The Cave of Ghost Eggs

“That was probably because the cave was too dark, and I was so scared that I hallucinated.”
Ye Yu had no evidence. Seeing that Old Man Cao firmly disbelieved her, she didn't pursue the issue further but changed her question.
“Speaking of which, old sir, you mentioned evil ghosts. Which evil ghost exactly? Evil as in crime? Or hungry as in hunger?”
Old Man Cao was momentarily dazed, then said awkwardly, “I'm not really sure about that. I'm illiterate and never thought about it before. Everyone says it that way, so I just follow along.”
“If you're curious, you should go ask the old Immortal. There aren't many literate people in town; the most cultured and powerful person here is that old Immortal in the temple. If you ask him, he'll surely know.”
When mentioning the old Immortal, Old Man Cao showed a look of reverence again.
Everyone looked at each other. That old Daoist might look like a transcendent being, but using the remains of Ghost Town residents to draw water didn't sound like the work of a righteous person.
However, Ye Yu didn't say this directly. Instead, she hummed in agreement and then asked Lin Jing if a group of nine travelers like them had come to visit on September 1st.
Old Man Cao gave a negative answer, claiming he had never heard of such a group. When asked about the remains in the forest behind the mountain, Old Man Cao said those were just some unlucky souls caught and eaten by evil ghosts from the foot of the mountain, not tourists. Their Ghost Town was both poor and remote; how could so many tourists come?
He spoke with such certainty that if Ye Yu hadn't seen those remains with her own eyes, she might have doubted herself. Ye Yu originally wanted to take out the diary to show him, but remembering Old Man Cao was illiterate, she finally gave up.
She speculated that either Old Man Cao was lying, or the Ghost Story had twisted his perception and memory. That was likely why this result occurred.
Thus, lunch ended amidst small talk and probing. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; they ate more cleanly this time than the previous two meals, fearing they would be judged as wasting food and trigger some dangerous rule.
After eating, Shi Ying informed Old Man Cao that they would be busy in the afternoon and would handle dinner outside, so they wouldn't return to eat.
Hearing this, everyone hurriedly chimed in, saying dinner didn't need to be prepared, fearing Old Man Cao would set aside food for them at night, forcing them to eat another meal. Old Man Cao didn't doubt their words; he only warned them not to wander too late and to return to his and Auntie Cao's house before dark.
Everyone nodded in agreement, then headed toward the back mountain together. Whether intentionally or not, everyone had forgotten about Zhao Ji; no one went upstairs to call him to come along.
Leaving the Cao family's gate, Shi Ying whispered, “Did everyone see that wound?”
Ma Ping said tensely, “Could that old sir really be a hungry ghost in disguise?”
Shi Ying: “There's no evidence yet, but we can find an opportunity to test it.”
Ma Ping's eyes widened. For that kind of monster, she couldn't hide fast enough, and they wanted to test it? How?
Shi Ying didn't say much but walked forward quickly with a thoughtful expression. She was very tall; Bai Miaomiao and Ma Ping had to walk faster to keep up. Meanwhile, Ye Yu and Vu Xi walked slowly, once again falling behind.
Vu Xi tilted his head and whispered, “Did you see anything?”
Ye Yu shook her head regretfully. “Not for now.”
As she spoke, her gaze swept over the people ahead, her eyes full of vigilance and scrutiny. When she first examined the diary, her attention was mostly on the final entry.
It wasn't until she came out of the limestone cave and was on the way back, preparing to use the clues she'd gained to exchange with the others, that she suddenly realized something was wrong.
After returning and aligning the timeline with Shi Ying and the others, she confirmed that the number nine was very special in this Ghost Story domain. A cycle was nine days. The old Daoist claimed to have stayed here for over 80 years, just a few days short of eighty-one years. Lin Jing's group of nine before them, and Ye Yu's group arriving on the ninth day, happened to be the day the old Daoist opened the altar for the ritual.
With such a comparison, Ye Yu discovered a problem. If nine was so special, and Lin Jing's group had nine people, what about their group?
