This entry is suspicious.

"Your name is Luo Yunhui, right? Don't be afraid, we're here specifically to handle strange incidents in the hotel."

"Hiding in here alone isn't a solution. Why don't you cooperate with us and tell us what you know? Only by working together can we hope to leave this place."

Su Meilin patiently persuaded them, her voice gentle and sincere. Adapting one's approach to different people was a basic skill for her profession.

"How do you know my name!" Luo Yunhui shouted in response.

"Don't get agitated. You are one of the missing persons. We've seen your photo, and we just saw your face again," Su Meilin reassured her.

The room remained silent for a long time, as if Luo Yunhui was engaged in a fierce internal struggle.

"How do I know you're not supernatural beings?" she finally asked, her voice full of wariness.

"The strange creature shouldn't be able to use its true energy, right? Come closer to the cat's eye, and I'll demonstrate a spell for you," Fang Beichen said calmly.

"...Okay." Luo Yunhui hesitated for a moment, then agreed.

Fang Beichen raised his hand, his fingertips gently twirling, and a soft light shone forth, as dazzling as a lamp. This was a basic lighting spell.

"You guys are really human! That's so great!"

Luo Yunhui's voice instantly became excited, and with a click, she unlocked the door and opened it.

This was a woman in her mid-twenties, wearing a beige sweatshirt. She was slender, pale, with sunken eyes and fine blood vessels running through her eyes, as if she hadn't closed them in a long time.

[Faceless Ghost], [Level One Ghost], [Thousand Faces], [Imitation and Substitution]

Zhou Ran's eyes sharpened, and he thought to himself, "Just as I thought."

According to the entry, Luo Yunhui had already died and was replaced by the Faceless Ghost.

"Come in quickly, this room is safe. I got rid of those ghostly things after hiding in here," Luo Yunhui said to everyone.

Upon hearing this, the rather fat man named Liu Feng's eyes lit up, and he walked into the room without hesitation.

"Wait..." Zhou Ran raised his hand to call out to the other person, but it was too late.

The moment Liu Feng stepped across the threshold, a strange smile slowly crept onto Luo Yunhui's pale face, and then the door to room 408 slammed shut with a bang.

Several eerie laughs echoed in the room at the same time, as if celebrating the prey stepping into a trap.

"No!"

Liu Feng screamed in terror and frantically pounded on the door, like a drowning person struggling in the final moments before death.

Fang Beichen's eyes flickered, but he ultimately decided to try to rescue her. He stepped forward, grabbed the doorknob, and twisted it hard, but the doorknob didn't budge, as if it were welded to the door frame.

He applied even more force, and the veins on his entire arm bulged, but the doorknob remained motionless.

The next second, snap!

A chilling sound of bones breaking came from behind the door, as if bones were being twisted and snapped. Liu Feng's scream suddenly changed into a piercing wail.

Click click click click...

A series of sounds of bones dislocating rang out, as if someone were twisting and folding a body like wringing out a towel. Each sound was accompanied by Liu Feng's muffled sobs. The sound grew weaker and weaker until it finally disappeared completely behind the door.

Feeling troubled, everyone quickly retreated, moving away from room 408 and returning to the stairwell.

"How come that guy wasn't wary at all? He just walked right in." Zhou Ran felt helpless.

However, he quickly came to terms with it; very few people are normal enough to owe millions in loans. That Liu Feng was not only a gambling addict but also a drug addict; his brain was damaged by various drugs. Expecting him to be rational and cautious was like expecting a sow to fly.

"It's better for everyone to die sooner rather than later, so they don't mess things up at crucial moments," Fang Beichen said coldly.

"What should we do next?" The young cannon fodder named Guo Fan clutched his hair tightly, his mentality on the verge of collapse. Liu Feng's death terrified him to the extreme.

"Everyone agreed to go into the room to explore, but we were interrupted by the unusual activity in room 408. Let's start again now," Zhou Ran said.

"Are you crazy? These rooms must be full of monsters! I don't want to go in." Guo Fan fully understood the horror of the monsters and didn't want to take any more risks.

"In the face of bizarre events, we cannot sit idly by and wait to die; only by confronting the danger can we find a way out," Zhou Ran said earnestly.

"If you don't want to go, I'll just kill you. I hate people who reap the benefits without sowing." Fang Beichen stared at Guo Fan and threatened coldly, clearly agreeing with Zhou Ran's point of view.

