I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 16

This was already the second time the white light had manifested before Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan. The two were thoroughly terrified by the sudden shattering of the bald man’s corpse, but Huo Zheng noticed the flickering light on Qi Yan’s body.

Tang Shanshan, frightened once again, screamed and stumbled back several steps before losing her balance and collapsing to the ground.

Qi Yan instinctively recoiled, staring blankly at the bald man’s corpse on the ground, her eyes wide with horror.

Huo Zheng adjusted his crooked glasses, forcing himself not to show fear, though his trembling legs betrayed him.

The three had no time to worry about each other. Tang Shanshan was too terrified to think, Huo Zheng was barely holding it together, and Qi Yan, protected by Bai Qing, was the most composed. She took a deep breath to steady herself and said, “He was torn limb from limb.”

“Yeah.” Huo Zheng took another two steps back. “But then he was pieced back together and nailed to the drum. What does that mean?”

Who knew?

Certainly not Qi Yan.

In the silence, Bai Qing spoke up: “His limbs were torn off by brute force. Whatever did this had immense strength, I don’t know what kind of creature it was.”

“…”

Qi Yan pressed her lips together tightly. Bai Qing’s tone was eerily casual, as if she had seen many people torn apart before.

“Let’s just go. I can’t stay here anymore!” Tang Shanshan, still sprawled on the ground, sounded on the verge of tears.

Huo Zheng agreed. “This place is too dangerous. We need to focus on staying alive first.”

Qi Yan knew that too, but she felt that leaving required uncovering more truths about the storybook’s mysteries.

“There are so many drums here, all different kinds. It seems the name ‘Drum Ritual Altar’ isn’t just for show.” Qi Yan quickly scanned the area, memorizing the rough layout of the underground space.

The other two were in bad shape, especially Tang Shanshan. Lingering here any longer wouldn’t help, it might even make things worse. It was better to retreat for now and return later if they got the chance.

“Then let’s—”

Before Qi Yan could finish, the ground beneath them suddenly shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck. Her eyes widened in shock, but before any of them could react further, the tremors intensified, shaking the entire space so violently that standing became impossible.

Huo Zheng’s instinct was to run, but maintaining balance was impossible in such a quake. He staggered and fell flat. Tang Shanshan, already paralyzed by fear, was knocked prone by the shaking.

Qi Yan, quick to react, tried to grab Tang Shanshan before she herself fell, only for the ground beneath her to give way, and suddenly, she was plummeting downward.

Shit!

The abrupt weightlessness was overwhelming. The air pressure during the fall squeezed her organs nearly out of shape. A massive stone seemed lodged in her chest, making it impossible to breathe in or out.

Am I really going to die like this?

Whether she would die or not was uncertain, but the impact of hitting the ground was even worse. The organs already aching from the pressure were now jolted violently by the landing, churning unbearably. Qi Yan’s vision blacked out as she passed out.

Bai Qing sent a wisp of spiritual energy from the ring, transforming into white mist that seeped into Qi Yan’s body.

“Ha, huh!”

Qi Yan’s eyes snapped open as the mist-infused air traveled through her limbs, reigniting her entire being.

“Haha!”

Qi Yan stirred, feeling pain all over her body, with a burning sensation in her internal organs, it was unbearable. She rolled halfway on the ground with her eyes closed, utterly unable to muster the strength to lift herself up.

The surroundings were pitch black. Tears welled up in Qi Yan’s eyes from the pain as she tried to push herself up, but the strength in her arms only allowed her to remain in an awkward position, as if she had collapsed mid-pushup.

Apart from the two of them, there was no one else around. The deafening tremors that had just shaken the heavens and earth had vanished, leaving everything eerily quiet.

Bai Qing emerged from the ring, looking down at Qi Yan, who was sprawled on the ground with her rear in the air. “Are you planning to crawl on all fours next?”

Qi Yan gritted her teeth in frustration and glared up at her. “Do you even have a heart?! I fell so hard, I’m in pain everywhere my body, my organs, I’m practically dying! Not only do you not offer a single word of comfort, but you even mock me! Do you think I don’t want to stand up? I can’t! How can you say something like that? Are you even human?!”

She ranted at length, only for Bai Qing to reply with one line: “I’m indeed not human.”

Infuriating!

Qi Yan decided to ignore this damn fox. She lay on the ground, taking a moment to recover, then curled her legs and shifted from lying flat to sitting up.

Only when the sharp pain gradually subsided did Qi Yan have the energy to take in their surroundings.

“It’s so dark. Where have we fallen?”

It was pitch black. Aside from their faint silhouettes, nothing else was visible.

Bai Qing raised her hand, and a wisp of spiritual energy seeped from her fingertips, like a tiny flame, barely illuminating the space.

Qi Yan used the light from Bai Qing’s hand to look around, realizing they were in a massive pit.

As the pain dulled slightly, her senses returned, allowing her to notice other things. Qi Yan began to feel something odd beneath her, the bottom of the pit wasn’t flat but uneven, and shifting even slightly produced a rustling sound.

