Indeed… Jiang Cheng had a feeling that things were developing in the direction he expected, and the ghosts hiding around him didn’t seem to have any immediate plans to attack them.

On the contrary, these ghosts were trying their best to disguise themselves, afraid of revealing any flaws.

Besides Teacher Zi Gui and Bai Xi, it was now certain that Zhou Tong was also a ghost.

After all, Zhou Tong wasn’t exactly a newbie, and she should understand the principle that the more panicked you are during a mission, the faster you die, yet she was still spreading fear.

Starting from this line of thought, Jiang Cheng also pointed the finger of suspicion at Xia Qiang and his group. As teammates, they should be the ones who knew Zhou Tong the best and should have noticed the anomalies on her first.

At the same time, another question surfaced: Xia Qiang’s group, including Lin Muyun and Lin Muwan, consisted of seven people, and they had all survived until now.

The weirdness of this bus goes without saying. How did they manage to survive without losing any members?

You should know that last time, if it hadn't been for encountering him, coupled with the special nature of the Midnight Killer dungeon, these people would have been wiped out, their corpses lying in that building.

"Come and take a look!"

Hearing the sound, everyone gathered around. Feng Jie held up a newspaper, his face clearly tense. "I just tried my chair, and it's crooked… It looks fine, but when you sit on it, it tilts to one side."

Perhaps he was stimulated, Feng Jie’s narration sounded a little chaotic. "Have you ever encountered this, like when one leg of a chair is a bit short, and to balance it, you find a piece of paper, fold it into a small piece, and put it underneath?"

After speaking, everyone looked at the newspaper in Feng Jie's hand. The newspaper had obvious folding marks and was slightly yellowed, looking very old.

Xia Qiang stepped forward, took the newspaper from Feng Jie, placed it on the ground, and flattened it little by little. In a conspicuous position on the newspaper, a vertical headline caught everyone's attention.

"The Roman Hotel Fire," Xia Meng read out loud.

Below the headline was a blurry accompanying image, on which one could vaguely see an old photograph. The photo showed several corpses covered in white cloth, placed on the side of the street, with a charred building in the background.

A few words could still be seen on the building's facade, the first two of which were Roman!

"It seems that this burned-down building is the Roman Hotel, and we are currently in this burned hotel," Su Xiaoxiao said, her eyes scanning her surroundings, lowering her voice. "This also corresponds to the charred corpses."

"Do you think… Teacher Zi Gui can still move around after turning into that state? She must be a ghost. Could she be one of the people who died in the fire?"

"Because she was burned to death, her resentment couldn't be dispelled, and she turned into a vengeful ghost, constantly occupying this place, killing everyone who enters this hotel!" Zhou Tong said, looking frightened, still acting.

Xia Qiang nodded. "It seems so. Come and look."

Following the direction of Xia Qiang’s finger, there were rows of small characters, but due to preservation, they were no longer clear.

Everyone patiently deciphered them little by little, and slowly, the reason for this also surfaced. Many years ago, this place called the Roman Hotel was the most luxurious hotel in the city, frequented by dignitaries and nobles, and business was very prosperous. However, one night, a sudden fire broke out without warning.

Fortunately, the hotel responded in time, and although the process was a mess, the vast majority of people escaped.

After the fire was extinguished, people went inside to clean up the scene and found a total of six bodies.

These bodies were burned beyond recognition, and it was impossible to identify who they were. The person in charge had to start from the locations where these bodies were found, as well as the things left near the bodies after the fire, to speculate on their identities.

Originally, this was a normal process, but slowly, someone realized that something was wrong.

Because according to statistics, three service personnel did not escape, and two guests went missing that night. Therefore, there should have been a maximum of five bodies. What was the situation with this sixth body?

The Roman Hotel housed many diplomatic personnel, so the management was extremely strict, and there was no possibility of anyone sneaking in.

Soon, after analysis, the identities of the three missing hotel personnel and the two guests were determined, leaving only the unidentified body.

After all, this Roman Hotel had a strong background, and these dignitaries didn't want to cause any trouble. Moreover, in that era, an unidentified body was not a big deal to them at all.

What they cared about was when the hotel could be renovated and reopened.

So, under the instructions of higher-ups, the unidentified body was directly dragged to a mass grave outside the city and hastily buried.

The hotel reconstruction work went smoothly, and soon, amidst cheers and laughter, the Roman Hotel reopened. Business was booming on the first day, and dignitaries from all over came to support it, making the owner grin from ear to ear.

But no one expected that the peaceful days would not last long. One rainy night, the renovated Roman Hotel caught fire again. This time, the fire was more intense than the last, and a group of dignitaries rushed out of the hotel in a panic, barely covered, and managed to save their lives.

There were various theories about the cause of the fire, causing a stir in the city.

The handling process was similar to the previous time. After completely extinguishing the fire, the rescue personnel were surprised to find that the scene inside was almost exactly the same as last time, even the locations and extent of the burning were very similar.

But this time, the number of victims found inside was one more, with seven bodies.

As before, each body was burned beyond recognition, making it impossible to identify them.

However, the personnel involved in the case still managed to confirm the identities of these bodies through investigation. According to records, the identities of six of the bodies could be determined, but the last body could not be confirmed.

And what really terrified the investigators was that some of them actually identified that the body was exactly the same as the nameless body they had found last time!

Whether it was from the location where the body was found or the posture, they were the same!

Such absurd remarks were naturally not supported. After all, the body had been burned to such a ghastly state, how could it still be identified? As for the location and posture, who cared?

But the person who made the identification put forward his own evidence. He said that he could never be wrong. After all, the other bodies were all distorted, indicating that they had been burned alive, struggling painfully before death.

But only this body was different. This body was lying there quietly.

