Free Web NovelChapter 848: Chapter 623: Attempt
After leaving the abandoned garden, Jiang Qingluan rushed non-stop to the third area, a secluded grove. Outside the grove, she found a marker, a large cross made in a conspicuous spot on the ground.
Additionally, on the outermost tree, there were two branches obliquely inserted, forming a cross mark.
This was left by Lou Huixiang. Upon seeing the marker, Jiang Qingluan did not enter the grove to explore but circled around the grove at top speed. On the moist soil, she found two sets of footprints belonging to two different people.
One set of footprints went into the grove and never came out, while the owner of the other set had left behind the marker and moved on to the last area.
Having spent too much time in the second area, Jiang Qingluan decided to trust her teammates and headed straight for the fourth area.
Standing outside the mud pit, Jiang Qingluan saw a chaos of footprints in the mud, seemingly without any order, utterly disordered. Later, Jiang Qingluan located where someone had gone down into the mud pit from the footprints and traces but found none leading out.
Her heart couldn’t help but tighten; she realized this person must have been caught because if they had left alive, they would definitely have set up a similar marker nearby.
Standing outside the pool, Jiang Qingluan could not feel any sinister threatening aura, but that did not mean none existed. She had to go down and check for herself.
The current pace was far slower than planned, but the slower it was, the more critical it was not to make mistakes, as they could be fatal. She made up her mind to clear all potential dangers in the four areas for Yang Xiao and Xiang Fengchen and leave behind markers.
As for the rest, she had no time to think about it, nor could she manage to do so.
Jumping into the mud pit, Jiang Qingluan strode between the uneven puddles. At this moment, only less than a third of her candle remained, and the Life Burning Incense had burned halfway. She was destined to fall, but the difference was what more she could do for her teammates before collapsing.
She was not accustomed to trusting others, but now, she had to do just that.
"Step."
"Step."
"Step."
The sound of footsteps recklessly Shuttle through the pool. Following the footprints left by the one before, she confirmed several larger puddles in succession without any accidents or that familiar cold sensation, until at this moment, Jiang Qingluan confirmed that the threat here had been eliminated.
After climbing out of the pool, Jiang Qingluan whispered her thanks and paid her respects to the teammate who had left the marker and fell in the pool.
Finally, she arrived at this building in front of her, a dark and gloomy attic. Although it only had two floors, its scale was not small. Including this time, she had been here thrice, but this time, the building felt entirely different.
She rarely used the word "spiritual" to describe inanimate objects, but now, standing here, in front of this dreary and oppressive building, this was her feeling. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
She could sense that the attic was alive, that there was a soul within, and in some uncertain dark corner inside, a pair of eyes was staring at her.
Taking a deep breath and checking that her lantern and incense were in order, Jiang Qingluan took a step forward and forcefully pushed open the wooden door. freēwēbnovel.com
The wooden door was very heavy, and as it opened, it emitted a harsh grating sound. As the door was pushed open, a stuffy and decaying scent rushed over, as if in an instant she had traveled through an entire era.
Stepping into the attic, the feeling of being watched intensified. After standing still for a moment, Jiang Qingluan made a bold move: She slowly turned around, closed the heavy wooden door behind her, watching the courtyard beyond get smaller and smaller, shrinking to a sliver, and finally disappearing.
After the door was completely closed, Jiang Qingluan seemed to be in a completely foreign world, instantly enveloped by a cold sensation carrying a lethal threat.
But this was exactly what she wanted. At this moment, her most precious commodity was time. She needed to lure out the adversary as quickly as possible or sense their position and root them out.
The hall was empty, covered with marks left by heavy objects being dragged, suggesting that the space had once been full of furniture and other items, but for some reason, it was later emptied.
Apart from feeling different, visually, it was largely the same as always, with a door on either side of the hall. The left door was open, revealing an empty room. Jiang Qingluan remembered that the first time she came, a man was bathing in that room.
She did not have a distinct memory of the door on the right; last time she came in haste and didn’t take a close look, not remembering if it was locked, although it is also not open now.
Following her memory, she first went to the room on the far left. The space inside was not large, and after making a round, she did not sense any abnormalities. To be sure, she closed the room’s door again, sealing herself inside.
She closed her eyes and felt carefully.
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes, judging the room to be free of trouble. But when she opened the door, she was met with a cold gust of wind; the lantern swayed left and right, causing the candle flame inside to flicker precariously.
Steadying her mind, Jiang Qingluan crossed the hall and headed straight to the room on the right. The door was not locked, and it opened with a push. Inside was a storage room filled with many luxurious wooden furnishings, including a square table, a Taishi Chair with a backrest, screens, along with some odd objects whose names she could not immediately recall. It was evident that these things had been temporarily piled up here and had not been there for long, as they barely had any dust on them.
Jiang Qingluan deduced that the attic must have been inhabited before, and it was only shortly before they arrived that it was emptied by someone.
