Translator: CinderTL
Without hesitation, Wang Changguo ran toward the elevator.
The elevator was parked on the basement level, but as Wang Changguo pressed the button, the elevator, which had seemed fixed on the basement level, actually began to move.
It started ascending slowly.
When it reached Wang Changguo's floor, it stopped.
Then, the elevator doors slowly opened.
Inside, there was no one.
The moment he saw the doors open, Wang Changguo gritted his teeth, quickly stepped inside, and then, with a trembling hand, pressed the button for the basement level.
That's right.
He was heading to the basement level.
To find Jiang Cheng and the others.
The words Huai Yi had once spoken were gradually becoming reality. Wang Changguo remembered him saying that, under normal circumstances, a Ghost could only kill one person at a time.
In other words, in such a short period, Jiang Cheng and the others wouldn't have been completely wiped out.
There were survivors.
But for some reason, they were trapped in the basement level.
Wang Changguo had made this decision after careful consideration.
Rather than barging into the stairwell and being killed directly by the Ghost, he decided to take a gamble.
"May the heavens bless me. If I can survive this, I swear... I swear I'll never scam elderly people into buying my fake health products again!" Wang Changguo silently vowed in his heart. "I, Wang Changguo, swear to the heavens!"
It seemed as though the heavens had truly heard Wang Changguo's oath, as the elevator encountered no obstacles during its descent. Moments later, it arrived at the basement level.
As the elevator doors opened, a wave of cold, eerie air rushed toward him.
The air carried a strange, unsettling smell.
He instinctively thought it was the chemical used for preserving corpses.
Wang Changguo swallowed hard and stepped out of the elevator. He found himself in a corridor, relatively empty with no extra clutter.
On either side were several doors, none of which had clear labels, so he had no idea what was inside.
But since it was the basement level, he figured it must have something to do with corpses.
A strange, scraping sound came from the end of the corridor, as if something was slowly dragging itself across the floor. Occasionally, there was the clinking of metal.
The sounds weren't very clear, scattered and chaotic.
Wang Changguo didn't see Jiang Cheng and the others, so he instinctively assumed they were in the room where the sounds were coming from.
He didn't dare make too much noise and could only take slow, cautious steps toward the end of the corridor.
After just a few steps, he saw the words "Morgue."
Even though he had prepared himself, he couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine.
But as he cautiously approached the Morgue, he failed to notice that behind him, a tightly shut door had slowly cracked open.
Three eyes blinked, watching Wang Changguo's back.
"Holy crap," Cao Yang whispered. "It's that bastard Wang Changguo. Why did he come down alone?"
"Could he be a Ghost?" Yu Yu, who was at the bottom, said. "He's so cowardly, there's no way he'd dare come down alone. He must be a Ghost in disguise."
"Exactly," Cao Yang agreed. "And since we haven't gone back up for so long, the people upstairs must know something's happened. Wang Changguo's too shrewd to risk coming down to save us. If anyone came down, it'd be someone else, and definitely not alone."
"This is bad. We're trapped here," Yu Yu said, shrinking back and lowering his voice. "There's a Ghost in the Morgue, and now another one's come down from the elevator."
Yu Yu looked terrified. The noise from the morgue earlier had already scared her out of her wits, and now, to her dismay, the elevator had been called up as soon as she turned around.
She watched helplessly as the elevator stopped on the fourth floor and then came back down.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that it must have brought something down with it.
Whether it was human or not was another matter.
Jiang Cheng immediately instructed everyone to hide in a nearby room, then closed the door and held their breath.
To their surprise, when the elevator doors opened, Wang Changguo sneaked out.
"Doesn't seem like it," Jiang Cheng suddenly spoke up. "He's probably human."
Cao Yang turned his head, wide-eyed, and looked at Jiang Cheng. "Are you sure?"
"Not entirely, but I know that if he goes to the morgue and lets whatever's inside out, things will get much worse," Jiang Cheng said, looking at Cao Yang.
"Mr. Jiang is right," Yu Yu nodded. "If Wang Changguo is a Ghost, we'll only have to face him. But if he opens the Gate of the morgue, we're doomed!"
Cao Yang wasn't one to hesitate. Knowing the situation had come to this, he realized they had no choice but to fight.
He steeled himself and, using the faint light seeping through the door crack, scanned the room.
The room was pitch black, and he could only see a small area nearby. He didn't dare turn on his flashlight.
It seemed to be a storage room for equipment.
Not far from Cao Yang was a trolley.
It had three layers, and from Cao Yang's angle, he could only see the first layer, which held a few oddly shaped metal tools.
He slowly walked over and picked up a short rod.
Once he held it in his hand, he realized it was much lighter than expected—probably hollow. He swung it a couple of times in the air, and it felt manageable.
Jiang Cheng didn't move. He didn't need to.
If the other person was really Wang Changguo, Jiang Cheng could take him down three times over with one hand. If it was a Ghost, ordinary weapons would be useless.
The reason he didn't stop Cao Yang was that he didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm.
People need hope to keep going.
Jiang Cheng lowered his head, looking at the faintly visible Gate in his palm, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.
If the other person was truly a Ghost, then he would have to use the power of this Gate.
More precisely, the power of Wu.
From Wu's performance in the last instance, ordinary Ghosts stood no chance against him.
But Jiang Cheng also knew that everything came at a price.
And the cost of opening this Gate in his hand and summoning Wu would undoubtedly be steep.
Inviting a deity is easy; sending one away is hard.
He could sense that Wu was coveting something—probably not just his body, but something deeper within him, perhaps even his soul.
"Brother Jiang," Cao Yang waved the iron rod in his hand, a hidden killing intent in his eyes.
"He's almost at the morgue," Yu Yu had been keeping an eye on the movements outside. Wang Changguo was getting closer and closer to the morgue.
Jiang Cheng nodded at the remaining two, then yanked the door open and rushed out.
But not in the direction of Wang Changguo—toward the elevator.
If they could run, only a fool would fight someone who might be a Ghost.
Fortunately, the elevator was still on the first basement level and hadn't gone up.
After pressing the elevator button, the doors slowly opened, and Jiang Cheng and the other two immediately ran inside. Yu Yu turned around and frantically pressed the buttons in the elevator.
But in the end, the unexpected still happened.
The elevator doors wouldn't close.
What was even more terrifying was that Wang Changguo, who had almost reached the morgue gate, also realized what was happening and began running toward the elevator.
Hearing the heavy footsteps of Wang Changguo rushing toward them, Yu Yu's face inside the elevator instantly turned pale.
(End of the Chapter)
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