NOVPUBWang Chaling seemed to be distrusted by the headquarters, and the purpose of Li Jun's visit to Dadong City was not to restrain Yang Jian but to keep an eye on him, which was somewhat unexpected.
According to Wang Chaling's guess, Li Jun should have been sent to restrain Yang Jian.
After all, Yang Jian has always been a thorn in the side, difficult to deal with, and not very stable mentally. He's prone to fighting at the slightest disagreement and even had records of physical altercations at the headquarters in the past.
But at this moment, Yang Jian was unaware that Li Jun was sitting with Wang Chaling, having tea.
He was busy.
In the revived ancient mansion, there were quite a few ghost handlers hiding, suffering from the curse of the Pendulum Clock.
Yang Jian had finished clearing the first floor of the old house and was starting to cleanse the second floor.
He had to kill those people again within half an hour.
The structure of the second floor of the old house was relatively simple, a swastika-shaped corridor with room after room that were old and in disrepair. These rooms were uninhabited, with only a few furnished with rudimentary furniture and bedding, covered in dust, clearly indicating no one had lived there for a long time.
Even the ghost handlers who suffered from the Pendulum Clock curse would not dare to stay there for long.
Once the Supernatural Pendulum Clock started ringing, incredible and strange things would happen in the old house. Some people would get lost inside, and others would die mysteriously within.
If not for the fact that the curse of the Pendulum Clock could prevent the resurrection of malevolent spirits, no one would be willing to stay there.
The cleansing of the second floor began.
"Stop."
Suddenly.
Yang Jian waved his hand, signaling to everyone. Their team moved smoothly and safely, sweeping through without any obstacles, but at this moment his voice became somber.
"Hmm?"
Feng Quan, Tong Qian, Huang Ziya, Xiong Wenwen, and that neither-human-nor-ghost Ghost Child all stopped in their tracks.
"There's a situation..." Feng Quan furrowed his brow without being reminded.
He sensed something was off.
It seemed like an uneasy feeling, as if some imminent danger was lurking nearby.
This was the ghost handlers' intuition.
Although Yang Jian's ghost eye was interfered with and he couldn't use the Ghost Domain, he was still watching his surroundings, almost no blind spots in his vision. His gaze turned toward a room across the hall with its wooden door ajar.
The room was dim and dark, nothing clearly visible.
But at that doorway, a middle-aged man with a dead aura, as if he had stepped out of a memorial portrait, was standing there, staring blankly and lifelessly in this direction.
No.
It wasn't really staring in this direction, but facing this way.
Their gaze wasn't really the gaze used for seeing, but simply facing this side, like a dead person's face towards the sky.
Despite this, everyone still felt an eerie chill of terror.
This feeling was like being targeted by an extremely malicious spirit.
"When did... There was clearly nothing standing there just a moment ago. How did it suddenly appear? Has it set its sights on us now? Or did we trigger some malevolent spirit's murder pattern after arriving on the second floor, drawing the ghost out?"
Feng Quan felt astonished.
Because this entity suddenly appeared across from them, only about a dozen meters away.
"Notice the clothes on that thing, they're not modern. This indicates it's not a ghost handler who has died and resurrected as a ghost, nor is it the fashion style from the Republic of China Period, but rather from around the '80s or '90s."
Yang Jian stared intently at the deathly middle-aged man standing in front of the door and tried to analyze something from the few features he could see.
"Should we predict what will happen?" Xiong Wenwen became nervous; "If that ghostly thing really has its sights set on us, it would be very dangerous."
"There's no need, it's quite normal for malevolent spirits to roam within the old house. Such phenomena have not occurred just once or twice. If we aren't being targeted by this ghostly entity, there's no need to pay it any attention," Yang Jian said.
The situation in the old mansion was complex, not just for humans but for spirits too.
For a ghost to brazenly kill people here was not very likely, unless you were particularly unlucky to stumble upon one.
Otherwise, the special characteristics of the old mansion itself would interfere with the execution of the malevolent spirits' murder patterns.
This wasn't just Yang Jian's conclusion, but rather what Liao Fan understood about this old mansion from his memories.
"The ghost... it's gone... and the door too."
Suddenly.
