The moment that terrifying voice rang out, all three felt as though their souls had frozen!
They slowly turned their heads and saw the old man, who had clearly died, standing before them again!
Only this time, he was no longer holding a broom, but... a pair of sharp scissors!
He advanced toward them one step at a time, the smile on his face growing increasingly twisted and sinister.
His wrinkles seemed about to swallow his features whole, and the icy aura around him grew stronger.
All three knew that the old man before them was very likely no longer human!
Realizing the danger, their first instinct was to flee, but they discovered that no matter how hard they tried, they could not move their feet!
Their legs felt as though they had been filled with lead, unbearably heavy!
So this is the power of a ghost...
Ning Qiushui felt a chill settle deep inside him!
They were far too weak. Against a ghost, they had almost no power to resist!
As he watched the old man approach him step by step with the scissors, Bai Xiaoxiao spoke calmly from behind him:
"Sir, we didn't mean to touch anything in the ancestral hall, but Guangchuan... really doesn't like the things here. Guangchuan sent us."
At the mention of Guangchuan, the savage expression on the old man's face froze.
Then immense terror surfaced in his lifeless, dead-fish eyes!
He shifted his gaze and stared fixedly at Bai Xiaoxiao.
"What are you talking about..."
Sweat seeped from Bai Xiaoxiao's palms, but her expression did not change in the slightest as she continued:
"If you don't believe us, we can show you something."
As soon as she finished speaking, Ning Qiushui also noticed the change in the old man's aura and immediately took out Guangchuan's spirit tablet.
The instant he saw the tablet, the old man reacted as though he had seen something utterly terrifying. He suddenly screamed in panic, dropped his scissors, and turned to flee into the depths of the woods...
Once he left, the three could finally move normally again.
Cold sweat soaked their backs as they all gasped for breath. Liu Chengfeng said to Bai Xiaoxiao with admiration:
"Xiaoxiao, you really know how to handle things!"
"You sent that old ghost packing with just a few words!"
Bai Xiaoxiao exhaled and said:
"I was just trying my luck. If it hadn't worked, I had other methods..."
"...Now it looks like the events described in the annotation on this picture probably don't match... what actually happened back then. Otherwise, that old thing wouldn't have been so afraid of the spirit tablet in Qiushui's hand!"
"If even a ghost is afraid, you can imagine how much resentment the owner of this tablet must have harbored after death!"
Ning Qiushui glanced at the tablet and felt a chill down his back, but he still put it away and said:
"Let's leave first. Who knows when that old ghost might come back? There don't seem to be any other useful clues here anyway..."
After all the time they had spent going back and forth, it was already noon. They returned to the rest area the village provided for tourists and went to the cafeteria to get lunch.
They had just collected their food when a slender woman in jeans approached them and said:
"Do you three have a moment?"
Ning Qiushui and Liu Chengfeng did not respond.
Bai Xiaoxiao gave her a graceful smile:
"Sure. What can we do for you?"
The slender woman in jeans extended a hand to her.
"My name is Tang Jiao. Would you be willing to come over for a meeting?"
"Most of the other Blood Gate participants are there too."
Bai Xiaoxiao hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"No problem."
She followed Tang Jiao to a fairly large room on the second floor, where four other Blood Gate participants were seated.
Ning Qiushui looked around, frowned, and asked:
"Why are another three people missing?"
After he asked that question, the expressions of two people present turned grim.
Judging by their expressions, those three probably would not be coming back.
"What exactly happened? Would you mind telling us?"
Perhaps Bai Xiaoxiao's beauty had an effect. After she asked the question in a gentle voice, one of them slowly began to speak:
"...There isn't much to tell. The three of them went through the woods together and headed to the Temple on the mountain behind the village to look for a way to survive."
"We tried to talk them out of it, but they insisted on going. They promised they'd come back down within an hour, whether or not they found any clues in the Temple."
"The mountain isn't very high, and there's a properly built staircase. It's easy to get up and down, and it takes less than ten minutes... But we waited below for almost three whole hours, and they still didn't return. We figured something might have happened to them up there. Just as we were considering whether to go up and rescue them..."
By this point, the terror in his eyes was almost spilling over. As though recalling some horrifying scene, he suddenly covered his mouth and began to dry-heave!
Although his companion beside him was considerably more composed, his face was also deathly pale.
Seeing their state, no one pressed them. They waited quietly.
Only after the retching man finally brought his stomach spasms under control did he speak in a nearly hoarse voice:
"Just as we were deciding whether to go up and rescue them or leave, something suddenly rolled down the mountain and nearly hit us..."
"Only when it finally came to a stop in the clearing did we see what had rolled down the mountain..."
"They were... the bodies of those three!"
At those words, everyone in the room stopped breathing.
There was utter silence.
The retching man's eyes looked somewhat vacant as he muttered to himself:
"Exactly like the body outside the guesthouse this morning... exactly the same..."
"Their heads had been torn off while they were alive... It was a ghost... It had to be a ghost!"
"There's a ghost... in the Temple on that mountain!"
Seeing him grow increasingly unhinged, his companion slapped his face hard and brought a bottle of cold water to his lips. Only after a few mouthfuls of cold water did the man's emotions settle again. He stared at the table before him without saying another word.
After a long while, Tang Jiao sighed.
"You've all seen the situation we're in."
"I don't know what's going on with this Blood Gate. It's clearly supposed to be the second one, but the difficulty is absurdly high..."
"To be honest, I'm a veteran who's cleared five Blood Gates. I took a paid job to guide newcomers this time, but this Blood Gate is far too difficult. It's even on par with the fifth Blood Gate I cleared!"
"If we don't work together, we could all be wiped out this time!"
At the words "wiped out," everyone's expression changed abruptly except for Ning Qiushui, Bai Xiaoxiao, and Liu Chengfeng!
PS: This time of night is perfect for reading horror novels.
See how much I love you?
Good night!
Before you continue