Chapter 721: Rules in a Killing Game
He pointed at the wall beside the front door and said, "See that?"
Xu Huo and Xie Ling looked over and noticed that the walls of the wax museum had fine ripples where the wax had melted and then solidified again, looking at first glance like a continuous decorative pattern.
"No wonder I always felt something was off," Xie Ling said at this point. "We've been coming and going, smashing quite a few wax figures. The broken ones are still here, but new ones keep appearing. They can't just pop out of thin air. Could they be formed from the wax on these walls?"
"I have a bad feeling."
The three exchanged glances. The wax museum was now a sealed space. If the wax on the walls kept melting, they would eventually be completely trapped in here!
Bai Wenxian instinctively rushed toward the main entrance, but the door was already blocked by a giant wax figure. Bombarding the wax figure with props not only had no effect, but it also caused the giant wax figure to start melting.
Xie Ling quickly stopped him. "We should go find Xu Ruosi and Long Aotian. Maybe once we find them, we can get out."
"Haven't you figured it out yet? Finding the corpses is completely useless!" Bai Wenxian glanced at Xu Huo. "If it were useful, the two people in the horror room would have been enough."
Xu Huo ignored him and tried using the "Eye of the Dead," but he still couldn't successfully break open the venue.
"Horror Night Talk—it's not like we have to spend the whole night here, is it?" he said half-jokingly. "Anyway, it's already dark outside. Maybe we should rest for the night. By tomorrow morning, the venue might open on its own."
Xie Ling and Bai Wenxian looked at him in disbelief.
Xu Huo didn't mind their stares and continued, "Don't be so pessimistic. At least we've figured out three things now."
"First, the ghosts from the horror stories won't appear if we haven't successfully obtained the clues."
"Second, when the wax museum returns to the surface, the ghosts from the horror stories won't appear either."
"Third, when the wax museum is underground, the venue absolutely cannot be opened."
"What do you mean?" Bai Wenxian frowned.
"The ghosts we've seen are actually all wax figures," Xu Huo said. "The ones walking around the room, the ones following us—every single one, without exception."
"Wax figures can't make human sounds."
"But we all heard a child's laughter," Xie Ling said, looking between him and Bai Wenxian. "Didn't you two just say you heard the laughter of a woman in a red dress?"
"That's true, but it's missing a prerequisite: the woman in the red dress shouldn't appear in the wax museum," Xu Huo said. "To verify this, I just told a story about a human-skin ghost, and that character didn't show up in the venue."
Xie Ling immediately stepped back from Bai Wenxian and also kept her distance from Xu Huo.
"Don't you think your deduction is too arbitrary?" Bai Wenxian sneered. "What makes you think the wax museum has to follow the rules you've laid out? Couldn't it just appear randomly?"
"Of course, that's possible too," Xu Huo said calmly. "But since this is a game, it's no fun if you don't play by the rules."
Bai Wenxian scoffed. "Talking about rules in a killing game?"
Xu Huo smiled faintly. "Just because you don't follow the rules doesn't mean there are no rules."
"Telling a story gives you a fifty percent chance of getting a clue; breaking the rules gives you no clue. These two points match the situation of the five of us."
But Bai Wenxian countered, "Xie Ling said she saw two wax figures. If there really were two clues, and the first wax figure waited until she came out, then we should have seen a wax figure when we came out too. Her claim doesn't hold up, and neither does yours."
"Don't rush. Let me finish," Xu Huo interrupted, returning to the previous topic. "Earlier, when the wax museum was underground, aside from the woman in the red dress, the other wax figures could at most make stomping sounds. But when we returned to the surface to look for Xu Ruosi and the others, aside from the laughter, we weren't followed by any wax figures."
"That does seem to be the case," Xie Ling thought for a moment. "So when we came out of the horror room just now and ran into wax figures again, does that mean we're back underground?"
"The wax museum hasn't moved," Bai Wenxian said.
"When we climbed out from above the horror room, we didn't feel the wax museum move either," Xu Huo said.
Bai Wenxian couldn't refute that, because the wax museum itself was a very special existence. After a moment, he let out a cold laugh and twitched his fingers. "So you're saying I've been pulling the strings in the middle..."
Before he could finish, Xu Huo closed the distance in an instant, simultaneously using "Extreme Fatigue" and "Progress Bar Disappearance." The former weakened the opponent's combat ability, while the latter guarded against any prop effects or traits that might be used on him. Then the "Orb of Murmurs" appeared, and the spiritual realm instantly opened!
Bai Wenxian's face showed surprise. As he retreated, a pair of earplugs and an eye mask appeared on him, and he threw out more than a dozen bright white glowing orbs. The light instantly turned the entire front hall blinding white, the dazzling glare almost forcing an instinctive closure of the eyelids!
Xu Huo also closed his eyes.
Bai Wenxian seized this gap to attack, a long whip embedded with blades sweeping across the air!
The "Door of Severed Ties" immediately blocked, but unexpectedly, the whip was so powerful that it left several scratches on the door, and the whip's tail even curved around the door to strike at Xu Huo!
Even with his eyes closed, Xu Huo could still judge the weapon's position. He took a step back, raised his sword, and swept it across, directly cutting the long whip in two. Then he twisted his hand to the side, and in an instant, he appeared behind Bai Wenxian!
"Distance of the Enemy!" Bai Wenxian turned and thrust both hands forward, and Xu Huo was immediately slammed into the wall beside him, pushed away.
"Judgment of the People!" Bai Wenxian raised a cross. Xu Huo, still leaning against the wall, was forcibly pressed against it. Seeing Bai Wenxian pull out another prop shaped like a nail, Xu Huo moved his hand, and the air in front of him instantly compressed into a three-square-meter shield. The air was compressed multiple times, effectively increasing the distance, so when the shield formed, he also broke free from the cross's influence.
Bai Wenxian's expression changed, and just then, the effect of the light prop was about to fade. He was about to turn and run toward the wax museum, but unexpectedly, a door suddenly appeared behind him. Unable to stop in time, he crashed straight into it, and then his foot met empty air as he fell into a bottomless abyss!
To avoid interference from props, he had deliberately sealed his hearing, but as he fell, Bai Wenxian gradually felt the earplugs fail. The darkness was filled with all kinds of sounds, forcibly pouring into his ears!
"This is an illusion!" He steadied himself, threw a glow stick to the ground, and shouted, "Careless You!"
A faint green light seemed to respond to the glow stick. Bai Wenxian grabbed an axe and smashed it directly toward the spot!
The sensation of falling disappeared. Bai Wenxian took out a firework, and as the sparks shot up, he himself charged toward the green light's location!
(Chapter End)