The Shadow Realm Descends

Night fell, and Wucheng lay in the damp darkness like a silent giant beast, lurking in the night. No one knew that the first crack had already appeared. It was in neither the sky nor the earth. In a moment no one noticed, a hairline fissure opened in the ancient barrier between yin and yang. A cold wind seeped through it. It swept through the corridors of an abandoned hospital, the hallways of a school late at night, and the residential buildings where the last lights still glowed. It took nothing away. It merely made people who should have been sleeping suddenly open their eyes in the middle of a dream. That night, seventeen people across the city had the same dream. In the dream, someone was knocking, again and again, on an old wooden door. Knock, knock, knock. The sound was faint, yet it seemed to strike every heart. No one dared open the door. But they all heard the footsteps outside drawing closer and closer. This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.