Chapter 41 Yin Shen Tattoo ④ 14th Floor: Just a little bit of risk-taker...

In late autumn in Hong Kong, a sticky, hot wind still lingers in the air.

At 9:00 a.m. sharp, Lan Shuyin steadily raised the selfie stick and aimed the camera at the dilapidated gray building behind her.

"Hey guys, did you see that? This building behind me is the much-talked-about Hai Tao Building in Hong Kong!"

This 1990s Hong Kong-style building stands quietly under the gray sky, exuding a lifeless and oppressive atmosphere.

"Legend has it that nine coffins were unearthed beneath the building when it was first built. The large-scale food poisoning incident ten years ago caused the building to decline rapidly. It was once a bustling place, but now there are hardly any shops left, and it's almost an empty building. Today, let's follow in Yinyin's footsteps and go inside to find out what's going on."

The main entrance of the building was blocked by a roller shutter, with a notice posted on it indicating access from the parking garage and several yellow talismans.

Lan Shuyin followed the signs and went around to the entrance of the underground parking garage.

It was a sloping driveway that went downhill. The light suddenly dimmed, and a smell mixed with dampness, mold, and stale odor hit us.

Lan Shuyin put on a headlamp and described the smell to the camera, "It smells awful here, like rotten food."

As she searched for an entrance into the building, she scanned the surroundings with her camera. Light swept across the moldy walls, and there were some abandoned vehicles and debris.

Lan Shuyin paused briefly as she passed an elevator door.

“This elevator,” Lan Shuyin’s voice took on a deliberately mysterious tone, “is said to be the most haunted place in the entire building. On certain nights, the elevator skips the third floor and goes straight to the fourth floor. When the doors open, there’s a terrifying space… If you walk out at that moment, you’ll never come back.”

As she spoke, she pressed the elevator button symbolically. "Sure enough, it's out of service."

Finally, I found an inconspicuous little door at the corner. Inside the door was a staircase leading upstairs, which also connected to the shops on this floor.

Lan Shuyin stepped over the threshold, but unexpectedly stepped into a puddle.

She immediately lifted her foot, the beam of light hitting the water's surface and reflecting the murky, floating impurities. "Just a reminder to everyone, avoid touching this kind of stagnant water if possible. Still water is extremely dirty, with lots of mold and bacteria, and those with weak constitutions are prone to getting sick."

She tiptoed carefully around the sizable puddle. Once past it, a damp, chilly atmosphere replaced the stuffy heat of the garage, and the environment changed abruptly.

The corridor on the second basement level had a very low ceiling, creating a very oppressive atmosphere. Several old incandescent light bulbs hung overhead, providing sufficient light, so Lan Shuyin turned off her headlamp.

The camera slowly pans, capturing the scene on both sides: most shops have dilapidated facades with shattered glass, and inside are piles of dirty mannequins and rotten wooden furniture. Broken signs hang askew, with words like "Xiangji Clothing" and "Shuangxi Jade" still faintly discernible. The further you go in, the more dilapidated the facades of incense and paper offering shops become.

At the end of the corridor, a single, steady light source caught Lan Shuyin's attention. She guessed that it was probably the "Mangshantang" that the sugar daddy wanted her to find.

Lan Shuyin put away the selfie stick, clipped the action camera to her collar, and kept the camera recording.

Despite having witnessed the environment, she no longer held much hope. What master would be willing to live in such a gloomy and dilapidated place?

However, no step of the required procedure can be omitted, and the necessary documentation must be presented to the client.

Upon closer inspection, she discovered that the shop did not have any signboard.

Only directly opposite the entrance, a huge embroidery occupies the entire wall—

A giant python, embroidered with dark green silk thread, coiled upwards, its scales gleaming with an eerie matte sheen in the dim light. Its eyes, inlaid with some kind of gemstone, gleamed with a cold green light in the flickering candlelight, as if coldly scrutinizing every living being that stepped into this place.

Lan Shuyin knew in her heart that this must be "Mangshantang" without a doubt, and quickly stepped across the threshold.

But the moment she stepped into the store, she felt as if she had entered the lair of some cold-blooded creature.

