Chapter Seventy-Six Ancestral Hall
After sensing the venomous and hateful gaze from the burger shop, Qin Liu was startled and took a step back.
Such a sudden appearance was indeed startling, and Qin Liu’s hair stood on end.
Just like a cat with its fur bristled.
But after a moment of stunned silence, the person hiding behind the door had vanished.
Only the dark house remained, seeming vacant, or perhaps with someone inside.
Could it have been an illusion?
No… it shouldn’t be an illusion.
Qin Liu’s sudden shiver was naturally noticed by Liu Haoyu.
The man’s expression was unusually calm.
He held the Zhenlei Talisman in his hand and asked Qin Liu,
“What’s wrong? Did you see something?”
Facing Liu Haoyu’s question, Qin Liu spoke with difficulty.
“There seem to be ‘people’ inside these houses.”
When he said the last word, Qin Liu emphasized it, and the other understood, grasping the hidden meaning in Qin Liu’s words.
Neither of them spoke further, but as they continued to walk forward, they kept their eyes on the surrounding houses, in case something suddenly sprang out from within.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Liu Haoyu finally sensed something was amiss.
Has this road become too long?
He and Qin Liu seemed to be walking in circles?
The moon gradually appeared, and the last rays of the sun were completely swallowed by darkness.
A thick white mist gradually enveloped the entire village.
This time, the mist was so dense it was as if the entire village was covered by a large mass of white cotton.
Liu Haoyu’s flashlight even left a long streak of light in the air.
But he could see nothing.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Liu Haoyu finally stopped.
His gaze fell on the ancestral hall not far away, and he said with a solemn expression.
“This is the third time we’ve passed this place.”
“Ghost wall?”
Qin Liu subconsciously thought they had encountered a ghost wall again, but this time, Liu Haoyu merely shook his head. He took out his mobile phone, all signals had failed, and even the electronic compass was spinning erratically.
As the rotation speed increased, Liu Haoyu’s phone finally malfunctioned, and no matter how he touched the screen, there was no response.
It was less like a ghost wall and more like being blinded by a ghost.
Since they could no longer distinguish east from west, Liu Haoyu decided to enter the ancestral hall to check the situation.
Given that he and Qin Liu had passed this place repeatedly, it was likely that a ghost within the ancestral hall was causing trouble.
Although the ancestral hall’s doors were still there, the lock had long since broken in half due to rust. Liu Haoyu only needed to give it a gentle push, and the door slowly opened.
A strong smell of mold and decay wafted out, and the humid air was suffocating.
The ancestral hall was small, with a black altar placed inside, and a shrine silently stood upon it.
Liu Haoyu leaned closer, gradually clearing away the spiderwebs on the shrine, and finally saw what was inside.
It was a Buddha statue, but the problem was… the statue’s appearance was extremely strange, as if it had been eroded by something. Its eyes were white, like… the eyes of a dead person.
With such a strange aura, it was less like a Buddha statue and more like a demon statue.
“Drip… drip…”
A mysterious dripping sound suddenly appeared within the ancestral hall.
Liu Haoyu’s gaze remained fixed on the Buddha statue, still scrutinizing it carefully.
In such a place, the appearance of such an evil Buddha statue was truly not a good omen, especially considering how bizarre it was.
“Drip… drip… drip…”
The dripping sound became more frequent, eventually turning into a sound like water flowing from a faucet.
A strange chill instantly crept up Liu Haoyu’s spine, and he immediately jumped back.
“Look at the wall quickly!”
Qin Liu’s voice suddenly rang out. Liu Haoyu immediately looked around and saw dense black handprints appearing on the wall.
Dark red liquid continuously seeped out from the cracks between the bricks on the wall. At this moment, a gust of cold wind blew, and the ancestral hall door was instantly blown shut.
Liu Haoyu tried to open the door, but there was no lock, and the seemingly rickety door felt as rigid as steel. Even hacking at it with a fire axe left no trace.
Watching the increasing amount of black unknown liquid on the ground, Qin Liu quickly said to Liu Haoyu.
“There’s a back door there! Go through there!”
“Understood.”
Liu Haoyu had expected such an emergency. He moved with extreme speed, and before the black unknown liquid could spread, he pulled Qin Liu and rushed out.
However, the ground at the back door of the ancestral hall also suddenly collapsed, revealing black liquid that quickly converged into a large pool.
The light outside was somewhat better, and Liu Haoyu could finally see what this black liquid was.
Blood!
Where did all this blood come from?
Liu Haoyu was greatly alarmed, and then he looked around, trying to find an escape route.
As he looked, he finally saw the source of the blood.
It was an old puppet tree, but for some reason, this puppet tree was acting as if it had gone mad. Its branches were constantly growing outwards, and foul-smelling, thick black blood was constantly seeping from its bark.
“Hehehe…”
A strange laughter echoed in Liu Haoyu’s ears.
Besides the sound of children playing, a chilling nursery rhyme became increasingly clear.
“Red wedding dress, night wind cool, carry lantern, seek the groom…”
Liu Haoyu felt he had heard the melody of this nursery rhyme somewhere before.
Where was it…
Right…
At Shirley Lai’s place!
Cold sweat began to stream down Liu Haoyu’s forehead. Shirley Lai had sung this nursery rhyme before, but her pronunciation had been unclear, so he hadn’t understood it clearly.
Now, listening carefully… could this nursery rhyme have something to do with Qin Liu?
Realizing this, Liu Haoyu immediately turned to look back.
However, behind him, there was only emptiness. Qin Liu had already disappeared, and the previously empty ancestral hall was now filled with dozens of hunched figures.
“Damn it!”
Seeing these figures, Liu Haoyu’s pupils constricted sharply, and an expletive escaped his lips.
Through the dim light, he dimly saw that these people were wearing white mourning clothes with the character “囍” written on them, and they were slowly approaching Liu Haoyu.
Liu Haoyu had seen some of these people’s faces in Lingnan Town, including the owner of the burger shop.
Even more bizarre was their extremely uncoordinated movement. Their knee joints were all bent backward, and with each step, a rustling sound like rubbing paper could be heard.
This meant… these were all paper figures!
