“After dark, don’t knock on the door... don’t knock on the door...”
The Old man muttered in his strange voice. Although his posture was strange as he walked, he was very fast, and in the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of Gu Qianqian.
The Old man’s cloudy eyes looked as if they were afflicted with so disease, his Eyeballs separated to the sides, and his sallow face was full of wrinkles. The aged and weak muscles could no longer hold back the flesh on his face, allowing it to sag, giving one the feeling that it was about to rot and lt.
As he walked, his head seed to be suspended by sothing, his neck constantly stretched upwards. When he stopped in front of Gu Qianqian, that eerie face gradually beca clear in the darkness, pressing forward until it stopped less than a handspan away from Gu Qianqian.
For a mont, in Gu Qianqian’s field of vision, only the Old man’s eerie face remained. However, he himself didn’t feel anything wrong, maintaining that strange posture and repeating the sa words.
“After dark, don’t knock on the door. The sound is too loud and will be heard by those things.”
A strange stench drifted into Gu Qianqian’s nostrils. The sll was like the unique odor of an elderly person, but it was mixed with more, harder-to-distinguish scents.
This Grandpa is so scary! Gu Qianqian didn’t dare to speak, only whispered softly in her heart.
Over the past two or three years, under the guidance of the system, she had faced many types of urban legend. Reasonably speaking, her nerves should have been tempered to be very resilient.
But now, facing this Old man who was clearly a human but looked like a urban legend, she instead felt a creepy sensation in her heart.
She subconsciously retreated a few steps until her back hit the cold stone wall of the village house. Only then did she stop and softly ask, “Grandpa, you said those things will hear? What are those things?”
“Don’t knock on the door.” The Old man did not answer Gu Qianqian’s question, but simply repeated the phrase indifferently, as if the person he was speaking to from the beginning was not Gu Qianqian at all.
He just stood there, stiff and motionless, his Eyeballs constantly rotating, as if trying desperately to move his dislocated Eyeballs back to their normal position.
“Don’t knock on the door...” The Old man repeated again, then turned and walked back the way he ca. His steps were small and strange, but he walked very quickly, his back appearing extrely bizarre.
Seeing the Old man walk away, the breath that had been stuck in Gu Qianqian’s throat finally went down, and she cautiously communicated with the system.
“System? What should I do now? Should I listen to that Grandpa?”
System, “...” Asking about this touches upon my knowledge blind spot.
When I ca before, there weren’t so many strange things. The urban legend of red lanterns were few, so I killed them. If there ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ were many, I hid. The process was very simple.
As the system was thinking about how to answer Gu Qianqian in a way that would cleverly avoid her question while maintaining the proper deanor of a system being interrogated, a strange sound ca from ahead again.
“Don’t knock on the door, co with , I’ll take you to find a place to stay...”
Following the sound, the Old man who had already left had stopped at so point, standing by the dry well in the distance, raising his arm and stiffly waving towards this side, like a puppet controlled by invisible strings, making movents.
At this mont, the sky had completely darkened. Behind the Old man, the village houses shrouded in the night were like living creatures, stickily crowded together, with interconnected yet twisted and narrow paths, like a maze.
“System, should we follow? I’m a little scared...” Gu Qianqian whispered.
In this situation, who wouldn’t be scared? But... the system was silent for a few seconds, then responded, “Let’s follow and see what kind of trick he’s playing.”
Situations like this, where the atmosphere is inexplicably strange but no urban legend are visible, I’ve seen many!
When it’s impossible to fully escape, actively seeking out the urban legend and making them appear is actually the best option.
urban legend hiding in the dark are often more terrifying than urban legend appearing in front of you, the system thought.
Hearing the system’s words, Gu Qianqian walked towards the Old man. The Old man also turned around and continued to walk in his strange posture.
As she walked, the Old man kept his back to Gu Qianqian. She looked at the Old man’s back, and terrifying scenes kept flashing through her mind, secretly guessing what kind of expression the Old man had at this mont.
Was his expression as dull and numb as before, or was it fierce and ferocious, or did a sinister and eerie smile appear on his face the mont he turned around?
The Old man led Gu Qianqian along the dirt road of this desolate village, walking all the way towards the edge of the village. After a few turns, he stopped in front of a temple on the edge of the village.
It was a dilapidated temple located on the outermost edge of the village. In the distance were the abandoned fields, where the figures of scarecrows could be vaguely seen under the night. Further away were the dark, continuous mountains.
The temple looked very much like the mountain god temples often seen in Z Country’s folk. Under the ancient-looking eaves and on the tiles, grass and leaves were intertwined, naturally covered by so green vine plants.
Large patches of gray-yellow wall plaster had peeled off at the base of the wall, and the wall surface was uneven, even collapsing in so secluded corners.
