The first thing he did after returning was to check the room. He examined the placent of several items specifically, leaving marks on a few useless notebooks on the table, while he hid his truly important notes. After inspecting, he confird that no one had entered during his absence.
After resting for a mont, he walked to the window and looked out through a corner of the curtain; the sky had darkened, not with clouds, but with the coming of night.
For so reason, Yang Xiao always felt a chill on his body, the kind that felt eerily cold. He wrapped himself with a bed quilt while sitting on his bed, but still couldn’t stop shivering.
His mind was increasingly foggy, and his eyelids were fighting each other. This drowsiness was strange. Yang Xiao forced himself not to sleep and tried to connect everything that had happened during this period. According to the information he had, the ghost’s target of slaughter were n who sold their bodies in the red-light district, which must be related to the ghost’s own past experiences.
In room 5029 of building 2, he found several newspapers with the crucial parts torn off. The information revealed hinted at serious cris happening at East Asia Mansion, with cruel thods and even people disappearing, all related to the red-light district.
Was it about money not being negotiated or a love turned bitter, these were unknowns. Yang Xiao thought about going out again, as Lu Wencheng ntioned that building 1 might have clues. He had already found an office in building 1 that once served as the managent office for the entire East Asia Mansion.
Under Yang Xiao’s strong self-control, the eerie drowsiness was driven back. However, strangely, the chill shrouding his body beca increasingly terrifying, as if a pair of sinister eyes hidden in an unknown place were coldly staring at him.
This feeling drove one mad. Yang Xiao picked up the Ghost Lantern and shone it around, but to no avail. The next second —
"Tap, tap, tap, tap..."
The hair on Yang Xiao’s back stood up. He suddenly looked up, only to hear soone running overhead, right on the floor above!
Soone was upstairs!!
But at such a ti, who would be hiding upstairs? Everyone was supposed to have moved out of the building, and he had been in this world for a while without ever hearing noises from upstairs.
Holding his breath, Yang Xiao didn’t dare to move, the chill on his body grew heavier. Abandoning any illusions, he was being watched by a ghost, but... why?
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Before Yang Xiao could clear his mind of this question, a series of dull chopping sounds ca. They were heavy and muffled, each one striking at Yang Xiao’s heart. This scene instantly reminded him of what the investigating captain once told him: no matter what strange sounds you hear at night, don’t be curious, don’t move, and certainly don’t show interest.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Xiao tried to calm himself. He was determined, even if the person upstairs was jumping around, he would not ask a single question. After a few chopping sounds, it seed the person above realized Yang Xiao wouldn’t fall for it, and the upstairs returned to silence.
After waiting a minute, Yang Xiao finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seed he had guessed correctly; the other party had only intended to scare him into opening the door and running out. That might work on a normal person, but such little tricks were too naive to try on Yang Xiao.
Wrapping himself tighter in the quilt, Yang Xiao lay back on his bed, trying to relax his tense body. He had been too tense lately.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
The sound of chopping at resounded once more, this ti much closer. Yang Xiao jolted out of bed like a reanimated corpse, his face instantly turning pale. He listened closely, realizing that this ti the chopping sound was coming from inside the room, from the direction of the bathroom.
The ghost had entered!
Not through the door!
At the sa ti, another piece of advice from the investigation team leader echoed in his ears, "That sound might not necessarily be outside."
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
The sound shifted again, this ti shockingly erging from inside the wardrobe directly facing Yang Xiao, no more than 2 ters away at most. More terrifying was that Yang Xiao could even see the wardrobe doors trembling violently, as if sothing inside was using the doors as a chopping board, wielding a big cleaver and rcilessly chopping down. Listening closely, he could even hear the crisp sound of bones being split.
It was surely a large bone, still attached to blood vessels and muscles; one could only imagine the grueso scene of flesh and blood flying inside the wardrobe.
At this rate, his death was certain, the next chop might fall on him. Now, the choices left for Yang Xiao were few: either stay or rush through the door; however, the latter was undoubtedly a path to certain death.
Yang Xiao chose to stay, but he wasn’t simply sitting around waiting to die. Taking advantage of a montary pause in the chopping noise, he decisively took out the copper mirror from his backpack, dismantled one side, and using the power of the Soul-Capturing Mirror, he sneaked into the Mirror World.
At first, Yang Xiao was worried it might fail, given the ghost’s potent restraining ability, but as the light before his eyes dimd, he successfully entered the Mirror World counterpart of the apartnt room, identical in every aspect.
"Phew—" Yang Xiao jumped off the bed, relieved for the mont from the ghost’s pursuit and montarily safe, yet knowing well this was not a long-term solution, and hastily activating the Mirror World could potentially attract the dreadful Daoist robe old ghost.
He planned to hide here for a while, at most half an hour, then leave.
Using this ti, Yang Xiao ventured into the bathroom and indeed witnessed a horrifying sight: three ferocious knife marks were left on the wooden door of the bathroom, each strike delivering full force, sufficient to effortlessly chop off a human’s arm.
Yang Xiao, sitting back by the bed, couldn’t help but feel a chill of fright—he had indeed not hallucinated the sounds of chopping earlier, nor was it an empty bluff, but a real ghost presence!
If he had slept through it, he would have been like a fish on a cutting board, completely at the rcy of the ghost. He feared that by the ti soone opened the door the next day, or when the investigation team mbers barged in, they would only find half of his corpse.
The power of this ghost was truly frightening, sowhat similar to the person who had attacked him back at the academy but far more powerful.
Long periods of thinking and resisting the urge to sleep had exhausted Yang Xiao. He collapsed on the bed, let out a long breath of murky air, closed his eyes, and pressed his fingertips hard against his temples. As the feeling of fatigue lessened, Yang Xiao also planned to get up.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Intense vibrations ca from underneath the bed, montarily stunning Yang Xiao. His entire body shook with the vibrations, and the sound of chopping at and bones resud, this ti from underneath the bed.
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