Nan Yue rubbed the goosebumps on her arms. "Was anyone speaking?"
Gu Xiang Kai shook his head. "No. Aside from the sound of running footsteps, there was nothing at all."
"To be honest, when people run, their clothes rustle and their breathing becomes heavy. With that many people running together, there are bound to be collisions..."
Gu Xiang Kai's expression soured as he recalled the sounds from the night before. "But there was none of that. It was as if those footsteps appeared out of thin air, as if they weren't made by people."
Zhu Xi Ning nodded frantically beside him. "At the very least, they weren't made by anyone with a physical body."
Nan Yue remained silent. Zhu Xi Ning's imagination was also quite terrifying.
"So when you said something happened...?"
Gu Xiang Kai cleared his throat. "The footsteps lasted for a long time. Since there was no further movement, we didn't move either and just kept observing."
"But someone couldn't take it anymore."
Humans fear the uncanny most of all. Compared to visible horrors, the invisible ones are often more agonizing.
Because they cannot see, they become intensely curious, even scaring themselves with the images they conjure in their minds.
And since they were currently on a mission, the pressure was anything but small.
"Someone went out?"
Gu Xiang Kai paused for a moment. "Yes. But to be precise, it didn't seem like they went out voluntarily."
"It seemed to be in the inner residence. I heard someone asking if he was possessed and telling him not to open the door. Later, there were some senseless screams."
"After that, the sound of a door opening rang out."
Zhu Xi Ning's expression was tense. She hadn't slept since the footsteps started. She didn't know what the people in that courtyard had done, or why someone would ignore their companions' warnings and open the door despite knowing they shouldn't go out at night.
Eerie, silent footsteps, a suddenly possessed companion...
After hearing this, Nan Yue asked, "Was there the sound of a door closing?"
Gu Xiang Kai gave Nan Yue a deep look. "...Yes."
"It was closed shortly after it opened. This door is old, so it makes noise whenever it's opened or closed. It was very obvious in the dead of night."
Gu Xiang Kai added, "And the sound of the door opening and closing was very steady, not like it was done in a state of agitation."
Nan Yue lowered her gaze. "So, for some reason, this person suddenly opened the door and walked out, then even gently closed the door for their companions."
Doing something normal in an eerie place made it seem even more horrifying and strange. No wonder the two of them hadn't slept afterward.
Gu Xiang Kai glanced at the brightening sky outside. "There was no more movement after that. The footsteps vanished just as dawn was breaking."
It wasn't fully light yet, so they hadn't dared to go out, but now it was time to investigate.
When the three of them stepped out, the door opposite them also opened. The three people inside were unharmed, though Lu Jiao looked quite haggard. Dongfang Yuelai and Chang'an looked the same as yesterday.
The door next to Nan Yue's was still tightly shut, though there was a fair amount of rustling inside. It was clear they were awake but didn't dare to come out.
The six of them walked toward the inner courtyard. Both bedroom doors in the inner courtyard were tightly closed. The ground was paved with pebbles in a pattern just like the outer courtyard, but it wasn't a yin and yang symbol. Instead, it was a square frame.
Nan Yue's brow furrowed deeply, not only because of the thick, overwhelming scent of blood but also because of what she saw.
In the center of the square frame formed by the black pebbles in the inner courtyard sat a pile of skeletons.
The bones were piled into a pyramid, with a human head perched at the very top.
Unlike the body, the skin and flesh of the head were still intact, his face a mask of agony and terror.
This person was none other than Gao Suqi, who had been among the first to side with He Jiang's team.
Gao Suqi didn't have many distinguishing features, aside from a large black mole near his mouth. Nan Yue recognized him at a glance.
Gu Xiang Kai stared intently for a moment before walking to one of the doors and knocking. A terrified voice came from inside.
"Who! Who's out there!"
To Gu Xiang Kai's surprise, the voice belonged to He Jiang's number one lackey, Li Maocai.
"The living! Open up!"
Li Maocai's voice was filled with panic as he shrieked shrilly, "Who knows if you're human or ghost! Get lost! Go away!"
Gu Xiang Kai didn't feel like wasting words with them. He raised his leg and kicked the door open.
Li Maocai and Tan Hao screamed as they clung to each other. They only sighed in relief once they saw it was Gu Xiang Kai.
Gu Xiang Kai frowned as he scanned the room. There were no strange marks inside. Li Maocai and a frail-looking Tan Hao were huddled together in the corner furthest from the door, trembling.
"What happened last night? How did that man die?"
Li Maocai's bulging eyes were full of panic as he shook his head blankly. "I don't know! It has nothing to do with me!"
Gu Xiang Kai looked at him suspiciously. Usually, those who immediately try to distance themselves are the ones involved.
He had seen many such lowlifes. He lowered his voice. "His corpse is right outside. Do you know how miserably he died? Do you want to end up like that?"
Li Maocai let out a cry and tried to hug Gu Xiang Kai, only to be kicked to the floor by the latter's long leg.
"It's not my fault! I really don't know! Those footsteps outside were too strange... No, he just made a hole in the window to look, and then he walked out on his own as if he were possessed..."
Li Maocai was covered in a cold sweat, hugging himself as he repeatedly recalled the scene from the previous night.
Gao Suqi had been forced to take a look outside. After that, his entire demeanor had turned strange. His body became rigid, and a bizarre smile was plastered on his face.
It looked as if someone were forcing him to smile, a sight that made one's skin crawl.
Smiling, Gao Suqi walked to the door with stiff, measured steps and opened it.
By then, Li Maocai and Tan Hao already knew something was wrong and had hidden far away. Fortunately, Gao Suqi didn't attack them. Instead, he walked out and even gently pulled the door shut behind him.
Only, just as he was closing the door, Gao Suqi had glanced at the two of them. The despair and plea for help in his eyes were unmistakable, nearly making Li Maocai wet his pants.
"When he opened the door, did you see what was outside?"
Li Maocai shook his head repeatedly. "I didn't dare! Who would dare to look? Didn't Gao Suqi turn into that just from one look?"
Gu Xiang Kai let out a cold laugh. "You certainly seem to understand that well."
Li Maocai felt no guilt for causing Gao Suqi's death. If he hadn't forced Gao Suqi to look back then, the one dead now would have been him.
Nothing mattered more than survival in the face of death.
Seeing that he couldn't get anything more out of these two, Gu Xiang Kai went back outside, just in time to see He Jiang and his group opening their door next door.
In truth, He Jiang and the others hadn't slept at all. The commotion last night had been too terrifying, and since they were close to Li Maocai's room, they had heard everything even more clearly.
This was why they hadn't dared to come out even after daybreak, only opening their door once they heard the commotion from Gu Xiang Kai and the others.
He Jiang hadn't slept all night and was getting on in years, so he looked extremely haggard. He still tried to maintain an air of authority, but at that moment, everyone's attention was drawn to the small mountain of skeletons.
"Someone... someone really died!"
"That's... that's Gao Suqi!"
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