...
Crap...

Hua Luo's eyes flickered. He immediately understood that this was also a trap.

Just like Jiang Cheng and the others, they... had also stepped into Lin Chen's painting, entering one of his strange tales.

Now that they were caught, Hua Luo calmed down after a brief adjustment. While comforting Chu Jiu, he immediately began searching the room for clues.

"Don't be afraid." Hua Luo pulled Chu Jiu close. "We can definitely get out. There must be clues here."

Looking at Hua Luo's face, Chu Jiu gradually calmed down as well.

As Hua Luo carefully opened the bookcase, the two took a level each, starting to look for the manuscript Lin Chen had sent.

At this moment, an abnormal sound came from the darkness behind them. Chu Jiu turned around, wanting to check with the flashlight in her hand, but Hua Luo stopped her.

"Don't mind it." Hua Luo gasped. "Find the clues first."

His experience told him that they were already in the game, and the chance of escaping was slim. And the only chance was the manuscript left by Lin Chen.

"Found it!"

Chu Jiu found a paper bag in the last small compartment. The name on it was already blurred.

But the moment she touched the paper bag, Chu Jiu had an inexplicable feeling.

Using the flashlight, Hua Luo immediately opened the paper bag. Inside was not a strange tale, but fragmented sketches, like drafts conceived before starting to paint.

Looking at them one by one, some were of people's hands, and some were of clothes, shoes, and even a dark blue scarf, a black trench coat, and so on.

Hua Luo didn't understand painting, but it looked a bit like a dress-up game for little girls.

Soon he understood that this was the original draft of the black-clothed man conceived by Lin Chen.

Until he turned to the last one.

A predictable person appeared on it.

"It really is him!" Chu Jiu's eyes paused as she looked at the person in the painting.

The person in the painting was wearing a black long trench coat, black leather shoes, with the brim of his hat pulled very low. In the background, the sky was covered with dark clouds, and lightning split a crack.

The black-clothed man stood alone on the roof, overlooking the entire city.

Rain poured down.

His sideburns were wet with the pattering rain, sticking to his brow, leaving only a handsome and elegant profile, and under the brim of his hat, a pair of deep red eyes.

It really was... Wu.

He was the most terrifying and top-level existence in this script, and the origin of all the strange tales.

And he was created by Lin Chen in extreme despair of reality.

In other words, Wu was a monster that crawled out of Lin Chen's despair, and his existence was to create endless strange tales, thereby deriving more despair.

Using a black flame of despair, to burn the desolate city in Lin Chen's heart.

"Look!" Chu Jiu, staring at the painting, suddenly said, "The back... the back of the painting!"

Hua Luo immediately turned the painting over. There was another painting on the back, a man wearing a beige trench coat and a blue scarf.

And his appearance... was exactly the same as Wu!

However, this man's eyebrows lacked the unrestrained killing intent of Wu, replaced by a gentle and refined temperament.

Not only was he not fierce, but he was even a little cute.

In the next second, Hua Luo immediately understood that both sides of the painting were Wu.

This represented the two sides of Wu's good and evil, just like the Buddhist saying, "A thought becomes a Buddha, a thought enters a demon." Buddha and demon are only a thought away.

Lin Chen did create Wu in extreme despair, but the flower of hope could also bloom in despair. This Wu in a beige trench coat with a shy smile was the last ray of light lost in despair.

And Lin Chen, who had turned into a ghost, came here to find this painting!

Believing that giving this painting to Lin Chen would dispel the despair in her heart and awaken her former self.

And only she could deal with the black-clothed man representing the despairing side that she had created—Wu.

Just then, the light and shadows in front of them changed. Hua Luo subconsciously grabbed Chu Jiu's hand, and then, the two appeared in a car.

The car was driving in a dark and long tunnel.

It was a... taxi.

"This... what exactly is going on?" The driver's voice changed with fright. "I've driven through this tunnel many times. I was here last week. It's not that long. Why can't I get to the end?"

The driver almost stepped on the accelerator to the floor, and the engine made a roaring sound that it couldn't bear. The speed of the car had reached its limit.

Driving so fast in the tunnel was no different from courting death, but neither Hua Luo nor Chu Jiu objected.

They knew that the two of them had entered a strange tale.

"Swish!"

A shadow flashed by the side.

"Did... did you see that?" Through the rearview mirror, Hua Luo saw fear in the driver's eyes. He said loudly, "There was someone standing by the side of the tunnel just now."

"Didn't see it." Hua Luo tried to comfort the driver, preventing him from getting too excited and causing an accident. "Drive carefully." He reminded, "Don't look around, watch the road."

Chu Jiu's eyes changed with fright. She naturally saw the figure flashing by the roadside. It was indeed a person, and it was a woman in a bright red dress.

Hua Luo roughly knew which strange tale they had broken into.

This was Xu Yi's strange tale.

And according to the strange tale, this tunnel had no end, and they would be consumed to death here.

"Swish!"

"Ah, ah..." the driver shouted, "It's a woman in red. We've seen her more than once!"

Soon the driver realized that the situation was worse than he thought. The woman he had overtaken countless times was actually following behind the car.

At first, the distance was 50 meters, and he could only vaguely see the shadow, but the distance was getting closer and closer as time passed.

40 meters.

30 meters.

Soon it was 20 meters...

At this moment, Chu Jiu's tears were like a river bursting its banks. Even though the light in the tunnel was dim, she recognized at a glance that the pale-faced woman following behind was Xu Yi.

And what was even more terrifying was that Xu Yi's face was facing them, but her body was facing backwards, and her neck was twisted 180 degrees. Obviously, she was dead beyond dead.

Sister Xu Yi was dead, and now she had become a new strange tale.

Thoughts fermented rapidly in his mind. Hua Luo thought about countermeasures. He had seen this tunnel strange tale not long ago and knew that if he just kept running, he would never escape.

Unless... one person was left behind.

Just like the choice Xu Yi had faced.

"We can't escape, we can't escape..." The driver looked at the approaching female ghost, his emotions finally collapsing. Then he yanked open the car door and jumped out.

The driver was swallowed by the darkness behind him, and no one knew whether he would survive.

But without the driver, the vehicle did not lose control or decelerate, and was still driving at an extremely high speed.

Pressing his lips tightly, Hua Luo's gaze slowly swept to Chu Jiu.