Changsheng Building
Chapter 263: Red Female Corpse
A winding and muddy path stretched into the distance. On the path, a group of people was frantically running for their lives.
In the midst of a dead silence, the hurried and chaotic sounds of footsteps echoed.
In the pitch-black darkness, where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face, a courtyard could vaguely be seen. Two lanterns, one red and one white, hanging in front of the door, emitted a faint, eerie light, making the scene especially creepy and terrifying.
Wen Jianyan ran forward at his fastest speed while taking a moment to glance behind him.
Not far behind, a female corpse, covered entirely in crimson, stood rigidly. It took slow and stiff steps, getting closer to them, step by step.
That patch of bright red stood out sharply in the darkness, sinister and terrifying to the extreme. Just staring at it from a distance made one’s skin crawl.
Although, due to the distance, it was impossible to see the female corpse’s facial features clearly, what was different from memory was that, this time, Wen Jianyan could distinctly see that the corpse’s face was no longer shrouded in that ink-like darkness…
In other words, when they were on the third floor, this red-dressed female corpse had indeed obtained its own “face.”
If his previous judgment was correct, then this red-dressed female corpse was likely more complete than when it was on the second floor, and also far more terrifying.
“……”
Realizing this, a cold sweat broke out across Wen Jianyan’s back.
He didn’t dare to look any longer and quickly withdrew his gaze.
Orange Candy, who was running behind Wen Jianyan, raised her voice as she ran, asking:
“What exactly is that?”
Although she hadn’t seen this red-dressed female corpse, after Wen Jianyan’s earlier explanation about the “fifth floor,” combined with his intense nervousness just now, Orange Candy could clearly sense that this red-dressed female corpse was fundamentally different from the other corpses they had encountered before.
“It looks like it’s the corpse we encountered on the second floor…”
Qi Qian replied as he ran.
“At that time, it was sealed inside a mirror, but due to an accident, it was released, and then it disappeared,” he gritted his teeth, his expression grave, “I didn’t expect it to appear again at this moment…”
Qi Qian’s face was somewhat pale.
After all, he was the only one who had gotten close to the female corpse, and because of that, he had nearly paid with his life. The psychological shadow from such an experience wasn’t something that could be easily erased.
He reminded them, “Be careful, as long as you make eye contact with the female corpse, you will die!”
Everyone was running frantically, but, perhaps it was just an illusion, the path beneath their feet seemed to have become more muddy and soft. Every step they took made a squelching sound in the sludge.
The cold air was thick with a strong stench of blood.
From the brown-black earth, blood began to seep out, gradually pooling into puddles.
Someone instinctively looked down—
“Thud!”
That person suddenly fell face-first to the ground.
“Hey!” Zhang Yu, who was nearby, was startled and hurriedly reached out to grab him, but the temperature he felt was cold and stiff, like holding a corpse.
“!”
He gasped, instinctively letting go.
The person fell stiffly back to the ground.
Zhang Yu’s face turned ashen: “…He’s dead.”
Seeing one of her team members die, Orange Candy’s face darkened considerably:
“What the hell is going on?”
Although in nightmares, the death of teammates was routine, having a seasoned streamer die without even a direct confrontation was rare, even in such a high-level instance.
Wei Cheng, who was positioned slightly toward the back, was startled for a moment, as if something had suddenly occurred to him.
His pupils shrank, and he cried out in surprise:
“Wait a minute, when we were on the third floor, the curse in the last painting seemed to feature a woman dressed in red…”
In the expanding puddle of blood, the reflection of a woman’s bright red embroidered shoes and skirt hem appeared.
Wei Cheng still clearly remembered how, when Wu Ya was nearly attacked, his innate talent had activated passively, giving him an overwhelming sense of dread—a chill that enveloped his entire body, terror to the extreme.
Wen Jianyan, standing nearby, looked grim and said:
“The way it kills has increased.”
