Chapter 190: A Ghost That Grows Every Night

No door was completely free of a gap at the bottom, of course. Right now, however, the Blood Gate had noticeably shrunk upward, widening the crack enough to expose the feet standing just outside.

Gao Tian wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Without a sound, he nudged the homeless middle-aged man in front of him and motioned toward the floor.

The moment the man spotted the embroidered shoes waiting outside the Blood Gate, the corner of his mouth twitched violently.

For an instant, the skin of his face turned almost translucent, drained of every last drop of color.

From the man's reaction, Gao Tian knew something had genuinely gone wrong with the Blood Gate. A gap that wide wasn't normal.

He wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, but in the brief moment he looked away and back again, the two-finger-wide gap had stretched to the width of three fingers.

Gao Tian still hadn't figured out the Killing Rule of the ghost in Blood Door Village. In theory, staying behind a Blood Gate should have kept them safe. Yet the people in the house across the way had obeyed that taboo, and their door had still been torn down and every last one of them slaughtered. Clearly, even the rules could be broken.

If the Blood Gate kept shrinking upward at this rate, it would never hold until daybreak. Within an hour, half of it would probably be gone.

Resolve hardened in the man's eyes as he held out his maimed left hand. Only then did Gao Tian notice that just two fingers remained on it—the index, middle, and ring fingers had all been lopped off, leaving behind bare, fleshy stumps.

The gap beneath the door crept up to four fingers wide. From this angle, they could see the dead-white calves rising from the embroidered shoes. Whatever shred of safety the house still offered vanished completely.

Teeth clenched, the man gripped the dagger he had spent the first half of the night sharpening in his right hand and pressed the blade against his left thumb, bracing himself to slice it off in one stroke.

Though the two of them hadn't exchanged a single word, Gao Tian could tell from the man's movements that the dagger had to be some kind of Supernatural Item—one triggered by sacrificing a finger or another part of the body.

The man had used it three times before, and it had clearly worked, or he wouldn't have survived this long. Now the situation had deteriorated so badly that he was forced to consider using it a fourth time.

Gao Tian quickly reached out and laid a silent hand on the man's arm, signaling him not to rush.

Cold sweat matted the man's eyebrows and full beard together. He paused, turning to look at Gao Tian in confusion.

'You don't need to sacrifice your finger yet.'

'Let me try.'

Gao Tian did his best to convey that message with his eyes.

He still had plenty of Supernatural Items on hand.

He could activate the Terror Blade and slash at the woman outside the Blood Gate, though win or lose, he would risk destroying the Blood Gate in the process.

The Urn was currently jammed up by the Artist from ten years in the future.

And since the spot where those embroidered shoes stood was bathed in moonlight, the Fishing Ghost's ability would be difficult to pull off as well.

While Gao Tian was weighing his options, the gap beneath the door widened to five fingers. Upside down, a pale, sopping-wet woman's face dropped from above until it rested against the floor, one bulging fish-eye larger than the other as it peered into the room behind the Blood Gate.

Her feet didn't budge an inch.

It wasn't hard to picture just how grotesque the posture of the "woman" standing outside had to be right now.

Her legs and torso stood ramrod straight, yet her head hung all the way down to the ground. With her head dangling like that, her gaze should have been facing her own body—instead, it was twisted 180 degrees around, spying on every move of the people inside through the crack under the door.

The middle-aged man clapped his maimed hand over his eyes in agony. He clearly regretted listening to this young man instead of hardening his heart, severing his thumb, and activating the Supernatural Item in his hand while he still had the chance.

The Well-Coiling Bone had already seen their faces through the drafty gap in the Blood Gate. They were dead for sure tonight; even if he cut off his finger now, it was too late.

'This kid just got us all killed.'

Gao Tian, on the other hand, was practically brimming with interest.

'Right on cue.'

'Just couldn't keep your nose out of trouble, could you?'

The instant his eyes met the head beneath the door crack, he plunged one hand into the Mirror and pulled out the "No Staring" sign.

He thrust it straight forward, aiming it right at the bizarre woman's face giggling beneath the gap and dripping murky fluid onto the floor.

"It's no use. She has high resistance to ordinary Supernatural Items. It might've worked while the Blood Gate was still between us, but now—" Watching what looked like Gao Tian's dying struggle, the man snapped in frustration.

Before he could finish speaking, the unbelievable happened. The woman's head beneath the Blood Gate caught only a single glimpse of the warning sign before letting out a terrified shriek, as if her eyeballs had been scorched by fire. Without a second's hesitation, she yanked her neck back outside.

A moment later, the survivors inside the house heard a flurry of hurried footsteps. Not daring to linger, the owner of the embroidered shoes fled the house as fast as she could.

The Well-Coiling Bone was terrified of this warning sign. Even she had to obey the Rule-Based Horror of the Old District.

Gao Tian let out a small breath of relief.

The item left behind all those years ago by that big shot from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau really was formidable.

Not only had it suppressed the Old District for over a decade, it still worked right here in Blood Door Village.

He really had to wonder just how strong the big shot who had set up thousands of Rule-Based Horror rules had been while still alive.

Reality had proven the middle-aged man wrong in the blink of an eye. Chest heaving, he panted heavily, stunned for a long time before he slowly came to terms with the fact that he was still alive.

After a long silence, he had no choice but to admit he'd misjudged. "Impressive. What kind of Supernatural Item is that? It even kept the Well-Coiling Bone in check."

