Chapter 191: Exploring Blood Door Village

Throughout Blood Door Village, the doors of the houses opened. The survivors inside, having narrowly escaped death, walked out one by one.

They were men and women, old and young. Many were ghost hunters, though a few were ordinary people.

"You newcomers have pretty good luck. You actually survived your first night," someone remarked.

"Congratulations, Yin Jiu, on taking in two more helpless strays. You really love collecting dead weight."

While some offered cold mockery, another man offered Gao Tian a sincere apology.

"I'm sorry. I saw the two of you begging for help last night, but I didn't dare open my door," he said.

"The Well-Coiling Bone is infinitely deceptive. It often disguises itself with the voices of people we know. It was already late, and your timing was just too suspicious. That's why no one dared to take you in."

"We all just want to survive. Please understand."

The village held all sorts of people. Gao Tian wasn't the type to hold a grudge or demand revenge just because someone had refused to shelter him.

He did, however, make a point to remember the face of the red-haired youth who had just mocked Yin Jiu.

Yin Jiu was broad-minded and didn't care what the others thought of him.

"This young man is named Gao Tian, and he's certainly no dead weight," Yin Jiu announced.

"His Supernatural Item is unique. Last night, when the Well-Coiling Bone almost tore down the Blood Gate and I was getting ready to sever my own fingers, he was the one who drove the ghost away."

Several nearby house owners suddenly realized something.

"No wonder the Well-Coiling Bone lingered nearby, screaming about getting 'him' all night," one of them said.

"It was calling your name? Gao Tian?"

"You must be careful tonight. That thing holds a deep grudge. It will definitely come looking for you."

Gao Tian didn't mind. The situation wasn't desperate yet—Qin Zhuguang hadn't even spoken up, and he still had the Mirror Ghost in reserve.

He had held back his questions all night—about Blood Door Village, about the Well-Coiling Bone, about Shen Nian. Now he could finally ask them.

For his first question, Gao Tian looked at the fat man who had taken the initiative to apologize. He seemed friendly enough; of everyone here, he was the most likely to actually answer.

"How long have you all been trapped in Blood Door Village?" Gao Tian asked. "Is there no way to leave?"

Before the fat man could speak, several villagers chimed in at once. "We've been ruined by this damn Blood Door Village!"

"This stop is different from the others. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary, empty village. Not a soul in sight."

"But the moment you step inside, you're pulled into the true Blood Door Village. You can never leave. You can't even return to the Inner World."

"Let me put it this way, see if you understand. The Inner World is hellish enough on its own. But Blood Door Village has opened a whole new layer of reality inside the Inner World."

Gao Tian mostly understood.

This place wasn't even the Inner World anymore.

If they were still in the Inner World, they could at least take Bus 444 back.

His gaze swept the perimeter. Outside the village lay endless white fog. Even the original bus stop had been swallowed up.

He moved to his second question. "With so many ghost hunters here, has no one ever tried to imprison the Well-Coiling Bone?"

Hearing this, the red-haired youth sneered and shook his head, openly mocking Gao Tian's ignorance.

Yin Jiu patiently explained to Gao Tian, "People have tried in the past. Retired ghost hunters from the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, and A-Level contractors from the Black Cross Company. In the outside world, they were all top experts."

"They proposed the exact same idea. By combining their Supernatural Items, they actually managed to imprison the Well-Coiling Bone."

"But it was meaningless. The very next night, a new Well-Coiling Bone crawled right out of the well."

"The new Well-Coiling Bone had already adapted to the Supernatural Items they'd used. The first thing it did was hunt down the ghost hunters who had imprisoned it. It disemboweled them and hung their corpses on the high walls as a warning to the rest of us."

"Even if you survived the second night, or the third, every new Well-Coiling Bone that crawled out was stronger and more resistant to your Supernatural Items. Sooner or later, you'd still die."

"There used to be far more ghost hunters in Blood Door Village. Everyone who dared to violate its Killing Rule is already dead."

"You're better off just quietly hiding behind a Blood Gate."

From the very beginning, everyone in Blood Door Village kept mentioning a single keyword:

The well.

Every night at nine o'clock, the Well-Coiling Bone crawled out of the well and began its slaughter right on schedule.

Coincidentally, when the Wind Attendant Buddha first entered Blood Door Village to explore, following the compass toward Shen Nian's location, it had also stopped in front of a dry well.

However, there had been nothing down that well except for a tattered book.

The Blood Door Village in the Inner World and this true Blood Door Village shared the exact same layout. Since there was a dry well over there, there had to be one in the identical spot here.

"Has no one ever thought about suppressing the entrance to this dry well with something?" Gao Tian asked.

"Let's go take a look first."

Obvious terror flashed across the villagers' faces at the mention of the dry well. Even in broad daylight, they didn't dare go near it.

These ghost hunters had been trapped in Blood Door Village for years. At first, they had tried various countermeasures, but as their peers were slaughtered one by one, they gradually accepted a grim reality: the Well-Coiling Bone was a natural disaster. There was nothing to do but submit to it.

Learned helplessness.

They no longer held any hope of escaping Blood Door Village. They just scraped by day after day.

Still, a few people stayed with Gao Tian.

This included Yin Jiu, as well as the fat man who had apologized to them.

The red-haired youth stayed as well, though only to watch them make fools of themselves.

"Give it a rest," he said. "You just got to Blood Door Village and you're already barking orders. You really think you're some big shot."

"Back when I was working with Old Man Sun in Shunjin City, I never saw even him act this arrogant."

"Based on my experience handling four S-Level incidents, I can tell you right now that this Blood Door Village is absolutely unsolvable. Even if Old Man Sun were here, he'd have to obediently accept his fate."

