Changsheng Building
Chapter 260: The Lst Customer
During this period, Zhang Yu, Qi Qian, and the others briefly exchanged their experiences.
“So, the last customer had a problem, right?” Qi Qian squinted his eyes and asked.
“Yes,” Zhang Yu nodded. “I saw it with my own eyes. After the orange candy removed the dark green talisman from the customer, it began to gradually disappear until I found an opportunity to stick on a yellow talisman, and then it reappeared.”
Qi Qian nodded with a serious expression. “I see.”
Although he hadn’t experienced it firsthand, based on his teammates’ account of what had just happened, he could roughly guess some of the mechanics of the instance.
Most likely, the second person who entered the shop wasn’t a “customer” they normally served but rather something from another shop. The function of the dark green talisman was to divert its hatred, making it enter another shop. The yellow talisman’s function should be the opposite.
Qi Qian asked, “What happened after you put the yellow talisman on the customer?”
Zhang Yu shook his head with a bitter smile. “After I put the yellow talisman on, the customer walked towards the incense burner, but I lost my ability to move, so I didn’t follow and don’t know what happened after that.”
Wait, the turnover—
Qi Qian seemed to suddenly think of something. He abruptly raised his head and looked towards the incense burner.
The incense in the incense burner had already been extinguished, with only half of it left. By the dim light of the oil lamp, he could see that the red tabletop beside it was empty, without any ghost money left behind.
His expression suddenly turned grim, his eyes flickering with uncertainty.
In this attack, the strength of Zhang Yu and the main force, Orange Candy, was diminished. Wen Wen and another teammate under Orange Candy also lost some vitality, and half of the incense was burned away. Does this mean… even after paying such a huge price, they still didn’t manage to seize the turnover for themselves?
If that were the case, they would have suffered a huge loss.
At this moment, a weak but determined voice came from behind:
“Don’t worry, we got the turnover.”
Qi Qian turned his head towards the direction of the voice.
Wen Jianyan, leaning on Su Cheng’s hand, stood up and said, “If I’m not mistaken, this time the ghost money should be in the dark room.”
Everyone was stunned.
Following Wen Jianyan’s hint, An Xin entered the dark room with a candle. Sure enough, on a wooden table with a spirit tablet and portraits of the deceased, a piece of red ghost money was neatly placed.
“Wen Wen was right!” An Xin returned to the counter, his excitement evident.
He handed the ghost money to Qi Qian, “The turnover is indeed there!”
Seeing this piece of red ghost money, everyone let out a long sigh of relief and relaxed.
Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on the ghost money for a moment before looking away.
Just as expected.
Previously, the ghost money was placed on the table because, under the influence of the offerings, the “customer” entered the tomb through the red wooden furniture. Thus, their ghost money was left near the incense burner. However, the previous “customer” didn’t finish eating the offerings but instead took the path led by the yellow talisman and was lured in by the red candle. Therefore, its ghost money wasn’t left near the incense burner but near the spirit tablet.
This also indicates that this series of “customer” purchases was likely a product of the rules of the “Changsheng Building” instance, rather than their voluntary choice.
After confirming that the turnover hadn’t disappeared, the atmosphere relaxed a bit.
However, this moment of ease didn’t last long.
“Although we did get this piece of ghost money, our losses are still very real,” Qi Qian frowned, his expression serious. “Most importantly, we only have half a stick of incense left.”
After hearing Qi Qian’s words, everyone subconsciously looked towards the incense burner.
Inside the incense burner, the bare half-stick of incense seemed particularly jarring.
If it weren’t for this “customer” causing trouble, their resources would have been just enough to serve two customers: one stick of incense and one yellow talisman. However, since the second customer was driven here by streamers from another shop, they were forced to use half a stick of incense and a yellow talisman.
And if they want to leave the fourth floor, they must serve another customer.
At this moment, Orange Candy spoke up: “A talisman? I still have one.”
