Divine Beast Creator
Chapter 759 - 760: Deadlock?_1

Chapter 759: Chapter 760: Deadlock?_1

"Although I really want to give it a try, let’s not mess around, in case we get others into trouble~"

Feng Yuan said with a smile as he ruffled the eager Xiao Ji’s head. He then dragged Xiao Ji to catch up with Qi Chen and the others, following the departing crowd. As Feng Yuan and the others left, calm returned to the place once again, and the banging doors gradually ceased.

Seeing the guests had all gone, the crimson eyes that blinked occasionally left the broken gap to reveal the distant purplish-red sky. The damaged walls were restored to their original state under the influence of a special energy.

Along the way, the banging doors mixed with various strange sounds made everyone somewhat shiver with fear. Following the corridor, they finally made it back to the lobby, only to discover surprisingly that they had emerged from a corridor on the first floor.

Just as the group settled their nerves and wanted to turn back to check the situation in that corridor, an iron gate dropped from above, sealing the corridor leading to the guest rooms.

"Exploration area increased by one."

Feng Yuan shrugged and said. By this time, the group had also begun to grasp the rules of the haunted house, suspecting it was designed to let the visitors explore the various corridors on their own.

"What would happen if we split up?"

Someone curiously suggested, to which Dou Yanlan replied calmly,

"A lot of people would end up crying."

This was no joke. Although nothing particularly unusual seemed to have happened so far, the atmosphere was indeed quite frightening. If it weren’t for the fact that they were in a large group acting together, some might have been scared out of their wits by now. Even so, many still hid fearfully behind their friends.

"If we’re short on time, we could split up, but..."

Feng Yuan said offhandedly. He didn’t need to guess what would happen if they split up; the other party had not separated them only because they had to follow the rules. After all, if the visitors chose to stick together as a team, you couldn’t just separate them for the convenience of scaring them, right?

"I think we can try splitting up. You know, this is still just the main house. We haven’t even gone to the other houses yet. If we go on like this..."

As they argued, Feng Yuan yawned and said,

"What’s there to argue about? If you want to explore on your own, you can always come back later by yourself, right?"

"Indeed..."

Many people agreed with Feng Yuan’s opinion. At this point, Chen Xin also made a decision. They wouldn’t split up but stick together instead. They had booked a whole day for the tour and weren’t worried about not being able to see everything.

"You, this guy!"

Qi Chen swept a look at Feng Yuan, who was hugging Xiao Ji tightly, with an incredulous expression. Even though Feng Yuan was so strong, he still acted as if he was scared in this place. Xiao Ji, despite feeling somewhat uncomfortable being held so tightly by Feng Yuan, had no intention of transforming into Eggshell Chicken because only in its current form did it have full combat capabilities.

"I’m scared, okay..."

Feng Yuan said somewhat sheepishly. At the moment, everyone was turning this way and that in a seemingly endless corridor. Even though the main house wasn’t particularly large, they had been making turns for quite a while without finding an end. Various eerie sounds occasionally echoed around them, and odd phenomena sporadically appeared in the hallway, unnerving everyone.

"This must be an infinite corridor."

Holding Xiao Ji, Feng Yuan whispered, and Dou Yanlan looked at him and asked,

"What do you think we should do to break through this place?"

"At times like this, maybe we should try going through the rooms?"

Feng Yuan suggested as he hugged Xiao Ji and carelessly pulled open a door nearby. There was no choice; the atmosphere in the corridor was becoming more oppressive, and everything from the lighting to the decorations was gradually becoming antiquated and decrepit.

"Uh... this..."

He had expected to see something strange behind the door, and strange it was indeed, but not in the sense that there was anything particularly unusual hiding behind it.

"What’s going on? What is this?"

Dou Yanlan, curious, came over and was surprised to see what was behind the door. The commotion caused by Feng Yuan had now drawn the attention of the others as well.

"What did you find?"

