CH 385

As the saying goes, what goes around comes around. Han Fei received Zhuang Wen’s protection because he had helped her escape Butterfly’s control at Building 1. Even though she was scorched by the embers of hatred, Zhuang Wen still incidentally helped protect Han Fei’s life. However, that was the extent of their relationship. Han Fei couldn’t persuade Zhuang Wen beyond that.

At this dangerous moment, Zhuang Wen didn’t mean to escape but gathered all of her hatred to slam at the altar!

The old altar started to bleed. The ancient blood was extremely smelly. The blood capillaries snapped and blood flowers wilted in the air. A very scary force was awakening inside the altar. It seemed to be connected to the cocoon shell for it could manipulate everything within the valley inside the cocoon and the sea of blood.

Blood vessels crawled out from the sea of flowers and formed a giant net to envelop Zhuang Wen and Han Fei with the altar.

Under Zhuang Wen’s relentless assault, the surface of the altar started to crack. A Lingering Hatred was unable to destroy an altar. That gave Han Fei a new understanding of the Unmentionable. However Zhuang Wen’s attacks were not meaningless. At least she had provided Big Sin with a better opening to feast.

Big Sin had consumed part of the heart and it drank all the blood that leaked out as well. The heart inside the altar was connected to the souls and nightmares of the endless children. Every drop of blood from this heart contained the deepest terror. ‘Big Sin probably sensed this thing the moment we entered Ziggurat. It chose to hide inside my arm because it didn’t want to be discovered by this thing. It was not until I approached the altar that it came out from my body.’ Big Sin treated Han Fei as its disguise. This pet looked honest but in reality, it was more cunning than its owner. ‘Both Big Sin and Butterfly came from the human cocoon, Butterfly represents the human side of things and Big Sin is the opposite. Regardless, they should have the same yearning and desire.’

The situation had gone out of Han Fei’s control. The only thing he could do was to finish the last few pig’s hearts that Xu Qin left for him. His Life Points started to recover.

Big Sin inside the altar feasted on the heart, Zhuang Wen outside the altar continued her attacks. The black mist around the cocoon shell churned violently. The building above them started to crack. Roots-like blood vessels crawled into the Ziggurat. Before this, it was the heart inside the altar which was supporting the Ziggurat, but now it started to absorb something from the Ziggurat.

After it was injured, the Unmentionable inside the altar opened its eyes. The underground floors began to collapse. The black mist swirled agitatedly. Propelled by some force, the ‘God’ inside the altar was being slowly awakened.

A strange voice sounded inside the heart of nightmare. It mumbled something that no one could understand as the dead heart inside the altar started to beat again!

…

While drastic changes were happening underground, the sound of Soul Bells swinging came from Room 4244. The sound was a portent of something evil. Initially the Soul Bells only rang inside Room 4244 but soon all the rooms at Ziggurat chimed with the tingling of Soul Bells.

“Grandma, it’s not 4.44 am yet, I still want to stay with everyone.” Beside a normal dining table sat a girl with a ponytail. She had chubby cheeks and her dimples were cute when she smiled.

“Grandma also wants you to stay longer but it is time.” An old lady stood up from the wooden table. She entered the kitchen to grab a knife. “Thank you for accompanying me for so long.” The old lady looked kindly at the little girl by the table. The girl held a spoon in one hand and grabbed a bowl filled with paper dumplings with another. The girl was a natural smiler. Even when the old lady reappeared with the knife, the girl was still smiling.

The raised arm chopped at the girl’s head. The knife cut through the girl’s skin but no blood came out. The girl laughed as her body shattered like paper mache until a fragment of a family portrait remained on the chair.

“Love, it’s your turn now.” The old woman turned to the old man who sat beside her. The elder was reticent but the way he looked at the old woman was gentle and soft. Similarly, the old man’s body cracked like paper with a chop. The old lady’s muddled eyes were teary but she had to do these things.

She turned around to look at her family who gathered at the dining table. 4 generations were there and the atmosphere was joyous. But other than herself, everyone at the table was a paper doll. This was the child’s fault, the child who should have already died. “This is the punishment we deserve for the sin we committed.”

The old lady resisted her tears as she chopped down her family one by one. She collected the fragments from her family members and pieced the family portrait together. Then she turned to look at the chair at the end of the table. The chair was smaller than a normal chair, and it looked new like it was not meant to be used but was just a décor.

“You were never a part of the family dinner when we were alive, but now you are the only one left at the dining table.” Picking up the chair, the old lady came to the centre of the living room. She studied the altar that she built and placed the completed family portrait before the altar.

The lit candles were extinguished. The food on the sacrificial table didn’t change but they released a horrible smell like they had decayed from the inside. The lights inside the room died after a few flickers. The old lady silently moved the unseated chair to place it before the altar.

Picking up the Soul Bell, the old lady shook the bell as she chanted something. She opened all of the doors inside the house and snipped off the red ropes that were tied around the house. The previously normal room instantly became eerie. The wind fluttered the remnants of the paper doll on the ground. The smiling paper doll faces started to weep. The axles of the windows and doors creaked. The door of the altar started to tremble as well. The family portrait also started to change.

The family portrait was of the old lady’s 4 generation so many people were in that picture. But suddenly a disfigured shadow appeared. It was not part of the portrait but its appearance didn’t feel forced like it was supposed to be part of this family.

