WTNL Chapter 207

Changsheng Building
Chapter 207: The Prophet is never wrong,

The next moment, the flame in the oil lamp began to flicker violently!

The light swayed unsteadily.

Everything happened too fast, without any warning.

In that instant, the mind went blank, and the only thing that acted was the muscle memory honed through countless practices, deeply ingrained in the bones.

Zhang Yu clenched his teeth and moved forward instead of retreating!

His skin started to harden from his forearm, taking on a rock-like texture under the flickering oil lamp as he reached toward his original target!

Crack.

The corpse’s finger snapped—it was grabbed!

But the next moment, a cold, stiff hand tightly grasped Zhang Yu’s wrist!

The touch was extremely eerie, making half of his body feel cold instantly.

In that moment of clarity, Zhang Yu suddenly looked up.

His pupils constricted, reflecting the terrifying, unchanged smile on the corpse’s face.

“Zhang Yu, to the right!” An Xin shouted through gritted teeth.

The next second, a blazing arrow appeared in the air, drawn by his arm. The next moment, with a “whoosh” sound, the arrow shot through the air with tremendous force, straight towards the corpse!

The side of the corpse’s face, pale and skeletal, was illuminated by the fire, making the eerie, stiff smile even more distinct.

Zhang Yu leaped to the left!

The flaming arrow grazed his side and embedded deeply into the corpse’s shoulder.

In that instant, the scorching flames burst forth, burning one side of the corpse’s arm to ashes.

Freed from the restraint, Zhang Yu quickly retreated, creating distance between himself and the corpse.

But before they could catch their breath.

“Click, click.”

The sound of bones grinding echoed again, sounding particularly harsh in the narrow, enclosed space.

Under their horrified gazes, the corpse that had been leaning against the wall slowly stood up, making a wet, sticky “squelch” sound that made their skin crawl.

The arm that had been completely burned away by the flaming arrow… actually grew back from the body once more!

The air was filled with a nauseating stench of rot.

“Click, click.”

The corpse raised its head again.

That pale face still bore the same eerie smile as before.

“Not good!” An Xin supported the staggering Zhang Yu, his gaze fixed on the corpse, gritting his teeth, and said, “This thing ignores attacks!”

The corpse started walking, its movements stiff and jerky, but without any hesitation. Its hollow eyes were staring at them as it slowly and irresistibly approached.

Qi Qian’s expression grew grave, and he made a decisive call: “Retreat! Leave this place for now!”

They had no way to counter it, not even knowing what this thing was, the damage it could cause, or why it could ignore An Xin’s abilities.

In such a situation, engaging in a direct fight was extremely unwise.

So, under the captain’s orders, they quickly retreated.

Behind them, the warehouse door slowly closed, and Tong Yao swiftly grabbed a nearby clothes rod, inserting it into the door lock.

For such an entity, a physical door might not pose much of an obstacle, but at least it could delay its actions and buy them some preparation time.

Even if forced to fight…

Compared to the narrow, enclosed space earlier, the more open area here would give them a better advantage.

They retreated to the center of the shop, eyes fixed on the closed warehouse door, bodies and minds taut, waiting for the moment when the corpse would break through.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The sound of pounding on the door continued, each hit spaced identically, sounding particularly stiff and mechanical.

At the back of the group, Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes slightly.

Wait, this pattern of movement…

And that corpse should have been sitting there from the start, but no matter how much noise they made outside, it hadn’t been activated until they entered.

Wen Jianyan subtly moved his position, blocking the oil lamp with his body.

The next moment, most of the light on the door panel was obscured.

“Bang, bang, bang…”

The pounding sound seemed to weaken, and the intervals grew longer.

It seemed to be the case.

Wen Jianyan quickly grabbed a few clothes from a nearby rack and tossed them to his companions: “Quick, stuff the door cracks!”

Qi Qian was taken aback, turning his head:

“What?”

“The prophecy said so!” Wen Jianyan pointed innocently at Su Cheng behind him.

Su Cheng: “…”

???

What did I say?

Although unclear about the reason, he maintained a composed face under everyone’s gaze, nodding firmly:

“Yes.”

Qi Qian quickly understood: “Do as he says, quickly!”

They pulled down the clothes hanging on the racks, stuffing them into every light-permeable crack.

The pounding slowed down, and soon, the warehouse returned to dead silence.

