An Uninvited Guest

Under their puzzled gazes, he lifted the painting and placed it beside the portrait in his room.

Sure enough, when the two were compared side by side, the portrait from the corridor looked especially glossy, while the one in his room was somewhat dull.

The difference was actually obvious at a glance, but the portraits were so dangerous that no one had ever dared to examine them closely, let alone notice the distinction.

Li Xian returned the painting to the corridor. By then, Song Qingzhang and Liang Pei had figured out what he meant.

"So the way to stop the portraits from raising their fingers is to brush Varnish onto them?"

Liang Pei asked, "But when that person died on the first day, didn't the portraits in the corridor raise their fingers too?"

"These should be two separate rules that don't interfere with each other."

"Staring into a portrait's eyes for too long makes it quickly raise all five fingers, killing you outright. But if you don't apply Varnish to a portrait, the number of raised fingers gradually increases."

As Li Xian explained, he unscrewed the bottle, dipped the brush into it, and applied it to the painting.

Swish, swish.

Li Xian remembered hearing that sound before.

On the first night, the Mistress's high heels had stopped and started along the corridor. When she reached his door, he had faintly heard a sound just like this.

Li Xian carefully brushed a layer of Varnish onto the painting, then handed it to Liang Pei.

After a moment's hesitation, Liang Pei followed Li Xian's example and coated the portrait in his own room.

Song Qingzhang did the same.

By the time they finished, it was already dinnertime. The three of them arrived at the dining table and discovered that someone was missing.

"Where's Yi Jing? Where did he go?"

Liang Pei asked not out of concern, but out of fear that Yi Jing would stir up more trouble.

Jiang Yan frowned as well. "I don't know... Has anyone seen him today?"

Everyone shook their heads. This time, the man who called himself "Zhang San" actually spoke up of his own accord. "The Mistress probably killed him."

Jiang Yan raised her voice. "What happened? Did you see it?"

He frowned, seemingly displeased by her overreaction. "Just a guess."

With that, he turned his gaze to Li Xian and smiled faintly. "You think so too, don't you?"

When Li Xian ignored him, the man continued to himself, "The frames were hanging in the second-floor exhibition hall. Once we took them, not a single one was left. The Mistress could easily figure out who leaked that information."

"So you never intended to let him live from the start... Ah, I'm not criticizing you."

Meeting Li Xian's gaze, the man raised both hands in surrender.

"I'm just curious where his body might be."

That night, Li Xian lay in bed, thinking about what the man had said.

They really hadn't found Yi Jing's body anywhere.

They had checked Yi Jing's room afterward. It was empty, and there was nothing unusual about the portrait.

The second floor was bare, with hardly anywhere to hide a body.

They had thoroughly checked the first floor too, and nothing had changed.

As for the fourth floor... that was impossible as well. Based on what the others had said, Yi Jing had disappeared before Li Xian went up to the fourth floor.

Then where could the body be?

Li Xian wasn't sure whether there was any point in pondering this question, but he kept getting the vague feeling that there was still some corner of this mansion he had yet to explore.

The Mistress had said she was holding an art exhibition, and she also presented herself to outsiders as a painter... In that case, where did she "paint"?

Until then, Li Xian had taken it for granted that the place was on the fourth floor. The Mistress lived there and "painted" there too. Yet when he actually saw it, the fourth floor was nothing more than an abandoned attic.

Then where exactly did she live?

As he pondered this, footsteps faintly sounded in the distance again.

Was the Mistress here? What was she doing here at this hour?

The footsteps were hurried and soon ascended the stairs. They sounded close one moment and distant the next, roaming the corridor in an almost chaotic pattern.

Pat, pat, pat.

The footsteps swept past his door.

Li Xian immediately realized something was wrong.

Those weren't the Mistress's high heels!

These footsteps were nothing like the crisp clack of high heels striking the floor. Instead, they sounded like someone walking barefoot.

Pat, pat, pat.

The footsteps swept past his door again, then quickly doubled back, as though searching for something.

The hurried sounds threw Li Xian's heartbeat slightly out of rhythm too.

The noise outside did not stop. It continued wandering tirelessly through the corridor. Just as Li Xian focused all his attention on what was outside the door...

Clatter.

An abrupt noise came from beside him.

The sounds outside stopped dead. Then, as though it had found its target, something approached Li Xian's door step by step.

Clatter, clatter.

The noise beside him did not stop either. Instead, it grew increasingly frantic.

Li Xian immediately rolled out of bed and followed the sound, pulling open the bedside drawer. The human-skin portraits that had been lying quietly inside were now shaking violently for some unknown reason. He immediately took them out and clutched them to his chest. At that moment, the footsteps stopped outside his door.

Li Xian pinned both portraits firmly against his chest, but they trembled harder and harder, with enough force to almost break free of his embrace!

Li Xian used every ounce of strength to restrain the portraits in his arms. He could even feel the skin-textured canvases writhing up and down against his arms...

Silence settled over the room. The thing outside seemed to be waiting quietly for its prey to make a sound before delivering a fatal blow.

In the midst of the stalemate, the portraits suddenly shook harder. Li Xian's palm slipped, and one of the portraits was about to fall to the floor-

Clang!

A sharp crash rang out. The footsteps outside abruptly turned and rushed toward the sound.

Li Xian just managed to catch a corner of the frame, keeping it from hitting the floor.

The live comments let out a long breath along with Li Xian.

[That was close. He almost got caught.]

[What's that thing outside? And why did the human-skin portraits suddenly start moving? We're so far into the instance already. Why has a new danger suddenly appeared?]

[Is this difficulty really a C-rank instance? It feels like it could rival an instance in the Advanced Zone.]

[These newcomers don't have the life-saving items we've accumulated, either... Who knows how many will survive to the end?]

Li Xian drew the two human-skin portraits back into his arms. Fortunately, they had stopped trembling once the thing outside left. He wrapped them in his quilt, then walked to the door and quietly opened it a crack.

In the darkness, someone seemed to be lying face down on the floor.

Judging by the figure, it appeared to be a woman. Li Xian looked closer and saw her lift her arm, trying to reach up and touch the doorknob.

As the woman moved, Li Xian got a clear look at the side of her face.