Chapter 164: Gambling with Life

The bathroom was empty.

Except… the old bathtub that had never been used was filled with water. The showerhead above it was not completely turned off, and water was dripping down, falling onto the water surface in the bathtub, making a ticking sound.

Lü Yang crouched down beside the bathtub, feeling very strange. He could not remember filling the bathtub with water at all…

Wait, was this really water?

His eyes having somewhat adjusted to the darkness, Lü Yang instinctively reached out to touch the water in the bathtub…

It felt sticky. Could this be blood?

How could there be such a large tub of blood in the bathtub?

Whose blood was it?

Just as Lü Yang was about to lower his head to take a closer look at whether it was water or blood in the bathtub, a bloody figure suddenly sat up from the bathtub and stretched out both hands to grab Lü Yang’s neck.

Caught off guard, Lü Yang was startled. He let out a loud scream and suddenly sat up.

Hmm, he sat up.

On the bed.

Covered in sweat.

Damn it! It was actually a dream!?

Could Zhou Ling’s curse before her death be that he would have nightmares every night?

Crap! If that was the case, it wasn’t really scary at all. He, Lü Yang, wasn’t someone who grew up being easily frightened.

Lü Yang instinctively reached to the side of the bed and turned on the bedside lamp. The energy-saving lamp on the ceiling slowly lit up. The white light illuminated the familiar bedroom, allowing Lü Yang to gradually recover from the fright of the nightmare.

Maybe it wasn’t Zhou Ling’s curse, just an ordinary nightmare. After entering the Mysterious Domain so many times, having nightmares was actually quite normal.

Lü Yang smiled, feeling a bit of a need to urinate, so he got up, walked out of the bedroom, and headed toward the bathroom.

As he entered the bathroom, Lü Yang felt an inexplicable tension. It wasn’t until he walked in, turned on the light, and saw that the old bathtub was empty, with the showerhead not dripping, that his tension eased.

Damn it! I scared myself for no reason.

Lü Yang cursed under his breath again, then lifted the toilet seat and started urinating inside.

After finishing, Lü Yang turned around, turned on the faucet above the sink, washed his hands, and casually pulled a towel, wetting it under the faucet before wiping his face. However, the cold water didn’t make him feel more alert; instead, he felt a bit dazed for a moment.

When Lü Yang removed the towel and opened his eyes, he looked at the mirror in front of him and couldn’t help but be startled…

On the smooth surface of the mirror, there was clearly a large character written: ‘Death’! And it was written with what looked like blood. The blood in the strokes hadn’t yet dried and was dripping down the surface of the mirror.

Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps from the living room. Lü Yang turned his head and shouted toward the outside, “Who’s there!?”

The footsteps stopped, and the entire house became extremely quiet…

Could it be… a child from upstairs running around without sleeping at night?

Lü Yang quickly turned his head back to look at the bathroom mirror, only to find it smooth as before, without any blood-written characters.

Lü Yang closed his eyes, shook his head hard, then opened his eyes and looked at the bathroom mirror again…

It was still clean as before, nothing there.

What the hell? An illusion?

Lü Yang moved his face closer to the bathroom mirror, carefully observing everything in the reflection…

Something didn’t feel quite right.

Was it his face?

Why did the person in the mirror not look like him?

Bang! The outer door was suddenly slammed open. Lü Yang hurriedly rushed out of the bathroom, ran to the door, and looked outside… There was no one outside, but there was a sound of hurried footsteps running down the staircase.

“What’s wrong with you!?”

Lü Yang yelled at the sound of the footsteps. He wanted to chase outside, but then he heard another bang! followed by a shattering sound from the bathroom. It sounded like the mirror had broken and scattered all over the floor.

Lü Yang quickly ran back to the bathroom, but everything inside was normal. The mirror wasn’t broken; it was intact and fixed on the wall, just like usual.

Right at that moment, the bathroom door suddenly and without warning slammed shut. Caught off guard, Lü Yang, who had been carefully examining the mirror, was startled again. Luckily, he was holding onto the sink, so he didn’t fall onto the bathroom floor.

“Zhou Ling, damn you! What kind of trick is this!?” Lü Yang couldn’t figure out what was going on and didn’t know who was messing with him, so he could only curse Zhou Ling.

There was no response from outside, but beneath the gap of the bathroom door, there appeared some flickering, shadowy flames.

Was there a fire!?

Lü Yang yanked open the bathroom door, and a wave of heat rushed toward him. His living room and bedroom had somehow caught fire, and thick flames were everywhere. The extremely high temperature instantly scorched Lü Yang’s cheeks and hands. He quickly closed the bathroom door.

Lü Yang went back to the sink, quickly turned on the faucet, wet his hands under the running water, then scooped up some water and splashed it on his face. The burning pain on his face lessened a bit.

The house was on fire?

How was that possible!?

Wasn’t everything fine when he came out of the room just now? Even if there was a fire, could it have spread this quickly?

