This entry is suspicious.

Zhou Ran was very dissatisfied with the fact that all the entries produced by the Book of Fate-Seeking had side effects.

However, Zhou Ran was quite satisfied with the two newly created enhancement entries in front of him.

The effect of 【Great Strength】 is simple and straightforward: it triples strength, which is a remarkable improvement for cultivators of all levels, especially for those who practice martial arts and focus on physical cultivation.

This attribute is a noble percentage enhancement, which is based on the base stat.

For example, an ordinary cultivator in the Enlightenment Realm has a base attack power of only 10 points, but after equipping certain items, their attack power can reach 30 points.

The physical cultivator has the highest base stats, with a base attack power of 20 points, which can reach 60 points after equipping certain attributes, making it extremely powerful.

The side effects are within an acceptable range. The speed is reduced by three times, which is indeed a bit awkward during combat, but it is not a problem as long as you operate it properly.

Enhancement modifiers can be removed at will.

Therefore, as long as you equip [Power] the moment the attack hits the enemy, you can deal high damage while effectively avoiding the negative effects of side effects.

As for the second term, "Eye of Truth," judging from the description of "seeing through falsehoods and touching the truth," it is undoubtedly an extremely powerful ability.

Zhou Ran guessed that illusions, mazes, invisibility, shapeshifting, and other disguise and concealment abilities were all useless in the face of the Eye of Truth.

If this term had been present in the eerie space just now, it might have allowed me to see through the thick darkness released by the "Lights Out Spell," or discover early on that the third painting was the path to survival.

Of course, the side effects of this entry are too dangerous; casually browsing it may attract the attention of some unknown entities, so it must be used with extreme caution each time.

These thoughts flashed through Zhou Ran's mind as he looked around at his surroundings.

They were in a place with the exact same layout as room 404. The others were still in shock, their faces full of vigilance as they watched their surroundings, afraid that the peace before them was just an illusion and that the eeriness would strike again in the next second.

"Where is this?" Fang Beichen gripped the black knife in his hand tightly, blood still seeping from the mechanical prosthetic in his left hand.

"It's the Pearl Hotel, the real one. We're out now," Zhou Ran replied confidently.

"Are you sure?" Cui Jin looked around nervously.

Zhou Ran pointed to the door: "We inserted the room card when we entered room 404, but there's no card in the slot now, which means we're in another room, number 404."

Fang Beichen's expression remained unwavering: "Those paintings possess spatial attributes; perhaps we are currently inside one of them. Don't forget, the scene depicted in that painting is exactly the same as the living room in room 404."

The cruelest thing about bizarre events is that when you think you've finally survived, fate reveals its true fangs. What you thought was an escape from death is just falling from one dead end into another.

"Why think so much? Just greet the people outside."

Cui Jin strode to the window, opened it, and a slightly hot night breeze rushed in.

He waved three arms at the agency members stationed below the hotel, and the agency members immediately responded by shining flashlights in their direction—not because they couldn't hear him, but because both sides were afraid that making too much noise would attract a strange attack.

"They replied!" Cui Jin exclaimed in surprise.

The open window, the sweltering night breeze, the flickering beam of a flashlight... After seeing all this, the weight that had been hanging over everyone's hearts finally lifted.

"Waaah..." Su Meilin covered her mouth tightly with her ten-fingered hand, tears streaming down her face as she wept with joy.

"Hahahaha, I survived! I survived!" Guo Fan cried and laughed at the same time, completely deranged, with a tumor the size of a fist on his face.

"We really escaped." Fang Beichen closed his three eyes and exhaled deeply.

Upon witnessing this rather strange scene, Zhou Ran couldn't help but touch his chest. As he moved away from the distorted power, his rapidly beating heart gradually slowed down.

He was lucky; he didn't grow any extra limbs or organs. The others were much more unlucky.

Fang Beichen has an extra eye on his forehead, and his left hand, which has a mechanical prosthetic, seems to have grown flesh and blood again; Cui Jin has an extra arm growing on his back; Su Meilin's palms and arms are covered with densely packed fingers; Guo Fan's right arm is swollen, and a large lump has bulged under the skin of his cheek, making the skin transparent, and you can clearly see that it is a beating heart.

Even if you are far away from the [Flesh and Blood Mutants], the deformities that have already occurred in your body will not disappear.

Fortunately, medical technology is now extremely advanced. As long as you go into the operating room, all the extra limbs and organs can be removed without leaving a single scar.

Excess organs can even be recycled and sold by hospitals for money.

