Chapter 23: The Girl

However, he didn’t immediately go to get the iron rod. Instead, he quietly observed the corpse of the middle-aged man leaning against the wardrobe door.

The head of this middle-aged man was not crushed. This was completely different from the Corpse Beasts whose heads were smashed to kill them. Moreover, regular Corpse Beasts couldn’t use weapons; they were simply low-intelligence, reanimated corpses.

Su Li activated the “Peering Rune.” The information that appeared confirmed his guess: the middle-aged man’s corpse was not a Spiritual Source Beast, so no information could be peered into.

“He’s not a Corpse Beast. So he must be a survivor, a Spiritual Source Wielder like me. He must have been the one who killed all those Corpse Beasts outside.”

“What a shame, he was killed.” Su Li looked at the massive wound on the middle-aged man’s chest. Without a doubt, that was the cause of his death.

But who or what had inflicted that wound?

“Those low-level Corpse Beasts shouldn’t have been able to kill him.” Su Li had seen many Corpse Beast corpses on his way in. If this survivor had killed all of them, he would have already advanced to at least a Level 1 or even Level 2 Spiritual Source Wielder. For a Level 1 or Level 2 Spiritual Source Wielder, these low-level Corpse Beasts would have been unable to kill him.

Su Li recalled the claw marks on the wall and thought of the One-Eyed Frog.

“It must be that a terrifying Spiritual Source Beast, similar to the One-Eyed Frog, appeared. It wasn’t a low-level Corpse Beast. And this Spiritual Source Beast had extremely sharp claws. The wound on this man’s chest must have been caused by those sharp claws, ripping him open. It’s such a pity…”

Su Li mentally reconstructed the scene, feeling regret. If he had arrived here just one day earlier, perhaps with his and this man’s combined strength, they both could have survived. And then, he would have a companion and wouldn’t be all alone anymore.

Being alone was too lonely. His desire for a companion was growing stronger and stronger.

With a silent sigh of regret, Su Li bent down to pick up the iron rod on the ground. He found that the other end of the rod was held very tightly by the middle-aged man’s corpse. As he lifted the iron rod, the corpse’s right arm came up with it.

The middle-aged man’s corpse had been leaning against the wardrobe. His movement caused the corpse to tilt and fall.

The wardrobe had sliding doors. The falling corpse pulled the white sliding door with it, creating a small gap.

At that exact moment, a faint movement came from inside the wardrobe.

Although the movement was very slight and the sound was extremely soft, to Su Li, who was on high alert, it was like a thunderclap.

His hair stood on end. He immediately gave the iron rod a sharp tug, freeing it from the corpse’s hand and taking full possession of it. At the same time, he backed away, his muscles tensing all over.

The surroundings remained silent, except for Su Li’s breathing. He held the cleaver in his left hand and the meter-long, thick iron rod in his right. He had tossed the hammer aside.

This iron rod was heavy, several times heavier than the hammer he was using before, and at a meter long, it was a perfect weapon for him now.

He stared intently at the wardrobe, looking at the narrow gap in the doors. He could only vaguely see some clothes hanging inside; nothing else was visible. But what was that faint movement he had heard?

“I couldn’t have misheard it. There’s really something hiding in there. But the movement was so small. It doesn’t sound like a Corpse Beast or any other Spiritual Source Beast. If it were a Spiritual Source Beast, it would have lunged out already; it wouldn’t hide. Could it be a rat or a cockroach?”

Su Li took a deep breath. He didn’t get closer, but he slowly extended the iron rod in his right hand, poking it into the gap in the sliding doors and forcing the doors apart.

When the wardrobe doors were completely opened, Su Li, whose muscles and nerves were all taut, froze slightly.

The wardrobe was full of clothes, but curled up beneath them was a small figure.

It was a girl about 12 or 13 years old. She was wearing a white dress and was huddled in the wardrobe, her arms tightly wrapped around her bent legs. Her small face was abnormally pale, devoid of any color. Her wide, staring eyes showed neither fear nor joy, only emptiness.

Her entire expression and gaze were blank and rigid.

Su Li stared at her. He gripped the iron rod and cleaver, his muscles tensed. He noticed that when he found her, she didn’t react at all. She didn’t even look at him, maintaining her curled position, her eyes staring blankly ahead.

A strange and silent atmosphere hung between them. If he hadn’t felt a faint breath of life from her, Su Li would have thought she was a corpse.

He saw the tear marks on her face, and looking at the corpse of the middle-aged man on the ground, he thought of how the man had braced the wardrobe door with his body in his last moments. Su Li began to understand some things.

Su Li cleared his throat with a soft cough, trying to ease the tension.

“Don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.” Su Li lowered the iron rod and cleaver he had been holding up, relaxing his tense muscles to make himself look more approachable.

“Is that… your father?” Su Li saw that the little girl curled in the wardrobe still hadn’t reacted. He understood that her current state was due to extreme shock. Everything that had happened here had caused her to have a mental breakdown, leaving her in this blank, unresponsive state.

If the sliding door hadn’t moved earlier, startling the girl and causing her to instinctively flinch, he wouldn’t have discovered that a living person was hiding behind the doors.

Seeing the resemblance between the little girl and the middle-aged man and how the man had used his body to brace the cabinet door in his final moments, Su Li guessed they were father and daughter.

The father must have discovered the Corpse Beasts, had his daughter hide in the wardrobe, and then fought to the death to protect her. Although he had killed so many Corpse Beasts, he had encountered a more terrifying monster. In his final moments, he still braced the wardrobe door, trying to protect his daughter hiding inside.

As for why the monster that killed the middle-aged man left afterward—it didn’t chew on his corpse and also didn’t find the girl hiding in the wardrobe—Su Li couldn’t figure it out.

Logically, that monster should have consumed the man’s corpse after killing him.

And the fact that the little girl could hide in the wardrobe without making a sound that would draw the monster’s attention also surprised Su Li.

(End of Chapter)