Chapter 28: Oops—Trespassing into the Heavens

“A horror movie with a supernatural entity?”

Qiu Qiqian raised an eyebrow.

She had heard of such things in her previous world; the most famous one was that Midnight Ring or whatever it was called.

But… that kind of entity usually only targeted ordinary people.

If the two of them watched it, wouldn’t the entity feel like…

‘Did it accidentally break into a heavenly household?’

“I say… why the sudden urge to watch this? Shouldn’t it be handed over to the Association for containment?”

“Actually, the Association sent this over. Since the entity inside has refreshed, they asked me to deal with it. Don’t worry—I’ve seen tons of horror movies and encountered plenty of supernatural entities! I won’t be scared! Come watch it with me, Little Qian!”

“Is that really the point…?”

Qiu Qiqian shook her head helplessly.

To be honest, she wasn’t a coward, but she was still somewhat resistant to watching a horror movie where a supernatural entity could crawl out at any moment.

However… when she saw Li Meng’s watery, expectant grey eyes, which even seemed to have a faint glowing effect, she couldn’t quite hold her ground.

“Honestly… you don’t really need me to accompany you for this… Fine, fine, I’ll watch it with you.”

“Yay! Little Qian is the best!”

“Hey, don’t… don’t just hug me out of nowhere… Really…”

***

That evening, Qiu Qiqian and Li Meng happened to have no missions—or rather, this Cursed Video was their mission.

Regardless, Li Meng had finished her bath early and even brought a blanket from her room to wrap herself in.

She waited for Qiu Qiqian to emerge from the bathroom so they could watch the recording together.

A moment later, the sound of the hair dryer in the bathroom stopped.

Dressed in her pajamas, Qiu Qiqian pushed open the door and saw Li Meng emerge from the blanket to insert the videotape into the player at the bottom right of the television.

Qiu Qiqian noticed that Li Meng was wearing a set of solid blue one-piece nightgowns tonight.

It looked particularly loose, with a white bow decoration at the collar that quite suited her personality.

Seeing that Li Meng’s pajamas were so normal, Qiu Qiqian breathed a sigh of relief.

Over the past few nights, she had often seen Li Meng wearing those… low-cut white nightgowns.

That particular nightgown would show off the girl’s fullness to the limit, especially the upper curve of her chest, which looked so pale and delicious…

Qiu Qiqian shook her head, tossing away the slightly lewd thoughts.

Although she did have some feelings for this girl, after all… she was still a supernatural entity.

Humans and spirits… their paths were ultimately different.

Of course, more importantly… it was because she knew she couldn’t beat her in a fight.

“Is the blanket really necessary?”

Qiu Qiqian felt like laughing but also helpless as she watched Li Meng immediately shrink back into the blanket, leaving only her head exposed.

“You need a sense of ritual to watch horror movies. Hurry up and get in, Little Qian!”

As she spoke, Li Meng patted the space beside her with her hand under the blanket, indicating there was still a spot for Qiu Qiqian.

Unable to refuse such hospitality, Qiu Qiqian could only lift a corner of the blanket and crawl inside.

It was exceptionally warm inside, perhaps because Li Meng had pre-warmed it…

However, as soon as Qiu Qiqian entered, the temperature under the blanket instantly dropped.

“Um… maybe I should go back out…”

“Shh—don’t talk, Little Qian, the movie is starting!”

Li Meng whispered a reminder, her body unconsciously leaning against Qiu Qiqian’s shoulder.

Since they had both bathed recently, they both carried the fresh scent of body wash.

Being so close… Qiu Qiqian felt her heart rate speed up for a moment.

On the other hand, Li Meng seemed to think this was perfectly normal, her eyes fixed on the television.

The plot of the horror movie wasn’t very novel; in fact, it was a bit cliché.

It started with a side character finding the Cursed Video and watching it out of curiosity.

The result, of course, was being haunted by the supernatural entity within the tape.

“Tell me, this ghost isn’t called Sadako, is it?”

Qiu Qiqian quipped.

“Eh? How did you know, Little Qian? Before it was contained, some people did indeed call the female entity in this video Sadako or something like that.”

“Uh… I’ve just heard of it.”

The movie continued…

To stay alive, the side character searched for a way out and discovered they had to pass the tape to someone else.

So, they randomly mailed it to someone’s house.

After that… it was the story of the protagonist.

They watched the tape, got haunted, and tried to pass it on, only to find the tape reappearing in their house the next day, even if they tried to destroy it physically.

“This Cursed Video is an object that carries an entity, after all. It won’t disappear if you only use physical methods to break it.”

Li Meng, snuggled in the blanket, couldn’t help but add a comment during this segment.

Was it… a professional habit?

“So… you guys have destroyed Cursed Videos before?”

“Of course! There were originally dozens of these cursed tapes. But to prevent accidents, the Association specifically found several Lingxun to destroy most of them. Now there are less than ten left, kept in different Association branches.”

‘They just straight-up demolished the entity’s tapes… In a sense, isn’t that a horror movie for the entity?’

The plot continued.

The desperate protagonist found several exorcists for help, but… not only did the exorcists fail to defeat the entity, they even got themselves killed.

It was likely an intentional move to show that the entity was “invincible.”

At the end of the movie… the white-clothed entity that killed the protagonist did not disappear but stood in place.

The camera seemed to be pulled by some force, constantly zooming in on the entity’s face…

Finally, the entity suddenly turned its head to look at the lens—or rather, at the audience outside the television.

With those eyes filled with blood…

It had to be said that this final jump scare did startle Qiu Qiqian, to the point where Li Meng, leaning on her shoulder, felt her tremble slightly.

Subsequently, the television screen turned into a flickering screen of static…

“Was Little Qian… scared just now?”

