Seeing someone suddenly appear, everyone immediately tightened their grip on their magical instruments and became alert.
"Don't be nervous, it's me, it's me!"
The person raised both hands and carefully stepped out from the smoke, revealing a familiar face.
"Celestial Origin Daoist!"
Recognizing the face, Ku Deng was both surprised and delighted.
"You're actually still here... where were you just now?"
"I was tangled with a ghost, and as soon as I got free, I came to join everyone." Celestial Origin forced a smile, walking to the front of the group, his expression filled with deep concern.
"Are all my fellow cultivators alright? That ghost was really powerful; I was really worried for everyone."
"What could happen to us!" Jing Jian waved his hand, "You had the time to worry about us but not to come and help?"
Tianyuan's smile froze, and he said awkwardly, "Wasn't I entangled by other spirits..."
"Your clothes are clean. Where is the sign of any struggle?" Tieshenglan crossed her arms and snorted coldly, her eyes filled with disdain.
"You hide when there's danger and only come out to act nice when it's safe. Who cares about that?"
"What do you mean by hiding? Tonight, everyone was just relying on their own abilities," Tianyuan said somewhat displeased.
Tieshenglan sneered, "Then keep cowering. If you have the ability, cower until dawn. Why come to us? I can't stand people like you who are both cowardly and fake."
"Young lady, don't use such harsh words!" Tianyuan's face fell immediately.
Kudeng quickly stepped in to mediate: "It's not easy for anyone to last until now. Taoist Tianyuan must have his reasons for acting alone. The most important thing is that we all work together to survive until dawn."
"Master Kudeng is right. More people mean more strength," Zhang Molin also agreed generously, "And as Manager Lu mentioned, there will be another disaster tonight, so we should unite even more."
"I won't work with someone like that!" Tieshenglan, holding her maces, walked to one side, completely ignoring him.
Zhang Molin wanted to persuade her but was met with a fierce glare. He scratched his head and turned to Lu Fei for help: "Manager Lu, can you talk to her?"
"Brother Mo Lin, there's actually not much to persuade. We're all adults, those who want to cooperate can do so, and those who want to act alone can do that. Why force it?" Lu Fei shrugged.
"But you also saw, if we hadn't all worked together just now, it would have been almost impossible to eliminate that giant ghost," Zhang Mo Lin advised.
Jing Jian, however, waved his hand and said, "That was you, not Lu Fei."
Zhang Mo Lin was taken aback.
It seemed to be true. Lu Fei had long known where to find the essence of the ghost. Even without them, he could still have eliminated it, it would just take more effort.
"Instead of worrying about this, we should think about how to get through the third trial." Lu Fei looked around, his expression alert.
More than half of the night had passed, yet the mist showed no sign of dissipating.
"What will the third trial be?" Zhang Mo Lin couldn't help but ask.
"If I'm not mistaken, it should be..."
Before Lu Fei could finish.
"Help! Help——"
In the midst of the smoke, a panicked cry for help suddenly rang out.
Everyone was momentarily shocked.
"Who is it again?"
After listening for a moment, Tian Yuan pointed in one direction and shouted, "It sounds like Master Xiang's voice."
"He's still here?" Jing Jian was surprised.
"No matter who it is, we must save them first!" Zhang Molin, holding his money sword, anxiously ran in the direction of the cries for help.
"Let's go check the situation."
Lu Fei also started to walk over.
The others followed one after another.
Everyone caught up with Zhang Molin, only to see him stop suddenly after running a few steps, his body rigid as he stared ahead.
"Young Master Molin, what's wrong?"
Lu Fei sensed that something was amiss and quickened his pace. As he approached, his face changed instantly.
Ahead of them stood a cold, black coffin.
On the front of the coffin, there was actually a large, red double happiness character!
The stark contrast between the black and the red was incredibly eerie.
"The final calamity has arrived!" Lu Fei's voice was heavy, recognizing at once that the double happiness character was the one that had vanished from the door on the fourth floor.
"Red and White Demons?!"
Everyone's hearts sank.
The Red and White Demons were the source of the disasters in this building and would undoubtedly be the most formidable calamity!
Bang bang bang!
Rapid knocking sounds came from inside the coffin.
"No matter what, we need to save the person first." Zhang Molin swallowed hard, clutching his ritual instrument, and mustered up the courage to move forward.
"Wait!" Lu Fei grabbed his arm, his expression calm, "Are you sure there's really a person inside the coffin?"
Zhang Molin was taken aback: "Isn't that Master Xiang's voice?"
"We heard someone calling for help just now, but that doesn't mean that person is in the coffin! Who said it was Master Xiang?" Lu Fei turned to look at the others, his gaze sharp.
"It was Tian Yuan!" Jing Jian replied immediately.
Ku Deng looked around, involuntarily stunned.
"Where is Tian Yuan? He was here just a moment ago, how could he be gone?"
Everyone looked around, but there was no sign of Tian Yuan anywhere.
"What's going on, he ran away again?" Iron Shenglan frowned in disdain, "I told you he was unreliable and shouldn't have been brought along!"
"Just running away isn't that big of a deal, what I'm worried about is that it's not that simple! Everyone here is a cultivator; if someone ran away, how could no one notice?" Lu Fei shook his head.
"You're right!" Ku Deng nodded vigorously, his eyes filled with disbelief, "One moment I felt he was right next to me, the next moment he was gone! From my understanding, his cultivation level isn't that high!"
"Then why did this happen?" Iron Shenglan was confused.
Lu Fei sighed slightly, his expression grave: "I'm afraid the Tian Yuan we just saw was a fake."
"A fake?!"
Everyone was shocked, feeling an instant chill down their spines.
If it wasn't a person, then it must be a ghost?
They were all cultivators, yet none of them noticed anything unusual when they saw Tian Yuan!
Bang bang bang!
The knocking sound continuously came from the coffin.
Each knock seemed to strike everyone's hearts.
Zhang Moli stepped back, his heart filled with fear.
Fortunately, Lu Fei had stopped him earlier. Otherwise, instead of rescuing someone, he would have been delivering his own head.
"What do we do now?"
"The Red and White Malevolence is too dangerous; we cannot fight it head-on." Lu Fei remained calm and quickly made a decision: "We should go near the main gate. We can deal with whatever comes our way, as long as we can hold out until dawn."
"Agreed!"
The others, unable to come up with a better plan, followed Lu Fei's suggestion. They all ran quickly in the direction of the guiding talisman.
At that moment.
The knocking sound from the coffin suddenly stopped!
The silence in the building was unsettling.
Everyone held their breath, closely following the guiding light, their steps swift as if flying.
But as they ran, in the blink of an eye, that single glow transformed into two eerie red lights.
"Something's wrong!"
Lu Fei suddenly halted in his tracks.
When everyone looked again, there was no gate in front of them.
Instead, there were two large red lanterns hanging high, with a large character for 'double happiness' (囍) pasted on them.
Pale paper money fluttered down from above.
One by one, black tables slowly emerged around them.