At this mont.
Sowhere at headquarters.
Eight minutes had passed since the door first opened, and there were just two minutes left until the ti for the second opening, according to the plan.
Cao Yanhua stood outside the room, silent, with a very grave expression on his face.
The ti of the second opening almost determined the life and death of Li Jun’s team—if they hadn’t co out from the door by then, it could almost be certain that they had been wiped out in the ghost paintings of the Ghost Domain. As for the third opening... that was nothing more than a final check carried out with the last sliver of hope.
In reality, it wasn’t very significant.
Because those who had dealt with supernatural events knew that once targeted by ghosts, be they spirit manipulators or ordinary people, one either fled or was killed.
Surviving for an extended period under attack by ghosts was almost an impossibility.
"One minute and thirty seconds left, please get ready, Old Qin, this ti is particularly critical," Cao Yanhua said solemnly, snapping out of his concern.
"Don’t worry, I’ll pay close attention," said Old Qin from inside the room, his voice hoarse and strangely peculiar.
"Thank you."
Cao Yanhua nodded, then turned to say, "Professor Wang, if this attempt fails, do you have a backup evacuation plan? I hope you’re not hiding anything at this point."
Wang Xiaoming did not speak; his face remained calm, even sowhat dull.
Cao Yanhua fell silent; he understood Professor Wang very well.
This guy always had so ulterior motives hidden within his plans. If it had been any other ti, Cao Yanhua wouldn’t have inquired, since as long as the major issues were resolved, so minor actions were tolerable. However, this ti it concerned the life and death of the headquarters’ top spirit manipulator team, and any missteps could lead to very bad consequences.
Almost thirty seconds passed before Wang Xiaoming suddenly smiled, "Do you think I should believe the information the ghosts revealed to , or not?"
"What do you an by that?"
From his tone, Cao Yanhua could imdiately verify that this guy was planning sothing.
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"Nothing much, just that I’ve made an interesting discovery on the fly, which I think is worth a try," said Wang Xiaoming. "As for the evacuation plan, indeed I did have a backup. I wouldn’t possibly rely on this unpredictable door for our exit; that would be irresponsible to everyone."
"I had safety asures in place when I made the plan."
"Hmm?" Cao Yanhua’s eyes widened as he looked at him, feeling an urge to curse internally.
No wonder this guy had been so calm the entire ti without worry; he had been prepared.
"Why are you only saying this now?" Cao Yanhua held back his anger and gritted his teeth as he spoke.
"Because a potential reality is worth the risk, and I’m saying it now because the ti for the second opening is almost here," Wang Xiaoming looked at the ti: "Thirty seconds left..."
"Only if the second opening fails will I let Ah Hong lead them out."
Ah Hong?
Cao Yanhua imdiately rembered that a seemingly inconspicuous female spirit manipulator had indeed infiltrated Li Jun’s team.
"Is she your backup?"
Wang Xiaoming said, "Otherwise, why do you think I would place a seemingly useless person in the team? But Ah Hong is just one of the safeguards, and I’ve considered the possibility of her failing, so..."
"So you’ve made a second safety asure? Who is it? Leuk San? Su Fan? Or is it Li Jun? No, not Li Jun—I know his character very well. He’s the kind who cares about the bigger picture and wouldn’t join you in sothing so risky." Cao Yanhua was astonished and unsettled, never expecting this man to have prepared so many backups.
Had he been needlessly worrying for hours?
"The details are not important; what matters is they’ll safely retreat after the second door opens. That’s enough," Wang Xiaoming’s gaze moved to the room.
Through the yellowed glass, the old wooden door with peeling red paint vibrated slightly, as if so unpredictable eeriness was attempting to open it from the inside.
"Ten seconds left."
"Damn it," Cao Yanhua really wanted to scold Wang Xiaoming but didn’t make a fuss at such a critical mont—after all, the ti for the second opening had arrived.
He hoped everything would go smoothly as Wang Xiaoming had said and that Li Jun and the others could be safely rescued.
If the overall situation was stable, the smaller issues could be overlooked.
Old Qin in the room was also ready now. His murky eyes shifted slightly as he got up again, leaning on his walking stick, and walked over to the old wooden door.
To him, this door, no matter how eerie, was unlikely to kill him.
Therefore, his role as the door opener couldn’t have been more fitting.
But before this.
Inside the mysterious Huanggang Village.
This place was the village’s last remaining dwelling, with other houses showing signs of being eroded by the ghost paintings all around, countless oddities erging from every corner of the village. Fallen picture fras littered the ground, shadows hiding in the dark, and heaps of ashen-white paper ash fluttering down from the sky.
All of these signs seed to inform the last few remaining people that the ghosts of the ghost paintings had set their sights here.
Therefore, everything here would soon cease to exist.
And the only things that could survive this attack of the ghost paintings were definitely not humans, but ghosts.
The last remaining house was a common brick and tile bungalow from the rural 80s. Because the building was old, the main hall appeared much darker and more peculiar than other houses. Its gaping windows were half-open, emitting deathly stillness and a kind of strange eeriness. Just one glance at the entrance of this dwelling was enough to send shivers down the spine.
