Chapter 056: Phantom in the Dense Fog

Li Tianque gazed up at the rocky cliff above and witnessed an unbelievable sight:

Within the gray, swirling mist, three tall, shadowy figures emerged. Their posture was bizarre—appearing to walk upon the stone, yet seeming to float entirely in midair. Their bodies were hazy, indistinct, covered in fur, and their outlines were neither smooth nor regular.

At the same time, strange sounds came from them, something between a sinister laugh and a tortured struggle.

Staring at these terrifying shadows, Li Tianque recalled an urban legend he’d read on the Zihu website. The article described a kind of slender ghostly figure. According to the eerie eyewitness reports, people all over the world had seen such frightening creatures—tall and thin, vaguely human in shape, but with limbs and torsos unnaturally elongated, their proportions grotesquely distorted. Sometimes, they even sprouted extra arms or legs.

They were also remarkably tall, just like the shadows before Li Tianque—at least over two meters, their hands hanging far below their knees, habitually drooping. However, unlike the unclad ghosts he saw now, the legends described these figures in crisp suits, without faces.

Most urban legend sightings placed these slender specters in forests, often appearing in photographs or videos, blended into ordinary scenes so subtly that, without careful scrutiny, one might mistake them for mere shadows or blurry backgrounds.

They typically surfaced on cloudy days or at night, lurking in chaotic environments and darkness, watching silently from hidden corners, waiting for an opportunity.

Bi Pangzi stared in horror at the three slender shadows, eyes wide, swallowing hard as he stammered, “This…this must be the same ghost those people saw, right? You saw it too, didn’t you? I swear I’m not lying!”

“It’s actually real…” Li Tianque’s voice was incredulous as he watched the three floating shadows.

“Real or not, let’s get out of here!” Bi Pangzi shouted.

“Huh? Ah…” Li Tianque wouldn’t have panicked if not for that shout; but with Bi Pangzi’s cry, it was as if something in Li Tianque’s nerves had been triggered. Fear surged through him, and he dashed up the slope without a second thought.

The grotesque laughter spread through the thick fog. Their hurried footsteps trampled grass and mushrooms, producing strange squeaks and rattles.

As they ran, the mist seemed to thicken, the world around them growing eerily silent. In such quiet, every stir of wind or rustle of grass felt piercingly loud.

At that moment, the creatures of the forest became restless. Squirrels and birds darted frantically, fleeing in every direction. As Li Tianque ran, he occasionally kicked something soft and alive, or collided with a fleeing bird, each encounter followed by startled cries.

The sky grew gloomier. In this gray world, their flashlights were nearly useless. Li Tianque, like the wild animals, could only run blindly.

At first, he relied on memory to flee in the direction he’d come, but after a while, he felt lost, unable to tell if he was going the right way.

Uneasy, Li Tianque stopped and tried to look back for Bi Pangzi.

But when he turned, Bi Pangzi was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he saw something that chilled him to the bone:

The floating, slender shadows had descended from the cliff and were now closing in behind him.

“Bi Youqian! Bi Youqian!” Li Tianque shouted twice into the mist. No answer came—only the terrifying laughter of the three ghostly figures pursuing him.

Realizing the danger, Li Tianque abandoned his search for Bi Pangzi and sprinted on.

Wild animals continued their frantic escape, making Li Tianque even more anxious. Their reactions were as if facing a calamity, sensing imminent disaster.

Like Li Tianque, they tried to outrun the danger, but were lost in the fog.

“Squeak…hiss hiss…” A squirrel let out a miserable cry close by, but Li Tianque didn’t dare look back.

He heard the unmistakable sound of bones breaking from the squirrel—a sign that it had fallen prey to the slender shadow behind him, meeting a cruel fate.

Li Tianque kept running, and after a long distance, realized he must have gone the wrong way.

He hadn’t crossed such a long downward slope before, and now he’d been running uphill for a while. The terrain leveled out, but he could see nothing and couldn’t judge direction.

Checking his phone as he ran, he found only a clear signal cross—no reception.

Fortunately, he spotted a line of warning tape ahead, reflecting the beam from his flashlight. It was dazzling. Li Tianque guessed he was near the special operations team’s perimeter.

But running in the fog sapped his strength. He grew short of breath, his nose and mouth feeling as if stuffed with tiny wood chips—itchy and blocked.

The slippery ground didn’t help; he stepped on mushrooms several times, nearly falling.

Seeing the reflective warning tape reassured him. He slowed, breathing heavily, and glanced back.

This time, the slender shadows had vanished, as if erased from existence. Behind him, only dense fog remained, so thick he couldn’t see his own hand.

Li Tianque still felt the atmosphere was strange, the sense of deathly silence lingering. He moved closer to the warning tape, calling Bi Pangzi’s name twice.

No response.

Clutching his phone tightly, its flashlight beam pierced the fog in a curious way, forming a horn-shaped column of light, ending in a clear circle—the only guide for direction.

Li Tianque ran quickly, soon reaching the line of warning tape.

Drawing near, he realized this wasn’t the special operations team’s perimeter at all, but a warning tape marking a hazardous structure. Beside it stood a wooden sign.

The sign was rotten, barely standing, its red-painted letters still barely legible:

“Dangerous building. Do not approach.”

Li Tianque looked up to see an old mountain pavilion. Its pillars were cracked, broken bricks and tiles scattered across the ground.

The floor was fissured, its cracks cutting through the dense scribbles of visitors’ names and love notes. Li Tianque sensed a strange odor in the damp, musty air—a sudden, nauseating stench.

Creak…creak, creak…creak…

Staring at the perilous pavilion, Li Tianque heard an uncanny sound.

It was as if countless giant hands were shaking the decaying structure, each tremor threatening to snap it apart.

Li Tianque stepped back, wanting to distance himself.

Then, those strange sounds erupted all around him, encircling him in the mist.

He froze. The closest sound was right behind him, drawing nearer and nearer…

Creak…creak, creak…creak…

(End of chapter)