“…”

Everyone watched the cracked door with lingering fear, along with the bent clothes rod, and slowly exhaled.

It seemed… they managed to hold it off this time.

Qi Qian glanced at the clothes blocking the door cracks, then turned to the oil lamp, his expression heavy: “It seems this light not only attracts that thing outside but also awakens the dormant corpses.”

More importantly, that was definitely not just a “corpse.”

He knew An Xin’s ability well; a regular zombie would have been incinerated with one shot, but this corpse only lost an arm and quickly regenerated…

It was truly terrifying.

Qi Qian looked at Tong Yao:

“When we entered the storage room, didn’t you sense anything?”

“No.”

As a medium, Tong Yao’s face darkened, and she shook her head slowly:

“By the time I sensed something wrong, it was already too late.”

Qi Qian’s expression grew grim.

This had complicated things. It meant that before being activated, this “thing” was no different from an ordinary corpse, making it undetectable even to a medium sensitive to paranormal forces.

However, the mission wasn’t entirely fruitless.

Qi Qian turned to Zhang Yu.

Under the flickering oil lamp, Zhang Yu’s face appeared unnaturally pale—clearly a side effect of using his ability twice in a row.

“Did you get the item from the corpse?”

Zhang Yu nodded.

He reached out and handed a crumpled, old piece of paper to Qi Qian.

Qi Qian carefully unfolded the paper handed to him.

It was…

A wrinkled, blackened paper note, damp with the corpse’s rot.

“A joss paper?” Qi Qian frowned, scrutinizing the sinister pattern under the lamplight, looking puzzled.

At that moment, Zhang Yu suddenly collapsed to one side, his legs giving out.

An Xin quickly reached out to support him.

“Are you okay?”

Zhang Yu frowned deeply and shook his head.

An Xin, who was supporting Zhang Yu, suddenly froze and said, “Your body is so cold…”

Even through the thin clothing, he could feel that Zhang Yu’s body had almost no warmth of a living person, as cold as a stone.

In the next second, An Xin seemed to remember something. His expression tightened, and he grabbed Zhang Yu’s arm, yanking his sleeve up!

There, on Zhang Yu’s arm, was a dark greenish-black mark. The color was deep and seemed to be spreading outward, with the surrounding skin showing an extremely unhealthy, corpse-like pallor.

“This is…”

An Xin gasped.

“I was just grabbed for a moment,” Zhang Yu said, pressing his lips together and pulling his sleeve down. “I had activated my ability at the time.”

In the narrow shop, the atmosphere dropped to a freezing point.

It was truly shocking.

No one had expected that the corpse could leave such a terrifying and unknown mark on someone with a defensive ability and on Zhang Yu, who had strong self-protection abilities. If it had been someone without any defensive capabilities, what would have happened?

The thought sent chills down everyone’s spine.

“You were too reckless,” Qi Qian said, frowning.

If Zhang Yu had retreated in time, there might still have been a chance, but he had chosen to take a risk, relying on his unique ability.

“I’m sorry, Captain,” Zhang Yu said, lowering his head in shame, his face looking even paler.

“Captain, I have a healing item,” Tong Yao said.

Qi Qian: “Take it out and try.”

The members of the Dark Fire team gathered around Zhang Yu, trying to find a way to remove the mark.

A girl in a white dress stood to the side, tilting her head slightly, observing the scene from a distance.

The flickering light of the oil lamp illuminated her amber eyes. Her pale lips were slightly pursed, giving her innocent face an air of unexpected profundity.

She was piecing together the clues in her mind.

First, darkness meant certain death.

The light from the oil lamp could dispel the deadly darkness but also awaken ghosts, attracting their attention.

The oil in the lamp was limited.

So far, the way to replenish the oil was still unknown.

This was like a Damocles sword hanging over their heads, swaying perilously, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.

The “lamp oil” was likely closely linked to the core mechanism of the entire instance.

At the same time, Wen Jianyan had noticed something else.

Earlier, before they blocked the door with clothes, shortly after the bell rang, a shrill scream had sounded—meaning the team had been wiped out quickly after the ghost entered the shop. However, the situation inside the storage room was different.

There were two possibilities.

One, the entities inside and outside the room were different types of ghosts.

Two, some conditions had changed.

Wen Jianyan looked up, his gaze briefly resting on the others before shifting away.

The item held by the corpse had given him a subtle clue.

