Changsheng Building
Chapter 267: The auspicious time has arrived
A hand made of pale paper reached out from all directions, grabbing onto Wen Jianyan’s arms and shoulders—cold, stiff fingers dug deep into his flesh, causing a sharp pain, leaving him no possibility of breaking free.
He was shoved forward from behind, stumbling and staggering as he moved ahead.
Under the faint red glow, the open coffin drew closer and closer.
Not far away, the coffin’s opening gaped like a large mouth, waiting for a sacrifice to arrive.
“!!!”
Wen Jianyan’s pupils suddenly constricted.
At that moment, a sharp shout came from nearby: “Duck!”
Without having time to think, his body reacted faster than anything else.
Wen Jianyan quickly lowered his head, and a rush of wind whooshed past his ears. In the next second, there was a “thud” sound; the two paper figures closest to him had their heads roll away.
Several cold hands that were gripping him loosened their hold.
In the bloody candlelight, Orange Candy’s gaze was sharp:
“Follow me!”
She held a large cleaver that seemed disproportionate to her small frame; the blade was old, with a curled edge and covered in dried blood, looking very menacing.
With just one glance, Wen Jianyan understood—this wasn’t her innate ability, but rather a legendary item that was hard to obtain, and its level was high enough to be used multiple times.
“Quickly!”
Under Orange Candy’s lead, the two rushed out of the north side room, returning to the courtyard at top speed.
Upon entering the courtyard, Wen Jianyan was taken aback.
He didn’t know when it had happened, but all the lanterns that were originally half red and half white had turned completely blood red. The thick, sticky red light spread across the entire courtyard like blood, with glaring “囍” characters everywhere, creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere.
In the darkness, the entire courtyard radiated a dim red light, as if attracting some existence to arrive.
“What… what is happening?”
At that moment, Su Cheng and Qi Qian rushed out from the east room one after the other.
Upon seeing the scene in the courtyard, both were stunned, their expressions filled with disbelief and horror.
“I don’t know.”
Wen Jianyan shook his head with a grim face, answering quickly.
“Scrape, scrape—”
Just then, the harsh sound of paper scraping broke the silence, coming from behind them.
Everyone was startled and turned to look in the direction of the sound.
The north room was now completely filled with scarlet light, flowing like blood across the threshold and window frames. The pale, stiff faces of the paper figures emerged, wearing eerie smiles against the backdrop of the crimson room, looking particularly ghostly.
With their smiling faces, they approached with stiff movements, reaching out toward the humans—
“Get away, you’re filthy!”
Orange Candy frowned tightly, gripping her long knife.
With a rush of wind, several paper figures were torn apart.
The blood on the blade increased, threatening to cover the entire knife; Wen Jianyan’s gaze lingered on the knife for a moment, noticing that the blood-covered blades had already curled up. It was evident that once the blood completely coated the knife, it would be rendered unusable in this instance.
He quickly glanced at the live broadcast interface.
—There were six minutes left before the ten-minute limit.
Wen Jianyan clenched his teeth, his mind racing,
In this situation, it was impossible to re-enter the north room. Although the legendary item was still in hand, he had no idea how to use it…
How could they break the deadlock?
At this moment, he suddenly thought of something and turned to Su Cheng, urgently asking, “By the way, what did you see in the east room?”
“Spirit tablets.”
Su Cheng answered without hesitation.
“What?”
Wen Jianyan was taken aback.
“Many, many spirit tablets,” Su Cheng said with a serious expression.
In fact, when he entered the east room, he had also been shocked by the sight before him—in the pitch-black room, there were rows and rows of densely packed spirit tablets. Unlike the shrine in the secret room on the fourth floor, these spirit tablets had no portraits behind them; they were just solitary plaques.
The plaques varied in age, with the oldest wooden plaque completely decayed, as if it would fall apart at a touch. Even the newest plaque looked very old, covered in thick dust.