The air was thick with the pungent, almost choking smell of incense, with a faint, indescribable fishy odor. She felt a little suffocated and had to lift her hand to remove her mask.

In the dim light, she saw a tall, dark wooden shelf against the wall, displaying all sorts of dried animal heads with empty eye sockets.

The entire space was eerily quiet. Suppressing a chill that made her heart pound, Lan Shuyin tentatively asked a question towards the depths of the shop:

Is anyone there?

The sound echoed through the cramped space, carrying a faint, indistinct resonance.

However, the response did not come from the front.

Almost the instant she finished speaking, an old and hoarse voice rang out from behind her—

"It's you?"

These two short words are as cold as iron and as treacherous as a snake.

The moment the sound appeared, Lan Shuyin felt the hairs on her body stand on end.

She turned around abruptly, her pupils shrinking – standing before her was the very old man she had tried to avoid the night before!

At this moment, as she met those undisguised, eerie green vertical pupils again, a chill ran through Lan Shuyin's heart.

Just what I feared most has come to pass!

Wait... Could this old man be the master of Mangshantang?

Python, Python... those eyes...

A python that has become a spirit?

Lan Shuyin's mind raced, and she reacted quickly, a perfectly timed look of surprise flashing across her face before getting straight to the point, "Hello, is this Mangshan Hall?"

At the same time, she casually raised her hand and adjusted the action camera on her chest, silently reminding the other person that she was recording a video and should not make any rash moves.

The old man's cloudy green eyes flickered slightly, and a cold smile spread across his lips. His tone was aged and eerie, "Little girl, do you know what 'Mangshantang' does?"

"I'm here on behalf of a friend," Lan Shuyin replied, seemingly changing the subject. She took out her phone and showed him a picture of the arm. "He's had a lot of bad luck ever since he got a Sak Yant tattoo in Siam before the New Year, and now he's too scared to even leave the house. I heard there's a master here who can get rid of this?"

Her tone was sincere, her eyes innocent, perfectly portraying a visitor who was worried about her friend.

The old man neither confirmed nor denied her statement; his dark green vertical pupils stared intently into her eyes, as if trying to see into the depths of her soul.

After a moment, he suddenly twitched his nostrils and frowned slightly, saying, "I don't like the smell on you."

"Huh?" Lan Shuyin was taken aback. She subconsciously looked down and smelled herself. At most, she smelled a bit of the musty smell from the puddle of water, which was still much better than the fishy smell in the shop.

“It’s the stench of Black Law.” The old man slowly walked past her, bringing an invisible sense of oppression. Lan Shuyin tensed up, but he only took a deep sniff as he passed by her:

"It's very faint... but it can't be wrong. If you can bring that person over, I might consider helping you."

Lan Shuyin only asked the key question, "So there is a way to remove the tattoo, right?"

The old man nodded silently.

"That's fine then. I won't bother you any longer. I'll have him come over and we can talk in detail himself." Having gotten the answer she wanted, Lan Shuyin opened her phone's contacts, pretending to make a call, and walked quickly outside while talking.

"Hey, it's me. I just went to Mangshantang... Hmm, the master said there really is a way. Why don't you come over and we can talk in person... Hmm..."

She pretended to be on the phone and walked quickly outside. Even with her back to the shop, she could still feel a cold gaze fixed on her.

Only after running out of the dimly lit underground parking garage and breathing fresh air again did she finally put down her phone, whose screen had long since gone black, and let out a long sigh of relief.

The warm sunlight shone on my face, soothing the slight fear in my heart.

Lan Shuyin felt her steps were unsteady, but what followed was a stimulating sense of excitement.

She paused to catch her breath and checked the footage she had just shot. The footage only included the garage and the second basement level; it wasn't enough for an adventure video.

After a moment's hesitation, the eagerness in her heart ultimately overwhelmed everything. She turned around again and returned to the cold, dark underground parking garage.

However, when she passed by that elevator that had long since stopped operating, Lan Shuyin stopped in surprise.

The floor display screen on the right side of the elevator was glowing with a faint red light, clearly showing the numbers—[1]

Lan Shuyin decisively raised her selfie stick. "Guys, just a moment ago, the elevator actually opened?" She tentatively pressed the up button.

The button actually lit up!

