Chapter Eighty-Five: The Terrifying Cabin

The closer he drew, the clearer the infant’s crying became. It came with an intermittent tapping of some hard object, the faint sound reverberating through Huasong’s eardrums.

Huasong slowed his steps, glanced back at the two sisters not far behind, and gave them a nod before pressing on along the wall of the corridor.

His eyes fell on the room numbers posted on the wall: 3249, 3250... By then he was certain the crying was coming from room 3255.

But how could that be?

He had only just come out of room 3255. There was no way an infant could be inside.

Huasong flattened himself against the wall outside the door and held his breath, listening to the movement within. The door stood open. From inside came a soft, steady clicking of footsteps. They were slow and calm, not at all like random destruction; instead, they sounded like pacing, as though something were thinking.

He moved to the doorway, pressed the back of his head against the frame, and slowly turned to look inside, not daring to make the slightest sound.

In the corner of the room, hanging upside down from the ceiling, was a deformed creature covered in leopard-like markings, with four hooked spines rising from its back.

Its face was long and narrow, two rows of fangs bared. Murky slime dribbled from its mouth, dropping little by little onto the carpet below and leaving behind slick, filthy pools.

Its four claws gleamed with a cold light, seeming terribly sharp. They allowed it to pace back and forth across the walls and ceiling, each step leaving deep gouges in the surface.

So this was the man-eating beast? A wave of numbness prickled across Huasong’s scalp.

The creature appeared not to have noticed anyone nearby. All its attention seemed fixed on a bundle lying on the floor. Huasong followed its line of sight and, as expected, saw the paper-wrapped parcel he had noticed earlier. It was about half the size of a child’s schoolbag, wrapped in several thick layers of rice paper, with four characters brushed across the front: the School of Arts and Rites.

The beast seemed to have been watching it for a long time. Slowly, it descended from the ceiling. Nearing the bundle, it gave off low, broken growls from time to time, sounds that were unmistakably like an infant’s cry.

If it fed on people, then that cry, so eerily like a baby’s, might be the lure used to draw humans into its killing range. The thought tightened Huasong’s chest. Good thing the two sisters had warned him. If he had walked in brazenly, he would already have become the beast’s prey.

By then the creature had reached a point less than half a meter from the parcel. It slowed its steps and began circling it, never drawing closer, as though there was something inside it feared.

After pacing around it for a few rounds, the creature stopped and slowly extended a claw to hook the cord tied around the parcel. But the instant its claw touched the cord, the bundle flashed with a burst of golden light and knocked the talon away. The beast cried out in misery and recoiled as though suddenly struck by a high-voltage current.

With that spring backward, half its body retreated beyond the doorway, bringing it within a hair’s breadth of Huasong’s face.

If Huasong reached out, he could easily touch the spines along its back.

He held his breath and saw the two sisters on the far side of the corridor. Little Mei had one hand over her own mouth and the other clamped over her sister Xiaoqing’s, neither of them daring even to breathe.

Fortunately, the beast was completely fixated on the bundle. It slowly stepped back, and just as its neck was about to leave the room by less than an inch, it stopped retreating and then slowly moved back inside.

Huasong quietly let out a breath. Then he remembered he had been empty-handed all this time. If that vicious beast spotted him, he would be in grave danger. He needed some kind of weapon to shield himself.

He looked around and saw, on the corridor beyond the doorway, a water pipe that had somehow broken loose. One end hung down, leaking water.

If he could remove the pipe and hold it in his hands, it would serve as an iron rod. A longer weapon held the advantage; it should be enough for the moment.

Thinking this, Huasong decided to go get the pipe and use it to defend himself.

The problem was that room 3255 stood wide open. If he passed the doorway, the beast would surely notice him. He had to proceed with absolute caution.

He waited silently for an opportunity. Fortunately, the creature seemed eager to open the parcel but wary of being shocked again.

A minute felt to Huasong like a whole year. Cold sweat dripped from his face onto the back of his hand, and his whole body was soaked through; he could not tell what was rain, seawater, or his own sweat.

Inside the room, a clattering sound rang out. Huasong turned his face to look. The beast had taken a small bottle of liquid, bitten off the cap, and was now using its mouth to pour the contents over the parcel. A strong smell of nail polish remover followed.

He inwardly cursed. It must be nail polish remover, the kind girls often carried with them. Perhaps because the bottle was so small, it had not been taken during the boarding inspection.

Could it be that the beast was far smarter than he had imagined? Did it actually know to use flammable nail polish remover to burn the talismans?

If the talismans were destroyed, then as the sisters had said, there would be no weapon left to fight the beast. Their situation would become even more perilous.

After pouring out the liquid, the beast dropped the nail polish remover bottle from its mouth and walked to the room’s corner where a small oil heater stood. With its pointed beak, it pecked furiously, tearing off a sheet of metal and carrying it to the parcel. Then it hammered that metal with its hard claws. Each strike sent sparks flying where claw met sheet.

Huasong was burning with anxiety. Clearly, this creature was not merely a brute beast acting on instinct; it could think like a human.

