Jiang Ling led
The air grew thick and viscous, a metallic smell of blood curling around his nostrils. His vision was obscured, as though he were standing in the midst of a dense fog.
"This is different from the world behind the Third Sick Ward's door."
This was Chen Ge's second time stepping through a Blood Door. The world behind Living
"Don't lose sight of each other. There are things hiding in this fog that eat people." Jiang Ling had completely shed her pretence. Her childish voice carried an unquestionable authority.
"Got it." Chen Ge eyed her oddly. "Hard to imagine that a little thing who can't even jump high enough to reach my shoulder is actually a top-tier red-clothed ghost."
"You saved me, and I'm grateful, but I'd advise you to watch your tone. Otherwise, the only way I can repay you will be after you die." Jiang Ling shot him a cold glance. The moment they had crossed through the door, her outer coat had begun to change — threads of blood in the mist wound themselves around her body, as if she were the master of this place.
Chen Ge's eyelid twitched slightly. The words sounded oddly familiar, and he thought of
After Chen Ge entered, Jiang Ling shut the door. When she opened it again, the scene beyond had changed completely.
Before them lay a blood-red village. The dense fog blotted out the sky and shrouded everything.
"That red-clothed ghost will catch up soon. This door won't buy us much time."
When the blood mist drifted toward Jiang Ling, it merged directly into her body. But perhaps because her injuries were too severe, she could not actively absorb the fog.
Under Jiang Ling's lead, the three of them made their way toward one side of the village. Behind them, the closed Blood Door trembled faintly, and from the other side, unceasing snarls and roars rang out.
"Where are you taking us?" The blood mist had no effect on Jiang Ling, but it left both Chen Ge and Fan Yu feeling thoroughly uncomfortable, as though they had sunk into a mire.
"Be quiet." Jiang Ling gestured for the two of them to duck into a small house nearby and wait. After a few seconds, a deformed monster emerged from the fog ahead.
It was tall, its arms grotesquely twisted, its facial features crooked and savage. It wore a coarse cloth tunic and looked around this way and that, as though searching for something.
The mist swirled. The monster walked right past Jiang Ling and the others and soon disappeared without a trace.
"What was that?" Chen Ge pointed in the direction the creature had gone.
"A villager." The hatred in Jiang Ling's eyes was impossible to hide. "This is what the villagers look like in my mind."
"The villagers as they appear in your mind? This blood-red world was built from your perception of things?" Chen Ge took every piece of information related to doors extremely seriously.
"I don't know how this world came into being. All I know is that it's very much like a nightmare I once had. In that nightmare, all the villagers were monsters like him — deformed, ugly, and always hunting for me, trying to drag me back." Jiang Ling did not say more. She changed direction and headed deeper into the village.
Beyond the door lay a blood-red world, but Chen Ge still had not figured out whether this world was one continuous whole or a collection of separate, isolated spaces.
According to the scout who had leapt from the building, a door existed in everyone's heart. Only when the mind had completely collapsed — in the depths of absolute despair — was there any chance of pushing it open.
The Third Sick Ward's door had been opened by
The world behind Living Coffin Village's door was blanketed in blood mist, everywhere deformed villagers trying to capture her. It matched the female ghost's impression of the village perfectly.
"Could it be that the world behind the door is a reflection of a person's heart? A nightmare that truly exists?"