Without Uncle Bai and the others slowing him down, Chen Ge's speed increased noticeably. He sprinted through the village teeming with ghosts, shouting the names of Xu Yin and Yan Danian.
Zhang Ya had fallen into a deep sleep and showed no response. Xu Yin answered Chen Ge's calls, but he was at a critical stage of his transformation and couldn't manifest.
The only one Chen Ge could rely on now was Yan Danian — yet this most powerful ghost below the Red-Robe rank was currently crouching in the corner of his manga sketchbook, body trembling, drawing circles with a pen, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.
It was plain to see that he was even more frightened than Chen Ge.
It wasn't hard to understand, really. This was a middle-aged man who had spent years locked away in his desk drawer, refusing contact with the outside world. The first time he'd tried to trust someone and step beyond his little world, Chen Ge had dragged him to Living Coffin Village.
A whole village full of demons and ghosts, all manner of dangerous and terrifying auras — it had completely overwhelmed him. The world as he'd imagined it was nothing like this.
The sacrificial ritual was nearing its end, and the various ghosts throughout the village had awakened. Chen Ge only had to glance in any direction to spot numerous horrifying things.
"There are two relatively safe places now. One is the two-story building next to the ancestral hall — it's been specially watched over by the ghost who was thrown into the well, so no monsters should dare approach it. The other is to find the ritual procession. Jiang Ling and the woman surnamed Zhu are both there. I heard a huge crash just now, so they're probably fighting the Ghost Story Association."
After a moment's thought, Chen Ge dashed toward the direction of the earlier explosion. There was still an old woman living in that building beside the ancestral hall. If something really went wrong, she'd suffer along with him, so he decided it was better to go cause trouble for the Ghost Story Association instead.
He ran at full speed, but the number of ghosts behind him only grew. Chen Ge found it baffling — he'd only smashed one coffin. Was that really worth this relentless pursuit?
The people clashing at the village perimeter probably never expected that Chen Ge could provoke a full-scale riot among more than half the ghosts in the entire village.
Watching the parade of pursuers behind him grow longer and longer, Chen Ge stopped bothering to avoid the red X-marks on A Qing's map. He plowed straight through them, caring only about escaping faster.
The consequence of this was that the ghostly procession chasing him swelled even further.
Gradually, the commotion on his side rivaled the one outside the village itself.
Yin wind swept through the air, ghosts wailed and howled, and Chen Ge fought his way out from Living Coffin Village's encirclement. The Skull Crushing Hammer in his hand — perhaps because it had felled so many ghosts — now had blood-red veins crawling across its surface, making it look even more grotesque.
Leaning against a wall, gulping down air in great heaves, even Chen Ge — whose stamina far exceeded that of any ordinary person — was starting to reach his limit.
He glanced back. The dense mass of ghosts made his scalp tingle.
Quantitative change had become qualitative change. In a situation like this, even if Xu Yin broke through to Red-Robe, it wouldn't change the outcome — unless Zhang Ya woke up.
"I knew the trial mission for a three-star scenario wouldn't be simple!"
There was still some time before dawn, but Chen Ge felt he couldn't hold out much longer.
"If this three-star scenario fails to unlock, it will never appear again. I have to give it everything."
Gritting his teeth, he pushed through the final street and finally reached the western side of the village — the very place where the sounds of fighting had erupted.
Dragging the Skull Crushing Hammer, with countless ghosts trailing behind him, the moment Chen Ge appeared at the end of the street, both sides locked in combat outside froze simultaneously.
When Chen Ge saw them, they saw him too.
Living Coffin Village had four wells — one in each cardinal direction. The sacrificial procession started at the westernmost well, circled the entire village, and then returned to that same western well.