The Opened Door

The old wooden door in this room looks ordinary, but it is actually filled with eeriness and inexplicable horror.

Cao Yanhua even clearly remembered the enormous price he paid to resolve this incident codenamed "Ghost Gate." If it weren't for the possibility that this thing might be helpful at some point, he would never have placed this wooden door here; it would have been completely sealed away long ago.

"Four minutes left." He stared intently at the time on his watch.

The agreed-upon time is fast approaching.

Four minutes later, Old Qin, who was inside the room, would open this gate to the underworld for the first time.

The purpose of opening the Gate of Hell this time was simple: to bring Li Jun, Su Fan, Liu San, and others out from some unknown place.

Although they have lost contact with each other and are suspected of being resurrected ghosts, they cannot guarantee that the five ghosts that emerged from the ghost painting are themselves. What if they are not?

As long as this possibility exists, the operation cannot be canceled.

"You have a maximum of three chances to open the door. After the first opening, the next opening will be in ten minutes, and the third opening will be half an hour after the second opening. If they haven't returned after three openings, then we can only..." Cao Yanhua was filled with anxiety.

The fact that three attempts to open the gates of hell failed to bring Li Jun and the others back is enough to prove that they are truly dead.

Even if they weren't dead, the rescue operation will be canceled. After all, opening the gates of hell is extremely risky, and endlessly gambling on their chances of being alive is simply not worth it.

Time passed little by little.

Soon, the first designated time for evacuation arrived.

"Old Qin, time's up. Silence for ten seconds, then open the door," Cao Yanhua ordered.

Old Qin, sitting in the room, had a face full of wrinkles and age spots on his skin. His slightly cloudy eyes flickered, revealing a hint of seriousness.

Ghost Gate.

This was one of the few things he wasn't confident he could handle, because no one knew what would emerge from the gates of hell once they opened.

However, it's highly likely that what appears will be a ghost.

After silently counting to ten, Old Qin placed his hand on the door panel.

Rough, cold, and a restless vibration came from the other side of the wooden door; one could even faintly hear the sound of sharp fingernails scraping against the wood.

However, the truth is that there is nothing behind the wooden door; the door simply stands on the ground.

The old wooden door lacked a handle, so Old Qin had to pull the door panel to open it.

It didn't take much effort; it was just a slight movement.

Suddenly.

A powerful force seemed to emanate from behind the wooden door, striking the door panel and causing the door, which was only slightly ajar, to swung open completely with a bang.

A chilly wind suddenly blew out.

Old Qin narrowed his eyes slightly and subconsciously took a step back.

At this moment, the situation after the gates of hell opened was fully revealed to the group.

It was a thick, inky darkness, like an abyss or the entrance to hell. Even if you opened your eyes wide and shone the strongest light, you couldn't see anything hidden in this darkness. Everything could only be felt through the wooden door.

On ordinary days, this old wooden door acts as a stark dividing line, separating the eerie darkness from the real world.

However, this dividing line has now been broken with the opening of the door.

"One minute, at most one minute. It must be closed regardless of whether they come out or not." Cao Yanhua stared at the darkness behind the wooden door while keeping an eye on the time on his hand.

Wang Xiaoming seemed quite interested. He stood at the doorway of the room, peering through the yellowed glass window at the darkness behind the wooden door.

Even for him, this was the first time he had ever witnessed the wooden door being opened.

However, less than a minute had passed.

Within just a dozen seconds of opening the wooden door, the light in the room began to dim rapidly, as if the darkness was encroaching outwards.

"Hiss!"

The next moment, even the lights became unstable, and the electricity seemed to be disturbed, causing them to flicker.

"Is it already affecting the surrounding environment so quickly?" Wang Xiaoming pondered for a moment.

Fortunately, this room was specially constructed; although the light inside dimmed, it did not affect the outside at all, isolating all the eeriness and horror.

Even if an uncontrollable situation does arise, the danger will absolutely not spread.

Old Qin's gaze remained fixed on the darkness behind the wooden door, as if he were waiting for something to happen.

Another ten seconds or so passed.

Ripples seemed to spread across the eerie darkness, and the wooden door frame began to tremble slightly, as if something had touched it, causing some movement.

But this commotion had only just begun.

Suddenly.

Several bluish-black, dead-looking fingers emerged from the darkness, stiffly gripping the door frame and slowly wriggling. A cracking sound came from the hard door frame as the eerie fingers tore through the dark red paint, leaving several grotesque finger marks.

Old Qin's expression shifted slightly, but he remained calm, leaning on his cane as he watched this bizarre scene unfold.

He's been through so much that he wouldn't be too scared even if a real ghost stood face to face with him.

But this was just the beginning.

Less than ten seconds had passed.

More and more fingers emerged from the darkness, densely covering the entire doorway like wriggling worms, each one gripping the wooden frame tightly, making a creaking sound.

The gate to the underworld shook more violently, and countless figures seemed to emerge from the darkness.

The room was eerily dimly lit, as if one were in a Ghost Domain.

