Chapter 36: Twisted Hell

That strange, white, oval-shaped object was a woman's face!

She pressed herself flat against the floor of the Third Floor. Wearing an eerie smile, she flashed past at terrifying speed and vanished into the darkness.

Thinking about it, her posture in the dark was utterly grotesque.

How could a normal walking human keep their head pressed against the floor? To achieve that effect, the woman had to be crawling with her entire body plastered to the ground.

Which raised the question: if she was lying flat on the floor, how could she move so incredibly fast? Was this woman a crab, scuttling sideways at high speed?

The cackling woman upstairs was undoubtedly a ghost, and a remarkably bizarre one at that. Gao Tian immediately ordered the thugs to retreat, and not just out of concern for their safety. If those cannon fodder got wiped out on the stairs, he would be the first person the woman killed once she came down.

The middle-aged man had weathered his fair share of storms. The moment he heard Gao Tian shouting from below, he sensed something was wrong. Backing down the stairs, he drew his gun, aimed at a grotesque silhouette writhing toward him in the darkness, and opened fire.

At the same time, the cackling woman's face on the Third Floor finally emerged from the gloom—

A pale neck, long as a python, supported a flat, disc-like face. It stretched straight out from the Third Floor, grinning wickedly at Gao Tian and the men on the stairs below.

Her neck was not only pale and exceptionally long, but extremely supple. It twisted and turned constantly like a boneless snake, as if locking onto a target. A contorted smile remained plastered across her otherwise plain face.

The thugs were shocked beyond words by the sight. How could a normal person's neck stretch to such a degree? The body connecting that face and neck remained hidden in the darkness of the Third Floor, never revealing its true form. Skinny Monkey and the others who went up first had probably been silently killed in that gloom long ago.

The three men on the stairs fired continuously as they fell back toward the second floor.

Countless bullets whistled through the air and slammed into the woman's suspended face, causing flowers of blood to bloom. Yet, she maintained a faint, world-weary expression. The wounds swallowed the bullet casings and healed at a terrifying speed, leaving her seemingly unaffected.

In their panic, the men quickly emptied their magazines. When they pulled their triggers again, only the hollow click of empty chambers answered.

The middle-aged man's hands shook violently. Trembling, he fumbled for a fresh magazine, but failed to load it into his pistol after several attempts. He was shivering too much.

Thump, thump, thump.

From the direction of the Third Floor, two irregular, round objects tumbled and bounced down the steps, leaving long streaks of blood in their wake.

They were the severed heads of Skinny Monkey and San Hu. The cuts at their necks were perfectly smooth, and their faces still bore cautious expressions, as if they completely failed to realize they were dead.

Downstairs, Gray Wolf and the others rushed up at full speed the moment they heard the gunfire on the second floor. Seeing the impossibly long neck slowly stretching down from the Third Floor, along with the woman's resentful face at its end, they were equally struck speechless.

Bizarrely, the woman's face simply stopped halfway between the Third Floor and the second floor. She quietly watched the crowd below with a smile, showing no immediate intention of attacking.

"Bullets... bullets are practically useless against this thing."

Standing amidst a floor littered with casings, the middle-aged man gritted his teeth and warned the newly arrived Gray Wolf and Crocodile in a hoarse voice.

Gao Tian was also wondering why the woman from the Third Floor hadn't killed them yet. Did this woman possess some kind of Killing Rule that they just hadn't triggered yet?

Would she only attack if they entered the boundaries of the Third Floor?

Right then, the mobile phone in his pocket chimed rapidly with incoming messages. They were all from the Galan Society Chat Group, conversations between the ghost users. Unfortunately, with everyone's attention locked on the woman's face protruding between the second and Third Floors, Gao Tian had absolutely no time to take out his mobile phone and check the screen.

[Living Apartment]:

Something happened. My old home has been invaded.

[Ghost Infant]:

WTF?

How could there be such a coincidence? Could it just be some passing kids or a homeless person who accidentally wandered inside?

[Living Apartment]:

No. My Pot is kept on the Third Floor. These people came armed with guns; they are clearly here for the Pot.

[Ghost Cave]:

@Living Apartment Are they ghost hunters from another province? Where did they get your old home's address?

Do you want me to make a trip? I can move freely for the time being. However, it will take me three hours to get to Hengzhou.

[Living Apartment]:

@Ghost Cave Don't worry about it for now.

When I left my old home, I had a premonition that something would happen. I kept a ghost there on the Third Floor.

What's more, I severed a portion of my own ghost domain and left it behind to guard the house.

Anyone who enters, even a top-tier ghost hunter, will be trapped inside the ghost domain. Their only end is to be killed by the ghost.

No one can take my Pot away alive.

...

...

Still stuck in the old house, Gao Tian hadn't seen the conversation in the Chat Group, but he wasn't stupid. He naturally deduced that the foul thing on the Third Floor had to have been left behind by Xu Yuan. He was keeping a ghost there to slaughter any ghost hunters who came looking for treasure.

