CH 49
Chapter 49: On July 15th, the gate of hell will open.
The corridor was narrow and long, and under the dim light, the pale smiling faces of the paper figurines looked very pervasive, following closely behind like a shadow.
The familiar system’s voice sounded in Wen Jianyan’s ears.
【Main line task 1: Find the next shooting location within two hours】
【Completion: 100%】
【Main line task 2: Go to the shooting location for shooting; the duration should not be less than ten minutes】
【Completion: 100%】
Yes, it’s done!
He happily put away his phone, without the slightest consciousness of being chased wildly.
But the mood of the others was far less relaxed than that of Wen Jianyan.
Wang Hanyu ran breathlessly, gritted his teeth, and said:
“I…, there is no way for us to escape like this!”
A human being’s physical strength was limited. If they were chased continuously like this, they would be caught sooner or later.
He looked at Chen Mo: “Why don’t you—”
Before Wang Hanyu could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Chen Mo:
“No!”
Chen Mo glanced at Wang Hanyu sternly: “I’ve told you before.”
“……” Wang Hanyu’s expression was gloomy for a moment, and he didn’t reply anymore.
Wen Jianyan continued to shoot backward while looking thoughtfully at the two anchors beside him.
Before this, he had noticed these two people. These two anchors obviously knew each other, and they probably came in as a team, just like he and Su Cheng.
They were familiar with each other before and knew each other’s abilities, so they should have formed a team more than once.
But…
There doesn’t seem to be a tacit understanding between them.
There were occasional disagreements, and it was basically Chen Mo who made the decision in the end, but Wang Hanyu didn’t seem to be completely obedient.
Wen Jianyan guessed that there should be an unobvious superior-subordinate relationship between them, with Chen Mo leading and Wang Hanyu obeying.
…members of the same guild?
Wang Hanyu suddenly stopped his pace without warning.
“What are you doing?” Chen Mo was surprised.
Wang Hanyu didn’t answer. He turned around, clenched his teeth, stared viciously at the gradually approaching paper figurines not far away, and threw out something in his hand——
“Sshhh!”
There was a sound like boiling water, and the bodies of those paper figurines suddenly curled up and deformed, melting, shrinking, and disappearing as if encountering concentrated sulfuric acid.
Even before disappearing, there was still a bright smile on those pale faces.
“I’ve said it before, there’s no need to use props so early!” Chen Mo was shocked and angry.
Wang Hanyu: “Then are we going to be chased forever like this?”
Chen Mo: “But what if…”
“After death, there are no ifs.” Wang Hanyu interrupted him impatiently: “Besides, these paper figurines are quite fragile as monsters, and a level-C prop can destroy them all, so why bother to be chased by them and flee in embarrassment?”
Chen Mo frowned: “You are too reckless.”
“Hey.”
Wen Jianyan, who had been silent just now, suddenly spoke, interrupting the growing smell of gunpowder between the two.
There was an inexplicable solemnity in his voice. His tone was cold and deep, and there was a sense of power that could not be ignored.
The two were startled and subconsciously turned their heads to look in the direction of the person who spoke.
The young man stuffed the phone back into his pocket, raised his head, and stared at them with his amber eyes. Although there was nothing unusual in his expression, the corners of his mouth were slightly tense.
He said in a restrained voice:
“It’s twelve o’clock.”
The moment his voice fell, both the anchors couldn’t help but feel a chill down their spine.
They all looked down at the time on the phone screen. When they saw the number 00:00, a chill slowly crept into their hearts. Everyone couldn’t help recalling what the guard said just now.
On July 15th, the gate of hell will open.
In the live broadcast hall of Antai Community, the audience was chatting enthusiastically in the barrage area.
[!! It’s twelve o’clock!]
[Hee hee hee, just waiting for this!]
[Aaaaahhh, the main dish is finally here!]
[Come on, come on, let’s guess how many anchors will die in the first ten minutes?]
“Crack.”
An ear-piercing, glass-shattering sound was heard, and the feng shui bagua mirror hanging at the door suddenly burst and then fell straight to the ground.
