"Crack—"
"Crack—"
Strange footsteps echoed overhead, as if the feet never left the ground, scraping forward on the surface, but the speed was very fast, and the sound was ssy, definitely more than just a few people.
Judging from the sound, they were moving along the second-floor corridor, heading towards the main staircase in the middle, aning they were coming down for them.
"This way."
Yan Junyang made a quick decision, leading the group towards the first floor’s left side. The main door had disappeared, they couldn’t run out for the ti being and had to shake off those ghostly things first.
There was an ergency exit on the left. By the ti the group made it there, the weird footsteps had already reached the first-floor hall.
Yang Xiao looked back one last ti, only to see a line of dead children with topknots running down the middle staircase, the one in the lead carrying a greenish Paper Lantern.
Yang Xiao and his group quickly returned to the second floor through the ergency exit, while the footsteps of the dead children beca chaotic, frantically searching their whereabouts in the first-floor hall.
If they were found, those two guards would be their fate.
Just as Yan Junyang was checking the map of the building, considering where to take refuge, a nearby iron door suddenly opened, "Captain Yan?"
The voice startled everyone, Beibei almost threw her knife away, and a panic-stricken face appeared behind the iron door. Yang Xiao recognized him, the doctor who had treated Su Tingting; they had just t that afternoon.
"Captain Yan, co in quickly!" The doctor hurriedly pulled the door open, revealing another person standing behind it—a female nurse.
Yan Junyang didn’t move but instead asked back, "Doctor Tang, why are you hiding here?"
"What Doctor Tang? I’m Wang Minglin, Captain Yan, don’t you recognize ?" The doctor looked at Yan Junyang with a puzzled expression, taken aback.
Hearing this, Yan Junyang imdiately went over, urging everyone to follow, "That’s right, Wang Minglin. I was just worried you might be fake."
After the group entered, Beibei promptly closed the door. Everyone held their breath, and soon the "crack—, crack—" footsteps could be heard in the corridor outside, the ghost children searching everywhere for them.
Only when the footsteps had receded did they finally breathe a sigh of relief, "Doctor Wang, do you know if anyone else is alive?" Yan Junyang asked.
"I... I don’t know, I’m still confused," Doctor Wang raised his hand, his fingers trembling, "Suddenly the corridor went dark, the lights in the rooms went out one by one, I wanted to contact you all, but couldn’t get through."
"Not being able to contact us might not be a bad thing." Yan Junyang sighed, he had almost been deceived by those ghostly things.
Yang Xiao went to the window, looked outside, and it was still pitch black, "Can we not tie the curtains together and slide down from here?"
Although it was only the second floor, the building was constructed to military special standards, with a very high ground-level height. Jumping down directly was certainly not an option.
Doctor Wang turned pale at the suggestion, "No, absolutely not."
"What’s wrong?"
"Sothing’s not right outside. Xiao Wu was with us before; he jumped out from the window, but then... then he just disappeared. I called out a few tis, and there was no response from below."
As if worried that the others were not convinced, Doctor Wang walked over, pulled the window open slightly, and threw a cup from the table outside. Monts later, there was absolutely no sound of it hitting the ground; there was a deadly silence outside.
The cup seed to have vanished into thin air.
"We can’t get out through the window, and you say we can’t get through the main door either, so... what are we going to do?" The female nurse was so frightened that she could hardly speak clearly.
Rustling sounds ca from the hallway, as if soone was closely pressing against the wall, tentatively moving bit by bit.
"Thud."
"Thud, thud."
Then there was a very soft knocking sound at the door. Yan Junyang tiptoed to the door and peered through the peephole, seeing a man in a security uniform, wearing a wide-brimd hat, his face etched with panic, "Captain Yan, is that you? Please... please let in, those things are coming back, I just saw a few of you go in, I know you’re there."
Yan Junyang kept silent while raising a hand to make a shushing gesture; he didn’t need to say anything, as everyone inside the room was already keeping quiet.
"Captain Yan, I’m begging you, please... please let in, those things are going to return, I saw you guys go in, I know you’re here," the man was almost crying, not daring to speak too loudly, clearly very scared, terrified even.
Yan Junyang slowly retreated, trying not to make any noise.
"Thud, thud," the man persisted, knocking gently on the door, the sound conveying his desperation.
Indeed, if the door wasn’t opened, it was nearly impossible for him to survive alone.
"Is it fake?" Yang Xiao spoke in a very soft voice.
Yan Junyang nodded slightly, pointing to his own head, "I’m not sure, but there might be a problem, his hat is too neatly placed."
Yang Xiao understood Yan Junyang’s suspicion; in the urgency of escape, how could one still rember such a botherso thing as a hat and wear it so neatly?
"Whimpering..."
A faint sound of sobbing ca from outside, making Su Tingting feel sowhat sympathetic.
"Crack—"
"Crack—"
The ghost children were approaching in the distance, their footsteps growing nearer. The man outside no longer dared to wait; the faint patter of footsteps began to recede and only when they reached the ergency exit did they start running down.
"Crack—"
"Crack—"
Soon, the ghost children also passed by their door, chasing in the direction of the man’s footsteps.