At first glance, there were four investigators from Jiuan City, two ordinary people, plus her, Vu Xi, and Ying Jianyun—exactly nine. But don't forget, there was also the Minotaur! The Minotaur who died earliest on the bus. If he was counted, their group had ten people!
Because the sample size was too small, Ye Yu wasn't entirely sure if each group had to be nine people, but she knew that if this condition held... there must be one extra person among them.
Originally, Ye Yu hoped that since Vu Xi wasn't human, he wouldn't be counted by the Ghost Story, but Vu Xi explicitly stated that such a situation wouldn't occur. Most Ghost Stories were unconscious; in human terms, they were a set of pre-programmed hunting procedures filled with malice.
So for them, there was no distinction between humans and Ghost Stories, only prey with rich nutrition that was easy to hunt and prey that couldn't be eaten or was hard to hunt.
He hadn't hidden his tracks and had entered this Ghost Story domain openly. So this Ghost Story knew of his existence. For this kind of brainless entity, it didn't realize what a powerful peer was, someone not to be provoked; it only knew he was a hard-to-hunt prey. But essentially, his identity was still that of prey.
The pre-set procedures, the rules, would actively surround him. The reason the rule effects on him weren't obvious was simply because his defense was strong enough.
Vu Xi: “If each group's number is fixed at nine, then besides you, one of them must no longer be considered human.”
Recalling Vu Xi's certain words and Lin Jing's three diary entries, Ye Yu's whole body tensed.
This Ghost Story wasn't as bloody as the Jinyang Union Hospital, with life-threatening dangers one after another, but it brought another kind of heavy pressure to her heart.
At Jinyang Union Hospital, she at least had superhuman abilities to rely on; she could slash whoever she didn't like. But here, she didn't even know who she should slash.
Shi Ying? This investigator with the codename Sister Biao had a thunderous personality and was experienced; currently, she seemed like a very good leader.
Shi Shuo? He looked silly, but his every move had a pressure that ordinary people didn't. He was Shi Ying's biological brother, and the two were close; if one of them showed an abnormality, the other should be able to detect it quickly.
Gao Bai? Although he was a bit gloomy after losing two fingers, his personality remained as arrogant as ever.
Bai Miaomiao? Very charismatic, a girl good at socializing.
Ma Ping? Zhao Ji? Ying Jianyun? Each had their own personality and characteristics. Even Zhao Ji, the most disliked, looked very human, making it impossible to imagine him as a monster in disguise.
So who was the extra person? It couldn't be herself, right?
Ye Yu looked at everyone's animal heads, then at her own fish tail, and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. If this was a game of "spot the difference," she seemed to be the first one who should be eliminated?
Eliminating all impossibilities, the remaining result, no matter how unbelievable, was the final answer. Solving the case—the culprit was actually me!
Ye Yu: ……
Vu Xi noticed Ye Yu suddenly stop. He turned back and saw the beautiful merman under the sun frowning and slapping her forehead.
Vu Xi: “…… What are you doing?”
Ye Yu's face was full of intense pain. “Nothing, I just suddenly felt…… my brain might have really taken in some water.”
Vu Xi was full of question marks. After a long while, the handsome black cat spat out two words. “…… Psycho.”
*
Since Ye Yu made the discovery, she naturally took on the role of guide. Not long after entering the limestone cave, everyone smelled the fragrance Ye Yu had mentioned. At first, the faint scent of meat came in waves, like a hook frequently reaching out to touch their noses.
As they went deeper, the smell of meat became thicker. They couldn't help but smell it even if they covered their noses; it seemed to have crawled into their brains, taunting their nerves.
“It smells so good……” Ma Ping murmured. Immediately after realizing what she had said, she was so scared she quickly covered her mouth.
“This is the place.” Ye Yu stood still before that narrow stretch of waterway. Knowing that the large cauldron in the cavern emitted a ‘meat smell’ containing mental pollution, everyone naturally wouldn't be foolish enough to go straight in.
They brought ropes from Auntie Cao and Old Man Cao's house. Hearing Ye Yu's words, Shi Ying, Gao Bai, Ying Jianyun, and Shi Shuo actively tied the ropes to themselves.