The burning incense on the ground burst into flames, as if being swallowed by something, shortening at a rapid speed visible to the naked eye.
The tops of the rice started to turn black until they changed to an inky black color.
“Cluck”.
“Cluck”.
Strange, as if the sound of bones rubbing, came from the bottom of the bagua mirror. The sound was too terrifying, almost creepy. The temperature in the air dropped suddenly, like a cold blade scraping the skin fiercely, and an instinctive sense of fear slowly rose from the depths of their soul.
The bagua mirror was gradually lifted up.
Two pale arms protruded from under the mirror, and the bluish-white fingers firmly grasped the ground, as if they were crawling out of the mirror.
Wen Jianyan’s scalp was numb.
Even without the spirit vision, he could tell that this thing was far more dangerous than all of the paper figurines he had just seen!
Its aura was not of the same magnitude at all!
Almost without words, these few people turned around at the same time and fled frantically again under the whip of the desire to survive!
“Cluck”.
“Cluck”.
The sound of bones rubbing against each other sounded behind him, following him like a shadow.
The sound was so fast that it covered the distance almost instantly, almost as if it was sounding behind his ear!
Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
Wen Jianyan kept running with his head down. He couldn’t even find a chance to turn his head, and there was a chill on the back of his neck.
“Fuck.”
Chen Mo beside him cursed viciously, took out a small knife from his pocket, and suddenly opened a huge opening in his palm. Bright red, hot blood gushed out and turned into scarlet chains the moment it touched the air. The chain suddenly rushed behind everyone, colliding with the unknown ghost, who let out a terrible scream of being overwhelmed.
“Go, it won’t last for long!”
As he ran forward, he roared hoarsely, with a little scarlet blood welling up from under his eyes.
His ability was actually a rare attack type.
Although this type of ability could deal significant damage to ghosts, it put a significant strain on the anchor’s body. In just a few breaths, Wen Jianyan saw blood oozing from the anchor’s pores.
“Crack——!”
The sound of chains breaking came from behind.
That weird clucking sound approached again!
As a level-D anchor, Wen Jianyan didn’t have any skills to use when other level-C anchor abilities had cooled down!
He rolled his eyes angrily.
No wonder no anchor had passed through this instance, this was the reason!
While running, he took out his mobile phone from his pocket, sneaking in to buy some life-saving props.
At this moment, a door not far ahead suddenly opened slowly, and a wisp of green smoke overflowed from the crack of the door. Along with the smell of incense, a hoarse and terrifying voice sounded in the darkness:
—”Here.”
The voice was old and weak, echoing in the dead corridor.
“!!!”
Everyone was startled and looked in the direction of the sound reflexively.
The door was open, and the inside was pitch black, like a space full of unknowns, and one couldn’t help but feel withdrawn.
However, the harsh clucking sound from behind had already stuck to the back of the head, and there was no time to hesitate!
After all, the door was more attractive than being caught by the weird ghost behind them.
The four of them gritted their teeth, rushed straight into the door at the fastest speed, and fell to the ground under the action of inertia!
The door slammed shut behind them!
“Bang bang bang!”
“Bang bang bang bang bang bang!”
The violent and rapid knocking on the door made their hearts tighten like a spell urging them to die. Wen Jianyan looked toward the door—the thin door slammed hard, and dust fell layer by layer.
The door panel had a strange pattern of scarlet lines painted on it, with layers of yellow-background Cinnabar charms densely pasted on it. White coarse salt was thickly piled up in a long line on the ground, which vibrated under the violent shaking of the door panel, appearing fragile and thin, as if it would be broken in the next second.
“Bang bang bang bang bang bang!”
Through the door panel, the strange “clucking” sound could be heard again, and the sound of footsteps lingered outside the door.
No one knew how long it took, but the sound of knocking stopped.
“……”
The long-lost silence came, and Wen Jianyan breathed a sigh of relief as if he was relieved of a heavy burden. He could still hear his own strong heartbeat in his ears, and soreness of the muscle from being overused began to set in.