However, there's probably nothing that can be done about organ mutations like Zhou Ran's... To be precise, it's Zhou Ran's wallet that's powerless.

Organ cloning technology is already mature, but it is extremely expensive, often costing millions, which is unaffordable for ordinary people.

"What should we do next? Should we go and rejoin the main force?" Cui Jin asked at this moment.

"I'm not going!" Su Meilin suddenly became agitated. After teetering on the edge of life and death and fear, she truly understood a principle—it's better to live a miserable life than to die!

Moreover, dying at the hands of the supernatural is hardly a good death.

"I feel like we don't have a choice," Fang Beichen stated, revealing a harsh truth.

Everyone still had self-destruct collars around their necks; they were not free until this bizarre event ended, and were considered consumable materials.

"You're... right..."

Suddenly, Li Feng's voice rang in everyone's ears.

Zhou Ran was not surprised at all. With the Foundation Establishment realm's divine sense covering the entire hotel, Li Feng should have sensed their escape the moment they were freed.

Then, Li Feng's voice came through intermittently, as if it had been interfered with in some way:

"I never expected you all... to escape alive... It truly surprised me... If the situation hadn't been so... urgent... I would have been willing to give you a way out... But unfortunately..."

Then, a thought carrying information descended from the sky and forcibly entered everyone's minds.

"This bizarre incident was a scheme orchestrated by a demonic organization called 'Tianze' to deal with the situation. The number and horror of the monsters hidden in the hotel far exceeded my imagination. Now, everyone except me is dead."

The strange entities within the hotel have spiraled out of control. I've managed to hold off some high-risk targets and the demonic cultivators from the Celestial Selection Organization, but several entities are still roaming the hotel. If they were allowed to leave the hotel and enter the city, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Therefore, I need you to contain those strange creatures.

Wang Yunhan's body is on the 10th floor, and Mu Feng's body is on the 12th floor. They are carrying forbidden objects that can contain the supernatural. Go and retrieve them, and deal with the supernatural as much as possible.

Furthermore, my divine sense has been affected by a strange force, limiting its reach to the interior of the building and preventing me from contacting the outside world. You must immediately send an emergency signal to the personnel stationed outside; they know what to do.

After processing this series of disruptive messages, everyone was stunned.

Demonic cultivators... Behind this bizarre incident, it turns out that demonic cultivators were setting a trap for the situation?

Zhou Ran was shocked, but quickly accepted the fact.

Upon closer examination, some clues can still be found—the timing of that strange space's appearance was too precise, skipping over the first two waves of cannon fodder and landing precisely in front of them.

If someone is manipulating things behind the scenes, then everything makes sense. The other party wants to use this to weaken the forces around Li Feng, after all, there are two Qi Refining stage cultivators in this team, who cannot be ignored.

While pondering, Zhou Ran glanced at Fang Beichen without making a sound, suspecting that this person from the demonic path was an undercover agent sent in by the demonic path.

But Fang Beichen's face was full of shock and confusion, clearly unaware of this matter.

"The demonic forces he came into contact with are probably not the Celestial Selection Organization," Zhou Ran silently concluded in his mind.

"No...no no no no...why is this happening!"

Guo Fan rolled around on the ground in a frenzy, clutching his hair tightly with both hands, his anger reaching its peak. "We just crawled out of that hellhole! And now they want us to go back and die? Why! Why?!"

"I don't want to go and die anymore, I want to leave this place!"

Guo Fan suddenly scrambled to his feet and rushed toward the open window; he wanted to escape!

However, at that very moment, the cold metal ring around his neck suddenly glowed a dangerous red light and emitted a short, sharp ringing sound.

Bang!

The next second, flames exploded, and blood and flesh flew everywhere.

Guo Fan's head was blown to pieces. The headless corpse stiffened for a moment before collapsing limply, blood gushing from the severed neck cavity, splattering half the wall red.

Everyone's bodies were stained red with the shattered flesh and blood, and a warm sensation lingered.

The living room fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone froze in place, their pupils dilating in shock.

"This, this..." Su Meilin was trembling all over.

Zhou Ran stared intently at Guo Fan's still convulsing corpse, his throat tightening, and he subconsciously reached for the self-destruct collar around his neck.

The subtle sense of oppression caused him to involuntarily hallucinate, as if the collar was tightening, heating up, and accumulating explosive energy.

The shadow of death once again swept over my heart.

Clearly, this was Li Feng's warning. Although his divine sense was affected by the strange power, it could still cover the inside of the hotel and control the life and death of everyone present.

