Nightmare Assault

“Fatty,” Jiang Cheng’s voice interrupted him. When he recovered, he had already arrived at the second stone door. Chen Ran had already separated from the Doctor. They stood on each side of the door.

“Wait for me outside,” Jiang Cheng ordered in a raising tone, “I have something to do with Brother Chen inside. If I don’t call for you, don’t interrupt us.”

Fatty was startled. His brain was still stuck on his previous hypothesis. However, due to his innate trust in the Doctor, he still nodded. “Take your time. I can wait.”

Chen Ran grinned and stared at Fatty, “Then, we’ll have to trouble Big Brother to wait.”

“What trouble is that?” Jiang Cheng grumbled, “If it’s troublesome for anyone, it’s for me!”

Chen Ran tilted his head to glance at Jiang Cheng. Then, he didn’t say anything else and slipped through the stone door.

After Chen Ran left, Fatty jogged over to Jiang Cheng’s side and whispered urgently, “Doctor, are you sure you’ll be fine on your own? The inside…”

Jiang Cheng turned towards the concerned Fatty, “Don’t worry.” He patted his waist and grinned, “Don’t you know how impressive I am? I’m the karaoke’s…”

Fatty automatically eclipsed what Jiang Cheng said next. He still warned the Doctor to be careful. Once he shouted for him, he’d run in to help.

“Be on alert.” The Doctor stared at the stairs they took. His mocking expression disappeared. He said a few seconds later, “There’s something down there.”

Fatty slowly widened his eyes.

…

“Brother Hao,” Chen Ran looked at Jiang Cheng, who carefully slipped through the door. He smiled, “What are you doing? Are you afraid someone might ambush you from behind the door?”

Jiang Cheng patted his clothes and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, Brother Chen. When I was young, I was bitten by a dog hidden by the door.”

He looked around. Other than the aged woman curled up on the ground… Su An was already gone. However, different from the previous two individuals, they were certain that Su An disappeared from this room. He was too heavily injured to move. Therefore… both of them turned at the same time to the aged woman in the corner. It was clear who the culprit was.

Both of them were not dumb. From the stone plate to the carvings on the stone pillars, they had recovered most of the plot. It had to be said that the history of Black Stone Town was more complicated than they thought.

The story told by the ‘things’ at Black Stone Town was a total lie. They were not the locals. Jiang Cheng already had suspicions about that at the beginning. How could the locals of this island have the technology to mass-produce iron instruments?

They were invaders who landed on this island through giant boats. It was similar to those who landed at Plymouth on the Mayflower.

The first carving on the stone pillar recorded the origin of these invaders. The waves were huge. The invaders accidentally discovered this island. After encountering the shipwreck, their ship crash-landed on the beach of the island.

The innocent locals aided them kindly, giving them accommodation and food. Soon, the invaders got close to the locals or the former citizens of Black Stone Town.

That was depicted in the second painting. The groups in different outfits gathered together. They appeared to be dancing with the sea in the background.

In the third painting, some were cutting trees while the others were climbing around the beached wooden ship. It looked like they were helping to fix the boat. However, the strange thing was that both the groups fixing the ship and cutting the trees were locals in their strange garbs. The invaders were gathered in a hidden corner, muttering to themselves as they pointed at the forest. Clearly, they had found something.

It was because of this discovery that they became unwilling to leave Black Stone Town. If anything, they had some other thoughts.

In the next painting, the perspectives were no longer singular. The pen strokes became more deliberate.

On a dark night, a long team gathered outside the village. They departed silently and entered the forest. The carving depicted the night by using comparisons. On the left, we have the team entering the forest. On the right, the carving showed a group of people sleeping quietly in bed.

The group that entered the forest was made up of locals. The sleeping group was the outsiders. The locals chose to enter the forest at midnight to avoid alerting the outsiders. Plus… a few of them in the middle of the group carried a wooden board. A person lay on the board. An arm dangled weakly in the air… The person was dead.

The locals didn’t use any torches and silently carried a dead person deep into the forest. It was strange.

However, the stranger thing was the outsiders in the carving. They were lying on the bed comfortably. However, a vertical line was gouged into the spots where their eyes should be. It gave them snake eyes.

They were not monsters. Jiang Cheng believed what the carver wanted to express was that… the outsiders were pretending to be asleep. All of them knew what was happening outside.

The next painting verified that.

The next painting was drawn from a peeping angle.

In the middle of the painting, a group of strangely dressed people surrounded a giant stone plate. Some of them held hands. Some were kneeling. Some were crying.

There was a person laying on the stone plate.

Then, a woman in a white dress slowly walked out of the stone plate. The carving of this lady was more detailed than the others. Even the pleats on her dress could be seen clearly.

The locals approached her respectfully to hand her an urn-like vessel. The woman accepted it and raised it above her head. Then, she tipped it over.

There was blood inside the vessel!

This was not a suggestion.

The carver painted blood for this part. The blood didn’t lose colour due to time. In fact, it was still as fresh as the day the blood was collected.