“You are safe for now.” The hoarse, old voice came from the corner of the room.
Wen Jianyan turned his head to look in the direction of the voice.
The sound of a cane hitting the ground was heard.
An old woman came out of a dark corner. She was short and stooped, holding a pale, knotted cane in her wrinkled, bark-like old hand. Wearing simple, washed-white clothes, her face was trembling slightly, and she had a pair of cloudy eyes: “But, it’s only temporary. Today is the 15th of July.”
“They will get stronger and stronger until the whole building becomes their territory.”
“Wait until dawn…”
The old woman said tremblingly: “Even I can’t do anything about them.”
Wang Hanyu stood up and asked, “That…, excuse me, you are…”
“Just call me Granny Wen.”
Replied the old woman.
“Just now…” Su Cheng turned his head and looked in the direction of the door, a little shocked: “What was that just now?”
“Evil spirit.”
Leaning on crutches, Granny Wen walked slowly to the passage between the living room and the kitchen.
There was a huge shrine, as tall as a person. It was surrounded by the green smoke of burning incense, and a brass Bodhisattva sat in it. Around it were all kinds of talismans, big and small, some made of wicker, some of mahogany, and some of which Wen Jianyan couldn’t tell the material of at all.
The Bodhisattva sat cross-legged in a lotus flower, holding a ritual vessel in one hand and a head in the other. Its three faces were facing different directions, each with a different expression.
The front face was compassionate and peaceful, the left one was glaring, and the right one was sad and weeping.
Granny Wen bowed piously to the Bodhisattva three times, then pointed to the crack on the statue’s base, saying slowly:
“The Bodhisattva uses blessings to suppress evil spirits so that they cannot cause trouble. However, three months ago, someone stole the soul-locking altar and destroyed the magic circle, and it became more and more difficult for me to suppress them in another world. “
She sighed tremblingly:
“Especially now that it’s July, the yin is getting heavier and heavier. I can feel that they are expanding their power… There is not much time left to completely break the seal and assimilate this place.”
Chen Mo had skillfully bandaged the wound on his palm at this moment and looked up:
“Is there any way to stop it?”
“Retrieve the soul-locking altar.”
Granny Wen raised her cloudy eyes, looked at the questioner, and said in an old voice, “As long as you get back the soul-locking altar, the Bodhisattva will have a chance to regain power and drive the evil spirits back into the mirror again.”
At that moment, Wen Jianyan felt the phone in his pocket vibrate.
He subtly took half a step back, hid in the shadows, took out the phone from his pocket, and turned on the screen.
【The high-difficulty side task refreshed: Find the lost soul-locking altar】
【Completion: 0%】
This task was very normal, but the words below had changed…
【Main line task refresh: Take a picture of the evil spirit】
Wen Jianyan’s eyelids twitched: “???”
Ha?
Under a strange premonition, he slowly opened his identity card, expressionlessly.
【Identify card】
Name: Wu Qinghe
Age: 22
Occupation: Paranormal Investigator
Related Plot: [Your name is Wu Qinghe, and you are a paranormal investigator who signed a contract with a streaming platform. Recently, you heard that there were many supernatural incidents in the Antai community, so on July 14th, you came here with your equipment, ready to shoot material for your new video, “Zhongyuan Festival”.
You entered apartment 1304, where the murder occurred a month ago. Here, you met the mother of the victim, who had gone mad. So, in order to get more information, you decided to disguise yourself as the other party’s dead son, Zhou Xiuqing.]
The identity card was updated again, and a paragraph of text appeared below the related plot.
[At twelve o’clock in the middle of the night, the gate of hell opened.
After narrowly escaping the catastrophe, you meet Granny Wen, who lives in the Antai community. From her mouth, you learn the truth about evil spirits and how to stop them.
So, in order to make your video more topical and attract more attention and traffic, you decided to take a picture of an evil spirit to use it as the cover of your video.
You firmly believe that this will definitely make this video a hit.]
Wen Jianyan: “………”
Oh God.
Won’t I be courting death then?
The author has something to say:
Wen Jianyan: ……………Identity card, thank you.
