Mysterious Revival

The old wooden door placed in this room looked very ordinary, but it was actually filled with weirdness and incomprehensible horror.

Cao Yanhua even remembered clearly the great cost incurred to resolve the incident code-named Ghost Gate. If it weren't for the consideration that sometimes this object could be of help, he would never allow this wooden door to remain here; he would have sealed it up thoroughly long ago.

"Four more minutes," he stared intently at the time on his watch.

The time agreed upon in the previous plan was about to arrive.

After four minutes, Old Qin, who was in the room, would open the Ghost Gate for the first time.

The purpose of opening the Ghost Gate this time was simple: to bring Li Jun, Su Fan, Leuk San, and others back from some unknown place.

Although they had lost contact with the group by now, and it was suspected that vengeful ghosts had appeared outside after their resurgence, it couldn't be guaranteed that the five ghosts that emerged from the ghost painting were indeed them. What if they weren't?

As long as that possibility existed, the operation could not be canceled.

"A maximum of three opportunities to open the gate, with the next opening scheduled ten minutes after the first, and the third time half an hour after the second. If they don't return after the three openings..." Cao Yanhua's heart was uneasy.

Three chances to open the Ghost Gate without bringing back Li Jun and the others would be enough to prove that they were truly dead.

Even if they weren't dead, the rescue operation would be canceled. After all, opening the Ghost Gate was a tremendous risk, and endlessly gambling on the possibility that they were still alive simply wasn't worth it.

Time passed by bit by bit.

Soon, the first retreat time set in the plan arrived.

"Old Qin, time's up. Count silently for ten seconds, then open the gate," Cao Yanhua ordered.

Old Qin's face was wrinkled, his skin covered with age spots, and his slightly cloudy gaze moved slightly, revealing a sense of gravity.

Ghost Gate.

It was one of the few things he felt uncertain about because no one knew what would come out once the Ghost Gate was opened.

But most likely, ghosts would appear.

After silently counting for ten seconds, Old Qin put his hand on the door panel.

Rough, chilly, a restive tremor came from the other side of the wooden door, and one could even faintly hear the sound of sharp nails scraping across the wood.

However, the reality was that there was nothing behind the wooden door; it was simply standing upright on the ground.

The old wooden door lacked a handle, so Old Qin could only pull on the door panel to open it.

It didn't require much effort, just a gentle tug.

Suddenly,

A strong force seemed to come from behind the door. This force slammed into the door panel, causing the ajar door to burst open with a bang.

A chill wind blew out in an instant.

Old Qin narrowed his eyes slightly and instinctively took a step back.

The condition of the Ghost Gate after opening was now fully revealed to the few people present.

It was an area of darkness as thick as ink, like an abyss, or perhaps the entrance to hell. Even if you opened your eyes wide and shone the brightest light, you could not see anything hidden within the darkness. Everything could only be sensed through the wooden door.

On ordinary days, this old wooden door was like a clear boundary that separated the bizarre darkness from the world of reality.

However, now, this boundary was broken as the door opened.

"One minute, open for a maximum of one minute. Whether or not they come out, it must be closed," Cao Yanhua watched the darkness behind the wooden door and the time in his hand.

Wang Xiaoming seemed quite interested. He stood at the entrance of the room, looking through the yellowish window glass at the darkness behind the door.

Even for him, it was his first time witnessing the scene after the wooden door was opened.

But not even a minute passed.

The room's lights began to dim rapidly, barely a dozen seconds after the wooden door was opened, as if the darkness was eroding outwards.

"Hiss hiss!"

The very next moment, even the lights became unstable. The electricity flickered as if it was being interfered with.

"Is it already affecting the environment around it so quickly?" Wang Xiaoming thought somewhat pensively.

Fortunately, this room was specially constructed. Although the light inside had dimmed, the outside was unaffected by any of the eeriness or terror; everything was isolated.

Should there truly arise an uncontrollable situation, the danger would absolutely not spread out. Experience more tales on My Virtual Library Empire

Old Qin's gaze was fixed on the darkness behind the wooden door, as if waiting for something to happen.

Another dozen seconds passed.

Ripples seemed to emerge from the eerie depths of darkness, and the door frame of the Ghost Gate began to tremble slightly as if something touched it, causing a small disturbance.

But that disturbance had just begun.

Suddenly,

Several fingers, greenish and blackened as if belonging to a dead person, stretched out from the darkness and clutched rigidly onto the door frame, squirming bit by bit. The sound of wood cracking resonated from the solid frame as the ghastly fingers scratched through the dark red paint, leaving behind terrifying marks.

Old Qin's expression shifted slightly, but he remained calm, leaning on his cane and watching the eerie scene unfold.

He had experienced too much. Even if a real ghost stood in front of him, he would not panic too much.

But such a scene was just the beginning.

Not even ten seconds had passed when more fingers emerged from the darkness. These fingers, like wriggling worms, densely covered the entire doorway, each one clinging tightly to the wooden frame, making a creaking noise.

The Ghost Gate shook more violently, as if countless figures were emerging from within the darkness.

