[Martial Arts] Infinite Chamber Game

This is the main hall of an old house.

The candlelight flickered on the moss-covered wall. The ancient and old doors and windows were tightly closed. The wind came from nowhere, but it blew up the hanging red curtain, making it flutter like a female ghost in red.

The night opened its dark hands, bringing with it thunder and lightning and rolling clouds to cover it. A bluish-white light cut through the sky, illuminating the person sitting cross-legged in the house, who was also flickering between black and white.

Lu Xiaofeng has been trapped in this dilapidated old house for four hours.

The ridiculous thing was that he had no idea why he was here. He was involved in a fatal trouble at that time. On the ten-foot-high courtyard wall, hundreds of bows had their strings tightened and fatal arrows were aimed at him. In front of him stood a superb swordsman who was ready to kill him.

It was at this moment that Lu Xiaofeng swore he didn't even blink, and somehow or other he came to this hellish place.

He even wondered if he was already dead, and this was the kingdom of the dead?

How else could he explain the strange red glow on the wall and the constantly changing handwriting? But he was already dead, so why bother him by not letting him see his deceased relatives and friends?
The handwriting was so fierce that it seemed to be flying off the wall. It read:
"Zhang Lang came to propose marriage, but my father humiliated him and drove him away. A few days later, my father fell ill, and even my sister disappeared..."

Next to this line of words is a time report every half hour. The wording is very simple and clear, starting with "half an hour has passed" and slowly changing to "three hours have passed." Now it is the fourth hour, and the color of the words has become darker, almost like streaks of blood flowing down, as if reminding him that there is not much time left.

But Lu Xiaofeng remained calm.

He was sitting on a dusty table, staring at the wall in a daze. He could only stare in a daze.

Of course he tried pushing the doors and windows, and just as he expected, he gathered his internal strength and slammed them with his palms. His palm technique was not very sophisticated, but he was sure that the force of this palm was enough to create several cracks even on a three-inch thick stone slab. However, this slam numbed half of his body, and the thin doors and windows, which seemed like they would burst with a gust of wind, did not shake at all, and there was not even a sound!
His power was "eaten".

The room was very small, with a few tables and chairs. On the table was a set of tea sets, a dozen cups, and an empty teapot that smelled strangely of medicine. Next to the table were two bamboo and wooden shelves with some antique vases on them, and a locked box at the bottom.

Within half an hour of arriving here, Lu Xiaofeng had searched every corner of the house, even taking down the calligraphy and paintings on the wall. He knocked on the wall and walked on the floor inch by inch, but found no secret door.

"That's so damn evil!"

After cursing like this, he was not in a hurry anymore after getting nothing. After all, this place was safe. He had been running around for a long time and was already exhausted. He simply ignored everything, pulled a few tables together, lay down on them and fell asleep.

When I woke up, three hours had passed.

He woke up from hunger.

A person doesn't like to think when he is hungry. Three hours ago, Lu Xiaofeng could still think about why he was here, how to get out, and what the words on the wall wanted to tell him. But now, his brain was filled with roast goose, roast chicken, roast duck, and various birds and beasts. His stomach made a hungry sound at the right time, and he smiled bitterly and pressed it with his hand.

At this moment, a burst of rapid and sharp sounds rang out in all directions, almost drowning out the roaring thunder. Then, the strange voice came into Lu Xiaofeng's ears word by word.

"Alarm, alarm, you have only five minutes to escape. The game reminds you that if you cannot escape in time, you will be killed by the evil spirit."

The time prompt on the wall suddenly disappeared, and was replaced by a string of digital countdown!
"05:00:00"

The characters at the end changed rapidly. Lu Xiaofeng's pupils shrank, his body shook, and he rushed to the wall like an arrow. He stretched out his hand and gently stroked the countdown. Of course, he didn't know what this string of characters represented, nor did he know how long five minutes was, but the shrill alarm was still ringing, one sound more urgent than the other, telling him clearly that time was really running out.

Lu Xiaofeng's brows sank slightly, and his pair of gentle and affectionate eyes had become a little cold. This was the first time he intuitively felt that everything happening at the moment was no longer controllable by human power.

Games? Ghosts?

If all this is a game of God, it would be too much.

Suddenly! The doors and windows were shaking. Lu Xiaofeng turned his head and couldn't help but take a breath. Even with all his strength, he couldn't shake the doors and windows. There were shadows on them. Dozens of hands were beating on them. The doors and windows were already shaky, and the "people" outside who were beating on them frantically could break in at any time.

The faint candlelight reflected on the wall, which was covered with hideous ghost faces. Ghost claws as slender and skinny as dead branches were also on the wall, as if they were about to stretch out to strangle Lu Xiaofeng's throat.

"Ghosts, taking my life..." Lu Xiaofeng was not afraid, but moved closer. He looked at the words carefully and murmured, "Zhang Lang proposed marriage... was driven away by his father... Could this sentence have something to do with leaving this place?"

The characters behind it changed rapidly and became "04:12:36".

The thunder outside had stopped and turned into terrifying human voices, including a woman's laughter, a child's crying, and an old man's cursing. The several voices mixed together, sometimes seeming to be far away in the sky, and sometimes seeming to be ringing beside you.

"Bang, bang, bang—" The noises of the doors and windows became more and more urgent. The door bulged inward greatly and was about to collapse.

Lu Xiaofeng's hand holding the candlestick was still steady: "I'm sick... Oh, right! Medicine!"

He walked quickly to the table and looked at the teapot that smelled of medicine. There was nothing on it. Not giving up, he picked up the cups next to it and looked at them. There was an animal engraved under each cup, and the twelve cups corresponded exactly to the twelve zodiac signs.

