Chapter 50 The Turbulent Crowd of Puppets
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In the corner of the Dissolving Cave, bodies piled up like small mountains, and a faint stench of decay spread through the air. The clothing styles of the corpses varied greatly, not belonging to any single era.
Xu Yi frowned and stared at the mass of corpses, feeling a strange and eerie sensation.
"People go missing in this area from time to time, and the state government has sent investigators, but nothing was ever found. Now it seems Mary Shaw is behind this," Hunter said, his voice low as he gradually regained his strength.
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The way the bodies were stacked was peculiar; they all faced away from them, their faces obscured.
Laura, driven by curiosity, turned one of the bodies over, and then jumped back in horror.
The corpse's face was fixed in a weird smile, their lower jaw had been sawed off and then reattached. The eyes in their sockets were not human eyes but glass beads.
"These are... dolls? Mary Shaw has been making dolls!" Hunter's voice trembled.
Xu Yi finally understood why the scene felt so unsettling. If they were just normal corpses, they would have decayed and stank by now, some even turning into skeletons because of the passage of time.
But the corpses in front of them were too well preserved; Mary Shaw had already turned them into dolls long ago.
Xu Yi's face suddenly turned pale as he realized a problem: If Mary Shaw could control puppets, then what about these human-sized dolls?
"Run!" Xu Yi urged loudly as he saw one of the doll's fingers move.
Hunter and Laura also sensed something was wrong and turned to run, but it was too late. The corpses that had been turned into dolls were shakily standing up, each with the same eerie smile, staring directly at them.
"There are more behind us!" Hunter exclaimed, hearing footsteps from behind.
Xu Yi looked around and realized they had fallen into a trap, surrounded on all sides.
"Get ready to break through!" Xu Yi fixed his flashlight to his waist.
In such a dark underground space, without light, one would be very disadvantaged.
A doll lunged at them, and Xu Yi kicked it in the chest, sending it flying several meters away.
It wasn't that Xu Yi had suddenly become incredibly strong; the dolls were much lighter than humans. It seemed Mary Shaw had emptied the corpses' organs and used some unknown method to keep their bodies from decaying.
The dolls weren't very strong fighters, in fact, they were quite weak, but their sheer numbers were overwhelming, like a sea of bodies. And many of the dolls were armed with sharp weapons.
The dense throng of dolls surged forward, and the three of them felt like small boats in a tsunami, at risk of capsizing at any moment.
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Xu Yi, seeing that the annoying dolls had not followed, leaned against the wall for a brief rest.
As the saying goes, "Even the best martial artist fears a kitchen knife," and these dolls not only carried weapons but fought en masse, which was shamelessly unfair.
He was just a martial arts expert, not a hero who could strike down eighteen dragons with a single palm.
He looked left and right but still saw no sign of Hunter and Laura.
Faced with the tide of dolls, the three of them were scattered in an instant, running panickedly and heedlessly, with no concern for the others.
Footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor, clearly the dolls were on their trail.
"They just won't leave us in peace!" Xu Yi cursed under his breath, stood up, and prepared to run again.
Not running wasn't an option. The dolls were unlike normal people, without obvious vulnerabilities; even if one pierced through a doll's heart or gouged out its eyes, it wouldn't be a fatal blow.
On Xu Yi's escape route, there was a "white streak," a trace of climbing chalk.
The underground tunnel system was intricate and complex, so to avoid getting lost on their way back, they had sprinkled climbing chalk as they entered, which stood out against the dark tunnels.
Xu Yi was relatively lucky; because he had reacted quickly and was highly skilled, he managed to fight his way back to the chalk-marked path.
Hunter and Laura were not so fortunate and were probably wandering like headless flies in this underground labyrinth.
Xu Yi got up and continued to flee, when suddenly a dark figure appeared in front of him on the road.
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His body tensed in an instant, he thought he was surrounded. When he saw clearly there was only one puppet, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Brother, did you fall behind too?" Xu Yi looked at the sluggish puppet, which seemed like a doddering old man, and an idea struck him; he stepped forward to greet it.
He kept his eyes on the puppet's throat, where there was a hole torn open. Through the gap, he could vaguely see a red device whirring inside.
The red device seemed to be broken, as it moved jerkily, mirroring the puppet's movements.
The puppet "enthusiastically" responded to Xu Yi, brandishing a dagger and stabbing towards Xu Yi's kidney area.
"Brother, you're really too kind; I don't even know how to thank you," Xu Yi dodged the dagger by stepping aside and, with a kick, he knocked the puppet to the ground and snatched the dagger away.
"It looks like your throat is damaged; let me fix it for you!" Xu Yi stabbed the puppet's throat with the dagger, making the tear even larger.
He reached into the throat and yanked out the red device.
The device felt slimy, and Xu Yi finally realized what the deep red substance on it was—it was a severed tongue, still wriggling ceaselessly.
Xu Yi quickly threw away what was in his hand, a look of disgust on his face, and wiped his hand on his pants.
After wriggling for a few seconds, the red tongue began to decay rapidly; it seemed it couldn't survive apart from the puppet's body. The puppet, that had been struggling just now, suddenly stopped moving and truly became a corpse.
So the puppet's weakness was here! Xu Yi's eyes brightened at once.
He kicked the puppet at his feet aside.
A corpse should lie still, not run around. In "fixing up" the puppet to look like a corpse, Xu Yi thought the other side should be very grateful to him.
Footsteps sounded, the puppet swarm chased up again. Xu Yi pulled out a large military knife from his pack; he wasn't planning on hiding anymore.
Being chased all the way, even a clay figure has its limits of tolerance, let alone a person!
Now that he knew the enemy's weakness, he certainly was not without the power to fight.
He also thought of something else: if these puppets could bear Necromantic Spells, what about these puppets?
Looking at the more than a hundred puppets in front of him, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
The swarm of puppets surged forward, Xu Yi stood with his knife in the shadowy corner, waiting for prey to come, then the fight would be ignited at once.
As time ticked by, Xu Yi sat down on the ground, panting heavily, his back soaked with sweat.
At his feet, puppets lay scattered, their "manner of death" all similar—their throats slit, the devices underneath ripped out.
Now that he knew the puppets' weakness, it was much easier to deal with them. The tunnel was narrow and long; as long as he didn't get surrounded, he could use a kite-flying tactic to gradually dismantle the puppet swarm.
"What a waste of effort!" Xu Yi kicked the puppet beside him, feeling a bit frustrated and exasperated.
The device under the throat was the puppet's core; after being destroyed, the puppet couldn't move, but it would quickly begin to rot and stink.
This way, his plan to use these puppets to practice Necromantic Spells had gone bankrupt.
Footsteps echoed from the end of the tunnel. Xu Yi scratched his head, feeling somewhat irritated. When would these puppets ever end?
Just as he thought of getting up, Hunter's figure flashed past and he sat back down again.
The new group of puppets was drawn over by Hunter. It seemed that Hunter could still handle them; Xu Yi was too tired to move right now.
"Come and help!" Hunter spotted Xu Yi at the corner, his face filled with excitement.
"I'll be right there! Hold on for a moment!" Xu Yi muttered softly.
He didn't care if Hunter had heard him or not, taking a few pieces of chocolate and a bottle of water from his pack, he started eating by himself.
The intense exercise had drained too much energy, and he was getting a bit hungry now.
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