“By the way, besides that, I also found this.” Su Cheng pulled out a thick old book from his pocket and handed it to Wen Jianyan.
The book was clearly ancient, exuding a scent of decayed dust. The straw rope binding the pages had corroded and broken, but strangely, the paper, which should have been more fragile, remained undamaged.
Wen Jianyan opened the book.
The crimson light illuminated the densely packed small characters written inside.
In an instant, he realized this was not a “book” but a roster filled with names.
Most of the names were written in black ink, but every several pages, there was a name written entirely in red ink.
On the pages, nearly all the text was blurred, but each name was marked with a deep brown imprint, resembling a dried blood handprint.
“Hey! Did you guys find anything?!”
Qi Qian struggled to support himself, shouting without looking back.
“Damn it!” Orange Candy cursed quietly, slicing off another arm of a paper figure reaching for her from behind. “It’s completely impossible to clean it up!”
“Why do they always want to reach for me from behind?!”
Cold sweat trickled down Wen Jianyan’s forehead as he gritted his teeth, saying, “Right away!”
Time was of the essence, and he no longer read carefully; instead, he flipped straight to the last page of the roster.
The last page was blank.
At the very top, a clear name was written in red ink—crimson, sticky, glaring, as if blood would seep out from it in the next second.
In that instant, a chill surged up Wen Jianyan’s back.
That was his name.
——[Wen Jianyan]
He suddenly raised his head, looking past Orange Candy and Qi Qian’s shoulders towards the densely packed paper figures not far away.
This time, it was definitely not an illusion.
Under the red glow filling the courtyard, their lifeless eyes locked onto him, faces adorned with broad smiles, repeatedly reaching out their pale hands toward him.
Come.
Hurry over.
Wen Jianyan’s pupils constricted, as if he suddenly remembered something. He shoved the thick roster into Su Cheng’s arms, then reached into his pocket.
Quickly, an invitation card appeared in his hand.
The text and color on it were fading at a visibly rapid pace; in the blink of an eye, the invitation in his hand turned into a blank piece of paper.
Only those who received the invitation could be considered “guests” and enter the courtyard.
Then, what about those who could enter the courtyard without an invitation…?
What identity did they have?
And why was he the only one able to pull out the small knife that was deeply embedded in the coffin’s bottom?
Countless terrifying and chaotic guesses swirled in his mind, and one hypothesis rose to the surface.
Damn it!
Wen Jianyan cursed, turning to Su Cheng, “Where’s your invitation?!”
Su Cheng, dragging the heavy roster with one hand, hurriedly searched his pocket, and soon found his own crumpled invitation.
Wen Jianyan snatched it away.
Su Cheng’s invitation was still normal.
On the bright red paper, a large “囍” character was written, appearing quite eye-catching.
Wen Jianyan quickly flipped the invitation over.
—Sure enough, the three characters “Wen Jianyan” clearly floated above the red letters.
Although he had been somewhat prepared for this, seeing his name appear on the invitation still gave Wen Jianyan the sensation of being hit on the head.
He gripped the invitation tightly, his fingertips turning pale from the pressure, feeling icy cold.
If he was not a guest, then what was his identity?
…He was a “newcomer.”
Not the groom, but the bride.
Now it seemed that things were worse than he had imagined. Although he had taken the second route to enter the fifth layer, he had unwittingly ended up back on the same path.
In the large courtyard illuminated by the blood-red light, the smiling faces of the paper figures overlapped, surging towards this direction like an unstoppable tide, and the four of them were—
Wen Jianyan clenched his teeth, his amber eyes flickering with a solemn glimmer. His cold fingers tightened slightly, neatly trimmed nails digging deeply into his palm, bringing a slight pain.
He glanced at the live broadcast interface.
There were only four minutes left before the ultimate main task was completed.
Time was insufficient—completely insufficient.