The first three prepared to enter the cave to check the situation, while Shi Shuo, the strongest, acted as a human anchor, standing there. Once something was wrong, Ye Yu and the others guarding there could pull the three back.
Because the rope wasn't long enough, Ye Yu and the others estimated the distance and had to go forward a bit more. After the baptism of lunch, Ye Yu's heart had grown stronger. Just as she was preparing to follow everyone into the water, a large hand naturally reached out to her.
Ye Yu's fish tail instinctively coiled around the other's firm waist and abdomen. Immediately after, she realized Vu Xi had picked her up again. Having someone carry her was naturally much better than swimming in the ‘corpse water.’ Ye Yu unceremoniously adjusted her sitting posture, sitting firmly on Vu Xi's arm.
When the cold water reached everyone's waists, Shi Shuo and the others stopped. This narrow, dark waterway was truly no less than an ancient water prison. Everyone could only stand in a single file. Ye Yu and Vu Xi stood at the front, Bai Miaomiao and Ma Ping stood in the middle, each holding a phone for light, and Shi Shuo stood at the end. Meanwhile, Shi Ying, Gao Bai, and Ying Jianyun continued forward. Their figures disappeared behind the winding rock walls of the waterway.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, Ma Ping's sharp scream startled Shi Shuo and the others. Seeing everyone looking at her, she said in horror, “Something under the water brushed against my leg.”
Because the place was so narrow that they couldn't even stretch their arms, and there were people in front and behind, Ma Ping was so scared she didn't know where to hide. she could only stand there trembling and stiff.
Bai Miaomiao was also scared but suppressed it, reaching into the water to feel around, then pinching up a semi-slimy object. By the light of the phone.
Through the semi-transparent ivory-white egg sac, she happened to lock eyes with the greedy, bright red eyes of the infant-sized evil ghost inside. Bai Miaomiao was so scared her hand shook, and she quickly threw the object back into the water.
Ye Yu: “Those are the ghost eggs containing evil ghosts I told you about. Don't be afraid. These little things probably aren't ready to be born yet and can't cause us any harm for now.”
Ma Ping's pale face looked enviously at the beautiful merman sitting high on the cat leader's arm. “Then what happens when they are born?”
Ye Yu: “I'm not sure how many such eggs are hidden in the water here, but I can be certain that if they all mature and break out, it will be a difficult problem for us to handle.”
Ye Yu's words were still conservative. Last night, Shi Ying had analyzed after fighting an evil ghost that their individual strength wasn't high. Their advantage lay in their speed being thirty percent faster than an average person's, and their small, agile bodies, while their strength was much smaller than a normal person's.
If they could use superhuman abilities, Shi Ying alone could slaughter hundreds of these little bastards. But unfortunately, they were currently mostly just ordinary people with some combat skills.
Yesterday, three evil ghosts besieged Gao Bai and bit off two of his fingers. Shi Ying was certain that if six or ten evil ghosts rushed together, Gao Bai would have likely lost his life last night.
Simply put, these evil ghosts were like sewer rats—one or two were easy to deal with. But once they appeared in a swarm, they could only turn and run. Otherwise, the Minotaur's death would be their end.
Ma Ping's lips trembled with fear. “Then…… then what do we do? Sunlight can kill them. Can't we just take them out to be killed by the sun? No, that won't work. You said before that deep lake……” It likely contained a large number of ghost eggs.
Seeing her so frightened, Bai Miaomiao patted her shoulder to comfort her. “It's okay. No Ghost Story is an absolute death trap. There must be a survival rule here. As long as we find it, we can get out.”
“But what exactly is the survival rule you're talking about?” Perhaps the darkness and cold amplified human fear. Ma Ping couldn't help but cover her face and weep.
“What if the survival rule is helping that old Daoist find offerings? Do we really have to give him human blood and flesh?! Those people in town definitely won't work because they're all polluted. So whose blood will you take then?! Whose flesh?!”
Ma Ping felt as if she had suddenly traveled to an otherworldly dimension. Her job, her background, her connections, all the advantages and ties she had painstakingly built in human society no longer existed.
