When I Lay Flat, the Female Lead Panicked - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Barrier

Meanwhile, at the inn.

A thick stench of corpses and bl00d mixed with the unpleasant, damp smell after the rain assaulted them.

The fighting below was intense. Luo Xiaoxiao carefully observed the continuous stream of vicious corpses. Seeing Qiutong and Ningyu’s coordinated teamwork, their skills were even more impressive than the flashy moves she saw in her games, but she didn’t dare to look too closely at the scene, which would require a mosaic filter to be barely bearable.

She just endured the feeling of her legs turning to jelly, quietly averted her gaze, and clutched her frantically beating chest, trying to stay calm. She resorted to giving Qiutong and Ningyu mental encouragement.

“Xiaoxiao, the corpse horde is attacking more and more fiercely. Senior Sister Qiutong and Senior Sister Ningyu might not be able to hold them off. I…”

Seeing the corpses getting closer and closer to the inn, and their attacks becoming more and more aggressive and uncontrollably frenzied, making it obvious that Qiutong and Ningyu were struggling, Cangruo’s brows furrowed. She looked at the girl beside her, whose small face was pale with fear, and her eyes showed her dilemma.

“Ruoruo, I… I can handle it. Don’t worry about me. Go help Sister Qiutong and Sister Ningyu quickly. They need you more!”

Looking at the hesitant Cangruo, Luo Xiaoxiao, who knew the battle was intense and she couldn’t help, said considerately.

“I…” Anxiously looking at the corpses surrounding them, Cangruo gritted her teeth, momentarily forgetting Wen Nanshu’s instructions from earlier.

“Xiaoxiao, don’t be afraid. I’ll be back in a flash. Hold onto these few protective talismans. Just stay here and don’t run around, understood?”

“Mhm.”

After giving the girl a simple explanation, she swiftly leaped out the window and joined Qiutong and Ningyu in the battle circle.

In mid-air, Cangruo waved her hand. In an instant, she flung out a poisonous agent that could corrode a large area of the corpse horde.

At the same time, she formed a hand seal. The next second, a large number of thick, lush green wooden vines emerged from the stone ground, lashing out at the corpses.

…

Listening to the endless, strange howls outside, the chubby, goofy guy and the skinny monkey had quietly snuck from the back kitchen to hide under a table in the front hall.

They had intended to take advantage of the chaos to escape with their young master, but now they were huddled together, trembling as they watched the intense battle outside the inn.

“O-Oldest brother, what should we do? There are so many walking corpses outside, it’s terrifying. These things are like rabid dogs; they’ll bite you no matter who you are…”

The chubby one shivered. Looking at the powerful fighting ability of those female cultivators and the continuous stream of fierce corpses, his face was filled with fear.

“…What else can we do? We can’t beat them, so let’s just wait and see.”

“Hmph…”

“Maybe those cultivators and the corpses will fight to a mutual destruction, and we’ll get to reap the benefits.”

“Hmph…”

“And…”

“Hmph…”

“…” The sound of him exhaling through his nose as if in contempt made the skinny monkey annoyed.

“You dead fatty, what are you snorting about? Hmph, hmph. I thought you were…”

Turning to scold the chubby one in dissatisfaction, the skinny monkey saw him clutching his mouth, his face pale, trembling like a sieve.

And squeezed in with them under the small square table was a man, his face inches from the chubby one, staring “affectionately” at him.

And this man, to be precise, was a bizarre man dressed in a dark green burial shroud, with white eyes and green fangs, who looked like he was a complete handful.

“…” Their hearts sank.

An eerie silence spread under the small square table.

And when the man tilted his head and impatiently bared his long, sharp, zombie-like teeth at the two of them, thump!

It was the sound of the table being flipped over.

A pig-like shriek of terror instantly echoed throughout the entire inn.

“Aaaah, a ghost!!!”

Being chased everywhere by the man who had clearly been turned into a corpse, scared to death, the chubby and skinny guys didn’t care about being exposed anymore. Like a game of cat and mouse, they began a sweet chase that was exclusive to the three of them inside the small inn.

