Chapter 182: No Way Back
At the top of the hall, oil lamps hanging down swayed gently.
The light they emitted was not bright, but in the haze, it was enough to see the condition inside the hall.
This space had a strong sense of age, although the interior decoration showed no signs of damage, it was clear that the renovation style here was completely different from modern times.
Modern styles often use lighter, more relaxed colors, but most of the decoration in this music hall was dark brown, appearing solemn and somber.
The space was so vast it felt desolate; just the hall on the first floor had hundreds of seats, and on the second floor and higher levels, there were many areas similar to private rooms.
Fortunately, these seats were all empty, with no appearance of certain bad things.
Retracting his line of sight, Zhang Qian turned his head to look at the mannequin meditating with eyes closed, “How about it, do you remember anything now?”
He didn’t delve into the mannequin’s little scheme just now; compared to such harmless matters, Zhang Qian was more concerned about whether there was danger in this hall and how to leave from inside the hall.
After all, from the quick scan just now, besides the main entrance behind him, this music hall had no other exits.
“I understand.” The mannequin suddenly opened its eyes.
“What?” Zhang Qian quickly asked.
A gleam of wisdom flashed in the mannequin’s eyes, “This is a music hall, a place for listening to music.”
“…”
Zhang Qian picked up the mannequin and spun it around, speechless: “Anyone with eyes can tell what this place is.”
“The problem is whether this music hall has an exit, and how to leave this place?”
“Don’t know.” The mannequin scratched its head, seriously saying, “Can’t remember.”
It really couldn’t be relied upon.
Zhang Qian casually tossed the mannequin to the ground, “Go wherever it’s cool for you, or wander around nearby if you really can’t.”
“It’s not safe around here, we should stick together.” The mannequin quickly crawled back to Zhang Qian’s feet.
Earlier with the ghost eye, it could act tough, but now with no fierce ghost on it, it really couldn’t tough it out.
Glancing at the mannequin, Zhang Qian ignored it.
He didn’t believe an anomaly that had lived for decades could be this ridiculous; putting on this act now was just to make him lower his vigilance.
He didn’t know what this guy was secretly hiding.
Keeping a mental note, Zhang Qian turned his attention to the thing in his hand.
In such an unknown environment, it would be best if he could know where the dangers were.
The ghost map happened to have exactly that ability.
For now, the content on the ghost map appeared based on the surrounding environment, but he didn’t know if this pattern worked in spaces outside the aisle.
“No effect?”
After unfolding the map in his hand, Zhang Qian’s brows furrowed slightly.
The content on the map seemed to show no change, still two rows of rooms and an aisle.
Was this map specialized for the aisle, useless once leaving it?
Should he find a chance to discard it?
He had kept this thing earlier because its effect was strong enough despite the unknown side effect; now that it was ineffective, it was better to eliminate the threat quickly.
Didn’t know if the headworm could bite through it…
As he was thinking, the content on the map suddenly changed a bit.
First, a spot of ink abruptly appeared in the center of the map, followed by more and more spots appearing in various positions on the map; soon these ink spots connected into a mass, thoroughly dyeing the entire map black.
Then…
There was no then.
Looking at the pitch-black map, Zhang Qian suddenly had a bad guess.
Known that in the aisle, the darker the color of the rooms, the more dangerous they were; now with this entire black situation…
“Stop pretending, are you sure you can’t think of a way to leave?” Zhang Qian asked seriously.
The mannequin, who was picking at its foot on the ground, was stunned for a moment, but still quickly gave an answer, “I have no impression of the music hall, I only remember a name.”
“Then we can only go back the way we came and check.” Zhang Qian turned to look at the main entrance, his expression somewhat grave.
There were no other portals in the hall; if there was an exit, it was probably only this one.
Although they had come out through a trash can, this main entrance might not lead to the trash can.
At least a normal music hall’s main entrance shouldn’t open inside a trash can, right?
No matter what was outside, it was better than facing the unknown danger inside the music hall.
The ghost map turning completely black was already a severe warning; Zhang Qian didn’t want to ignore such an obvious warning.
“Then let’s try; those headworms aren’t that terrifying, it’s just this characteristic of being invisible that’s troublesome…”
After the mannequin spoke, it stared straight at Zhang Qian, the meaning self-evident.
“Pa.”
The white eyeball hit the mannequin’s hand; Zhang Qian reminded, “Try not to let those things rush in. Although the music hall is still very calm now, unknown supernatural infiltration could break this balance.”
“Don’t worry.” The mannequin guaranteed, “No matter how many of those things come, I’ll kill them all; you just open the door with peace of mind.”
After saying that, it stuffed the ghost eye into its eye socket; the pure white eyeball rolled around, and a pinprick-sized pupil soon centered in the eye socket.
Seeing the mannequin prepared, Zhang Qian carried it to the main entrance, “Ready…”
“Three… two… one…”
The voice had just fallen.
Zhang Qian’s hands simultaneously grabbed the main entrance, and the supernatural in his body surged, empowering this heavy main entrance.
Compared to the ease when entering the music hall, now trying to open the door from inside seemed to face even greater resistance.
But the amount of supernatural in Zhang Qian’s body now was absolutely not small; once truly mobilized, this main entrance couldn’t block it.
“…”
Silently, a crack finally split open in the tightly sealed main entrance.
The crack wasn’t large; not only could no one pass through, even the outside scene couldn’t be seen.
After a while, Zhang Qian’s movements on the door gradually stopped.
Now the doorway was open half a finger wide, enough for observing the environment.
The environment outside the door should be very dark; no light came through this door crack…
Could the music hall really be inside a trash can?
Or maybe it was just very dark outside?
Hesitating a bit, Zhang Qian slowly brought his eye over.
The mannequin’s ghost eye had no ability to see in darkness, so to see the outside clearly, he had to do it himself.
Slowly pressing his eye to the door crack, Zhang Qian could peek at the scene in the darkness.
The good news was that outside wasn’t a trash room; with true qi empowering, he could see traces of the building.
The bad news was that outside seemed to be that aisle they came from, and the aisle was very lively, almost filled with figures.
