Chapter 216: The Thirtieth Floor’s Deception

“Wait a minute! The thirtieth floor—isn’t that one of the taboos Liang Xuezhang mentioned?” I exclaimed.

Seeing the elevator already in motion, I frantically pressed the buttons for the first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth floors, attempting to halt its ascent, but the buttons remained completely unresponsive.

The buttons I pressed didn’t light up. Yet, the indicator lights, symbolizing the elevator’s ascent, continued to climb steadily upward: second floor, third floor, fourth floor…

Its speed was no different from a regular elevator, but it instilled a profound sense of tension and dread, as if the elevator were ferrying us straight to the heavens.

“This is what I was just talking about—the hidden danger of the elevator,” Mo Qingyan explained. “It comes from those who fled to the top floor only to find themselves trapped. In their final moments, they frantically pressed the elevator buttons, hoping the burnt-out lift would somehow rescue them. Of course, that was impossible; the elevator had long since stopped functioning.”

“So now that this place has become a ghost prison, will the elevator carry their lingering resentment, ascending all the way to the thirtieth floor to deliver anyone who enters as their substitute sacrifice?” Xushan asked, his tone noticeably less composed than Mo Qingyan’s.

A dense surge of malevolent energy gathered around Xushan’s right fist, and even his own body began to emit a chilling aura. He pulled out a red high-heeled shoe with his left hand.

It seemed to me he intended to smash open the elevator door with a single punch and make an escape. Naturally, I hoped he would succeed on his first attempt.

“Xushan, there’s no need to rush,” Mo Qingyan said calmly. “Since I dared to bring you all into this elevator, I’ve naturally already obtained Liang Xuezhang’s strategy. Just relax and watch my performance.”

In the time it took us to exchange these few words, the elevator had already passed the fifteenth floor and was rapidly approaching the twentieth. It was then that Mo Qingyan unhurriedly took out a red pencil and scribbled a few strokes over the thirtieth-floor button.

“Huh?” I froze. Upon closer inspection, copious amounts of fresh blood oozed from where the red pencil had written, the sanguine stains completely obscuring the number ‘30’.

Could such a self-deceptive method truly be effective? The elevator had already passed the twentieth floor and was accelerating.

At this point, I had no time to consider any other alternatives.

“Ding!” The elevator stopped. The lights on the thirtieth-floor button, half-smeared with blood, illuminated.

Simultaneously, the indicator light above the door also displayed ‘30’.

However, the indicator light seemed to suffer some interference, flickering indistinctly. After several more blinks, it vanished completely, leaving only a single digit displayed.

The doors parted, and a pungent, burnt smell assailed our nostrils. Before us lay a scene ravaged by fire: plaster peeled from the walls, wood charred to black, and even the doors of the residential units had melted.

The rooms within were nothing but wreckage.

“Are we… on the thirtieth floor?” Xiao Qing asked uneasily, hesitating to step out of the elevator.

Mo Qingyan, however, strode confidently out and chuckled, “No, we aren’t. Welcome to the third floor.”

“This is… the third floor?” I followed the others out of the elevator. It was quite easy to confirm, as the corridor offered a direct view of the outside.

We weren’t very high off the ground; it certainly appeared to be the third floor.

“The elevator ascended for so long, yet we only reached the third floor? Can simply altering a button with a pencil achieve such an effect?” I asked, somewhat astonished, as this defied my understanding.

“Remember, in the supernatural realm, spatial and physical meanings hold little weight. Symbolic meaning is paramount. Of course, you must also possess the ability to alter these symbols.”

“Liang Xuezhang relies on his family’s inherited method of omens. I, too, learned this method from Liang Xuezhang, which is why I dared to take the elevator,” Mo Qingyan explained.

So that was it. Mo Qingyan had learned from Liang Xuezhang beforehand that a red pencil could be used to manipulate the elevator. But what about Liang Xuezhang himself?

Did he anticipate the solution before entering the elevator, or did he quickly discover it after realizing something was amiss inside? Regardless of how I considered it, Liang Xuezhang was incredibly formidable.

Though I had never met him, his ideas and directives could be heard everywhere, making him truly an expert in the supernatural.

“Speaking of which, does this mean our exploration is limited to the third floor? We still can’t use the stairs, so we’ll have to take the elevator again later?” Xiao Qing inquired.

“That’s right! Mo Qingyan managed to avert danger by scribbling with the red pencil just now, but what about next time? Won’t taking the elevator again still send us to the thirtieth floor?

If the red pencil can’t change it to other floors, wouldn’t we be perpetually trapped on the third floor?”

“Don’t worry, that was merely the malevolent spirit acting up,” Mo Qingyan reassured us. “They generally don’t cause trouble consecutively. After failing to harm us this one time, they’ll quiet down for a bit.

Besides, I can also forcefully change floors with the pencil. Other floors besides the third are also possible.”

Her words put me at ease. As we spoke, Bai Yue, Xushan, and Jia Cheng had already entered the corridor, splitting up to explore the apartment building, which had been burned beyond recognition.

I spoke up, asking, “What are they looking for? If Bai Yue is just searching for ghosts to feed her Gu worms, what are Xuezhang Xushan and Jia Cheng searching for?”

“Strictly speaking, they are also looking for ghosts,” Mo Qingyan replied. “Jia Cheng is looking for material to capture in supernatural photographs, while Xushan is seeking a more powerful ghost. However, in such a ghost realm, one often finds unexpected gains.”

“Unexpected gains?” I didn’t quite understand. Xiao Qing reminded me from beside, “Sister Xia, do you remember how cursed artifacts are formed?”

“They coalesce from the fear, despair, and resentment of people before they die, often appearing at murder scenes, or transforming from magical artifacts stained with blood… Wait! This fire scene can also produce cursed artifacts?!” I suddenly realized.

“Exactly,” Mo Qingyan confirmed. “With so many people dead, their grievances are bound to form cursed artifacts. When Liang Xuezhang came before, he unearthed several good items. Many of the cursed artifacts in our Supernatural Incident Department came from places like this.”

No wonder. Those malevolent skull, scarecrow, and strange blade-like cursed artifacts in the Supernatural Incident Department were all found in ghost realms.

Mo Qingyan added, “Liang Xuezhang also told me he felt there must be something very powerful on the thirtieth floor, but it was too dangerous. Even he wasn’t fully confident the last time he came, so he didn’t go up. Of course, we shouldn’t even think about it.”

Just then, Jia Cheng, who had gone to explore a room, shouted, “Come quickly! I feel like there should be something good here.”

We immediately headed towards that room. In reality, most of the rooms on the third floor were already open; the former residents had either fled or been incinerated by the fire.

Following Jia Cheng’s shout, we entered the room. It was completely empty, everything burned to black charcoal residue, accompanied by a foul stench. However, in the room

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