Chapter 166: Trembling
Chapter 166: Trembling
Fire, the Dark Predator, the wall outside the window, blood in the bathtub, the eerie mirror, the never-ending staircase…
What was the connection between these elements?
This didn’t feel like a Mysterious Domain—it felt more like a curse.
Was it cursing me to never wake from this nightmare?
But according to the basic rules of a Mysterious Domain, the Curse Card could not have no solution!
For now, don’t think about the curse. Treat this like a Mysterious Domain. Every Mysterious Domain has a Path of Survival!
A glimmer of light flashed through Lü Yang’s mind…
“Damn! I get it! This isn’t Zhou Ling’s curse; this is a Mysterious Domain—a reversed one where time is chaotic but hasn’t truly started yet! My job isn’t to find a way to survive within this Domain, but to stop this Mysterious Domain from ever starting! That’s the only real Path of Survival in this Nightmare Ghost Domain!”
“If I get out of bed now and wander around, I’ll run into that wall again. Sooner or later, I’ll get the notice that the Mysterious Domain has started, then get pushed into the bathroom to find something terrifying in the mirror, and finally die in the bathtub.”
“Up until now, the Mysterious Domain hasn’t truly begun, so even though I’ve died many times, I keep coming back to life. If I get out of bed again, I suspect the Mysterious Domain will finally begin for real. And once it starts, if I die inside this time, that’ll be the real end for me.”
“So the Path of Survival in this Nightmare Ghost Domain is simply not to let the Nightmare Ghost Domain start!”
“This isn’t a dream—it’s a Mysterious Domain. I’m not wandering around in my sleep; I’m wandering in a Mysterious Domain.”
“The way to prevent the Nightmare Ghost Domain from starting is to lie here without moving and fall back to sleep as fast as I can! Even if I’m bursting to pee, I can’t get out of bed! If I stay in bed until morning comes, this Mysterious Domain won’t be able to start. Since the Mysterious Domain can’t start, I won’t die inside it. That means I can safely get through this one.”
“This is just a guess, but it’s probably my only chance to survive.”
“Since charging around blindly won’t end this Mysterious Domain, I might as well try lying still.”
Sleep…
…
Sleep…
…
Sleep…
…
Lü Yang faintly felt like he was having a dream…
This time, he truly was dreaming.
In the dream, he felt a really urgent need to pee, so he got up and went to the bathroom.
After relieving himself, Lü Yang went to the sink to wash his hands. He instinctively glanced at the mirror… The bathroom mirror looked hazy…
A distant voice whispered in his ear…
“The Mysterious Domain has begun…”
Right then, Lü Yang looked closely at his reflection and saw himself shrouded in a faint Black Mist, with an extremely menacing expression.
When Lü Yang and his reflection locked eyes, the reflection in the mirror threw a punch—bang!—shattering the glass… but the mirror in front of Lü Yang remained intact… The reflection had shattered the mirror on its side!
The reflection in the mirror became clearer. It picked up a sharp shard of broken glass from its sink, pressed it against its own neck, and violently slashed sideways. Blood instantly spurted from the reflection’s neck, splattering across the mirror’s surface…
Then the reflected Lü Yang raised a finger and, in the blood-spattered mirror, wrote the character for “death.”
Suddenly, Lü Yang felt a sharp pain in his own neck. He instinctively touched it—and his hand came away covered in blood!
The reflection in the mirror began to grin viciously. Lü Yang, outside the mirror, stared in horror at his own image, struggling fiercely… He reached out, wiped away the “death” character, and with his other blood-covered hand, scrawled a messy character for “sleep” on the mirror…
Finally… he could no longer stand steadily. He stumbled backward a couple of steps and fell into the bathtub. The wound on his neck grew larger, blood gushing out like a water jet, quickly filling the bottom of the tub.
Gurgling sounds came from Lü Yang’s throat. He tried desperately to climb out of the tub but couldn’t manage.
The showerhead above suddenly turned on, spraying blood. Before long, Lü Yang was completely submerged in the bathtub.
…
“Ah!”
Lü Yang screamed and woke up.
It was already bright outside the window.
“Successfully prevented the Nightmare Ghost Domain from starting. Rewarded with 4 Eerie Points, 2 Eerie Stones, and 1 Gui Pearl…”
“Received one Dream Entry Card…”
“…”
Hearing such clear notifications from the Eerie Computer, Lü Yang took several deep breaths, finally beginning to believe he had truly woken from that nightmare.
Lü Yang’s body trembled uncontrollably. He felt like he had never been in such pain or exhaustion before; right now, he felt deeply hopeless from the bottom of his heart.
Everyone has their limits. Lü Yang had just survived a life-and-death struggle with Zhou Ling and hadn’t yet recovered from that fatigue when, in the middle of the night, he was dragged into this extremely terrifying and baffling Nightmare Ghost Domain. It had almost pushed him past his breaking point.
Especially since he had lived in this Rented Room for almost two years. This was his home—no matter how tired or worn out he was outside, he could always relax completely here.