These people talked about Ghost Stories, domains, rules, and superhuman abilities as if they were a foreign language; she didn't understand a word. They even used codenames like ‘Sister Biao,’ ‘Brother Bear,’ ‘Tree Monster,’ and ‘Xiao Yu,’ being stingy with giving her their real names.
And what about her? She had instantly gone from having a respectable white-collar job to being at the bottom of this group. She understood nothing, knew nothing, and couldn't even beat an ordinary person like Zhao Ji. If they wanted to sacrifice someone, could that person be her?!
This was the fear that had been buried deep in Ma Ping's heart since leaving the Yama Temple this morning. Because she knew very well that if these people really wanted to abandon her, she had no way to survive!
Bai Miaomiao knew she was afraid and spoke in a light tone, saying they were government investigators and wouldn't do such a thing. If it really came to a dead end where they had to offer blood and flesh, with so many of them, if everyone gave a little blood and cut a little flesh, they could surely gather enough.
“What if it's not enough? This place is so scary. What if the rule requires one of us to die?” Darkness bred fear, and fear bred evil thoughts. Ma Ping leaned her body, gripping Bai Miaomiao's arm tightly. It was as if she were grabbing her own life-saving straw.
“If one person must be chosen, I beg you…… please don't choose me. I'm very good; I've always been very obedient to you, haven't I? I'll do whatever you tell me. Don't choose me, choose Zhao Ji, okay?”
“That guy can't do anything right. And he's so annoying. If he hadn't stepped on that key or whatever, the Minotaur and I wouldn't have been dragged here. He killed the Minotaur. Zhao Ji killed someone; he's a murderer!”
“Yes, he's a murderer; he deserves to die. When the time comes, we'll all choose him. Let's choose him, okay?”
Ma Ping trembled, muttering to herself, not knowing if she was trying to convince others or herself. In the darkness, the cold water flowed slowly, and the dim light from the phone reflected off the narrow rock walls. The surroundings were silent, except for Ma Ping's hoarse voice echoing in the narrow waterway.
Bai Miaomiao was silent for a moment, then removed Ma Ping's hand from her arm.
“I can understand you; you're just too scared. I can also guarantee that we will find the survival rule as soon as possible to save you. As for what you just said, we'll act as if we didn't hear it. Don't say it again.”
She could understand Ma Ping's thoughts at this moment as being permitted by human nature, but she felt even more that a soul should be higher than human nature. If a person succumbed to human nature in everything and was driven by it to commit a great mistake, then they could no longer be considered human.
Shi Shuo stood silently at the end, playing his role as a human anchor well. He said nothing about this.
Compared to twenty-year-old Bai Miaomiao, thirty-something Shi Shuo had been an investigator for over a decade. In those years, he had worked with many investigators and saved many ordinary people who had stumbled into Ghost Stories, so he had naturally witnessed many examples of human nature.
After being burned a few times, Shi Shuo had rarely held expectations for others, except for trusting his sister. Bai Miaomiao had experienced too little and still held too many expectations for human nature, which was why she felt uncomfortable. Once she saw more in the future, she would know that many people wouldn't say it out loud but would play dirty behind the scenes—that was the most lethal. Ma Ping was a novice compared to those people.
Ye Yu also said nothing, because she didn't care about Ma Ping's words; they weren't aimed at her anyway.
Ma Ping realized she had spoken wrongly and lowered her head, not speaking anymore. The others had no intention of chatting, and the dark waterway fell silent again.
Suddenly, while they were silently resisting the meat smell that kept taunting their nerves, the rope in the waterway suddenly tightened. Shi Shuo was caught off guard and pulled by the rope at his waist, stumbling slightly, but he quickly regained his footing. He focused his energy and pulled the rope back.
“Pull!”
Shi Shuo was concerned for his sister Shi Ying's safety and used all his strength to pull the rope. The others also hurriedly reached out to help. It was unknown what the situation was for the three on the other side, but the force transmitted was extremely large. Fortunately, they had many people on this side. Especially with Vu Xi helping. With one pull of his large hand, the tension on the other side immediately loosened.
Everyone struck while the iron was hot, quickly pulling toward themselves. Soon, they saw the three people who had fallen into the water being pulled back.