Guo Fan dared not speak out in anger. Fang Beichen was at the Qi Refining stage, while he was only at the ninth level of the Qi Opening stage, making him no match for him. In this godforsaken place, killing was a matter of a single thought, with absolutely no legal constraints.

"Which room do you think we should explore first?" Fang Beichen asked Zhou Ran.

"It's 404, right?" Zhou Ran said.

Why?

"Intuition. My intuition is pretty accurate; I've survived strange incidents before because of it."

Fang Beichen pondered for a moment: "Alright, let's go to room 404 first."

Then he turned to Cui Jin and said, "You should wake up. We need your fighting power."

"Why should I help you?" Cui Jin was utterly dejected, his voice devoid of any life. "I never wanted to live anyway, it would be best if we all died together."

This is troublesome, why are they all problem children… Zhou Ran could only ask:

"Why don't you want to live anymore?"

"That's a long story."

"Go ahead and tell us, we have plenty of time now anyway."

"Okay then..."

Cui Jin took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, took two deep drags, and exhaled smoke from his nostrils. With a sullen face, he slowly said, "I took out a loan to start a business, but someone set me up and I lost everything. Then I caught my girlfriend cheating on me. Haha, the person she cheated on me with was the guy who set me up. Later I found out that the bitch was with me the whole time as part of my master's mission, just to trick me into joining the scheme and squeeze every last drop of profit out of me."

He grinned, revealing a smile that was more like a grimace:

"The feelings are fake, the trust is fake, and even the little bit I worked so hard to build was just to benefit someone else. What am I? In their eyes, I'm probably not even a human being, just a pig waiting to be slaughtered, a green turtle."

"So tell me, what's the point of my life?"

Everyone fell silent; it was indeed quite tragic.

Fang Beichen said calmly, "Then you should live even more."

Cui Jin raised his eyelids and glanced at him.

"As long as you're alive, you still have a chance for revenge. I can help you."

Fang Beichen said, "I fight in underground arenas and know some powerful figures who can make people disappear without a trace... If you can get out of here alive, I'll help you get revenge, how about it?"

"That man is the owner of Dikun Construction, and he has a lot of influence in Qinghe City."

"Dikun Construction? It's nothing special. Those big shots are backed by top families and companies in Qingzhou. You should understand how big the gap is."

Cui Jin's hand, holding the cigarette, trembled slightly: "You're not lying to me?"

"I didn't lie to you."

Cui Jin thought for a moment, then stubbed out his cigarette: "Deal, it's a deal."

Seeing this, Zhou Ran breathed a slight sigh of relief. With Cui Jin, a Qi Refining stage cultivator, helping him, the chances of survival had increased considerably.

"Let's go then."

The group arrived at the door of room 404.

After Liu Feng's death, the team was left with only 6 people: Zhou Ran, Fang Beichen, Cui Jin, Su Meilin, Guo Fan, and a middle-aged man named Hu Tian.

Fang Beichen and Cui Jin are at the Qi Refining stage, while the rest are at the Opening Aperture stage. Guo Fan and Su Meilin are both at the ninth level of the Opening Aperture stage, Hu Tian is at the eighth level, and only Zhou Ran is at the fifth level.

Fang Beichen stepped forward and turned the doorknob. This time, he encountered no resistance and easily pushed open the door with a gentle turn.

The room was dark and gloomy. With the help of the corridor lights, one could only vaguely see two heavy curtains hanging at the window at the far end of the room, and the night outside was as thick as ink.

"Fortunately, the firm provided a master key just in case."

Fang Beichen took out a room card from his pocket and inserted it into the card slot.

With a soft "beep", the ceiling light in the room suddenly turned on.

"That's strange."

Zhou Ran stroked his chin and said, "This is clearly a strange space, so why is the room card working?"

"Who knows what strange things might happen?"

As he spoke, Fang Beichen took the lead and stepped into room 404.

From the doorway, the room appears empty, but the eerie creature often only appears when it launches an attack, so it's impossible to determine whether the room is safe just by looking; someone has to physically go inside.

Fang Beichen took the initiative to explore the route because he had the highest cultivation level and was confident that he could escape unscathed.

Fang Beichen paced around the room, his body tense. The anticipated attack hadn't occurred, and he relaxed slightly: "This room seems safe. You can come in and investigate."

Zhou Ran stepped inside, and the others looked at each other in surprise before following suit.

Guo Fan thought for a moment, then decided not to go any further and instead stayed at the doorway to block the door.

Room 404 was very spacious and elegantly decorated, with a soft carpet on the floor that made no sound when you stepped on it.

