Chapter 37: The Ghostly Grave in the Mist

The already gloomy forest felt even colder now. The biting wind chilled them to the bone, and the thought that they might have already been exposed filled them with panic.

"Everyone, stay calm," Su Yueling said, sensing the shifting atmosphere. "If the Ghost Lady had truly discovered us, she wouldn't be testing us; she would have come to kill us outright."

Sun Qian, after a moment of calm reflection, added, "Exactly. At most, the Ghost Lady is only suspicious. If we just reply with something like, 'My dear, what are you talking about? I haven't painted any Land of Fantasy,' we should be able to get through this."

"But what if a painting called *Land of Fantasy* actually exists? Wouldn't that mean we are completely exposed?" Xu Bing raised another possibility: that *Land of Fantasy* was real, but they simply hadn't found it.

Sun Qian looked troubled. "That is possible, but all the paintings from the house are here, and there is no *Land of Fantasy*. If it really existed, how could it have just vanished into thin air?"

Once again, they were caught in a dilemma. They couldn't be sure if *Land of Fantasy* existed, nor could they be certain if the Ghost Lady was merely testing them. A single wrong reply could lead to their total annihilation. It felt as if everything had returned to square one. How should they answer the Ghost Lady's letter? How could they continue to use vague language to deceive her without raising her suspicions, all while being unsure of the painting's existence? It was an incredibly difficult problem.

"Regardless, we must leave this place. West Forest is too unsafe," Su Yueling said, feeling a sense of unease as the sky grew darker.

"Agreed. Let's return to the cabin before discussing how to reply," Sun Qian nodded.

Compared to the oppressive Ghost Lady, the mysterious West Forest was not to be trifled with either. This damned, unsolvable instance was dangerous and sinister at every turn. The group gathered Lin Yuan's paintings and took them along, leaving the money and shovels behind. Their capacity to carry items was limited, and traveling light would help them reach the cabin faster.

They soon set off, but unlike their journey here, it was not as smooth. Unbeknownst to them, white mist began to rise within the deep forest. The fog was thick, obscuring everything ahead.

"Be careful, everyone stay close together. Don't get separated," Sun Qian warned, ensuring everyone remained bunched together.

Bai Wan frowned at the sight of the mist, recalling his sister’s words: "According to Grandpa, a hunter from the village went into the forest to hunt, but got lost due to the fog. He ended up in an unknown place filled with tombstones—a place where life seemed extinct, the domain of the dead."

Bai Wan watched the thick fog vigilantly. Their current situation bore a striking resemblance to what the hunter had experienced. Was the dangerous entity hidden within the forest about to appear? He checked the Mushroom Shop. The Large Sunshine Mushroom would arrive in half an hour. He had to hold on for at least that long; only then, when facing the unknown horrors of this forest, would he have the confidence to survive.

***

Xu Bing remained constantly on guard, following the group closely and not daring to stray. It was ironic; she was someone who loathed being part of a group, yet now she felt compelled to stick with them. She felt ridiculous. Since she began school, she had never fit in, preferring to stay in the classroom alone. She even felt annoyed by her peers. Then, while reading in the library, she had suddenly seen a black invitation on her desk and was inexplicably brought into the game.

At first, she hadn't cared, thinking her life was boring enough that dying wouldn't matter. But once she truly entered the Ghost Game, she realized she was wrong. She was afraid of death—terrified of it. She wanted to live, even if it meant returning to that classroom she so despised.

Xu Bing focused intensely on everything around her, terrified that a ghost might leap out from the white mist. However, she felt a sense of security as long as she followed the group—especially after seeing Bai Wan single-handedly take on a ghost earlier. *As long as I don't fall behind... I can survive.*

Suddenly, a flash of doubt crossed Xu Bing’s eyes. Looking at the figures of the group ahead, a question arose: Why was everyone so quiet? Was it because they were nervous? But it shouldn't be silent to the point of not saying a single word. They hadn't spoken in a long time. She couldn't even hear their breathing.

It was too quiet. It was so quiet that Xu Bing felt as if she were alone in the deep forest. No, that wasn't right.

Xu Bing quickened her pace, trying to catch up with them. But then, she noticed the figures ahead beginning to fade. She was jolted by a sudden shock and snapped to her senses. There was no one in front of her. She looked around in a daze, realizing that at some point, she had fallen behind and was now completely alone.

Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings, she panicked. The markers—the markings on the trees—were gone. She was lost.

*Hiss...*

Xu Bing drew a sharp, cold breath. She had fallen behind in such a terrifying forest. She was...

*Swish!*

Suddenly, she heard a rustling sound in the nearby bushes. It sounded like the wind, then again it didn't. When she listened intently, the sound vanished. At that same moment, a violent, thumping heartbeat began to echo inside her chest.

*Thump-thump-thump! Thump-thump-thump!*

The sound was even more intense than it had been in front of the warehouse door.

"Who... who is there?" Xu Bing’s face turned pale as she felt the ominous warning of her own racing heart. The heartbeat didn't slow down; instead, it grew even more violent.

*Thump-thump-thump!*

Finally unable to bear it, Xu Bing pulled a black finger from her pocket. This was her greatest trump card—a ghostly item she had obtained by chance in the previous round, a finger belonging to a ghost.

*Whoosh!*

The moment the finger was produced, it began to drip blood, and the curse inherent to the cursed object began to release. Her Ghost Coins began to drain. To her horror, however, before the black finger had even worked for a second, the blood on it vanished, and it became no different from an ordinary finger.

Xu Bing couldn't accept what she was seeing. This meant the entity in the forest was of such a high level of terror that the finger she had brought from the previous instance was completely suppressed.

"Even if it’s not as strong as the ghosts in the 'Letter' instance, it shouldn't be neutralized in less than a second..."

Xu Bing's face was deathly pale. The heartbeat in her ears grew louder and louder, until finally, it roared like thunder. Just then, she saw a graveyard emerge from the mist. Accompanied by faint, ethereal weeping, tombstone after tombstone stood eerily in the fog. Then, a cold hand grabbed her ankle.

"Ah!!!"

With a scream, she vanished forever.

***

Sun Qian and the others heard the scream from the forest and shuddered. They had realized while walking that Xu Bing had gone missing, and they knew it boded ill. The scream from the woods confirmed their fears.

"This fog is too sinister... everyone, be ca—" Before Sun Qian could finish the word "careful," he felt his heart begin to beat rapidly.

*Thump-thump-thump!*

Everyone’s expression changed. A heartbeat warning? Was the thing in the woods coming out?

"Run!" Sun Qian and the others bolted.

Bai Wan followed, his expression tightening. In the mist behind them, tombstone after tombstone appeared out of thin air, and the thumping of their hearts grew even more violent.

It was here. The most terrifying thing in West Forest had arrived.