Hearing Sun Zhengning’s words, the two boys descending the steps froze for a moment.
But as they looked at their fallen friend—struck by lightning, now lying motionless on the ground, his condition unknown—their hesitation lasted only a brief moment. In the end, they ignored Sun Zhengning’s warning.
They stepped forward, moving to Huang Yi’s side.
“Huang Yi, wake up! Huang Yi!”
“Huang Yi, you promised we’d stick together till we’re old! If you die here, how are we supposed to keep that promise?”
Watching the two rush to Huang Yi, Sun Zhengning cursed under his breath.
Just as he was about to shout at the others not to move recklessly—
A girl nearby, who had also heard her own death sentence through the phone and witnessed Huang Yi being struck dead by lightning, let out a piercing scream.
The next second, she turned and bolted back up the steps, desperate to return to Qingxu Temple for safety.
“Hey, Wang Xiaofei! Don’t run! Come back—we don’t even know what’s happening yet!”
Sun Zhengning yelled after her, but Wang Xiaofei didn’t stop.
Seeing this, Yan Yu, still standing on the steps, moved to chase after her.
But before she could take a single step—
Wang Xiaofei, who had been sprinting upward, suddenly halted.
Then, without warning, she collapsed onto the steps and tumbled back down, landing near her classmates.
The boy closest to her immediately crouched down, checking for signs of life.
After confirming she was no longer breathing, he shakily stood up and turned to the others.
“Wang Xiaofei… she’s dead.”
Just as he delivered the news, the phones in their hands emitted a hoarse, inhuman laughter. Then, the voice behind it announced to all present:
“Those descending the mountain must not turn back. Those who do will die of cardiac arrest.”
After the announcement, silence returned to their phones, as if the eerie laughter had been nothing but a hallucination.
But the two corpses on the ground served as a grim reminder—this was no illusion.
“Damn it! What the hell are you, you monster?! Show yourself! I’ll smash you to pieces!”
In the grip of extreme fear, some people react with unexpected courage.
Like the tall boy now standing over Huang Yi’s body—he redialed the number and roared into the phone.
But no matter how much he provoked it, the entity on the other end remained silent.
“Fine! You said I’d drown on the 1,724th step? Well, what if I just leave the steps altogether? What can you do then, huh?”
Furious, he hung up and glared at the crimson soil beyond the stone path.
With that thought, he took a decisive step off the stairs.
“Gao Shi! What are you doing? Get back here!”
His friend Lu Yu shouted in alarm.
But Gao Shi, unharmed so far, turned back with a grin.
“See, Lu Yu? Nothing’s happening to me. Come on, get off the steps too—don’t just stand there like an idiot.”
“GAO SHI, BEHIND YOU!”
“Huh?”
The terror on Lu Yu’s face sent a chill down Gao Shi’s spine.
He spun around—
Only to come face-to-face with a massive, grotesque creature.
Its maw gaped wide—
And in one swift motion, it swallowed him whole.
Then, that same raspy laughter crackled from their phones once more:
“The living must not leave the steps. Those who do will be devoured by monsters.”
Hearing the voice’s decree and witnessing Gao Shi’s gruesome fate, the remaining survivors were paralyzed with terror.
If not for the fact that reckless movement on the steps meant certain death, none of them would have stayed a second longer.
“Xiao Yu… what do we do now?”
Trembling violently, tears welling in her eyes, Xu Ziqi clutched Yan Yu’s hand like a lifeline.
Feeling Ziqi’s terror—and just as powerless herself—Yan Yu forced calm into her voice.
“It’s okay, Ziqi. As long as we don’t move recklessly or step on any deadly stones, we’ll be safe for now.”
The reassurance eased Ziqi’s fear slightly.
But then, the hoarse voice returned through their phones, plunging her back into despair:
“Those descending must not stop. Anyone who fails to descend ten steps within one minute will bleed to death.”
Damn it! This monster isn’t leaving us any way out!
Yan Yu seethed silently.
“Xiao Yu… are we really going to die here?”
Tears streamed down Ziqi’s cheeks, her eyes hollow with hopelessness.
Yan Yu wanted to lie, to tell her they’d be saved—but faced with their grim reality, the words wouldn’t come.
“Let’s… just keep moving. If we don’t, we’ll bleed out.”
“…Okay.”
No more words were exchanged. Hand in hand, they activated their phone timers and began their slow, agonizing descent—their final struggle.
Fifteen minutes passed.
Of the thirty who had stood on those steps, only twelve remained, clinging to life as death closed in.