Lü Yang forcefully pulled open the bathroom window, only to find that outside the window had somehow turned into a solid wall!

“I… damn!”

Lü Yang looked at the wall outside the window, his face blank with confusion. After a moment, he tried hard to calm himself down…

“This isn’t real. This is the Dream Realm.”

It definitely couldn’t be real. How could there be a wall outside the window?

If it wasn’t the Dream Realm, then it must be the damned Mysterious Domain!

No… there was another explanation now…

Could it be Zhou Ling’s curse?

This was troublesome. If it was the Mysterious Domain, he could try to find the Path of Survival. But if it was a curse, how could he break it?

Moreover, Lü Yang still didn’t even know for sure what Zhou Ling’s curse was.

The Eerie Computer?

Lü Yang quickly closed his eyes, trying to bring up the screen of the Eerie Computer to study it…

The Eerie Computer was gone.

He opened his eyes… it wasn’t in his hand either.

After the soul binding, was the physical Eerie Computer taken away?

This situation immediately reminded Lü Yang of his previous experiences in the Mysterious Domain. Except for the first time in Qingyuan Residential Area, the Eerie Computer usually couldn’t be opened in most Mysterious Domains.

Whether the Eerie Computer disappeared could serve as evidence to determine if he had fallen into the Mysterious Domain. But when he really thought that, it was possible he was making a big mistake.

If there was one rule that applied to all types of Mysterious Domains, it was that anything was possible.

Could it be that a fire broke out where he lived, and he was knocked unconscious by the smoke and couldn’t wake up, so he entered a Mysterious Domain similar to the near-death experience at Xingyue Gas Station? Lü Yang thought carefully.

If that was the case, then he had to find a way to die here. Only by dying could he wake up, and only by waking up could he save himself.

Die?

Unless it was the last resort, he absolutely couldn’t gamble like that.

The temperature in the bathroom was getting higher and higher. Lü Yang felt unbearably hot. He quickly turned on the showerhead and stood under it, letting the cold water pour over him. That made him feel a bit better.

Lü Yang crouched down, blocked the bathtub drain, and prepared enough water to try to put out the fire, while his mind continued to race.

If he died, could he escape from here?

What if this wasn’t the Mysterious Domain, but Zhou Ling’s curse?

That woman was cunning, a Senior Eerie Practitioner specializing in engineering, extremely skilled at setting up scenes and designing traps. All of this might well be a trap she designed. If he thought this time was like the one at Xingyue Gas Station, where he had to die to wake up, and as a result ended his own life, he might just be falling right into her trap!

Damn! Isn’t this gambling with life?

Thick smoke poured in from the gap under the bathroom door, making Lü Yang cough several times. He quickly took off his clothes and grabbed all the towels from the wall, wet them, and stuffed them under the door gap. Finally, the rate at which the smoke came in slowed down.

Bang!

The bathroom door was violently hit! The lock bolt was knocked open!

Such great strength!

If the fire outside came in, it would be over! Lü Yang quickly leaned against the door to hold it shut.

Two more violent impacts occurred, but because Lü Yang held the door firmly, the door wasn’t broken open by the monster outside.

Soon… the bathroom door panel also started smoking… Was it about to burn through?

Lü Yang blocked the bottom of the faucet with his hand, spraying the water from the faucet onto the bathroom door, trying to delay the door being destroyed by the fire. The air in the bathroom became more and more choking. Lü Yang’s breathing became more and more difficult, and his mind started to feel dizzy.

If it was the Mysterious Domain, there was always a Path of Survival. If it was a curse, he had no idea what was really going on, and it was Zhou Ling’s curse! That twisted, hateful woman was just too despicable!

Even though Lü Yang used wet towels and clothes to block the gap under the bathroom door and kept spraying water from the faucet onto the door, the thick smoke in the bathroom continued to accumulate, and the air grew hotter. Lü Yang could hardly breathe at all.

Not long after, the fire burned a hole right through the bathroom door. Intense flames and thick smoke quickly rushed into the bathroom.

The temperature in the bathroom rapidly increased. Lü Yang’s body could no longer endure it. The water in the bathtub beside him had somehow filled up very quickly. Without thinking too much, Lü Yang plunged headfirst into it.

The cold water soaking his body made Lü Yang feel much better.

However, hiding here meant he couldn’t breathe, and he had already been holding his breath for a long time.

When Lü Yang couldn’t hold his breath any longer and tried to lift his head out of the water to take a breath of air, he found that his whole body felt weak and sore. Or perhaps it was as if he had sunk into some extremely thick and sticky liquid. Lying in the bathtub, he couldn’t quickly raise his body.

Unable to lift his head out, unable to breathe, Lü Yang’s body began to convulse violently. He finally couldn’t hold back any longer, and a mouthful of liquid rushed into his throat. It was salty and fishy, nothing like tap water…