Mysterious Resurgence: Starting with the Strange Bus

Chapter 28 The Person in the Red Coffin

"Clang~"

Just as Li Hui was peering into the darkness outside the door, a slight noise coming from inside the building caught his attention.

The sound was coming from the second floor.

Looking up, the environment upstairs was much darker than the first floor. Although it wasn't as dark as the extreme darkness outside the door, it still affected visibility, making it difficult to see anything.

From Li Hui's perspective, he could only see the staircase and the corner of the second floor; he couldn't see the view above the second floor.

A staircase winds its way through the building, connecting the first and second floors.

The stairs are also made of wood, and some of the planks used as steps are already rotten, which makes people seriously doubt their load-bearing capacity and whether they can withstand an adult stepping up the stairs.

"Is there a ghost on the second floor? Or... is it Ye Zhen making the noise?"

Li Hui's expression shifted slightly as he gazed towards the second floor. He wanted to ask a question, but he stopped himself, hesitant to speak.

This old building is too eerie, exuding a cold and sinister aura. Who knows what supernatural rules exist there, and countless dangers lurk in the shadows.

the most important is.

Almost all old houses look the same, and Li Hui couldn't tell its specific era just from the layout of this room.

If it were on Earth, it would be fine, but in this mysteriously resurrected world, old houses, especially those that might be related to the Republic of China era, represent immense danger.

Even with the supernatural abilities of driving a three-story bus, it still wasn't enough.

"Want to go up and take a look?"

Li Hui hesitated. He not only wanted to confirm whether Ye Zhen was on the second floor, but also wanted to find a way out.

The darkness outside the door was too eerie; there seemed to be quite a few vengeful spirits standing in the darkness. If possible, he wanted to find another way out.

The rooms on both sides of the lobby on the first floor also pose unknown dangers. Even Ye Zhen suffered serious injuries in one of them. Therefore, the only remaining possibility for another exit is the second floor.

and……

This old building appears to have collapsed in several places due to years of disrepair. Judging from the size of the holes created, they are large enough for an adult to climb out.

Tatata!
With that in mind, Li Hui took action and started walking towards the stairs.

crunch~

The moment Li Hui stepped onto the stairs, the wooden staircase immediately emitted a series of teeth-grinding sounds, which echoed throughout the floors, sounding particularly eerie and sinister.

The staircase has twenty-four steps, more than a third of which are severely rotten. Li Hui did not test the load-bearing capacity of the rotten planks and stepped directly over them onto the seemingly normal steps.

The process of going upstairs went smoothly, and no supernatural phenomena occurred on the stairs, which made Li Hui, who was prepared to be attacked by a vengeful ghost, breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Soon, he arrived at the second floor.

The environment on this floor is much darker than on the first floor, which affects visibility, but it is still possible to see things with difficulty, although the view is not as clear as on the first floor.

Meanwhile, the items on the second floor are more numerous and more bizarre than those on the first floor.

In the living room on the second floor, there were five coffins, four of which were black and had a large character "奠" (meaning "offering sacrifice") printed on their sides. The last one was a red coffin, placed in the center of the hall, surrounded by the four black coffins.

The paint on the red coffin was incredibly vibrant, as if it had been stained with blood. Placed in such an eerie spot, it evoked a strange sense of gloom.

Besides the five coffins, the walls of the living room were also covered with many other items, the most numerous being oil paintings of various styles.

Each oil painting has a different subject matter; some depict a man, others a woman, some a child, and still others are landscape paintings.

Looking at the oil paintings hanging on the living room wall, Li Hui frowned. He wondered if these paintings were related to the S-level paranormal event that was spreading all over the world.

"It shouldn't be related." After thinking for a moment, Li Hui shook his head, dismissing his suspicion.

The reason is simple: if these oil paintings hanging on the wall were truly works derived from ghost paintings and supernatural phenomena, then given the supernatural nature of ghost paintings, that hazy, paper-dust-covered ghost realm would have already extended over and enveloped everything around it.

Unless... some kind of supernatural force in this old building suppresses the supernatural force of the ghost painting.

Bang~!
Just then, another voice broke the deathly silence. This time, Li Hui heard it clearly; the voice came from inside the red coffin.

For an instant.

Li Hui's attention was completely drawn to the red coffin. From his angle, he could only see the side of the coffin. Then, Li Hui moved a few steps to the side and shifted his focus to the front of the coffin.

