Techniques and Dao

Chapter 148 Midnight in the Lonely House
The ground was covered in mud and weeds, and could hardly be called a road.

The headlights illuminated a thicket of thorns and bushes directly ahead. Not only was the car unable to move, but even walking was impossible.

Jane touched the skin on her throat, which had been choked red by Mie Ying, and muttered to herself, "How could this be? Both sides are dead ends?"

"How about we try going back again..." Hua Shenggang looked behind the car and was dumbfounded.

Through the dense fog with extremely low visibility, he discovered that there was a wooden house standing in the jungle that the vehicle had just passed through!
Because of Mieying and Jian's antics, Huasheng didn't notice the wooden house by the roadside.

The wooden house looked extremely dilapidated, as if it had been abandoned for a long time.

But candlelight flickered in the cabin windows, and white smoke billowed from the old chimney on the roof, indicating that someone was currently inside.

Deep in a desolate forest, a wooden cabin stood, appearing even more eerie in the thick fog. Through the blurry windows, one could almost see shadowy figures moving inside.

It could also be due to the flickering candlelight, but it's hard to be sure.

Thinking of the inexplicably appearing fog, the dead ends on both sides of the road, and the vanished rubble pit, Hua Sheng couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine. Although he had studied immortal arts, the dark forest in this foreign land, coupled with the presence of two girls with him, made him even more worried.

At that moment, Jane also saw the wooden house. She paused for a moment, then reached for the car door without thinking.

"Luckily there were people around. I got out of the car to ask..."

"No!" Hua Sheng stopped Jian, who was about to open the car door.

"how?"

Hua Sheng replied with a serious expression, "Have you ever seen a classic horror movie like 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'? Isn't this the plot of a standard horror movie?"

Jane raised her eyebrows and laughed, "What nonsense are you talking about?"

Hanamori used an analogy: "Little Red Riding Hood! The Big Bad Wolf! This kind of house looks like it belongs to the Big Bad Wolf!"

Jane frowned, then turned to look at Mie Ying behind her and said, "I think you two are both out of your minds. You still have the mind to talk about Grimm's Fairy Tales."

After she finished speaking, she looked out the car window again at the lonely wooden house and the dim candlelight flickering in the light.

Although it's common to have wooden cabins in the forest, what we just experienced made the cabins seem strangely eerie.

Jane suddenly went to open the car door again.

"No, I still have to go..."

"We absolutely mustn't do anything reckless!"

Hua Sheng jumped up and forcefully pushed Jian back into her seat.

Snapped!
Hua Sheng received a resounding slap on the left cheek!

Only then did he realize that his hand felt soft and yielding; it turned out that his hand had been pressed in an inappropriate position, below Jane's neck and above her stomach.

"You pervert, where are you touching!" Jane screamed.

Snapped!
Immediately afterward, Hua Sheng received another resounding slap on the right cheek! It was clearly delivered from behind.

A scream came from behind:

"Look at you, you lecherous devil, touching her all over there!"

Hua Sheng covered his burning face. By the time he came to his senses, Jian had already gotten out of the car and walked towards the wooden house.

He had no choice but to immediately open his own car door and chase after them.

"Wait! Wait! Jane! Don't you think this forest is weird? Don't wander around!"

Jane pulled out her wand, the tip emitting a white light, and held it against Hana's face: "You pervert, stay away from me!"

Hua Sheng pointed at the wooden house and said, "Are you even a European or American? Haven't you seen any of those suicidal horror movies? Don't just knock on doors in the middle of nowhere!"

"That's a movie! It's meant to scare children!"

"There's a Chinese saying, 'Learn from past mistakes,' Sister! No, Miss!" Hua Sheng insisted on not letting Jian pass.

Jane looked at his resolute attitude and hesitated for a moment, but she did not put down her wand and turned to look at the wooden house.

Steam was billowing from the chimney of the wooden house, indicating that people lived inside.

"I'm not deliberately taking risks!"

Jane's tone softened slightly as she explained, "You may not know this, but there are usually patrol and fire-fighting personnel in these large forests. We also build a few empty houses in our forest and put some necessary living supplies or food in them, so that lost people or hunters can use them as temporary shelter when they encounter rain or snow."