Everyone was stunned and turned to look at Orange Candy. They saw her pull out a dark green talisman from her pocket like a magician. The eerie crimson patterns on it were particularly eye-catching.
That’s right!
The yellow talisman was obtained by Qi Qian’s team when they advanced from the second floor to the third floor, so Orange Candy’s team should also have a talisman!
“As long as we stick it on the customer, they will enter another streamer’s shop, and then we just have to wait?” Orange Candy said.
This was indeed an excellent plan. They could reap the benefits without doing anything. However, surprisingly, Wen Jianyan shook his head and opposed it: “I wouldn’t recommend doing that.”
“Why?” Orange Candy tilted her head and looked at Wen Jianyan, smiling playfully, “Could it be? Are you a morally righteous person?”
“No.”
Wen Jianyan’s face still had that overly calm and gentle expression, as if he wasn’t at all provoked by Orange Candy’s tone.
He shook his head and said, “It’s no longer the beginning of the fourth floor. Other teams have probably more or less encountered the ‘customer’ by now, and they might have already started figuring out how the talismans work. Even if we send the customer with the dark green talisman into another shop, there’s a good chance it will be discovered.”
“No matter if the ‘customer’ is dealt with in another shop or sent back to ours, we’ll still have to face the ‘customer’ directly with our original resources after losing a very important talisman. So, using the talisman now would be a loss no matter how you look at it.”
Wen Jianyan explained rationally.
Of course, that was the surface reason.
For Wen Jianyan, there was another reason that couldn’t be revealed yet and made him even more uneasy.
This made Wen Jianyan act extremely cautiously, unwilling to waste any resources that could be saved.
“So, I wouldn’t recommend pinning the hope of the last piece of ghost money on the mistakes of other teams—especially when there are other ways,” he added.
“Oh?” Qi Qian’s interest was piqued. “Other ways?”
“Rest assured, in this instance, as long as you figure out the rules, you can find countless ways to solve the problem…” Wen Jianyan smiled, and under the dim yellow light of the oil lamp, his pale face took on a strangely eerie quality that didn’t match his usual demeanor: “Even with insufficient resources.”
Inside Changsheng Building, darkness enveloped the fourth floor.
The four shops were located in the east, south, west, and north, each with two lanterns hanging on either side of the doors, like two eyes flickering in the dark.
Through the transparent glass doors, a bit of dim yellow light was visible.
Other than that, there was no other light.
On the fourth floor, it seemed there were countless rigid and terrifying figures wandering in the endless darkness, walking in different directions guided by the lights.
“Ring, ring, ring!”
The door of the shop on the west side was pushed open from the outside.
A pitch-black figure slowly walked in from outside, and the cold, rotting air wrapped in from outside, causing the indoor temperature to plummet rapidly.
As expected, this should be the last customer.
Zhang Yu, Orange Candy, Su Cheng, and a few other streamers whose vitality had been eroded stayed behind the counter, waiting in the safety zone covered by the oil lamp’s light.
Listening to the stiff footsteps getting closer, an anxious expression involuntarily appeared on Su Cheng’s face.
“Don’t worry, Wen Wen’s plan is very feasible. I think it should work,” Zhang Yu whispered in reassurance.
“I know,” Su Cheng’s face showed even more worry. “But in her current condition, she shouldn’t be involved in this action…”
“No choice. When the previous customer arrived, Wen Wen had already dripped her blood into the incense burner,” Zhang Yu sighed. “So, even though she’s not in good shape now, she has to participate in this action.”
“But don’t worry. With the captain and the others around, nothing will happen.”
Zhang Yu took a deep breath and looked into the darkness.
“If everything goes well, this should be the last customer we serve on this floor.”
As they spoke in low voices, the customer’s footsteps were getting closer.
The sound of those footsteps echoed in the dark, silent shop. No matter how many times one hears it, it always makes one tense up.
