There was no wire in the new house, which seemed rather unusual, so there wasn't any.
Finally, Ye Tiancheng and the little fox had to settle for second best. They found ladies' hair clips on the dressing table. Such items might be勉强 usable.
Ye Tiancheng returned to the mattress and tried to pick the lock. The little fox held up the mattress from the outside while Ye Tiancheng attempted to open it.
Since he had never done anything like this before, Ye Tiancheng spent a considerable amount of time trying. Fortunately, the saying "hard work pays off" seemed to hold some truth, and old-fashioned locks were indeed easier to pick. Ye Tiancheng spent about half an hour before finally managing to pry the lock open completely.
After removing the lock, Ye Tiancheng opened the square door beneath the mattress, revealing a dark staircase that seemed to descend endlessly.
The little fox peered down. "Is that a secret passage?"
"Yes," Ye Tiancheng replied softly. However, looking at the stairs below, he felt a sense of hesitation. He asked the little fox for his opinion, "We don't know what's down there. Do you think it's better for me to go down and scout, while you stay up here and keep watch, or should we go down together?"
"But if we both go down, and this mattress closes, we might not be able to get out. We don't know if there's another exit down there..."
Upon hearing Ye Tiancheng's words, the little fox also showed a hint of conflict. "But in a place like this, if we get separated, it doesn't seem very good."
The little fox's concern was precisely Ye Tiancheng's worry.
The risks involved in separating from a companion in such a place were self-evident. Who knew what their companion might encounter during their separation, whether they would be alright, and when they would reappear...
Thinking of the worst-case scenario, if he were separated from his companion in a place where incredible and bizarre events might occur, who could guarantee that the companion they saw again would be their true companion?
Ye Tiancheng stared at the dark stairwell below, falling into a long silence. The little fox also remained quiet.
In the end, Ye Tiancheng made his decision. He said to the little fox, "It's not very safe for you to stay here. You're right, separating from a companion in a place like this is also not good. At the very least, if we're together, we can look out for each other and ensure each other's safety."
"You come down with me."
Hearing Ye Tiancheng say this, the little fox secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
This was different from when they were in the village chief's house. There wasn't as much danger in the village chief's house, but this was a complex space that could trap both him and Ye Tiancheng. Now, they were just blindly stumbling around, unable to find an exit. If they got separated in a place like this, the consequences would truly be unimaginable.
He really didn't want to be separated from Ye Tiancheng, but if Ye Tiancheng had made up his mind, the little fox couldn't defy him.
Therefore, the little fox hoped more that Ye Tiancheng would agree to let him stay by his side.
"Then I'll come down too," the little fox said.
While speaking with Ye Tiancheng, he walked in. The two of them propped up the mattress and began to try and descend.
But it was too dark below to see anything clearly. Ye Tiancheng turned to the little fox and said, "Turn on your phone's power-saving mode. Turning it off would consume more power. Using power-saving mode is better, so we'll still have power later. I'll use my phone as a flashlight for now."
The little fox nodded and took out his phone to make the settings. Ye Tiancheng also took out his phone and turned on the flashlight function for illumination.
The stairs behind the square door under the mattress were indeed steep, winding, and long. At first glance, the stairs were not completely straight, and a corner was visible at the end. They didn't know how long it would take to walk.
Ye Tiancheng prepared himself mentally, hoping the situation wouldn't be too bad.
He didn't feel anything particularly unusual. As cultivators, they had some sense of danger that could threaten themselves and those around them. He felt alright now, which basically meant there shouldn't be any major problems.
This was one of the reasons that supported Ye Tiancheng's willingness to take this risk.
Ye Tiancheng was the first to descend into the stairwell, with the little fox following closely behind. As expected, after they both entered the stairwell, the square door behind them, and even the mattress supporting it, closed instantly.
This meant they had essentially no retreat.
The little fox tried to push the square door above him from the inside. Because the mattress above was too heavy, the door was indeed pressed down. Even though it was no longer locked, it was very difficult to open.
At the very least, when he tried to push it with all his might, the door didn't budge at all.
Seeing the little fox's actions, Ye Tiancheng said to him, "Don't waste your strength. It definitely won't be that easy to open. Since we've already come in, we might as well keep going down. I don't have any particularly bad feelings, so there shouldn't be anything down there that can seriously threaten our lives."
Since Ye Tiancheng had said so, the little fox naturally followed closely behind him, and the two of them walked down the stairwell together.
The stairwell was quite long, winding and endless. The little fox didn't know how long he had been following Ye Tiancheng. These loops and turns downwards blurred his sense of space. The guesthouse only looked like five stories from the outside, and now this bizarre space, first the ghost gate phenomenon with Ye Tiancheng, and now this staircase.