She reached out to touch it, finding the texture strange, and curiously lowered her head to look.

The sight made her leap to her feet in fright. It was almost comical despite the excruciating pain from the fall that had made even sitting up difficult, sheer terror had given her the strength to jump up instantly.

Who wouldn’t jump? The ground was covered in bones!

And unless she was mistaken, they were human bones. The skulls with their gaping black eye sockets and eerie gleam were unmistakable!

Qi Yan sprang onto Bai Qing, not wanting to step on the bones. As a fellow human, it felt deeply unsettling. As for Bai Qing she was floating anyway!

In the process, Qi Yan made a surprising discovery: “You have a physical form now?”

Bai Qing’s lips twitched, and she seriously considered throwing this person off. She didn’t understand it herself Qi Yan had jumped onto her without warning, and instead of dodging or tossing her aside, her first instinct had been to catch her in her arms in a princess carry, no less.

Qi Yan added, “I always thought you were just a shadowy figure. I didn’t realize you could manifest physically.”

Bai Qing suppressed the urge to hurl her away and said coldly, “I had a physical form the first time we met.”

“Oh, right, right. I forgot.” Qi Yan scratched her head, then glanced back at the bones, shuddering. “What, what’s going on here?”

Bai Qing floated a bit higher, looking down with a cold voice, “It looks like a mass grave.”

“A mass grave.” Qi Yan felt a chill run down her spine. “This Drum Music Altar is too eerie. There’s a giant bronze deer on the ground, called the Drum Music Altar, yet all the drums and music are hidden underground and even deeper, there’s this mass grave.”

Looking down, she saw vast stretches of bleached bones and the terrifying hollow eye sockets of skulls.

A cold sweat broke out on the back of Qi Yan’s neck, and she didn’t dare to look any closer.

“Shouldn’t we shouldn’t we find a way out first? At least let’s get out of this pit, it’s too creepy.”

Bai Qing gave a noncommittal hum and carried Qi Yan up and out of the pit before setting her down. Finally standing on solid ground again, Qi Yan regained some sense of security. She used the light emanating from Bai Qing’s hand to examine the surrounding stone walls, noticing that this space felt much smaller than the one above.

“The walls are very close to the edge of the pit. It feels like this space was specifically built as a burial pit. Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan aren’t here. They must have fallen somewhere different from me. Should we look for a hidden door or something?”

Bai Qing pondered for a moment before raising her hand and summoning a wave of spiritual energy. A bright white light floated up, illuminating their surroundings.

Qi Yan’s eyes sparkled with admiration. “You’re amazing!”

Perhaps flattered, Bai Qing narrowed her eyes slightly in satisfaction. “My spiritual energy hasn’t fully recovered yet. This won’t last long, so we need to hurry.”

“I know, I know.” Qi Yan understood the urgency, but the problem was she had no idea what to do. She could only helplessly tap on the stone walls at random.

Their efforts felt aimless. The stone chamber wasn’t large overall, but the burial pit was enormous, clearly the main purpose of this space.

Qi Yan crouched by the pit and peered down. The piled-up corpses, combined with the collapsed ceiling above, had left them with even less space to move. Large sections were blocked by fallen rocks, making passage impossible.

No matter what, for the bodies to have been transported here, there must have been a backdoor or passage. But if the passage had collapsed during the earthquake, escaping would be even more difficult.

Frowning in thought, Qi Yan finally looked up at Bai Qing. “Can’t you just blast a hole through the wall?”

Bai Qing shrugged. “I could have in the past, but now it’s difficult.”

Fair enough.

Qi Yan remembered Bai Qing’s spiritual energy wasn’t fully restored yet.

“So what do we do?” She felt like giving up, but her survival instinct pushed her to keep thinking.

Since most of the area was blocked by the collapse, they had to focus on the intact sections. Qi Yan stood up and walked to the stone wall, noticing faint traces of color.

“Is this, a mural?”

In all her life, this was the first time Qi Yan had seen an ancient mural buried deep underground. She remembered reading about them in novels murals often appeared in tomb-raiding stories, depicting the life of the tomb’s owner.

For a moment, Qi Yan wanted to ask if someone important was buried here.

But then she reconsidered. This stone chamber did contain bodies many of them but they were clearly discarded haphazardly, not the kind of person who would warrant a mural in their honor.

So what was it? She stared intently at the mural, her expression growing more serious.

Bai Qing walked beside her with arms crossed when suddenly his ears twitched. His gaze turned sharp as he stared at the stone wall on the other side.

Something was approaching from behind it.

Boom!

Rumble!

The sound grew louder and closer so close that even Qi Yan, whose hearing was far less acute than Bai Qing’s, could hear it now.

“W-what is that?”

Qi Yan took two fearful steps back. Bai Qing’s eyes flashed coldly as he suddenly flicked his sleeve, sweeping Qi Yan to his side. In the nick of time, the stone wall before them was violently shattered by an unseen force, collapsing once more.

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