I looked around. Laughter echoed endlessly in this space, as if coming from all directions.
"Who is it? Come out!" I shouted loudly.
Gradually, the laughter faded away and everything returned to silence. Holding a rotten piece of wood, I looked around. Two passageways appeared, as if telling me I had to go in—there was no room for choice.
The only thing I was certain of now was that I was inside the Shadow Realm. At least that much I knew for sure. Earlier, I'd suspected I might have been led astray by a ghost.
You shouldn’t wander in the Shadow Realm—I’d heard Miles Mao say that before. So I decided to stay put, no matter how much the other side tried to tempt me.
I couldn’t use my baleful energy now. If danger came, I might not even be able to protect myself. Then I walked to a cage, stood on tiptoe, and reached for the torch glowing green on top. With a crack, I took the torch down, and the green flame instantly died out.
I weighed the half-meter-long stick in my hand. It felt solid enough. I swung it a couple of times; it was fairly handy.
Just then, I noticed something—the water on the ground was flowing. Slowly, but definitely moving.
I stayed at the crossroads of the prison corridor. A faint tremor came from the left. Looking down, I saw ripples spreading from that direction. I gripped the stick tighter and watched in silence.
With a loud crash, water splashed everywhere. My eyes widened in shock—a monster, or more accurately, a mass of severed human limbs stitched together, rushed toward me. Several dead heads sobbed, hands and feet below moving fast as it charged straight at me.
I turned my head and looked at the entrance on the right. It was getting closer. My palm was soaked with sweat. I hated being forced into this, but now I had no choice.
I hurled the stick at the monster. With a smack, the heads at the front bit it to pieces. I turned and ran for my life.
I ended up in the right passage. The prison looked exactly the same. Turning back, I saw the monster was less than three meters away—and the entrance had vanished.
With a roar, the monster screamed behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I dove to the left. Water splashed everywhere as the monster crashed into a cage, bending the iron bars and biting them off with its many heads.
I scrambled to my feet and kept running. The monster got up and chased after me again.
Seeing another passage open on the right, I dashed in without hesitation. The monster kept screaming and chasing me.
I was running so hard I was out of breath. The monster was still chasing me, but I knew I couldn’t stop—if I did, it would tear me apart.
When the monster caught up again, I crouched and rolled to the right. It flew over my head. Underneath, I saw a grotesque, rotting human face with sharp teeth.
Just as I landed, the face beneath the monster suddenly stretched out. With a snap, a bloody face connected to bone tore itself from the monster’s body and lunged at me.
I screamed, pushing myself backward to dodge the face. Then I kicked at the terrifying face with my knee, spun around, got up, and ran in the opposite direction.
Pain shot through my lower abdomen. My lungs burned. I felt like I couldn’t run anymore.
I looked around for an exit, but this place was a straight line—no way out to the sides. I stumbled, felt something, and with a splash fell into the water. Then something hairy wrapped around me.
As I looked up, I froze in terror—a rat the size of a person, with red eyes and an open mouth, screeched. My leg was caught by its tail.
Looking again, I saw the monster charging toward me.
It was over. I didn’t even have time to think—the monster pounced, and I stared wide-eyed, convinced I was done for.
But the next moment left me screaming in shock—the monster pounced on the giant rat. The two tangled together, the rat screeching and biting fiercely, while the monster’s heads bit into the rat. The scene was gruesome.
I hurriedly untangled the rat’s tail from my leg and ran off, the sounds of their fight echoing behind me.
Seeing an opening on the left, I rushed in without thinking, running for my life.
At last, I couldn’t run anymore. My legs gave out, and I collapsed into the water. I rolled over and lay on the ground, gasping for air.
After resting for a while, I propped myself up against a cage. I couldn’t hear anything anymore.
With a splash, I heard water behind me. Turning my head, I saw the monster on the right, its whole body drenched in blood. The string of heads at its front was down to just three, and only five hands and feet remained. It moved slowly now, but it was still coming for me.
I wanted to get up, but I could barely move. I struggled to half-crouch. Then, on the left, my eyes widened in shock—another monster, one I’d seen before, covered in pustules, with a huge mouth on its chest, limped toward me.
I wondered if the two monsters would fight like before, but instantly realized their true intent.
"I'm done for. They're both coming for me."
With a rip, I tore open my shirt, digging my fingers desperately into the white hard object embedded in my body. The pain made me cry out, but the thing wouldn't budge. The harder I tried, the worse it hurt.
Suddenly, a loud noise. In front of me, a wooden board like a sewer cover opened up, and a thick arm reached out, accompanied by a voice.
"Hurry up and come down."
I quickly reached out and grabbed the thick hand. It pulled me down in one swift motion.
I cried out as I went down. It felt like a slide—I was riding on something, dropping lower and lower.
"It's okay, it's okay..."
The man kept reassuring me. I stopped screaming. Gradually, I saw a glimmer of light—blinding at first. With a thud, I landed on a soft mat.
Still shaken, I looked up and saw a burly man, his face bluish, muscles bulging as if about to burst, veins standing out. He wore faded, tattered clothes from the educated youth era.
"Who are you?" I asked, surprised.
"I'm Justin Huang. And you?" the man asked in a gruff voice.
"I'm Ethan Zhang."
Then I noticed the place was pretty big, with lots of dark entrances and yellowed mats below. Looking closer, I was horrified—those weren’t mats at all, but sheets of human skin.
I screamed and jumped up.
"What's the panic? Never seen human skin before?" Justin Huang said, plopping down on a pile of skins. The place was about eighty square meters, with a bed made of human bones. The bed was strung with yellowish-white, rubbery-looking cords.
"Those are human tendons."
I swallowed and looked away.
"Here, drink some hot water to calm your nerves." I nodded. Justin Huang handed me a steaming skull taken from a bone stove. I blinked, staring at the hot water inside. My throat felt scorched, so I swallowed a few times.
"What's there to be afraid of? Are you a man or not? It's just disgusting, not dangerous."
I sighed—I was so thirsty I couldn't stand it. Closing my eyes, I took the skull and drank all the water. It didn't taste strange, but the room itself smelled awful.
I looked at the little bone stove, its fire burning—the stench came from there.
"Oh, that's human fat in there."
I nearly threw up, but my stomach was empty and I could only retch a few times.
"Come on, eat something."
Justin Huang said, and I watched him wedge his fingers into the wall, easily prying out a big stone brick. A fragrant smell wafted over. I stared in amazement—inside were small pieces of dried meat, and I swallowed my saliva.
But then I thought—looking at the nearly two-meter-tall, fierce-looking Justin Huang—could it be human flesh?
Justin Huang took out seven or eight pieces of dried meat, put the brick back, and handed them to me.
I blinked, hesitant to take them.
"Relax, it's not human flesh—it's rat meat."
I nodded, took the meat, and stared at the little lumps of dried rat. It wasn’t human flesh, but rat meat was still hard to swallow.
"I saved you because you seemed all right. If you want to starve, suit yourself."
My arms and legs were weak with hunger. I closed my eyes and ate a lump. It tasted pretty good, so I finished it all and opened my eyes.
"Thank you." I glanced again at the brick.
"Don’t even think about it. If you weren’t so close to starving, I wouldn’t have given you so much. I only eat once every two days."