A sofa and a television are placed in the center of the living room, while an ashtray and some magazines are on the coffee table in the middle. There are three paintings on the wall.

To the left of the living room is the bathroom, which has a separate wet and dry area and a large bathtub; to the right is the bedroom, with a large bed that can accommodate two adults. The white sheets are neatly folded, and there is a brass lamp on each side of the bed.

There were several windows in the room, through which you could see the street scene around the Pearl Hotel, but the windows could not be opened no matter what, and the glass could not be damaged in the slightest.

After a quick look around, Zhou Ran went to the three paintings in the living room to examine them.

The first painting depicts a cruise ship sailing on the sea, with huge waves surging and the sky as black as ink, while dim yellow lights shine through the portholes of the ship.

The second painting depicts a suffocating molten lava inferno, with crimson magma flowing like a river, scorching the blackened earth, and the air seemingly filled with the smell of sulfur and burning.

Above the image, thick, black smoke billows, with occasional streaks of dark red lightning tearing through the sky. In the corner of the image, distorted human figures can be vaguely seen struggling in the lava, their faces blurred and their postures contorted in agony.

The third painting depicts an empty living room, with the layout and details exactly the same as room 404. However, the bedroom door in the painting is closed, and there are no three paintings on the wall.

Zhou Ran instinctively felt that the three paintings were very strange, but since no blood-red words appeared in his sight, he could only give up for the time being.

Just then, Guo Fan, who was standing against the door, suddenly changed his expression. A tremendous force suddenly came from the door and pushed him directly into the house.

With a bang, the door to room 404 slammed shut.

Guo Fan panicked and rushed to the door, frantically trying to turn the doorknob, but the handle wouldn't budge.

"We're trapped!" Guo Fan shouted in panic.

Everyone rushed over to check, and after confirming that the door couldn't be opened, their faces immediately darkened; this was definitely not good news.

Only Zhou Ran knew that the [4-Minute Bizarre Frenzy] was coming!

Zhou Ran's mind raced: "The problem now is, we don't know if a path to survival will appear after the bizarre surge passes, or if the path to survival isn't even after the surge. Maybe this so-called surge is actually designed to prevent us from finding a way to survive..."

He analyzed every possibility, his gaze rapidly sweeping across every corner of the room.

Paintings, windows, bathrooms, bedrooms, ceilings... where exactly is the path to survival hidden?

Before he could even sort things out, Guo Fan rushed over with red eyes, grabbed his collar, veins bulging, his voice filled with anger and fear.

"It's all your fault! If you hadn't insisted on coming in, we wouldn't be trapped here! It's all your fault! It's all your fault! We're going to die!"

Fueled by fear, Guo Fan's emotions completely collapsed, and tears streamed down his face uncontrollably.

Zhou Ran said in a deep voice, "Calm down, my intuition tells me the way out is right here..."

"Shut up!" Guo Fan roared, "Because of your worthless intuition, we're about to die!"

That's enough.

Fang Beichen reached out and grabbed Guo Fan's wrist, looking at him expressionlessly: "Save your energy for the dangers ahead."

Guo Fan's wrist was squeezed painfully. He finally loosened his grip on Zhou Ran's collar, took two steps back dejectedly, and squatted on the ground with his hands covering his head, sobbing.

Just then, a rushing sound of running water came from the direction of the toilet, as if someone had turned on the tap.

Everyone's expression changed drastically.

"All seven of us are in the living room, but the bathroom faucet has been turned on. It seems the strange attack has already begun," Fang Beichen said gravely.

"Wait, seven people?" Cui Jin was taken aback.

Immediately, everyone froze, feeling a bone-chilling cold.

There should only be 6 of them!

苏美琳猛地转头，目光在每一张脸上飞速扫过，心里默数：「1、2、3、4、5、6、7。」

That's right, it's still 7 people.

Strangely, every face was so familiar; they were clearly his teammates. No one was a stranger, and no one looked out of place.

But numbers don't lie; there was one extra person among them.

Just as everyone was filled with doubt and confusion—

Zhou Ran drew his sword.

Clang!

A clear, bright light cascaded from the scabbard, like autumn water suddenly breaking.

As Qi and blood flowed in, the spiritual energy circulation matrix was instantly activated, causing the secret iron alloy blade to vibrate at a high frequency, igniting scorching hot Yang Qi, the high temperature causing the surrounding air to distort slightly.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Ran unleashed his killing move with five layers of force, aiming it at the figure so close at hand—

--cut!