With the interference of the male corpse gone, the clapping game proceeded smoothly.
Player number two, Shi Ji, took over from Wu Xian and became the new Seeker.
Soon after, player number three, Yue Mei, quickly clapped three times in a row—she was ready to be found.
Shi Ji kept his eyes closed, not searching for Yue Mei directly.
Instead, he groped in the darkness, searching the room for another source of clapping. His goal was to find the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother and have her take over the search for Yue Mei.
This was a plan they had agreed on in advance.
The guesthouse's single room was too cramped to hold all six survivors, but splitting into separate rooms to play meant they had to find people across rooms.
That was far too dangerous.
And the chances of something going wrong were very high.
So Wu Xian proposed a strategy: whenever they needed to switch rooms, the current Seeker would find the Ghost Mother and let her become the Seeker to cross into the next room and find the next player to clap.
This way, the three groups of survivors didn't have to leave their own rooms, greatly improving safety, and the entire game became controllable.
The guesthouse rooms were small.
Shi Ji soon felt the tattered clothing and found the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother.
But switching the Seeker was not easy.
Shi Ji nervously groped over the Ghost Mother's form, his fingers nearly cramping. He had never touched a woman in his life, but knowing this was a powerful evil spirit erased any fanciful thoughts. He was terrified he might accidentally touch somewhere forbidden and be punished by the Ghost Mother.
Even worse, every time Shi Ji touched her, miserable images flashed into his mind. These scenes of despair twisted his expression and nearly broke his spirit.
Fortunately, Shi Ji finally found her eyes.
Trembling, he leaned close and blew a breath of foul air into the Ghost Mother's eyes.
Wu Xian instantly smelled it—a stench like pig intestines…
The Seeker switch was complete!
The Ghost Mother pushed Shi Ji away and, guided by the sound of Yue Mei's clapping, slowly groped toward room 401. Her movements were slow, like a true blind person, but no matter the distance, she always found the next survivor within ten minutes.
Listening to the Ghost Mother's footsteps fade from the room,
Wu Xian and Shi Ji both exhaled deeply. They had finally passed this stage.
The next stretch would be safe for quite a while—until the last player, Su Huiren, had breath blown on her eyelids by the Ghost Mother, triggering a new round.
The two men settled down, one on the bed, the other on a chair, gasping for air. Just the contact with the Ghost Mother had inflicted serious mental trauma.
If they dared open their eyes and look at her… they would surely die a miserable death.
Shi Ji whispered to Wu Xian:
"Man, Xian-ge, I nearly pissed myself just now. If it weren't for my constant dealings with shit and urine, which toughened my nerves, I'd have gone crazy from those images."
"You saw those images too?"
"Of course, they were brutal…"
Wu Xian nodded in sympathy. He prided himself on strong willpower, but even he was shaken several times by those visions. For ordinary people, it would have been devastating…
Just as he thought this, Wu Xian's face suddenly turned pale.
"Shit, this isn't good!"
Shi Ji's heart skipped a beat. "What happened? Is something wrong again?"
Wu Xian's expression darkened. "The mental shock from contact with the Ghost Mother is hard enough for you and me to resist. Yue Mei is the weakest-willed among us. How could she possibly withstand such mental corruption?"
"Maybe… she's strong inside, despite seeming gentle?"
"Even if she is strong-willed, after enduring two hellish nights, why does she still look so radiant? And why does she worship the Ghost Mother so much?"
Shi Ji had no answer.
Wu Xian clenched his teeth. A bad feeling settled deep inside. The Yue Mei who returned might no longer be the same person. Bringing the Ghost Mother here wasn't to help them out of trouble, but for some other purpose…
But due to the clapping game's rules,
Even if Wu Xian guessed the truth, he couldn't warn the others. He could only pray everyone stayed alert around Yue Mei.
…
Room 401.
Yue Mei had been found by the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother.
She groped in the darkness and found Wen Chao standing on the other side. The Seeker switched again.
For a normal old man,
This game would be too nerve-wracking—he'd probably suffer a fatal stroke or heart attack shortly after starting.
But Wen Chao's movements were steady.
He kept his eyes shut, carefully searching the edges of the room, leaving no corner unchecked. No matter where the Ghost Mother hid, he would find her.
In his long scientific career, he had long learned that tension did no good.
But he did not notice that something had gone wrong.
Just after shedding the role of Seeker, Yue Mei unexpectedly opened her eyes.
She looked coldly at Wen Chao's movements. When she saw him finally reach the Ghost Mother, a malicious smile crept across her face.
It was an expression she had never shown before.
That day, under the guidance of the old crone, she had worshipped the Child-Seeking Ghost Mother, and that very night, she had played the clapping game to save her own life.
She had kept cheering herself on.
But when the Ghost Mother truly touched her, an overwhelming wave of negative emotions surged in and instantly shattered her already fragile defenses.
She opened her eyes and faced the original evil spirit of the blessed land.
Instead of having her eyes gouged out and dying, she received the Ghost Mother's forgiveness. The price was that she had to become a disciple of the Ghost Mother—and offer high-quality flesh and bone as tribute.
As a disciple, Yue Mei could lessen the impact of the negative emotions during the clapping game and enjoy the Ghost Mother's favor, gaining the privilege to open her eyes briefly during the game—significantly increasing her chances of survival in the blessed land.
But the cost was that she had to periodically present sacrifices to the Ghost Mother.
Naive and ignorant, when she worshipped the Ghost Mother's statue, she believed she had found a way to escape death. In reality, the old crone had offered her as a sacrifice to the Ghost Mother.
After becoming a disciple,
Yue Mei had to regularly provide offerings—or else the Ghost Mother would make her pay a heavy price that violated the rules. The Ghost Mother demanded sacrifices of the same high-quality flesh and blood, uncontaminated by this world's corruption—just like Yue Mei herself.
So Yue Mei turned her thoughts to the other survivors.
Now as the Ghost Mother's disciple, Yue Mei increasingly despised her former self, her heart filled only with hatred for Wu Xian and the others.
Watching Wen Chao about to touch the Ghost Mother's eyes and complete the game's condition, Yue Mei spoke in a venomous, cutting tone:
"I'm sorry, Professor Wen."
"I have no choice. You only have yourself to blame."
"If even one of you had helped me back then, I wouldn't have ended up like this. Now it's time for you to pay for your past mistakes!"
Before Wen Chao could reply,
Yue Mei reached out and grabbed his eyes—determined to force him to open them!