"There's no other way, let's take action."

Zhou Ran's expression changed drastically. Finally, he sighed, went to the window, and sent an emergency signal to the members stationed below.

The so-called emergency signal is actually a signal flare that is uniformly issued by the agency in advance. Red indicates a high threat, and the scene needs to be sealed off and the response department needs to be contacted.

Whoosh!

A dazzling red flare shot into the air from the hotel window, exploding into a blinding halo in the night sky that lingered for a long time.

The members stationed downstairs looked up and saw the red light. Their expressions changed instantly. One of them threw down his cigarette butt and shouted urgently, "Quick, contact the emergency response department!"

in the room.

Looking at the scattering crowd below, Zhou Ran couldn't help but ask, "Why do we have to contain the monster? Can't we wait for the response team to arrive?"

"Time..." Li Feng's voice trailed off, "Two or three minutes... the strange creature could leave the hotel... the response... we won't make it in time... hurry..."

"Any strange information?" Zhou Ran asked.

"Red dancing shoes...bloody handprint...and one more..." Before Li Feng could finish speaking, his voice disappeared completely, as if something had happened over there.

A few seconds later, Li Feng's voice came again: "...Be careful, the Red Shoes are looking your way...Get to the 10th floor quickly..."

The crowd's expressions changed slightly, and they acted decisively, rushing out of room 404.

Only after leaving the room did the group realize the seriousness of the problem.

Fog...

A thin layer of mist hung over the corridor, flowing silently along the ceiling and slowly sinking down.

The source of the strange events at the Pearl Hotel is a smoke ghost located on the 18th floor. At this point, its power has spread to the 4th floor, which shows that Li Feng was not lying and that the strange power in the hotel has gone out of control.

Instead, as you go up to the upper floors, the fog becomes even thicker.

From the initial light veil, it gradually turned into a hazy gloom. Although the visibility was not that low, being in it would severely affect one's vision, making everything blurry and unclear.

When people take a couple of steps apart, their silhouettes begin to melt into the gray-white space, as if separated by a layer of frosted glass.

"If this continues, we'll get separated in the fog. Can you blow this fog away?" Zhou Ran asked as she ran up the stairs.

However, his voice seemed to be affected by the fog, muffled and indistinct, and no one responded.

Fortunately, they were close to each other. Zhou Ran patted each of them on the shoulder to make them stop, and then started gesturing.

Fang Beichen and Cui Jin instantly understood his meaning and activated their spiritual power to unleash wind-based spells.

Whoohoo!

Gusts of wind howled out, crashing into the fog with sharp whistling sounds.

The gray haze on the stairs was violently churned by the wind, as if torn apart and shattered by an invisible hand, revealing a clear passageway.

However, the fog dissipated in less than five seconds.

The cold, hazy smog that had been blown away quickly surged back from both sides, filling the cleared area again.

However, the group had already used this short time to successfully reach the 10th floor.

The restaurant is located on the 10th floor of the Mingzhu Hotel. The moment you push open the fire door, a fog several times thicker than that in the stairwell hits you.

Looking around, the entire restaurant was completely swallowed up by a gray-white haze. Nothing could be seen except for endless, thick, suffocating fog that was slowly churning.

Fang Beichen gripped the black knife tightly, and a torrent of wind pressure condensed on the blade before he slashed forward with all his might.

call!

The gray-white curtains billowed wildly to both sides, finally revealing the restaurant's original appearance.

a mess.

Tables and chairs were overturned, broken glass and porcelain shards covered the floor, half of the ceiling chandelier had fallen and was hanging crookedly, the bulb still flickering, and large charred burn marks were everywhere on the walls, floor and pillars.

Not far away, a smashed piano was covered in dried blood, which looked as if it had exploded and gushed out from the inside, which was extremely eerie.

The most shocking sight was the corpses scattered all over the ground.

There were at least seven or eight bodies lying haphazardly among the tables and chairs. Among them was a member of the firm named Wang Yunhan, who lay peacefully on the ground with his eyes closed, as if asleep.

The same was true of the other corpses.

This tranquility stood in stark contrast to the surrounding carnage, instead exuding an indescribable eeriness.

At this moment, the fog surged back, engulfing everything once more.

A gray haze once again enveloped the entire restaurant, as if the scene from just moments ago had never existed.

"Watch out, something strange is happening!"

Zhou Ran solemnly reminded them that in the last moment before the fog closed in, he clearly saw bloody handprints appear out of thin air on the ground at the end of the restaurant, rapidly spreading towards them.