Immediately afterwards, a dull metallic scraping sound and the hum of coiling cables came from the mechanical shaft overhead. The floor number began to change, from [1] to [B2].

After a moment, the stairwell doors slowly slid open to both sides, revealing a slightly old but brightly lit interior space.

"Let's go up and take a look." Lan Shuyin stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for floor [1] first, intending to explore each floor one by one.

The elevator ascended smoothly. Lan Shuyin stared listlessly at the red numbers flashing on the floor display screen—

【B2】……

【B1】……

【1】……

However, the elevator did not stop when it passed the [1] floor.

Even more strangely, the number displaying [1] was still lit up, as if what we had just passed was not the actual first floor, but an illusory sign.

The elevator continued to ascend, [2]...[3]...

Suddenly, the red number abruptly froze on a number that shouldn't exist:

【4】

Lan Shuyin glanced at the panel subconsciously; there was no button labeled [4], only the adjacent [3] and [5].

"bite--"

A soft beep sounded inside the elevator car, and the elevator doors slowly slid open to the sides.

Outside the door lay an unfinished, bare space. As far as the eye could see, all was silent, shrouded in a thick layer of dust and gloom. A faint, indistinct light seeped in from somewhere, barely outlining the blurry contours of the empty corridor stretching into the distance.

The eerie legend about the "threshold space" in Haitao Building flashed through Lan Shuyin's mind: It is said that there is a spacetime rift between the 3rd and 5th floors of this building, and once you accidentally enter it, you will be lost forever.

While the scientific explanation makes sense—the number "4" was skipped due to taboo, the floor itself exists, but the developer didn't renovate or put it into use to save costs—the so-called paranormal phenomena are mostly caused by the activities of maintenance personnel late at night.

But at this moment, witnessing the elevator suddenly stop on the 4th floor, Lan Shuyin's heart still raced uncontrollably, and all sorts of absurd thoughts flooded her mind uncontrollably.

Fortunately, she was a woman who had seen a lot. Almost the instant the door opened, Lan Shuyin quickly raised her hand and pressed all the floor buttons on the control panel from top to bottom!

Each button lit up, forming a cluster of bright spots.

There's no way she'll go out. She just likes to take a little risks, not that she likes to court death.

The open staircase door seemed to linger in front of Lan Shuyin for what felt like an eternity before finally closing slowly, shutting out that eerie space.

The elevator gave a slight jolt and then continued to ascend.

The Haitao Building has 23 floors. She pressed all the buttons for each floor, but instead of stopping at each floor as expected, the elevator continued upwards…

【7】……

[8]...

[9]...

When the display screen switched to [14], a faint but sharp noise, mixed with shrill screams, pierced through the tightly closed stairwell door and came in clearly! The sound was chaotic and piercing, as if many people outside were in extreme panic.

Lan Shuyin suddenly remembered the rumors about this floor. A horror escape room shop used to be located on the 14th floor, but not long after, three customers mysteriously committed suicide by jumping off the building. The shop had been closed and abandoned for many years.

This horror story was originally something she planned to tell her friends when she reached the 14th floor.

The elevator continued to ascend, and the numbers kept changing.

[15]...

[16]...

...

Finally, it stopped on the top floor, the 23rd floor.

The indicator light on panel [23] is off, as if silently declaring that this floor is safe.

However, the ladder door remained closed for a long time.

In this eerie stillness—

boom!

The elevator jolted violently, followed by a piercing metallic scraping sound! Then, it plummeted completely out of control!

A sharp feeling of weightlessness gripped Lan Shuyin's heart, as if her internal organs had been violently thrown into her throat. The lights flickered wildly, crackling with electrical activity, and the elevator creaked and groaned under the strain, as if it were about to fall apart at any moment!

Damn it, what the hell is this elevator? I didn't see any spirits, so why is it so weird?!

Lan Shuyin slammed heavily against the sedan wall amidst the violent shaking. She groaned as the selfie stick slipped from her hand. But she didn't panic. Instinctively, she quickly curled up, leaning against the corner to lower her center of gravity, and gripped the handrail tightly with both hands.

She forced herself to calm down, her eyes fixed on the floor screen where garbled characters were flashing wildly.

Amidst the chilling whistling sound, she reached out and slammed her hand on the emergency call button.

