Changsheng Building
Chapter 266: Paper Figures
The ultimate mainline task?
All four of them froze. They exchanged glances and saw the shock and confusion in each other’s eyes.
And… only ten minutes?!
All seasoned anchors knew that once the ultimate mainline mission was triggered, it had to be completed within the allotted time, or else, even if they met the instance’s clearance conditions, they would still be eliminated by the Nightmare.
And now, the four anchors who had received invitations were undoubtedly facing an almost certain death situation…
A completely unexplored courtyard house, the red-robed female corpse that could return at any moment, a ten-minute time limit for the ultimate mainline task, and no clues whatsoever!
The wooden door of the courtyard silently opened inward, the dark entrance gaping like a greedy mouth, waiting for its sacrifices to enter. Several terrifying conditions loomed over them like a hammer, making it hard to breathe.
The cold, rotten stench wafted out, sending chills down their spines and making their hair stand on end.
Without thinking, Orange Candy immediately responded with a short command: “Quick, go in!”
The ten-minute limit hung over them like the Sword of Damocles, with not a second to waste. Even if hope was slim, they had to act quickly. The others nodded one after the other.
Urged by the time constraint of the ultimate mainline mission, they dared not hesitate any longer. They stepped over the threshold as fast as they could, heading toward the “fifth floor,” which was the courtyard in front of them.
“…”
Wen Jianyan stared at the courtyard in front of him, gritted his teeth, and then followed them inside.
As soon as he crossed the threshold, the lanterns hanging in the courtyard slowly lit up, dispelling the thick darkness inside.
The courtyard wasn’t large, almost identical to the one depicted in the painting on the third floor. The only difference was that each eave on either side of the courtyard had four lanterns hanging from it.
The lanterns on the left were white, with the large character “奠” (a funeral offering) written on them, while the lanterns on the right were red, with the large character “囍” (happiness) written on them.
All the lanterns were lit, casting a dim and eerie glow.
The most terrifying part was that the courtyard wasn’t “empty.”
There were many paper figures standing inside.
They were all made of paper, with pale faces, vacant expressions, cheeks and lips painted blood red, and stiff, eerie smiles on their faces. They were scattered throughout the courtyard, looking exactly like the paper figures that had been carrying the sedan chair up to the fifth floor in the painting on the third floor.
At that moment, all of them were facing the entrance, staring intently at the four people who had entered the courtyard with their lifeless eyes. The eerie smiles on their faces were illuminated by the red and white lights, making them extremely terrifying and sending a chill down one’s back.
Wen Jianyan, who was walking at the back, quickly lowered his head and glanced at himself.
Hmm, his appearance was still intact.
As he breathed a sigh of relief, a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
First, he was certain that this time they had entered the fifth floor of the Changsheng Building, a place that existed independently from the instance. There was no doubt about this—based on the crackling static noise from the system when the task was issued, it was clear that the Nightmare’s influence here was extremely limited.
Perhaps because of this, the time limit for the ultimate mainline mission was set so short.
However, the last time, before entering the fifth floor, his livestream interface had already turned gray, meaning the Nightmare had completely lost its influence there, which was why his appearance had disappeared.
But this time, it was different. Even though they had entered the same place, his appearance hadn’t vanished, and both the livestream and system store interfaces were still accessible. Although there was interference in the system’s broadcast due to poor signal, the mission was still issued normally.
All of this indicated that the Nightmare hadn’t completely lost control this time, unlike the last time.
…Why?
Why did the Nightmare lose control last time but not this time, even though it was the same floor?
Was it, as Wu Zhu had suggested, because they had chosen a “different path” to get to this floor?
While Wen Jianyan was deep in thought, Qi Qian quickly said, “To save time, we should split up—”
“No need.”
Wen Jianyan suddenly interrupted him.
For a moment, everyone was stunned and turned to look at him.
“It gave us only ten minutes for a reason,” Wen Jianyan narrowed his eyes and said. “So, I suspect that although the ‘fifth floor’ is dangerous, its exploration area is likely not large. Blindly splitting up won’t be helpful.”
“We’ll split into two teams,” Wen Jianyan continued, “Orange Candy and I will check the north room, and you two check the east room.”
Countless experiences had already proven that the layout of a courtyard was critical.
Although this was the fifth floor, it still followed the same rules.
The west room was the “safe house,” with little chance of containing clues. The north room should be the most crucial and dangerous area, so he and the strongest Orange Candy would explore it together. Although the east room had never been opened in the previous attempts, it was still part of the courtyard house. Wen Jianyan didn’t believe that this instance would have something “useless,” so it was likely that the east room would open on the fifth floor.
Based on the survival rates of the shops on the east side of Changsheng Building, it seemed that the east room had a low chance of danger.
Therefore, it was probably a clue room, making it suitable for the seer, Su Cheng, to investigate. Qi Qian also had good combat abilities, so if anything went wrong, they should be able to handle it.
Orange Candy shrugged indifferently, “Alright.”
“Let’s go.” As soon as Wen Jianyan finished speaking, the group immediately split up, not wasting a single second, heading straight for their destinations.
The air was deathly still.
The door to the north room was wide open, with two paper figures standing on either side of the entrance. They were slightly bent over, their pale, stiff faces smiling as if welcoming guests from afar.
Even though Wen Jianyan knew the odds of them attacking were low, he couldn’t help but feel a chill. He kept as much distance as possible from the paper figures while walking forward.
Orange Candy, however, seemed completely unfazed, striding confidently into the north room.
The moment they entered the north room, the candles were lit by an invisible force with a “puff.”
The light illuminated the hall.
Wen Jianyan stood at the doorway of the north room, peering inside.
