Chapter 59

Chapter 59

[Seriously, Won’t You Check Out My Other Book? Please: Holy crap, this donor’s username is something else. I’ve got goosebumps.]

[Really Want to End Everyone: You know what? You’re absolutely right. This donor changes usernames pretty fast, too.]

The comments flew by in a frenzy, all of them poking fun at the username of the person who had sent the Treasure Map gift.

Hu Qi saw them too, of course, but he was already used to netizens fooling around. It still made him a little uncomfortable, but he said to the audience, “All right, let’s get started.”

Hongdou Hotel was a four-story building with a large parking lot outside. The group was standing at the entrance to the lot.

The parking lot had been abandoned for years, and weeds grew everywhere.

As soon as they stepped inside, a gust of night wind swept through. The waist-high weeds rustled softly, as though something were moving through them.

Qiao Yiyi grabbed Hu Qi’s hand in fright. “There aren’t any snakes here, are there?”

“Where would snakes come from in the middle of winter? Don’t scare yourself.” Hu Qi was actually a little scared too, but as Qiao Yiyi’s boyfriend, with the camera rolling, he couldn’t let it show too much.

One of Hu Qi’s roommates, Xu Yang, spoke up with a shiver. “Is it just me, or did it get colder after we came in?”

His other roommate, Song Lu, was terrified as well. “I feel it too. It’s colder in here than outside.”

Only Lu Changxue, the ghost, was delighted. She floated around the parking lot, waving her arms and legs excitedly.

“Yin energy! There’s so much yin energy! Ahhh, this feels amazing! Even better than soaking in a hot spring!”

For a ghost, there was nothing more delightful than a place saturated with yin energy.

“Little ghosts, don’t run away! Come play with Big Sis!”

There were two child ghosts of around seven or eight years old in the lot, probably there to absorb the yin energy as well. The moment Lu Changxue spotted them, she bared her teeth and lunged.

When the two child ghosts saw an A-rank vengeful ghost charging at them, they screamed and sprinted away.

Ever since gaining his ability to never die, Zhou Benxin had been able to see ghosts. From his perspective, the scene before him was this: a group of humans trembling in fear, while a vengeful ghost chased two child ghosts all around the parking lot.

It was a difficult scene to evaluate.

After cultivating mystical arts, Yun Jianyue could see the child ghosts too. She really couldn’t stand watching her best friend make such a spectacle of herself. She was a twenty-year-old ghost, yet she was still bullying children.

“Come back,” Yun Jianyue called to Lu Changxue.

Lu Changxue slammed on the brakes, pointed at herself, and asked, “Me?”

“Yes, you. The childish ghost,” Yun Jianyue said.

Lu Changxue let out an oh, then waved goodbye to the two child ghosts with a bright smile. The two ghosts fled the parking lot in a flash.

Hu Qi, who had been livestreaming the entire thing, looked a little stiff. He tried to make his smile seem more natural. “Senior, who are you talking to?”

The comments exploded as well.

[You Are the Wind, I Am the Sand: Holy crap, is this beauty talking to a ghost? There’s no one in front of her!]

[I Want to Get Rich I Want to Get Rich: This has to be scripted, right? She’s already acting the moment they walk in. She’s trying way too hard.]

Amid the flood of comments, one completely out-of-place message drifted past.

[Mount Longhu’s Pampered Youngest: This young woman really is talking to a female ghost. That ghost was chasing two child ghosts around just now.]

Unfortunately, the comments were scrolling too quickly, and the account’s level was too low. No one saw Mount Longhu’s Pampered Youngest’s message at all.

Yun Jianyue had no idea the livestream comments had erupted. She grabbed Lu Changxue and stuffed her back into the jade pendant, then said with a straight face, “This may be hard to believe, but I have some mental issues.”

“So it was a mental problem. You scared me to death.” Hu Qi let out a long sigh of relief.

He knew it. How could there be ghosts in this world? Anyone who saw strange things like that obviously had mental problems!

Zhou Benxin struggled not to laugh out loud. Mo Chen nodded in complete agreement. “At least you have a decent understanding of yourself.”

Yun Jianyue’s hand was itching. She was debating whether to give this Evil God a good smack or pull out her chainsaw and hack him twice.

The group soon crossed the parking lot and arrived at the entrance to Hongdou Hotel.

The hotel’s front entrance was in terrible shape. It had once had four doors, but now only one and a half remained, hanging crookedly and swaying precariously, as though they might fall at any moment.

Hu Qi aimed the camera at the entrance and provided a live commentary. “We’ve now entered Hongdou Hotel. This is the hotel’s front lobby.”

Everyone had a flashlight in hand. Mo Chen didn’t need one.

The flashlight beams swept across the pitch-black lobby, but they still couldn’t reveal the entire space.

Yun Jianyue aimed her flashlight at the front desk. The desk had been burned completely black. Of the four large characters reading “Hongdou Hotel” on the wall behind it, only parts of two remained visible, and even the small stroke at the lower right of the second character had fallen off.

She continued sweeping the flashlight inch by inch and discovered an elevator to the right of the front desk. There was also a passage beside the elevator, which was probably the stairwell leading upstairs.

After about ten minutes, Yun Jianyue had worked out the layout of the first-floor lobby.

“Strange. There were two child ghosts outside, and the yin energy in here is so heavy. How come we can’t see a single ghost?” Taking advantage of Yun Jianyue’s momentary inattention, Lu Changxue crawled out of the jade pendant again.

Mo Chen seemed to have lost interest by then. After standing there and surveying the lobby, he became completely motionless. In the end, he took Yun Jianyue’s phone and planned to watch some videos.
The phone turned on. Great, no signal.