"That is……"

When Li Hui moved to the front of the coffin, he saw an extremely strange scene: a black and white portrait was pasted on the front of the red coffin.

The photo looks like a composite. The person in the portrait has an old man on the left side, with white hair and a face full of wrinkles, while the person on the right side looks like a handsome young man.

Most importantly, Li Hui recognized this half of the face; the face belonged to Ye Zhen.

"Is Ye Zhen inside this red coffin?"

Li Hui was somewhat surprised, but he did not immediately step forward to open the coffin to verify it. Instead, he continued to examine the red coffin.

He discovered that the black-and-white portrait photo pasted on the red coffin kept changing over time.

The space occupied by the left half of the old man's face is gradually shrinking, while Ye Zhen's face is expanding. Originally, only half of the facial contours were visible, but now almost two-thirds of them are visible.

"What's going on? Is Ye Zhen being possessed by a supernatural entity, or is he trying to invade and control the supernatural entity inside this coffin?"

Judging from the changes in the black and white portrait, Li Hui guessed that there should be two people inside the red coffin, one of whom was Ye Zhen, and the other was the old man in the portrait photo.

It was also a vengeful ghost!
He wasn't sure whether Ye Zhen was experiencing a supernatural invasion or whether he was controlling a supernatural entity, which was the main reason he didn't immediately go forward to open the coffin.

Li Hui feared that his sudden opening of the coffin would disrupt some kind of supernatural balance inside, and he also feared that there was no Ye Zhen inside the coffin at all, only a vengeful ghost, and that the photo on the portrait was just some kind of supernatural phenomenon.

Bang! Bang bang!
Just as Li Hui continued to observe, the red coffin became even more violent. The coffin was shaking, and cracks even appeared in some places, as if something inside was forcefully hitting the coffin.

at the same time.

At this moment, blood began to seep out of the black and white portrait. The blood was scarlet and viscous, and it quickly covered the entire portrait. Then it flowed out of the portrait and extended towards the red coffin.

Before long, even the red coffin was completely covered by the scarlet, viscous blood, as if a new layer of paint had been applied to it, making it unnaturally bright.

boom!
At this moment, the coffin shook even more, jumping up from the ground several times. Even the coffin lid fell off and shattered into red wood chips.

After the coffin lid fell off, Li Hui took a few steps forward, seemingly trying to see what was inside the coffin, but he failed.

The coffin was filled with a crimson, viscous blood that had submerged everything inside. The blood possessed a strange, eerie power and exuded a chilling aura.

But the next moment.

A hand, its flesh severely corroded and revealing black bone, suddenly emerged from the pool of blood inside the coffin.

He was also holding a long sword that was bent, deformed, and full of nicks in his palm.

"It's Ye Zhen!"

The moment Li Hui saw the longsword, he recognized the other party's identity, even though the hand did not look like a normal person's hand, but rather more like the hand of a vengeful ghost.

next moment.

As if unable to withstand some immense impact, cracks appeared on the red coffin, which shattered into pieces and eventually broke completely, with scarlet blood gushing out and spreading to the surrounding ground.

At the same moment the coffin shattered, Ye Zhen's voice rang out: "You think you can kill me, Ye Zhen, with your ghostly appearance? You overestimate yourself."

As the words fell.

Ye Zhen stood up from the blood-soaked living room floor, looked in Li Hui's direction, and said:

"Little Li, you've come in too. Very good. This time, I'll show you my unparalleled prowess. There are quite a few fierce ghosts in this place. Watch how I slay them all."

As he spoke, Ye Zhen brandished the longsword in his hand, which was bent, deformed, and full of nicks, and said, "See this? This peerless sword of mine."

"The reason it has become this ghostly state is entirely because it fought alongside me, Ye, in this haunted place, slaying ghosts. I just kept slaying it back and forth between upstairs and downstairs for a full twenty minutes without stopping for a moment, without even blinking."

As he spoke, Ye Zhen seemed to realize something, glanced at the scarlet blood stained on his body, and then shouted.

"I, Ye, am invincible in my life, with a majestic figure and unparalleled in the world. How can I be defiled by you filthy things? Get out of my way!"

this moment.

Ye Zhen used his supernatural power. The light of the ghost realm flashed by, and the scarlet blood that had stained his body disappeared, its whereabouts unknown.