Not only eye contact, but even the curse from the third-floor painting—death upon touching the reflection—had now been inherited by this red-dressed female corpse.
“Don’t look down!” Wei Cheng’s face turned pale as he gritted his teeth, “Watch out for the shadows, avoid all the blood puddles!”
“This thing is definitely not just an ordinary monster; it might even be the core of this entire instance.”
Wen Jianyan spoke slowly.
The conclusion he reached was not baseless.
In the “Changsheng Building”, the colors of certain items had specific meanings.
Gray-white lamp oil could protect the streamers from being discovered by the ‘customers,’ while red lamp oil could attract the ‘customers’ and even provoke them to attack. Whether it was the red or white lamp oil, or the gray-white funeral money that symbolized low-level danger, the red funeral money indicated the difficulty ahead would double.
And then there was the red furniture connecting different worlds.
Everything pointed to the same information—
Red symbolizes danger.
And in this instance, only this red-dressed female corpse, from head to toe, was entirely bright red, like blood.
It was also the only corpse that had been sealed inside a mirror. Although it had been on the second floor, the difficulty of unlocking the mirror was almost equivalent to that of the highest fourth floor.
More importantly, in the third-floor shop where the red-dressed female corpse appeared, the special painting it entered depicted a path very similar to the one they were currently on. That path led directly to the core of the instance’s fifth floor!
Although that path could only be entered and not exited, leading Wu Zhu to appear and force Wen Jianyan to find a second way into the fifth floor, all these clues showed just how special that third painting was.
“So, what do we do now?” An Xin asked.
Tong Yao replied, “I’m afraid all we can do is keep running.”
She hadn’t fully recovered from the earlier ordeal and still looked a bit pale.
She stared at the courtyard at the end of the road, where a light was glowing, and said quietly, “Maybe if we can get inside before that corpse catches up, there’s a slim chance we’ll survive.”
Suddenly, Su Cheng, who had been silent, spoke up. He narrowed his eyes slightly, deep in thought, and said, “Don’t you all feel something strange? We’ve been running for so long, but the distance between us and that courtyard hasn’t gotten any shorter.”
Hearing this, everyone froze.
It did seem that way…
They had been running full speed for nearly three minutes, yet the courtyard hadn’t grown any larger, still standing quietly at the end of the road, like an unreachable mirage.
Wen Jianyan quickly glanced behind him.
The female corpse was still following them.
Step by step.
Its pace was slow and stiff, each step covering a very short distance. By all logic, it should have been impossible for it to catch up to a group of humans sprinting at full speed.
But strangely, the red-dressed female corpse had become even clearer than before.
It was obvious that the distance between them was steadily decreasing.
Wen Jianyan could now clearly see the corpse’s pale, bluish hands hanging by its sides, and the same glaringly red nails on its fingers.
“It’s about to catch up to us.”
Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze and said quietly.
As he spoke, he felt another layer of cold sweat break out on his back. “It seems… as long as it’s around, we’ll never be able to reach the fifth floor.”
On this road, the rules of the human world no longer applied.
With a corpse relentlessly pursuing them and more and more blood seeping from the muddy ground, forming pools, each pool reflected the faint shadow of a red-dressed female corpse.
Cold, terrifying, and chilling.
Even worse, their only refuge was useless. As long as this red-dressed female corpse existed, they would never be able to enter the fifth floor.
How terrifying.
How hopeless!
Like an invisible noose tightening around their necks, they couldn’t see any possibility of survival.
“…Damn it.”
Wen Jianyan cursed, took a deep breath, steeled his resolve, and suddenly stopped in his tracks, “Stop running, it’s useless.”
The others stopped as well.
Orange Candy, panting slightly, turned to Wu Ya and curtly ordered, “Activate your talent.”
Wu Ya nodded, and in the next moment, a thin membrane, like rubber, appeared, covering the ground beneath their feet.
This created a small, blood-free safe zone.
But this didn’t mean the danger had disappeared.
