Chapter 77#

The People in the Story (Part 14)#

Pitch black, in the basement.

Three workers were digging a well with great effort.

Hammer by hammer, they chiseled open the ice surface; shovel by shovel, they dug out the rotting flesh and blood.

In their eyes: flesh and blood were soil, bones were stones, and veins were intricate tree roots.

Smashing stones, digging out tree roots, the three brothers gripped their tools tightly, their eyes excited and fanatical, exerting all their strength to dig the well deeper and deeper.

Ye Sheng squatted nearby, silently took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and illuminated the area for them. From his angle, he could see a very terrifying scene.

The Human Wall could move. The red flesh was covered with a thin layer of green liquid, like human stomach acid. After the three brothers jumped down, they began to be corroded by the stomach acid from the soles of their feet, revealing dense white bones.

But they were granted the ability of immortality by the rules. So they died and revived like this, digging the well tirelessly.

Ye Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth. It seemed that he had exploited a bug in this space—using the immortal monsters in the rules to deal with the garden that couldn’t be exited.

The three brothers dug the well to the end and started chatting.

“Big brother, why haven’t we seen water even after digging this far?”

“Shut up! Keep digging!”

“Big brother, do you feel the ground under your feet is getting thinner?”

“Hehe, that means we’re almost there!”

Ye Sheng squatted by the pit, expressionless, waiting for their result. He entered the underground world originally to investigate the Human Wall, but unexpectedly encountered the Story King. However, this also inadvertently gave him more information.

Once the three brothers dug through the Human Wall, opened the exit, and left from here, everything tonight would be over. Ye Sheng looked down at his phone’s battery, fifteen percent. He let out a long sigh of relief and was just about to stand up when a slender, cool hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder. Ye Sheng instinctively wanted to dodge vigilantly, but sensing the familiar aura, he relaxed again.

Ning Weichen appeared behind him at some point and whispered, “Don’t get so close to the ground.”

Ye Sheng looked up, turned around, the cold hostility in his dark eyes dissipated, replaced by doubt and worry, and asked, “Where did you go just now? Why couldn’t I see you?”

Ning Weichen looked down at him, and said lightly with a hint of playfulness, “Oh, you didn’t let me follow. So I went in another direction.”

Ye Sheng nodded: “Mm, did you find anything?”

Ning Weichen: “…”

Ning Weichen laughed in anger, the hand holding his shoulder exerting slight force.

Leaning down, his tone was smiling yet dangerous: “Baby, I was lost from you for so long, aren’t you worried about me at all?”

Ye Sheng was already used to this person’s sudden “madness,” turned his head slightly, and couldn’t be bothered to talk nonsense with him.

Ye Sheng quickly stated his findings, his expression solemn: “We are now inside Su Jiande’s body. This world is composed of his flesh and blood. Ning Weichen, Su Jiande corresponds to the fourth fairy tale—The Giant’s Garden.”

Ning Weichen’s peach-blossom eyes were obscure, and he smiled: “Oh, and then?”

Ye Sheng said: “When I was dealing with the puppet and the bird, I found that these fairy tale characters can be killed by their own endings. If we follow the plot of ‘The Giant’s Garden,’ we can kill the B-grade Heresy Human Wall in the same way. But we are now trapped inside the Human Wall’s body and cannot see the giant—the fourth fairy tale is impossible to complete.”

“The Story King wants to trap us to death in the fairy tale world, but there are loopholes in the rules he set.” Ye Sheng frowned, omitting his reasoning and actions, and directly stated the result: “The three brothers will soon dig through this garden.”

“Let’s get out first, and contact the Bureau of Unnatural Affairs after we get out. Staying in the illusion created by the Story King, we will only be in a passive situation.”

After listening, Ning Weichen said quietly: “No need to contact the Bureau of Unnatural Affairs, they will come by themselves.”

Ye Sheng reacted quickly.

The Human Wall’s spiritual value is B-grade, it must have alerted Tian Shu.

But if the Bureau of Unnatural Affairs comes, how should he explain tonight’s events?

Ye Sheng frowned and began to think about this problem.

Ning Weichen looked at him silently and suddenly said: “Ye Sheng, I met the Story King.”

“…” One sentence made Ye Sheng, whose brain was spinning fast again, stuck. His almond eyes widened slightly, looking at him in disbelief, his voice a bit higher: “You saw the Story King?!”

Ning Weichen pursed his lips and said: “Yes.”

Only then did Ye Sheng notice that Ning Weichen’s face didn’t look very good.

Ye Sheng frowned tightly: “Did you fight him?”

Ning Weichen shook his head: “No.”

Ye Sheng: “Are you injured?”

Ning Weichen lowered his eyes, forced a smile, and said calmly: “It’s okay.”