The light in the room was so dim it was terrifying, as if one were in the midst of the Ghost Domain.

"Twenty seconds, twenty seconds left, close the wooden door as soon as time is up, or earlier if there's danger," Cao Yanhua, shocked and scared by the scene unfolding, shouted urgently from outside the room.

Clearly, this opening of the Ghost Gate did not bring out Li Jun, Su Fan, Leuk San, and the others, but instead triggered an invasion of ghosts.

But a plan is a plan, and it can't be changed just because of subjective judgment; after all, no one knows what might happen next. Perhaps amidst danger, there remains a sliver of hope.

As the deputy head, he would not allow an elite team of ghost controllers to be annihilated in this incident. Therefore, they had to seize any glimmer of hope that remained.

The number of fingers appearing on the doorframe had reached its limit; there was no more space for those eerie fingers to land on.

Then, right after that, in the corner to the right of the doorframe, a circular outline slowly emerged from the darkness.

Upon closer inspection.

It was a rotten head that was far from normal looking, with thick black hair that was so dense it was frightening, completely obscuring the face of the head. All that could be smelt was a foul stench, like that of long-decayed meat, enough to make one almost vomit.

Old Qin felt nauseous and covered his nose, but he remained rooted to the spot, unmoving.

Calm in an uncanny way, an ordinary person would have been scared out of their wits by now.

As the rotten head with dense hair gradually emerged from the doorframe, everyone could see its hair beginning to droop down little by little because of gravity.

The outline of a human face hidden beneath the black hair gradually became clearer.

At this moment, Old Qin's expression finally shifted slightly.

For he saw that the face beneath the thick hair, as it cleared up, seemed more and more like his own.

This was an incomprehensible and terrifying supernatural phenomenon.

He could not predict what might happen after the Dead Man's Head's hair completely fell and revealed the face.

Meanwhile, Old Qin saw a pair of pale soles appear on the other side of the doorframe. Judging by the direction and height of these soles, they likely belonged to a body lying on a stretcher or hospital bed, slowly being pushed out of the darkness by something.

Or perhaps the thing pushing out these soles was the body itself.

"Time's up, Old Qin, hurry, we can't wait any longer."

At this moment, Cao Yanhua's face was so pale with fright, having witnessed the terrifying supernatural occurrence appearing behind the wooden door, and would be fearful to know what would happen if it wasn't confined to the room.

Only then did Old Qin hum lightly and tap the ground with his walking stick.

In an instant.

The rotten head with dense black hair shrunk back, the ghastly pale soles that had just emerged behind the door retracted as well, and countless fingers hooked on the doorframe all let go, seemingly pulled into the darkness by a great force.

"Bang~!"

A loud noise as the open wooden door slammed heavily against the doorway and completely shut.

All the strangeness vanished, as if all that had appeared was just an illusion in the minds of the people, somewhat unreal.

Yet the marks left by those fingers on the doorframe remained vividly visible.

Old Qin looked at the marks, seemingly weighed down by their significance.

"Old Qin, take a rest. We'll try opening the door a second time in ten minutes," Cao Yanhua said from outside the room, taking a deep breath of relief and simultaneously wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

It was a false alarm, after all.

But this door was dangerously unsafe; every opening ran the risk of genuine ghost manifestations, which was truly horrifying.

"It seems their situation isn't too optimistic," Wang Xiaoming said, looking at the now closed wooden door.

"Indeed, if Li Jun and the others were alright, they should have appeared during the first door opening," Cao Yanhua grew increasingly uneasy, "Could it be that the five ghosts outside are really them?"

"Don't rush to conclusions. Don't we still have two more chances?"

Cao Yanhua said, "But after the second door opening, we only have thirty seconds... followed by ten seconds. The time of the last two openings combined won't even match the first one. The chances are slim."

Opening the Ghost Gate repeatedly increased the level of danger with each attempt.

Because after the first opening of the Ghost Gate, it seemed as though the ghosts behind it were drawn in and loitered at the door, ready to emerge at any moment.

Therefore, the duration of openings could only get shorter each time.

Of course, keeping the Ghost Gate closed for an extended period could reset this timer, but Cao Yanhua did not know how long it needed to be closed for.

Nor had anyone been specifically assigned to study it.

Meanwhile.

In a certain eerie village.

Li Jun and the others went through unimaginably perilous circumstances and at some cost, they managed to barely stay alive.

They had planned to retreat.

However, before them, on the door of a residence, two paintings hung on the door panels – one on the left and one on the right, like ancient door gods stopping their advance.

For these were not any door gods, but two unsettling portraits, vague but radiating danger, making them tremble with fear.

"What do we do now?" The question came from the only woman in the team, Ah Hong, most likely an alias. Although her name might be fictitious, the emotion in her voice was genuine.

The fear was palpable.

The others looked around uneasily.

It was not just these doors; all around the village houses, the walls were adorned with similar portraits, and even some frames lay scattered on the ground. Some frames were incomplete, some shattered – there was nowhere left that felt safe.

The marks of a ghostly invasion were everywhere.