Lan City, Starlight Cinema.
The streets were completely dark in the dead of night; the streetlights had all stopped working for some unknown reason. In the pitch black, the occasional, eerie sound of wind, like a mournful wail, could be heard.
The surrounding streets have been blocked off, preventing the public from approaching the Starlight Cinema.
However, at that moment, two figures were standing at the entrance of the cinema.
"Mr. Wen, why do we have to come here?" Feng Qian asked, puzzled.
According to the Investigation Bureau's criteria, the Supernatural event at Starlight Cinema will not spread, and people will not encounter danger as long as they do not go inside. It is considered a low-level Supernatural event, and it is sufficient to simply cordon off the surrounding area. There is no need to waste manpower to deal with it for the time being.
For some unknown reason, Wen Jingyan suddenly found Feng Qian and asked him to go with him to solve the Supernatural events at the Starlight Cinema.
Feng Qian did not refuse. This was his chance to get closer to the big boss. Moreover, they were acting secretly, without the knowledge of the Investigation Bureau. This kind of sneaky behavior looked like they were doing something bad. If they had done bad things together, their relationship would become even closer.
However, Feng Qian inevitably had some doubts, so he asked directly.
Wen Jingyan explained, "The Supernatural events at Starlight Cinema have been rated as C-class by the Investigation Bureau. In fact, their level of horror far exceeds C-class, but they are currently in a bottleneck period and have not yet fully erupted, so it is necessary to nip them in the bud."
Feng Qian was astonished. "How did you figure that out?"
"I didn't see it, I sensed it," Wen Jingyan said. "I sensed a terrifying Supernatural power brewing in Lan City from another city a thousand miles away. Couldn't you see it at all?"
Feng Qian shook his head blankly. He had neither seen nor felt anything. What was going on?
"Perhaps the ghost you control is too weak," Wen Jingyan said bluntly, not caring at all whether it would hurt Feng Qian's feelings.
Feng Qian gave an awkward smile.
"Let's go in." Wen Jingyan pushed open the cinema door.
What he just said to Feng Qian was half true and half false. It's true that the Supernatural events in the Starlight Cinema are terrifying and even have the potential to be S-class.
But he didn't come to solve the problem; he came to exacerbate it.
Meanwhile, inside the cinema.
Du Yan was still hiding in the projection room; his fingertips had turned into a translucent film-like texture.
He stared at his hands, and through his palms he could vaguely see the images flashing across the movie screen. It was as if he had become a part of this eternal film, standing among a group of vacant "audience members."
"When will the rescue arrive?" Du Yan muttered to himself, clutching his specially made phone; it was his only hope.
The old projector was still playing a movie that was of dubious meaning. After some time, the movie screen suddenly started shaking violently, as if it had been interfered with.
The world outside the screen blurred, followed by a deafening tearing sound as something ripped a hole in the wall of the projection room.
A figure walked in along the bluish-gray "path".
"Great, finally someone's come to save me..." Du Yan's throat made a sound as faint as a mosquito's buzz.
Along that bluish-gray road, the cinema walls curled and peeled like aging film. The "road" beneath Wen Jingyan's feet stretched on and on both sides, countless struggling arms could be vaguely seen trying to climb out but being pulled back.
"Lower your head!" Wen Jingyan suddenly shouted.
Du Yan instinctively lowered his head. The next second, the entire screen world spun around, and Wen Jingyan's "path" pierced directly through the movie screen, like a sharp blade cutting through the canvas. The boundary between reality and film was forcibly broken, Du Yan felt a sharp pain, as if someone was "peeling" him out of the two-dimensional world.
"Grab me!" Wen Jingyan his reach.
Du Yan gripped that hand tightly, a bone-chilling cold spreading through his body from the point of contact; he felt as if his internal organs were about to freeze.
The good news is that his body is being pulled out of the screen little by little.
"Bang!"
With a deafening roar, the dome of the projection room suddenly collapsed, and countless reels of film cascaded down like a waterfall, unfurling automatically in the air and hurtling towards them.
Wen Jingyan snorted coldly, and the "road" beneath his feet suddenly rose up, like a shield blocking the first wave of attacks. The film that was touched by the "road" instantly aged and became brittle, shattering into powder.