As if he remembered something, Lu Xiaofeng put down the cup, turned around and dragged out a box from a bamboo rack beside him. There was a lock on the box. It was a very delicate lock with six rings on it. Each ring had twelve edges, and the edges were engraved with Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao... which just happened to correspond to the twelve zodiac signs.

"That's it! It can't be wrong!"

Lu Xiaofeng smelled the twelve cups one by one, and sure enough, six of them also had the smell of medicine, which were arranged as follows: "rat, rabbit, dragon, sheep, dog, pig"

Twist the ring according to the corresponding "Zi, Mao, Chen, Wei, Xu, Hai" and the lock will open with a click.

"03:02:45"

There were letters in the box.

Lu Xiaofeng opened the letter and knew it was from a girl to her lover:
"The sun and the moon are far apart, when will we meet again? I am waiting patiently with my foolish heart; people say you are sincere, why don't you say what you mean? I am suffering from lovesickness because of you, and I shed tears secretly when I am alone... Zhang Lang, ah Zhang Lang..."①
The second letter was written by a man: "I am grateful for your love for me. I love you too, but your family is rich and mine is poor. Your father rebuked me for my proposal the other day. I miss you so much that I can't sleep. I just hope to see you every morning and every night. If you are interested, please bring some valuables and meet me at the corner door of the west wall at three o'clock in the morning. From now on, no matter where we are, we will never be separated."

The third letter:
"Zhang Lang, my father is almost dying after taking the medicine, and my sister has begun to doubt me. Didn't you say that the medicine would only make people weak..." The following words were covered by a large pool of ink and could no longer be recognized.

Lu Xiaofeng kept shaking his head as he read it, not knowing whether he was sighing for the person in the letter or disappointed that it was just a useless clue.

Countdown on the wall: "02:11:02"

The door that had been slammed loudly opened a crack, and blue-gray fingers stretched out in!
"Why are these letters locked in the box?" Lu Xiaofeng turned his head and looked at the wall: "Did my father die in the end? Then is my sister also dead? Where did my elder sister go?"

Lu Xiaofeng stood up suddenly!
He looked up, and there was the fluttering red curtain above his head! It was tied to the beam and looked so abrupt. Lu Xiaofeng wanted to pull it down and use it as a quilt, but he tried his best and failed to pull it down!
Now it seems that this red curtain is even stranger. My father is seriously ill and my sister is missing. Which family would hang a red curtain in the main hall after experiencing such misfortunes?
Lu Xiaofeng pulled hard and straightened the red curtain. In the candlelight, he could vaguely see a deep scratch on it.

Bloodstains!
"Miss, I already know everything about you. Do you have anything to say to me?"

The red curtain swayed violently, like a mad woman venting hysterically, she screamed and shouted, but no one could hear her.

A head slowly emerged from the red curtain, with long hair like dead grass hanging down, and a pair of blue-gray legs covered with corpse spots were also revealed from under the red curtain.

The head slowly raised.

Lu Xiaofeng's heart was about to jump out of his chest, his forehead was covered with cold sweat, and every muscle under his clothes was tense. But he was still smiling, and when he smiled, the two eyebrows-like whiskers on his lips also spread out.

"01:00:00"

The female ghost raised her head and smiled eerily, but her eyes passed through Lu Xiaofeng and looked at the wall. Lu Xiaofeng also followed her gaze.

That line of words has changed.

"Zhang Lang is not the murderer. My sister has wrongly accused him. In fact, I am the murderer... Zhang Lang, it was obviously my sister and I who met you, so why do you always keep your eyes on her? Is it only when she disappears that you will look at me?"

The words appeared and disappeared. Slowly, a coffin emerged on the wall. A young girl knelt in front of the coffin and cried. She cried so sadly, but as she cried, she actually started to laugh. Suddenly, a sword suddenly protruded from her chest.

Someone stood behind her and stabbed her with a sword! The girl's body twitched for a while, and finally fell down. The man not only killed her, but also tore off a piece of white silk and hung her in front of the coffin.

Lu Xiaofeng was deeply moved by what he saw, but no matter how much he sighed, he had to leave quickly.

Yes, even after being reminded to this extent, if he still doesn’t know how to get out, then he has really grown a head in vain.

The image on the wall was exactly this room. The person who killed the woman must have come in from outside. Lu Xiaofeng looked up at the ghost girl hanging on the beam and clasped his fist towards her: "Ghost girl, you killed your father and sister for your lover, and were killed by your lover again. This is the cycle of justice. If there is reincarnation, you should be a good person in your next life."

"00:03:23"

Lu Xiaofeng walked behind the female ghost. The female ghost had her back to the wall, which was covered with calligraphy and paintings. Of course, there was still a wall underneath the calligraphy and paintings. Lu Xiaofeng had knocked on every brick here.

"00:02:10"

This time Lu Xiaofeng did not knock on the wall. Instead, he pulled the bolt as if he was opening a door normally, and then pushed outwards. The wall was still the wall, not moving at all.

"00:01:00"

Lu Xiaofeng tilted his head, seeming puzzled, but soon he understood. This time, he chose to pull it in.

Something seemed to break in the air, a very light sound. Lu Xiaofeng did not hear it because his whole body was enveloped in a brilliant white light.

The door opened.

A cheerful voice rang in his ears: "Congratulations to player No. 146, Mr. Lu Xiaofeng, for passing the Infinite Chamber Game Trial Field."

Before Lu Xiaofeng had time to be surprised, he saw something even more surprising.

(End of this chapter)