"Beep—beep—"

The long, drawn-out dial tone echoed inside the elevator car, but no one responded.

All the floor buttons she had pressed on the panel were now flashing wildly as if they were malfunctioning! The red and green lights alternated, casting her face in flickering light.

The fall continued, as if it were heading straight for hell.

Sudden!

"Clang—!"

A loud metallic scraping and tearing sound rang out, accompanied by a sudden jolt, as if the elevator had been gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand and brought to an abrupt stop!

The immense inertia flung Lan Shuyin forward, but thankfully she held on tightly to the handrail.

She looked up, still breathless, at the elevator screen—

The bright red numbers above stopped changing and froze at:

【14】

This time, the ladder door opened very quickly.

The area outside wasn't a bare, empty space, but rather a renovated corridor with faded, peeling graffiti on the walls and scattered broken bricks and discarded building materials on the ground.

In the distance, a shop with a sign that read "Ghost Vine Immersion" hangs in front of it, clearly the closure of that horror escape room.

At that moment, four young people who looked like college students, two men and two women, were huddled in the depths of the corridor, all staring intently at the dark corner with pale faces.

Hearing the elevator doors open, they looked up abruptly, their faces instantly lighting up with the ecstatic joy of escaping a desperate situation—

"Elevator! The elevator is here!"

"Hurry! Get inside!"

The group scrambled over, and when they saw Lan Shuyin stepping out of the elevator, they were clearly stunned. But their extreme fear made them forget everything else, and they rushed into the elevator, frantically pounding on the close button.

However, the elevator doors remained open for a long time.

"Why?! Why isn't it responding?" A bespectacled boy yelled in near despair, pounding on the button panel.

Seeing their horrified expressions, Lan Shuyin felt a little calmer and steadied her breathing.

Yes, they are all living, breathing people.

But what could possibly frighten a group of people like that?

"ah--!"

A piercing scream suddenly came from afar.

Lan Shuyin looked in the direction of the sound, and her pupils suddenly contracted.

A short-haired girl scrambled out from around the corner, her face deathly pale, her eyes filled with indescribable terror.

Behind her, a bloated, bluish-gray figure almost floated close behind her—it was a fat man with a deathly pale face. He grinned as he pressed the girl against the wall, then wrapped his arms around her and forced her to strangle her neck with her own hands!

"Jingyu!" A long-haired girl screamed and tried to rush over.

"Don't go over there! She's possessed too!" another boy pulled her back.

The girl named Jingyu's face had turned from red to a horrifying bluish-purple, and she was making weak, struggling sounds in her throat.

The long-haired girl broke free of her restraints and rushed to her companion, trying to pry open the hand that was choking her. The other three companions, seeing this, could only go to help, but to no avail.

They seemed completely blind to the evil spirit that was forcing their companion to choke him.

Lan Shuyin put the selfie stick into her backpack and casually put the backpack on the ground.

Then he bent down and picked up a relatively intact brick from the pile of scrap. He wiped the brick with his left hand, which was already covered in cinnabar, and then carried the brick toward them.

"What...what do you want to do?!"

The bespectacled boy noticed her actions. Seeing her holding a dangerous weapon and looking menacing, a flicker of fear crossed his eyes. But he gritted his teeth and suddenly lunged at Lan Shuyin.

Lan Shuyin deftly turned to the side and raised her leg, delivering a straight kick to the opponent's abdomen.

"ah!"

The boy cried out in pain and was thrown out, his back slamming hard against the elevator door, where he collapsed to the ground.

Without pausing or bothering to explain, she rushed towards the evil spirit. Raising her arm high, she slammed the brick smeared with dark red cinnabar down hard!

The moment the brick touched the spirit, it emitted a hissing sound like a branding iron scalding flesh, and a pungent, burnt smell.

The evil spirit let out a piercing, mournful howl, its entire form twisting and disintegrating violently before quickly melting away like ice and snow scorched by the blazing sun.

The control that had been wrapped around her arm suddenly vanished, and Chang Jingyu collapsed, coughing and gasping violently, with dark purple finger marks clearly visible on her neck.

