Chapter 954 921 Incomprehensible

Inside the ancient mansion, many people were startled awake. They stood in the main hall, their eyes filled with astonishment, turning to look toward the direction of the mansion’s exterior.

The sound of palms slapping against the door rang out urgently, as if someone outside had encountered an emergency and desperately wanted to come in, hoping the people inside would hurry up and open the door.

However.

Someone said something that sent chills down everyone’s spine.

The front door of the mansion wasn’t closed!

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhou Deng, Yang Jian, and even the others started to recall.

Indeed.

Li Yang was the first to open the door, Yang Jian was the first to step into the mansion, and as for who entered last, it wasn’t clear, but everyone knew that after entering, the mansion’s door hadn’t been deliberately shut.

It wasn’t carelessness; the door wasn’t closed.

Rather, everyone tacitly accepted the reality of keeping the door open.

After all, this place was so eerie. If the door were shut and couldn’t be opened, trapping everyone inside, what would they do?

The walls surrounding the mansion weren’t tall, but who could say if they’d even be able to climb out in the end?

So leaving the door open was actually a backup plan, an easy exit strategy, theoretically the right thing to do.

“So, there’s something outside slapping the door, but it didn’t come into the mansion?” Yang Jian’s eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t make sense. If it were a ghost, it would definitely seize the chance to wander inside while the door’s open.”

“Unless there’s something in this mansion preventing certain malevolent entities from approaching.”

Zhou Deng posed his speculation, “Maybe it’s some kind of rare supernatural object. If we could find it, it might help us survive.”

He always suspected the mansion contained treasures and wanted to dig them up.

It seemed he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving empty-handed.

“Should we go over and take a look? With so many of us here, together we should be able to handle a typical ghostly incident.” Fan Xing’s eyes shifted as he suggested teaming up.

Immediately, he added, “I’m not having any ulterior motives; I just think that if we don’t address such an anomaly, it could eventually threaten all of us. Right now, the mansion is relatively safe, with only that corpse in the main hall. But if other entities seep in, the situation could take a nasty turn.”

What he said was indeed correct.

No one voiced any objections.

Even though Yang Jian wanted to get rid of this guy, he had to admit the logic behind this idea was sound.

He had to survive in the mansion for seven days. It was only the first day, and malevolent entities were already slapping the door. If he didn’t get to the bottom of it, the subsequent days would be spent in constant fear.

Or worse, not even realizing the ghosts had infiltrated the mansion.

“Let’s go check it out. If you don’t intend to help, don’t come along to add to the chaos.” Yang Jian said this and walked out of the main hall, holding a cracked spear, bypassing the courtyard, and heading toward the door.

The rest of the group exchanged glances and deliberated for a moment.

The meaning behind Yang Jian’s words was clear.

Anyone heading over had to be prepared to confront a ghost. If you weren’t in good condition or lacked the necessary abilities, don’t bother tagging along just to spectate.

Otherwise, you might not help but instead worsen the situation with your own ghost-related complications.

“The two lanterns I left outside better not have been tampered with.” Zhou Deng suddenly thought about it, and, worried, rushed over to check on the lanterns he had placed outside the mansion earlier.

“Two people are too few. That kind of urgent slapping noise would need at least six hands to achieve. We need two more people.” Fan Xing’s eyes shifted. “Count me in. Anyone else willing to join?”

At this moment, he proactively volunteered for the risky endeavor, perhaps hoping to regain some leverage within the group.

“Count me in. I refuse to believe that, with so many top-tier ghost handlers working together, we’d still run into an accident,” said an unfamiliar ghost handler, stepping forward.

“Alright, let’s hurry up and catch up.”

Fan Xing and the newcomer immediately dashed after Yang Jian.

The others, though, had their own considerations and were unwilling to take risks, preferring to conserve their strength.

Yang Jian quickened his pace.

His face was expressionless, his gaze tense, fully prepared for a confrontation with malevolent ghosts at any moment.

But just as he entered the front courtyard, without yet bypassing the screen wall ahead to see the door clearly, the urgent slapping noise abruptly ceased.

A series of rapid footsteps sounded nearby.

Something was leaving at an unreasonable speed.

