Zhan Wenzhen pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting a cold light in the dim light: "He broke the rules, he damaged 'specific things that cannot be damaged'..."

The main hall where the wedding ceremony was held was clearly a 'special place'. The backlash from the rules meant Hu Junyuan didn't even have time to resist before he was stripped bare.

His voice remained calm, but beneath that calmness lay a deeper chill.

"How so?" Xiao Jin interjected.

Zhan Wenzhen turned his head and said, "I looked around and there were basically no signs of a fight, and the damage caused by the props was very limited."

Furthermore, Hu Junyuan stated that he was a sniper, so did any of you hear any gunshots?

Xiao Jin lowered her eyes upon hearing this.

I definitely didn't hear it.

Moreover, even with a silencer, one's keen senses would not miss a deliberately suppressed gunshot.

This only proves that Zhan Wenchen's speculation was completely correct.

“Our previous exploration was forcibly halted, and the butler and those ‘servants’ have demonstrated power far exceeding that of the previous scattered attacks. A head-on confrontation would be unwise.”

Wen Baiqiu stood by the window, a corner of his white suit peeking out from under his red robe. He frowned slightly as he gazed at the outline of the ancient house outside the window, which appeared even more sinister under the firelight.

The strange feeling that had lingered since entering the mansion now clung to it even more tightly, like cold vines.

He unconsciously twirled his fingertips, a faint halo of light flowing and then extinguishing between them. Then Wen Baiqiu's eyes went blank, as if he were looking at something in the distance.

"Let's just take it one step at a time!" Bai Yang shrugged.

Liu Man frowned: "Wouldn't this put us in a passive position? Why don't we try to get some information out of the housekeeper again!" She wanted to pass the level as soon as possible.

Chu Yuan tilted his head: "Auntie, you seem quite confident. I happen to have an idea. You'd be the perfect person to go, and you can also get the information out of them while you're at it."

Auntie...?

Liu Man hung her head, her face contorted beyond recognition.

But Chu Yuan is not someone she can afford to offend.

"You...you're joking. I don't have any special skills. I have to rely on everyone!" Liu Man forced a smile.

Moreover, judging from Chu Yuan's words alone, she didn't think he had any good ideas. He probably wanted to push her out as cannon fodder!

"Then shut up." Chu Yuan's expression suddenly changed, and the surrounding air became so gloomy that it seemed as if water could drip from it.

"Since you know you're just dragging the team down, then stop trying to get attention. Even though this isn't a PvP instance and there are no rewards for killing, you all know my temper."

Chu Yuan was warning Liu Man, but also warning everyone else.

The main reason was that Hu Junyuan taught him a lesson. He had only been in the dungeon for a few hours when Hu Junyuan gave him a huge lesson.

Thankfully, nothing happened. If something had gone wrong, the difficulty of the dungeon would have skyrocketed, and a battle royale mode might have been activated.

There was once a player who killed a key NPC, causing the quest to mutate, and in the end, only one player survived in the entire instance.

"Uh-huh……"

"Yes, yes, we will definitely listen to Commander Chu."

A sensible player would certainly not confront Chu Yuan directly, but what they are thinking is another matter.

Xiao Jin leaned against the door of her room, her back against the cold door panel.

Stray hairs fell across her forehead, obscuring most of her eyes, revealing only a hint of red beneath her eyelids.

She closed her eyes, seemingly resting, but in reality, her mind was highly focused. Amo sat cross-legged on her lap, its cold scales transmitting subtle fluctuations of yin energy from the surrounding area.

Lu Jing is right. Impulsiveness leads to death, but sitting idly by and waiting for death is also a dead end. Disrupting the wedding is the right direction, but we need to be smarter.

Clearly, the bald man paid the price for his recklessness.

Faintly, Xiao Jin recalled the butler's stiff voice at the end: "[The fire is under control. The wedding will be postponed until midnight tomorrow. Distinguished guests, please rest well tonight...]"

Rest? Rest in this godforsaken place?

But there was no other choice.

…………

Night, like thick ink, completely engulfed the ancient house.

The light from the large red lanterns seemed to be suppressed by an invisible force, becoming increasingly dim and reddish, only able to illuminate a small area, casting distorted and elongated shadows, like lurking ghosts.

The deathly silence did not last long.

"Waaaaah...waaaah...waaaah..."

A faint, extremely suppressed sob from a woman, like a cold spider's web, drifted out from the deepest darkness of the old house and burrowed into everyone's ears.

The cries were intermittent, filled with endless sorrow, despair, and deep-seated resentment.

Then came the heavy sound of rusty metal scraping against the ground.

"Splash... splash... splash..."

One after another.

Slow and sluggish, yet with a chilling sense of regularity, as if something were dragging a huge iron chain, moving step by step across the cold ground.

From afar, it came closer, so clear in the dead of night that it seemed to be right next to my ear!

The source of the sound seemed to be slowly approaching the West Garden wing room along the corridor!

Fear, like ice water, instantly permeated all the players.

As it's the first night inside the instance, practically no one gets any real rest.

Inside the room, Lin Xia and Bai Yang lay on their beds, each covering their mouths tightly, their bodies trembling like leaves in a storm, their teeth chattering.

Liu Man curled up even tighter. Instead of lying down, she sat in a chair not far away, her fingernails almost digging into the armrest.

Chu Yuan clenched his fists, his muscles tense like iron, and stared fiercely into the thick darkness outside the door.

Zhan Wenzhen held his breath, listened intently, and tried to analyze the pattern of the sound source. A sliver of light flickered again at Wen Baiqiu's fingertips.

In Lu Jing's room, the sound of the bone whip rubbing together disappeared, leaving only a deathly silence.

Suddenly, Amo, who was on Xiao Jin's lap, raised his head sharply, his scarlet vertical pupils staring intently at the direction of the door, and let out a threatening hiss.

The cries and the creaking of chains, like maggots clinging to bones, grew closer and clearer in the deathly silence... as if they were lingering right outside the door!

"Waaah...waaah...let me out...it's so cold...it hurts so much..."

The crying was mixed with indistinct, delirious pleas, so piercing it sent chills down one's spine!

"No...don't come any closer!" A suppressed scream suddenly erupted from a side room!

It's that female player named Wang Yuqing. She and her boyfriend, Lü Yiming, share a room.

"Yuqing, don't be afraid! I'm here!" Lu Yiming's voice tried to be calm, but the end of his voice trembled.

The sound of chains dragging seemed to stop outside their door, while the mournful weeping and cold murmurs seemed to seep in through the crack in the door!

"Ouch...it hurts...ah..."