Chapter 58: Darkness

Perhaps, if others could remember what they had forgotten before being “chosen” by the Ashes Urn, they could avoid the fate of self-harm leading to death.

This raised a serious question before Lü Yang…

If, if the next Ashes Urn had his name on it, then what exactly had he forgotten? What should he try hard to remember?

What had he forgotten?

After thinking hard for a while, Lü Yang suddenly felt his mind growing fuzzy, as if he was in a half-asleep, half-awake state. He silently exclaimed “Not good!” and tried hard to shake his head, finally managing to become clear-headed again.

This Mysterious Domain should be related to the Minibus, because except for the unfamiliar bearded man in the Small Supermarket, everyone else was the driver or passengers from the Minibus.

Lü Yang carefully recalled everything that had happened since he boarded the Minibus at the service area near Lutou Town. If he had forgotten something, it was that he fell asleep shortly after getting on the bus. He woke up and found himself inside this Mysterious Domain, then the Ashes Urn appeared, and people started dying one by one.

Could it be that something happened after he fell asleep that he had forgotten?

That’s right!

Before waking up, Lü Yang remembered having a nightmare. In the dream, he was rock climbing, then accidentally fell from halfway up the mountain. His body hit the ground hard, making his whole body ache, and then he woke up.

The question was… what was the meaning of this nightmare? Was it related to this Mysterious Domain?

Maybe it was just a meaningless dream.

Just as Lü Yang was trying to recall more details of this nightmare, the light in the Kitchen suddenly went out, and everything around became extremely quiet.

Except for the faint whimpering sounds coming to his ears…

These sounds were very similar to the whimpering sounds within the Black Mist outside Qingyuan Residential Area last time…

Lü Yang instinctively stood up and looked toward the Kitchen window. Some faint light from somewhere allowed Lü Yang to vaguely see some Black Mist seeping in through the cracks of the Kitchen window. Outside the window, nothing else could be seen, only the menacing Black Mist that emitted the whimpering sounds, as if it wanted to rush in and devour everything.

“Damn!”

Lü Yang felt like he couldn’t breathe for a moment. He instinctively cursed loudly. Feeling some movement behind him, he suddenly turned around.

By the Kitchen counter, two chefs had appeared out of nowhere! They were using kitchen knives in their hands to chop something on the counter.

When Lü Yang looked at them, these two chefs also turned their heads to look at Lü Yang…

What kind of terrifying faces were these?

Demons? Even demons could hardly describe the intense psychological pressure they were imposing on Lü Yang at this moment.

Thick Black Mist drifted and swirled around both chefs. This Black Mist was the same kind that drifted in through the Kitchen window cracks. It covered the chefs’ bodies like a layer of dark armor, making the already terrifying-looking chefs even more menacing.

As the two chefs looked at Lü Yang, they both raised their kitchen knives. A growl similar to that of a wild beast came from their throats, and they charged together toward Lü Yang.

Caught off guard, Lü Yang wanted to dodge but unexpectedly slipped, falling heavily onto the greasy Kitchen floor. The two dark chefs had already rushed close to Lü Yang. Their kitchen knives held high, they swung them down fiercely toward Lü Yang’s body.

Was everything going to end so quickly?

Lying on the ground, Lü Yang couldn’t perform any other defensive or counterattacking moves. He just instinctively raised his arms to shield himself.

With a soft ‘snap!’, the light in the Kitchen suddenly turned on again. The pouring light was like flames, and the Black Mist drifting around the chefs was like black gauze in the wind, quickly burning into ash under the scorching flames. Accompanied by two screams that gradually became extremely distant and shrill, Lü Yang watched as the two dark chefs holding kitchen knives instantly turned into flying ash and completely disappeared before his eyes.

By the time Lü Yang stood up, everything in the Kitchen had returned to normal. The large bloody words left by Bai Wenzhi before her death were still very prominent and gruesome on the wall. The window was no longer covered by Black Mist, and there was even very bright light outside, allowing Lü Yang to see the Minibus parked at the entrance of the Gas Station service area.

Having experienced the previous scene and suddenly returning here made Lü Yang feel even more unreal.

Clearly, the level of strangeness of this Mysterious Domain far exceeded that of the Mysterious Domain which appeared last time in Qingyuan Residential Area.

What did these chefs shrouded in Black Mist represent? Was Bai Wenzhi killed by them?

There were too many and too complex clues, making it impossible for Lü Yang to sort them out quickly.

Moreover, the Eerie Computer had mysteriously disappeared.

…

“Little brother, come out and discuss together.” The chubby thirty-year-old man walked to the Kitchen door and called out to Lü Yang, interrupting his increasingly chaotic thoughts.

Lü Yang stood up, tried hard to calm himself, and followed the man back to the Restaurant.

The pale light of the Restaurant illuminated the pale faces under it. Everyone’s face was filled with tension, fear, and even more so, confusion.

The middle-aged man had laid his wife’s body flat on a dining table. He looked extremely pained. His daughter, covered in blood, was crouched over her mother Bai Wenzhi, crying continuously. The others sat around a table a few meters away from the poor family, probably wanting to discuss some strategies, which is why they had someone go in to call Lü Yang out.

Under the direction of the thirty-year-old Woman, everyone introduced themselves. Because Lü Yang had observed them earlier, he could now match them with their respective names.

The couple in the second row were lovers. The man was named Wang Yuxing, and the woman was named Shen Qi. They currently lived in Guishe City and had been traveling in Cangsong City, where Lutou Town was located, for the past few days. They were taking the Minibus to return to Guishe City. The chubby middle-aged man in the second row was named Xiong Yifei. He was a salesman for a beverage company. He went to Cangsong City for a business trip and was taking the Minibus back to Guishe City after completing his work.

The twenty-year-old Woman sitting in the third row of the Minibus was named Sun Yujiao. She was a college student in Guishe City. The two boys playing handheld games in the same row were cousins. The older one was named Zhang Haibo, and the younger one was named Zhao Kun. They were both from Cangsong City. It was Friday today, and they had planned to go together to a relative’s house in Guishe City for the weekend.

The thirty-year-old Woman in the fourth row was named Yi Qiuhong. She was a teacher from Guishe City. Her hometown was in Cangsong City. She had gone to Cangsong City the day before yesterday because a family member in her hometown passed away. She was taking the Minibus to return to Guishe City.

Because Lü Yang had committed a crime in Lutou Town, and the Eerie Computer had mysteriously disappeared, he wasn’t sure if the events of tonight would leave memories with these people. After hesitating for a moment, he didn’t report his real name but used a very common name, Wang Ming, for them, falsely claiming to be a college student.

A moment later, Lü Yang felt he had overthought things. Whether these people, including himself, could leave this place alive was still a question. Why was he still thinking about things that might happen later?

On second thought, the names reported by these people might not all be real either, but that wasn’t important. Names held little significance at this time; they were just labels, convenient for everyone to know who was next when the Ashes Urn appeared again.