About a hundred meters ahead of the group on the mountain path stood three eerie figures, each with a distinct appearance.
The first was a terrifying female ghost, lanky like a pole with loose hair draping over her head. She likely had appeared in front of Apartment 444 before.
The second was a short middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance but a strange smile on his face, looking down at everyone below. He was the one thrown out by the old building superintendent after sneaking into the apartment yesterday afternoon.
The last one was a new face, appearing dark red and drenched in dripping blood, with its facial features indistinguishable, resembling a skinned, repeatedly slashed human.
These three ghostly figures appeared suddenly, and as they did, an almost numbing chill penetrated the spines of the ordinary people present.
But before the three could attack or any resident could scream, gunshots suddenly rang out from behind, and the three ghosts vanished in the blink of an eye.
"I told you, they’re scared of spirit bullets. See, they were easily scared away?"
The speaker was a middle-aged gunman positioned at the back of the team, holding a silver pistol in each hand, aimed at the spot where the ghosts had appeared on the mountain path. Clearly, it was him who fired those shots.
"Be careful, I feel like they might come back."
The young man in a school uniform next to him observed their surroundings warily while reminding him, apparently skeptical of the deterrent power of the spirit bullets.
"Let them come. My spirit bullets will make them look like beehives."
Responded the middle-aged gunman nonchalantly to his mage teammate.
But in the next instant, an abrupt mutation occurred!
Out of nowhere, a blood-soaked hand emerged rapidly from the ground at the gunman’s feet, reaching for his ankle!
"Watch out!"
The school-clad youth nearby quickly warned, a brilliant blue-white flame appearing in his hand, while rotating red-yellow flames surrounded him, showcasing an attack-defense mode.
Yet even before his warning, the gunman leaped high, firing a precise bullet from one of his pistols at the attacking blood hand, piercing it with ease.
His school-clothed ally’s flaming support followed suit, obliterating the temporarily inactive blood hand post-shot.
"Ha! Did that fiend really think I’d let my guard down? I’m well-versed in your sly ways!"
After easily deflecting the ambush, the gunman, back on stable ground, disdainfully remarked, still as alert as ever.
"Beware of their ambush on our center men."
The school uniform youth advised, his blue-white flame disappeared, but the red-yellow flames spinning around him persisted, indicating his unease with their surroundings.
"Relax, my shooting skills are impeccable. Even a group ambush won’t be a problem."
The gunman replied confidently, though his keen gaze and attentive stance betrayed his readiness to react at any moment.
Meanwhile, the other seven apartment residents turned toward the duo, intrigued and shocked, especially by the fiery aura surrounding the young mage, a sight they found astonishing, having seen no such skill before.
"Don’t just stand there, move up! Stay aware!"
In the lead, Wang Zhifan’s commanding shout snapped the residents out of their stupor, urging them skyward while the gunman’s pointed weapon deterred the hesitant into motion.
With the group back on track, Wang Zhifan noticed a petite Assassin girl reappearing before him, having scouted ahead.
"Up there is saf—"
Her unfinished sentence morphed into an attack, with elongated sharp claws lunging for Wang Zhifan’s throat!
Yet, Wang Zhifan remained unnervingly calm under the attack, anticipating it as he swiftly struck with a blade, a crescent-shaped glow cleaving the sinister claws, revealing the attacker’s true form of loose-haired female ghost, disappearing again instantly.
"Did you really think disguising under a ghostly aura to ambush me would work? Where’s your courage from?"
Reflectively, Wang Zhifan lamented after dispersing the ghost; he’d discerned its true identity at first glance due to its anomalous aura, simply not human-like, thus prepared his Dream Splendor Slash.
Though his spell-infused Dream Splendor Blade Light from the Great Dream Saber Scripture could not finish the ghost, it stopped its assault, without apparent harm, much to Wang Zhifan’s dismay.
"Ahhh! Help me! Help me!"
Contemplating the skirmish, Wang Zhifan heard frantic cries for aid behind, turning to see a resident strangely entrenched in the mountain path, only their head left above ground, desperately yelling.
Such bizarre reduction to a single exposed head shocked everyone, scattering those nearby until, like rain seeping into earth, the head too vanished into the path within moments, leaving no trace.