The girl's voice suddenly turned shrill, and the severed hand hidden in the bushes struck toward
"Easy there." Chen Ge clenched his fist, exposing the nail's pointed end. He aimed carefully at the hand lunging at him and brought his fist crashing down.
"I'm so cold! I'm right beneath your feet! Help me! Help—ah!" The girl's hysterical scream was cut off as she shrieked in pain.
"Are you alright?" Chen Ge looked down at the severed hand at his feet.
The hand was beautiful — slender fingers, fair and delicate skin — except that a sharp nail had pierced clean through the back of it, pinning it firmly to the muddy ground.
"Where are you buried? I just saw a severed hand — is this yours?" Chen Ge opened his palm. It was slick with sweat. He'd been genuinely startled just now too, but fortunately he'd come prepared.
The forest fell silent once more, with only a shrill female voice crying out in agony.
"Does it really hurt that much? I've been stabbed several times on the way here myself." Chen Ge kept a careful watch on his surroundings as he slowly retreated. If there was a severed hand in the forest, that meant other things could be lurking as well.
The girl's voice was growing clearer. Chen Ge's ear twitched slightly — his Ghost Ear ability granted him hearing far beyond that of ordinary people, allowing him to pick up even the whispers of spirits. Right now, it seemed that ability was proving useful.
"To my left." Chen Ge reached into his pocket and pulled out another nail. He needed to make sure he always had a nail on hand.
The arm pinned to the ground was still thrashing up and down. The girl seemed to have been provoked; her voice began to change, dropping all pretense.
Chen Ge moved to the left. His foot suddenly stepped on something soft.
"Not good!"
The moment the warning flashed through his mind, his body had already reacted. He stumbled backward, but his calf was seized by a force that yanked at him, preventing his escape.
"Weren't you going to save me? Why are you leaving? I'm buried right here — in the dirt you just stepped on!"
Pain and resentment had twisted the girl's voice into something awful. Chen Ge ignored her and looked down.
Another severed hand had clamped onto his calf. Worse still, the ground in this area was wrong — it felt like quicksand. If he stayed too long, his body would keep sinking.
The moment he spotted the hand, Chen Ge reacted swiftly. He grabbed a nail and drove it hard into the back of the hand.
The curse of Room 413 seemed to carry considerable weight. Even a single nail could inflict damage on a vengeful spirit.
"As expected of the room Lin Sisi once lived in — there could be other treasures still hidden in there." The chilling curse had taken on an entirely new purpose in Chen Ge's hands. The dark shadow lurking behind him stared, dumbfounded.
"I truly sympathize with what happened to you, and I genuinely want to help — but what exactly are you doing?" Chen Ge drove the nail forcefully into the other severed hand and scrambled backward.
"Weren't you going to save me? My body is buried right beneath this ground! Dig me up and take me with you!" The girl's voice whispered directly into his ear. Chen Ge turned to look. Three or four meters away, beneath a tree, there was a hollow in the trunk — and inside that pitch-black hollow was a terrifying woman's head.