“…”

Ye Sheng couldn’t describe how he felt, but at this moment, his disgust for the Story King reached its peak! The violence in his heart dyed the bottom of his eyes red. Mercy of God, no wonder it’s called Mercy of God. Letting those Heresies survive is indeed God’s mercy!

Ye Sheng put away his phone coldly.

For the first time, he actively grabbed Ning Weichen’s arm and said.

“I’ll take you out later, hold on to me.”

Ning Weichen looked at him for a while, suddenly hooked his lips and smiled, comforting: “Don’t worry, I’m fine. The Story King was afraid of getting into trouble and didn’t stay here for too long.”

Ye Sheng was silent for a long time and said: “Let’s go out first.”

He had always been unable to figure out Ning Weichen’s strength. Sometimes he felt Ning Weichen was unfathomable, and sometimes he felt Ning Weichen was not as omnipotent as he imagined.

Ning Weichen had the A-grade Heresy Siren transplanted into his body, possessing top-notch talent and potential.

But his first mission after returning to the country failed.

Knowing him for so long, Ye Sheng had never seen Ning Weichen use his ability once. The ability implanted later was not innate after all, it needed to be learned, controlled, and slowly mastered. Given Ning Weichen’s casual and indifferent attitude towards Heresies, Ye Sheng felt he might not have used the Siren’s ability many times since childhood.

“…”

No wonder the butlers and doctors around Ning Weichen were all A-grade and S-grade Executors. The Ning family must spare no cost to protect the heir’s safety.

Ye Sheng’s senses were keen, always paying attention to Ning Weichen.

It was easy for Ning Weichen to hide his wretched state from him, after all, the film emperor could act out ten thousand expressions. Sensing his gaze, Ning Weichen looked up and smiled, his peach-blossom eyes smiling back at him, just like usual, with a casual and inadvertent temperament. But his pale lips and obviously slightly tense jaw still told him that Ning Weichen’s condition was wrong.

The loud voices of the three brothers came from under the well.

“Big brother! We’ve dug to the bottom!”

“Big brother! It’s not water down there ahhh! Big brother! Ahhhhh!”

The fairy tale three brothers could not walk out of this world. The real world outside was a hell where they would turn into ashes.

After a burst of panicked screams, the three brothers started climbing up like crazy.

In the chaos, Ye Sheng grabbed Ning Weichen’s hand and whispered: “Go.” He was very close to Ning Weichen, and when he turned around, his breath seemed to brush past Ning Weichen’s ear.

Ning Weichen gazed at him thoughtfully, suddenly smiled, and whispered: “Brother, can I hug you?”

Ye Sheng: “…”

Ye Sheng: “…………”

Ye Sheng: “Whatever.”

Seeing that the well hole that the three brothers had painstakingly chiseled out after leaving was about to start merging again.

“Go!” Ye Sheng stopped talking nonsense, dragged Ning Weichen, and jumped forward.

When falling, Ning Weichen, having received permission, hugged his waist.

Ye Sheng stiffened all over. The wind from below blew up his T-shirt, revealing a section of white skin, so this time Ning Weichen’s hand directly touched his body.

Ye Sheng grew up in Yinshan, rolling and crawling. The strength of his arms, legs, shoulders, and waist was very sufficient. Long-term exercise made his waistline thin and lean. When standing, he looked like a pine or cypress. Only when he took off his clothes could one see that patch of skin, cold white, delicate, like a stretch of moonlight, with a perfectly just-right curve.

This feeling of being controlled by someone’s hand was too passive. Ye Sheng looked terrible and wanted to turn back.

Ning Weichen already rested his chin on his shoulder and chuckled: “Don’t look at me, look at the road.”

Damn.

Ye Sheng held back a belly full of curse words.

Ning Weichen’s fingers rubbed his waist dimples slightly, his fingertips ambiguous, as if a subtle electric current passed through wherever he touched. He suddenly smiled with unclear meaning: “Brother. You are so thin, why is your waist so narrow.”

Ye Sheng said coldly: “Do you want to die?”

“No.” Ning Weichen laughed again, quit while he was ahead, and obediently shut up.

After landing, Ye Sheng immediately pressed his shoulder to push him away, but considering Ning Weichen’s poor physical condition now, he didn’t use too much force. Ye Sheng said: “Let go.”

“Oh.” Ning Weichen was calm.

Jumping out of the Human Wall world, there was a pitch-black and twisted change of light and shadow.

After the world spun, they returned to reality. Back to the front of the utility room under the stairs.

Brooms, mops, dustpans, and wooden boxes were piled in front of the door, smelling of decaying old things. The utility room that Su Wanluo opened with a key was now closed again. Ye Sheng stepped forward, reached out, and found that the door was tightly closed and could no longer be opened.