At this moment, the hideous specter that was standing in front of the door was gradually engulfed by the darkness behind it, its figure becoming vague, then dissipating like black mist right before their eyes, and the door behind it disappeared as well.
After the disappearance, only a corridor and the green brick walls beside it remained opposite them.
The walls were dark, gloomy and damp, with a slightly different hue compared to the surrounding walls.
"Another unexplainable supernatural phenomenon," Yang Jian said.
"Since everything's fine now, let's continue our action."
At the same time.
On a staircase in an ancient house that wasn't supposed to exist on the third floor.
Zhang Qing and Wan Tong, both carrying Liu Baimu's severed head, tread carefully.
The staircase was steep, and the passageway was extremely narrow, only allowing one person to pass through, and as they looked up, the stairs seemed endless, as if it was never possible to reach the top.
"Something's not right, it seems like these stairs never end." Even Zhang Qing, who was slow to react, sensed something was off after having walked for a while,
"Supernatural power has affected this place, it's impossible to finish these stairs by normal means." Wan Tong went silent for a bit, his expression turning grave.
Both were ghost controllers.
This kind of peculiar situation was no longer surprising to them; it would be odd if things were going smoothly instead.
Liu Baimu's severed head was now so pale that it was completely void of color, but he was not dead yet. He had strangely survived for quite some time after Yang Jian had decapitated him with a cut triggered by a medium, but he was not in good condition, his complexion frequently changing uncontrollably, which made him look particularly unnerving.
He struggled to remember, recalling the many pieces of information he had come across before.
The Pendulum Clock Curse had existed for a long time, and Liu Baimu was not among the first batch of seekers. He had also received some information left by his predecessors.
"What should we do now? Turn back?" Zhang Qing's steps were stiff, his body wobbled as if he could fall at any moment, but the idea of retreating had already sprung to mind.
Staying trapped here would mean certain death sooner or later.
Liu Baimu suddenly thought of something and immediately said, "Don't turn back. Close your eyes and try walking backwards."
"What do you mean?" Zhang Qing was startled.
Liu Baimu said, "Don't ask why. I don't know either, but I know this is the message left by the predecessors. I am not sure who left it, but I do know that some people have completed a set of eerie stairs using this method. It seems that the 'eerie stairs' referred to are these. Do as I said."
"Alright, let's try your method." Zhang Qing nodded.
He and Wan Tong behind him both closed their eyes.
The two didn't turn around but started walking backward down the stairs.
One step at a time, they counted the number of steps in their minds.
One step, two steps... When they counted to ten, Wan Tong, walking behind, suddenly stiffened, and his complexion froze.
His back had bumped into a hard and cold wall.
This wall seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. They had traversed at least hundreds of steps without noticing it, but after walking backward for ten steps, it was there.
Another incomprehensible situation.
"There's a wall behind me, I can't continue walking down," said Wan Tong.
The next moment, Zhang Qing also bumped into Wan Tong. Before he could ask, Wan Tong immediately said,
"Maybe we found the way, open your eyes." Zhang Qing immediately opened his eyes and turned around.
Both of them saw an iron door with rust stains standing behind them.
Above the doorframe of the iron door hung a dim, yellowing lamp that looked as if it would go out at any moment, its light only covering the iron door and unable to spread any further.
"This iron door is something we've never seen before; the doors within the ancient house are generally wooden..." Wan Tong felt the surface, found the handle, gave it a shake, and his expression suddenly changed.
"This door isn't locked; it can be opened, and it has been opened before. The door seams are not aligned."
Liu Baimu urged, "Go in and have a look. There's no turning back now. Don't hesitate. Even if we can't find the president, hiding inside might allow us to avoid being pursued by Yang Jian. Surviving shouldn't be a problem."
"You're right. If we hide there, Yang Jian won't know the pattern. Even if he finds the entrance, he'll be trapped on the stairs. Going inside will indeed ensure our safety." Zhang Qing initially breathed a sigh of relief, but then his tension returned.
Because there might be new dangers lurking inside, one couldn't afford to be careless.
But since they had no other options, the two did not hesitate any longer and pushed open the heavy, rust-covered iron door, stepping into the unknown.
This was a place no one had ever explored.