Moreover, it had been verified upon entering the village that there were indeed ghosts in this old brick and tile house.
In the center of the house’s main hall, an old hemp rope dangled from the wooden beam overhead, simultaneously suspending the outline of an indistinct corpse that hung motionless in midair.
A nauseating stench of decay pervaded the air, as if the person who had hung themselves had been dead for over a week, perhaps even longer. The foul odor emanating from the corpse was a source of utmost dread, and what was most alarming was that despite the lack of even the slightest breeze in such an environnt, the hanging corpse was swaying slightly.
It oscillated back and forth, occasionally rotating.
Li Jun’s face was charred, and a strange green light glimred in his eye sockets, like a corpse that had crawled out of a grave, terrifying and shocking.
"Be careful, this house is very special. The whole Huanggang Village has been affected except for this house, which has remained untouched until now. There must be a reason. We’re approaching the second door-opening ti, and I don’t want to lose anyone at this crucial mont. You all are top ghost handlers, and losing any of you would be a huge loss for headquarters. Let’s hold on a little longer and leave this place alive together," he said.
While alerting the others, Li Jun did not hesitate to lead the way.
There was no need to worry about personal circumstances at this ti.
If one couldn’t leave this old brick and tile house alive, then they would have to die here.
Behind him, Su Fan, Leuk San, Ah Hong, and the others remained silent.
Soon.
The team stepped over the sowhat rotten wooden threshold and into the old brick-and-tile bungalow.
Just setting foot inside, a chilly coldness seeped through the soles of their shoes into their feet and then spread throughout their bodies, causing an involuntary shiver.
The living room floor was not made of concrete but of dark-colored earthen ground, which inherently gave off a cold feeling. Staying in a house with such flooring for an extended period would make anyone feel uncomfortable. This type of structure had ceased to exist a long ti ago, yet here stood one still.
But right now, the team was not concerned with the state of the house; they were more focused on what was inside it.
Especially the corpse hanging in the middle of the living room.
The body continued to sway slightly, and even in the dim surroundings, they could make it out a bit more clearly now.
But all they could see was a pair of feet dangling in mid-air.
Stiff, pale, covered in postmortem lividity, so areas already blackening and rotting.
"Just keep an eye on that thing for now. Don’t worry about it yet; after all, it hasn’t shown any anomalies. Our ti is almost up. The pressing matter is to find a door..." Li Jun’s charred face was lit by the Ghost Fla in his eyes, and the surrounding darkness could not obstruct his sight.
He quickly scanned the surroundings, trying to spot a door.
Any door would do.
Found one!
Li Jun’s spirits lifted as he saw a gray wooden door to the right of the living room. The lower half of the door was covered in green moss, as though it had been left damp and abandoned for a long ti.
But that didn’t matter as long as the door was intact.
"We have one minute left until the agreed ti. As long as we’re unhard for this last minute, we can leave..." Li Jun promptly said.
But before he could finish, his eyes suddenly narrowed.
Now he saw Leuk San in their team inexplicably climbing up the corpse hanging in mid-air.
The body, due to his weight and the intense clambering, swung violently in mid-air.
The old wooden beams creaked and groaned.
The putrid stench of decay in the air beca even thicker.
"Damn it, Xu Yiping, what are you doing right now? Do you want to kill us all? Su Fan, Ah Hong, won’t you stop him?" Li Jun shouted, both shocked and angry.
At that mont, Leuk San spoke, "Li Jun, you have your mission, and I apologize, but I have mine too. After searching Huanggang Village for so long, we finally found him. I thought Professor Wang was just talking, but it turns out it’s real. Even though this might put us in danger, I believe we can withstand the last minute."
Ah Hong, standing nearby, remained silent, taking out a red Ghost Candle.
Li Jun was stunned by this scene.
It was clear from their actions that they had previously coordinated, otherwise they wouldn’t be working together so seamlessly.
But Leuk San ntioned Professor Wang, and the red Ghost Candle in Ah Hong’s hand was also an important resource not included in the plan.
As Wang Xiaoming’s bodyguard, even if Li Jun was slow to react, he now understood.
Professor Wang had arranged another mission for others.
To be executed at the right mont.
"You should have told earlier," Li Jun couldn’t help but bellow.
But it was too late to dwell on that now.
"Bang!"
The Ghost Rope on the beam either lost its restraint or had been undone by Leuk San, and suddenly went slack, causing the corpse that was suspended in mid-air to fall heavily to the ground.
The Ghost Rope twisted on the ground, and the once-reviving strange object was now eerily calm, with one end still lying on the corpse.
At that mont, the corpse seed to co back to life, beginning to show signs of movent.
Ah Hong, who was unnoticeable at the mont, had already lit the Ghost Candle.
The eerie candlelight burned fiercely, proving that ghosts were present by its speed of combustion.
The green fla cast a light on Ah Hong’s face, making half of her face look unusually foreign... more than foreign, that half face wasn’t even a woman’s, but a strange man’s pale and lifeless face.
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