While everyone else was focused elsewhere, the girl in white quietly began to walk around the edges of the shop, her eyes roaming as if searching for something.

The shop was not very large, and it appeared particularly disordered after the two previous attacks. Many clothes racks were now empty, with numerous hangers swaying loosely.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Huh? What’s the anchor looking for?]

[I don’t know; I can’t understand it… Does anyone who has watched this instance know what’s going on?]

Because group battle insatces are difficult and require many participants, they don’t appear often in the broadcasting hall. Most viewers have to rely on luck to see them. Compared to other insatces, those who have seen “Changsheng Building” are relatively few.

After a minute or two, a few experienced viewers finally commented:

[I’ve seen this instance before. I have to say, it feels like… the anchor is actually close to figuring out the solution???]

[No way! It’s only been a short while. They haven’t even gone through many attack rounds yet. He doesn’t have a prophecy ability; there’s no way he could discover it this quickly.]

Suddenly, Wen Jianyan stopped.

He raised his head, examining a mannequin not far away.

Under the dim light, the mannequin stood stiffly in place, its facial features blank with only shallow and deep indentations. The flickering shadows on its face gave it an inexplicably eerie feeling.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[Why is the anchor paying attention to that mannequin? Is there something unusual about it?]

[I don’t think so? [I can’t see anything different!]

[Wait, let me check the previous live broadcast records. Hold on!]

A few seconds later:

[Oh my God, I checked it out. The mannequin moved!! It definitely moved!! Before the anchor went into the storage room, its face was facing a different direction!]

[Who would notice something like that?]

[No way, does the anchor actually remember that?]

Wen Jianyan lowered his hand and lifted it again, carefully lifting the hem of the mannequin’s clothes, lightly pinching and rubbing it.

His heart skipped a beat.

The texture…

It was clearly not fabric, but…

He raised his head, staring intently at the seemingly harmless, motionless mannequin. His lips pressed into a tight line, his eyes darkening.

Human skin.

Wen Jianyan quickly withdrew his hand and turned to walk toward Su Cheng.

Hearing approaching footsteps, Su Cheng turned his head.

The girl stepped closer, her skirt swaying, revealing two slender, fair legs. Her figure was delicate and soft, and aside from being slightly too tall, she was the perfect image of a gentle beauty.

But the look in those eyes had nothing to do with gentleness.

The intense incongruity made Su Cheng choke, momentarily darkening his vision.

No matter how many times he saw it, he could never get used to it! This had to be some kind of sick joke!

“Are you ready?”

Wen Jianyan raised his head, a peculiar gleam in his eyes.

His voice had unknowingly returned to its original pitch, a clear and slightly deep male voice resonating near Su Cheng’s ear, with a subtly hoarse, teasing undertone.

“It’s time for your first ‘prophecy’.”

“…”

Su Cheng stared at Wen Jianyan, the familiar expression on the unfamiliar face making his eye twitch. He suddenly had a bad feeling:

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking,” Wen Jianyan smiled, “it’s time for you to make your first ‘prophecy’.”

On the other side, Qi Qian and the others were focused on their injured teammate.

As time passed, their expressions grew increasingly serious.

The mark… cannot be removed.

Regardless of whether they used purification or healing tools, the terrifying bluish-black mark was completely unaffected, at most only slowing the spread of its color but unable to be fully eradicated.

That particularly conspicuous mark was like a needle deeply embedded in the heart, making one’s spine tingle.

No one knew what side effects this mark might bring.

The mere fact that the mark couldn’t be removed by any prop was terrifying enough.

As everyone was at their wits’ end, someone behind them cleared their throat:

“Ahem, ahem!”

Qi Qian and the others turned their heads toward the source of the sound, only to see Su Cheng standing there, calmly staring at them with an eerie expression.

The members of the Dark Fire squad had puzzled expressions on their faces.

“What’s wrong? Do you have something to say?”

Under their scrutiny, Su Cheng felt like he was on pins and needles, but he still maintained a calm demeanor and pointed to the glass door behind them, which was securely blocked by clothing:

“Remove the clothes.”

This left everyone stunned.

“What?” Tong Yao frowned, her voice involuntarily rising, “Remove the clothes??”

An Xin shook his head, also showing a look of incomprehension:

“Didn’t you see what just happened? If we remove the clothes, we’ll be targeted again, and then it’ll be certain death…”

Qi Qian raised a hand, stopping An Xin from saying more.

