Ch. 36 - Another Heartbeat Warning, the Unfathomable Xilin

Sun Qian’s group crossed the bridge and was already close to Xilin.

Wang Jian followed behind, dazed, carrying a golden girlfriend in his left arm and a silver girlfriend in his right—even more eye-catching than Bai Wan with his whole “family portrait” strapped to his back.

“Up ahead… that should be Xilin.” Sun Qian’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the seemingly ordinary forest ahead.

But after just a few more steps, everyone froze in place.

Thump thump thump!

Their faces paled — they could all feel it. Their hearts were pounding wildly.

A…a heartbeat warning?!

“Impossible… why is there a heartbeat warning? Entering Xilin is part of the main storyline, isn’t it?” Wang Jian clutched his gold and silver girlfriends, already on edge, now looking like he’d break at any moment.

A heartbeat warning meant there was something in the forest far beyond what they could handle. Such a phenomenon only appeared when something way above the instance’s normal difficulty lurked nearby.

But… that shouldn’t be happening. Logically, as long as they were following the intended storyline, they shouldn’t trigger a heartbeat warning at all.

“The heartbeat warning’s pretty faint… probably means there’s something terrifying in the forest, but as long as we don’t mess with it, we’ll be fine. We’re just here to dig up Dreamscape and get out.” Xu Bing analyzed calmly.

“Yeah. According to the game’s script, the stolen painting is buried under a stone stele in Xilin. We shouldn’t need to go deep, so we probably won’t run into that horror.” Sun Qian nodded in agreement with Xu Bing’s logic.

But even so, everyone’s faces looked grim.

Theory was one thing; reality was another.

They knew there was something dreadful waiting in that forest, yet they still had to step in and look for the painting. Just thinking about it made their hearts pound harder.

The Letter truly lived up to its “Unsolvable” tier. This made two separate places now with heartbeat warnings—absolutely insane.

Xu Bing had always been confident in herself, but ever since entering this dungeon, her certainty had been chipped away bit by bit. Could she really make it out alive?

“Earlier, when I asked around the village, an old man told me they’ve marked the trees flanking the path into Xilin—we have to stick to the marked trail, or we’ll get lost for good,” Su Yuening spoke up, sharing the crucial tip she’d gotten from her second encounter with the old grandpa.

“Alright, then let’s hurry. It’s getting late,” Sun Qian looked at Wang Jian and hesitated before saying, “Hey, little brother… carrying those two girlfriends is really gonna slow you down if something happens. How about leaving them here outside the forest?”

Wang Jian looked miserable. He’d picked the rotting girlfriend first, hoping he could give her a proper burial when he got out—but that River God had tossed him the gold and silver girlfriends instead and vanished.

Sun Qian gave him a half-joking push: “Look, kid, you’re young, don’t throw your whole life away on one tree. That cold-blooded woman’s gone—forget about her. Listen to your big bro: just sell those gold and silver girls to the scrap collector when we get back, get some cash, start over fresh.”

Gold prices were on the rise, so these might be worth a decent chunk.

Maybe Wang Jian really did snap out of it, after a moment, he finally put down the two girlfriends by the forest edge.

Then, everyone stepped into Xilin together.

Bai Wan kept his eyes sharp. He quickly spotted the red strings tied around trees at intervals — just like Su Yuening said, the villagers had marked the safe route.

Aside from that, the forest looked no different from any other woodland…

No—there was a difference.

It was too quiet. The only sound was the rustling of leaves in the breeze. No birdsong, no small animals, not a single scurrying lifeform in sight. Animals had instincts sharper than people; they could sense danger humans couldn’t. Clearly, that instinct was spot on.

They all moved cautiously, tense, each one discreetly gripping the life-saving charms they’d earned through blood and sweat in earlier dungeons.

Wang Jian, at least, still had the skull totem Luo Ya hadn’t used before she went under—his last line of defense, a small mercy amid the mess.

The sky was dimming fast. They had to pick up the pace. They had to be back in Lin Yuan’s wooden house by ten sharp according to the rules, or who knew what would happen.

Then—a rustle ahead.

Everyone froze, eyes fixed on the faint shape ahead. This haunted forest was somewhere no villager dared to tread. So… what was up there?

Sun Qian signaled everyone to hold their breath and inch forward. After a few careful steps, they saw what it was—and their hearts clenched.

A ragged man was standing there, chopping wood.

The horrifying part was that his body was incomplete—one thigh was nothing but exposed bone.

Bai Wan and the others immediately remembered what Sun Qian said about the old widow: her husband had gone into Xilin to chop wood years ago and never came back. Now, here he was—or what was left of him—still hacking at the trees. Still chopping wood after a whole year, dead on his feet.

No one dared breathe too loudly. They carefully circled around the corpse still working its axe.

Bai Wan paused, eyeing the thing, but Su Yuening grabbed his arm. Her glare said it all: Don’t you dare dance.

Bai Wan’s shoulders slumped. 

Alright, alright. No dancing.

So they all passed by safely, maybe the corpse hadn’t noticed them, or maybe they hadn’t triggered its kill condition. Either way, they were safe—this time.

No one felt relief though, the chill in their bones only deepened.

If there was one ghost, there’d be more. How many bodies were buried in this place?

“Stay sharp. Don’t step off the marked path. No marks, don’t go. You get lost, you’re done.” Sun Qian’s voice trembled with tension as he warned them.

Everyone nodded, eyes locked on the red strings guiding their path, not daring to glance away.

They walked on in tense silence until they spotted it—a massive stone stele up ahead.

“That must be where the painting’s buried.” Even the always-cold Xu Bing couldn’t help the flicker of hope in her voice.

Thank god. If the stash had been deeper in the forest, with these monsters lurking, they’d probably have lost their minds before they found it.

Sun Qian and the others rushed over, pulling iron shovels out of their packs. Easy enough to find on any rural road — they’d come prepared.

They picked a patch of fresh earth near the stele and started digging. Lin Yuan’s stolen treasures had to be here.

After a few tense minutes, their shovels clanged on metal. Their eyes lit up.

They found it!

Sun Qian pried the box open.

Inside: jewelry, cash—and stacks of paintings.

They rifled through them, eyes darting over each title, searching for the unfinished piece: Dreamscape.

And then their faces turned pale.

“What? How can this be? It’s not here…” Su Yuening’s eyes widened in disbelief.

All the paintings were finished works, each neatly titled. Not a single one was called Dreamscape.

“…Don’t tell me. The wife’s letter was a bait… there never was a Dreamscape?” Sun Qian’s voice cracked with horror.

If they’d been baited—if the ghost wife already knew Lin Yuan was dead—then they were well and truly exposed.

The ghost knew they were imposters.

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