Since all these rules and superstitions are outdated, what's wrong with me indulging in some me

It's a ghost, or a powerful evil entity!

Lu Changsheng instantly regained full consciousness and immediately looked at Cheng Caijun beside him.

Cheng Caijun's eyes were closed, his face was bluish-purple, and his body was convulsing violently in his sleep.

His hands were gripping his own neck tightly, his nails digging deep into his flesh, leaving purplish-black bruises. He was making strange "hoarse" noises in his throat, and his tongue was sticking out!

He's dreaming, and he's strangling himself!

"Cheng Caijun! Wake up!"

Lu Changsheng gave a low shout and slapped him on the forehead with one hand, while using his other hand to forcefully pry his hand off!

Cheng Caijun's grip was incredibly strong, as if it weren't his own hand, but rather being controlled by something.

Lu Changsheng used all his strength to barely pry his fingers apart one by one.

"Cough! Cough cough cough!"

Cheng Caijun suddenly opened his eyes, his eyeballs bulging and bloodshot, and he coughed violently, greedily inhaling the air.

It took him a long time to come to his senses. He looked at the deep strangulation marks on his neck in horror, and then looked at Lu Changsheng.

"Brother Lu... I... I dreamt that many hands reached out from the ground and grabbed my ankles, dragging me down!"

His voice trembled with lingering fear.

Lu Changsheng's expression was solemn.

The nightmare and the jade pendant he had just experienced were both warning him that something was launching a silent attack, and in an extremely bizarre way.

This is more terrifying than a direct physical attack.

"Killing in a dream."

Lu Changsheng's expression was not good. He glanced out the window, where darkness was still so thick that it seemed like dawn was still a long way off.

"There's probably more than one kind of 'thing' in this village..."

He hadn't finished speaking—

Suddenly, clear footsteps came from outside the door.

It came very lightly and slowly from outside the courtyard gate. Step by step, it dragged along the dirt road, as if wearing heavy shoes, or as if the feet were not lifted at all.

Lu Changsheng opened his eyes and looked towards the doorway.

The talisman pasted under the door crack was slowly darkening in color, changing from bright red to dark red, and then to almost black.

Something is parked outside the door.

[It's here! The first night has begun!]

The amulet changed color! There's something outside the door!

How are the other live streams? I'll go check them out, I'm so curious!

I'm a little afraid to watch this, I'm going to sleep. Who can give me a summary tomorrow?

The footsteps stopped.

Then, there was a knock on the door.

"Thump...thump...thump..."

Slow, heavy, each sound struck the heart.

It wasn't struck by hand. Lu Changsheng judged the sound—it sounded more like someone's head, or some kind of hard object, hitting the door panel.

Cheng Caijun sat up abruptly, his face ashen. He looked at Lu Changsheng, his lips trembling, but no sound came out.

Lu Changsheng gestured for him to be quiet, his eyes sharp.

Rule number two: Do ​​not go out after dark, and do not open the door if someone knocks.

No matter what's outside the door, it must never be opened.

The knocking continued for seven times, then stopped.

Dead silence.

But the deathly silence lasted only three seconds.

A low laugh came from outside the door, a dry, hoarse laugh, as if squeezed out from a broken bellows:

"Guest...open the door...I've brought you water..."

It was a woman's voice, but it was distorted and deformed, as if her vocal cords had rotted.

Lu Changsheng looked at the earthenware jar in the corner—the water inside was indeed problematic.

"Guest...open the door..." the voice began to plead, trembling with sobs, "It's so cold outside...please let me in...just for a moment..."

The crying grew more and more piercing, eventually turning into a sharp howl.

The talisman pasted on the door began to smoke, and the color of the cinnabar turned completely black, with the edges curling and scorching.

The thing outside the door is forcefully trying to break through the protective barrier of the talisman!

Lu Changsheng gripped the dagger he had exchanged from the mall in his sleeve, while his other hand reached for the talisman at his waist.

The attack abruptly stopped just before the talisman was completely reduced to ashes.

It was not a defeat that ended, but rather a...voluntary cessation filled with deep resentment and bitterness.

The talisman pasted on the door was not completely burned. On the remaining charred pieces of paper, the black color of cinnabar began to slowly fade, turning back to dark red, and then stopped.

The intense, chilly aura outside the door was also rapidly dissipating.

gone?

Lu Changsheng and Cheng Caijun exchanged a glance, both seeing confusion in each other's eyes.

Based on the intensity of the impact just now, that thing clearly intended to force its way in. Why did it give up at the last moment?

Just then, a muffled sound suddenly came from the neighboring yard!

Lu Changsheng listened intently, and it sounded like the voice of Kevin, the blond Western man.

"It went next door!" Cheng Caijun blurted out, his voice extremely low.

Lu Changsheng nodded, and the object outside the door shifted its focus!

There was a sound coming from next door, but it disappeared after a few minutes.

"What happened?"

Cheng Caijun asked in a low voice.

Lu Changsheng shook his head; he would only know what had happened tomorrow morning.

The crisis seems to have temporarily shifted.

But Lu Changsheng's vigilance did not ease in the slightest. He glanced at the ashes of the talisman paper on the ground, and then at the impenetrable darkness outside the window.

The first night was only halfway over.

Neither of them felt like sleeping; the nightmare they had just experienced left them both shaken.

"I can't go without sleep."

Lu Changsheng frowned.

This is a seven-day-long dungeon; you could die from staying up all night.

"In this way, we'll take turns, each sleeping only for half an hour to prevent ourselves from entering deep sleep. If we notice any signs of the other person entering a nightmare, we'll wake them up and tell them to go back to sleep for a while."

Cheng Caijun nodded and lay down again, but this time he couldn't fall asleep no matter what. He closed his eyes and tossed and turned.

The first pale rays of dawn struggled to pierce the thick morning mist, casting a sickly gray-white hue over the lifeless village.

Lu Changsheng woke Cheng Caijun up, and the two walked to the door, listening intently.

There was complete silence outside the door; even the wind had stopped, and a sweet, fishy smell wafted over.

Lu Changsheng hesitated for a moment, then grasped the cold doorknob and slowly pulled it open inwards.

"hiss……"

Even with Lu Changsheng's composure, he couldn't help but gasp and his pupils contracted sharply the moment he saw the scene outside the door.

Beyond the threshold, instead of the expected earthen courtyard ground, there was a vibrant, colorful expanse.

Thousands upon thousands of poisonous insects swarmed together, almost completely covering the ground outside the gate and spreading all the way to the base of the courtyard wall.

The venomous centipede was dark and shiny, with many legs wriggling; scorpions, spiders, beetles, and worms overlapped and crowded together, making a rustling sound that made one's scalp crawl.

The moment Lu Changsheng opened the door, these poisonous insects swarmed in.

It was as if they had waited all night just for this door to open.

[Holy crap!!! Open the door and kill!]

[What kind of hellish scene is this?! It's triggering my trypophobia!]

[Poisonous insects! Absolutely poisonous insects! They seem afraid to come in? They're all blocking the doorway!]

[What is this? Where did these poisonous insects come from? Did those ghosts make them last night?]

What are you thinking upstairs? Can ghosts control poisonous insects?