As the sound of the ghost children’s footsteps faded, Doctor Wang couldn’t help but weep, "It seems that was indeed Yuan Yong a mont ago, now he’s dood."
"We can’t stay here anymore, those things will kill Yuan Yong and soon co back for us," Beibei stood up. "We need to change our location."
"Ms. Bei is right," Da Xiong nodded.
Yan Junyang quietly approached the door and peered through the peephole. Not noticing anything unusual, he was about to open the door when Yang Xiao beat him to it and pressed his hand down.
Yan Junyang turned around to et Yang Xiao’s complex gaze. Yang Xiao, with a furrowed brow, was holding Doctor Wang’s phone, dialing a number.
A mont later, the sound of a cellphone ringtone ca from outside the door.
In an instant, Yan Junyang felt the hairs on his back stand up as he saw Yang Xiao take a deep breath and slowly turn the phone around, revealing Yuan Yong’s na on the screen.
Yuan Yong was right outside the door; he hadn’t left at all. The footsteps departing earlier and the sound of soone running down the stairs were all deceptions, re illusions.
The ringtone was coming from just below the door, out of the peephole’s blind spot. Yuan Yong... was crouching right behind the door! Waiting for them to open it!
Perhaps realizing he had been exposed, Yuan Yong abruptly stood up, his previously pitiful and delicate face suddenly contorted in ferocity, his eyes filled with resentnt.
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
Yuan Yong banged his head against the iron door repeatedly with great force. Blood began to flow from his seven orifices, creating a horrifying scene.
After his hat fell off, the iron nails hidden at the top of his head were revealed.
If this continued, not to ntion whether Yuan Yong could break in, eventually the ghost children would be attracted by the noise, and they were the truly terrifying ones.
"This is bad, those ghost children are at least in the second contact state, already able to use their Nightmare World to affect reality."
Beibei obviously panicked. As a C-level Squad, they had never dealt with a second contact state before, and such high-level supernatural events were not assigned to them.
Le Zhengshan quickly crouched down, placed the black box on the floor, and took out a smaller box, revealing a sand tir inside.
The sand tir had a peculiar shape and was kept in a pitch-black wooden case. The grains inside were not ordinary sand but a greyish-white powder.
Beibei seed to see a savior upon laying eyes on the item, instantly coming back to his senses, "F**k, you guys have this treasure!"
"What is this?" Yang Xiao asked.
"There’s no ti to explain, ghosts in the second contact state can’t be restricted by ordinary ans. We have to find its origin. In short, we need to enter the ghost’s world."
Without further explanation, Yan Junyang instructed everyone to sit in a circle around the sand tir, "Everyone, we can’t escape today. Our only chance of survival lies in taking a risky move. I will turn the sand tir soon, and we will briefly appear in the ghost’s world."
"We have at most one hour. Within this ti, we must contain the ghost and then return to our world, otherwise, we’ll be trapped there forever."
Without wasting words, Yan Junyang flipped the sand tir. The greyish-white powder began to flow, spreading like mist, and everyone involuntarily closed their eyes.
There was a wind on his face, carrying a fishy sll, like that of a lake. Yang Xiao slowly opened his eyes, finding himself sitting on the damp, cold ground, surrounded by... an old mansion.
The Feng Family Mansion!
Yang Xiao stood up abruptly; everything around him was incredibly familiar, yet it seed to have fallen into decay.
Battered white lanterns hung under the roof eaves, the gates were crooked, and the windows were so rotted they were full of holes, letting in drafts of air. It seed like only a short ti since he last left, but now... now it looked as if the mansion had been abandoned for decades?
The others, who had been seated on the ground, also began to stand, looking around inquisitively at this strange world. In the center of the circle ford by them was the sand tir.
"Be careful, this is the ghost’s world and it is nearby," Captain Yan reminded. "Once we have contained the ghost, return to this sand tir. We can go back to our world from here. Rember, the sand tir waits for no one, neither will we. If you don’t leave when ti’s up, you’ll be left behind forever."
Only Yang Xiao and Su Tingting knew their way, so they led the group deeper into the Feng Mansion. But the closer they got to the center, the denser the surrounding mist beca. Everyone tried to stay close together to avoid getting lost or separated in the fog.
"Crack—"
"Crack—"
In the mist, a sinister green light flickered on. Everyone’s hearts rose to their throats as they saw a group of dirty, dead children erge from the fog, the leader holding a Green Lantern, the rest clutching the dirty clothes of the child in front. Their faces were painted in bizarre makeup as they dragged their feet along the ground, almost wriggling forward. They seed oblivious as they passed by 5 ters away from the group at an angle.
The next second, sothing terrifying happened. The procession wasn’t over; following the dead children ca others, including Kuang Hongyi, with large nails hamred into his head and his eyes gouged out.
His bloody face twisted into an eerie smile as he clutched the clothing of the little girl in front, his movents as stiff as those of the ghost children.
Su Tingting’s face turned pale. Seeing Kuang Hongyi’s dreadful state was not just frightening for her, but painful too since they’d braved dangers together.
Behind Kuang Hongyi, more horrific silhouettes erged from the fog—victims of the ghost children. There were people from the tech departnt, doctors, nurses, security guards—a long line of people swaying unsteadily in the mist like a green-headed centipede.
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