Seeing that the woman dangling from the Third Floor still showed no intention of attacking, Gao Tian began to slowly back away after a brief standoff. He retreated toward the first-floor stairs, hoping to leave the place without provoking her.

The thugs scrambled backward, their guns still trained on the pale, dangling face. At a time like this, forget fifty thousand yuan—not even half a million or five million could convince them to stay. What good was money if they were dead?

The woman watched them leave, swaying slightly in the air. Her cackling laughter never ceased.

Suddenly, she stopped laughing. Spreading her blood-red lips to reveal a pitch-black, toothless maw, she began to speak:

"Li Santian..."

"Li Santian."

"Li Santian!"

Her voice sounded incredibly unnatural, like a machine deliberately mimicking human speech patterns.

Who was Li Santian?

Could it be that this woman, kept in the old house by Xu Yuan, had been named Li Santian when she was alive?

Gao Tian sifted through Zhao Qiang's memories and suddenly remembered: Li Santian was the real name of the thug nicknamed Crocodile. Crocodile's original name was Li Santian.

Right now, Crocodile was cautiously retreating from the second floor along with everyone else. Why was the woman calling his name?

Having heard his name called three times, Crocodile realized something was terribly wrong. With a furious roar, he raised his gun and began pulling the trigger wildly. Suddenly, with a sickening crack, his head seemingly lost all interest in his neck. It split apart in four different directions, separating from his body like a freshly sliced watermelon.

In an instant, Crocodile was reduced to a headless corpse. His body slumped heavily to the ground.

Witnessing this gruesome scene, the remaining thugs let out heart-wrenching screams. Their last shreds of sanity snapped. Turning wildly, they bolted downstairs like madmen. At this point, no one could stop their desperate flight for survival.

Gao Tian also scrambled down to the first floor. He immediately understood one of the ghost's Killing Rules: if she called a person's name three times, they would instantly die a gruesome death.

Worse yet, the woman automatically knew your name just by looking at you. This Killing Rule was practically inescapable. If she locked onto anyone, they would have absolutely no way to survive.

As they burst into the first-floor lobby, the woman's garbled voice echoed from upstairs once more. She seemed to be muttering someone else's name. There was no telling who the next victim would be.

The front door leading outside from the first floor was still wide open. However, upon reaching it, Gao Tian forcibly suppressed his terror and did not immediately rush out of the White House.

Because the scenery outside the White House was wrong.

The sky, originally pitch-black with a hint of fish-belly white, had somehow turned completely blood-red. The clouds writhed slowly along the horizon as if they were alive, while the sun and moon had transformed into twin bloody hooks hanging right above their heads.

Illuminated by the crimson sky, the weeds and old furniture in the yard were also bathed in blood-red light. They no longer looked like things used by the living, but rather resembled the sea of blood and the Bridge of Helplessness the dead must cross upon entering the netherworld.

Was this even fucking Earth anymore? Where the hell had Gao Tian and the others been dragged to?

"Don't go out! Haven't you noticed how bizarre it looks outside?!"

Although Gao Tian could sense a silhouette chasing them from the Third Floor, his instincts screamed that the "world" outside the White House was far more dangerous.

Hearing the command from their boss, "Zhao Qiang," Gray Wolf, who was only a step away from the doorway, came to a halt. At that exact moment, the woman on the Third Floor finished chanting a name three times. The middle-aged man standing right next to Gray Wolf didn't even have time to leave a single dying word. His entire body suddenly split completely in half down the middle. Blood splattered all over the survivors.

At this point, not even the boss's words carried any weight. Gray Wolf's mind was consumed by a single desire to survive, and without a second thought, he charged out the door.

The instant he stepped into the "blood-red world" outside, Gray Wolf's stocky, 1.8-meter frame was instantly stripped of its skin, laying bare a colorful nervous system and bright red flesh. Soon, even those began melting away as if dissolved by strong acid, revealing a pristine white skeleton inch by inch. He turned his white skull one last time, desperately trying to flee back into the house, but with a loud crash, his entire body collapsed into a pile of bones, leaving behind nothing but a foul stench.

A perfectly healthy, living man was dismantled into nothingness just like that.

Their frantic urge to escape the White House was forcefully frozen into cold dread.

The outside had warped into a twisted world as well. If they took even half a step out of the White House, they would be instantly melted away.

But the White House wasn't safe either. The long, slender neck supporting the woman's face slowly lowered itself, descending from the Third Floor, passing through the second floor, and hovering down toward the first. It was obvious that the ghost kept by Xu Yuan wasn't going to let the intruders off the hook easily; she was coming for them.

This was a nightmare. Leaving the house meant death, and staying in the White House meant death. Gao Tian found himself caught in an absolute dead end, unable to advance or retreat. Either choice was a death sentence.