—The passage to the underground space was now completely locked.

Ye Sheng said in a deep voice: “Luo Xingyan and the others are still inside.”

The Human Wall’s ability belonged to the space system.

Luo Xingyan and the others were now trapped in that fairy tale world.

Ning Weichen said: “Don’t worry.”

Thump! Suddenly the lights in the corridor were turned on.

Ye Sheng turned back abruptly and found it was the director filming the promotional video. The director was woken up by the urge to pee in the middle of the night, got up to go to the toilet, turned on the light, saw Ye Sheng and Ning Weichen standing at the stairwell, and almost thought he was still dreaming.

He rubbed his eyes vigorously and asked in confusion: “What are you doing here?”

Ye Sheng was just about to speak.

Boom! Suddenly the whole building moved, and a strong tremor came from underground.

The director was completely awakened by this movement, his eyes regained clarity, his face turned pale, and he shouted: “Damn damn damn! What’s going on! Earthquake?! Earthquake?!”

This violent shaking woke up everyone staying in the gymnasium.

Crackling, various sounds of putting on shoes, walking, panic, and opening doors rang out in turn. Huang Qiqi hugged her pillow, rushed out, dumbfounded, and asked the person next to her tremblingly: “The ground was moving just now, did you feel it!”

Guang Xueping’s face was no better than hers, pale as she said: “I felt it.” A group of people looked at each other, reading the terrifying news from each other’s eyes—Earthquake!

“Earthquake, get out quickly! Run to the playground!”

With a shout from someone unknown, everyone ran outside in panic. But when they ran to the entrance of the old gymnasium, they found a row of cars parked here. Leading the cars was a good-looking woman with short hair, and next to her stood a young man with a cold and serious face. Both wore silver-black military uniforms and white gloves. Under the foil of the uniforms, their expressions revealed a rigor and order completely different from ordinary people.

“Who are you?” The director didn’t know how many times he had been dumbfounded tonight.

Cheng Ze looked at them and nodded to Xu Qing who was following behind. Xu Qing received the order, stepped forward actively, and said sternly to everyone: “The old gymnasium needs to be cleared now to investigate a matter. You guys come with me.” Evacuating the masses in high-level Heresy situations was already something the Bureau of Unnatural Affairs was extremely familiar with.

The director raised his hand and reminded tremblingly: “Officer, there was an earthquake just now.”

Xu Qing was impatient and couldn’t bear it anymore: “Come here!” His aura was strong and his expression serious.

A group of college students who hadn’t entered society yet instantly withered and followed him away blankly.

After confirming that there were no ordinary people in the gymnasium, Cheng Ze extended her hand.

She was an A-grade Executor. As the director of the Huai City Bureau of Unnatural Affairs, Cheng Ze’s ability was also of the space system.

Tian Shu told her that this Heresy in the old gymnasium was huge, very huge.

This area must be encircled and dealt with.

Pale purple clouds rose from the ground, continuously gathering in the sky, condensing into a semicircular barrier.

The purple barrier, tens of meters high, covered the entire old gymnasium, forming a space isolated from the outside world! Making people outside completely unable to see inside!

Then there was another earth-shaking tremor. The majestic, huge building in front of them that could only be looked up to seemed to come “alive,” and crimson blood oozed continuously from the walls.

Ye Sheng walked quickly out of the gymnasium and heard a sound like a mountain collapsing, boom! He turned back, his eyes widening.

He saw a huge bloody phantom waking up above the gymnasium under the pale purple sky screen.

This scene was too magical. Behind the building, a “giant” stood up bit by bit. It was taller and larger than the gymnasium, its blood-red body like a majestic mountain. The giant had no face, no features, no clear limbs. Minced meat, cement, and bones were pieced together into a vague human shape. It stood between heaven and earth, the stench of rotting flesh filling the sky. The powerful oppression made people breathless.

The giant was very manic now.

It walked forward, and with every step, the whole earth seemed to shake.

Thump, thump, thump!

Getting closer, everyone saw that there was a hole in the giant’s body.

Things kept flowing out of the hole.

Melted snow water, flesh and blood, debris… mixed in the filthy blood flow, there were also several people.

They seemed to be discharged from the giant’s stomach.

Luo Xingyan with a livid face, and the three unconscious people: Xia Wenshi, Chen Can, and Xie Wenci.

The Story King left.

The fairy tale illusion was broken by Ye Sheng.

Now the Human Wall revealed its true face to them.

Luo Xingyan was really pissed off now. A pair of cat eyes were full of irritability and killing intent, gripping the iron chain tightly in his hand, veins popping. In the fairy tale, he was restricted everywhere due to the Story King’s rules.

Now that he was out, a B-grade Heresy, he must kill it with his own hands.