[Soul-Shaking Ancient Village] Difficulty Increase

Si Yehan returned to his room without incident.

The moment he entered, a letter caught his eye. It was flesh-colored all over, made of exactly the same material as the previous one.

The rain outside grew heavier, shrouding the entire village in a hazy mist. The children's cries grew more urgent, and the footsteps grew more muffled.

A scream split the sky, then vanished in an instant, as though it had been cut off!

Things had already spiraled out of control. Si Yehan stepped forward and opened the letter as threads of red spread through the room. It read: [A century of accumulated resentment has become the rules. The schemer sought to profit from the struggle between the snipe and the clam, only to be devoured by the bait! The Vengeful Ghost has broken free, and the supernatural has awakened! The instance's difficulty has increased, and the ghosts have gained more killing rules. Uncover the plot and survive for four days.]

After reading the letter, Si Yehan let it turn to ashes. He pondered the words "schemer," "profit from the struggle," and "the Vengeful Ghost has broken free." Combined with the information revealed by the family he had wiped out earlier, it was not hard to deduce that the wandering expert from more than ten years ago was definitely connected to the increase in the instance's difficulty.

For now, the only benefit was that the time they had to survive here had grown shorter.

But surviving four days would probably be even harder than surviving the original ten.

Now those Ghost Slaves could move about on their own even during the day, and several killing rules had been added without changing the original ones. Could sleep still keep them from triggering the ghosts' killing rules?

All of this was unknown. Si Yehan's expression was indifferent, and his heart remained untroubled. As long as there were rules to be found, things were not too bad.

Behind the curtain of rain, the entire village was gradually being stained blood-red. Si Yehan slowly fell asleep, his fingers gripping the doll tightly. It felt cold to the touch. From what had happened earlier, he could tell that heat meant danger. For now, everything was safe.

Rainwater was seeping into the room too! Ghost Children with bluish-black bodies crawled out of the water one after another, and the water quickly dried up.

The Ghost Children slowly approached the sleeping Si Yehan, their lips stretched in grins reaching their ears. Blood and saliva dripped from their mouths onto their lips, their gaping maws displaying a savage sight.

The doll suddenly grew scorching hot, jolting Si Yehan awake. At the sight, the Ghost Children retreated to the side, their faces twisted with hunger, but there was nothing they could do.

A slight ripple stirred in Si Yehan's heart. His gaze swept over the Ghost Children, and he found such things especially interesting. For now, it seemed the killing rule Zhang Kui had identified was incorrect. Seeing these ghosts clearly did not kill a person.

Then what had triggered the death of the woman with loose hair? When people first saw something unknown, they instinctively screamed. He supposed it was screaming, since screams constantly echoed through the rain outside, and the instance's background had repeatedly mentioned crying and screaming.

Si Yehan had not undressed before sleeping, saving himself the trouble now. He put on his shoes and walked, deliberately treading lightly without making a sound. Since he could not be certain whether the killing rule of the Ghost Slaves in the corridor was making noise while walking, it was best to be careful.

The Ghost Children watched Si Yehan from the side, but there was nothing they could do.

Si Yehan pushed open the door and left. The sound-activated lights in the corridor were off, and ghostly figures hunched like old people came into view. From what Zhang Kui and Shen Jing had revealed earlier, he knew these things were not real ghosts, but Ghost Slaves that shared killing rules.

Si Yehan brushed past the ghostly figures. They had no minds or awareness, and as long as he did not trigger their killing rule, they posed no danger.

The most pressing matter was to make sure the killing rule he had discovered was genuine. With that thought, Si Yehan headed for the third floor. There were still three "lab rats" there for trial and error. If they had not died, he could use them to test the ghosts' killing rules.

In the third-floor storage room, Chen Yong panted heavily, drenched in sweat. Jing Xi and Xie Ran were in the same state. Both women had struggled to free themselves from their hallucinations.

As the three listened to the muffled footsteps outside, they were filled with terror.