"Twenty seconds! Twenty seconds left! Close the wooden door immediately when the time is up. If there is any danger, you can close it earlier!" Outside the room, Cao Yanhua was both shocked and terrified by what he saw. He hurriedly shouted.

Clearly, this time the opening of the Gate of Hell did not bring out Li Jun, Su Fan, Liu San, and the others, but instead attracted the invasion of ghosts.

But a plan is a plan, and it cannot be changed based on subjective judgment. After all, no one knows what will happen next, and perhaps there is a sliver of hope even in danger.

As the Deputy Minister, he absolutely could not allow a top-notch team of Ghost Tamer to be wiped out in this incident, so he had to seize every glimmer of hope.

The number of fingers appearing on the door frame had reached its limit; there was simply no space left to accommodate those eerie fingers landing on it.

But then, in the right corner of the door frame, a circular outline slowly emerged from the darkness.

Upon closer inspection.

It was a rotten, unrecognizable human head. The thick, black hair on the head was terrifying, making it impossible to see the face clearly. All that could be smelled was a stench, like long-rotten flesh, so foul that it made one want to vomit.

Old Qin covered his nose, looking somewhat uncomfortable, but he remained rooted to the spot, motionless.

His composure was unnatural; an ordinary person would have been terrified long ago.

As the rotting human head with thick hair slowly emerged from the doorway, everyone could see that the hair on the head seemed to begin to droop little by little due to gravity.

The outline of a face hidden beneath black hair gradually became clear.

At this moment, Old Qin's expression changed slightly.

As he saw the face hidden beneath the thick hair gradually become clearer, it seemed to look more and more like himself.

This is a terrifying and incomprehensible supernatural phenomenon.

He couldn't predict what would happen after the dead man's hair completely drooped down, revealing the human face.

At the same time, Old Qin also saw a pair of pale soles appear on the other side of the door frame. Judging from the direction and height of these soles, it should be a corpse lying on a stretcher or a hospital bed, being slowly pushed out of the darkness by something.

Or perhaps what pushed those soles of the feet out was the corpse itself.

"Time's up, Old Qin, hurry, we can't wait any longer."

Cao Yanhua turned pale with fright. He had witnessed a terrifying supernatural phenomenon emerging from behind the wooden door. If he hadn't been isolated in the room, who knows what might have happened?

Old Qin then gave a soft hum and tapped the ground with his cane.

Moment.

The rotting head with thick black hair shrank back, and the pale soles of the feet that had just been pushed out from behind the door also retreated. Countless fingers that had been gripping the door frame also loosened, as if pulled into the darkness by a tremendous force.

"Bang!"

With a loud bang, the open wooden door slammed heavily against the doorway and slammed shut.

All the eeriness vanished, as if what had just happened was merely a hallucination in people's minds, somewhat unreal.

However, the scratch marks left by fingers on the door frame are still clearly visible.

Old Qin looked at the scratches on the surface with a somewhat solemn expression.

"Old Qin, take a rest. We'll open the door again in ten minutes." Cao Yanhua, who was outside the room, breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

It turned out to be a false alarm.

But this door is too dangerous; once it's opened, a real ghost will appear—it's terrifying.

"It seems their situation isn't very optimistic," Wang Xiaoming said, looking at the closed wooden door.

"Yes, if Li Jun and the others were alright, they should have appeared the moment the door opened for the first time." Cao Yanhua felt increasingly uneasy. "Could those five ghosts outside really be them?"

"Don't jump to conclusions yet, there are still two more chances, aren't there?"

Cao Yanhua said, "But the second time the door opens, it only lasts for thirty seconds. After that, it's only ten seconds. The combined duration of the two subsequent openings is less than the first one, so the chances are probably slim."

The danger increases with each subsequent opening of the "Gate of Hell".

Because after the gate to the underworld was opened for the first time, the ghosts behind it seemed to be attracted and lingered there, ready to come out at any moment.

Therefore, the opening time can only be shorter each time.

Of course, closing the Ghost Gate for an extended period of time can also reset this time, but Cao Yanhua doesn't know how long it needs to be closed.

No one was specifically assigned to study it.

Meanwhile...

In a strange village.

Li Jun and his companions endured unimaginable dangers and barely survived after paying a price.

They were planning to retreat.

However, before them, two paintings hung on the left and right sides of the gate of a house, like ancient door gods, causing them to stop in their tracks.

These weren't door gods, but two incredibly eerie portraits of the deceased. Though blurry, the hidden dangers on them terrified them.

"What do we do now?" The one who spoke was A Hong, the only woman in the group. Her name was probably a pseudonym, but her emotions were genuine.

The voice conveyed a deep sense of fear.

Everyone looked around uneasily.

Not only on these two gates, but also on the walls of the surrounding houses, portraits are hung everywhere, and even picture frames are scattered on the ground. Some frames are broken, some are incomplete. In short, there is no place here that you can feel safe.

There were signs everywhere that it had been invaded by a ghost.