Wherever the golden light touched, the slime made a "sizzling" sound and emitted puffs of white smoke.

Those pale arms also retreated back into the cabinet.

Before I could even breathe a sigh of relief, the door to Tiger Cub's room creaked open, and the innocent laughter of children came from inside.

The laughter came from near and far, sometimes clear and sometimes blurry, and was mixed with the soft sound of tearing fabric.

A dark red light seeped through the crack in the door, staining the corridor floor with an eerie blood-red hue.

Suddenly, the laughter stopped abruptly.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of heavy objects being dragged came from the room, one after another, as if someone was dragging something heavy across the floor.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

Tiger Cub remained kneeling on the ground, the rag doll in front of him fully unfolded, its limbs revealing stark white bones.

"Grandpa, come play with me."

Tiger Cub tilted his head back, a red light flashing in his empty eyes, and his mouth stretched to his ears.

I noticed a huge lotus scroll pattern painted in blood on the wall behind him, exactly the same as the pattern on the cabinet door.

Suddenly, Li Xiulan's mother-in-law appeared out of nowhere, her fingernails turning black and sharp, and lunged straight at my face.

I dodged to the side and swung my sword at her, only to find that the blade passed right through her body, as if I had struck a phantom.

"Useless, you old fool!"

She let out a sharp, eerie laugh: "We're all part of the closet now!"

Before I could finish speaking, Li Xiulan's husband hugged me from behind with surprising strength.

I felt him gripping my neck tightly, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe.

In the nick of time, I reached for the cinnabar pouch at my waist and threw it at his face.

He let out a scream, released his grip, and took a few steps back, his face riddled with bloody holes from the cinnabar corrosion.

At this moment, a dark figure slowly emerged from the carved cabinet.

Its form was blurry and indistinct, yet it exuded a suffocating sense of oppression.

I raised the Thunderstrike Sword, its tip pointing at that thing.

"What exactly are you?!"

The dark figure let out a sinister laugh: "Me? I don't even know what I am, but your soul can be used to fill this cabinet!"