Just as everyone was complaining non - stop, a pale child's face slowly emerged from the darkness. The child bared his pale lips and let out the sound of "Ho... ho..." again.
He stretched out his mutilated arm, showing the bloody red flesh beneath the skin.
Zhang Haomiao's breath caught in his throat. He didn't even dare to put down the foot he had just lifted.
The netizens in the bullet - screen comments also erupted collectively...
"This show is really absurd. They're playing this trick again. It doesn't look fake at all. Who can paint the flesh so realistically!"
"Mom, believe me. I really got my sheets wet from watching this variety show. I don't have any bad habits!"
"This child looks like the one from The Grudge. Is the production team plagiarizing?"
The bombarding bullet - screen comments from the netizens soon quieted down again.
Because Yuanyuan showed no sign of fear. She propped her two little hands on her knees and stood up. Then she walked straight up to the child.
As the camera got closer, the faint light on the screen soon reflected the complete face of that thing.
A head without a skull emerged!
The part above the child's eyebrow bone seemed to have been neatly cut in half by something. The brain was gone, leaving only bloody flesh...
He lifted the face that had seemed relatively intact in the shadow before and slowly bared his teeth at Zhang Yuanyuan.
"Ho ho..."
Zhang Yuanyuan felt a pang in her heart and frowned tightly.
At this moment, those bloody hands reached out for her.
"Ho ho..."
The hand in the camera was magnified infinitely. Everyone held their breath and stared wide - eyed!
"Yuanyuan!"
Zhang Haomiao rushed up in a hurry.
Just as the mouth seemed to be opening wider and wider, Yuanyuan calmly waved her hand. Instantly, the dark space became a bit brighter, and the red candles in the room were lit warmly.
"Uncle, don't be afraid. This is not a bad child. He just has nowhere to go and was attracted by the spiritual energy here," Yuanyuan replied obediently and took Zhang Haomiao's hand.
The fleshy feeling in his palm was very real.
Zhang Haomiao relaxed a bit, but then saw the bloody hand leading them forward. The dull drumbeats rang out again in front of them.
That was the direction the child was walking in.
"Boom — boom — boom"
The two slowly looked in the direction of the sound. Yuanyuan frowned tightly.
"Uncle, don't you think... the drumbeats are different from ordinary ones?"
Normal drumbeats were powerful, thundering like a storm. Each strike seemed to soar through the clouds, reach the sky, and then fall heavily. They could dispel all evil spirits and bring a strong sense of security.
But these here had a luring feeling. Each strike was like hitting on thick skin. The crisp sound of the drumhead was covered, like a person groaning in a hushed voice.
"Shall we go and take a look?"
Yuanyuan looked around the environment and thought for a while.
"Let's go!"
After saying that, she took the lead and walked forward.
Zhang Haomiao followed closely behind.
After passing through the room, a narrow and long corridor appeared in front of them. There was only the greenish - blue fluorescent light on both sides of the corridor.
At this moment, the child's figure flickered a few times and then disappeared in the space.
The drumbeats slowed down and became faint and distant, as if coming from the horizon.
This feeling was not right. The little girl thought seriously and combined these rhythm points... It seemed... like a rhythm for a sacrifice?
Zhang Haomiao took a step forward and actively explored. Yuanyuan casually grabbed a red ribbon from the side, whispered something quietly, and then tied it to Zhang Haomiao's wrist.
This scene was not seen by the audience in front of the screen.
Next door, the yellow - robed Taoist priest was sweating profusely. He was trapped in a secret room, muttering something while holding a copper coin sword and praying to the heavens for blessing...
His other hand was also quickly rummaging through the secret room to find the mechanism to get out!
Netizens: "Production team, how dare you play tricks on us! You've brought in another charlatan!"
"Why aren't you letting us see the real master, Yuanyuan!"
...
At this moment, Zhang Yuanyuan and Zhang Haomiao seemed to have entered an invisible space.
When they reached the place where the drumbeats were coming from, the sound inside stopped.
Yuanyuan pushed open the door and couldn't help but tremble with fear. She took a step back...
