Chapter 2279: Building 7 Exit
"Are you a resident here?" Zhu Xiaojin asked.
The other person held up their phone and looked at them for a while. When their gaze fell on the little girl in the red dress, they immediately stammered, "That's not... not human... and there's a woman next to her..."
"Stop yelling, we know." Zhu Xiaojin raised the rope in his hand. "Or do you see how she's tied up?"
The young man stared at them warily for a moment before gritting his teeth and saying, "Fine, wait here!"
Hearing a clattering sound from the room, after a moment the young man came out carrying a bulging backpack. Besides some exorcism tools, there were also things like an axe and a kitchen knife. Fully prepared, he walked over and asked, "Are you trying to leave this neighborhood too? Why are you going upstairs?"
"Looking for someone." Xu Huo said. "A companion of ours went missing after entering. This female ghost lady said the person is here, so we came to check."
The young man glanced at the female ghost, then swallowed hard. "I suggest you don't go up. Yesterday I overheard people chatting upstairs, saying they want to turn this neighborhood into a corpse-nurturing ground. Every building has corpses stored in it, just waiting for a dead person with enough malevolent energy to trigger it... I heard before that a murderer lived upstairs, and he died a few days ago. After midnight tonight is exactly his seventh-day mourning period..."
The more he spoke, the more frightened he became. He couldn't help but move closer to Old Cai. "Big brother, you look like you can protect people. Can I follow behind you?"
Old Cai ignored him and instead said, "Since you knew it was dangerous, why didn't you leave during the day?"
"You think I didn't want to?" The young man was full of regret. "Recently there have been a lot of funerals in the neighborhood. I had nothing to do at home, so I went to help out. Every day I had two big drinking sessions. Today I came back drunk and was about to sleep when I accidentally overheard someone talking. It scared me sober. I was going to grab my stuff and leave, but I stepped on a bottle and knocked myself out. When I woke up, it was already dark, and the neighborhood gate was blocked..."
Without needing to verify the truth of his words, Xu Huo asked, "So where are you planning to leave from now?"
"I heard there's a special exit in the basement of Building 7. Whenever they need to carry bodies out of the neighborhood, they use the basement exit. That should be passable." The young man quickly urged them, "Why don't we go together? We can look out for each other. As for your friend, to be blunt, they might already be dead."
"It's fine. If they're alive, we'll see them; if they're dead, we'll see the body." Xu Huo gave a signal to the Painting Woman, who then pushed the floating female ghost forward.
The group continued upstairs. With more people, they felt bolder, and the young man followed along.
On the third-floor landing, an old woman stood facing the wall. Her eerie silhouette, combined with the dim hallway, would startle anyone. But before the old woman could react, Xu Huo's materialized object struck first, slicing her apart.
The old woman, who had no physical form, dissipated instantly.
"Keep moving forward." Xu Huo said without changing his expression.
The young man gave him a thumbs-up. "So you guys know what you're doing. No wonder you're not scared at all!"
After passing the third-floor landing, they reached the third-floor corridor. This area was even more deceptive than the floor below. A mist shrouded the sickly green light, making it utterly terrifying.
"Come on, let me handle this." Zhu Xiaojin stepped forward, pulled out a handful of micro bombs, and tossed them into the hallway like firecrackers. Each one went off with a bang.
After enough explosions, they could faintly hear a sharp screech mixed in, but nothing emerged.
After a few minutes of bombing, the mist in the corridor dissipated. Just as they were heading up to the fourth floor, a roar suddenly came from above. The beast-like howl made their eardrums ache, and then the blockade barrier set up outside the building began to tremble.
"I'll go check it out." Xu Huo vanished from the corridor instantly.
The moment he left, a figure suddenly rushed down from upstairs, moving at incredible speed. In the blink of an eye, it was right in front of Zhu Xiaojin and the others. The female ghost, who had been leading the way, screamed and dodged. The Painting Woman behind her found herself face-to-face with the charging figure. The next second, the Painting Woman was knocked down the stairs. Before she could steady herself, a long blade came swinging at her head.
Tang Yu, standing nearby, helped block the attack. Using an item, she pulled the charging figure away and saw that it was a corpse that had been dead for some time.
"This isn't the murderer, is it?" Tang Yu threw a blockade barrier at it, watching the living corpse howl and slash at the air. She frowned. "What kind of twisted crap is this?"
"Who cares what it is. Its combat power is worse than a xenomorph." Zhu Xiajin casually tossed bombs at it, and in no time, he blew off the corpse's hands and feet.
Without limbs to support it, the corpse collapsed to the ground but still stubbornly crawled toward Zhu Xiaojin and the others. Annoyed by the noise, Tang Yu simply twisted its head off.
The group waited in the corridor. Before long, Xu Huo returned and said grimly, "Didn't catch the person. They went into Building 7."
"Does Building 7 really have an exit?" Zhu Xiaojin turned to ask.
The young man with dark circles nodded quickly. "I've seen it. It's real. I just don't know if we can get out now. The neighborhood gate is definitely blocked."
"Then let's go take a look." Xu Huo checked the time. "It's not even eleven yet. I don't know what changes will happen in the neighborhood later. Everyone, be careful."
After that, they headed toward Building 7.
With someone leading the way, they easily found the passage hidden in the underground garage. It was a locked door. The garage itself had an exit, so having a passage leading outside the neighborhood was already suspicious. Of course, given the situation here, it was only to be expected.
The female ghost had run off earlier, so only the little girl in the red dress was with them. When they reached the door, she refused to go in, scratching her nails bloody against the wall.
"Forget it." Tang Yu spoke up. "Keeping her isn't useful anyway."
"We're just preventing her from causing trouble." Zhu Xiaojin refused to let go. "Might as well just kill her."
"Don't waste it." Old Cai walked over, grabbed the little girl in the red dress, and threw her into the passage, then closed the door.
A moment later, a scream came from behind the door, followed by silence.
Old Cai opened the door again. Inside the passage, aside from a few torn pieces of clothing, there was no trace of the child.
"Does this look like an exit to you?" He turned to look at the young man.
The young man was terrified. Trembling, he said, "It's so dangerous. I think it's better to go back and hide for the night. You guys are so strong, you don't necessarily have to leave."
Not knowing exactly what this item was, the sooner they left, the better. Besides, Xu Huo and the others didn't want to waste time here.
"Don't waste time." Xu Huo stepped into the passage first.