How come it failed?

"Is there something else that can keep the blue flame burning for a long time?"

Jiang Jingyuan added oil several times along the way. The last time, estimating that the dark green liquid was about to transform into black water, she added a little more. She left the headless corpse behind her and hurried forward. This ice cellar seemed much larger than the previous two.

The ice cellar was filled with a winter-like chill, so cold that a thin mist appeared, flowing quietly under the blue light.

The surrounding darkness was as thick as ink, like thick sea water, solemn and dignified with the breath of death, which made Jiang Jingyuan almost breathless.

Jiang Jingyuan immersed himself completely in the circle of space before him, illuminated by the blue light, and the surrounding darkness, which was dimly lit by shadows. He tried not to pay attention to the crisp "clattering" footsteps echoing in the silence, whether it was caused by himself or something else, or to the strange, shifting shadows beneath his feet that he caught a glimpse of in his peripheral vision...

She wanted to ignore the deafening footsteps and listen to the secrets in the darkness, but her heart was unconsciously shrouded in a haze of panic.

She walked faster and faster, and the sound of her footsteps gradually changed from a light "thump thump" to a heavy "thump thump", as if she had been replaced by something else without her even noticing.

The silent darkness will always bring out the deepest fear in people's hearts. Jiang Jingyuan's ears were buzzing, and there was only one thought in his mind:

"Why not yet, why haven't we reached the end yet, why haven't we encountered those ghosts yet..."

"Be it a ghost or something else..."

Whatever happens will remind her that she is still alive!

"rustle……"

Suddenly, her pace slowed down and she seemed to hear some sound.

She walked gently, but there was still the eternal silence in her ears. The sound just now seemed to be just an illusion caused by her panic.

Jiang Jingyuan continued walking, her steps heavy. She could only see the small circle of light in front of her. In a trance, she even forgot the direction she was going.

"rustle……"

It came again. She didn't know if it was an illusion or the sound of something crawling, but the sound came again. Jiang Jingyuan didn't want to pay attention to it, but her pace slowed down involuntarily.

She walked slowly until she could no longer tell the length of time.

Suddenly, she remembered something:

For those ghosts, the safest place is not only the dark depths that are not illuminated by blue light, but also—

Behind her.

The gorgeous lantern and the faint blue flame within it swayed violently, and Jiang Jingyuan turned abruptly—

In the shadow and darkness behind her, a woman's face with a half-smile appeared faintly.

The woman in the darkness stood with her back hunched, her arms hooked, and her knees bent, like some kind of reptile standing upright in a twisted manner. She looked like a human, but had inhuman habits, and there was an indescribable sense of weirdness in her horror.

Jiang Jingyuan's pupils shrank, and without time to think, he subconsciously opened the invisible barrier of the jade bracelet.

The ghost that looked like a woman did not attack. Instead, it took advantage of the moment when Jiang Jingyuan turned sideways and stretched out a bony hand to pounce on the gorgeous lantern in Jiang Jingyuan's hand.

Its face was facing Jiang Jingyuan's face. It seemed to be mocking him, but also looked directly into Jiang Jingyuan's eyes without any sadness or joy.

Jiang Jingyuan was shocked.

In the range of the dim and quiet blue light, the human-like ghosts looked like they were made of mud, being washed by the rain and melting at a speed visible to the naked eye.

First, the nearest arm, connected to the shoulder, had its flesh and blood wriggling and falling off like mud, revealing the white bones supporting it. Then, the strange human face, its eye sockets, nose, mouth, and ears, were all clearly dripping downwards, sticky and tangled, forming a single, viscous mass that fell off in one piece.

It didn't stop, as if it felt no pain, and continued to reach for the beautiful lantern in Jiang Jingyuan's hand.

Jiang Jingyuan gritted his teeth and didn't care about anything else. He kicked the ground with his left foot and lowered his head to slam into the ghost in front of him, which had half of its head and flesh fallen off. Both the man and the ghost fell to the ground with a loud muffled sound.

Jiang Jingyuan couldn't hesitate, because these ghosts had too strong a cooperation ability. She believed that as long as one ghost knocked down her lantern, another one would immediately follow and destroy the lantern!

Jiang Jingyuan fell face down. She felt the muddy flesh beneath her and the sudden pressure from her bones. She wished she could faint.

But she couldn't.

All around her, in the darkness not illuminated by the dim blue light, dense swarms of ghostly green flames appeared.

Pale arms stretched out from the ghostly fire, and more than a dozen hands, so thin that they were almost skin and bones, grabbed the gorgeous lantern held in Jiang Jingyuan's left hand with lightning speed.

The flesh of more than a dozen arms melted visibly under the blue light, falling in clumps onto the icy ground. The owners of the arms seemed unconscious, without even a moment's pause. Only the skeletal arms remained, some clutching Jiang Jingyuan's left hand, others grabbing the corner of a lantern.

Jiang Jingyuan, who was pressed against the mud and bones, did not try to struggle. She gritted her teeth and put all her strength into her left hand, holding the lantern tightly with her left hand.

Under the blue light, you can see the thin silk threads being stretched straight, the lotus root powder, the tender green lanterns and the dark green lantern poles being pulled to the extreme, as if they will be ruthlessly broken in the next moment!

Jiang Jingyuan's body was shone with white light. He kicked the ground with the tip of his right foot and instantly rushed forward like a cannonball towards the crawling woman holding the lantern.