In front of them, a huge flower drum was placed in the center. There were several slender drumsticks on both sides of the drum. Skins of different sizes were hanging around the drum, and even the limbs had been peeled off together...
The skins were washed clean without any impurities, which made people shiver.
Moreover, there was a huge offering table behind the drum, filled with all kinds of so - called magical artifacts.
There were still several statues on the ceiling.
There were bead strings hanging from their hands, and they had a compassionate Buddha - like expression, but the bead strings were dripping blood.
The red light in the room made the smiles on the Buddha statues' faces even more eerie.
Zhang Yuanyuan took a step back and stood in front of Zhang Haomiao. "These... these are not the settings we arranged. The bead strings in the hands of those statues are not the ones we got from Uncle Zhang," she said.
Black air was raging in the room. Yuanyuan couldn't help but think of the black air above Zhao Xian's head.
"Boom! Boom!"
The sudden drumbeats interrupted her thoughts. Yuanyuan suddenly looked up and saw that there was still no one in front of her, and the drumsticks didn't move either.
The sound was coming from inside the drum!
Boom, boom...
One strike after another, the drumhead bulged out and then bounced back elastically.
The bulging shape looked like a thin fist!
"Uncle, let's go and take a look!"
Zhang Haomiao nodded and walked forward with Yuanyuan.
When they got closer, the drumhead was beaten loudly again. Nothing protruded from inside, but the sound didn't diminish.
Yuanyuan walked around the drum and then came to the offering table. She picked up those things and observed them carefully.
"Pa!"
The bead string in a statue's hand fell off. Yuanyuan picked it up and frowned tightly after taking a look.
The texture was not like that of ordinary materials...
"Uncle, have you ever seen human bones at Uncle Zhang's place?"
"Human bones?" Zhang Haomiao combined all that Yuanyuan had said and quickly searched his memory. He only remembered that many years ago, Zhang He'an went with someone to collect antiques and found a pile of treasures in an uninhabited forbidden area in the Tibetan region.
Zhang He'an said at that time that those things were not for him to collect, so he handed them over. Those treasures had been in the museum for many years.
The things that had been handed over long ago, how could they suddenly appear here!
"Do you mean that this bead string is made of human bones?" Zhang Haomiao asked in a trembling voice.
The little girl nodded. "Well... the material of this bead string... should be the human's frontal bone."
These beads were full of resentment and had been around for some years.
Alas, those evil people were so cruel back then. Not only did they disgrace the clan, but they also incurred so much karma for themselves!
How many corpses had it taken to make this?
Just then, the statue on the ceiling suddenly moved!
It blinked its eyes twice, turned its head around, and leaned down, looking as if it was about to fall at any moment.
A cold laugh came from the statue. A wisp of black air flew into the bead string in Yuanyuan's hand. Instantly, the bead string vibrated, and countless wisps of black air ran out of the beads and climbed onto Yuanyuan's arm!
Her fair and delicate skin was covered with dense black lines, like sharp silk threads trying to cut off her hand!
"Yuanyuan! Your hand!"
Zhang Haomiao got nervous, but then found that he couldn't move either. Countless black lines were twining around his legs under his feet. The drumhead suddenly burst, and a pair of dry hands rushed towards Zhang Haomiao's head with a shrill scream!
The next moment, there was a tearing sound, and another shrill scream erupted from inside the drum!
The red string on Zhang Haomiao's hand and the mark left by Yuanyuan before suddenly burst into a bright light, breaking the black air that was surging towards him from all around.
He was extremely shocked. The eight white jade stones last time didn't have such an effect!
Just as he wanted to walk towards Yuanyuan, a halo appeared around his body, freezing him in place.
Was this... the protective shield Yuanyuan had set up for him?
Zhang Haomiao was extremely anxious, but found that he couldn't even make a sound. He could only watch helplessly as the black lines that had twined around him just now flew towards Yuanyuan at full speed!
The cold laugh of "Jie jie" came from the space again. The drumsticks seemed to be held by an invisible hand and started to beat on the broken drumhead.
Gusts of cold wind blew, and pieces of human skin fluttered in the air.
Zhang Yuanyuan was completely entangled by the silk threads. She struggled but couldn't move. A rare look of panic appeared on her face...