RNP Chapter 452 Appeasement
Chapter 452 Appeasement
That ashen face seemed to have changed a little bit in just five minutes.
Beneath the skin, faint black lines emerged.
[Rule No. 4: During the process of carrying the corpse, the body must be comforted regularly to continuously suppress any abnormal changes in the remains.]
"Soothe them!" Lin Feng's voice exploded like a knife, "Quickly!"
Martha immediately went to the stretcher, stretched out her right hand, and placed it on the woman's forehead.
"Hello, young lady, I'm Martha."
Her voice was soft and gentle.
"I've been a teacher my whole life."
"Among the female students I've taught, there are many girls like you—who like to laugh, like to joke, and like to run to the front of the class during breaks to tell me where they went on the weekend."
"Is that your boyfriend in the back?"
"Was this trip to climb the snow-capped mountain your idea, or his?"
Her voice carried a gentle laugh, as if she were chatting with a living, breathing young girl sitting in front of her.
I guess it's yours.
"Teachers are the best at understanding what their students are thinking. A girl like you must be the kind of person who will definitely do what she thinks of."
"Your boyfriend couldn't dissuade you, so he came with you..."
The black lines on the woman's face began to fade.
At the same time, a girl with short dark brown hair from Group A stepped forward.
Her name is Susan, and she works as a nurse.
Susan walked quickly to the stretcher, her gaze fixed on the deathly pale face of the male corpse.
Her fingertips trembled slightly as she slowly raised her hand, hovering an inch above the male corpse's forehead, never daring to touch it rashly.
Taking a deep breath of the icy air, she suppressed the fear in her heart and spoke softly and restrainedly:
"Hello, my name is Susan, and I am a nurse."
"No one could have escaped that avalanche. You've done your best, so don't blame yourself anymore."
"We received a request from your family and came all the way to the snow mountain to pick you and your loved one up and take you back."
"Please lie still on the stretcher, remain calm, and do not be affected by the evil spirits in the mountains."
Beneath the male corpse's skin on the stretcher, the eerie black lines that spread paused briefly before slowly crawling and spreading again, the signs of mutation not being suppressed at all.
Susan's throat tightened, her face drained of color instantly, and a wave of weakness swept over her.
She tried her best to soothe him gently, but in the end it was all in vain.
Old Charlie, shivering from the cold, broke the silence with a trembling, aged voice:
"Girl, this isn't a matter of words or techniques, it's about mindset."
"Your attempts to appease are tinged with fear and apprehension; your mind is not at peace, and your intentions are not sincere. Naturally, you cannot suppress the malevolent aura of the corpse."
Several other members of Team A chimed in, offering their reminders:
"That's right. You should at least learn from Ms. Martha from Group B. Lower your guard, reach out and place your hand on the forehead of the corpse. That's true comfort."
Susan instinctively shook her head repeatedly, her eyes filled with resistance:
"I...I can't do it!"
"You're a nurse!" one team member said, sounding puzzled. "Isn't handling corpses your normal duty?"
Susan suddenly looked up, her eyes slightly red:
"I'm a nurse, not a funeral director!"
"I'm taking care of living people—the hands I hold are warm and will hold mine back."
"You made me administer medication, insert tubes, and perform chest compressions, and I didn't even blink."
"But this body is already cold. What I'm touching isn't him, it's my own fear!"
No one responded for a moment.
Old Charlie glanced at her, offered no comment, but stepped forward and gently pushed Susan's shoulder aside: "Leave it to me."
Susan felt as if she had been granted a pardon and immediately stepped aside, shrugging her shoulders.
Old Charlie walked to the stretcher, but instead of reaching out immediately, he took off his gloves, revealing his calloused and brown-spotted hands, which he then rubbed together.
Then he took the man's hand, like leading a tired child.
He leaned closer, his voice neither too loud nor too soft, as if he were chatting with his grandson by the fireplace:
"Child, I'm sorry you had to go through this."
"The snow-capped mountains are freezing cold, and the ice is bone-chilling. You and your loved one were trapped in the ice crevice, all alone for so long. You must have been very cold and very scared."
"We are not here to disturb you. Your family has been worrying about you day and night, praying fervently to the temple, and begging us to cross the wind and snow to bring you home."
"Lie down peacefully, relax, don't be restless, and don't be obsessed."
"We will slowly descend the mountain, and no matter how strong the wind or how cold the snow, we will protect you and safely send you back to reunite with your family."
"Let go of resentment, let go of fear, rest in peace, and you will no longer have to suffer the hardships of this world."
As old Charlie's gentle words of comfort slowly descended, a miracle quietly occurred.
The eerie black lines that were spreading and wandering under the skin first stopped slowly, and then faded away at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Upon seeing this, the tense nerves of everyone in Group A suddenly relaxed, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.
The group continued down the steep mountain path.
The rotation, which took place every five minutes, proceeded smoothly and efficiently.
The eerie aura was ever-present; the chill that grew from the depths of one's bones never truly disappeared, but was only briefly suppressed during rotations.
Martha and old Charlie would comfort the corpse every other round.
Half an hour passed, and the line had already descended a considerable distance.
"Almost there." Wasim looked up at the sky, his breath dispersing in front of him. "At this speed, we'll be at the foot of the mountain in another hour and a half."
Hope, like seeds beneath the snow, begins to sprout in everyone's heart.
Then, the fog came, as if an invisible hand had lifted the steamer covering the earth.
The thick white fog swallowed everything in seconds—the sky, the snow, the distant mountain ridges, the nearby stone steps—all reference points disappeared.
Visibility dropped sharply to less than ten meters.
Ten meters away, there was only a chaotic milky white.
The group, like wild beasts with their throats grabbed, suddenly stopped in their tracks.
The scent of fear spread faster than the fog.
Some people started panting heavily, while others instinctively moved closer to those around them.
Lin Feng quickly glanced around, his voice steady and firm:
"Don't panic. Follow the footprints you came up from. As long as the footprints are there, the path is there."
The blond youth leading Group B swallowed hard, staring intently at the trail of blurry footprints in the snow, before hesitantly taking his first step.
With his feet firmly planted, he tentatively took a second step, but the snow remained solid.
The blond youth's tense heart gradually relaxed, and his expression slowly softened.
But just as he took his fifteenth step, the snow beneath his feet suddenly collapsed like a brittle biscuit.
Below, a dark, deep, bottomless cave entrance is revealed.
He plummeted downwards, his hands flailing wildly in the air like a bird with broken wings that had fallen to its death.
A piercing scream suddenly erupted: "Ah—!"