He chased, they ran, and they couldn’t escape even if they had wings.

“Hmm? What’s that noise inside the inn?”

The three people fighting outside, who were keenly aware of the strange noises from the inn, were all shocked.

“Oh no, Xiaoxiao is still inside the inn!”

They instinctively moved towards the inn at the same time.

But with a Wooo~, a long and strange flute sound abruptly rang out.

Before Qiutong and the others could react, the corpses they had just repelled and dispersed seemed to have received a command. They surged again, attacking even more fiercely and frantically.

“Damn it! Something’s not right! Cangruo, Ningyu and I will hold this place. You go back and protect Xiaoxiao! Get her out of here!”

Her spiritual whip had already destroyed countless corpses. The purple-black whip was soaked in black and red bl00d.

As her words fell, with the cover of Ningyu’s zither music, Qiutong’s fiery-red spiritual energy instantly erupted. She forcefully carved a path through the surging corpse horde.

“Okay!” The situation was serious, and there was no time to waste.

Knowing that the sudden surge of the corpses likely meant some terrifying thing had appeared, Cangruo formed a hand seal. Under the cover of Qiutong and Ningyu, she was about to fly back to the second floor to take Luo Xiaoxiao and leave.

But just as she was getting close to the inn, a powerful air wave pushed her away, instantly sending her flying.

Pfft…

She was unprepared and caught off guard. Her bl00d and energy surged in her body, and a mouthful of bl00d instantly rushed up from her throat.

“Cough, what… what’s going on?”

In the moment she was thrown back, she looked at the invisible barrier wall in the direction of the inn with a puzzled and surprised expression.

“Cangruo!”

Timely flashing into the air to protect Cangruo and killing another crazed corpse that was flying towards them, Qiutong’s expression was grave and tense.

“Are you okay?”

“Cough, cough, cough…” She landed messily, a large amount of bl00d gushing from the corner of her mouth. She quickly pointed at a few important acupuncture points on herself.

Cangruo gasped for air. She immediately took out a large amount of healing medicine from her storage bag and poured it all into her mouth. She said weakly, “I’m fine. It’s just that there was a strange force just now, stopping me from returning to the inn!”

“A strange force? What’s going on?”

Her brows furrowed. Following Cangruo’s gaze, Qiutong had a premonition that the situation was bad and got up, about to go and check it out.

But Ningyu’s low voice came first.

“Now… is probably not the time to discuss this. We’ve been surrounded…”

The white tips of her fingers, at some point, had started to bleed, trickling down and staining the zither strings crimson.

She frowned, worriedly looking in the direction of the inn, as if she couldn’t feel the pain. Ningyu held her zither and took two steps back, standing somewhat weakly beside Qiutong and Cangruo.

“Damn it!”

She frustratingly whipped her spiritual whip, sending another wave of corpses flying away, protecting Ningyu.

Under the continuous high-intensity battle, her spiritual energy was reaching its limit. Qiutong’s forehead was covered in fine sweat, and she felt herself straining.

“I wonder how Senior Sister is doing…”

Clutching her chest, Cangruo barely managed to stand up. Her eyes were filled with worry and a hint of self-blame.

“The top priority is to solve these corpses as soon as possible. I have a premonition that the mysterious barrier over the inn was not set by a kind person.”

Her bleeding fingertips once again touched the zither strings. Ningyu’s gentle eyes were now tinged with a coldness.

“Hah… I know that, but if this continues, our spiritual energy won’t last much longer. It seems the only way is…”

Looking at the restless, brutally roaring corpses surging towards them, Qiutong’s hand gripped the handle of her whip tightly.

Just as she was about to release her spiritual energy again, planning to risk performing a powerful spell that would consume an immense amount of spiritual energy, a zing!

Zing! Zing! Zing!

A chorus of swords, sharp and clear, echoed from a distance.

The dark ground was instantly covered by dazzling, blue-and-white light.

Before anyone could react, they only heard a swoosh! In an instant, like falling meteors, thousands of sharp swords came crashing down on the corpse horde on the ground.