Li Meng looked back at Qiu Qiqian, her eyes curving slightly.

“Cough, I was not… my body just happened to twitch a bit.”

Qiu Qiqian remained stubborn.

Li Meng gave a knowing smile but didn’t call her out.

“Let’s not talk about that. Now that the TV is like this, the entity should be coming out, right?”

“Mhm, theoretically… it should be out soon.”

Then… the two of them huddled in the blanket and began to wait.

One minute… two minutes…

Time passed second by second.

On the television, the static remained.

Qiu Qiqian didn’t even sense any unfamiliar Nether Breath.

“Uh… is this situation normal?”

“Hmm… that’s not right… I heard from others that it should be out by now.”

“Could it be because I’m here? Does it think I’m its own kind, so it’s not competing with me?”

“That’s actually possible…”

“Then I’ll shift into my spirit form and go outside for a bit.”

Thus, after Qiu Qiqian flew out of the house, several more minutes passed…

When Qiu Qiqian returned, she found the TV was still showing static.

“Strange… could it be that someone from another branch already destroyed it?”

Li Meng frowned, analyzing the situation seriously, while Qiu Qiqian, feeling sleepy, stretched her back and let out a yawn.

“Yawn—maybe we should call it a day. We’ll take it back to the Association branch tomorrow morning to study it further.”

Li Meng nodded and climbed out of the blanket.

She removed the tape and put it back in its box.

After tidying things up, she turned off the lights and walked to the second floor with Qiu Qiqian.

The living room fell into silence.

Occasionally, only the sound of the wind whistling past the balcony could be heard.

Thump.

The box containing the videotape on the table was suddenly knocked to the floor by some unknown force.

The tape naturally slid out, landing on the cold wooden floor.

It stayed there quietly, looking just like a normal videotape… until a certain moment when it suddenly glitched, moving forward a small distance out of thin air.

As if it were some kind of error in reality, it flickered once every few intervals, moving a bit closer to the door each time.

Just then, footsteps came from upstairs…

“Ugh… I’m a bit thirsty… I’ll go down for a glass of water.”

Li Meng yawned as she walked down the stairs.

She skillfully grabbed a cup and walked to the water dispenser, just catching sight of the tape and the box on the floor.

Li Meng walked over, picked up the tape between her fingers, and squinted at it.

“How did it fall on the floor… Did Little Qian come down once and accidentally bump into it?”

Li Meng didn’t seem to suspect much.

After putting the tape back in the box, she finished her business and returned upstairs.

Silence returned to the living room…

Then, like a replay, the box was pushed over again by a mysterious force, and the tape slid out once more, flickering and moving toward the door.

Although the supernatural entity itself lacked intelligence… it still possessed a certain instinct for self-preservation.

In its view, this house was radiating such thick Nether Breath, and there was an existence of equal strength to itself…

All signs indicated that it had likely wandered into the territory of a powerful supernatural entity.

Entities didn’t feel fear in the human sense, but a conflict with an unfamiliar entity wouldn’t gain it anything.

The distance to the door grew shorter…

At this moment, if it had a personality, it would probably be thinking: ‘As long as I reach that place, as long as I reach that place…’

“This videotape… really can move…”

“See, Little Qian? I told you it would move!”

Unbeknownst to the entity, Qiu Qiqian and Li Meng were crouching right next to the tape.

The two of them were observing it seriously, like researchers.

“It’s quite smart, knowing how to move when it thinks no one’s around.”

Qiu Qiqian picked it up, stroking her chin as she examined it closely.

“So, how do we solve this?”

“Hmm? Well… how about we find an ordinary person to watch it while we hide nearby?”

“But who would be willing to watch this? And it’s the middle of the night, where would we find…”

Just then, both of them thought of a place at the same time—a place that was open 24 hours a day and wasn’t afraid of supernatural entities.

***

Bzzz… Bzzz…

In a pitch-black room, an old-fashioned television displayed nothing but static, emitting a piercing white noise.

Having just finished a mission with her teammates, Isana had been dragged over to watch the recording for various reasons.

However, for some unknown reason, all the earlier plot of the tape had been skipped, going straight to the static segment.

The darkness in the room began to feel viscous, as if something… was staring at Isana.

She merely looked around expressionlessly.

When she looked back, the static on the TV had disappeared, replaced by an old well…

From the well, a pale, thin hand reached out, followed by a head…

Slowly, a woman in plain white clothes with long, disheveled hair appeared on the screen.

“Haha, Bai Suzhen.”

Isana pointed at the TV and let out a flat laugh.

As expected of Isana, even at a time like this, she didn’t forget to tell a dry joke.

But obviously, as a supernatural entity, the opponent couldn’t understand such things.

It simply walked slowly toward the screen, the sound of bones clicking with every step.

Then… the moment it touched the screen, its hand actually broke through the limit of the display and entered reality…

If it had been a normal person, they might have been scared out of their wits by now, frantically looking for a way to escape.

But who was Isana?

She was the one Qiu Qiqian, Yao Xueyue, and the others recognized as a “bot.”

Even though the entity had crawled halfway out and even glared at her with those pale eyes, she remained unmoved.

The entity continued its movement, but… as if sensing something, its actions suddenly froze.

By the faint moonlight, it could vaguely see that four shadows of young girls had appeared before it at some point.

It raised its head and looked at the four standing in front of it…

Yao Xueyue, Qiu Qiqian, Li Meng, and Mo Ling…

Outside the room, there were even several Youxun with their guns aimed at its head.

‘Immortal beings lined up like hemp…’

Isana didn’t join in the commotion.

Instead, she took out her phone, snapped a photo, and posted it to her social media feed with a caption.

“Everyone in front of your screens, do you think this supernatural entity can survive?”