Who would have thought it could turn into such a horrifying Mysterious Domain? For the first time in his life, Lü Yang felt a deep lack of security.
The bare minimum sense of safety a person needs in this world.
When a Woman lacks a sense of safety, she can turn to a man for support and protection.
When a man lacks a sense of safety, he can’t seek support or protection from anyone. The only thing left for him is despair.
Whether he could pull himself out of this despair depended entirely on his own strong will.
Several minutes passed, but Lü Yang’s body still shook violently, unstoppable…
He wasn’t afraid of death.
Yet, he was also very afraid of dying.
He feared that if he died, he would never save Yi Yi, never again protect Yi Ya, and never have the chance to hope for the small happiness he once dreamed of.
Originally, he was just an ordinary Migrant Worker who came to the city—a contented person sitting by the roadside, with no grand ambitions or lofty goals. He didn’t ask for much from the world; just having enough food, water to bathe, and a clean bed to sleep in was enough to make him happy.
Later, he met Yi Ya, and his ambitions grew a little—but they were still modest, limited to protecting her from afar. Then Yi Yi’s arrival changed his life again, bringing him back to his contented state. Back then, he already felt very happy.
But an unexpected incident changed everything, taking away all the happiness he thought he had.
The onset of a Mysterious Domain always came without warning. After the incident at Xingyue Gas Station, a long time had passed without another one starting. But after being forcibly dragged into the Eerie Domain of Lutou Mountain by Zhou Ling, Lü Yang himself created another Mysterious Domain in order to kill her. Through a battle of wits and courage, at the last moment, he turned the tables and killed Zhou Ling. But he never expected that before he could even get a full night’s rest, a Nightmare Ghost Domain would descend without any warning.
Mysterious Domains had no rules; they didn’t need a reason to occur, and they certainly didn’t wait for a time you thought was convenient…
Lü Yang sat on the bed for a full half hour before his body finally stopped trembling and his emotions slowly calmed. He got out of bed and went to the window, looking at the clear sky after the gloom. The sunlight had begun to shine down, even reaching him through the window. His heart gradually began to thaw.
No matter what, he must not give up. He had to grit his teeth and persevere. If he gave up now, Yi Yi would be lost forever. And then there was his silent promise to Yi Ya—the vow in his heart to protect her all her life.
If he managed to save Yi Yi, he would claim both sisters for himself! Why not? Lü Yang clenched his fists. He had never felt so greedy before.
Unless they absolutely refused—then he’d reconsider.
…
After washing his face and cooking himself a bowl of noodles, Lü Yang started thinking.
Last night’s nightmare was a Mysterious Domain, not Zhou Ling’s curse. That meant Zhou Ling’s curse still hadn’t been triggered yet. If the curse really existed and the “one day” she mentioned meant 24 hours, then it should have ended by this morning.
When did Zhou Ling die yesterday?
The timing should be about right now, shouldn’t it?
Lü Yang picked up his Mobile Phone and checked the time. Breakfast time was long over; he should call Yi Ya and ask how she was doing.
That girl—she acted all cold and proud, like she didn’t care, but deep down she cared a lot. If he didn’t call her for a while, she would get upset.
Yi Ya’s Mobile Phone was turned off.
A sliver of unease passed through Lü Yang’s heart. Especially after the Death Killer incident last time, whenever Yi Ya wasn’t around and her phone was unreachable, Lü Yang would panic.
Lü Yang quickly dialed Lin Yin’s number. Thankfully, her Mobile Phone was on, and she answered quickly.
“Lin Yin, is Xiao Ya with you?” Lü Yang asked as soon as she picked up.
“She… I think she was called away by the Counselor. You couldn’t reach her Mobile Phone, right?” Lin Yin looked around before answering.
“Her phone’s off,” Lü Yang explained why he had called her. Hearing that Yi Ya wasn’t with Lin Yin still made him a little uneasy.
“It’s not turned off; there’s just no signal. Yesterday we had a Torrential Rain here with thunderstorms. I heard lightning struck and burned out the nearby mobile base station. Lots of students’ phones have no signal. My phone isn’t with that carrier, so I’m not affected…” Lin Yin explained in detail.
“Oh, really?” Lü Yang frowned. The area of Millstone Mountain where Yi Ya’s class was doing their fieldwork was quite remote. If the mobile base station got burned out by lightning, who knew when it would be fixed? That meant it wouldn’t be easy to contact Yi Ya from now on.
“Well, my phone works. If you need to reach Xiao Ya, just call me directly,” Lin Yin said understandingly.
Old Demon slept soundly yesterday and didn’t wake up until nine in the morning. While waking up, he had a very eerie and terrifying, but also quite detailed, dream.
This dream had a clear setting, a clear structure, and lots of clues. Old Demon kept thinking hard and searching for a Path of Survival until he finally woke up.
Haha… In the future, I’ll let Lü Yang’s soul possess him to share it with everyone…