It only meant they wouldn’t die from the female corpse touching their reflections in the blood puddles.
And… it’s only temporary.
Wu Ya’s face paled slightly as he strained to maintain his talent, but some surrounding areas had already begun to be corroded by blood, and he probably wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
On the winding path in the darkness, the group stood still in the center of the road, breathing heavily from the recent strenuous activity. Behind them, a female corpse in red clothing was slowly approaching.
“Tap, tap, tap.”
The footsteps echoed behind them, becoming clearer and closer.
Everyone stood frozen in place, afraid to turn around.
Qi Qian’s warning still echoed in their ears — “Death upon making eye contact.”
Physiological fear urged them to look back to check the distance between them and the corpse, but reason screamed “Don’t look back,” leaving everyone with stiff expressions and cold sweat on their foreheads.
“What, what do we do?”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath: “Don’t panic. I have a backup plan.”
He looked at Orange Candy and extended his hand: “The cyan-black talisman is still with you, right?”
“Of course,” Orange Candy squinted at Wen Jianyan, suddenly realizing something, “Do you mean…”
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath: “Yes.”
His earlier prevention of Orange Candy from using the cyan-black talisman was not just because “the talisman might be seen through,” nor was it due to some useless kindness… These were merely his apparent excuses.
The rules of the “Changnsheng Building” were too meticulous; almost no rule was a useless detail. Wen Jianyan did not believe that the red-clothed female corpse he had accidentally released from the mirror on the second floor would really let them off so easily and never appear again.
Wen Jianyan had always had a premonition…
As long as he attempted to enter the fifth floor of the Changnsheng Building, there was a high chance of encountering this female corpse again.
If things really developed to that point, he had to ensure he had some backup methods. Therefore, since leaving the third floor, Wen Jianyan’s approach had become very conservative. Whether it was choosing the lower-difficult west side room or any other choice… he had been minimizing risks and avoiding dangers.
And now, it was evident that his concerns were justified.
Orange Candy did not say much and handed the talisman to Wen Jianyan.
The cyan-black talisman lay in his palm, with its eerie red patterns appearing very striking, emitting an ominous aura.
“Is it effective?” Qi Qian asked with a worried expression, “How confident are you?”
“Eighty percent,” Wen Jianyan said.
Of course, in reality, it was only fifty percent.
But that was enough.
“Don’t you remember? In theory, we are still on the fourth floor,” Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the talisman, “Since the second floor, this red-clothed female corpse has become part of the ‘customers.’ Since we are still on the fourth floor, it should still be bound by the rules of the fourth floor.”
Qi Qian was stunned: “So… it is still recognized as a ‘customer’ by the instance, and this talisman is precisely for customers, right?”
Wen Jianyan nodded: “Exactly.”
“But how can you approach it?” Qi Qian asked.
The red-clothed female corpse was the most terrifying thing they had encountered throughout the instance, and there was almost no way to deal with it… Even the gray-white lamp oil that would stop other corpses from attacking had no effect on it, making it incredibly terrifying and despairing.
Wen Jianyan needed to get close enough to stick the talisman on it. Even if he could avoid triggering the “death upon eye contact” killing method by closing his eyes, he would eventually die from having his shadow touched by the corpse in the blood.
“I’ve thought of that too,” Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and pulled something out of his pocket, “This item might be useful.”
Everyone looked at what he held in his hand, all slightly stunned.
It was a bright red cloth with a large “喜” character embroidered on it, clearly a red bridal veil.
Wen Jianyan’s guess was based on reason.
Firstly, if he was correct, this red veil should originally belong to the red-clothed female corpse… and he had obtained it from the corpse in the third painting.
More importantly, after he was abducted into that paper sedan chair, he had been dressed in exactly the same red bridal attire as the red-clothed female corpse, and the veil on his head was this very cloth.
At that time, the sedan chair was carried by paper people, following a path similar to this one, heading towards the “fifth floor.”
