Sweeping across the heavens, starting with the first emperor of the ancient times.

Chapter 643 Yang Jian's Shock

The remaining six people stood frozen in place, their scalps tingling, and a bone-chilling coldness rushed from their feet to the top of their heads.

After a long silence, one of the team members' Adam's apples bobbed wildly, his voice trembling uncontrollably, filled with disbelief and terror:

"This...this is how he died? He just opened a door, nothing happened, and he's gone?"

Yang Jian lowered his eyes and stared at the cold corpse on the ground, his expression extremely solemn. He slowly spoke.

"This building clearly has its own taboos and rules, so everyone must remember that from now on, all initiative must be avoided. Do not open doors, do not touch anything, do not try anything, and any unnecessary movements are suicide."

No one dared to refute it, no one dared to say anything more.

Having experienced this unsolvable sudden death, the entire team's mentality completely collapsed. They could only grit their teeth, keep their remaining composure, and continue to push deeper into the apartment.

The group cautiously walked along the center line of the corridor, not daring to overstep the bounds in the slightest. They proceeded carefully for several minutes before successfully passing through the front hall, walking through the narrow passageway, and finally entering the second-floor corridor area.

Upon entering the second floor, the moment everyone lowered their heads, a chill ran through them.

The entire corridor floor reflected not only the shadows of the seven of them.

In the depths of darkness, in the corners of walls, and in the shadows of the ceiling, vast expanses of endless, pitch-black shadows spread out.

These shadows belong to none of them; their outlines are blurred, they twist and turn, silently clinging to the ground and walls, slowly writhing like a giant black net covering the entire stairwell.

Most deadly of all, these eerie shadows are slowly and silently expanding their reach.

Wang Qiming suddenly stopped, his face turning deathly pale, and he lowered his voice to urgently remind him:

"Something's wrong! There's a brand new paranormal phenomenon on the second floor. Everyone look up immediately, and absolutely do not let your shadow fall on the ground, and do not show any human figure!"

Everyone was so frightened that they hurriedly looked up, stood on tiptoe, and tensed their bodies, trying to keep their shadows out of the coverage of the eerie shadows on the ground.

But the bizarre rules of this floor are far more insidious and unsolvable than imagined.

The entire team was on tenterhooks, each person tensing their body, moving forward stiffly, not daring to let the shadows beneath their feet touch even the slightest bit of the dark, eerie presence.

The torment of being under intense mental strain is far more agonizing than direct combat.

After a brief standstill, a member at the back of the group named Li Si subconsciously relaxed slightly, his neck drooping, and his gaze inadvertently swept across the ground, where the shadowy figure beneath his feet briefly fell into the edge of the shadowy shadows in the darkness.

It was just a fleeting touch.

puff!

There was no sound, no strange phenomena.

The back of the team member's clothes was instantly torn open with a fine bloodstain, as if the flesh had been cut open by an invisible sharp blade, and the blood instantly soaked through the clothes.

His whole body trembled violently, a metallic taste rose in his throat, and before he could even scream or struggle, the life force within him was suddenly devoured and drained by the eerie shadow.

The next instant, Li Si, still in his forward-moving posture, froze completely in place.

His eyes were vacant, he was lifeless, and he fell straight to the side to the ground.

A true instant kill is silent and irresistible.

"No, no way!" The teammate next to him was completely terrified. His legs went weak and he almost knelt down. His voice was broken and trembling.

"It was just shadows touching shadows, through thin air! We couldn't see anything! How could someone die like that?!"

Apart from Yang Jian and Wang Qiming, the remaining three members of the team were all psychologically shattered by this scene, their faces turning pale.

Wang Qiming's heart sank, his fingertips grew cold, and he quickly replayed the moment of his death in his mind, his voice trembling uncontrollably:

"I understand. This is a taboo rule exclusive to the second floor. It's not that we can't have shadows, but that if the eerie shadows in the apartment touch a living person's shadow, the original body will be killed by the supernatural."

"Even through a blind spot in the wall, even if you can't see or touch them, if their shadows overlap, they're doomed!"

"This is unsolvable!" Everyone felt a chill run down their spines and dared not relax for a moment. They stiffened and looked up the whole time, desperately avoiding any shadows, and moved with difficulty in the boundless darkness.

The oppressive atmosphere on the floor grew heavier, and the shadow of death always hung overhead, with no one knowing when it would fall again.

The whole team, filled with trepidation, forced themselves to push forward two more floors.

The journey was utterly desolate, filled with agonizing torment.

Trapped for a long time in a closed, dark, and unfamiliar dead zone, with endless darkness ahead and no way to retreat, the unknown fear slowly gnawed at everyone's will.

Wang Er was completely driven to a mental breakdown by the boundless silence and darkness behind him.

The human desire for a way out is instinctive. Under extreme fear, he couldn't help but want to confirm whether there was still a glimmer of hope behind him, and whether there was still a possibility of escaping by the way he came.

Knowing full well that it was wrong to do it, knowing that it might violate taboos, the psychological breakdown had already overwhelmed reason.

His teeth chattered, his mind was in turmoil, and he subconsciously turned his head slightly to glance back at the dark path he had come from.

Just that one time he turned around.

hum!

The air in the entire corridor suddenly turned icy cold, and the temperature plummeted to freezing point.

The invisible rules of death instantly lock onto the target.

The team member didn't even have time to react with the slightest pain before his body suddenly stiffened completely. All his blood, heartbeat, breathing, and supernatural energy were completely drained away the moment he turned around.

Wang Er's eyes instantly went completely dark and empty. His body lurched forward with inertia, crashing heavily onto the cold stairwell in complete silence.

Two team members died silently in succession, and Zhang San died on the first floor. In just over ten minutes, the seven-person team lost three members.