He looked inquisitively at Su Cheng and asked, “Can I ask why?”

Su Cheng: “…”

To be honest, I don’t know either.

Wen Jianyan’s group told me to do this!

Although his heart was also pounding, Su Cheng still maintained a blank expression and said, “Isn’t this why you hired me?”

“You made a prophecy?”

Qi Qian realized something, narrowing his eyes.

Earlier, after sending away the other teammate with the prophecy ability, he had tried to get some information about the prophecy talent from him to formulate an action plan and avoid danger.

However, no matter how he asked, the other person remained tight-lipped.

But based on the information from before, Qi Qian guessed that this prophet’s ability should be activatable and likely had usage limits, but…

Now he wasn’t sure.

He knew that the person had just made a prophecy, telling them to block the door gap tightly, and it proved to be entirely correct. After blocking the gap, the corpses stopped trying to break in.

And now, the person made another prophecy within minutes?!

Su Cheng: “Yes.”

Having received a definite answer, Qi Qian watched Su Cheng with a mix of surprise and suspicion.

Could it be that this guy’s talent activation had no limit?

This prophecy instruction was indeed very frightening.

Removing the clothes blocking the glass door would mean the things outside could see them again… this act was tantamount to suicide.

So, before deciding what to do next, Qi Qian had to get a clear reason.

He slowly asked, “Can I ask why you’re doing this?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t know either.”

This time, Su Cheng didn’t lie.

Wen Jianyan only told him what to say, not the reason… he truly didn’t know!

“My talent is like this.”

Su Cheng sadly realized that his guilty conscience when lying was decreasing under Wen Jianyan’s influence.

Such a decline.

Qi Qian turned his head, his gaze falling on the clothes, his expression troubled.

“No, it’s too risky,” Tong Yao said gravely, “We all heard the screams outside. If those things are attracted by the light and come in, we could face annihilation.”

An Xin hesitated but also nodded in agreement:

“Maybe we should think of another way?”

Suddenly, a gentle, soft voice sounded from the side, conspicuously out of place in the silence:

“I suggest you listen to his advice.”

Everyone’s attention was drawn to the speaker.

Under the light, the girl in the white dress stood at the counter, her long, dark eyelashes lowered, her slender white fingers intertwined at her abdomen, giving her a quiet and gentle appearance:

“I, a weak person, have a reason to follow the prophet into this instance.”

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[…]

[……..]

[What kind of person are you? What kind of person?? Say it again??]

[Wen Jianyan’s mouth, deceiving ghosts!]

Wen Jianyan: “You might not know, but our prophet’s prophecy talent is different from others. All his prophecies are accompanied by death.”

“Life and death gates follow each other closely. One misstep and it will lead to eternal damnation.”

Although Su Cheng was now the “product” that Wen Jianyan was promoting and publicizing, Wen Jianyan knew very well that any advantage must not exceed what normal people could accept. There had to be some limitations.

Too perfect, and it would arouse suspicion and jealousy.

A tree standing out in the forest will be destroyed by the wind.

So, the best approach was to make the “risk” so high that no one could bear it.

“My talent is special.”

Wen Jianyan calmly said, “I am the only one who can interpret the prophet’s prophecies.”

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[?]

[???]

[?]

[Pah! Didn’t you just make up this prophecy!!!! You lying scoundrel!!!]

Facing the stunned crowd, Wen Jianyan smiled, his amber eyes hiding all emotions, leaving no one able to fathom them.

What is a divine oracle?

God never directly speaks to humans but conveys guidance through messengers.

Whether it’s a prophet’s prophecy or Moses’ Ten Commandments, they are presented through dreams, visions, or hallucinations. God delivers his decrees through others.

God speaks.

Priests interpret.

Does God really guide humans? Or does God even exist?

No.

In other words, the true power of interpretation always lies in the hands of the priest.

Without any deliberate explanation, control, or intricate strategies, their orders and authority would be gilded with the gold of faith, becoming an iron rule no one dares to defy.

Wen Jianyan didn’t even need to win people over with wisdom and ability, nor lay out his plans transparently. He could seize control of the entire team…

And no one would notice the process.

Under the dim light, the girl slightly pursed her lips, giving everyone a harmless smile like a pure lamb:

“The Prophet is never wrong.”

Beneath the words lay absolute arrogance and confidence.

I am never wrong.

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