Then, at this critical moment, a mobile phone ringtone suddenly rang out. Huasong saw that it was the alarm on a phone resting on the table. At the same instant, the beast also spotted the lit screen, lunged forward, and smashed the table to pieces with a swipe of its claws.

In that split second, Huasong leapt past the doorway to the other side, seized the water pipe, and gave it a hard tug. Sure enough, the metal pipe loosened and came free. It was just over a meter long, and in his hands it felt like a staff of practical weight and balance. His tense heart eased a little.

The ringtone inside the room still continued. The beast was rummaging through the wreckage of the table in search of the phone. Seeing its back turned to the doorway, Huasong strode into the room and reached out with the iron rod to hook the bundle of talismans.

His first attempt missed. He glanced at the beast; its attention was still fixed on the phone.

The second attempt also failed. Huasong had to step forward again.

The third time, he succeeded. He hooked the talismans up. They were a little heavy, but he could still lift them with effort. Just as he was privately celebrating, he suddenly realized he could no longer hear the ringtone. He looked toward the table and saw the beast glaring at him, white vapor puffing from its mouth, its eyes full of ferocity.

Damn it.

Huasong inwardly groaned and yanked the iron rod back.

At the very same moment, the beast lunged for the rod. With a harsh rasping sound, the sparks caused by its claws scraping the metal instantly ignited the bundle of talismans.

“Ah!”

Huasong cried out, hefted the ball of fire, and hurried out of the room. He flung the burning talismans toward the sisters and shouted, “Put it out, quickly!”

The beast burst out of the room in a savage rush, its eyes fixed on Huasong, and at the same time it also spotted Xiaoqing and Little Mei.

“Now!” Huasong shouted.

“Aah! Don’t come closer!” Little Mei, seeing the beast, clutched her head in terror and pressed herself against the wall, not daring to move an inch.

“If you don’t put it out, the talismans will burn away!” Huasong cried as he used the iron rod to hold the beast at bay and retreat little by little.

Xiaoqing could not see, but she reached out with the wet sleeve of her clothes and groped wildly along the floor. In less than two seconds she found the searing flames, then slapped at them frantically with her sleeve.

The beast advanced with low growls. Huasong brandished the iron rod in bluffing defiance and shouted, “You ugly monster, get lost! Come any closer and I’ll beat you to death!” With that, he brought the rod down hard against the wall and floor, producing heavy banging sounds in an attempt to intimidate the creature.

But his efforts had no effect. The beast seemed utterly unmoved, and instead extended its sharp claws toward him. Huasong blocked with all his strength, but the creature kept clawing at him, and he kept fending it off with the rod. As he drew ever closer to the two sisters, the situation grew dire.

Roaring with anger, Huasong seized the rod and smashed it down hard onto the beast’s head.

After a shower of sparks, the creature did not budge an inch. It seemed not even to have lost a speck of skin, and instead let out a furious bellow at Huasong, distorting the features of his face with the force of the sound.

A deep despair surged from Huasong’s feet straight to his head. He turned and shouted, “Has the fire on the bundle gone out yet? Throw it over here, quickly! If you’re any slower, I’m going to be suffocated to death by its breath!”

Xiaoqing swiftly tore open the parcel and grabbed out a stack of talismans, flinging them in the direction of Huasong’s voice. But she used a little too much force, and the talismans flew clean over the beast’s head. Huasong reached out to catch them, but the creature’s back spines scraped across his palm, opening a gash and sending blood splashing everywhere.

“Gently! Too far!” Huasong cried.

Xiaoqing grabbed another stack and threw it over. This time Huasong caught it steadily. The talismans were still clipped together, and there was also a slip of paper attached, marked with a large Chinese numeral and, beneath it, four characters meaning “Purgation of Hell.”

Huasong only knew that they looked formidable and powerful, and he had no time to care what they meant. He quickly pulled out one talisman and slapped it onto the beast’s head.

A flash of golden light burst out, and the beast howled as it was knocked several yards away.

“It really works!” Huasong shouted in excitement. Summoning his courage, he clutched the remaining talismans and charged at the beast. The talisman he had just used had already been shaken off to the side, but the beast’s head had been scorched into a seared red, leaving behind a deep brand.

With such talismans in hand, Huasong’s confidence surged. He forgot the wound on his hand and drew out another, pressing forward to stick it on.

But the beast had learned its lesson. Before he could close in, it slashed at his hand with its sharp claw. Instantly a fresh bloody mark was added to Huasong’s hand, and the talisman flew from his grip.

It seemed this fiend would never again allow Huasong to get close. Huasong tore out another talisman, held it tight, and pressed forward step by step. The beast appeared wary and slowly retreated. The two of them advanced and yielded thus for more than ten steps.

Just as they passed a T-shaped corridor, the beast suddenly let out a shriek, so piercing that it nearly tore through Huasong’s eardrums.

He glanced to the right side of the T-junction and instantly felt the hair on his body stand on end. At once he understood what that cry had meant.

It was summoning its kind.

Not far down the corridor to the right, two more beasts were already clinging to the wall and racing toward him.