It was lying in front of a large mirror at the corner of the stairs.

With its hands flat on its chest, it was very peaceful.

At first, he had doubts, but because it was none of his business and the superiors were urging him to close the case as soon as possible, he did not mention it. But now, the situation was obviously wrong.

He suspected that there was something strange about this body, that it was… it was the one they had thrown into the mass grave not long ago!

He also said that if they didn't believe it, they could take them to the mass grave to see. They didn't bury the body deep. As long as they dug it up, they would know immediately!

The police officer in charge of the case was getting a headache. He knew the power and complexity behind this hotel and didn't want to cause any trouble.

More importantly, he also felt that his subordinate's words were nonsense, so he sternly ordered him to shut up and threatened him that if he dared to publicize his guess, he would be fired.

Originally, he thought that this matter had come to an end, but unexpectedly, the next day, the subordinate really did not come to work. Privately, some colleagues gave him a thumbs up, saying that he was quite principled.

But no one believed his words.

So, after a long period of silence, the Roman Hotel reopened after some renovations.

But because of the previous incidents, the hotel also sought peace of mind and specially invited a feng shui master to calculate.

Under the guidance of an expert, the Roman Hotel underwent a major renovation, and some feng shui arrangements were made before it finally reopened.

This time, there were obviously fewer people coming than before. After all, the dignitaries were also frightened by the name of the Roman Hotel.

There were even rumors outside that the feng shui of this hotel was bad, that it had violated a taboo, blocked the path of the King of Hell to collect souls, and that the King of Hell was unhappy and was pulling a few people in to make up the numbers!

Some people also said that something was bound to happen within seven days!

But this time, the Roman Hotel also specially invited a feng shui master to be stationed in the hotel to reassure everyone, and the hotel also put a lot of effort into management, arranging people to patrol at all times in order to eliminate all kinds of fire hazards.

The first few days were calm, and just when everyone had slightly lowered their guard, unexpectedly, the accident happened again!

On the night of the seventh day, the Roman Hotel caught fire again. This time, the fire spread very quickly, but perhaps the people inside had experience running out, so the losses were not too heavy under such a large fire.

But when tidying up the scene, everyone was dumbfounded. At the corner of the stairs in front of the mirror, another body was found.

The body was burned beyond recognition, but strangely, the body was still lying on the ground with its hands on its chest, giving a strange sense of peace.

The first time could barely be explained, but twice in a row, there was no way to explain it!

And this time, they cleared eight charred corpses from the scene.

One more than last time.

The police officer in charge of handling the case was sweating profusely. Now he had to believe it even if he didn't want to. He didn't even dare to move the body, but immediately asked people to go to the previous police officer's home to find him.

From that day on, the police officer never came to work again, and he never saw him again.

But when the police officers who went to find him rushed to his house, there was no one there. Not only was he not there, but even his wife and children were gone.

What was even stranger was that the door to his house was not locked, but only ajar, and it opened with a push. On the table were unwashed bowls and chopsticks, and the food in the bowls was sour, with even bugs crawling on it.

And on the chair was the man's purse, with half a month's salary still inside.

By visiting the nearby neighbors, no one knew where the family had gone, and they had not seen them recently.

The door was not closed, the family was missing, the bowls and chopsticks had not been cleaned up, and the purse was casually left in the room… Putting all this together, a ominous premonition rose in his heart.

Soon, the police officer rushed over after hearing the news. He had made up his mind that he would never touch the strange body until he found the family, no matter what, even if it meant taking off his uniform.

After all, anyone could see that this was too damn evil!

But just as they were in a panic, several villagers came over. They didn't say anything after they came, but just stepped aside, and behind them was an old woman who needed help.

The old woman was estimated to be eighty years old, her body extremely hunched, and she still had bound feet. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, with no light at all.

The leading man said in a muffled voice that this was his grandmother. Today, after hearing that the family was missing and that a police officer had come to look for them, she had come over and said that she had something to say.

The police officer, with the attitude of grasping at straws, asked, "Old woman, what do you have to say?"

After hearing this, the old woman pursed her lips and trembled excitedly, or rather, seemed frightened. "I… I saw… saw that family. They left, at night, taken away by someone."

The old woman's words were intermittent, which was also related to her physical condition, but the leading police officer stared at the old woman's eyes unceremoniously, and stretched out his hand to wave in front of the old woman's eyes, but the latter did not respond at all, and questioned: "Old woman, can your eyes see things clearly?"

"My eyes are blind, but… but I don't see with my eyes, it's a dream…" The old woman became nervous, her face turning pale. "I don't know if it was a dream or not, anyway, it was very real. I, this old woman, have never had such a real dream in my life. The dream was still in this village, but there was a very heavy fog. I saw this family in the fog, they… they were following a strange person, walking towards… towards another direction."

"The whole family was there, one by one, following behind the strange person, with their heads lowered. I was curious at the time, so I went up to ask them, and saw that their eyes were straight, and their expressions were very strange. They were all smiling, that kind of… that kind of smile that I can't describe, it was scary."

The old woman swallowed quietly. "I asked them, asked them where they were going, but they didn't say anything, just turned their heads and glanced at me, and didn't… didn't say anything. The person in front took a step, and they followed with a step, like… like puppets."

"Strange person…" The leading police officer was more and more frightened as he listened.

"Yes, it's a strange person. I wanted to go up and see the person's face, but I couldn't see it no matter what, it was all black, like burnt charcoal. Later, I stretched out my hand and wanted to touch it, but Gouwa's wife, I don't know why, seemed to be possessed and started cursing at me, cursing very harshly, saying that I was an old, dying woman and told me to get out!"

"I've always been very kind to Gouwa's wife, I don't know why… why she actually cursed at me?"