Upon arriving at the temple, after stepping over the bluestone steps covered with slippery moss, he pushed open the door filled with the sll of rotten wood and walked straight in, not at all intending to greet Gu Qianqian, as if he had completely forgotten that soone was following behind him.
Gu Qianqian followed the Old man into the temple and imdiately felt a chill that oppressed her whole body, making her hair stand on end, as if she had stepped into cold, dark seawater. The air was so damp that it was difficult to breathe.
The system sensed the abnormality and imdiately opened its Spiritual Energy to the maximum, but surprisingly did not detect the presence of any Spiritual Energy fluctuations.
The reason for this situation, if it wasn’t hiding a urban legend, was most likely a problem with the feng shui.
However, I checked before coming in, and the orientation and layout of this temple don’t seem to have much of a problem. How strange! the system thought.
The system knew that feng shui had an influence on Spiritual Energy, but it only had a superficial understanding. As for what was strange about it, it couldn’t say.
As soon as she entered the small courtyard behind the door, Gu Qianqian’s footsteps suddenly paused at the sight before her, and her body froze in place.
In that dilapidated courtyard, there were densely packed with twenty to thirty water vats, each large enough to hide an adult male.
Those water vats were filled with water, reflecting the faint light coming from sowhere. A damp, cold wind blew through, causing ripples. As far as the eye could see, there was a strange, eerie shimring light, as if sothing would suddenly jump out of the water vats at any mont.
Gu Qianqian gazed ahead at the Old man walking between the water vats, her cold little hand gripping the tal club tightly. Her entire aura suddenly beca as heavy as a mountain.
This was a sign that she was about to release her Spirit Mark. Facing this situation, she had instinctively entered a combat state, ready to face enemies that might attack from the darkness at any ti.
Just then, a rough, hoarse sound suddenly ca from the thatched hut on the side of the small courtyard.
“Dad, it’s late, why did you run out again? I’ve told you how many tis, why don’t you listen?”
Imdiately after, the door of the low thatched hut was pushed open, and soone walked out of the dark room, the dim yellow candlelight in his hand illuminating his face.
The person who ca was a tall, strong man. His dark face was covered with deep and shallow scars, looking as if his face had been scratched with a small knife, or attacked by so wild beast. There was hardly a single piece of intact skin.
What was strange was that the scars were almost parallel in pairs. Generally speaking, it is difficult to create so many and such regular scars with a small knife. As for a wild beast attack, it was difficult to imdiately think of a wild beast whose claws or teeth only had two sharp points.
The man’s walking posture, unlike the Old man and the previous villagers, did not maintain that strange movent and appeared very normal.
Upon seeing the only relatively normal person in the Bamboo Scroll Illusion, Gu Qianqian breathed a slight sigh of relief. However, the man’s mood was the exact opposite.
Noticing Gu Qianqian following behind the Old man, by the candlelight, it was clear that the man’s pupils constricted violently, as if he had seen sothing terrifying.
“Outsider!” The man exclaid, then turned sharply to look at the Old man who had already walked deeper into the temple, and growled, “Dad, why did you bring an outsider back? Are you trying to kill...”
Before the man could finish speaking, he heard the Old man’s slightly confused and neurotic whisper from the dark depths of the temple.
“It’s dark, don’t knock on the door, be careful... be careful what cos out isn’t human, don’t knock on the door... those things will hear...”
Gradually, the Old man’s voice beca weaker, and his figure completely disappeared, as if swallowed by the darkness.
Hearing the Old man’s words, the man was slightly startled. He frowned for a long ti before sighing softly and looking at Gu Qianqian, saying, “Co with , I’ll arrange a place for you to stay. Once you’re inside, just stay in the room obediently. Don’t co out no matter what you hear.”
“I don’t care where you ca from or how you ca. After tonight, when it gets light, you should leave quickly. We never welco outsiders here. Other people won’t be as polite as .”
As he spoke, the man kept looking at Gu Qianqian with strange eyes. His expression was unfriendly, with a hint of resentnt and hatred. It was like the expression of ordinary people looking at traitors in old black and white movies.
“Other people?” Gu Qianqian tilted her head. “Are there other people in this village? When I ca, I saw...”
Before Gu Qianqian could finish speaking, the man suddenly turned around and glared at her fiercely. He kept staring until she started to feel a little scared, then lowered his voice and said, “You wouldn’t want to know other people.”
“Hurry up and go to sleep. Rember, don’t co out no matter what you hear.”
After the man finished speaking, he stepped aside, letting Gu Qianqian into the low thatched hut. After she went in, the man imdiately closed the door.
The mont the door closed, Gu Qianqian’s vision plunged into darkness. In the darkness, there was a crisp “click” sound of a lock from outside the door...
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