Chapter 242: Furnace

"You want to stop me?" The yin souls wore ferocious expressions, their terrifying forms appearing even more dreadful under the flickering firelight.

"Step back!" I shouted at Tie Ningxiang, standing alone in the doorway as I took out my last Suppression Talisman.

Once I used this talisman, I would have no more Talisman Paper left to protect my life. But the situation was critical, and I couldn't think of a better solution.

'Next time I stream, I definitely need to be fully prepared.' Gritting my teeth, I raised the Talisman Paper high, aiming it at the advancing yin souls inside the room. "It's a desperate gamble. I have to burn these yin souls acting as a proxy for a tiger, or I won't have a chance to turn things around."

"Five Directions Divine Generals, lend me this dharma power to suppress all things, act as quickly as my decree!" The cloth dolls were getting closer, crawling across the ground like full-term infants. The terror was suffocating.

"Gao Jian, what are these things..." For whatever reason, Tie Ningxiang tried to approach me. Seeing her step forward, I didn't dare hesitate and flicked the Talisman Paper out.

With a flash of golden light, the Five Directions Divine Generals materialized behind me. It felt as if I were holding a massive, heaven-turning seal in my hand.

"Suppress!"

As the Talisman Paper fell, the yin souls inside the small room were crushed out of shape. Their bodies twisted as an invisible surge of energy rippled through the space.

The cloth dolls crawling toward the door stopped in their tracks. They curled up on the floor, their limbs twisting and convulsing like living people suffering a seizure.

I struck the Suppression Talisman down right in front of me. Knowing full well not to bite off more than I could chew, I didn't expect a single Suppression Talisman to wipe out all the yin souls.

This talisman was only meant to scatter them so they wouldn't interfere with my next move.

A flame popped from my lighter, and I set the cloth dolls on fire.

Without the protection of the yin souls, the dolls quickly went up in flames.

I crouched down and started lighting fires everywhere, igniting several more dolls until the blaze grew uncontrollable and began to spread.

The entire room echoed with ghostly wails. My eyes shone brightly in the firelight. "Once the Fate Ghost breaks free, I'll have the power to fight back."

I turned and headed downstairs, only to crash right into Tie Ningxiang. She had her arms crossed, having stood quietly behind me all this time.

"Gao Jian, what are you doing?"

"Don't worry about it. Saving Yi Yi down in the basement is the priority!" My suspicion toward Tie Ningxiang was gradually fading. While I was setting the fires, she was the only one besides the yin souls who could have stopped me. If she had snatched my lighter, I would have been swarmed by the yin souls the moment the Suppression Talisman lost its effect. The consequences would have been unimaginable.

But she didn't make a move. She just stood there quietly, her eyes full of trust, just as they had always been.

The door leading to the third underground area of the Haunted House had been opened by someone unknown. Lethal danger was clearly lurking inside, but neither Tie Ningxiang nor I could avoid it.

This was the enemy's open conspiracy. Yi Yi's survival, the true identity of the killer from five years ago, the truth behind Tie Ningxiang's identity—the answers to all these mysteries were likely hidden down there.

"Let's go." Tie Ningxiang walked downstairs right beside me. Catching a whiff of her faint fragrance, I knew that sometimes suspicion was its own kind of harm. But I had no other choice. Even for her own safety, I had to be cautious.

Entering the basement, the dark corridor felt like a return to the Henshan Psychiatric Hospital. Assorted torture devices and photographs of young children hung on the walls along both sides.

I had previously seen the theme of this third Haunted House section briefly described on a wall. It was about a pair of twins.

The two sisters were both aware of each other's existence, but the people around them could only see the younger sister, not the older one. Believing the girl had lost her mind, they sent her to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

The younger sister, who hadn't been mentally ill to begin with, was fed psychiatric drugs and abused by the orderlies. In the end, her attending physician injected her with banned substances and subjected her to a series of unspeakable acts.

When the younger sister woke up half-naked in the freezing hallway, she swore to take revenge on everyone, and her older sister used special methods to help her carry out that punishment.

Supposedly, this Haunted House theme was adapted from a true story. A pair of twins was born, but the older sister died shortly after birth. The younger sister survived, yet her mind was fractured, as though two souls inhabited her head at the same time. People treated her condition as schizophrenia, and the horrors she endured in the psychiatric hospital were all real. Only the ending was different.