Even more terrifying was that they had entered the final countdown, yet they didn’t even know what the ultimate main task was…!
An overwhelming despair surged in like a tide of darkness.
As if worrying that their current situation wasn’t bad enough, suddenly, without warning, a familiar sound of footsteps approached from outside the door—
“Tap, tap, tap.”
Stiff, even, terrifying.
In an instant, everyone couldn’t help but have their pupils shrink, suddenly turning their heads toward the direction of the sound—
The gate of the courtyard was wide open, and in the pitch-black darkness outside, a figure was gradually becoming clear and solid. The glaring red and thick black formed a stark color contrast, almost making one’s heart plummet into the abyss, suffocated by the overwhelming despair.
It was the female corpse in red clothing!
Perhaps it was due to the talismans on her or their ineffectiveness, or perhaps it was the all-red lights illuminating the courtyard that attracted her arrival.
This female corpse in red appeared once again before everyone, turning their most terrifying nightmare into reality.
She moved forward with stiff steps, the upper half of her pale face shrouded in darkness, making it hard to see clearly. Only the crimson corners of her mouth were raised high, revealing an eerie smile identical to that of the surrounding paper figures.
“Block the door—! Don’t let her in!”
Qi Qian’s voice was hoarse and shrill, nearly breaking.
In such a confined space within the courtyard, facing the terrifying female corpse in red and the ceaselessly advancing paper figures around them, there was no way for anyone to survive!
All the props and life-saving methods were being used without reservation at this moment.
Qi Qian suddenly activated the prop in his hand, and in an instant, a ring of flames shot up into the sky, instantly turning the nearest paper figures into ashes.
Taking advantage of this moment, they dashed toward the courtyard gate, avoiding the gaze of the female corpse in red, and forcefully slammed the old wooden door shut with a loud “bang”!
With that force, the door shook precariously, and wood chips and dust fell down.
Through the thin door, they could almost smell the decaying odor coming from the female corpse in red, along with the bone-chilling coldness.
Only two minutes remained.
The flames gradually died down, and the paper figures that had been forced back once again stood up unsteadily.
With exaggerated smiles on their faces, they began to approach once more.
Despair.
Bottomless despair.
Just as everyone was at a loss, even prepared for mutual destruction, suddenly, a figure burst past their defenses, charging straight into the midst of the paper figures!
It was Wen Jianyan!
Su Cheng’s pupils constricted, “What are you doing?!”
His voice was caught in his throat.
Only one minute remained.
“Wait,” Orange Candy stopped his movement, her gaze fixed tightly on Wen Jianyan’s back. “Let her go.”
At that moment, Su Cheng noticed that when Qi Qian had released his prop, he had completely destroyed two or three paper figures. Among the scattered paper shreds, several dark ceramic urns rolled onto the ground.
Like urns for ashes.
But whatever they were, they had been put into the bodies of the paper figures.
Perhaps, just perhaps…
Inside them lay the only clue for breaking through their predicament.
Only thirty seconds left.
Wen Jianyan dashed forward, his eyes locking onto one of the dark urns. He reached out his hand—his fingers touched the cold surface of the ceramic urn.
However, just as he grasped the urn, the pale hands of the paper figures surged from all directions, grabbing onto Wen Jianyan’s shoulders, arms, waist, and legs…
The cold fingers tore at him, pulling him as if trying to drag him into an endless abyss of darkness.
Their pale faces wore smiles, and whether it was an illusion or not, the arc of the crimson corners of their mouths seemed increasingly clear and exaggerated, as if they were quite pleased.
Only ten seconds left.
At that moment, a sharp voice, indiscernible in gender, suddenly echoed from behind the wooden door, cutting through the darkness like a sharp weapon. The tone was high-pitched and strange, instantly spreading throughout the entire courtyard.
That voice shouted, each word pronounced slowly:
“Auspicious—time—has—arrived—”
Hoooboy, come on.Thank you for the chapter!