At the thought that some unseen, filthy thing might be sizing him up from the shadows of his own room, goosebumps rose all over Ning Qiushui's body!
Keeping his face neutral, he left the room and came out into the corridor.
But then a sight that made his hair stand on end appeared before him...
The red glow of the blood jade in his palm didn't fade... it grew brighter still!
"Holy shit!"
Ning Qiushui couldn't stop the curse escaping under his breath.
He wandered around with the blood jade in hand, and the unease in his heart thickened with every step!
Because he quickly discovered: anywhere inside the guesthouse, the jade kept glowing!
Could it be... the entire guesthouse was unclean?
He deliberated a moment, then went straight to find Bai Xiaoxiao and Liu Chengfeng, called them into his room, and pushed the door to behind them.
Then Ning Qiushui took out the blood jade and set it before the two of them.
"Hey, isn't that the thing from our last instance... Holy shit! Why is it glowing?!"
Surprise crossed Liu Chengfeng's face first, then twisted into fright.
He thought of the ghost-woman from the last Blood Door and scanned every corner of the room.
But there was nothing terrible to be seen.
"Stop looking..."
Ning Qiushui shook his head, his own expression turning considerably more serious.
"Anywhere inside this guesthouse, the blood jade glows."
Then he carefully explained to Bai Xiaoxiao where the jade had come from and what it did.
When she'd heard it all, Bai Xiaoxiao's brows locked tight.
Her red lips parted:
"Then there is definitely something wrong with this guesthouse."
With that, Bai Xiaoxiao looked around Ning Qiushui's room, and her gaze settled on the wooden bed.
The bed had been carefully cleaned—quite spotless, not even the little corners by the headboard neglected. But...
Bai Xiaoxiao extended one slender finger and drew it lightly across the floor beneath the bed. It came up coated in a thick layer of dust—and a little... hair.
"See it?"
The two nodded. Ning Qiushui looked thoughtful; Liu Chengfeng was entirely lost.
"That's just them not sweeping under the bed, isn't it?"
"Perfectly normal..."
Ning Qiushui said:
"That's not the point. The point is the dust... it's far too thick."
"It's as if... a building long out of use was suddenly cleaned up, just for us."
Liu Chengfeng froze.
"Exactly."
A gleam of appreciation surfaced in Bai Xiaoxiao's eyes as she looked at Ning Qiushui.
She had carried a great many newcomers.
Very few of them had a mind as fine and sharp as this Ning Qiushui.
In fact, most newcomers couldn't even match Liu Chengfeng—when trouble came, all they knew was to scream and cry for rescue.
"...But that doesn't add up. This is the village's own travel-agency guesthouse. From how that NPC Hou Kong talked, the village takes its tourism seriously. How could this place have sat unused for so long?"
An inexplicable prickle crawled over Liu Chengfeng.
Ning Qiushui picked up the thread:
"You're right. Unless..."
At that, his face shifted slightly; he raised his head—and met Bai Xiaoxiao's eyes.
Her expression was equally grave. She gave the smallest perceptible nod, as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Unless what?"
Liu Chengfeng was dying, leaning in and shoving his face at them.
Ning Qiushui shook his head.
"...I can't be completely sure yet. I'll tell you later."
Bai Xiaoxiao checked the time.
"Not much of the day left—and we don't know when night falls in this village. So eat and turn in early."
"Tomorrow morning we'll take a look around the village."
Liu Chengfeng arched an eyebrow:
"With all that time tonight, we're not going out for a stroll?"
He was remembering the last Blood Door: the ghost-woman had told them never to go to the third floor—and the path to survival had been hidden exactly there.
This time, the NPC called Hou Kong had told them not to go out at night. So maybe...
Bai Xiaoxiao gave him a look and said flatly:
"In the worlds behind the Blood Door, night is almost always lethally dangerous!"
"Think back to your last door—didn't the ghost do all its killing at night?"
"Without an explicit hint, or a concrete lead worth the risk, I don't recommend moving at night."
"Of course, if you fancy yourself Heaven's chosen one, pretend I said nothing."
Liu Chengfeng wilted on the spot.
The three of them ate dinner and returned to their rooms to rest.
And events proved Bai Xiaoxiao's experience was worth its weight.
Because at around seven o'clock, the sky over Rainprayer Village went dark at a visible speed.
From bright sunshine to pitch black took less than ten minutes in all!
Even from the scenic spot nearest the guesthouse, there was no walking back in ten minutes!
Which meant... anyone still out there hunting for survival clues now had to find their way back in the dark!
"It's not midnight yet. Should be fine, right?"
So Ning Qiushui told himself.
The moonlight was clear and bright; night had fallen outside, but the packed-mud road could still be made out.
The blood jade lay on the bed, shedding its faint glow.
He lay down and closed his eyes to rest.
Somewhere in the small hours, Ning Qiushui woke.
Something had startled him awake.
He could hear... some kind of sound in his room.
Almost in the same instant, Ning Qiushui came fully alert!
He held his breath and listened. Something seemed to be crawling across the floor of his room!
Skrrk—
Skrrk—
Whatever it was appeared to have claws; as it crawled, they scraped the floorboards with a sound that made his scalp prickle!
Ning Qiushui lay rigid.
He was almost certain: whatever this thing was... it could not possibly be human!
In his palm, the blood jade grew hotter and hotter.
"What is that thing... down there?"
Between his nostrils rose the thick smell of burning—the same scorched smell from that afternoon!
Ning Qiushui wanted desperately to turn his head and see what was below the bed... but his reason told him: do not move. Not now!
One movement... could be the difference between living and dying!
"Glk—"
An ugly, guttural sound escaped the horrible thing's throat. As it crawled, it seemed to sense Ning Qiushui—and suddenly came scrabbling toward his side of the bed!
The scrape of claws on floorboards was beyond horrifying. Ning Qiushui felt cold radiating from every pore. The reek of burning had seeped into every corner of the room; were he not fighting it with everything he had, he would have broken into violent coughing!
But he knew: right now, he absolutely must not cough!
He couldn't see the ghost-thing crawling below the bed, but Ning Qiushui had dimly worked it out: it couldn't see him either. It didn't know he was on the bed!
Under crushing psychological pressure, Ning Qiushui made not one single sound.
Sure enough—the ghost crawling through the room, barred by some restriction from climbing onto the bed, only scrabbled around beneath it a while. Having confirmed, at last, that what it sought wasn't there... it crawled back out the door.
On its way out, it even pulled the door shut for him.
"Well... polite little ghost, at least."
Ning Qiushui quipped to himself, mocking his own nerves.
But only he knew how deadly the last few minutes had truly been!
His guess was that if he'd made any real noise—or met the thing's eyes—it might well have dragged him away, or killed him outright!
With the burnt-smelling ghost gone, the scorched odor in the room faded considerably.
The blood jade in his palm gradually cooled as well, no longer scalding.
And just as he was settling down to sleep again—from outside the window came a man's scream, shrill beyond bearing!
That scream clawed straight into the soul, and drove every trace of drowsiness out of Ning Qiushui at once!