The World Below Surface - Chapter 15

He Lou vaguely understood Lu Yan’s meaning beyond his words and had mixed feelings.

To put it mildly, it seemed like they had brought this on themselves; if Lu Yan hadn’t sensed their killing intent, he wouldn’t have done it?

But at least He Lou and the Li sisters had survived until now, which meant that Lu Yan did not want to kill them for the time being, or perhaps because they were still of use to Lu Yan.

He Lou had mixed feelings. The prey and the hunter had switched.

The few hints of madness that had leaked out from Lu Yan’s eyes were all curbed. He glanced at the three before turning to ask Master Lin, “Do you see where the source is?”

Master Lin was silent, not bothered by the personal feud that had erupted in front of him, and when he heard Lu Yan’s question, he only slowly raised his hand and shook the brass bell in his palm.

“Jingle-”

There was another long, ethereal ringing sound. One of the two zombies immediately turned, stiffened its body, and leapt up and landed. The yellow paper on its forehead was rustled by the wind, causing people to worry that it would be blown away in the next moment.

The fear was superfluous as it steadily made its way towards 405-room.

Meanwhile, the teenage Master Lin slowly closed his eyes and used them to scan the interior.

“It is no longer here.”

The room was empty except for the bloodstains.

He Lou pursued the question, “Then why is there an extra floor in this building?”

Still, with his eyes closed, the teenager squatted down and pressed his palm to the ground, sensing it carefully.

The next second, he jerked his hand back as if he had been burned, and his always flat face wavered a little more.

“This is …… inside,” he said with an uncontainable shock in his tone.

*.

Downtown, Lan Zhi Yu Oceanarium.

The staff was already small on weekdays, and it was even colder today. A tall figure slowly stepped through the doors, standing in front of the vast dark blue glass wall and reaching up to pull down his hood and mask.

It was Guan Yunlong, a resident of 405.

He kept moving, removing the hood and then unzipping it, pulling off his jacket, followed by short sleeves, trousers and underwear. Soon, his entire body was stripped naked.

Meanwhile, inside the wall, the calm waters suddenly fluctuated violently.

I don’t know which one started first. Perhaps it was one of the small fish. It suddenly swam forward with all its might, straight outwards with great speed, and slammed its head hard against the clear glass with such force that it was hard to believe that it was only a tiny fish the size of a finger.

The impact left a blood stain and a white substance on the glass wall, quickly disappearing as the water rippled.

The carcass slowly rose to the surface and was swallowed by several fish, who then swam off into the distance. When they were about the same distance away, they rushed straight at the glass wall and crashed into it with a “thud”.

One, two, three …… countless …… all the fish like crazy to send dead in unison, one after another. The fresh carcass was fought over and devoured. The always docile swimming fish rushed each other, tearing the clean water surface with blood muddy, countless large and small. The clean water was muddied a little by the blood, numerous fish bodies of all sizes floated up, and new ones arrived in the distance. By the time the man stood naked in front of the glass wall, it had become a lake of blood.

The man did not stop moving, reaching his hands over to the back of his head and feeling careful. A small piece of bone protruded from the neck below the back of his head, and the tips of his left and right fingers stabbed down hard. “With a poof, a column of eight holes opened up, blood splashed, gurgling down his elbows and splattering the ground.

As the blood flowed out, he stood still like a deflated balloon. His skin drying out rapidly. In the end, the figure standing in front of the glass wall was no different from a dry corpse, with bones protruding and only a thin layer of skin covering it.

But the dry body’s abdomen bulged out a little.

*

“Now the source is no longer here, it’s moving towards ……” the teenage-looking Master Lin closed his eyes and perceived it, “it’s moving towards the Oceanarium downtown.

“We have to make a trip there!”

He opened his eyes, and the zombie that had entered the room to check on him had returned to its place at some point, standing quietly behind him, arms stiff and flat, tiptoeing, emitting the stench of cold silence and decay.

