Although for someone like Nie Chongyang, keeping track of time mentally, estimating two minutes wasn't difficult, and it was generally accurate enough.
However, to be safe, Nie Chongyang started a stopwatch.
Two minutes later, the trio stopped on a new floor. After Nie Chongyang called out "Stop," Fatty's legs went weak, and he almost knelt.
They had been running at full speed, and climbing stairs was quite strenuous. It wasn't that Fatty was too weak.
But the result was obvious: their experiment had failed.
Liang Ping also sat on the ground, panting. He was primarily involved in administrative work, and his stamina wasn't very good. He said breathlessly, "It's proven that taking shortcuts is useless. We can't find the first floor this way."
Nie Chongyang was in the best condition among the three, with only a thin layer of sweat on his forehead and slightly uneven breathing. After all, he was genuinely capable, with astonishing stamina and perseverance.
He sat down next to Liang Ping and said, "Since we can't find a pattern immediately, and we can't waste our stamina and time climbing stairs, nor can we take shortcuts to find the first floor, why don't we try to deduce something else?"
Fatty asked Nie Chongyang, "Then what should we deduce now?"
Nie Chongyang pondered as he spoke, "Let's speculate that Ye Tiancheng and the others will definitely realize they can't reach the first floor either. So, where would they go in that case?"
"After all, there are only four floors here. I think even if it's a ghost wall, we've been climbing stairs for a long time. We should have encountered them by now, right? But we can't see them anywhere. So, did they leave the stairwell?"
Fatty knew Ye Tiancheng and Xiao Huli reasonably well. After thinking about it, he replied, "That's very likely. If Brother Ye found out they couldn't get out, maybe... they just picked a floor to check the situation? After all, he'd definitely want to return to the starting point and find the root of the problem."
"But because of the ghost wall in the stairwell, they definitely couldn't tell which floor they were on, so they could only pick a floor randomly."
This deduction was quite reasonable.
Liang Ping nodded and said, "Then I understand. This makes things much easier. Let's re-examine the traces and clues to see which floor they went to, and then we'll follow them. At the very least, finding them and reuniting sooner is a good thing."
This task was much easier than finding the pattern of spatial changes and understanding the logic behind it.
After all, there were only four floors in total. No matter how slowly they searched, it shouldn't be difficult to find out which floor Ye Tiancheng and the others left the stairwell from.
Fortunately, Nie Chongyang and his companions only conducted two checks before finding the floor from which Ye Tiancheng and the others had left the stairwell. The three of them then followed the traces and walked into the corridor of that floor.
Upon entering the corridor, they first looked at the room numbers on the doors. Although they were mirrored, they could clearly see that the first digit of these room numbers was three, indicating that this was the third floor.
Then, they followed the traces and searched, finally stopping outside room number 334.
The door to this room was closed, and no one knew what was inside.
The three of them exchanged glances. Fatty stepped forward and said to Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, "I'm better than both of you, so I'll go first. I'll knock on the door and see if Brother Ye is inside."
There was no need to decline such a matter, and both Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping agreed.
However, Liang Ping had something to say about Fatty's latter statement.
He said to Fatty, "If nothing unexpected happens, they should be inside. After all, there are only footprints of Mr. Ye and his companions entering, but no traces of them leaving. So, they must be inside."
Hearing Liang Ping say this, Fatty became much happier, feeling that he was one step closer to Ye Tiancheng.
He knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside. Considering the soundproofing of this guesthouse, it was highly unlikely that they couldn't hear the knock. Therefore, it was possible that something else was going on.
Fatty frowned and tried to turn the doorknob, but to his surprise, it turned.
He exclaimed in surprise, "The door isn't locked?"
Fatty pushed the door open and saw that the entire room was pitch black, making it impossible to see anything. Logically, with windows, the room shouldn't be this dark, but this was not a normal situation.
He hesitated, not entering immediately, as it didn't seem like anyone was in there.
"This door can be opened, but it doesn't look like anyone is in the room? Should we really go in?"
Liang Ping said, "We still have to go in and see. After all, we don't have any other clues right now. Even if there's a trap inside, we have to step into it. Fortunately, although Mr. Ye doesn't seem to be inside, the room doesn't look like anyone is in it, so we can go in and take a look."
Fatty nodded and said, "Then I'll turn on the lights first."
He habitually reached for the light switch on the wall by the door, and with a click, he encountered the same thing that Ye Tiancheng and Xiao Huli had experienced.
As a blinding white light illuminated their eyes, all three of them couldn't help but squint. When they regained their senses, the three of them, who hadn't even entered the room, were already standing inside. The door closed behind them, and the doorknob wouldn't turn.
Fatty turned back abruptly, tried to open the door, and even kicked it twice, but it was no use.