The remaining four stood in the deathly silent stairwell, their eyes filled with despair.

Even Yang Jian was shocked. "Something's not right. This is too strange. How can there be so many bizarre rules for killing? Is the 'starvation to death' rule really that exaggerated?"

Yang Jian was very skeptical of this, and the way these people died was all the most ordinary and instinctive human actions: opening a door, touching a shadow, and looking back.

But ironically, these most ordinary actions became a death sentence for them.

Lu Shan's eyes were red-rimmed, his voice was hoarse and trembling, and he was almost on the verge of collapse:

"Turning back means death... Touching a shadow means death... Moving even slightly means death..."

"What are we supposed to do? We can't do anything, we can't move, we can only stand here and wait to die?"

Boundless despair completely enveloped the entire remnant team.

In the boundless darkness, it seemed as if invisible red lines of death were spread all around.

The morale of the entire team plummeted.

Wang Qiming took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the chill surging in his heart. He spoke in a deep voice, trying to stabilize the team that was on the verge of collapse:

"Everyone, don't panic. The three rules of killing have been completely exposed: opening the door, touching the shadow, and turning around. As long as we avoid these three actions, we will not trigger the death penalty for the time being."

"There are clues to the rules of the supernatural; as long as we are careful, there is hope."

Yang Jian gazed at the dark and secluded corridor, and added calmly and decisively:

"Professor Wang is right, and panicking won't help. Those who died were the ones who broke the taboos, while those who lived were the ones who followed the rules."

"We will continue to move forward, with a steady and uniform pace, keeping our eyes on the road ahead the whole time, keeping our shadows close to the wall and never touching the ground, never looking back, never touching any building components, and steadily moving forward, recording any spatial anomalies. This is our only way to survive now."

Yang Jian and his companion rallied the troops, one offering a solution, while the other two could only barely suppress their inner turmoil, gritting their teeth as they cautiously moved forward along the central corridor.

For the rest of the journey, the group encountered no further problems.

Everyone strictly adhered to all the taboos, daring not to deviate even slightly. They carefully observed, compared, and reviewed along the way, and actually managed to discover a few useful patterns.

As Wang Qiming walked forward, he muttered a summary: "I've confirmed it. The rules for this apartment building are zoned locking. On the first floor, only sealed doors and windows are forbidden. On the second floor, the core danger lies in overlapping shadows, and in the corridor, it's about turning around."

"The rules don't apply across zones. As long as we don't cross the red line of the corresponding zone, we can stay alive for a short time."

Yang Jian nodded and added, "Moreover, the rules only apply to actions triggered by voluntary behavior. Moving at a normal, steady speed, looking straight ahead, and passively accepting changes in the environment will not be considered a violation."

This meager gain was like a glimmer of light shining through boundless despair, allowing the people on the verge of collapse to regain their composure.

At least they were no longer blindly waiting to die; they had finally grasped a clue about this hellish apartment building and felt a little safer.

But this fragile sense of security lasted only a few dozen seconds.

call!

Without warning, a chilling gust of wind suddenly exploded in the enclosed corridor.

The apartment was completely still, with no wind, no airflow, and no ventilation. This eerie wind was extremely strange, chilling and biting, making everyone's robes flutter and their skin instantly break out in goosebumps.

Before anyone could react, with a few soft hissing sounds, all the team's high-powered flashlights simultaneously went out of order!

The bright beams of light went out instantly, plunging the entire corridor into absolute darkness without any buffer.

It was pitch black; you couldn't even see the outlines of your teammates right next to you.

"The light is out!"

"What's going on? There's no wind here at all, where did this eerie wind come from!"

The sudden darkness shattered the composure the two had just regained, filling them with terror.

The darkness amplified all fears; the unseen path ahead, the unfathomable eeriness, and the sudden appearance of a chilling wind instantly tensed everyone's nerves.

The group huddled together, each clutching their trump card tightly, their muscles taut, ready to face any unforeseen attack.

The only sound in the entire corridor was the hurried, frantic breathing of the crowd.

"not good!"

Yang Jian knew something was terribly wrong. Ordinary flashlights had no power to restrain high-level supernatural forces. The sudden extinguishing of the light source meant that the surrounding supernatural pressure had surged to the point where it could interfere with electronic devices.

Without hesitation, he quickly took out the Soul-Suppressing Candle he kept close to his body. A cluster of dark green flames suddenly lit up, and the weak but concentrated candlelight broke through the thick darkness, spreading a small patch of stable light around him and dispelling the biting cold that was close by.

The emerald candlelight flickered steadily, its clear glow a nemesis of evil spirits and the team's only shield at this moment.

Yang Jian stared at the steadily flickering candlelight, but his mind remained tense, not at all relaxed. On the contrary, he was on high alert, his thoughts racing:

"The Soul-Suppressing Candle can suppress all evil spirits and supernatural phenomena. Low-level evil spirits will be destroyed upon approaching it, mid-level evil spirits will not dare to get close, and high-level evil spirits can at most suppress the candle flame, but can never completely affect it."

"The eerie wind just now was too sudden. The level of supernatural activity in this space has exceeded the scope of ordinary high-level supernatural phenomena. This means that the supernatural phenomena have begun to actively exert targeted pressure."

Just as alarm bells were ringing in his mind and he was on guard.

call!

Another invisible, windless force suddenly swept by.

The cluster of soul-suppressing candles, which burned steadily and suppressed all evil, suddenly trembled and then went out completely.

The eerie green light vanished instantly, and this last remaining glimmer of light was completely swallowed up by the boundless darkness.

The hallway instantly returned to complete darkness!

"No...this..."

Yang Jian's pupils suddenly contracted, his heart skipped a beat, and a tremendous shock surged through his mind.