But Ye Zhen's ghost domain only lasted for a few seconds before disappearing again. A powerful supernatural force emerged from inside the house, suppressing his ghost domain.

Even Ye Zhen couldn't use his Ghost Domain to teleport away, because his Ghost Domain couldn't expand outwards; it could only barely cover himself for a moment, and it would be suppressed as soon as it tried to extend outwards.

Do you know how to get out of here?

At this moment, Li Hui spoke up, asking the question he wanted to know, completely ignoring Ye Zhen's witty remarks.

"This godforsaken place is easy to get into but hard to get out of!"

Speaking of leaving, Ye Zhen's face turned grim. "I didn't initially enter this old house, but rather a dark alleyway, and later..."

"After entering this old house, I tried to leave through the main gate, intending to cross that darkness."

“There are many vengeful ghosts in the darkness, and they are quite terrifying, but they are still far inferior to me, Ye. I fought my way through, but when I left the darkness, I inexplicably returned to this old house.”

"I appeared in a room on one side of the lobby on the first floor. There was a vengeful ghost lying on the bed in that room. It was quite powerful and took several of my sword strikes to repel it..."

"..."

Listening to Ye Zhen's account, Li Hui roughly understood the other party's experience of entering this haunted place, and also learned about some of the supernatural rules inside this old building, where one could easily be attacked by vengeful ghosts if one was not careful.

Ye Zhen described it very casually. In his description, he himself was an invincible figure, and all the evil spirits were easily repelled or suppressed by him.

But Li Hui knew that the actual situation was not like that. If another ghost tamer had experienced the supernatural attacks that Ye Zhen had experienced before, they would probably have died dozens of times over.

This can be seen from Ye Zhen's current state.

At this moment, the skin on Ye Zhen's hands had completely rotted, as if it had been corroded by something. The flesh had peeled off, revealing the eerie black bones inside, just like the bones of a dead person.

Moreover, as time went on, this blackness continued to spread, encroaching on Ye Zhen's arm.

This is a sign that the evil spirit is reviving, which shows how many times Ye Zhen used supernatural power in those short twenty minutes.

But the same thing.

As the resurgence of the vengeful spirit intensifies, the supernatural power wielded by Ye Zhen also becomes more terrifying. The vengeful spirit, which was originally impossible to defeat, is successfully repelled and suppressed after his supernatural power intensifies.

"Didn't you try to climb out through the hole in the collapsed roof?" Li Hui asked the question that concerned him the most.

He came up to the second floor not only to confirm whether Ye Zhen was on this floor, but also, more importantly, to see if he could leave through the collapsed roof.

Ye Zhen recounted his experiences for a long time, from entering the supernatural place to being attacked and lying in the coffin, but he didn't mention his experience of leaving through the hole in the roof.

"no!"

Ye Zhen glanced at Li Hui with displeasure and said loudly, "Who am I, Ye? Asia's number one ghost tamer, known in the industry as Invincible Ye! Would I do something like crawling through a dog hole?"

Fine.

Li Hui finally understood: the clown was himself.

Hoping to get useful clues from Ye Zhen is simply wishful thinking.

The other person's thought process is different from that of a normal person. They never think about leaving this place by other means. All they think about is how to kill the evil spirits here and force their way out.

In a sense, it's normal for Ye Zhen to have this kind of thought, because this is his consistent approach when facing the supernatural.

No schemes, no vengeful spirits, no rules of killing, no matter what abilities the vengeful spirits possess—all are disregarded; the only principle is recklessness.

Let alone at this point in time, even in the later part of the original work, Ye Zhen, who had experienced defeat more than once, was the same. He was not afraid of anything except coffin nails and just went for it.

After thinking for a moment, Li Hui said, "Throughout history, true heroes have never acted rashly, but rather have been able to bend and stretch."

"How can leaving through a collapsed roof be called crawling through a dog hole? That's called a strategic retreat, a symbol of wisdom, and the ability to find loopholes in the rules. What do you think?"

Li Hui knew exactly how to exploit people like Ye Zhen's weaknesses. The two most direct and effective methods were to provoke them or to flatter them to their death.

"What you said doesn't seem to make no mistake." Upon hearing this, Ye Zhen actually nodded, although he vaguely felt that something was not quite right, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

(End of this chapter)