“Arrived too late? No, it left after hearing commotion.” Yang Jian stood by the doorway, gazing in the direction of the receding sound.

There was nothing there.

Only a few old trees stood, swaying incessantly under a cold wind.

Turning back to look at the door.

It was covered in filthy handprints, dense and nearly filling every inch. Even areas too tall to reach had prints.

Moreover, the handprints varied in size and shape, indicating they came from numerous different hands.

“It ran away?”

Zhou Deng also heard the rapid footsteps fading beyond the wall and froze for a moment. He followed the sound but, like Yang Jian, found nothing.

“We’re a step too late. The thing that was slapping the door has already left. This is strange; if it were truly a ghost, it wouldn’t just leave—it would stay and wait for us to appear.” Yang Jian remarked.

“That’s true; ghosts don’t behave like that. So the thing slapping the door wasn’t a ghost? But looking at the state of the door, it couldn’t have been a human either,” Zhou Deng said, staring at the filth-covered handprints and falling into thought.

Yang Jian added another possibility: “However, there’s still one exception.”

Zhou Deng glanced at him.

“If a ghost steals a living person’s memories and mimics their behavior, the ghost’s actions may become disturbingly unpredictable.”

“A human-like ghost?” Zhou Deng furrowed his brows.

“It’s happened before. Although ghosts typically follow certain patterns to kill, with the evolution of supernatural phenomena, some ghosts, like ghost handlers, may exhibit incomprehensible abnormalities. These anomalous ghosts still abide by rules but act in ways that defy understanding.”

Fan Xing arrived and joined the conversation, adding, “Some of these abnormal ghosts can even manipulate their own killing patterns. You might meet the criteria for being attacked, yet the ghost doesn’t kill you. By the same logic, you might not trigger the ghost’s killing pattern, but it can create an opening, forcing you into its rules.”

“People control ghosts, and ghosts control people—it’s a mutually converging situation. That’s a terrifying issue.”

“You sure know a lot,” Yang Jian remarked.

Fan Xing replied modestly, “I know a bit here and there, but nowhere near as much as your experience, Captain Yang.”

“Everyone, we should shut the door to prevent similar incidents from happening again,” another unfamiliar ghost handler chimed in.

Yang Jian was lost in thought, while Zhou Deng was pondering deeply.

Should the door be closed?

“There’s no trace of a ghost inside the mansion, which means the entity never crossed the threshold—it only stood outside slapping the door the whole time.”

“Closing the door might not be a wise choice. What if the ghost gave us a false signal to close the door, and the real danger arises afterward? There’s a saying, you know—close the door to trap the beast. If the door remains open, it might leave us an escape route for critical moments.”

While speaking, Zhou Deng raised his gaze to the two lanterns hanging above the door.

His expression shifted unnervingly.

Because he noticed that his two red lanterns had somehow been swapped out, replaced with two white ones—a kind often used for mourning the dead.

“My lanterns have been replaced?”

Yang Jian observed closely and clarified, “No, the lanterns weren’t taken. They’ve been here all along—they changed. If they’d been removed, there would’ve been marks or traces left behind.”

“Interesting. The red lanterns turned into white ones, all without us realizing it. And after that, the anomaly of the ghost slapping the door occurred… Zhou Deng, do you recall the Ghost Candle in headquarters?”

“Red and white Ghost Candles?” Zhou Deng immediately knew what Yang Jian meant.

Any higher-up at headquarters would recognize the Ghost Candle as a supernatural item. The red Ghost Candle could safeguard life by warding off ghost attacks, whereas the white Ghost Candle drew ghosts toward itself.

“Red and white lanterns… Red and white Ghost Candles? Could it be these white lanterns attract ghosts here?” Zhou Deng speculated based on his connection.

“Not certain. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. Without enough information, I can’t determine whether closing the door or leaving it open is the safer choice, nor whether we should destroy these lanterns or leave them be. There’s no evidence proving that any action we take would be correct,” Yang Jian replied.

“Experience and habitual thinking will get you killed in the realm of supernatural phenomena.”

Fan Xing offered, “If that’s the case, then let’s leave things as they are for now. Maintain the status quo.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com

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