The corridor was narrow and long, and under the dim light, the pale smiling faces of the paper figurines looked very pervasive, following closely behind like a shadow.
The familiar system’s voice sounded in Wen Jianyan’s ears.
【Main line task 1: Find the next shooting location within two hours】
【Completion: 100%】
【Main line task 2: Go to the shooting location for shooting; the duration should not be less than ten minutes】
【Completion: 100%】
Yes, it’s done!
He happily put away his phone, without the slightest consciousness of being chased wildly.
But the mood of the others was far less relaxed than that of Wen Jianyan.
Wang Hanyu ran breathlessly, gritted his teeth, and said:
“I…, there is no way for us to escape like this!”
A human being’s physical strength was limited. If they were chased continuously like this, they would be caught sooner or later.
He looked at Chen Mo: “Why don’t you—”
Before Wang Hanyu could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Chen Mo:
“No!”
Chen Mo glanced at Wang Hanyu sternly: “I’ve told you before.”
“……” Wang Hanyu’s expression was gloomy for a moment, and he didn’t reply anymore.
Wen Jianyan continued to shoot backward while looking thoughtfully at the two anchors beside him.
Before this, he had noticed these two people. These two anchors obviously knew each other, and they probably came in as a team, just like he and Su Cheng.
They were familiar with each other before and knew each other’s abilities, so they should have formed a team more than once.
But…
There doesn’t seem to be a tacit understanding between them.
There were occasional disagreements, and it was basically Chen Mo who made the decision in the end, but Wang Hanyu didn’t seem to be completely obedient.
Wen Jianyan guessed that there should be an unobvious superior-subordinate relationship between them, with Chen Mo leading and Wang Hanyu obeying.
…members of the same guild?
Wang Hanyu suddenly stopped his pace without warning.
“What are you doing?” Chen Mo was surprised.
Wang Hanyu didn’t answer. He turned around, clenched his teeth, stared viciously at the gradually approaching paper figurines not far away, and threw out something in his hand——
“Sshhh!”
There was a sound like boiling water, and the bodies of those paper figurines suddenly curled up and deformed, melting, shrinking, and disappearing as if encountering concentrated sulfuric acid.
Even before disappearing, there was still a bright smile on those pale faces.
“I’ve said it before, there’s no need to use props so early!” Chen Mo was shocked and angry.
Wang Hanyu: “Then are we going to be chased forever like this?”
Chen Mo: “But what if…”
“After death, there are no ifs.” Wang Hanyu interrupted him impatiently: “Besides, these paper figurines are quite fragile as monsters, and a level-C prop can destroy them all, so why bother to be chased by them and flee in embarrassment?”
Chen Mo frowned: “You are too reckless.”
“Hey.”
Wen Jianyan, who had been silent just now, suddenly spoke, interrupting the growing smell of gunpowder between the two.
There was an inexplicable solemnity in his voice. His tone was cold and deep, and there was a sense of power that could not be ignored.
The two were startled and subconsciously turned their heads to look in the direction of the person who spoke.
The young man stuffed the phone back into his pocket, raised his head, and stared at them with his amber eyes. Although there was nothing unusual in his expression, the corners of his mouth were slightly tense.
He said in a restrained voice:
“It’s twelve o’clock.”
The moment his voice fell, both the anchors couldn’t help but feel a chill down their spine.
They all looked down at the time on the phone screen. When they saw the number 00:00, a chill slowly crept into their hearts. Everyone couldn’t help recalling what the guard said just now.
On July 15th, the gate of hell will open.
In the live broadcast hall of Antai Community, the audience was chatting enthusiastically in the barrage area.
[!! It’s twelve o’clock!]
[Hee hee hee, just waiting for this!]
[Aaaaahhh, the main dish is finally here!]
[Come on, come on, let’s guess how many anchors will die in the first ten minutes?]
“Crack.”
An ear-piercing, glass-shattering sound was heard, and the feng shui bagua mirror hanging at the door suddenly burst and then fell straight to the ground.