She said to Hanamori, "So now that we're lost in this forest, and there happens to be someone in that house, shouldn't we go and ask them?"

Jane's argument had its own logic, but Hanamori seemed to have a prejudice against the house.

“I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I have a bad feeling about it!” Jane sneered. “So you Easterners are really that timid!”

Hua Sheng, disregarding his pride, said, "We have an old saying: 'Better safe than sorry!'"

Seeing that he remained stubborn, Jane could only sigh and say, "Look, we're both dead ends now, and we can't get out. There are three of us, two from the Magic Academy and one from the Klin Magic School. Are we really afraid of a small cabin in the forest? If word got out, people would laugh until they cried."

Hua Sheng could not refute Jian's words.

That's indeed the case. Not to mention that Jian knows magic, he himself possesses the peerless divine weapon, the Ruyi Jingu Bang, while Mie Ying has even more powerful magical artifacts like Nezha's Qiankun Ring and Wind-Fire Wheels.

Let alone a small cabin in the forest, even if all the villains from various European and American horror movies swarmed in, he and Mieying could at least escape unscathed, if not completely flatten it.

He had no reason to be afraid of the wooden house.

But this is precisely what Hua Sheng is worried about.

The longer he stared at the wooden house, the more a sense of inexplicable fear welled up inside him.

Perhaps it was because I had watched too many cheesy horror movies, coupled with my instinctive reaction to being in an unfamiliar place in the middle of the night, that I became a bit overly nervous.

But he always felt that the wooden house was closely associated with the word "fear," representing something terrible.

"Hana-sei, I understand what you mean by those old movies. Don't think I'm a fool."

Seeing that he was no longer insisting on stopping her, Jane continued, "Look, it's only a few steps from here to the cabin. You just stand here, and I'll go knock on the door. If there's any danger I can't handle, you can rush over in a second. What do you think of this strategy, you coward?"

Finally, she couldn't resist making a sarcastic remark.

However, Hanamori thought Jane's cautious advice made some sense. If the two kept their distance, even if the other side attacked, they wouldn't be able to hit both of them at the same time.

"Then be careful yourself!"

Looking at Jane's retreating figure, Hua Sheng felt quite puzzled.

They could have flown away, but because Jane wanted to drive a sports car, they were delayed for quite some time in this strange forest.

It seems this French girl really wants to drive her Ferrari all the way to Nice.

But he didn't understand why Jane liked sports cars, or those expensive things that looked like Ferraris in the shop windows along the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

No, it's not just Jane.

The car was filled with Mieying, who had only been in France for a day but had already become obsessed with those things. Perhaps if he stayed a few more days, Mieying would become exactly like Jane.

Thinking of this, Hua Sheng couldn't help but shudder.

Just then, Jane reached the door of the cabin and raised her hand to knock on the door.

Boom!dong dong!

It was late at night, and the silence was eerie, not even the chirping of insects could be heard. Even from a distance, the knocking on the wooden door reached Hanamori's ears clearly.

After waiting a while, no one answered the door. Jane looked out the window, but the shadow that had been moving earlier was nowhere to be seen.

Jane turned her head and looked at Hua Sheng.

Hua Sheng also glanced at him.

It was just an exchange of glances.

Jane drew the letters "W" and "C" in the air with her finger, indicating that she thought the person inside was in the bathroom. Then she shrugged and knocked on the door again.

Boom boom boom!
The sound was particularly jarring.

Hana looked up at the sky; the fog was so thick that it was impossible to tell the time by the stars.

I don't even know what time it is now.

Hua Sheng turned to the Shadow in the Ferrari and asked, "Shadow, what time is it?"

A lazy yawn came from inside the car, followed by her slow reply: "I think it's past 11 PM, maybe even midnight."

Zi Shi means it should be around 12 o'clock.

Hua Sheng murmured, "So late, no wonder..."

He went back to look at Jane, but his peripheral vision caught the moment the wooden door closed.

Bang!

Suddenly, a piercing shut-off sound rang out!
Hua Sheng suddenly became alert. The door was closed! When did it open?
There was no one outside the door at that moment!
Jane, who was standing there, has disappeared!

(End of this chapter)