Chapter 242: Chapter 242- Headless Corpse (2) Grey waited outside for several minutes.
When the shadow finally returned, its emotions were heavy with depression, and it eyed Grey warily. Still, it did not dare reveal its true feelings and instead maintained an aloof façade.
Seeing the shadow emerge, Grey hesitated briefly before stepping into the small brown structure.
The instant he entered, a powerful wave of nausea assaulted him, causing his stomach to churn violently. He nearly vomited on the spot.
However, Grey forcefully composed himself and lifted his gaze.
Then, he looked around.
The walls of the structure, which were probably once white, were now brown, as though they had been soaked and dyed in blood. Grey noticed fragments of debris scattered across the ground, objects that had decayed and collapsed after countless years of abandonment.
Time had not merely worn them down... it had erased them.
The remains were so decomposed that Grey could no longer tell what they originally were. However, judging by their shapes and placements, he could still vaguely determine that they had once been furniture.
Grey moved through the other rooms of the structure and saw similar scenes repeated everywhere. Decayed remnants, collapsed interiors, and the lingering aura of death filled every corner.
After exploring for some time, Grey finally stepped back outside.
"That place must have been a normal residence," Grey murmured softly. "However, the passage of time has caused everything inside to rot and decompose. There’s nothing useful left."
Without lingering any longer, he turned and headed toward the next structure.
As before, the shadow spread out first, silently slipping inside to investigate before Grey followed. And just like the previous building, this structure had also succumbed to the ravages of time. Anything that might have once held value had long since decayed into nothingness.
Still, Grey did not stop.
The stench of blood that permeated this place was growing stronger the deeper he went, thickening until it clung to the air itself.
Moreover, he had not seen any corpses. No remains of beings that might have died here.
This absence only deepened his unease.
Thus, Grey continued searching.
Slowly, he drew closer to the core of the structures.
The eerie feeling he had sensed earlier intensified, growing heavier with every step. The desolate atmosphere pressed down on him, as though the entire place was suffocating under an unseen weight.
Grey’s body instinctively shuddered.
Yet he forced himself to continue.
However, when he was roughly ten thousand meters from the core, his entire body suddenly stiffened.
A chilling sensation swept past the back of his neck, as if an icy wind had brushed against his skin.
Grey turned around.
What he saw caused his pupils to shrink violently.
A white figure had just walked straight through his body.
Startled, Grey rapidly retreated and began circulating his cultivation base, his heart pounding. However, the white figure did not react to him in the slightest. It continued walking forward, heading directly toward the core of the desolate structures.
Very soon, another white figure appeared.
Then another.
And another.
They all emerged from the same direction as the first. As they crossed the ten-thousand-meter boundary, their bodies gradually shifted from transparent to solid, becoming fully visible.
Seeing this, Grey’s mind trembled.
He could not sense any aura from these figures.
It was as though they were...
Dead.
’No... not dead,’ Grey corrected himself inwardly, his expression darkening.
’They’re ghosts.’
He watched in silence as more white figures appeared, their numbers steadily increasing until they reached the hundreds. Once formed, they all continued walking forward in an orderly manner, never once glancing at Grey.
It was as if he didn’t exist.
Or perhaps... they simply couldn’t see him.
As they walked, blood slowly dripped from their ears, staining their white clothes. Yet none of them reacted. Their expressions never changed as they continued marching toward the core.
Grey resisted the urge to turn and flee.
He stared at the white figures intently, yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not clearly see their faces. Even their backs were blurry, as though their existence itself was incomplete.
When over a thousand white figures had gathered, no more appeared.
At that moment, the chill in the air increased drastically, sinking into Grey’s bones.
This was also the first time Grey had encountered other "beings" in this place.
Even though...
They were ghosts.