The rain outside the building still showed no sign of stopping, and the children's cries grew louder.

The three held their breath and focused, afraid to make the slightest sound for fear of dying at the hands of the Ghost Slaves. They only exchanged glances, while the ritual objects in the room grew faintly warm and emitted a red glow.

The sound of the door opening rang out, and the three felt as though they had been granted a reprieve. Jing Xi instinctively wanted to scream, but Xie Ran, quick to react at her side, clamped a hand tightly over her mouth.

The door opened, and a sliver of light seeped into the pitch-dark storage room.

The vicious ghost they had imagined did not rush in. After a while, neither a person nor a ghost appeared, and they relaxed again.

But in the next instant, a shadow appeared, swallowing the sliver of light that had just entered.

Chen Yong gripped the doll in his palm tightly, sweat pouring down his face. He recalled the sight of his mother dying a gruesome death in the hallucination, and his desire to live outweighed everything else.

Although Xie Ran's expression did not change much, her body trembled slightly, and her heart was far from calm.

Jing Xi curled up in the corner, shaking violently. She had clearly seen something terrifying in her hallucination.

All three stared fixedly at the doorway until a tall, slender figure in a black trench coat came into view. Only then did they breathe a sigh of relief. It was Si Yehan.

Seeing that all three "lab rats" were still alive, Si Yehan closed the door without a word.

Even the sound of rain outside grew distant. For a moment, it was as though none of the horrors had anything to do with this place. Si Yehan only wanted to give them a sense of what to expect beforehand, so the horrors that followed would have an easier time frightening them.

Muffled footsteps sounded, and the children's cries drew closer, approaching the third floor.

Si Yehan raised his eyes and saw a Ghost Child wriggling out of the shadows in the corner, right behind Jing Xi.

A corner of Jing Xi's white dress had long since been stained black. She clutched her clothes tightly and curled up toward the corner, knocking against the ritual objects and making a sound.

A ghost could not touch a person unless its killing rule had been triggered. So Jing Xi was still unaware of the Ghost Child behind her.

Xie Ran's gaze suddenly grew intensely tense, and she tightened her grip on the doll in her hand. No eyeballs could be seen in the Ghost Child's ink-black eye sockets, which seemed to be staring fixedly at her.

Chen Yong naturally did not dare breathe loudly either. Si Yehan watched everything before him with a cool expression. There was only indifference in his dark eyes, though a hint of interest in watching the spectacle showed deep within them.

Under such pressure, Jing Xi would clearly be the first to break. When that happened, he could determine whether the killing rule he had discovered was correct.

Jing Xi's delicate features were scrunched up as her fingers rubbed back and forth over her white dress. The rain and muffled footsteps echoed outside. The enormous contrast between the cruelty of the present and the happiness she had known before left her unable to hold back her quiet sobs.

Xie Ran did not stop her, because the Ghost Child's gaze felt like needles in her back.

The Ghost Child writhed in the shadows, and several more little ghosts crawled out. Jing Xi's sobs seemed to have disturbed them, and they reached out their hands, trying to touch her.

At that moment, Jing Xi looked up and saw Xie Ran's expression. Even more uneasy, she turned her head with difficulty and saw the little ghosts, blood streaming down their faces!

Her sobs became a scream, and the little ghosts pounced like starving wolves that had finally been served their meal.

Jing Xi's white dress was torn to shreds before their eyes, along with her flesh. She screamed shrilly, and her gaze fell on the three of them without resentment. Instead, it held a sense of release, as though relieved, while her face twisted with pain.

A faint smile appeared in Si Yehan's eyes. The sight of the Ghost Slaves tearing her apart was pleasing. Seeing it with his own eyes also confirmed that the killing rule he had deduced earlier was correct.

There was no doubt that screaming was these little ghosts' killing rule. As for the hunched ghostly figures that walked about, their rule remained unclear. But it was fine; there were still two "lab rats" left.

Chen Yong had already closed his eyes, unable to bear watching. Xie Ran also turned her head away, tears streaming down her face.