Chen Xin asked curiously. She, too, wanted to break free from this infinite corridor but hadn’t found the key to do so. Feng Yuan pointed behind the door and said,

"See for yourself."

"Mirror Image World?"

Seeing a corridor identical to the one they were in, Chen Xin paused, looked around to confirm it was not just a nearby room, then turned to the others and said,

"What do we do now? Should we go through?"

"Let’s go, I really don’t want to stay here any longer."

"There shouldn’t be anything too scary, right?"

"Come on, come on, the constant turning around here has got my head spinning."

Despite the fear in their hearts, everyone was clear that there was nothing particularly dangerous here, unlike an outdoor expedition. Had they encountered such eerie circumstances outdoors, nobody would have dared to get close, but rather stay far, far away.

At that moment, the corridor in which they stood began to creak, as if something was approaching, and the decorations along the hallway started to look worn and aged.

"Move!"

Seeing this, Chen Xin’s expression changed as she led the charge through that door. As the last person went through, Chen Xin forcefully pulled the door closed behind them. At that point, the strange decay started to appear on the surface of that door.

"Move!"

Chen Xin chose a direction at random and continued leading the group forward. Noticing the familiar surroundings, Feng Yuan frowned and casually tried to open a door they passed by, but to his surprise, the door did not budge. It was as if it was fused firmly to the space around it.

"Did you find something?"

Dou Yanlan cast a curious glance at Feng Yuan, who was holding Xiao Ji and surveyed the surroundings before saying,

"Haven’t you noticed? This corridor looks exactly the same as the one we just came from."

"And..."

Pointing to the decorations beginning to age, Feng Yuan cautioned, prompting everyone, who had been focused on moving forward, to stop in their tracks and ponder.

"Did we overlook something?"

"When was the door able to be opened?"

"What do you mean?"

"At first, I tried too, but that door just wouldn’t open, but later..."

"So, you’re saying that the door can be opened once the surroundings change to a certain extent?"

"Not necessarily, maybe we ignored something at the beginning. Don’t you think the way the corridor returned to its pristine state after we pushed the door is similar to a respawn in a game?"

"That does make sense... So what did we miss?"

"I don’t know, but let’s not just rush ahead anymore; let’s be observant of our surroundings and figure out what we’ve been missing."

"This is... the problem is, I’m really scared..."

"Those who are scared should just follow the group. Those who aren’t, make sure to pay attention to our surroundings."

The atmosphere in the corridor was already oppressive, and the need to closely observe their surroundings added even more pressure. The slightest resemblance triggered foreboding associations with abnormal entities, making them proceed with trepidation, and as the environment gradually deteriorated, the creaking sound returned.

"What should we do? Should we open the door?"

Although they speculated that the intractable door could be opened once the surroundings became sufficiently decrepit, fear had settled in everyone’s minds. Clutching Xiao Ji tightly, Feng Yuan cautiously slid open the door, revealing the pristine corridor on the other side. Feng Yuan asked,

"Shall we go through?"

"Or, should we see what happens when the surroundings become utterly decrepit? According to the game, it would usually trigger an instant death event, but this is real life... maybe..."

"You’re not thinking about counter-attacking, are you? Is that possible?"

"How do we know without trying?"

...

As he listened to the others discussing, and saw the surroundings increasingly succumbing to decay, Feng Yuan did not believe they could resolve this through brute force, or else their spiritual journey would turn into a path of a martial deity, which seemed impossible.

Unable to resist the others’ urging, they decided not to go through the door and kept walking to see what would happen. The creaking grew louder, signaling that something was drawing near.

The air grew colder, and all manner of sinister whispers filled their ears. They held their breath, hearts pounding in dread of whatever transformation was to come.

"Ahhh!!!"

In the end, someone couldn’t resist looking back to check what was behind them. The sight of the ghastly figure lurking beneath the tattered cloak elicited a scream, and as the cloaked figure brandished claw-like blades that glistened coldly, screams erupted one after another, prompting Feng Yuan to cover his ears and release Xiao Ji from his embrace.