Chapter 17: Statue Party (9)

Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com

But how could the residents from the street have come to live here?  

This question only flashed through Shu Yushuang's mind because there were more urgent matters for her to deal with.  

The monster wasn’t very big; in fact, it looked a bit scrawny.  

Yet, this scrawny-looking monster smashed through a stone door that was as thick as a finger.  

It stood at the doorway of the room and showed the two an incredibly twisted smile.

That familiar yet terrifying smile sent a chill down their spines.  

At that moment, Han Yueye used the last item she could in this instance without hesitation.  

When running away, you don’t need to run very fast; you just need to run faster than your companion.  

And Han Yueye’s last item happened to boost her speed.  

She immediately activated the item and, with boldness, squeezed past the monster.  

Her speed was so fast that the monster didn’t even have time to react.  

Shu Yushuang was briefly stunned, but when she saw the monster, she had already guessed this outcome.  

In a place like this dungeon, sometimes you can’t even rely on yourself, so how could you count on others?  

The monster only reacted now. It slammed the door shut with force and glared at Shu Yushuang with a dark expression.  

Shu Yushuang didn’t panic. She simply gripped the only weapon she had.

The monster slowly approached Shu Yushuang, its face still wearing that horrifying smile.  

Its movements were very slow as if it wanted to savor the fear of its prey before death. However, Shu Yushuang remained calm, disappointing it greatly.  

As the monster crept closer bit by bit, Shu Yushuang not only didn’t retreat but instead drew her stone knife and quickly walked toward it.  

Taking advantage of the monster’s delayed reaction, Shu Yushuang swiftly slashed its clothes with one strike.  

But unlike what she had envisioned, the part of the monster’s body exposed under its clothes didn’t turn to dust as she had hoped.  

To be precise, it wasn’t that it didn’t turn to dust, but that after turning to dust, it quickly restored itself to its original form.

The monster lowered its head to look at the spot where its clothes were slashed—its chest.  

The eerie smile on its face grew even more sinister. It laughed wildly and said to Shu Yushuang, “This room will protect us.”  

This room?  

Was it because of the stone statue of the woman underground?  

Shu Yushuang tried to pry more information from the monster. “Is it because of the stone statue underground? Why did you all end up like this?”  

But at this moment, the monster seemed to suddenly become a bit smarter.  

It said, “Give me your skin first, and then I’ll slowly explain it to you.”

Shu Yushuang finally began to back away.  

If uncovering the truth meant sacrificing her life, she would rather not know it.  

She decided to first find a way to escape from here. The truth could always be uncovered later, but if she turned into one of those monsters, everything would be over.  

The monster grew impatient. It didn’t say anything more to Shu Yushuang and lunged straight at her.  

Its scrawny body made it particularly agile. Shu Yushuang knew that if it landed an attack, her body would turn to stone. She didn’t dare let her guard down and immediately dodged.  

She ran to the door, only to discover that at some point, it had been locked shut. She couldn’t open it no matter what she tried.

Shu Yushuang could only try to hide in the room.  

But the room was so small, and aside from the mountain of corpses, there was almost nothing to block the monster's line of sight.  

The monster closed in step by step, and Shu Yushuang slowly backed away. However, she barely took a few steps before she missed her footing.  

The hidden door had somehow been opened, though she didn’t know when or by whom.  

Shu Yushuang tumbled down the stairs.  

Despite desperately trying to maintain her balance, she still crashed hard to the ground. Just before she lost consciousness, she looked up one last time, unwilling to accept it, and then everything went black.

It was unclear how much time had passed, but Shu Yushuang finally groggily woke up. The moment she moved, a sharp pain shot through her body, and the worst was in her right hand.  

She remembered that she had used her right hand to break her fall when she tumbled down.  

Shu Yushuang gritted her teeth and tried to move her right hand. Fortunately, though it hurt badly, the movement wasn’t too restricted, so it shouldn’t affect her ability to complete the instance.  

Shu Yushuang took out her phone for light. She wasn’t sure if it was because the phone was of good quality or if it was protected by the instance, but it had fallen from such a great height with her and was completely undamaged.

She checked the time and realized that a full day and night had passed since she fell from above.  

During all that time, the monster hadn’t chased her down, which made Shu Yushuang feel certain it must be afraid of something below.  

The only thing down here was that stone statue. If even the monster feared it, Shu Yushuang could imagine just how dangerous it must be.  

Source: https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-1388844.html
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com

Using the light from her phone’s flashlight, Shu Yushuang slowly got to her feet.  

It was at that moment she realized that the distance between herself and the statue was less than five meters.  

Shu Yushuang instinctively took a few steps back, putting more space between herself and the statue.  

She hadn’t expected that after rolling down from above, she’d end up so far away.  

Once she had backed up to the stairs, she looked up. The hidden door seemed to have been closed, and no light was coming through.

Shu Yushuang squinted slightly but still couldn’t see anything clearly.  

She stopped worrying about it. Given her current physical condition, it would be difficult to climb back up, so she decided to stay below and look for clues.  

At that moment, she realized that when she had passed out earlier, she had been so close to the statue, yet it hadn’t done anything to her.  

Considering her previous two experiences, Shu Yushuang vaguely understood how the statue attacked people.  

It must rely on its eyes, those lifelike eyes.  

This time, when she had fallen, she had been unconscious and unable to see the statue’s eyes, which was why she had been safe. But what about the previous two times...  

No, if the statue really attacked with its eyes, then she had seen them both times before—why hadn’t anything happened?  

