"Xiao Bai?"
At this moment, Ye Xiaomei and Ke Shufan also noticed the obvious abnormality in Xiao Bai. But before Xiao Bai could respond, with a whoosh, the burning candles on the floor suddenly flared up, their eerie green flames casting a ghostly, sinister glow across the entire room.
"Not good..."
Xiao Bai let out a soft exclamation. Ye Xiaomei and Ke Shufan's faces instantly changed color as well. The occurrence of supernatural phenomena often signaled the arrival of an attack.
However, before entering the密室, everyone had mentally prepared themselves. Though tense now, they didn't panic. Xiao Bai, taking the lead, grabbed the pendant, ready to unleash a special道具 at any moment, while Ke Shufan and Ye Xiaomei clutched their exorcism talismans tightly, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.
Just then, Xiao Bai suddenly noticed a dark, shadowy figure had appeared at the entrance of the room without her knowing when. Looking closely, it was none other than that eerie puppet.
How did it get here?
The puppet had the ability to teleport. The participants were aware of this, but they never imagined... it would teleport here.
A strange feeling crept into Xiao Bai's heart.
Why did it come to this place?
This puppet had been surrounded by bizarre phenomena time and again, yet so far, it hadn't directly attacked the participants.
Was it because the story still imposed restrictions on the ghost, or was there some other reason they hadn't yet understood?
Just as a thought began to form, in the blink of an eye, the seemingly motionless shadow teleported even closer.
Panic!
Ye Xiaomei suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of panic!
This seemingly still puppet, right under her nose, teleported every time she blinked—in that incredibly brief instant!
And it was getting closer and closer to them, the participants!
Unable to contain her fear, Ye Xiaomei finally acted recklessly, using the exorcism talisman!
But then, the talisman, meant to dispel evil spirits, didn't burst into flames upon contact with the puppet as it would with ordinary ghosts. Instead, it turned black inch by inch and crumbled into ashes...
What was going on?
Why didn't the exorcism talisman work?
In that instant, the terrifying puppet teleported again, now almost right up to her nose.
Its delicate face, illuminated by the green flames, twisted into something demonic...
"Xiao Bai... Shufan... save me..."
Realizing the talisman was useless, Ye Xiaomei trembled violently. Seeing the urgency, Xiao Bai had no time to think and opened the frame on the pendant.
The moment the frame opened, she expected the phantom spirit to leap out from the twisted ghost face photo and drive back the puppet. But in reality... nothing happened.
The ghost face photo, like Ye Xiaomei's exorcism talisman, had no effect at all!
What was happening?
Why was this powerful exorcism道具 completely ineffective?
For a moment, Xiao Bai was stunned. Before this story began, the radio station hadn't issued any warning against using道具. Since there was no such warning, why had two consecutive道具 failed here?
In a story where道具 use wasn't restricted, encountering道具 failure—in the horror story groups of the radio station—only one scenario led to this: the evil ghost's power far exceeded the道具's level. This absolute suppression rendered the道具 useless.
Xiao Bai's heart sank. The evil spirit summoned by the ritual and attached to the puppet was already this powerful?
This was only her third story, equivalent to a veteran's assessment. Even for a veteran's assessment, she shouldn't be facing such a formidable ghost.
Moreover, for Chen Cailing and Ye Xiaomei, this was merely their first official mission!
It shouldn't, and couldn't, be possible to encounter a ghost of this level!
Could it be that this ghost required a special item to be harmed?
"..."
Just then, Ke Shufan, who had been backing away in intense fear, suddenly felt a sharp pain. The edge of her palm had been cut by an iron spike embedded in the wall, drawing blood.
In that instant, a new message appeared in her mind.
"You have discovered an item used in the ritual. Using this item can destroy the vessel to which the soul is attached and expel the soul within. This item is single-use and cannot be taken out of the story world!"
What?
Ke Shufan couldn't believe it. The iron spike she had accidentally touched was actually the special道具 in the story that could drive away the ghost. This revelation shocked her, and her face showed astonishment.
The iron spikes on the walls here were the道具 meant to seal the ghost in the story!
From the clues, it seemed the key to this story was finding this hidden密室. It turned out that only here were the道具 to repel the ghost hidden.
After a moment of shock, Ke Shufan quickly reacted. She forcefully pulled an iron spike from the wall and aimed it at the puppet ahead.
"Shufan! What are you doing?!"
Noticing Ke Shufan's strange behavior, Xiao Bai shot her a questioning look.
"Xiao Bai! This is the story's special道具!"
"What!"
"What!"
Xiao Bai and Ye Xiaomei both showed surprised expressions. But when they touched the iron spikes on the wall, a prompt echoed in their minds simultaneously.
No wonder the道具 had failed. It turned out that the most powerful evil ghost in this story indeed required a special method to seal.
Such ghosts needing special sealing methods weren't uncommon in stories. The only thing that felt off to Xiao Bai was that, for sealing an evil spirit, the道具 provided in this story was far too obvious!
Usually, special道具 for sealing evil spirits were extremely hard to obtain and often unique. But looking around, these iron spikes covered the entire room, which felt somewhat strange.
"Wait..."
In that instant, a peculiar thought flashed through Xiao Bai's mind.
If these "ritual items" were truly the special道具 to complete the story, then wasn't this story a bit too simple?
Before she could fully process this, Ye Xiaomei, ignoring her bleeding hand, pulled out an iron spike and thrust it fiercely into the puppet before her.
It plunged straight into the puppet's eye socket!
As the spike entered, one of the puppet's eyes, as if damaged, fell from its socket and rolled to the ground, landing coincidentally at Ke Shufan's feet.
From the puppet's eye socket, a black, blood-like substance slowly oozed out.
With a thud, the standing puppet finally collapsed. As the black liquid flowed, its body shattered into pieces, lying silently on the ground with no further reaction.
Unnoticed, the surrounding supernatural phenomena had also quietly vanished.
"Th-this... what's going on?"
Faced with this situation, Ye Xiaomei was also bewildered. The most terrifying supernatural entity in this story had been destroyed by her just like that?
Was it really that simple?
Or was this the normal difficulty for a first official story?
Ke Shufan was equally dumbfounded, while Xiao Bai appeared lost in thought.
With the disappearance of the supernatural phenomena, no trace of eerie energy could be felt from the puppet anymore. In other words, the "ritual item" had indeed worked, sealing the spirit within.
And now, this puppet was truly just a puppet.
But strangely, after destroying the puppet, no prompt indicating the story's end appeared in their minds. Everything had eerily returned to calm.
--- PS: Recently, the number of recommendation votes has increased significantly, and there are many friends who have tipped. I'd like to thank everyone here. A new book isn't easy, and I appreciate your support. Chatting with you all in the group always brings me joy and reduces the loneliness of writing. Thank you.