I can rewind time to prevent death

Chapter 157 Tricky Silk Sub-Quest (Part 3) (2/3)

Yan Junze strained his eyes wide, bringing his flashlight closer to ensure he could fully make out whether the figure lying ahead was indeed a person and not a hallucination created by his crawling in the pitch-black tunnel.

In the beam of the flashlight, he saw very clearly, there was indeed a man in front.

The man seemed frail, his clothes somewhat tattered, facing Yan Junze as he lay motionless.

Moving the flashlight around the tunnel, Yan Junze noticed there was a passageway branching off between him and the eerie man, its destination unknown.

Behind the man appeared to be a small Deadwater Pool with no way out, and a faint stench wafted through the air.

Looking at the situation, it seemed impossible that the man was still alive.

In the deathly silent tunnel, the confined space housed what seemed to be a decaying corpse before him, rising a ominous premonition in Yan Junze's heart.

He stayed put for about a minute, waiting silently. Once he felt there was nothing amiss, he began crawling forward again, planning to turn into the branching passageway.

This time, he didn't dare to move quickly for that would create too much noise, and the stillness of the nearby corpse wasn't entirely figured out yet, so caution was prudent.

As Yan Junze crawled forward a few steps, there suddenly came a noise from ahead.

"Ah... ah... ah..."

A strange, faintly quivering sound emerged from a throat.

Yan Junze quickly pointed his flashlight ahead, only to see the formerly motionless corpse beginning to stir.

The body slowly propped itself up on its elbows, its entire frame twisting eerily. Without lifting its head, it began to inch forward, nearer and nearer.

"Damn!"

Yan Junze glanced at the fork in the road, he was a bit closer to it, and there was a good chance he could be the first to crawl into it.

At that point, he couldn't care less about being silent. He moved as quickly as he could on hands and knees towards the forking path.

Throughout its crawling, the corpse never lifted its head, making a hair-raising "ah... ah..." sound that echoed through the expansive tunnel, causing Yan Junze to shudder with dread.

The creature had just begun to move and it was clear that Yan Junze was faster by a fraction, gaining the upper hand.

The corpse's initial movements appeared slow, but its body contorted violently, gradually gaining momentum as it picked up speed.

Yan Junze felt a sense of dread as his pupils contracted slightly.

Then, he saw the thing's legs spread its knees apart, pressing against the tunnel walls to both sides. In no time, its whole body began to rise into the air.

Once airborne, it was like a spider scuttling along, the body's speed sharply increasing.

Yan Junze was startled and didn't mind his hands and feet getting scraped painfully, he hurried toward the fork, tumbling and scraping off a patch of skin on his arm, leaving bruises in other places.

He burst into the branching passage first, continuing to crawl hastily forward without slowing down.

The body reached the fork just two or three seconds later, emitting unpleasant throat sounds, ah... ah, as it pursued Yan Junze.

Yan Junze's anxiety spiked as he scrambled onward desperately. In his panic, his body involuntarily lifted, and his head banged hard against the rocky ceiling multiple times, seeing stars, yet he still couldn't escape the shocking speed of the corpse behind him.

For a second, he was even ready to engage the Rewind.

But even if he used Rewind, he would still have to pass through here. According to Yan Junze's guess, the body lying in front of Deadwater Pool was destined to come back to life and obstruct his way.

Soon, the passage ahead began to slope downward. Once it descended, Yan Junze's speed finally picked up; using all fours, by the end, he was nearly sliding forward in his rush.

Under the flashlight's beam, the light suddenly fell into the darkness not too far away.

This meant that the exit was just ahead; though still shrouded in darkness, it marked the end of the tunnel.

Yan Junze immediately braced himself to hit the ground, but at that moment, the "ah... ah" sound was right upon him. Something had grabbed his ankle.

A wet sensation emanated from his skin—the grip of a palm that had been soaking in the Deadwater Pool, complete with the grotesque illusion of peeling flesh still clinging to his own.

Yan Junze didn't bother with caution anymore; in critical moments, who has time for that? He freed his other foot and kicked back fiercely, unsure of what he struck.

Yet his foot was seized even more tightly. In desperation, Yan Junze kicked violently again.

By now, he was sliding toward the edge of the tunnel, nearly half of his body dangling out, but his ankle was still held in a vice-like grip.

Having no choice, Yan Junze reached for the crowbar fastened at his waist. The crowbar, forged from solid iron with a curved hooked end, was razor-sharp. Flipping it in reverse, he thrust the hooked end savagely into an unknown part of the corpse behind him.

The force was so fierce that upon impact, he felt the grip on his foot loosen, and at last, he was free.

He hurriedly lunged forward, tumbling out of the tunnel and onto the flat ground.

Fortunately, the tunnel exit was just a little over a meter above the ground, so his fall resulted only in a dusty face, without any injuries.

Upon landing, Yan Junze, not yet having time to stand up, immediately crouched at the bottom of the tunnel entrance, pressing himself against the rock wall while also turning off both flashlights in his hand.

The entire space was plunged into darkness, rendering him blind.

From above, the sound of skittering movement came, accompanied by the scraping of metal against rock.

One could imagine that the iron crowbar must have gotten hooked onto some part of the corpse, sinking in deep and getting stuck.

As the body moved, the crowbar naturally scraped against the rock wall, producing a clear friction sound.

Yan Junze carefully recalled, feeling that the crowbar must have been thrust into the corpse's neck or even its head, but he dared not confirm it.

Though he was gasping for air, Yan Junze still tried not to breathe heavily, squatting there, sticking close to the rock wall beneath the tunnel entrance. From the darkness above, something seemed to poke out its head, with small clumps of soil falling onto his hair.

It was as if the air itself had frozen. Yan Junze held his breath to the best of his ability, focusing his attention entirely overhead.

Drip.

A drop of foul water from the Deadwater Pool fell, landing on Yan Junze's right cheek.

Drip, another drop followed, hitting the same spot on his cheek.

The stinking water trickled slowly down his face and into his neck.

Yan Junze endured it, resisting the urge to wipe it away.

About ten seconds later, the thing above didn't come out of the tunnel but slowly withdrew its head, followed once more by the sound of the crowbar scraping against the rock wall, gradually fading into the distance of the tunnel.

Yan Junze began to breathe lightly, yet he still did not move.

With his back pressed against one side of the rock wall, he waited about two more minutes in this darkness-enshrouded space, until the sound of the crowbar's friction could no longer be heard. He then stirred, his senses consolidating and focusing on the pitch-black space before him.

His back did not leave the wall; he still crouched against it, not daring to move carelessly.

Because from the moment he burst out of the tunnel to the immediate shutdown of his flashlights and subsequent concealment, there had been no time to take a good look around. But the space seemed larger, though the air was incredibly stale and turbid.

Yan Junze believed that he could last at most half an hour in this place; if he stayed too long, he feared he might pass out. And now, he was already feeling dizzy and headed.

After some thought, he decided to switch on his flashlight; otherwise, sitting here in complete darkness would be pointless.

The moment the two flashlights turned on, the scene before Yan Junze made his head buzz, he froze on the spot, and a torrent of uncontrollable terror swept through his body.