This was clearly telling them that this was not a normal space at all.
If they were to follow the length of the stairs like this, they should be going very deep underground...
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Ye Tiancheng's phone, which was fully charged, was almost completely depleted. They then switched to the little fox's phone, which was also more than half used, before they finally saw a faint light revealing a corner at the last staircase exit.
There was light?!
Both Ye Tiancheng and the little fox felt a slight surge of energy, and their steps unconsciously quickened. The light around the corner was a dim, yellowish glow. Ye Tiancheng and the little fox turned the corner and finally saw a room. The floor, walls, and ceiling of this room were all made of stone.
There were lampstands on the walls, the same kind Ye Tiancheng had seen in the secret room of the village chief's house. The lamps flickered slightly, emitting a warm, orange light. In the center of the room, there was a round stone table and several small stools. On the table were a teapot and teacups, along with other tea sets.
Ye Tiancheng noticed that two teacups had been taken out and placed on the edge of the table.
It looked like they had been used and not yet put away. One of the teacups still contained half a cup of unfinished tea.
The little fox followed Ye Tiancheng out from the corner and suddenly sniffed, as if smelling something.
Ye Tiancheng didn't detect any particular scent. Seeing the little fox like this, he didn't disturb him but quietly watched his actions. After a while, the little fox smelled a very strange odor. It wasn't exactly unpleasant, but it made him feel inexplicably nauseous.
He followed the scent and realized that it was emanating from the unfinished cup of tea and the teapot on the round table.
This was because both the teacup and the teapot still contained some unfinished tea.
Therefore, the tea was undoubtedly the source.
The little fox picked up the teacup and sniffed it, becoming even more certain. He was almost moved to tears by the smell, and an expression of extreme disgust involuntarily appeared on his face.
Seeing his expression, Ye Tiancheng walked over and picked up the teapot to sniff it. However, he didn't smell anything unusual, only a very fragrant and clear tea aroma. The taste was quite mellow, and Ye Tiancheng could tell it was a good tea.
However, this was likely just a facade. At least, judging by the little fox's reaction, he was so disgusted that his eyes were watering. There was probably something in the tea that he couldn't smell.
He asked the little fox, "What did you smell? Why are you like this?"
The little fox put down the teacup, rubbed his eyes, and even retreated a few steps with a bit of psychological trauma, moving slightly away from the round table before answering Ye Tiancheng, "I can't describe it. It's a very unpleasant smell, or rather, it's not that it's unpleasant, but it feels very pungent and makes me feel nauseous."
Although Ye Tiancheng couldn't smell it, hearing the little fox say this, his imagination, fueled by human creativity, seemed to conjure a phantom smell, as if he too smelled something unpleasant.
In any case, with a sense of psychological trauma, he abandoned the teapot and moved far away from the round table.
"What did they put in here? It seems quite normal... it's too deceptive."
The little fox urged Ye Tiancheng, "Big brother, let's go quickly. I feel this smell everywhere, I'm going to be suffocated!"
Seeing how uncomfortable the little fox was, it was basically confirmed that the tea was problematic. Ye Tiancheng had no objections and prepared to walk with the little fox towards the next room, which he assumed was another room.
After coming out from the staircase corner, they saw this room. In the center of each of the four walls, there was a door. Ye Tiancheng thought that after pushing these doors open, it was unlikely to lead to the outside world, and more likely to another room.
Ye Tiancheng even thought that they were probably no longer on the ground floor, but underground.
He randomly chose a door and pushed it open. Fortunately, there was light inside, but the scene within was not any better. The little fox almost immediately threw up the moment the door opened.
Even Ye Tiancheng was not much better off. His face turned pale and then ashen. Looking at the scene in the room, he involuntarily took several steps back.
This time, let alone the little fox, he himself could smell an exceptionally foul odor.
It was a very strong smell of decay.
He slammed the door shut with a bang, but he basically knew what the room was used for. The little fox had mentioned before that if the guesthouse owner Mei Mei's husband was extending his life by using other people's bodies as hosts for parasitic cultivation, then those bodies would easily decay and have an expiration date.
But what happened to these host bodies after they were replaced? They always needed to be disposed of.
The result was now undoubtedly very clear. The room behind this door was used for such disposal.
The little fox's sense of smell had already been severely impacted by the smell of the tea. Although he didn't see the scene inside the room when Ye Tiancheng opened the door, the odor delivered a barrage of blows to the little fox.
Because of the night's activities, the little fox hadn't eaten much, so his stomach was empty. He couldn't throw up anything, and after retching for a long time, he only spat out sour liquid.
Ye Tiancheng, with a grim expression, closed the door and patted the little fox's back to comfort him.