Mo Chen held out his hand to Zhou Benxin. “Give me your phone.”

Trembling, Zhou Benxin handed it over. Mo Chen switched it on and took a look. There was still no signal. He clicked his tongue and returned the phone to Zhou Benxin.

“Why can he still livestream? How can he livestream without a signal?”

The Evil God, who knew nothing about modern technology, asked an earnest question.

When Yun Jianyue took back her phone, she found that it had no signal either. She moved closer to Hu Qi’s livestreaming equipment and discovered that Hu Qi still had a signal.

The others took out their phones as well, only to find that Hu Qi’s was the only one with service.

“What brand is that phone? Its signal is incredible.” Zhou Benxin crowded over too, already considering switching to Hu Qi’s model.

When the viewers saw that everyone else’s phones had lost service, the livestream chat erupted in laughter. Some were even envious of Hu Qi’s phone and asked him to reveal the model so they could buy one too.

Hu Qi hadn’t been paid for advertising, so of course he wouldn’t name the model. He laughed awkwardly and smoothly changed the subject.

Yun Jianyue moved over beside Mo Chen. She wanted to whisper something to him, but even standing on tiptoe, she couldn’t reach his ear. In the end, she simply twisted his ear and made him bend down.

Mo Chen’s ear throbbed with pain. He bent over and cursed under his breath. “Are you insane?”

Yun Jianyue couldn’t be bothered to take offense at such a harmless insult. She leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Don’t you think there’s something strange about this place?”

“You mean the lack of a signal?” Mo Chen asked as he removed Yun Jianyue’s hand from his ear. Surprisingly, he wasn’t angry.

Perhaps after being hit so many times, the Evil God had grown accustomed to having his ear twisted.

There was no denying it: getting used to something was terrifying.

“Yes. You’re an Evil God. Didn’t you notice anything unusual?” Yun Jianyue felt like calling the consumer protection hotline to report him. This Evil God seemed like a counterfeit product.

Mo Chen’s nasty side surfaced. “There is something strange. So what? It has nothing to do with me. Nothing here can hurt me.”

Yun Jianyue pulled out her phone and waved it in front of him. “But if you step in, you’ll have a signal to watch hoof-trimming videos.”

The Evil God fell silent for several seconds. He took Yun Jianyue’s phone, then snapped his fingers with a crisp sound.

The Evil God’s Power spread outward in wave after wave, eventually reaching some kind of boundary, where it came to an abrupt stop.

The signal returned.

Yun Jianyue clapped enthusiastically. “You’re the best, hubby!”

“Cut out the cringe.” Mo Chen took the phone and walked off to the side to watch videos. He wanted to enjoy some alone time too.

Lu Changxue tilted her head, looking puzzled. “Isn’t your husband a little too good at learning?”

She had said that phrase last time, and now he had repeated it word for word. Did he even understand what “cut out the cringe” meant?

Yun Jianyue nodded. “Evil Gods who never went through nine years of compulsory education are usually eager to learn. We should understand them, respect them, and wish them well.”

“The problem is, you just handed him your phone? Aren’t you worried he’ll see your private information?” Lu Changxue was indignant. “When I was alive, you wouldn’t even let me look at your phone!”

Yun Jianyue rolled her eyes. “At least he won’t use my phone to message some handsome guy on Douyin saying, ‘Are you there? Send me a picture of your abs.'”

Lu Changxue held out for less than three seconds before immediately surrendering.

Messaging handsome guys on Douyin wasn’t against the law, waah! Why did Yun Jianyue have to nail her to a pillar of shame?

“There isn’t much on the first floor. Let’s go take a look at the second floor. I heard quite a few people were burned to death up there,” Hu Qi said.

No one objected. After arranging themselves into formation, they prepared to go upstairs through the stairwell.

But the moment Hu Qi aimed his camera at the passage, a shadow flashed past the entrance.

It was barely possible to make out a human shape, but its speed was nothing like a human’s.

The livestream chat exploded.

[God of Wealth Bless Me: Holy crap, holy crap, did anyone see what that was just now?!]

[Seven Deadly Sins: Aah! Mom, help! There’s something by the stairs!]

[Si Wangbei Likes Yan Yangsheng: Damn, are there really ghosts in here? Be careful, streamer!]

Mount Longhu’s Pampered Youngest sent another message, but it was swallowed up by the other comments just as quickly.

[Mount Longhu’s Pampered Youngest: It’s the ghost of a child in his teens, but the ghostly energy around him is very strong. He probably died several decades ago.]

It wasn’t just the viewers. Hu Qi and the others had all seen the shadow too.

Qiao Yiyi was so frightened that she pressed herself against Hu Qi, clutching his hand tightly. Her voice trembled. “Baby, did you see that?”

Hu Qi was too scared to speak. Zhou Yang and Song Lu, two grown men, clung to each other and sobbed.

“Why don’t we go back? Hu Qi, can we just not take this money?” Zhou Yang shouted with his eyes squeezed shut, not daring to look at the stairwell again.

Hu Qi had been frightened badly enough to start thinking about retreating too.

Just then, golden light exploded across the livestream chat.

[Enter Hongdou Hotel and Die tipped 100 treasure maps*]

Hu Qi nearly dropped the livestreaming equipment. He stared at the message, checking it again and again, until he confirmed that it really was 100 treasure maps.

Five hundred yuan each, multiplied by 100, came to fifty thousand yuan in total! After the platform took its thirty-percent cut, he would receive thirty-five thousand yuan!

[Enter Hongdou Hotel and Die: Go to the second floor.]