457 The Haunted House 4

"Is anyone there?" Lu Sheng knocked on the door.

The wooden door reinforced with iron swung open slowly. The inside of the house was empty. He was surprised to see that Bie Feihe had disappeared from sight in such a short period of time.

Lu Sheng's initial intention when he'd decided to come here was to investigate the hidden ground and the Universal Ward Column. He had already broken one of them. However, Lu Sheng understood that it would most probably be more difficult to find another column and destroy it.

No reply came from within the house. Only Lu Sheng's voice echoed continuously in the empty hall.

"She's gone?"

Lu Sheng's face twitched. He swept his gaze across the first floor of this Haunted House.

Old and rotting wooden furniture, thick and heavy curtains. The scroll painting which hung on the wall was reduced to just the scroll itself. There was also some food meant for worshiping left on the table, but it was already black with moss. Half-burnt joss sticks were left standing inside a thick bronze censer.

He went over and took a look at the censer. He could smell a peculiar aroma—it smelled like musk, but it was much fainter.

"Master." Bie Feihe's grim voice suddenly reached him from the corner. "I've found something on the second floor. You should come and see."

Lu Sheng turned to look at her with a frown. He could clearly see Bie Feihe's slightly pale face at the beginning of the dark stairs. She seemed to be slightly anxious and feeling some insuppressible flurry.

"What did you call me?" Lu Sheng did not respond directly, but replied with a question.

"Master… What's wrong with you?" Bie Feihe's pale face slowly melted into the darkness. Her voice gradually sounded as if it came from the upper floor.

A peculiar expression flashed across Lu Sheng's face. He did not respond to her. Instead, he walked naturally to the stairs and looked up.

He immediately saw Bie Feihe's big and tall figure at the top of the stairs. She was already on the second floor with a lantern in her hand. She was looking in a certain direction fearfully.

"Master… There's a slight problem… You should come see for yourself and decide how to deal with this… Oh no! It ran away!"

Bie Feihe was mid-sentence when her expression changed, and she dashed quickly into the corridor. Shortly after, a series of loud collision sounds filled the space.

Lu Sheng practically leapt up the stairs onto the second floor. As he stood at the top of the stairs, he saw Bie Feihe's figure charging into one of the rooms on the left side of the corridor.

"Ah!" Bie Feihe's sudden pained wail came from within the room.

Lu Sheng charged forward quickly. He came to the door, and saw a wound-covered Bie Feihe. This massive fat woman was covered in blood as she sprawled on the floor. She wanted to crawl toward Lu Sheng.

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"Bam!"

Lu Sheng sent a kick right onto her chest.

The intense force threw Bie Feihe into the air, and she crashed into the wall on one side. A big, gaping hole was created from the impact, while blood sprayed from wounds on Bie Feihe's body.

"You dumbass! If you were really my disciple, you should know that you'd only die faster if you asked for my help!" Lu Sheng snickered as he walked up and stepped on the head of "Bie Feihe" before him.

"Rubbish should just die!"

"Poof!"

Everything before him contorted and disappeared. Lu Sheng snapped back to his senses. He was standing in a great rectangular hall that resembled a banquet hall.

'Is this the real appearance of the second floor?' Lu Sheng swept his gaze across the floor. He did not see any signs of Bie Feihe or other people.

The floor was covered in a thick black carpet. There was a huge black hole on the carpet, through which cold wind blew. A pungent scent of something rotten was surging out of it.

This was clearly the second floor. However, the depth of the dark hole surpassed the thickness of the floorboard between the first floor and the second floor.

"Isn't she your disciple? Why aren't you worried about her at all?" At the door right in front of the hall, a young man dressed in light silver robes sat on a big extravagant chair. His expression showed he was a bit stunned.

"Oh well, it's a small matter. They told me that you're different from the others. Although I can't tell why that monster chose you, everything that you're doing ends here."

Lu Sheng's expression remained unchanged. When Bie Feihe started calling him master, he knew that something was off. It seemed that the problem had finally found its way to him. Compared to the smooth experience he'd had on his trip for the first column, he was sure that this time would be much harder. He was also mentally prepared for this.

"Who are you guys? Are you all here to stop me?"

The man broke into laughter immediately.

"Didn't you come here to rescue someone? If you want to rescue her, you must play by my rules." He swung his arm, and an unconscious person floated from the hole.

"Every black hole in this place contains an outsider, all of them currently being digested. The one whom you're looking for is also in one of these… Oh, yeah, a friendly reminder. If you pick the wrong hole, the person who's inside it will die right here and now. You will then have to find someone else to replace the lost person." The man seemed to be playing some twisted game.

"You're from the Haunted House?" Lu Sheng ignored his words. He posed a question instead.

"Yes." The man smiled. "This world isn't as simple as you'd think. I'm Black Rope. Oh, yeah, you have three chances, after which I'll kill you."

"Where's the Universal Ward Column?" Lu Sheng posed another question.

"You'll see it. It's behind me," Black Rope said with a smile. He wore black clothes. As he sat there on the chair, he resembled a pile of charcoal.

"I've come here to wait for you. Naturally, I know that you're here for the Universal Ward Column," Black Rope explained.

Lu Sheng's heart went cold. He knew that his action of destroying the first Universal Ward Column had truly alerted the greatest powers of this world.