"There's...there's one more..." Chang Jingyu had just caught her breath when she grabbed Lan Shuyin's wrist tightly, her hand trembling as she pointed to the dark corner at the end of the corridor, "They're chasing our friend...please..."

"I'll go take a look." Lan Shuyin weighed the brick in her hand and strode into the darkness.

After turning the corner, the corridor grew narrower and more dilapidated, with large patches of paint peeling off the walls. A dim light emanated from a half-open iron door, from which faint, suppressed sobs and scratching sounds could be heard.

She kicked the iron gate open.

Inside the door is a locked-room escape room set up like a hospital ward, with dark stains everywhere.

At this moment, a boy wearing a sweatshirt is being held down on a hospital bed by a thin, bamboo-like spirit wearing a tattered hospital gown!

The spirit's arms were unusually long and soft, wrapping around the boy's neck like withered branches, while the fingertips of its other hand were almost piercing his temple.

Wu Yang?

Upon seeing the boy's face clearly, a hint of surprise flashed in Lan Shuyin's eyes, but her actions were without the slightest hesitation. She strode forward, and the brick, stained with vermilion, whistled through the air as it swung out again, striking the slender spirit's back!

"Awooo—!"

The slender spirit let out a sharp, piercing screech, and the force binding Wu Yang suddenly loosened. However, it did not dissolve like the fat spirit before it; the part struck by the cinnabar only emitted a hissing burning sound and wisps of black smoke.

It whirled around—its face had no features, only a terrifyingly smooth expanse of skin, and it stared directly at Lan Shuyin—

For some reason, Lan Shuyin felt a chill and suddenly thought of the flesh statue in Xiangweng Temple.

"Sister Yin!"

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Wu Yang broke free from his restraints, rolled off the hospital bed, and curled up at Lan Shuyin's feet, trembling violently.

The shout brought her back to her senses, and she swung the brick at the faceless spirit's head again. Cinnabar sparks flew as the spirit, utterly enraged, abandoned Wu Yang, and charged forward with chilling malice!

Lan Shuyin cursed under her breath, dodging its sharp claws, and hurled the brick at its ribs again. This time, the cinnabar burned even deeper, but it only slightly slowed its movements.

Realizing it was no ordinary creature, Lan Shuyin made a quick decision, "Let's go!" She grabbed Wu Yang and rushed out the door.

The faceless spirit roared in anger, but stopped abruptly when it reached the iron gate. It stood frozen in the shadows behind the gate, its unwilling howls gradually fading into the darkness and disappearing from sight.

...

Lan Shuyin pulled the still-shaken Wu Yang back down the corridor. Chang Jingyu was the first to rush over, anxiously supporting the pale-faced boy and asking repeatedly with concern, "How are you? Are you hurt?"

Lan Shuyin released her grip and calmly surveyed the others present.

When his gaze swept over the boy with glasses, the boy immediately shrank back half a step, instinctively clutching his still-aching ribs, his face filled with lingering fear.

The others looked at her with similar expressions of awe, mixed with a hint of doubt and fear.

There was no sense of relief at surviving the ordeal; an unease permeated the air, causing everyone to fall into an unusual silence.

The silence was broken by Lan Shuyin, who asked, "What's going on here?"

Chang Jingyu, who had just finished asking Wu Yang about her well-being, turned around, took a deep breath, and told her what had happened.

It turns out that all six of them were members of the Hong Kong University Adventure Club, and the bespectacled boy, Mingxuan, was their club president. This weekend, the club organized this adventure activity in the Hai Tao Building, planning to stay from morning until night to experience the atmosphere of the building at different times of the day.

However, the strangeness began the moment they stepped into the elevator—it took them to the 14th floor without any intervention. Worse still, the elevator completely malfunctioned upon arrival, and no matter how many buttons they pressed, there was no response.

They were trapped on this floor. At first, although everyone felt something was amiss, they didn't realize the danger approaching. To pass the time and seek excitement, Mingxuan suggested playing the famous spirit-summoning game—the Four Corners Game—on this abandoned floor.

“We just thought it would be fun, we never expected…” Chang Jingyu’s voice was filled with lingering fear, “that we would actually attract something unclean.”

The strangest thing is that, apart from her and Wu Yang, the other four people couldn't see those terrifying beings at all.