CHAPTER 21: Stuck in a loop

Liu Yu's footsteps stopped, his sharp phoenix eyes did not miss any detail in this corridor.

Suddenly he spoke: "We have been caught in a loop".

Liang Zun was surprised: "So we have gone through this corridor twice already?".

Xie Ying beside him frowned, wanting to confirm Liu Yu's words, he said: "You two stand still here and wait for me for a moment".

He then walked forward alone, when he reached the turn, he turned around to see the two people still standing in the middle of the corridor, then turned around to observe the surroundings of the turn. Not seeing anything unusual, he walked on, behind the turn was a dark corridor.

The light was turned on, after a few steps he suddenly saw two black shadows in front.

Liu Yu and Liang Zun turned around because the light was shining on them. Liang Zun was extremely stunned when he saw Xie Ying walking towards him.

It was clear that he had just gone to the end of the corridor and turned in another direction, but now he appeared in front of the two people from the front.

Liu Yu was expressionless, he looked up at the ceiling, there used to be a hole here but now it was nowhere to be seen. Could it have been repaired and cleaned?

Thud, thud, thud.

In the quiet space, there were footsteps running back and forth above the ceiling.

BOOM!

Xie Ying and Liang Zun: "?!".

Liu Yu jumped up and punched the ceiling, the broken bricks and stones flew everywhere, creating a huge hole. He landed lightly, and vaguely saw something metallic flashing on his fist.

His terrifying strength was unimaginable!

Liang Zun was immediately frightened.

Suddenly an earthquake arose, causing everything to collapse, Liu Yu and Xie Ying stood firm while Liang Zun fell down and crawled up to cling to the wall.

The earthquake immediately stopped. The three looked at each other.

The ceiling was broken, but right below the three people's feet, another hole suddenly appeared. He and the boy immediately dodged and almost fell down. Liang Zun didn't have time to dodge and fell down.

Thud!

He fell down from the ceiling in front of the two people, Xie Ying immediately caught him.

Liang Zun rolled to the side, pushed up his glasses in shock, and crawled up to look down at the hole.

He couldn't believe his eyes!

He saw a person who looked exactly like him below looking down at the hole.

It was like a mirror reflecting.

The earthquake shook once again.

Liu Yu and Xie Ying simultaneously turned their eyes towards the hole and were shocked.

The ghostly hole was gradually connecting, creating a bottomless dark space, and rocks falling down had no echo.

If they fell down here, they might be stuck forever with no way out.

Both the hole above and the hole below led to a dark screen with no hope.

"Should we jump down?" Xie Ying sat with his legs dangling down the hole.

"Eh! No way, you'll die." Liang Zun was clinging to the wall, afraid that the earthquake would come again.

He felt the cold winter wind blowing past his feet as if something was piercing through them. He immediately pulled his feet up, sparks gathered on his fingertips and flew straight down the black hole, but the sparks disappeared without a trace.

He poked his head out to look down, there was nothing but black.

Without any emotion, Liu Yu walked to each mannequin to collect things.

The tenth mannequin was dressed in men's clothing, but the special thing here was that the clothes of this mannequin were unusually neat and clean. It was clear that just now it was still this hallway, still these 13 mannequins. They were all similar in one point, they were tattered and dirty.

Now suddenly a flawless mannequin appeared, looking at it made him feel very sympathetic.

This was the unusual thing.

Under his fist, a cold metallic light flashed.

BAM!

He crushed the mannequin's stomach, and a loud cracking sound could be heard. Suddenly, the blood inside it began to flow out, soaking the staff uniform.

"GRAA!".

This mannequin actually screamed horribly even though it had no head. Where did it get its mouth from to make this miserable sound?

It started to move its arms and legs, its movements stiff like a robot lacking oil. Its body twisted horribly.

The two people on the other side simultaneously took a defensive stance.

"This is a ghost, not a fucking mannequin."

Xie Ying carried the baseball bat on his shoulder, and walked proudly to Liu Yu's side. Pointing the bat at the mannequin's chest, red sparks formed a spiral around the bat.

Bang!

The unfortunate mannequin was burned by the fire and screamed miserably, the miserable sound echoing throughout the hallway. Gradually, the place where it stood became a pile of ashes, burning the brick floor black, completely silent.

Creak, creak.

The remaining twelve mannequins began to move. Each layer of their bodies crumbled, the monsters inside gradually escaped their disguise.

"Growl growl".

The headless demons had their skin exposed and maggots eating away at them. They surrounded the three people.

