In this clapping game, the order of clapping was extremely important.
To avoid confusion caused by multiple people clapping at the same time and breaking the rules, the six survivors were each assigned a number.
Wu Xian was number one, Shi Ji was number two.
Yue Mei was three, Wen Chao was four.
Su Huilan was five, and Su Huijin was six.
The sequence was decided by drawing lots in the room. Wu Xian represented room 403 in the draw, and unfortunately, he drew number one. When number one clapped, he had to clap loudly once; number two would clap twice...
The next clapper had to clap within ten seconds of receiving the signal.
If more than ten seconds passed without a clap from the next person, it meant something had gone wrong. Then the following person had to clap within the next ten seconds to keep the game going without interruption.
...
Time was running out.
Wu Xian closed his eyes, braced himself mentally, and suddenly clapped loudly.
Clap!
The sound was crisp.
As his palm struck, it was as if the entire world fell silent.
The prayers outside the window stopped; even the occasional screeches of the evil spirits vanished. All Wu Xian could perceive was absolute silence and darkness.
He rubbed his palms, numb from clapping so hard, and waited in the pitch black for the evil spirit to find him.
Time was a strange concept.
Often, when people wished time to slow down to prolong a pleasant moment, it would race away like a wild horse.
Conversely, when people desperately wanted time to speed up to get through painful moments, it crawled like a snail.
For Wu Xian,
Right now, each second felt like a year.
In the absolute silence, Wu Xian's hearing sharpened. He could hear his own heartbeat, the ticking of a clock, and restless noises from other rooms.
After about five minutes, Wu Xian heard other sounds.
Pat pat… hissing…
It wasn't footsteps—more like hands hitting the ground, dragging a body along.
It was that hollow-bellied male corpse!
It had come for him!
It was coming to find Wu Xian in this cursed moment!
...
Under the dim yellow light,
A hollowed-out male corpse crawled up to the fourth floor of the Ping'an Inn. His limbs were strong, but his ruptured abdomen dragged along the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind.
Without internal organs, moving was laborious for him, and he only managed to reach here now that Wu Xian had stopped moving.
He hated this version of himself.
So he wanted to find Wu Xian, to become whole again!
Since Wu Xian had crushed his organs, his empty belly would be filled with Wu Xian's organs.
The crawling sounds of the corpse terrified all six survivors, adding a dangerous variable to the already risky clapping game.
The corpse crawled past rooms 401 and 402, finally stopping at the door of 403.
"Found... my organs," it whispered.
Wu Xian kept his eyes shut, sensing the corpse's presence from its voice.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as his mind churned with anxiety.
If he dared to open his eyes, he could easily slice this minor spirit into pieces with the eighty sword blades left on his copper coin sword!
But the worst part was, he was waiting for the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother.
He dared not open his eyes!
He didn't even dare to defend himself with the copper coin spear—because it heated up when it encountered spirits, and was too long. If the Ghost Mother found him while he wielded it, she might see it as an attack.
So Wu Xian silently clenched his fists.
He could only pray that once the corpse touched him, he could activate the Golden Crow Feather and use its firepower to repel it.
Suddenly—
The corpse's voice disappeared.
He straightened up from a crouch into a hunched stance, his speed suddenly increasing—yet without making a sound. That horrifying face was twisted with greedy desire.
In just two seconds, he stood right before Wu Xian, their faces separated by only the length of a tongue.
Because the corpse had no lungs, it couldn't breathe. Wu Xian didn't notice its approach and was still waiting for it to crawl closer, ready to strike a punch.
The corpse sneered.
The skin on its arm tore open, bones protruding and growing into a blood-streaked blade aimed straight at Wu Xian's abdomen. The corpse almost imagined how satisfying it would be to fill its hollow belly with fresh organs.
But at that moment, the corpse's movements froze.
Clang clang clang…
New sounds emerged—dense chains clinking together, mixed with the soft footsteps of a woman.
Wu Xian swallowed hard.
She had come.
The world's original evil spirit: the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother!
Judging by the many chains clinking, one could imagine how much the Blessed Land restrained her. Compared to her, even the violent spirit that broke down the door seemed free.
The footsteps grew closer bit by bit. Wu Xian clapped his hands again, letting the Ghost Mother know his location. The Ghost Mother then approached him.
The corpse grew restless and anxious.
It wasn't a normal evil spirit; its internal organs were hollowed out, and its brain was empty. Only the primal instinct of an evil spirit controlled it. That was why it dared to enter the Ghost Mother's domain.
Yet even this mindless spirit was suddenly overwhelmed by an unexplainable fear as the Ghost Mother drew near, losing interest in the nearby Wu Xian. It turned to flee.
No sooner had it turned than a pair of pale hands slapped its face.
It froze, staring blankly ahead. Then it watched, horrified, as those pale hands pierced into its eye sockets!
Clatter!
The corpse collapsed to the ground, its body beginning to rot at an accelerated speed—hundreds of times faster than normal.
The Child-Seeking Ghost Mother stepped over the corpse and waved her bloodstained pale hands, reaching forward until she found the source of the clapping—Wu Xian.
The cold hands groped over Wu Xian's body, stained with the blood from the corpse's eye sockets.
Wu Xian clenched his eyes shut, gritting his teeth to endure it.
Every time her hand touched him, countless images flooded his mind—faces, the faces of men, women, young and old, all at the moment of death.
Some were crying bitterly, some furious, some wailing—
Despair and terror, madness and regret, endless waves of negative emotions crashed over Wu Xian's brain. He even briefly considered simply opening his eyes and ending it all.
As long as the touch continued, these dark feelings kept pouring in.
The Ghost Mother soon found Wu Xian's eyes. Measuring the distance with her hands, she leaned closer and blew gently on his eyelids.
Now, Wu Xian had become the new Seeker.
At the same time, the other five survivors also felt a cold, foul breath blown over their eyelids.
A breath on the eyelids was the signal to switch the Seeker.
Upon receiving the signal, Shi Ji immediately clapped twice.
Wu Xian, knowing Shi Ji's position, searched in the dark for two seconds, then found him. Using his hands, he located Shi Ji's eyes and blew gently on them.
Because Wu Xian had brushed his teeth properly, what everyone smelled was the fresh scent of toothpaste.
ps: read advance chapters support my https://www.patreon.com/c/Seraphim777