The woman, who looked exactly like the other ghosts she had seen before, was unexpectedly knocked away. The finger bones holding the lantern were dislocated and fell to the ground with a rustling sound.

Most of the ghosts that were originally holding Jiang Jingyuan down were melted by the blue light, and the white skeletons with the lower half of flesh had no support and fell to the ground.

Jiang Jingyuan took advantage of this opportunity to quickly turn over, picked up the lantern and jumped up.

A hair-raising sound of "ding-dang-dang" was heard, and the broken bones that were rolled up by her sleeves fell from mid-air onto the ice ground with her movements.

Jiang Jingyuan held the lantern in her left hand and shone it on the face of the person in front of her, and with her right hand, she swung the sword at the woman who was walking upright and twisted in the shadows behind her.

The faint blue flames and the silver-white cold light of the sword contrasted with each other, and the melted black mud and the fluorescent green liquid mixed together... With a touch of her toes, the girl in white landed lightly on the clean ice surface beside her.

The dark blue flame that has absorbed enough green liquid emits a quiet and dazzling blue light. The flame sways with the shaking of the lantern, making people feel as if they see a ghost waving at them from the other side of death, which is breathtaking.

The ghosts and monsters closed their dark green eyes, and the darkness around them returned to silence.

Jiang Jingyuan followed the direction of the aqua-blue spirit rope, holding a lantern in one hand and a sword in the other, dragging behind him a headless corpse with a distorted posture and facial bones and flesh wriggling and deforming.

A dark green liquid was flowing from under the headless corpse... The dark green liquid turned black and smelled bad, until only black water with a foul smell could flow out. However, Jiang Jingyuan still did not throw it away, but dragged it tightly behind him.

"It's too much trouble to kill and use it immediately."

"Is it possible that someone really adds fuel to the lantern flame every day?"

"Well...if anyone gets involved, that's really sick."

Jiang Jingyuan complained as he walked, trying to fight the silent darkness with his dense inner thoughts.

The deeper you go, the stronger the smell of decay and death becomes, so strong that it seems to solidify into substance, swelling and expanding, devouring all life around.

Jiang Jingyuan walked in it, and in a trance he felt as if he was walking in the mouth of some huge, dark, and foul-smelling living creature, and was willingly walking into its esophagus step by step.

The sticky darkness and loneliness opened its mouth towards her, trying to figure out how to swallow her.

Jiang Jingyuan walked, not knowing when he lost his mind. He was like a rag doll stuffed with cotton, and his walking was just controlled by others.

After an unknown amount of time, Jiang Jingyuan suddenly came back to his senses.

She first looked around warily, focusing on her back. Noticing that the surroundings were still empty, she breathed a sigh of relief and continued with her previous thoughts:

"Whether there's human involvement is another matter, but there must be something else that keeps the lanterns lit for so long."

"It's impossible to refuel so frequently. It would require constant monitoring, and the range of the blue light would also vary—"

"Although it might be because I didn't add enough oil, what is certain is that even if I filled it up at once, the range of the blue light wouldn't be as large as the ice cellar at the beginning..."

Jiang Jingyuan felt that no one or anything else could be that sick.

Keeping a pet in captivity and feeding it can be explained as the joy of raising a pet, but staring at the lantern waiting for refueling at any moment is inexplicable - in this case, how is it any different from being trapped?

The difference might be that trapped people wouldn't have such weird pets.

Perhaps the loneliness and darkness were too unbearable, and she couldn't help but say in her heart: "If the disease really is that serious, then I have nothing to say..."

"Perhaps under certain circumstances, someone has to keep these ghosts and monsters around, and they have to keep them fueled, and they themselves can't leave here?" Jiang Jingyuan's thoughts wandered.

She shook her head slightly, barely perceptibly, to dismiss the thought. She just wanted to get out of here; there was no point dwelling on it.

Jiang Jingyuan lowered her eyes and glanced. Within the range of the blue light, it seemed that a slender shadow only half the size of a palm was running past the tip of her shoe at a high speed.

Um?

Jiang Jingyuan's heart instantly rose to his throat, and he lowered his head and looked around cautiously.

But, no.

Her feet were clean, with only the shadows cast by the hem of her skirt and the fluffy cape as she walked.

"It might be the shaking of the shadow, I accidentally saw it wrongly." Jiang Jingyuan thought for a while and comforted himself.

It is easy to panic in such a dark environment. No matter whether there is anything or not, since we haven't found it, we should calm down first.

Thinking about this, Jiang Jingyuan raised his head.

A quiet blue light encircled a circle of space, illuminating it. The slightly blurred edge of light and dark, where the single light met the darkness, swayed as the person walked. The pale blue, nearly white light illuminated a human face...

Looking at the face that suddenly appeared in front of him, Jiang Jingyuan was not panicked, but exuded calmness from the bottom of his heart.

However, as the light moved forward, she could no longer maintain her composure, and shock and confusion instantly burst out from the bottom of her heart.

Why didn't this ghost melt under the blue light for so long?!

Blu-ray is out of service?!

Jiang Jingyuan felt something was wrong and retreated immediately.

The lantern shook violently, and the circle of blue light suddenly retreated.

The face that showed no sadness or joy disappeared in the blue light and hid in the darkness.