Li’s face was calm, as if she had already accepted the fate of death.

“Go on, then.” Lu Yan took off the camera he had placed on the floor and handed it to He Lou, “We’ll wait here for you to return.”

He looked around the room, constantly feeling that something was wrong.

What was it exactly?

He Lou took it and turned his head to ask Master Lin, “Can I look at it?”

The sullen old teenager gazed at the camera he held in his hand for a moment and nodded.

That was no problem.

He Lou asked Lu Yan again, “Aren’t you going with them?”

Lu Yan’s lips curled, “I told you I want to live.”

What was he doing going to the Oceanarium?

To die?

As long as these people left, he would be safe.

He Lou didn’t want to stay with Lu Yan, but he couldn’t leave the flat. Right now, only Lu Yan’s house could remain in the whole apartment. The other rooms looked like a hurricane had swept through them from the outside, and they were all in a mess, bloodstained.

Lu Yan took them to the bottom of the flat and watched them leave before turning around and going upstairs.

“Come on, let’s watch the video together.”

He Lou also felt something was wrong when he followed into the room. He hesitated for a moment or asked the other two, “Do you feel …… anything wrong?”

Lu Yan frowned, “That question, I was just about to ask as well.”

Li Fang Zhi likewise frowned.

There was always a feeling that they had overlooked something.

What had they overlooked?

Li Fang Zhi shook her head, “Forget it. I can’t think of anything right now. Let’s watch the video first, the three of us.” Wait, three people?

Li Fang Zhi’s heart skipped a beat. She looked left and right. There were only three people in the room.

Me, where’s my sister?

“Wait!”

In a flash of lightning, all three thought of something.

The one they had been ignoring and forgetting – Li Fang Yu.

“Where’s Li Fang Yu?”

“Where’s your sister?”

“Where’s my sister?”

The three looked at each other, their faces all a little ugly.

It was unreasonable for them to ignore someone together.

What exactly had happened to Li Fang Yu? Since when have they started ignoring her? And when had she disappeared?

Li Fang Zhi took a deep breath, her nostrils filled with the stench of blood and rotting flesh. She calmed down and turned her head to ask, “Lu Yan, how long have you been installing surveillance in our room?”

In the heat of the moment, Lu Yan didn’t bother with his choice of words: “On the first day you stayed here.”

“Well then, to save time, let’s watch several videos simultaneously, and we’ll sit and watch them together.” Li Fang Zhi knew that He Lou had also installed video equipment in the living room in his way.

**

The weather was bad today and rained.. The dark clouds were low and horribly gloomy.

A beautiful long-haired woman walked along the road. Her pace was fast and somewhat peculiar, as if she were walking and dancing simultaneously. As she advanced, she sang softly and softly.

It was a song that had never been heard before. A piece of wonderfully beautiful music that could awaken the most beautiful yearnings in one’s heart. Made one feel like one was in bliss, penetrated all barriers and reached one’s ears.

No matter what you are doing, you cannot escape the call of this song.

The song is heard more and more in small street shops, high-rise office blocks, residential buildings and parks …….

It’s wonderful ……

People’s faces flushed, and their smiles widened.

It was so wonderful. Even if they died in the next second of the song, it was worth it.

The blood mist filled the air, and the whole city dropped what they were doing and poured in that direction. Their faces smiled with fascination. Their eyes lost their lustre and grew dull as they took to the streets, stumbling to keep up with the figure.

Some of those in the tallest buildings opened their windows and leapt down to the ground, where blood mist filled the bottom. A puddle of flesh and blood rose tremulously to follow the mass of people.

*

As soon as the song started, the three people sitting on the sofa watching the video reacted quickly. They were closing the windows, pulling the curtains, and turning the lights. Completing the whole house thoroughly. Putting earplugs in their ears, turning on their computers and stereos, and playing all kinds of music to block out the pervasive theme and the blood mist.

But it was of little use.