"Run! Get out along my path!" Wen Jingyan shoved Du Yan.
Du Yan staggered onto the bluish-gray road and immediately felt dizzy. The two sides of the road were not normal spaces, but countless overlapping fragments of images: cinemas at different times, audiences from different eras, and even black and white images he had never seen before.
At the end of the road, Du Yan saw Feng Qian, and Su Yu standing behind Feng Qian, looking weak.
"Su Yu, you're still alive?!" Du Yan's voice was filled with surprise.
Su Yu nodded, not wanting to say anything more; he was truly exhausted.
A grating tearing sound came from behind him. Du Yan turned around and saw that the entire corridor was completely distorted, the poster frames on the walls were shattered, and finally, everything was completely obliterated into darkness.
Wen Jingyan walked out calmly, completely unharmed.
"That's it? It doesn't seem that scary~" Feng Qian said with a smile. After Wen Jingyan entered the movie theater, he rescued the two investigators as quickly as possible, and there was no sign of the incident being terrifying.
Wen Jingyan shook his head solemnly, "We're still in the movie."
Upon hearing this, Feng Qian didn't react in time, but Du Yan and Su Yu's expressions changed instantly.
Wen Jingyan continued, "From the moment we stepped into the cinema, we entered the world of the movie, no longer in reality."
"What's worse, there are movies playing within movies, like a nested doll with countless layers, and with every step we take, we might step into an even deeper layer of the film."
Feng Qian understood immediately, and broke out in a cold sweat. "Then is it even possible for us to get out?"
Wen Jingyan gently comforted him, "Don't worry, the Yin-Yang Road I control can forcibly create Supernatural passages. Combined with the abilities of your eyes, our survival rate won't be too low."
Feng Qian was not comforted; instead, he became even more nervous.
Wen Jingyan: "What we need to do now is find the Fierce Ghost that caused the Supernatural events at Starlight Cinema. If we don't contain it in time, the 'movie' will spread from this cinema and unknowingly absorb everything around it into the movie."
Feng Qian touched the bridge of his nose. "The Investigation Bureau's blockade is completely useless?"
"When we arrived near the movie theater, all the streetlights around us were broken. Guess why?" Wen Jingyan.
Feng Qian's brow twitched. "The streets around the cinema have turned into a 'movie'!"
Du Yan and Su Yu felt their hearts pound with fear upon hearing the conversation between the two.
Wen Jingyan said, "The Supernatural events happening here are more complex and dangerous than you imagine. There's no turning back now that I'm here. I'll try my best to resolve the problem once and for all. If we fail to contain the Source Ghost this time, as it revives and becomes stronger, there won't be a second chance to contain it."
"Du Yan, Su Yu, you two take good care of yourselves and stick close to me and Feng Qian. If you fall behind, I won't bother to rescue you."
Du Yan and Su Yu nodded frantically like chickens pecking at rice. Although they were already exhausted, this little bit of hardship and fatigue was nothing compared to their own lives.
Wen Jingyan the way, followed by Du Yan and Su Yu, who flanked Feng Qian on either side. The four of them walked side by side toward the cinema exit.
The exit was right there, yet no matter which way they went, they could never reach the end.
Du Yan and Su Yu had encountered this situation once before, and they remained relatively calm.
Feng Qian reached into his pocket and touched the dice, praying that the dice would still work in the movie theater to summon the Lucky Casino, so that he would have a trump card to save his life.
Another path appeared beneath Wen Jingyan, stretching forward until it was smashed to pieces, just as it appeared to be the cinema's exit!
It was as if it were just a screen, and several people walked out of it.
Surrounded by darkness, the four slowed their movements, cautiously observing their surroundings.
At that moment, a faint light dispelled the darkness.
An extremely eerie scene appeared ahead, like a screen floating in endless darkness, and an old-fashioned projector suddenly appeared in the corner and began to slowly rotate.
As the projector rotated, countless flashing horror movie covers appeared on the screen, eventually freezing into a black and white film.
Then the black-and-white film began to play.
The scene shows a woman sitting quietly in front of an old dressing table, holding a comb in her hand and slowly combing her hair.
Her hair was long and black, and even in black and white films, it was shiny and unique.
Even more bizarrely, the woman's image is clearly visible in the movie, but there is nothing in the mirror in front of her.