The burning incense on the ground burst into flames, as if being swallowed by something, shortening at a rapid speed visible to the naked eye.
The tops of the rice started to turn black until they changed to an inky black color.
“Cluck”.
“Cluck”.
Strange, as if the sound of bones rubbing, came from the bottom of the bagua mirror. The sound was too terrifying, almost creepy. The temperature in the air dropped suddenly, like a cold blade scraping the skin fiercely, and an instinctive sense of fear slowly rose from the depths of their soul.
The bagua mirror was gradually lifted up.
Two pale arms protruded from under the mirror, and the bluish-white fingers firmly grasped the ground, as if they were crawling out of the mirror.
Wen Jianyan’s scalp was numb.
Even without the spirit vision, he could tell that this thing was far more dangerous than all of the paper figurines he had just seen!
Its aura was not of the same magnitude at all!
Almost without words, these few people turned around at the same time and fled frantically again under the whip of the desire to survive!
“Cluck”.
“Cluck”.
The sound of bones rubbing against each other sounded behind him, following him like a shadow.
The sound was so fast that it covered the distance almost instantly, almost as if it was sounding behind his ear!
Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!
Wen Jianyan kept running with his head down. He couldn’t even find a chance to turn his head, and there was a chill on the back of his neck.
“Fuck.”
Chen Mo beside him cursed viciously, took out a small knife from his pocket, and suddenly opened a huge opening in his palm. Bright red, hot blood gushed out and turned into scarlet chains the moment it touched the air. The chain suddenly rushed behind everyone, colliding with the unknown ghost, who let out a terrible scream of being overwhelmed.
“Go, it won’t last for long!”
As he ran forward, he roared hoarsely, with a little scarlet blood welling up from under his eyes.
His ability was actually a rare attack type.
Although this type of ability could deal significant damage to ghosts, it put a significant strain on the anchor’s body. In just a few breaths, Wen Jianyan saw blood oozing from the anchor’s pores.
“Crack——!”
The sound of chains breaking came from behind.
That weird clucking sound approached again!
As a level-D anchor, Wen Jianyan didn’t have any skills to use when other level-C anchor abilities had cooled down!
He rolled his eyes angrily.
No wonder no anchor had passed through this instance, this was the reason!
While running, he took out his mobile phone from his pocket, sneaking in to buy some life-saving props.
At this moment, a door not far ahead suddenly opened slowly, and a wisp of green smoke overflowed from the crack of the door. Along with the smell of incense, a hoarse and terrifying voice sounded in the darkness:
—”Here.”
The voice was old and weak, echoing in the dead corridor.
“!!!”
Everyone was startled and looked in the direction of the sound reflexively.
The door was open, and the inside was pitch black, like a space full of unknowns, and one couldn’t help but feel withdrawn.
However, the harsh clucking sound from behind had already stuck to the back of the head, and there was no time to hesitate!
After all, the door was more attractive than being caught by the weird ghost behind them.
The four of them gritted their teeth, rushed straight into the door at the fastest speed, and fell to the ground under the action of inertia!
The door slammed shut behind them!
“Bang bang bang!”
“Bang bang bang bang bang bang!”
The violent and rapid knocking on the door made their hearts tighten like a spell urging them to die. Wen Jianyan looked toward the door—the thin door slammed hard, and dust fell layer by layer.
The door panel had a strange pattern of scarlet lines painted on it, with layers of yellow-background Cinnabar charms densely pasted on it. White coarse salt was thickly piled up in a long line on the ground, which vibrated under the violent shaking of the door panel, appearing fragile and thin, as if it would be broken in the next second.
“Bang bang bang bang bang bang!”
Through the door panel, the strange “clucking” sound could be heard again, and the sound of footsteps lingered outside the door.
No one knew how long it took, but the sound of knocking stopped.
“……”
The long-lost silence came, and Wen Jianyan breathed a sigh of relief as if he was relieved of a heavy burden. He could still hear his own strong heartbeat in his ears, and soreness of the muscle from being overused began to set in.
“You are safe for now.” The hoarse, old voice came from the corner of the room.
