This entry is suspicious.

In front of the special passageway of the haunted house.

A staff member glanced at the number of people on the screen, which was 21, and then gave the three of them a standard professional smile: "Three people just left, so you three can go in now."

Zhou Ran looked up and saw that the entrance to the haunted house was the open mouth of a giant beast. The dark red archway was inlaid with ferocious beast teeth on both sides. The inside was dark and gloomy, with a faint green light visible. A cold wind blew out from the depths.

Entering the haunted house is like walking into the mouth of demons; the light is quickly swallowed up.

The corridor was dimly lit, and an unknown depth lingered ahead.

"This haunted house is very large inside, with a second floor. It's a themed maze that covers all sorts of horror elements. It can accommodate up to twenty-four people at a time, but the chances of visitors bumping into each other are not high," Song Ci said as she walked to the side, looking around.

"Why?" Zhou Ran asked.

"Firstly, it's too scary. Most people only dare to play one theme before they get frightened away. Secondly, to play other themes, you have to complete the current one first. That's what I saw in the comments section of the promotional video."

"So what topic are we on now?" Ming Shu asked from Zhou Ran's other side.

"There was a gaping maw at the entrance, so it's probably a terrifying orc theme," Song Ci speculated.

After walking a while longer, we finally entered the haunted house's terrifying space. The surroundings were like a tropical rainforest, with lush vegetation and vines hanging down from above, wrapping around thick tree trunks, layer upon layer, obscuring the already dim light, making it so dark that we couldn't even see the faces of the people around us.

The air was humid and stuffy, mixed with the smell of earth and rotting plants. The ground beneath our feet had turned into soft mud, and we sank slightly when we stepped on it.

"Holy crap, is this for real?" Zhou Ran was stunned. The vegetation and even the soil were all real, not fake plastic grass. The temperature and humidity had even been adjusted.

"Everyone says this haunted house is extremely realistic, otherwise why would it be so popular?"

As soon as Song Ci finished speaking, a large spider dangled down from the vines above her head, almost brushing past the tip of her nose, bringing a ticklish sensation.

"what!"

She instinctively leaned against Zhou Ran.

"It's just a spider, don't be afraid."

Zhou Ran comforted her, saying that her body felt soft and fragrant.

"Ah!" Suddenly, Ming Shu also screamed, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. She jumped up and hugged Zhou Ran without caring about her image.

"Something's rubbing against my leg...it feels like a snake!"

At this moment, Zhou Ran suddenly remembered watching a video online that said haunted houses, escape rooms, and other exciting scenes are the places where feelings can heat up the fastest, because girls have a legitimate reason to run into your arms and create a suspension bridge effect as their hearts race.

He scoffed at the time, thinking it was pure nonsense, but now that he has experienced it firsthand, he realizes it is the truth!

Ming Shu and Song Ci are both cultivators. Normally, they wouldn't even blink an eye at spiders, snakes, or cockroaches. But in this haunted house with its intense atmosphere, the darkness amplifies the fear of the unknown, thus bringing out their girlish side.

Zhou Ran was enjoying himself immensely, surrounded by women on both sides. Whoever invented the haunted house was a genius!

"Let me see what it is."

After calming Ming Shu down, he used the dim green light to look at the spot where the other person had just been standing.

A snake was coiled in the grass, its dark green scales almost blending into the vegetation. The snake seemed to be very intelligent, as it ran away as soon as it was discovered.

"...It really was a snake, but it's already gone. Let's keep going."

Zhou Ran thought it might be a spirit pet kept by the shop owner, working for them.

After exploring the rainforest for a few minutes without finding any useful clues, the three entered the next room.

This place is darker than the previous rainforest. In the very center stands a huge dead tree with gnarled branches and cracked bark. Dry vines hang from several broken branches.

To the right of the withered tree is a half-collapsed stone temple, inside which is a stone coffin.

The steps leading to the temple were covered in moss and scattered with fragments of broken statues and sacrificial vessels.

On both sides of the steps, there are rows of stone statues, each with a ferocious and terrifying beast face.

Some were baring their teeth, some were glaring angrily, and some had dark red glass beads embedded in their eye sockets, reflecting an eerie light in the dim light, as if they were staring at everyone who stepped into this place.

After exploring for a while, Zhou Ran and his two companions found the door leading to the next room, which was a stone door.

There was a beast claw mark and a groove on the door, and it seemed that the door could only be opened after a matching item was placed inside.

The three of them split up and searched every corner of the house, but still found nothing.

"The only place left that wasn't searched is this stone coffin."

Zhou Ran strode forward, grabbed the coffin lid, and prepared to open the coffin.

The coffin appeared to be made of stone, thick and heavy, but it wasn't as heavy as one might imagine. After all, many of the tourists were ordinary people, and it would be awkward if they couldn't lift it.

Just as he slid the coffin lid open, revealing a dark slit...

"roar!"

Suddenly, a series of deafening roars of wild beasts erupted inside the room. The sounds overlapped and intertwined, like several ferocious beasts roaring at the same time, and flashed with a scarlet light, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, turning the entire room into a blood-red color.

The beast-faced statue appeared even more ferocious in the red light, as if it were about to come to life at any moment.

The next second, a tremendous force emanated from the coffin, blasting the coffin lid off with a bang.

"Awoooooo!!!"

A monster covered in thick red fur leaped out of the coffin, its fangs bared and its eyes bloodshot, charging towards Ming Shu and Song Ci with bared teeth and claws.

The two girls screamed and hid in Zhou Ran's arms.

Zhou Ran instinctively spread her arms wide, unsure of whose waist to put her arms around, so she simply left both hands hanging in mid-air, like a human-shaped pillow caught in the middle.

Seeing that the mission was complete, the red-haired monster slammed on the brakes without hesitation, turned and ran straight towards the door the three had come from, darted out of the house and disappeared.

Zhou Ran was dumbfounded. Is this...right?

He then looked at the two high school girls in his arms, and thought, "That's so right!"

Dude, I have to give you a five-star review when we get out of here!

"It's alright, the monster is gone."

Zhou Ran took a deep breath, trying to suppress the upward curve of his lips, and patted the two of them on the back to comfort them.

After the two men stepped away from his embrace, he went to the coffin and peered inside. Sure enough, there was a stone bead.

When the stone bead was placed into the stone door, a click was heard from inside, followed by a deep hum of gears turning, and the stone door slowly slid open to both sides.

The three of them were quite relaxed at this moment. After all, they had found the stone bead, so they should be considered to have passed this hurdle, right?

But the next second, the three of them froze on the spot.

Behind the door stood a tall figure covered in thick black fur, like a silent, demonic wall, blocking the way.

The figure was over two meters tall, with shoulders as broad as a door, and bulging muscles all over its body. A pair of dark red eyes coldly looked down at the three people through the gaps in its thick hair. It did not make any movement, but it exuded a strong sense of oppression.

Immediately afterwards, the monster charged forward.

Holy crap!

Even Zhou Ran was startled and instinctively threw a punch.

However, the fist went straight through the monster's body.

This is actually a holographic image!

"Awesome."

Zhou Ran was speechless. It was amazing that it was so realistic, and the emotional points were so precise, hitting the mark right when they relaxed their guard.

The owner of this haunted house is really something.

……

At this moment.

Outside the haunted house, the electronic screen displaying the number of people inside suddenly flickered.

The numbers jumbled up, jumping from 24 to 20 and then quickly back to 24, as if they had been subjected to some kind of signal interference.

So even if staff or tourists noticed this anomaly, they just assumed it was a malfunction and didn't take it too seriously, continuing to queue.

Little did they know, something truly terrifying was happening inside the haunted house.