A gaze, like that of an alien being, came from all directions, a feeling that sent chills down one's spine.
Wen Jingyan was solemn; he could clearly sense the immense terror before him.
The woman in the video mechanically combed her hair for a while, then stiffly stood up and walked out of the room.
The camera then switched to her perspective, following her movements.
She walked onto a dirt road. The camera shook slightly, and the next second, Wen Jingyan found himself standing on the same road. Not far away was a strange village. At the entrance of the village stood two large black stones. One of them had a large character "wind" written on it, while the other stone was damaged.
"Wind Village?" Wen Jingyan muttered to himself, feeling that the village ahead was filled with an eerie and ominous atmosphere.
"Mr. Wen, what's going on?" Feng Qian's voice was urgent. Unlike before, he could clearly feel his eyes darting around restlessly, as if a ferocious beast was watching him intently.
Wen Jingyan said, "Don't panic, we were probably affected by that projector and entered a movie."
"Weren't we in a movie before?" Feng Qian asked.
Wen Jingyan his head. "It's different. Before, it was just some fragmented movie scenes that were similar to reality. Now it's like a complete movie; we've entered this movie."
Feng Qian said urgently, "Could you use that move to summon a ghost path and force your way out?"
"I'll give it a try." After saying that, a bluish-gray Yin-Yang Road extended from beneath Wen Jingyan's feet.
However, this Yin-Yang Road did not break through the "screen" as before, but instead merged into the dirt road leading to the village ahead.
Suddenly, some people dressed as villagers appeared at the village entrance. They stood there blankly, their eyes all fixed on Wen Jingyan's direction.
"Boss, what's wrong?" Feng Qian also noticed the villagers behaving strangely and couldn't help but feel anxious. Even a fool could see that the situation was very strange.
He gripped the dice tightly in his hand, suddenly realizing that Wen Jingyan wasn't entirely reliable either.
Wen Jingyan's mind raced as he considered ways to break the deadlock.
His goal was not to contain the Fierce Ghost, but to release Fierce Ghost.
According to the information provided by the mastermind, the Supernatural events at this movie theater can definitely be rated SSS-class or higher!
Not only are there movies playing within movies, but the ghost Ghost Domain that resemble nested dolls are also filled with real, Fierce Ghost!
In short, this movie theater is a Fierce Ghost -making machine.
As for where the Fierce Ghosts in the film come from...
Wen Jingyan was unaware, and the mastermind behind it all didn't tell him either.
The world in the movie should be a special Ghost Domain. To release the ghosts from the Ghost Domain, you either need to collide with another Ghost Domain of equal strength, or... build a passage to reality using the Yin-Yang Road.
This job really can only be done by Wen Jingyan, but now there's a hint of things going wrong. He summoned the Yin-Yang Road, but instead of leading to reality, it triggered some kind of pattern, bringing him closer to the village in the movie.
"Head out of the village!" Wen Jingyan a low voice.
The village ahead called "Wind Village" is clearly very dangerous; perhaps we can find a way to survive if we stay away from the village.
The four of them turned around, and the road behind them was no longer the cinema corridor, but a bumpy, muddy country road.
The surrounding sky was dark and gloomy, without sun or moon, as if shrouded in dark clouds, leaving no gaps.
The group set off in a direction away from Wind Village. The road was not smooth and was not friendly to Du Yan and Su Yu, because the two had been trapped in the movie theater, living in fear and without food, and were already exhausted both physically and mentally.
They hadn't walked far when Su Yu couldn't go on any longer, Du Yan carried her on his back and struggled forward.
After walking for about an hour, at the end of the dirt road, when they saw the large rock with the character "Wind" written on it again, both Du Yan and Su Yu showed fear in their eyes.
Walking in the opposite direction, I somehow ended up back in the village!
Is this path beneath my feet Möbius Strip?
Feng Qian remained relatively calm, after all, he had some trump cards up his sleeve. His current consideration was whether, in a crisis where he had no choice but to seek refuge in the Lucky Casino, he should take his colleagues with him.
Wen Jingyan's gaze was solemn. The dark clouds in the sky grew thicker, and many stiff villagers stood at the entrance of Wind Village in the distance, watching the four of them intently.
Further away, countless figures from the village were gathering at the village entrance.