Gao Tian casually stuffed the "No Staring" sign back into the Mirror. "Just an ordinary warning sign you can find anywhere. They aren't worth much—I brought four or five more with me."

His little act as an unfathomable expert had gone off without a hitch.

The man didn't say another word. Lowering his dagger and his maimed left hand, he gave Gao Tian a nod of gratitude and admiration.

Deep down, of course he didn't want to hack off his own fingers while wide awake. If he wanted to survive in Blood Door Village, though, he simply had no other choice.

Privately, Gao Tian felt the man was actually of pretty decent character.

When he and Qin Zhuguang had first entered Blood Door Village, none of the other houses had been willing to take them in; this man alone had opened his Blood Gate to give them shelter.

And it clearly wasn't the first time the homeless man had done something like that. Looking at the room packed full of the old, the weak, the sick, and the crippled, it was obvious they were dead weight the other houses had cast aside—people who had only scraped by until now because this man looked after them.

As for the dagger that required a severed finger, if the man had been a little more ruthless, he easily could have taken one from the old woman or the little boy. Neither of them had any way to fight back.

Yet he had gritted his teeth and cut off three of his own fingers without ever once considering laying a hand on anyone else.

While Gao Tian used the breather after the ghost's departure to study the layout of the room, the homeless man got to his feet and began hauling over odds and ends to plug the gaping hole beneath the Blood Gate.

He managed to stuff the gap shut, though it didn't do much real good. A whole section of the Blood Gate was already gone for good; blocking it was nothing more than a way to ease their nerves.

At the same time, he turned back to look at Gao Tian. "Don't let your guard down too early, kid.

"This Well-Coiling Bone has a very peculiar trait—every time you drive her off with a Supernatural Item, she builds up resistance to it. The next time you use the same Supernatural Item, its effect gets cut in half.

"Take this 'Human Blade' of mine, for example. Cutting off my first finger kept her away from my house for nine whole days.

"Back then, I was still pretty optimistic and figured I could survive in Blood Door Village for a good while.

"The second time I cut one off, it only lasted about four days.

"The third time, it dropped to two days.

"If I use it again now, I'll be lucky if it buys us a single night."

That was something Gao Tian genuinely hadn't known.

'So the Well-Coiling Bone is that hard to deal with?'

No wonder every last one of the ghost hunters trapped in Blood Door Village did nothing but cower behind their Blood Gates, not a single one of them daring to confront her head-on.

"On top of that, the Well-Coiling Bone holds a vicious grudge. That item of yours roughed her up pretty badly, so for the next few nights she's going to remember—"

Before the man could finish, those familiar rustling footsteps sounded once again outside the Blood Gate, right beyond the pile of junk barely plugging the gap.

'No way. The Well-Coiling Bone came back this fast?'

Judging by the shadow cast outside the door, "someone" was unmistakably standing right there. After getting warned off by the sign, she didn't dare knock or peek inside anymore, yet the Well-Coiling Bone clearly had no intention of just walking away.

"Gao Tian—"

A murmur laced with shrill laughter drifted through the door, calling out softly as if whispering right against his ear. "Gao Tian.

"Gao Tian!

"Gao Tian... Gao Tian."

Over and over, louder and softer by turns, the voice kept repeating the same name—always Gao Tian. It sounded like a spirit-calling chant meant to lure his soul right out the door.

Gao Tian turned his head and met the middle-aged man's eyes.

(Has the Well-Coiling Bone ever called out another ghost hunter's name before?) Gao Tian mouthed the question without making a sound.

The man shook his head, his eyes filled with equal parts confusion and shock.

(Never.)

(Your name is Gao Tian?)

Gao Tian nodded.

Cold sweat broke out across the man's forehead all over again. He mouthed his reply the same way.

(I don't know, this isn't good.)

(You're in deep trouble. The Well-Coiling Bone holds a nasty grudge—she's remembered you.)

(She might not be able to do anything to you tonight, but tomorrow night, she'll definitely come back for you.)

(And who knows how much she'll have adapted to your Supernatural Item by then.)

The terrifying human figure outside stood in front of the house calling Gao Tian's name for the rest of the night. Still wary of the warning sign, she made no further move.

There was no telling how much time passed.

Outside the door, the voice calling Gao Tian's name had long since fallen silent.

When the first rays of morning sunlight spilled across the ground of Blood Door Village, every trembling survivor huddled inside the houses knew they had made it through another night.

Once day broke, the Well-Coiling Bone retreated into the well, leaving the living in Blood Door Village free to move about.

That one rule, at least, had never been broken.

Outside, neighbors were already pushing open their Blood Gates with loud creaks. Having kept his nerves stretched taut all night, the middle-aged man finally let himself relax completely, slumping back against the wall.

"Let's get acquainted. My name's Yin Jiu—you can call me Old Jiu.

"Before getting trapped in Blood Door Village, I was a ghost hunter. Worked at the Supernatural Disaster Bureau for a while, then went over to the Black Cross Company in the States to take contracts and make big money. Worked as a mercenary in Japan, Korea, and Australia too, though I never really made much of myself.

"Not until I ended up trapped in this place."

Gao Tian said, "My name is Gao Tian. The one the female ghost outside spent all night calling for."

He pointed toward Qin Zhuguang. "She's—my cousin. Surname Qin. Qin Ersi."

With brief introductions out of the way, daytime in Blood Door Village left Gao Tian with roughly 12 hours.

Twelve hours from now, a fresh round of terror—endless, unrelenting terror—would reset all over again.