"I suggest you stop wasting your energy. It's for your own good."

Hearing the name "Old Man Sun," several ghost hunters exchanged strange looks.

Having been trapped in Blood Door Village for years, they had no idea that Old Man Sun had already fallen during the battle of Minghai City.

No matter how isolated these ghost hunters were, they had definitely heard of Old Man Sun. The red-haired youth was throwing his name around, playing the fox exploiting the tiger's might.

Although Qin Zhuguang was staring at the book in her hands, her ears visibly perked up.

Gao Tian coldly raised his head and looked at the red-haired youth.

Looking down on him was one thing. But to actually use Old Man Sun as a prop, and right in front of the Eighth Young Master no less?

Gao Tian had ignored him, yet the guy was pushing his luck.

"You've met Old Man Sun?" Gao Tian asked calmly.

The red-haired youth smiled disdainfully.

"I used to be a deputy minister in the Supernatural Disaster Bureau. It seems you have no idea about my rank and status," he scoffed.

"I've personally handled many S-Level incidents. Even Old Man Sun used to seriously consult me for my opinion. Not only that, but the Eighth Young Master of Shunjin City, and even S-Level ghost hunters from overseas exorcism firms and the Black Cross Company are all good friends of mine."

Gao Tian couldn't help but chuckle.

If the Smiling Man hadn't been inside his body, he would have burst out laughing on the spot.

"You say you've met Old Man Sun," he retorted.

"What weapon did he use?"

"What kind of coat did he wear?"

"Who is his last disciple?"

"And the Eighth Young Master—male or female? Tall and strapping, or short and skinny? How old is he?"

The red-haired youth didn't flinch in the slightest. He had probably been bragging for so long that he actually believed it himself, blurting out answers without a second thought.

"Listen closely, and I'll broaden the horizons of a country bumpkin like you," he said.

"Old Man Sun likes to wear a green military greatcoat. As for his weapon, it's naturally an iron staff, like a Shaolin monk's. His last disciple... I can't tell you that. It's Xia Country's final hope, so it's strictly classified. You have no right to know."

"And whether the Eighth Young Master is male or female? I can't believe you have the nerve to ask such a stupid question. He's a 'Young Master'—so of course he's a man. He's a burly guy with a broad, square face, thick eyebrows, and large eyes. We even had a meal together during a past mission. Old Man Sun and the Eighth Young Master are old rivals, but from the looks of it, once Old Man Sun retires, the title of Xia Country's number one ghost hunter will be handed over to him."

Out of all those questions, he had only gotten the military greatcoat right. He had probably heard someone mention in the past that Old Man Sun resolved a certain S-Level incident with a single strike of a stick, and simply assumed his weapon was an iron staff.

A female ghost hunter spoke up timidly. "That doesn't sound right."

"Since when has Old Man Sun's weapon been an iron staff?"

Qin Zhuguang was also in the crowd. Hearing that the Eighth Young Master was a "burly guy with a broad, square face," she finally broke her silence and slowly raised her head.

"Could you... stop spouting nonsense?" she asked.

Mocked by several ghost hunters around him, and inexplicably sassed by this middle-school girl, the red-haired youth flew into a rage. Stepping into the shadow of an abandoned ancestral hall, he lost his temper and reached out to grab Qin Zhuguang.

"You little brat, how dare you talk back!" he snapped.

Qin Zhuguang just stood there blankly, watching him with an indifferent expression.

'How pathetic.'

Behind her, with a mere thought from Gao Tian, a fishhook materialized out of thin air in the darkness. The instant it snagged the red-haired youth, his entire body went slack. Stripped of his strength and unable to even muster the thought of fighting back, he collapsed completely.

He was left suspended halfway under the eaves of the ancestral hall, dangling like a dead fish swaying in the wind.

Hanging upside down, the red-haired youth stared at Gao Tian with dull eyes. When he opened his mouth, drool spilled out, but he couldn't make a single sound.

Gao Tian didn't spare him a second glance. He and Qin Zhuguang simply walked right past.

Many of the ghost hunters following behind let out low gasps of shock.

This red-haired youth wasn't weak by any means. In all of Blood Door Village, very few ghost hunters could confidently say they could overpower him.

Otherwise, so many people wouldn't have believed him when he spouted all that nonsense about knowing Old Man Sun.

Unexpectedly, he hadn't even been able to withstand a single move from Gao Tian.

Gao Tian hadn't even bothered to look at him. A fishhook had simply descended from the sky, inexplicably crippling all of the youth's abilities and Supernatural Items.

Now he was left hanging upside down in a humiliating display beneath the eaves of the ancestral hall.

The red-haired youth's life and death now rested entirely on Gao Tian's whim. If night fell and Gao Tian still hadn't let him down, the Well-Coiling Bone would definitely kill him when it arrived.

This newcomer to the village...

Many people secretly reevaluated Gao Tian.

No wonder he could cross through more than half of the Inner World with a completely defenseless female cousin in tow. He truly had strength.

Gao Tian didn't actually care about the evaluations or observations of others.

Right now, he was only interested in Shen Nian's whereabouts.

"By the way," he said.

"Have any of your houses taken in a ghost hunter named Shen Nian?"

"His supernatural weapons are two handguns, and he wears a trench coat. He might also have a child with him."

Among the ghost hunters trailing behind Gao Tian, a young girl timidly raised her hand.

"Is he an older guy? With a messy beard and bloody handprints on the outside of his coat?" she asked.

Gao Tian slowly turned his head and looked at her.

"You've seen Shen Nian?" he asked.

"Where is he? Is he still alive?"