"It's the lighthouse!"
From this angle, the black coastline and the seaside lighthouse matched the illustration in the album perfectly, both in perspective and scenery!
No doubt about it—this had to be the place!
Just then, Dai Minghan's somewhat startled voice came from behind: "What's that?"
Among the overgrown weeds on either side of the path, something white seemed to be peeking out...
It was a statue.
A weathered, white stone statue.
Since this was a park, the presence of something like a statue could be explained, but none of the three standing there would take it so simply.
Moreover, this weathered statue gave off a strangely familiar feeling.
"Could this also correspond to something in the game..."
Before Lin Tianheng could finish his sentence, a white shadow suddenly emerged from behind the statue—a floating specter!
"Feng Wenxuan!"
Indeed, that floating specter was the ghost formed after Feng Wenxuan's death, now hovering in the air, drifting slowly toward them.
And it wasn't just Feng Wenxuan. More white specters gradually rose from the surrounding grass.
Li Kai...
Duan Xue...
Ye Sheng...
And Zhang Yiming and Zhou Xiaomi...
All of them—participants and story characters who had died in this tale—had now turned into ghosts, drifting along the weed-choked path!
This place, too, was a reflection of that cursed game! As reality transformed into the "inner world," the statues of the dead from the game had appeared in the real world, and from those statues emerged the ghosts of the deceased!
A dense swarm of specters floated ahead on the path, while behind them, Feng Wenxuan's ghost lunged forward. Lin Tianheng gritted his teeth, pulled out a talisman for exorcism, and slapped it toward the floating spirit.
Boom!
Before even reaching the specter, the talisman burst into flames midair, but the fire lasted less than a second before it transformed into a green fireball with a crackle.
Lin Tianheng's expression shifted. He had wanted to conserve his items, but this pack of ten exorcism talismans was too weak against the ghost's true form.
In that instant, Feng Wenxuan's pale, water-swollen face closed in to an alarming distance. Lin Tianheng hesitated no longer, drawing his pitch-black, lusterless dagger and stabbing it into Feng Wenxuan's ghost. The seemingly dull blade, upon piercing the spirit, suddenly erupted with a burst of golden flames. Accompanied by a piercing scream, Feng Wenxuan's ghost dissolved into black smoke and vanished midair.
"Move!"
Clutching the dagger tightly, Lin Tianheng roared. Ghosts were immortal—that was a hidden rule of the story. Items could temporarily disperse spirits but couldn't destroy them completely; after a while, they would reappear.
Though this path was thick with floating specters, it was the only way to the lighthouse. They had no choice but to steel themselves and fight for their lives!
As Lin Tianheng bellowed, Chen Mo gripped Old Zhang's flashlight tightly and flicked the switch. Instantly, a blinding beam of light pierced the darkness, illuminating the path!
Under the intense light, the spirits of Zhou Xiaomi and Li Kai ahead let out agonized screams and dissolved into black smoke. With those cries, the flashlight's beam flickered violently twice, growing unsteady.
"Hurry! This spirit-dispersing effect won't last long!"
As he spoke, Chen Mo kept the flashlight trained ahead. The three of them, like hurried night travelers, pressed forward through the muddy, blood-soaked path, relying on the small patch of light cast by the beam.
That faint light, though weak, seemed to hold a strange power. Though spirits lunged at them from all sides, they always recoiled before the light, as if deeply wary of it!
"Tsk, Chen Mo, you've got yourself a treasure!" Lin Tianheng's eyes gleamed as he eyed the unassuming old flashlight in Chen Mo's hand. It looked ordinary, but it was a dual-effect spirit-dispersing item with both sustained and area coverage! Though its effect diminished over time, it was incredibly powerful against multiple spirits!
Even so, as the light gradually weakened, the area it covered shrank. If they accidentally stepped outside the beam's range, a ghastly, pale face would instantly appear before them. At such moments, despite knowing that using an item more than three times in a single story would damage it, Lin Tianheng had no choice but to draw his dagger again and stab at the ghost lunging at him!
With another scream from the spirit, a faint crack sounded from the black dagger, and a fissure appeared on its blade. Exceeding the usage limit damaged the item, and that wasn't the worst part—the worst was that parasitic or cursed items could even cause the bound spirit to break free or the curse to reawaken! Then, participants would face not only the attacking ghost but also the backlash from the revived curse or item spirit, a true path to certain death!
Fortunately, Lin Tianheng's dagger was merely a spirit-dispersing item, not parasitic or cursed. Still, seeing the crack on the blade made his heart sink, and he quickly sheathed it, unwilling to use it recklessly.
After driving back several charging spirits, the three finally broke through the overgrown area via the path. Before them, a stretch of soft sand led to the sea, and a boardwalk on the sand extended toward the white lighthouse!
Just then, the flashlight in Chen Mo's hand exhausted its last bit of power, flickered a few times, and went out completely.
Each time the flashlight's spirit-dispersing energy ran out, it needed time to recharge before it could be used again—unlike Dai Minghan's ghost hand or Lin Tianheng's dagger, which could be reused anytime as long as the usage limit wasn't exceeded. This was a drawback of the item.
Fortunately, once they stepped onto the boardwalk, the specters behind them didn't pursue. Instead, they floated at the path's end, silently watching the three, then slowly turned and drifted back into the weeds, as if those statues were their true home.
The lighthouse was right before them!
----- PS, thanks to Dreamfall Wanderer for the tip, much appreciated~