The old lady jingled the Soul Bell as she chanted the spell for the ritual. Her own body was breaking but her body was bound with red threads. The red threads fixed her flesh and soul in place so that her body wouldn’t break. She used all her strength to chant the soul-summoning ritual. As the old lady’s voice came out from Room 4244, the dirge rang out in the entire Ziggurat.

The Soul Ladders in front of all the rooms shattered, and paper money shuffled into the air. At the moment of twilight, the doors of the altar inside Room 4244 slowly opened!

The family portrait placed before the altar was sucked into the altar. The family portrait appeared to be the only picture left behind by the Ziggurat manager. The old lady hunched over as she chanted faster and faster.

Slowly the altar inside Room 4244 started to change as if resonating with the altar underground. Black capillaries erupted from the altar in Room 4244 and spread madly throughout Ziggurat. All the Death Curses hidden inside the tenants were triggered. Fear, despair and pain reminded everyone of that terrifying presence.

All the dressers inside Ziggurat started to bleed. The channel between nightmare and the cryptic world was opening. The tenants’ fear was the bridge between these two worlds. Screams of despair echoed inside the buildings. The stench of evil permeated every corner of Ziggurat.

The black capillaries from the top floor carried intense hatred and pressed downwards; the black capillaries from underground carried the scent of Death and crawled upwards, eventually they met on the 4th floor. The blood capillaries entangled together. When the hatred and death were about to combine, a shrill Song exploded. The tenants felt a new source of fear!

The Unmentionable was enraged as the combination of the hatred and death was halted by the Singer. Tears appeared on the 4th floor of Building 4. Room 4044 was the centre of death and hatred. The blood door where the headless door guardian once resided was torn apart. The dressers inside the Ziggurat were tipping. No matter how big the commotion was before, the dressers were never affected.

However as the door to Room 4044 was shattered, the cracks splintered into Room 4044. The dressers inside the room started to creak, the instability of the cryptic world had affected the dresser world.

Inside the dresser world, the bloody clothes started to swing. Blood red cracks appeared on the ceiling and ground like scars. The monsters who resided here started to run and hide. The edges of the dresser world were collapsing as it slowly joined with the cryptic world. Originally the dresser world was the bridge between the nightmares and the real world but now it was being dragged into the cryptic world.

To make matters worse, currently that was a gigantic senior monster wildly attacking the dresser at the centre of the dresser world. His eyes burned with the blame flame of hatred. The seemingly normal dresser door had held up against all of the senior monster’s attacks. It was not until the cracks started to appear in the dresser world that the dresser at the centre started to show signs of damage.

“This dresser is the core of the cursed object and the reason this dresser world exists. If I cannot have this, then no one can!” The cackle was mixed with hatred. The senior monster looked more like a madman. The small splinters on the dresser grew in size. The transmutation had far-reaching effects.

…

Coastal Apartment was Huang Yin’s childhood home, it was located at the best spot in the old city, this was where all of his best memories were located.

The bowl slammed to the ground. The dishes splattered everywhere. A woman in an apron stood before the dresser inside the bedroom. She was not tall and looked gentle. Her lifelong occupation as a teacher lent her a scholarly presence. The woman looked just like Huang Yin’s mother but Huang Yin who was locked inside the dresser knew that no matter how good the disguise was, she was not his mother.

Picking up the oil-stained pieces of the bowl, the woman knelt before the dresser. She glared at Huang Yin who was trapped inside the dresser like a dog and the hatred in her eyes surfaced.

“So this is all you know?” The wounded Huang Yin lifted his head. After he was killed multiple times by his ‘mother’, he slowly understood something. At the start, he thought that being killed by his mother would help ease the guilt in his heart. He even asked for death, which confused the Butterfly for a period.

But as he died again and again, Huang Yin realized the guilt in his heart was the same. Certain things would forever be imprinted in the mind after it had happened. No matter how many times it was repeated in the nightmare, there would be no changes in real life. When his mother saved him, she would never want him to carry self-blame and pain for life.

To live in bliss and happiness, that was the biggest appreciation he could give her.

Trapped inside the dresser, with only a few breaths left, Huang Yin still had a smile on his face. It was the few genuine ones he had. Without averting his eyes, he looked at the face that fully resembled his mother’s. The self-blame in his eyes had been replaced by pity.

“My mother will never do these things to me but your parents have. You’re pitiable but I don’t pity you.” Huang Yin was openly provoking the Butterfly but he didn’t care. “You’ve used so many ways to torture me, have your parents done the same things to you? They treated you like an animal so you act like an animal?

“Such a pitiable creature, you have not even a shred of humanity left in you. Compared to you, I cannot even begin to describe how happy I am. Even though I’m going to die, I am happy because I have been loved. And you’ll never experience that, because no one will love you and you do not deserve to be loved. Ha ha ha!”

Huang Yin inside the dresser laughed at Butterfly. The woman who stood before the dresser had her face twisted. The nightmare was twisting like she was trying to break Huang Yin’s soul with brute force.

But at that moment, the woman sensed something strange. She lowered her head to look at her chest. There was a crack near her heart and the crack was expanding!

She frowned as she turned to look at the wall clock. In every one of Huang Yin’s nightmare, there was a clock. Currently the time was 4 am.

It was not yet the designated time but there was already problems with her body. The woman dragged Huang Yin out from the dresser and crawled into it herself. She looked so desperate like she wouldn’t be able to return if she stayed any longer.