Forgotten Photo Studio

Chapter 71 Darkroom
The drill arm stared intently at Xu Yan, then glanced at the bottomless filing cabinet.

The lingering fishy smell of the lake in the air and that distant scream pierced his arrogance as a "professional" like an icicle.

This is not an ordinary paranormal event; it is a kind of... obliteration of "existence" itself.

“Boss… this place is weird…” The team member who tore up the file trembled and withdrew his hand.

"Shut up!" the drill arm growled, forcibly suppressing his heart palpitations.

He has to show some attitude, otherwise he won't even have an explanation to give when he goes back today.

"Set up the formation! Activate the 'Sunfire Rune Array'! Take out the 'Soul Iron Sensor'!"

The two team members mustered their spirits.

One of them quickly took out three palm-sized bronze plaques engraved with fiery runes from his tactical bag and threw them out according to the three directions.

The bronze plaque landed with a soft "hum," emitting a faint golden halo visible to the naked eye, forming a triangular light array that enveloped the three people.

The chilling aura within the light array was instantly dispelled, bringing a false sense of warmth.

The other person presented a device similar to a metal detector, but with a more complex probe. A small, dark, and slightly vibrating piece of strange metal was embedded in the center, seemingly a fragment of "Soul-Suppressing Iron," used for resonance tracking.

The instrument was activated, and a sudden change occurred!
The golden light of the "Sunfire Talisman Array" was like water droplets falling into boiling oil, provoking a violent reaction throughout the entire photo studio.

Where the light shone, the features of the portrait on the wall instantly distorted, emitting a silent shriek; the edges of the pale golden halo seemed to be gnawed by invisible darkness, quickly becoming flickering.

As soon as the pointer of the "Soul Iron Sensor" started scanning, it spun wildly like a crazy top, and the data on the screen jumped wildly. Finally, with a soft "poof," the probe emitted a wisp of blue smoke and stopped working.

"Report! The sensor... overloaded and burned out!" The team member's voice was filled with despair.

"How is this possible?!" Veins bulged on the drill arm's forehead. He refused to believe it and pulled out his multi-functional paranormal scanner.

As soon as the screen lit up, the location representing Xu Yan and the filing cabinet was completely covered by two thick, inky shadows that were constantly writhing and rolling.

The black shadow on the screen seemed to sense the spying, coalescing into the shape of an eye and coldly staring back.

The drill arm nearly slipped from his grasp in fright, and the scanner screen shattered and went black instantly.

Their professional equipment, instead of being effective in this photo studio, became a fuse that provoked some kind of being.

A brief moment of silence.

The golden light of the talisman array was still flickering slightly, dispelling some of the chill.

But this "peace" seems even more eerie, like a moment's respite when one is being stared at by the abyss.

The two team members dared not utter a sound, but could only grip their weapons tightly, breathing heavily.

Xu Yan spoke softly, his voice unusually clear despite its suppressed tone:

"See that? What you call equipment is just a toy here. Forcing an investigation... will only bring worse things."

The drill arm gritted its teeth, its gaze fixed on Xu Yan like a knife.

Their gazes clashed in the air, and the tension, like sparks flying, made the deathly silence in the photo studio even heavier.

One second, two seconds... it was as if time had been frozen.

“Use the ‘Yang Sha Spear’.” Drill Arm finally uttered these four words, his voice hoarse and low, filled with suppressed anger.

He roared, and he and another teammate simultaneously drew short, thick weapons with crimson runes wrapped around their muzzles from behind their backs.

This is a miniaturized version of a large "Yang Sha Cannon," capable of instantly spraying highly concentrated pure Yang energy, which has a devastating effect on spirits.

Upon seeing this, Xu Yan's expression changed drastically, and he shouted sternly, "Stop! Do you want to blow this place up to the sky?! The yin and yang balance here is as fragile as a sheet of paper. If you use brute force to destroy it, can you bear the consequences once the balance is lost?"

The drill arm's gun barrel was already pointed at Xu Yan, its eyes fierce: "Stop scaring me! Hand over the Soul-Suppressing Iron, or I'll 'purify' you first!" Just then, the team member holding the wrecked sensor suddenly pointed to a faint flashing signal on the last remaining part of the instrument's wreckage and shouted incredulously, "Boss! Just now... just before the signal disappeared, it seemed... it seemed to flash on him!" He pointed at Xu Yan.

The air solidified instantly.

The drill arm's gaze swept over Xu Yan's entire body like a knife.

"On you?"

Xu Yan was shocked and immediately realized that it was the aura of "Abyss" within his body that caused the Soul-Suppressing Iron to produce extremely weak frequency fluctuations.

His face remained impassive, even carrying a hint of mockery: "Looks like your crappy equipment is not only broken, but also spouting nonsense." The drill arm completely disregarded Xu Yan's warning, its Yang Sha gun muzzle gathering energy and emitting a dangerous buzz: "Search us! Or, let us search every corner of your run-down place!"

Xu Yan looked at the scorching gun barrel and knew that words were powerless to stop it.

His eyes turned cold: "Fine, you want to find 'anomalies'? I'll show you as many as you like." He turned and walked toward the darkroom, "But you'll have to bear the consequences."

With a sinister grin, the drill arm signaled his team to follow closely, keeping the muzzle of his gun never leaving Xu Yan's back.

They pushed aside the heavy blackout curtains of the darkroom, and a strong, pungent smell of medicine and an indescribable, damp, and chilly atmosphere, as if accumulated over countless years, rushed towards them.

The beam of the powerful flashlight shone in, but was swallowed up by the deep red darkness, only illuminating the ground beneath its feet.

"Boss, look at the wall!" a team member shouted, his voice trembling.

As the beam of light swept across, it revealed that the walls were covered with chaotic, distorted, and overlapping shadows, far more than the three of them should have.

The shadows wriggled like living things, even trying to climb onto their pillars of light.

"Playing tricks!" Drill Arm suppressed his heart palpitations, aimed the Yang Sha Spear at a thick shadow, and said, "Try this!" He pulled the trigger!

"call out--!"

A blazing red beam of energy shot out, like a red-hot iron nail piercing the darkness.

The struck shadow let out a sharp, inhuman howl before instantly dissipating.

efficient!

"Haha! What nonsense! They're all paper tigers in front of Yang Sha!"

Seeing this, another team member's confidence soared, and he also opened fire on the surrounding shadows.

The darkroom was suddenly illuminated by brief red flashes, accompanied by piercing screams.

However, their smiles quickly froze. The scattered shadows did not disappear; instead, they coalesced again in the distance, becoming more numerous and denser.

It was as if their attack had enraged the entire dark space.

Even more terrifying, in the areas scorched by the Yang Sha energy, several tiny cracks appeared in the air, constantly seeping out a black, viscous substance.

A nauseating smell of sulfur and decay wafted from the crack.

"What...what is this?!" The team members stared at the crack in horror.

A cold wind, carrying the smell of grave soil, first seeped out of the crack.

Immediately afterwards, a charred hand slowly emerged, its fingernails scraping through the air, leaving behind a piercing metallic scraping sound.

At that moment, everyone instinctively held their breath.

Because they all realized that this thing was not a ghost, but another kind of ghost that had been forcibly "invited" out by using their firepower.

Then, a head popped out—without flesh, with green will-o'-the-wisps burning in its empty eye sockets, and its jaw opening and closing with a terrifying "click-clack" sound.

(End of this chapter)