Zhang Yu and Su Cheng fell silent, waiting nervously for the moment to arrive.
The footsteps continued to approach.
It moved nonstop past the red tables and chairs, heading toward the counter, then brushed past it without hesitation, heading straight further in.
In the direction the footsteps were heading was the pitch-black open door to the dark room.
Deep inside the dark room were Qi Qian, Wen Jianyan, Wei Cheng, and An Xin.
In Qi Qian’s hand was a red candle, its wick quietly burning, emitting an ominous red glow that attracted the terrifying presence around.
They carefully kept a bit of distance from the table with the spirit tablet and portrait.
There were no offerings on the table, only a lonely incense burner.
In the incense burner, half a stick of incense was quietly burning, emitting a rotten, sweet, bloody smell as green smoke rose and lingered in the semi-enclosed room.
Darkness descended; the footsteps were getting closer.
After the last two attacks, Wen Jianyan was not in good shape, so, as the “offering” this time, he was protected behind the others, only needing to wait for everything to end.
He listened to the approaching footsteps, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.
According to the previous speculation, the “incense” was a guide and a medium, responsible for connecting the blood-soaked ashes in the incense burner to the life force of the offering, serving it to the “customer.”
So, during the offering in the stairwell, what was actually consumed was incense ash already saturated with human life force.
In a sense, incense is very similar to yellow talismans.
The difference is that the path created by incense is safer but requires stricter conditions.
In a complete ritual, the “customer” consumes the “offering” and enters the tomb mound by burning incense.
But yellow talismans open a path indiscriminately; although “customers” can enter, other corpses already lured into the tomb can also return through this path.
“Tap, tap, tap.”
The footsteps were getting closer.
The sound echoed in the semi-enclosed room, becoming even more rigid and terrifying.
But this time…
They had no yellow talismans, so they couldn’t create a path. They had incense, but not enough to let the customer eat all the offerings and open a complete path. However, they could find a middle ground.
The footsteps got even closer.
Wen Jianyan opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the sound.
Due to the red candle’s effect, Wei Cheng, An Xin, and Qi Qian were already under attack. However, the three of them could attack and defend, so dealing with it wasn’t too difficult.
Meanwhile, the “customer” continued to move toward the incense burner.
Darkness had completely covered their vision, making it almost pitch-black. Wen Jianyan couldn’t see what was happening ahead; he could only discern by listening.
The footsteps stopped.
They stopped in front of the spirit tablet with the incense burner.
Back when the yellow talisman took effect, the winding, muddy path led toward the dark room.
That is to say…
The spirit tablet and portrait in the dark room and the grave filled with spirit tablets and portraits at the end of the path were actually overlapping coordinates between two worlds.
Conducting the ritual in the dark room was equivalent to shortening the physical distance between the customer and the grave. Next, they just needed to wait for the membrane between the two worlds to weaken and break.
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, a muffled grunt escaped Wen Jianyan’s throat.
He felt the life force in his body rapidly draining.
That’s it.
The “customer” was eating!
“Now!!” Wen Jianyan shouted sternly.
“Got it!”
As if they had practiced a million times, Qi Qian immediately disengaged. He raised the burning red candle in his hand, then swung his arm and threw it forcefully toward the area in front of the customer, deeper into the shrine!
The red speck of light spun in the air, moving away—it had reached where it should have hit something, but strangely, it didn’t stop and continued falling into the darkness without delay.
It was as if…
There was some even more distant, terrifying space hidden in that darkness.
The scarlet glow emitted an ominous aura, illuminating the depths of that darkness.
With one experience already, Wei Cheng did not hesitate this time but quickly lit a second white candle.
An Xin bent down and lifted the weakened Wen Jianyan around the waist.
Since he was mentally prepared for her weight this time, he only staggered a bit before quickly standing firm.
The three cooperated seamlessly, wasting not a single second.
“Now—run!!”
