How to Leave, the Beckoning Figure

Inside the Specimen Room, there was only a faint purple glow.

Using the purple light, I kept running outward, trying to leave this place.

All around me stood rows of sealed glass specimen tanks.

Inside them were corpse after corpse—men and women, all kinds.

Some were fixed anatomical specimens with their chests cut open, while others had been ravaged by severe illnesses, their bodies grotesquely mutated.

At a glance, I realized that every one of those specimens was facing me.

Those ashen eyes seemed to be saying, Take me with you too...

I didn't dare look at them closely. I merely lowered my head slightly and kept running toward where the exit should have been.

Inside the Specimen Room, aside from the "thump, thump, thump" of something striking the glass tanks, there was also the sound of formalin sloshing inside them.

I felt that I was already moving fast enough. I had run twenty or thirty meters, yet I still hadn't seen the door.

When I looked up, dense rows of specimen tanks still filled the space ahead.

I was still standing in the middle of the Specimen Room.

"What the hell? Why am I still in the Specimen Room?"

I spoke in panic.

Cold sweat had already soaked my back.

The Specimen Room wasn't that large. I had run dozens of meters; there was no way I shouldn't have made it out, much less failed to see the door.

The thought filled me with dread.

I had probably run into a Ghost Wall!

The things inside these glass tanks definitely didn't want me to leave.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have run so far without seeing the exit.

With that thought, I stopped at once.

Standing in the middle of the Specimen Room, I gripped the Fish Bone Sword tightly.

I looked around in terrified vigilance.

The corpses in the glass tanks bobbed up and down, all staring at me.

The sound of water splashing echoed without pause.

Every so often, there came a "bang, bang" as something struck the glass tanks.

It created an overwhelmingly suffocating, oppressive atmosphere.

If I hadn't encountered ghosts again and again these past few days and built up some mental resistance to such filthy things,

I might have already been too scared to move in this horrifying atmosphere, perhaps even fainted dead away.

I widened my eyes and kept telling myself to stay calm.

The more it was like this, the less I could panic.

Holding the Fish Bone Sword, I shouted at my surroundings:

"Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, this humble Taoist is known as Du'e.

"I have come here only on personal business and have no intention of disturbing any of you.

"I ask that you show mercy and let me leave."

As I spoke, I displayed the Fish Bone Sword and warily watched my surroundings.

I didn't want to provoke them, nor did I want to be trapped here.

Displaying the Fish Bone Sword, announcing my Taoist name, and stating my purpose

was also my way of making these filthy things understand.

I was a Taoist. I had backing.

I hadn't come here because I had any grudge against them.

Right now, I only wanted to leave. I meant nothing else by it...

I had no idea whether it would work, but I put it out there anyway.

Yet the moment my words fell, I noticed that the sounds around me gradually began to disappear.

The water inside those glass tanks also slowly settled.

Seeing this, I was overjoyed.

It seemed my words had carried some intimidation after all.

Without hesitating further, I continued running in the direction I had come from, wanting only to get out as quickly as possible.

This Specimen Room was truly too bizarre.

However, after running another dozen meters or so, I stopped again.

Though the glass tanks in the room had all calmed down,

and there were no longer any sounds,

I still couldn't see the door.

Looking left and right, I found myself still surrounded by specimen tanks.

The pale purple lighting seemed to make the place even darker, every corner steeped in eerie dread.

My expression darkened. It seemed there was still a ghost in this room messing with me.

I searched through every scrap of information in my mind about Ghost Walls.

But aside from hearing old people mention the term when I was young, I had no idea how to deal with one.

I checked my phone. There was no signal.

I couldn't even contact Master to ask for help.

I tentatively tried to find my own way out.

But I discovered that no matter which direction I went, I only kept circling around inside the Specimen Room.

There were only those corpses, endlessly bobbing up and down in their glass tanks.

And the purple lights around me were growing dimmer and dimmer.

As if they were about to go out.

In the hazy darkness, I could even see that the corpses inside the glass tanks seemed to be moving.

I didn't think I was seeing things.

Instead, I guessed that those moving corpses each contained a soul.

After they died, they had been made into specimens for one reason or another.

Perhaps their ghosts had remained here as well.

These ghosts had likely been trapped here for too long, their hearts filled with resentment.

Seeing that my yang energy was weak, they wanted to keep me here—to toy with me and torment me.

Earlier, when I announced who I was,

I must have intimidated some of them. Otherwise, the noises around me couldn't have stopped.

The icy feeling had also lessened somewhat.

But a small portion of them still didn't want me to leave.

Otherwise, I couldn't still be trapped here.

Even though I remained calm enough to analyze the situation in such an oppressive environment,

I still had no way to leave.

Just as I slowly walked between the glass tanks, a strange "screech, screech, screech" suddenly sounded directly ahead of me.

The lighting was too dim, so I could only turn on my phone's flashlight and shine it forward.

When I did, I saw at the far end of the dark Specimen Room

what seemed to be a blurry human figure. The figure stood before a glass tank, pulling at the lid on top of it.

The lid was metal, thick and heavy.

He couldn't pull it open, and the metal lid kept scraping against the rim of the glass tank, producing that piercing sound.

The sight filled me with terror.

Instinctively, I took two steps back...

That ghostly thing had appeared again.

I clenched the Fish Bone Sword in my hand, ready to strike at any moment.

After pulling open the glass tank's lid, the figure slowly turned around.

Facing me, he beckoned to me.

He didn't say anything, but I understood what he meant.

He wanted me to go over.

No—more accurately, he wanted me to enter that glass tank.

To become a specimen like them, soaked in formalin.

Fuck, it seemed I had underestimated their malice.

Just moments ago, I had guessed that these things only wanted to frighten and toy with me.

Now it seemed they wanted to kill me.

The distance was too great for me to make out what he looked like.

I knew I absolutely couldn't go over there...

I immediately turned around and ran in another direction.

But who could have expected that after only a few steps,

I found that figure in front of me again.

He was still in the same position, one hand holding the glass tank's lid while the other beckoned at me.

I froze where I stood.

Inside this Ghost Wall, there was no sense of direction at all.

No matter which way I went, I would run into this ghost.

I sharply inhaled a breath of cold air.

Though terror filled my heart, at that moment, I made a bold decision.

Since I couldn't leave, then I wouldn't leave.

Rather than fleeing around in panic, it was better to face it head-on.

Besides, I still had an evil-banishing Fish Bone Sword engraved with the Eighteen Inscriptions...