In an instant, the restless dead were violently suppressed.

This is… a rain of swords!

Their gazes all lifted in unison, looking at the vague but incredibly powerful figure beneath the hanging moon.

As a cold, beautiful, and celestial figure slowly approached, a look of relief appeared on the faces of Qiutong and the others.

It was their Senior Sister; she had returned!

…

Perched on her sword, Wen Nanshu looked down at the entire village. Her bright eyes looked deep and unfathomable in the night.

The dense evil energy in An Family Village tonight was probably not just from An Wude’s son, who had become a corpse king.

She recalled the unknown, eerie bl00d talismans on the coffin, combined with the strange corpse transformation of the villagers. And what she found when she searched for the evil energy—a hidden corpse-nurturing pool and an evil spirit altar in the back mountain of the village…

This huge undertaking was likely not something An Wude could have accomplished alone.

An Family Village was probably not as simple as it seemed.

Something was setting up a conspiracy here. And this conspiracy was probably not something that they could completely solve at the moment.

Thinking this, and knowing that this matter was of great importance and could not be handled rashly, she decided that after resolving the current situation, she needed to return to the Tianyan Sect with her junior sisters as soon as possible to report this to her master and the elders.

With that thought, her eyes flashed with cold light. Based on the principle of a quick and decisive victory, Wen Nanshu’s attacks were fast, fierce, and precise.

After she had basically wiped out the corpses surrounding the inn, she flew down on her sword to her junior sisters to check on their condition.

“Senior Sister, don’t worry about us! Hurry! A strange barrier has been set up over the inn! Xiaoxiao is still trapped inside! Go save her!!!”

They didn’t have time to thank their senior sister for her timely appearance. Out of concern for Luo Xiaoxiao, Cangruo endured her injuries and shouted towards Wen Nanshu.

“What…”

Her sword stopped. Seeing that the only person missing from her three junior sisters was that charming figure, her heart sank. She subconsciously pictured a terrible scene of Luo Xiaoxiao soaked in bl00d, severely injured and weakly crying out, “Sister, save me.”

Her heart skipped a beat. Before she could think, Wen Nanshu had already unleashed a spiritual energy explosion more powerful than the one she used to cast the rain of swords.

She instantly swung her sword, fiercely attacking the barrier around the inn.

…

At the same time, in the room upstairs. Luo Xiaoxiao, who was completely unaware that she was trapped in the inn and might be sharing a room with some dangerous presence, was mumbling to herself.

“Namo Amitabha…”

“Roar!”

“Balala Power…”

“Roar!!”

“Maka Baka?”

“Roar!!!”

…

Hearing the ghost-like roars from below once again drown out her nonsensical chanting, the girl’s small body trembled unfilially.

She had quietly curled up in a corner of the bed at some point and covered her head with a blanket, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

Clutching the protective talisman Cangruo gave her tightly, Luo Xiaoxiao kept trying to comfort herself.

“It’s okay, it’s okay… I’m not afraid, not afraid at all. Not afraid at all…”

The more she comforted herself, the more her body trembled.

After all, it’s one thing to say it, but it’s another to actually be faced with this real person, real scene, and real ghost. This immersive experience was much more intense than any escape room in her real world… Who could stay calm in this situation?

The more she thought about it, the more her composure crumbled.

Waaah, save me! Those guys from the demon race, aside from a few who are particularly ugly, at least they look human. But those dark and twisted things outside, whose sanity has dropped to zero and aren’t even censored with a mosaic, are completely different.

She didn’t even dare to look at them…

Waaah… I’ve been a good girl. Please let me go! She’s already met Wen Nanshu, and her wish has come true. She wants to go home! This ghost place is too scary. She can’t stand it for a second.

At the same time, a mysterious outsider in the room was lightly stepping on the rafters.

He was looking at the beautiful girl’s panicked reaction with a bit of interest.

A hint of a cold, inscrutable light slowly appeared in his green eyes.

“Heh… interesting.”