Wen Jianyan turned his head to look in the direction of the voice.
The sound of a cane hitting the ground was heard.
An old woman came out of a dark corner. She was short and stooped, holding a pale, knotted cane in her wrinkled, bark-like old hand. Wearing simple, washed-white clothes, her face was trembling slightly, and she had a pair of cloudy eyes: “But, it’s only temporary. Today is the 15th of July.”
“They will get stronger and stronger until the whole building becomes their territory.”
“Wait until dawn…”
The old woman said tremblingly: “Even I can’t do anything about them.”
Wang Hanyu stood up and asked, “That…, excuse me, you are…”
“Just call me Granny Wen.”
Replied the old woman.
“Just now…” Su Cheng turned his head and looked in the direction of the door, a little shocked: “What was that just now?”
“Evil spirit.”
Leaning on crutches, Granny Wen walked slowly to the passage between the living room and the kitchen.
There was a huge shrine, as tall as a person. It was surrounded by the green smoke of burning incense, and a brass Bodhisattva sat in it. Around it were all kinds of talismans, big and small, some made of wicker, some of mahogany, and some of which Wen Jianyan couldn’t tell the material of at all.
The Bodhisattva sat cross-legged in a lotus flower, holding a ritual vessel in one hand and a head in the other. Its three faces were facing different directions, each with a different expression.
The front face was compassionate and peaceful, the left one was glaring, and the right one was sad and weeping.
Granny Wen bowed piously to the Bodhisattva three times, then pointed to the crack on the statue’s base, saying slowly:
“The Bodhisattva uses blessings to suppress evil spirits so that they cannot cause trouble. However, three months ago, someone stole the soul-locking altar and destroyed the magic circle, and it became more and more difficult for me to suppress them in another world. “
She sighed tremblingly:
“Especially now that it’s July, the yin is getting heavier and heavier. I can feel that they are expanding their power… There is not much time left to completely break the seal and assimilate this place.”
Chen Mo had skillfully bandaged the wound on his palm at this moment and looked up:
“Is there any way to stop it?”
“Retrieve the soul-locking altar.”
Granny Wen raised her cloudy eyes, looked at the questioner, and said in an old voice, “As long as you get back the soul-locking altar, the Bodhisattva will have a chance to regain power and drive the evil spirits back into the mirror again.”
At that moment, Wen Jianyan felt the phone in his pocket vibrate.
He subtly took half a step back, hid in the shadows, took out the phone from his pocket, and turned on the screen.
【The high-difficulty side task refreshed: Find the lost soul-locking altar】
【Completion: 0%】
This task was very normal, but the words below had changed…
【Main line task refresh: Take a picture of the evil spirit】
Wen Jianyan’s eyelids twitched: “???”
Ha?
Under a strange premonition, he slowly opened his identity card, expressionlessly.
【Identify card】
Name: Wu Qinghe
Age: 22
Occupation: Paranormal Investigator
Related Plot: [Your name is Wu Qinghe, and you are a paranormal investigator who signed a contract with a streaming platform. Recently, you heard that there were many supernatural incidents in the Antai community, so on July 14th, you came here with your equipment, ready to shoot material for your new video, “Zhongyuan Festival”.
You entered apartment 1304, where the murder occurred a month ago. Here, you met the mother of the victim, who had gone mad. So, in order to get more information, you decided to disguise yourself as the other party’s dead son, Zhou Xiuqing.]
The identity card was updated again, and a paragraph of text appeared below the related plot.
[At twelve o’clock in the middle of the night, the gate of hell opened.
After narrowly escaping the catastrophe, you meet Granny Wen, who lives in the Antai community. From her mouth, you learn the truth about evil spirits and how to stop them.
So, in order to make your video more topical and attract more attention and traffic, you decided to take a picture of an evil spirit to use it as the cover of your video.
You firmly believe that this will definitely make this video a hit.]
Wen Jianyan: “………”
Oh God.
Won’t I be courting death then?
The author has something to say:
Wen Jianyan: ……………Identity card, thank you.
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