There were still wisps of blood mist coming in from the corners, and as soon as the computer was turned on, the figure of Li Fang Yu, who had transformed entirely into Lan Zhi Yu, popped up. Li Fang Zhi’s heart ached, but she had to be ruthless and shut the computer down, smashing it hard.

“What to do?”

They stood at the window and saw the steady stream of people below them, and a chill ran through their hearts.

*

The question came not only between the three, but equally between the two Taoist priests.

Master Lin was in a bit of a mess, and he added three more talismans to each of the zombies’ foreheads, which calmed the two restless ones.

But he ignored his senior sister’s question. After a moment of silence, he said, “I left a few talismans for each of them so that they might be able to resist for a little longer.”

Sister Li sighed, “What time is it that you still care about others? If this matter is not handled properly, the whole city will ……”

She glanced at the sky, and a steady stream of blood-coloured mist gathered within an invisible space to ordinary people.

“We’ve already destroyed one of the formations in that flat just now. Now go to the next one. Let’s delay it for a while.” The old adult teenager sighed in the same way.

Grandmaster, you’ve left a big hidden danger behind ……

Li Fang Yu, or now Lan Zhi Yu, had entered the Oceanarium.

The dry corpse standing in front of the Oceanarium slowly turned around, revealing a bulging abdomen. His hand was still on his back, and with one push, the human skin was pulled away like gauze. Little by little, like a zip, he ripped the skin off his back, revealing a long opening.

Strangely, it was not bone and flesh inside.

The dryad reached into the large hole in his back, felt around and pulled out a pale hand, followed by the arm and a whole body, which was ripped out and dropped to the ground. He moved quickly, one body after another, and the body was like a bottomless pit that could not be emptied. Before long, the glass wall was filled with bodies, swollen, pale and strewn in a mountain of bodies.

Time was of the essence; these were the ones she hadn’t been able to finish digesting and could only be stored on the extra floor between the third and fourth floors for now.

The floor Master Lin had sensed just now was where it was used to store the reserve food!

At this moment, Lu Yan was sitting on the sofa, trying his best to focus. His eyes were deadly fixed on the video, his handsome face a little red and swollen as if someone had beaten him.

He Lou and Li Fang Zhi did the same, covering their ears and watching the video while keeping an eye on the other two with their afterimages. As soon as they spotted anyone with a tendency to mutate, they would use their way to bring the other to his senses.

For some reason, the other two were ruthless in the face of Lu Yan’s occasional outbursts. Of course, Lu Yan was not far behind, and all three were left hanging.

There was a rustling sound from upstairs, as if something was dragging on the floor. At first, the sound was minimal, but gradually it became louder and louder. Even though the three were struggling to resist, they heard it but couldn’t think about what the hell it was again, just trying to keep themselves awake.

“Do you think …… they will …… win?”

Li Fang Zhi spat out a sentence with difficulty. She felt like laughing along again, pinching the needle in her hand and stabbing it hard into her thigh, her eyes regaining clarity.

He Lou did not answer. Instead, it was Lu Yan who laughed. Li Fang Zhi’s eyes lit up; she thought she could retake personal revenge; who knew that Lu Yan struggled to sit a little further away: “It’s okay if you can’t win ……”

“Let’s all die together.” He glanced at He Lou and Li Fang Zhi, thinking it was better to die together with these two than be with those fools from before. “By the way, you guys, when …… will you be able to leave?”

He Lou was not surprised that he knew he had a time limit this time; he took a deep breath, “Zero hours of the seventh day.”

“…… Then, two more days.”

If they couldn’t leave, they would probably end up in the same place as Guan Yunlong upstairs, right?

Lu Yan was a little out of it.

For now, Lan Zhi Yu’s sacrifice should be enough; the three were unimportant people, so Lan Zhi Yu wouldn’t have to eat them.

They would be fine if they could escape for two days.

Hiding for two days ……

Where could they hide?