Chapter 2781 — A Strange Encounter in the Graveyard
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Coward. Fine, you go in front, I'll watch your back!" Zhong Yongliang nodded and let Gao Xiaofu take the lead. Zhong Yongliang was afraid too, but it was precisely this feeling he wanted—the more frightened he was, the better it felt, filling his heart with an inexplicable thrill.
And so the two walked toward the graveyard, one behind the other. Though the gravestones here were neatly arranged, the whole cemetery was built on the back mountain, and the mountain paths rose and fell unevenly, so the two could not walk fast.
"Brother Liang, you're still there, aren't you..." Gao Xiaofu's voice trembled. Every stretch of the way, he had to speak up and ask, to make sure Zhong Yongliang was still behind him.
"I'm here," Zhong Yongliang said.
"Ha, good..." Gao Xiaofu breathed a sigh of relief. Walking in front with someone guarding the rear, he was not so afraid anymore. "Brother Liang, look—this grave looks like it was built not long ago, and it's bigger than all the others. Seems this was someone of grandmaster rank! I just wonder which grandmaster passed away here in recent years?"
From behind Gao Xiaofu came no sound at all.
"Brother Liang?" Gao Xiaofu froze. Hearing no answer for a long while, he grew anxious and called out again, his voice shaking: "Brother Liang, are you there?"
Still no answer!
Gao Xiaofu broke out in a cold sweat at once; his clothes were soaked through in an instant. He gasped for breath, his whole body seeming to go numb, and though he wanted to turn around, he could not summon the courage...
"Brother Liang, please, don't scare me, I'm scared..." Gao Xiaofu was on the verge of tears. He assumed Zhong Yongliang was pretending to be silent to frighten him—though that was merely his best-case guess. He knew that, by rights, Zhong Yongliang should not be scaring him.
But the only answer to Gao Xiaofu was silence; behind him there was not a stir.
Drawing a deep breath, Gao Xiaofu turned around to see what was going on—but when he turned, he abruptly discovered that Zhong Yongliang was gone!
The vast graveyard was utterly empty. Under the moonlight the surroundings were faintly visible, yet there was not a single human figure anywhere. Zhong Yongliang had vanished into thin air just like that!
"Mother of God! Brother Liang, where did you go?" Gao Xiaofu was so frightened he dropped to the ground...
Zhong Yongliang felt one foot come down on a patch of soft earth, and then his whole body sank as if into quicksand. He plummeted down and landed hard on a solid surface, and then he lost consciousness...
But after that brief lapse of consciousness, Zhong Yongliang woke again. His mind was in utter confusion, as if some strange sensation had suddenly come over him—that he had become another person, and yet he still seemed to be Zhong Yongliang...
Dazedly opening his eyes, Zhong Yongliang gave a start: he found himself standing, it seemed, inside an underground cave, and in the cave lay a set of bare white bones!
Yet facing these bones, Zhong Yongliang felt no fear at all. Instead, a boundless sense of familiarity came over him, as though the bones were himself.