However, his goal was purely to do what Ju Yan asked him to do, and it was not to fight against the greatest powers in this world. Maybe he would have an opportunity somewhere along the line, but Lu Sheng had no intention of taking detours.

"Well then, let's play a game. So, I can bring a person with me as long as I guess correctly, right?" asked Lu Sheng in a deep voice.

"Yes." Black Rope nodded.

"Very well, I'll guess." Lu Sheng looked at the black holes which dotted the floor of the great hall. He walked slowly toward one of the black holes.

"The person in this hole isn't someone from my side." He suddenly shook his head and walked to another hole slowly. He continued to observe it.

Black Rope raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

Lu Sheng stood by the second black hole. "Likewise, this isn't it, either."

The third, fourth, and fifth were not the ones as well. Black Rope's expression started to turn sour. Lu Sheng had practically walked a perfect circle around the hall.

"This one." He suddenly pointed at a slightly larger hole. "My disciple and that Mei Youjiang, who's been here before, are both in this hole."

Silence…

The corner of Black Rope's lips twitched. He eventually pulled out the people within the black hole.

As expected, Bie Feihe and Mei Youjiang floated out from the hole.

"Alright, now that it's settled, fulfill your end of the bargain," Lu Sheng said calmly.

Black Rope was silent for a while.

"I'm sorry, but I've changed my mind. You must get three correct guesses before you're allowed to bring them with you!" A surreptitious smile suddenly appeared on his face.

Lu Sheng was stunned, but he quickly snapped back to his senses. "Alright."

Then, under Black Rope's exceptionally amazed stare, he made three correct guesses easily.

"This is one, that's one as well." Lu Sheng quickly pointed out another hole.

Black Rope's expression was as sour as it could be right now. Lu Sheng made another correct guess without a single mistake.

"Are you satisfied now?" Lu Sheng asked him as he stood beside a hole.

Black Rope gritted his teeth; his expression was extremely dark. However, he could not do anything about this. Even he had to play by the rules of this world.

However…

"No! This won't do! You've cheated! Damn it, there's no way that you could be correct every time if you didn't cheat!" he suddenly shouted. He was truly upset to see the arrangements he'd laboriously made be undone this easily. He did not even know where was the flaw in his entire setup.

Lu Sheng's expression was quite calm. He seemed to have foreseen that Black Rope would go back on his word again.

"Well then, do you want to fight it out? We'll put both our lives on the line, and not the lives of other people."

Black Rope's initially anxious expression instantly froze when he heard Lu Sheng say this. His face paled with pulses. He could not speak for a long while.

"What? You're scared? Forget it, then. Where's the Universal Ward Column?" Lu Sheng carried Bie Feihe and Mei Youjiang out of the hall. At the final moment before he left, he asked Black Rope the same question again.

"If you can find it, then you may take it away yourself." Black Rope seemed to be gritting his teeth. He clearly wanted to make a move, but he seemed to be held back by some unknown force, and he restrained himself with effort.

This appeared strange to Lu Sheng. It appeared that the resistance from Back Rope was not as powerful as he'd expected it would be. Back when he'd obtained the first Universal Ward Column, he had the same feeling as well.

Lu Sheng brought the two unconscious women out of the small building. He placed them down gently on the grass. Then, he turned to look at the small building's second floor.

Black Rope's face was vaguely visible at the window. He appeared slightly triumphant.

"We're letting him go just like that? Is this really for the best?" Black Rope turned around and looked at the other person beside him.

"Didn't we agree on this before?" The person's expression was dry. "This person, Lu Chong, is the Devil Star which descended from the skies. He's the only one capable of breaking the Universal Ward Columns; no other person can do it. Ju Yan is using his power to break his own shackles, this is also affirmed by the few majesties. Why're you unable to accept it...? I know, it's because that Lu Chong has cultivated Spiritual Power to a level that a human should have trouble controlling, isn't it?"

When Black Rope heard this, he paused for a second. "I just can't stand him. I can't stand the way he looks at everything coldly as if nothing matters. You know me, since I was little, I… Wait! What's that?!"

"Pchht!"

Black Rope dashed toward the window. He barely made it in time to see a beam of golden light crashing into the center of the Haunted House's courtyard.

For a split second, he felt relieved that the golden light had missed.

"Stay down!" called out someone behind him suddenly in a flustered voice.

Black Rope instinctively fell to the ground.

"Boom!"

In that instant, a huge golden knife shot past the top of his head. The entire upper portion of the Haunted House was split open by this horizontal cut.

Huge amount of rubble and tiles scattered all around him.

Cough, cough, cough…

Black Rope's body shone with black radiance. He felt as if his soul almost left his body. He had been so close to becoming decapitated just now. He would have died on the spot.

"Oh? You're a quick dodger," came Lu Sheng's voice from above his head.

Black Rope did not even have time to process the situation when he felt someone grab his hair and shove him mercilessly into the floor.

"Boom!"

He crashed through the second story's floor; the impact created a huge pit in the stone base of the first floor. For a time, rubble, sand, and dust flew everywhere.

Black Rope's head was covered in blood. He lay there on the ground as his body spasmed. He could not move.

Lu Sheng released the grip on his hair. He let his head fall heavily on the ground.

"So weak…"

He raised his head, no longer paying attention to Black Rope. Instead, he looked at the other dark figure that slowly leapt down from the second floor.

"You seem good."