There must be another reason.

With this thought, Shu Yushuang looked at the stone statue, deliberately avoiding its eyes.  

From a distance, it really did look like an ordinary statue.  

What had Han Yueye touched earlier that made her certain it wasn’t just a statue?  

Although Han Yueye hadn’t experienced any problems after touching the statue, Shu Yushuang still didn’t dare to touch it easily. Who knew if Han Yueye had used some kind of tool?  

Could it be that when Qi Qi came down earlier, her mind had already been seduced, and the statue’s attack only affected people like her?  

That was the only possibility Shu Yushuang could think of right now.  

The monster above didn’t pose any immediate threat, so she could investigate safely below.  

Shu Yushuang circled around the statue, observing it repeatedly, but she couldn’t find any difference between it and an ordinary statue.  

Just as Shu Yushuang furrowed her brow and pondered, she suddenly heard an extremely mournful voice: “Look into my eyes!”  

The hollow voice suddenly echoed through the underground, causing Shu Yushuang’s heart to skip a beat.

The voice vanished in an instant, and after that, the basement fell silent, so quiet that Shu Yushuang began to wonder if she had imagined it.  

She looked at the statue in confusion, but the mournful voice echoed once more: “Why won’t you look into my eyes? Are you just like the others, here only for my body?”  

?  

Shu Yushuang was completely puzzled. What body? It’s just a statue. Could it be a bit narcissistic…  

Seeing that Shu Yushuang was stunned in place, the statue let out a creepy laugh: “Hee hee hee, you’re the same, you outsiders are all the same.”

But there was an indescribable sorrow in its laughter.  

Shu Yushuang immediately realized that something must have happened to it, and the truth behind it was definitely not simple.  

The fact that the statue spoke those words was certainly not due to narcissism.  

Shu Yushuang took a few steps back, distancing herself from the statue, then asked, “I’m not like them. What did they do to you?”  

The statue suddenly glared at her with a look of deep hatred: “It’s all the same, none of you are any good!”  

Shu Yushuang's forehead broke out in cold sweat, and she immediately avoided looking into the statue’s eyes.  

She didn’t dare close her eyes now. Who knew whether the statue would move? Closing her eyes in this situation would simply be asking for death.

Shu Yushuang circled around to the back of the statue from a distance. This was the best way to avoid making eye contact with it.  

At that moment, Shu Yushuang saw red liquid gradually seeping out from the lower half of the statue.  

Soon, a strong smell of blood filled the entire space.  

It was clear that the red liquid was blood.  

Fresh blood slid off the statue and onto the ground, curling and spreading in all directions.  

Seeing that the blood was about to flow right at her feet, Shu Yushuang quickly stepped back.

Shu Yushuang didn’t understand why this strange occurrence was happening, but she knew it was definitely some sort of dangerous omen.  

If she came into contact with this blood, something terrifying would surely happen.  

She felt her back press against the wall and realized she had nowhere left to retreat, yet the blood on the ground kept spreading.  

Shu Yushuang pressed her back firmly against the wall, with no space left to escape.  

But just then, she suddenly felt emptiness behind her, and her body fell heavily backward.

"Why is this happening again?"  

This was the second time Shu Yushuang had fallen in this instance, but no one could answer her question.  

The expected pain didn’t come. Instead, Shu Yushuang felt as if she had fallen into a pile of soft cotton.  

She looked at where she had landed, only to see it had turned into a wall again.  

A terrified voice came from behind her: "Who are you? How did you get in?"

Shu Yushuang immediately got up from the ground and looked towards the source of the voice.  

She saw an elderly woman tightly holding two children in her arms, looking at her with fear.  

Shu Yushuang quickly looked at the woman's hands, only to see they were rough, covered in wrinkles and calluses. Though not delicate, it was obvious they belonged to a living person.  

Seeing this, Shu Yushuang asked in return, "Who are you?"  

The woman didn't answer. Instead, she pulled the children closer, holding them even tighter.

Seeing the woman’s wariness, Shu Yushuang extended her hand.  

"Look, my hand is normal. I'm not one of those monsters."  

The woman timidly glanced at Shu Yushuang's hand but still remained silent.  

Shu Yushuang frowned and crouched in front of the woman, asking, "Why has it become like this here?"  

The woman continued to look at Shu Yushuang with fear, not saying a word.  

Shu Yushuang was generally patient, but seeing the woman like this, she began to feel a bit frustrated.  

"Tell me what happened, maybe I can help you."

"Help?" The woman finally spoke. "How can you help me? The sins they committed need the whole town to pay for them. They killed people, and there's no way to easily free them from it."  

"The residents of this town became like this because they killed people?"  

"No, no. The ones who killed are them, it has nothing to do with others. That woman went crazy... went crazy, who knows why she wanted to take revenge on everyone, she went crazy..."  

Seeing the woman acting like she was on the verge of madness, Shu Yushuang felt that she was the one who seemed more like the crazy one.

But Shu Yushuang still patiently asked, "Who are 'they' that you're talking about? Who killed that woman? Why did they do it?"  

"Why did they do it? Isn't it because that woman seduced them herself? She asked for it, how could she still have the face to take revenge on us?"  

The woman kept repeating this phrase as if trying to convince Shu Yushuang, or perhaps trying to convince herself.  

After hearing her words, Shu Yushuang's brow furrowed tighter.  

The woman spoke with conviction, and Shu Yushuang couldn't find any flaws in her story, but her eyes kept shifting, making Shu Yushuang feel that something was off.  

Was she hiding something?