Opposing Fear

"How did you learn that there was a basement?"

Neither Jiang Pengyu nor Men Qian had reached such a conclusion. They had no idea how Yu Jing had confirmed the basement's existence, while Yu Xiaoxiao, leaning against the wall nearby, also looked at Yu Jing in confusion.

"There are four details. At first, I saw the white-clothed woman reflected on the television in the second-floor room where the four of you were. Her palms and soles, which she used to support her body, were stained with dirt. Of course, it's possible she picked it up from the muddy mountain forest outside the inn.

"Second, according to the old woman, the so-called Deep Mountain Inn was not originally located in this mountainous region of the Dihua Ability Institute. In my view, the inn should have appeared alongside the ghost lurking here. My preliminary guess is that the inn and this evil spirit have merged into one. Its main body probably cannot move around outside the inn.

"Third, the mixed smell of decay and sandalwood spreading throughout the first floor grew weaker as the floors increased. Moreover, the plants I released couldn't take root and spread through the walls on the first floor. Clearly, someone was deliberately preventing me from investigating the structure of the first floor—especially the structure beneath the floor.

"Finally, just now, I chose to stand between Yu Xiaoxiao and the white-clothed female ghost, and she chose to leave instead of killing me. The three of us are all men who meet the conditions. From this, we can infer that the location where the woman kills her designated targets definitely isn't one of the inn's guest rooms. She had been a very principled person in life, so the place of slaughter should be a hidden area of the inn.

"Taking all of this into account, since there are no mezzanines or secret rooms in the inn, I believe there is a basement beneath it, which this female Supernatural Ability disciple uses to torture men to death."

Yu Jing's analysis and explanation suddenly illuminated everything for everyone in the current group.

"That does make sense. Hu Zhi was killed because he exceeded the age limit, and Miss Yu was threatened with death because they didn't meet the female Supernatural Ability disciple's selection criteria. Yu Jing, do you know where the entrance is?" Jiang Pengyu asked.

Yu Jing shook his head slightly. "Not yet. But we should find something in the old woman's room... Before we enter the basement, however, we have to come up with a way to locate this Spirit Ghost type monster. Do you have any ideas?"

Jiang Pengyu knew the answer from his family's information, but he still let Men Qian, who was better at organizing his words, respond.

"Similar to the methods used to make contact with Spirit Ghost type monsters, during the 'Rook Stage,' we would need to use some method to alter the structure of our retinas so that our naked eyes could analyze this spiritual substance expressed in the form of energy. Alternatively, we could achieve the same result through some kind of filter... Unfortunately, accomplishing that under our current conditions is unlikely."

Men Qian waved his hand. "Although I can perform retinal surgery, I don't have the materials."

"Alter our retinas or use some kind of filter? I might be able to do it, but it'll have to be proven through testing..." Yu Jing's idea was simple: he would use the plant living inside his body to alter his retinas.

"Next, I'll explain the final matter."

Yu Jing took the bell hidden in his pocket and held it up before everyone.

Five bells of different sizes were tied to an iron rod with red thread. The object itself looked extremely strange.

"I found this under the bed in the old woman's room. I also saw it in my dream. In the dream, I shook it and summoned a terrifying female ghost. I'm not entirely sure whether she was the female Supernatural Ability disciple here."

The moment Men Qian saw the bells, he asked, "Could you let me take a look?"

As the bells were handed to Men Qian, he immediately slid a scalpel out from beneath the skin near his elbow. Like Yu Xiaoxiao, who concealed a dagger beside her ribs, Men Qian had hidden a small surgical knife in the flesh of his wrist.

"'Bell' refers to a spherical object with a small metal pellet hanging inside it. Shaking it causes the pellet to strike the walls and produce sound... Let me open it and see what lies at its core. Is that all right?"

"As long as you don't make any sound." Yu Jing nodded and gestured for everyone to remain fully alert.

Men Qian cut off one of the bells bound by red thread. Without touching the inside or making it ring, he pried the bell open and removed the object within. It wasn't the metal pellet they had imagined, but a dry piece of flesh covered in grooves. The other three had no idea what it was.

"This is... a dried amygdala, one of the higher central nervous system structures in the brain. It regulates human emotions, especially fear responses. Yu Jing, your guess was completely correct. The other party isn't simply killing people. A bell made from a human brain's amygdala already qualifies as a 'cursed object.'"

"A cursed object?"

"An object made from a part of the human body is called a cursed object. It can affect humans directly, but the process of making one involves the field of witchcraft. Once this bell rings, it will probably plunge us into fear and make it impossible to escape... Judging from this, our situation is even worse than we imagined."

Yu Xiaoxiao, who had been listening to everyone, spoke at that moment:

"Is the curse transmitted through hearing? In that case, we can rupture our eardrums. The bell naturally won't be able to affect us then. We'll kill the things here and return to Dihua. I believe Men Qian's methods will be enough to repair our eardrums, let alone the specialists from Dihua's Medical School."

Yu Xiaoxiao seemed to care nothing for her own body as she calmly described piercing her eardrums. The method was indeed simple and clear. When Yu Jing had shaken the bell in his dream, the sensation of falling into fear had left his entire body frozen in place, unable to make any movement. It was easy to imagine how dangerous it was.

Yu Jing stroked his chin and spoke thoughtfully. "That method will work, but once we give up our hearing, and add that to the fact that we can't rely on our visual system to deal with a Spirit Ghost type monster, this battle will become incredibly difficult... I have an idea, but I don't know if everyone dares to try it."

"What idea?" Jiang Pengyu already had a bad feeling.

...(A night passed.)

The next morning, in a corner room on the third floor of the Deep Mountain Inn.

The room, which had originally been fairly neat, was now completely unrecognizable. The double bed had been chopped into pieces by sharp weapons, the shattered television lay on the floor, countless fist-shaped dents marred the walls, and vines had grown wildly throughout the room.

This utter wreckage was the result of everyone spending the entire night fighting against fear.

"Pant, pant..."

Everyone, including Yu Xiaoxiao, was breathing heavily.

At the same time, Men Qian once again secured the fastening device on Yu Xiaoxiao's slightly loosened right arm. The four of them had dark circles under their eyes, yet their minds remained highly tense.

"Did it work? I'm exhausted and starving. This feeling is awful. If we all survive this, I, Jiang Pengyu, will treat you to an entire day at a five-star hotel in Central District One." Jiang Pengyu lay spread-eagled on the floor, panting as he spoke.

Yu Jing leaned against the wall with one hand and recalled the night's terrifying experiences.

They had deliberately shaken the bells and fallen into fear, then ultimately returned to reality through their own efforts.

"Let's go. It's time to uncover everything. We'll talk after we survive."