In the true story, the younger sister was the sole killer. Although she pushed all the blame onto her older sister, the police still sentenced her to life in prison.

The underground structure was inherently gloomy, making this Haunted House terrifying even without much renovation.

I kept a certain distance from Tie Ningxiang in the dark, unsure if a sudden cold blade would thrust at me from the front or from behind.

"Be careful." My five senses were enhanced, and I had cultivated the Heavenly Eye, so the faint glow of my phone screen was enough for me to see comfortably. But for Tie Ningxiang, it was incredibly difficult. Already injured and having to stay alert for danger, she could barely keep up with my pace.

I glanced back at her. The resilience this beautiful police officer showed far surpassed that of many men. I couldn't find a trace of fear on her face; she maintained an unwavering, tough expression from beginning to end.

"I really hope that person isn't you..." I murmured, speaking so softly that only I could hear, before continuing deeper inside.

The layout here resembled a psychiatric hospital, but likely to increase the horror and playability, the corridors twisted and folded into a complex maze, much like the sewer pipes of the Old Town District.

"The area isn't big, but there are a lot of rooms."

Soon, Tie Ningxiang and I reached the end of the Haunted House, arriving at an iron staircase leading down to the second basement level.

"Should we go down?"

A faint light seeped up from the second basement level, and a pungent odor drifted through the air.

Tie Ningxiang pressed a finger horizontally beneath her nose. "The smell of burning human bones."

The stench of burning corpses differed from that of burning bones, a distinction only an experienced criminal investigator could make.

I nodded and reached out to run a hand over the stairs. Black ash coated the iron steps, which bore the residual footprints of adults and children.

"Let's go down and take a look."

Walking on the ash-covered iron stairs felt precarious. As we descended, the faint light from the second level grew a bit clearer.

"These things don't seem related to the Haunted House theme." I swept my gaze across the area. The first thing that caught my eye was a massive contraption resembling a smelting furnace, surrounded by doll molds haphazardly scattered across the floor.

The furnace-like machine was still running, churning with unsolidified liquid wax.

"Molding?" It was obvious at a glance. High temperatures heated the liquid wax, which was then poured into the molds to create wax figures.

"To think they're openly making wax figures beneath the Haunted House. These guys have a lot of nerve." I cautiously approached the furnace. The liquid wax boiled inside, splashing everywhere as a horizontal paddle stirred it.

"Sizzle!"

A drop of wax splashed onto my arm. I had torn off my sleeve earlier to blindfold myself, so the wax landed directly on my bare skin.

The scalding wax seared into my skin. It didn't draw blood, but the pain was agonizing.

I wiped the wax off and looked closer. Inside the furnace were unmelted bone fragments and a mess of other unidentifiable parts.

"The machine is still on, so they couldn't have gone far." It was finally time to confront the mastermind. This entire night of running was all for this moment.

"Be careful." Tie Ningxiang took the initiative to walk in front of me. It was entirely in character for a Criminal Investigation Brigade captain to lead the charge.

I silently watched her back, still not daring to jump to any conclusions.

The second basement level of the Haunted House was similar to the basement of the maze—another small workshop. However, while the maze basement was mainly for rendering fat into wax, this place was used to melt the wax and pour it into molds to make wax figures.

The underground structure occupied a considerable area. Besides the central workshop, there were seven or eight rooms of unknown purpose and two or three corridors leading even deeper.

Walking in front, Tie Ningxiang acted as if she had stepped into a crime scene, her movements professional, serious, and cautious.

We opened six doors in a row, finding nothing but molds inside.

But when Tie Ningxiang and I pushed open the seventh door, we were both startled by what we found inside.

Inside the small room, the four walls were hung with numerous masks. The craftsmanship was exquisite; they looked exactly like real human faces.

"Why would the killer make so many masks?" I walked in and casually took one down. The texture felt very peculiar. I held it up to my nose and took a sniff, my expression slowly darkening.

"What's wrong?" Sensing that something was off, Tie Ningxiang followed me inside. "Are they not ordinary rubber masks?"

I shook my head and spoke with difficulty. "These seem to be made of human skin."