He said nervously, "Close the door and beat the dog?"
This was the first time Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping had encountered such a significant event since forming their special operations team. It was impossible to say they weren't flustered, but they remained relatively calmer.
"It's not 'close the door and beat the dog'," Nie Chongyang said after observing the situation in the room. "After all, there's no one in the room."
As for supernatural entities, since they had come this far, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping had made preparations. With the props and talismans previously provided by Xiao Huli, opening their spiritual eyes was naturally not difficult for them. They had naturally opened their eyes in advance.
If there were any malevolent spirits, they would have been able to see them. This room also contained no malevolent spirits.
Since they were locked in the room, they had no choice but to investigate.
Fatty quickly discovered the wedding photo hanging above the bed. He immediately pointed it out to Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping, "Look at that photo, that's the guesthouse owner, Mei Mei! The one next to her, if I'm not mistaken, should be her seriously ill husband."
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping immediately looked at the large wedding photo and came to a conclusion similar to Ye Tiancheng's initial assessment.
These two people didn't look like bad people. Primarily, they had a certain aura. The aura of good people and bad people was different. However, they also knew not to judge solely by appearance, and people can change. So, they only kept this in mind and didn't say anything.
Furthermore, after fully entering the room, they could discern more.
Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping immediately began their work, examining the traces at the scene.
Nie Chongyang also said, "It looks like Ye Tiancheng and the others really came here. The traces of them searching everywhere are very obvious."
Liang Ping went to rummage through the messy photos and small items piled on the bedside table, while Nie Chongyang noticed another detail. He found that on the bed in the room, the bedsheet, quilt, and pillows had all been swept onto the floor.
Did Ye Tiancheng and the others do this? And why would they do it?
Nie Chongyang realized this was a very important clue and immediately tried to lift the mattress. However, lifting the mattress alone was quite strenuous, so he quickly called out to Fatty, "Fatty, I think there might be something under the bed. Come and help. Stand on the other side, and let's lift this mattress to take a look."
Fatty wasn't skilled at mental work, but he was very strong. He immediately responded, "I'm coming!"
With their combined effort, they indeed found a square hidden door under the mattress. The lock on the door had been pried open and discarded nearby, but it was still under the bed.
Realizing that the mattress had to be held up and couldn't be flipped open, and would close on its own if not propped open, Nie Chongyang and Fatty each held one side. He then said to the hidden door, "No wonder Ye Tiancheng and the others aren't in the room. They've probably gone down."
And they knew not to split up in such a place, so it was likely that both Ye Tiancheng and Xiao Huli had gone down, and it wasn't a situation where one person went down and the other stayed by the secret passage.
"Put in some effort! I think we might really find Ye Tiancheng and the others!"
Nie Chongyang was a little excited about this discovery. If the five of them could reunite, leaving should only be a matter of time.
Liang Ping had already collected the items, putting most of them into his backpack. Hearing Nie Chongyang speak, he said in the cold air, "In the secret passage, won't there be forks in the road, and we'll get lost in a ghost wall again?"
Nie Chongyang immediately said, "Bah, bah, bah! Don't jinx it, okay?"
Fatty also quickly nodded and said, "Don't think about the worst-case scenario. What if it comes true? I still hope to see Brother Ye as soon as we go down."
Liang Ping then cooperated and said, "Bah, bah, bah! I'm spitting it out. It won't come true."
Then, he took out the stack of photos he had collected. He hadn't put them into his backpack yet. He showed them to Fatty and asked, "Look at these, can you tell anything?"
Fatty was also very surprised to see the photos of the owner Mei Mei posing with different men. Nie Chongyang had a certain sensitivity, "Why do these people's eyes look similar to how Mei Mei's husband looks at her?"
Since they were already caught up in this situation, Nie Chongyang and Liang Ping's imaginations ran wild.
Liang Ping speculated with great imagination, "Could it be that the guesthouse owner Mei Mei's husband's way of extending his life is by living through someone else's body?"
He had no idea that what he said was the complete truth.
Fatty said, "It's not impossible. Since they've come into contact with that giant worm, that evil god, they definitely wouldn't use any righteous means. Occupying someone else's body to live is also normal."
Nie Chongyang couldn't help but frown, "But there have been several different people in these photos. Could it be that one person isn't enough for long, and he has to change frequently? How many people has he harmed?"
For Nie Chongyang and the others, such a person was naturally someone they had to catch.
After saying that, he quickly called out to Liang Ping, "Quick, quick, don't waste any more time. You go and open the door to the secret passage, and then go down. Fatty and I will follow. We need to find Ye Tiancheng and the others as soon as possible. Let's not delay any longer; we can't afford to waste time."