Liang Zun broke out in a cold sweat. This time, standing in front of these disgusting demons, he no longer had the same fearful expression as before. He calmly pushed his glasses up and got into a fighting stance.

His fighting blood surged, Xie Ying clenched the baseball bat in his hand and coldly charged forward: "Humph, let's go".

••

Thump, thump, thump.

Xie Cheng hid under the table, not daring to move. Through the candlelight above the chair that was covering the table, he could see a long, thin shadow cast on the ground.

"Humph.. Humph.."

"HUGH!".

The demon jumped onto the table and roared. Its big foot stomped loudly, causing the candle plate to shake and fall to the ground with a clanging sound, and the flame immediately went out.

He silently endured, if the demon couldn't find him, it would give up and leave.

I hope so.

The reason he was hiding here was because...

After killing those hungry ghosts, the square immediately turned into a bloody battlefield. This scene would make normal people vomit or faint on the spot.

Nothing had any effect, but in the blink of an eye, all of their bloody, bloody bodies gradually disappeared as if they were sucked dry by some strange suction force deep underground.

At that moment, a blinding light suddenly struck him from somewhere, then the light quickly dissipated. The scene in front of his eyes turned into a space of pitch-black darkness with no way out.

"Where is this?" Xie Cheng leaned against the iron bar on the ground and stood, breathing out from exhaustion.

He glanced around, there was nothing else besides him. The space was quiet without a sound.

"Hey you." A voice suddenly came from behind.

Xie Cheng turned around in surprise, in front of him was a young man wearing a white shirt and white pants smiling friendly.

He walked over, and it could be seen that this person was about the same height as him.

His voice was as soft as a fallen bird's wing, somewhat trembling: "Tell Xing Xing not to do that again..".

His expression changed to one of pitiful, sadness, his eyes filled with tears. He immediately grabbed his hands, tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I beg you."

Bang!

After finishing the last sentence, his body exploded into white snow petals falling, and the young man just like that disappeared without a trace.

"What..? Who is Xing Xing?.. Don't do what?". He stood there, not understanding what the young man said.

His eyes followed the last petal that gently fluttered down to his feet, and suddenly an ebony door appeared below his feet.

Xie Cheng: "?!".

The door suddenly opened wide, feeling someone pulling him back, he almost fell down. Turning around, there was no one or anything except for the endless black screen.

It must have been instinct that pulled.

Another space appeared through the door, a dark room. Based on the flickering candlelight on the cabinet, it could be seen that this was a dilapidated, desolate bedroom.

Without thinking, he jumped down, falling to the ground.

"Ouch..".

He struggled to sit up, but instead of standing up, he scanned the room to let his eyes get used to the darkness.

The door above disappeared, and looking back, he saw only the peeling paint on the ceiling.

This place was strange, very different from the current hotel. It was as if a serious fight had happened in this room.

The furniture was in disarray, the tables, chairs, and cabinets had fallen over and broken. The bed had collapsed in half, and the blankets and pillows were thrown all over the floor.

He stood up, and when he took a step forward, he felt like he had stepped into a puddle of water, but this puddle was a bit slippery.

He lit a lighter to look at it, and he was startled and stepped back.

A pool of blood, not a pool of water!

He looked around the floor and saw that there was not only a pool of blood in the middle of the room, but also human handprints, blood, and footprints. But strangely, the footprints and hands were much larger than normal people's, and another strange thing was that the traces and pools of blood were very new, as if something had just been in here.

A terrifying thought flashed through his mind, Xie Cheng swallowed his fear.

He walked around the room, feeling that there was nothing but broken things.

Lifting the blanket on the floor, a foul stench rose up from underneath, and several cockroaches rushed out. Xie Cheng's face darkened as he stomped on a few of them, killing them.

"Oh my god, what's so stinky?" He grimaced and covered his nose.

This disgusting smell was probably from a blanket that had not been touched for decades and had been washed.

He searched around this location and found nothing, so he circled around the collapsed bed. He lit a lighter and looked closer, only to see that the bed sheet was covered in dried blood, and there were also wriggling maggots.

Xie Cheng: "Huh? What is it?".

Several insects were following each other and combining into a swarm, forming an arrow shape, he looked in the direction the arrow pointed.

There was a chest in the corner of the room, he looked down and saw the maggots creating arrows pointing in another direction. On the other side was a wall covered by several broken cabinets, vaguely visible behind was a wall with holes leading to another room.

"Is this a quest guide?".

Hesitating a bit, should he choose to remove the cabinets to go to the next room or open the chest.

Thinking, he went to the chest first to see if there were any clues and then continued to the next room.