“*Cough cough*, don't pull.”
“I'm conscious, don't pull yet.”
The three stumbled to their feet, water dripping from their noses and ears, looking completely disheveled and soaked like water ghosts.
Bai Miaomiao: “How is it?”
Shi Ying made a hand gesture: “*Cough cough*, let's talk outside.”
By the time everyone got out, Ma Ping was nervously wiping her ankles where the ghost eggs had brushed against her.
“There really are ghost eggs in that water. Why did that old sir keep saying there weren't? Could he be a hungry ghost in disguise? Is he intentionally deceiving us?”
Shi Ying adjusted her clothes to dry the water while thinking. “Old Man Cao really didn't look like he was lying. But it's not ruled out that his acting is superb.”
She patted her ears, pouring out the water inside. Then she described the situation they saw when entering the cavern. It wasn't much different from what Ye Yu had said. At that time, they were also stunned by the eerie large cauldron and the small mountain of skeletons inside. Unfortunately, they didn't get a good look before they suffered severe hallucinations due to the thick meat smell.
“At first, Zhang Yun was the first to be hit. We had already climbed onto the shore, but he jumped into the deep lake with a ‘splash,’ intending to swim toward the large cauldron. Gao Bai and I went to pull him, but then Gao Bai also became abnormal, and then I started hallucinating too.”
“Fortunately, we prepared in advance. Otherwise, based on the situation just now, we wouldn't have been able to get out of that cavern on our own.”
Shi Ying looked at Ye Yu and Vu Xi with some respect. “I always thought my willpower was very strong. I even felt proud of breaking a mid-level Ghost Story illusion before. But now it seems I'm still far from it.”
Ye Yu smiled at her but said nothing. Then she glanced at Ying Jianyun, who was using the alias ‘Zhang Yun.’
Bai Miaomiao: “What do we do next? Go to the Yama Temple to check that hidden door?”
“We probably won't be able to go there until tomorrow.” Ye Yu pointed a finger at the sky. “Look, the sun is starting to set.”
Everyone looked up and saw that the sun had indeed sunk low in the west, and a bit of sunset glow had appeared in the sky. Bai Miaomiao looked at her phone in disbelief. “It's not even three o'clock yet? The sunset is starting already? How can this be?” The time from finishing lunch to investigating here had only been two hours!
Ye Yu: “Yesterday, it got dark around five in the evening. Looking at this situation, today's darkness should fall between three and four. If I'm not mistaken, the sun will set even earlier tomorrow.”
Bai Miaomiao: “This is only the second day, and it's getting dark so fast…… Then by the ninth day, we might not even have time for breakfast?!”
Shi Ying looked up at the sun and said in a heavy voice, “Compared to breakfast, what we should worry about is probably whether the sun will even rise as usual on the ninth day……”
Shi Shuo and the others imagined that scene, and their faces turned pale.
The speed of the sunset was also increasing. Even though the Yama Temple wasn't far from the back mountain, everyone couldn't afford to see much and hurried back to Auntie Cao and Old Man Cao's house.
During this time, because Gao Bai and the others refused to be with Zhao Ji, even if Zhao Ji was unwilling, he could only stay in a room alone.
Meanwhile, Ye Yu gritted her teeth and used the water here to simply wash her face. Returning to her room, she saw a guest. It was Shi Ying, who was supposed to be at Old Man Cao's house. She was sitting on a wooden chair in the room, while Vu Xi was lying on the bed, playing *Anipop* on Ye Yu's phone, not reacting to Shi Ying at all.
Ye Yu didn't seem surprised by Shi Ying's appearance and sat naturally on the bed.
“Sister Biao, you're looking for me?”
As she spoke, she took back her phone, giving Vu Xi a glare. There was no place to charge in this Ghost Story domain; the little power she saved wasn't for Vu Xi to play mini-games!
Vu Xi snorted but didn't insist on playing. Instead, he pulled Ye Yu's hand, looking with great interest at the thin scales on the back of her hand.
Shi Ying looked at Vu Xi, then said to Ye Yu, “You've definitely noticed, haven't you? There's an extra person among us.”