as the doctor sighed, picked up the eyeball, and then... did nothing. The rain in their world vanished instantly.
The eerie sense of otherworldliness completely dissipated. Subtle sounds filled the air: the rustle of wind through fallen leaves, the occasional strange cry of an unknown bird.
They stood in a small, nearly leafless grove, with an abandoned sports field visible nearby—an utterly unremarkable sight.
A shallow pit remained where Xiaolin's body had been.
Fatty suddenly noticed everyone tilting their heads, staring at him with expectant eyes, as if waiting for him to gasp in astonishment or exclaim in awe.
(End of the Chapter)
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