Chapter 150: Hitting The Road
“Although this map isn’t necessarily accurate, having a map at least provides a reference. We can find those relatively safe rooms in advance, and at worst, hide inside the moment we hear the music.”
“We’ve walked the corridor for so long and only encountered two fierce ghosts. My luck shouldn’t be that bad, right?”
Zhang Qian packed up the items he was carrying, observed the room one last time, and prepared to push open the door to leave the room.
Due to the previous fierce ghost’s impact, the door lock was already damaged. Zhang Qian didn’t even press the door handle; with a gentle push, the iron door swung open.
Thinking about it now, if that fierce ghost had known that opening the door from outside required pulling it, it might have broken into the room successfully long ago.
“Screech—”
Accompanied by Zhang Qian’s inexplicable thoughts, a teeth-grinding friction sound echoed into the quiet corridor.
That was the wail of hinges long lacking lubrication, emitted under brute force opening.
Now that his strength had recovered, Zhang Qian could clearly sense the repulsive feeling coming from the corridor outside.
The pitch-black corridor did not welcome him as a guest, so safely passing through was probably impossible.
Without the protection of the bullets and ghost candle before, Zhang Qian, having lost his memory, would have been done for long ago.
“Bullets are no big deal, but that ghost candle is a bit of a pity to waste on these fierce ghosts.”
Zhang Qian touched his chin. Judging from his memory, that half ghost candle was the one he had brought to Dadong City.
But wasn’t that ghost candle snatched by Yue Linhai? When did it return to his pocket without him noticing at all?
“It seems Yue Linhai doesn’t want the ghost ship to erupt either. After all, Dadong City is their family’s ancestral land. If it really erupts, he can escape, but Qing Yi Ancient House can’t grow legs.”
“But thanks to the ghost candle he sent back, without it, an ordinary person really couldn’t survive in the hands of a fierce ghost.”
“Now without the ghost candle, but picking up a wooden stick that can be used as a weapon, it’s like an exchange between the two, not too much of a loss.”
A fishy, chilling wind blew in from the door crack. Zhang Qian gathered his thoughts and stepped out, his foot landing on the corridor outside.
“Screech—”
A strange feeling instantly surged from the sole of his foot straight to the top of his head, like stepping on a sizzling, oily piece of fat, inexplicably nauseating.
The room also had a carpet, slightly damp, but much better compared to the corridor.
The carpet in the corridor was more like it had been soaked in water for a long time, with every corner saturated with this black viscous liquid.
This was all the result of the water ghost’s years of effort. Its terror level might not be high, but its influence on the corridor environment was absolutely significant.
“Water ghost… pity it was probably eaten by the shadow ghost. Otherwise, I’d want to see how much water was really in its belly.”
After a slight sigh, Zhang Qian continued forward along the direction he came, deeper into the corridor.
Having walked so far already, turning back would be somewhat uneconomical.
Moreover, direction probably didn’t matter much for leaving the corridor, since no cruise ship would be over a thousand meters long.
Based on the size Zhang Qian had observed from the exterior of the cruise ship before, the ghost ship’s length was at most a few hundred meters, far shorter than the corridor.
So this corridor clearly belonged to some supernatural land, a type of ghost domain. Without the correct method, no matter which direction he walked or how far, it wouldn’t help in leaving.
The light shining from the room door gradually receded, and the surrounding space was once again occupied by darkness.
However, with the map in his left hand and the wooden stick gripped in his right, Zhang Qian had no intention of turning on the light.
Recalling the various abilities as a cultivator, night vision was just basic operation.
The darkness at the end of the corridor was impenetrable even with night vision activated, and he didn’t know what it was composed of.
Squelching water sounds rose unhurriedly.
Aside from occasionally checking behind him, Zhang Qian focused most of his attention on the map in his hand.
Because he discovered a somewhat magical phenomenon: this map seemed more than just a simple drawing.
As his position changed, the image on the map was also slowly shifting.
Since Zhang Qian’s movement speed wasn’t fast, it was even less noticeable after scaling down on the map.
Plus the monotonous environment of the corridor—if not for that pure black square inching forward a bit, Zhang Qian might not have noticed this peculiarity so easily.
“I thought the map only covered the surrounding dozens of rooms, but it’s actually a live map with built-in positioning?”
Though he had long known the ghost map was unusual, Zhang Qian truly hadn’t expected such “high tech” from the Republic of China Era.
At this moment, the status of the ghost map in Zhang Qian’s heart skyrocketed.
“I actually planned to memorize the terrain here and then discard the ghost map—good thing I held back in the end.”
A map that updates in real time was far more valuable than an outdated hand-drawn one.
Not to mention anything else, decades could change the situation in the rooms. A room safe decades ago might now harbor some fierce ghost.
But now there was no such worry. As long as this map wasn’t a scam, the entire corridor held no secrets for Zhang Qian.
With this thing, all dangerous rooms could be anticipated in advance. He could be bolder while moving, and his speed would increase significantly as a result.
“But before that, I need to confirm the map’s accuracy first.”
The map showed many rooms, each with light or dark ink marks, but only one was completely blacked out or completely blank.
The pure black room was in the upper left corner of the map, while the pure white one was in the middle, slightly lower.
“The depth of these ink marks probably represents the terror level of the fierce ghost in the room. Every room has a fierce ghost, so every room has color.”
“This blank room should be the one I just left. After all, with the fierce ghost in my hands, the room really should be blank.”
“And the middle slightly lower is my position after moving some distance. At the start, the blank room should have been right in the center.”
In other words, this map didn’t display the holder’s current position but defaulted the center as the holder’s location.
Having confirmed his position, the rest was straightforward.
Zhang Qian walked a few more steps, passing some areas with deeper colors.
Moments later.
According to the map, the room to Zhang Qian’s left was already the lightest colored one nearby.
“Then let’s see if this map is really accurate.”
Putting the map into his pocket, Zhang Qian gripped the wooden stick tightly and gently placed his hand on the door handle of that room door.