The room in front of him was almost identical to what he had seen earlier in the third painting on the third floor.
In the empty hall, there was a heavy coffin placed in the center. The coffin was smeared with thick, scarlet paint, which looked as if it hadn’t dried yet, as though blood would drip from it any second.
Behind the coffin was a long table adorned with candlesticks and offerings. The candles in the candlesticks were lit, casting a faint, eerie glow over the offerings on the table.
Fruits, pastries, and cooked meat.
The three offerings appeared very fresh, without the slightest sign of decay.
On either side of the table sat two paper effigies in Eight Immortals chairs, sitting upright. The paper figures had stiff, eerie smiles on their faces, staring straight at the two “guests” who had entered.
“…”
Wen Jianyan glanced around, and a chill immediately ran down his spine.
The paper effigies in the hall weren’t limited to just these two. In the distance, in the darkness beyond the reach of the candlelight, one could vaguely make out numerous still shadows. Amid the flickering, faint light, one could barely see pale faces, bright red blush on the cheeks and lips, and eyes, void of life, fixedly staring in this direction.
“Should we open the coffin?” Orange Candy’s gaze fell on the most conspicuous object in the center of the room and she asked.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath to calm himself: “Yes.”
His previous guess was correct. The courtyard in the third painting on the third floor was indeed a replica of the one on the fifth floor. That’s why the red-dressed female corpse had chosen the “commodity” from within that painting, and why that courtyard had the path extending into a graveyard, leading to the real fifth floor.
The lit lanterns and the paper figures signified the fifth floor; the dark, empty one represented the courtyard in the painting.
Since that was the case, the experience he gained in the courtyard on the third floor could similarly apply here on the fifth.
In that place, the true “cursed core” was inside the coffin. If that was the case, it should be the same here.
The two quickly approached and, standing on either side, lifted the heavy wooden coffin lid and pushed it away with force.
“Creak—”
The sharp screech of the coffin lid moving reverberated in the dead, silent darkness.
The scarlet coffin lid was being slowly pushed aside under their combined efforts.
The coffin was gradually opening.
Inside the coffin, it was pitch black, so dark that even the candlelight couldn’t penetrate it. A cold, eerie breath slowly drifted out.
Soon, with a loud “thud,” the coffin lid was entirely removed and fell heavily to the ground.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath and looked inside the coffin.
As expected, it was an empty coffin.
In the center of the coffin, there was a dagger deeply embedded.
It seemed to be made of brass.
The blade, covered in patches of rust, was deeply embedded in the bottom of the coffin. The thick bottom board below displayed a tar-like, pitch-black color, as if coagulated blood had seeped deep into the wood grain.
“Step back a bit.”
Orange Candy said.
She gripped the edge of the coffin with one hand and leaped, leaning her upper body into the coffin. She was almost swallowed by the darkness, and even Wen Jianyan, watching from the side, couldn’t help but feel his heart race.
However, the imagined danger didn’t occur.
Orange Candy soon pulled herself back up out of the coffin. Her hands were empty as she shook her head, an uncharacteristic look of puzzlement crossing her face: “I couldn’t pull it out.”
Wen Jianyan said, “Let me try.”
With that, he took a deep breath, leaned in, and grasped the dagger’s hilt with his hand. He applied a bit of force—
An unexpected thing happened.
The blade that Orange Candy couldn’t pull out no matter what came out easily in Wen Jianyan’s hand. He didn’t even have to apply much strength before the dagger slid free from the deeply embedded wood.
“!” Orange Candy’s eyes widened slightly, clearly surprised.
She obviously hadn’t expected that the dagger she couldn’t extract would be drawn out so effortlessly by Wen Jianyan, who appeared physically weak.
It seemed the issue wasn’t strength-related but had something to do with other hidden conditions.
As soon as the dagger was in Wen Jianyan’s hand, a familiar system prompt rang in his ears.
【Ding!】
【Congratulations… zzzt… The anchor has acquired a hidden item (legendary) from the instance zzzt…】
【Collection rate: 1/?】
The handle of the dagger was covered in pits and dents, as if something had been carved into it.
Wen Jianyan paused, then bent his head closer, examining the brass dagger under the dim light.
The dagger was old, but the engravings were new.
There was a pattern on it resembling a lotus flower.
Wen Jianyan traced the edges of the design with his fingers, and suddenly, like a flash of lightning, a strange realization struck his mind.
A lotus flower.
A Buddha sitting cross-legged on a lotus, holding a sacred artifact in one hand and a head in the other, with three faces each looking in different directions.
A compassionate face in the center, anger to the left, and sorrow to the right.
Wasn’t this the evil Buddha worshipped in the Antai Community instance?
At that moment, cold sweat broke out on Wen Jianyan’s back. Just as he was lost in his thoughts, Orange Candy’s sudden tense voice rang out from not far away:
“Watch out!”
A cold, pale hand suddenly grasped Wen Jianyan’s arm from behind.
“?!”
Wen Jianyan’s pupils constricted as he quickly turned his head.
The paper figures that had been standing still in the darkness had moved at some point.
One of them was now standing directly behind him!
Under the flickering candlelight, that stiff, smiling face was far too close, and those lifeless eyes stared directly at Wen Jianyan, sending chills down his spine!
“Crackle!”
The candles flickered violently.
The previously dim yellow light began to turn an ominous blood-red at a speed visible to the naked eye, as if blood was oozing from a wound, filling the entire room.
“Tap… tap-tap… tap-tap.”
From all directions came the sound of stiff footsteps.
One by one, the paper figures emerged from the darkness, their pale faces illuminated by the blood-red light, highlighting their identical, eerie smiles.
One after another, they extended their hands toward Wen Jianyan.