Wen Jianyan clearly remembered that there was no light inside or outside the sedan chair, but the bridal veil on his head managed to block the surrounding darkness, keeping him in the “living” state.
Combining this with the clothes he was wearing at that time…
Putting together the scattered clues, Wen Jianyan had some vague speculations.
Firstly, the courtyard representing the fifth floor was actually the residence of the red-clothed female corpse. Since leaving the mirror on the second floor, everything this corpse had done… was aimed at coming here.
Clearly, the fifth floor was also awaiting its return.
Perhaps this is why Wu Zhu appeared in the paper sedan chair to stop Wen Jianyan from being carried in because once he entered the fifth floor in that form, he would replace the red-clothed female corpse and remain in the fifth floor forever—
Able to enter but not exit.
And these conclusions led to the final speculation—
The red veil might temporarily obscure the rules and grant him a status similar to an NPC.
So even without light inside the sedan chair, he wouldn’t die.
Because he was considered a corpse.
Only waiting to be carried into the fifth floor to completely become part of this instance.
“Alright, since you say so, let’s give it a try.”
Qi Qian nodded and said.
After all, he had no other way to break the situation.
“Wu Ya,” Orange Candy said, “Use your talent to make sure she is sent as far away as possible.”
Wen Jianyan understood that she was trying to buy him more margin for error.
He nodded, not rejecting her good intentions:
“Thank you.”
He took a deep breath and covered his head with the blood-scented bridal veil.
The next moment, the red-clothed female corpse’s footsteps stopped.
It stood still, like a wound cut from the darkness.
The surroundings were silent, eerily quiet.
Wen Jianyan took a step forward, slowly moving along the path created by Wu Ya’s talent.
Everyone held their breath, waiting anxiously.
Wu Ya’s face quickly turned pale, cold sweat dripping from his forehead, as his strength and time rapidly drained away.
Suddenly, his knees buckled, and he fell to the ground.
“Sorry, Captain, this is my limit.” Wu Ya said with a wary smile.
Maintaining the safety of the area under everyone’s feet while creating a path leading to the red-clothed female corpse was too difficult. Getting the path this far was already his limit.
Under the red veil, Wen Jianyan saw that the path under his feet had reached its end.
Taking one more step would lead him into the blood pool.
In the depths of the blood pool, a pair of crimson-embroidered shoes was reflected. Further up was the red-clothed female corpse’s rigid and terrifying torso.
“…”
It seemed that, in the end, he had to take a gamble.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and stepped forward.
The soft, muddy ground beneath his feet made a sticky sound, and his shadow immediately appeared in the blood pool.
The red-clothed female corpse in the shadow did not move.
Wen Jianyan sighed in relief.
His guess was correct.
The red veil on his head did indeed have a protective function… but perhaps only effective on this winding path.
Walking another two or three meters, he would be close to the red-clothed female corpse.
Though there was still some distance, Wen Jianyan could already sense the cold, eerie aura from the corpse, different from other entities, making his hair stand on end.
Wen Jianyan steadied himself, looked down at the cyan-black talisman in his hand.
Then, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a second crumpled talisman, also cyan-black, but with the red patterns appearing faded and dull.
He placed the used talisman on the back of the black talisman in his hand.
No glue was needed; they adhered together firmly—just like the strand of hair that was stuck to the back of the previous talisman.
The black talisman was directional.
Once an item belonging to others was attached to its back, it could direct the “customers” bound by its rules towards the item’s owner.
Clearly, this used talisman could also serve as a marker.
The red-clothed female corpse was so terrifying that wherever it went, it would surely bring endless disaster and death.
If it led to an innocent team, he would always feel guilty.
Wen Jianyan slightly narrowed his eyes, his soft eyelashes hiding his deep amber eyes, which seemed bottomless. A faint, indifferent curve appeared at the corners of his lips.
…Mu Sen, are you right?!
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Author’s Note:
Wen Jianyan: You never expected that I have a strong desire for revenge-
