Chapter 264: In the Mirror

Shadows upon shadows of wolves materialized around Little Red Riding Hood, and then at a thought from their master, they silently scattered into the undulating, unyielding mist.

Hu Li's many tails slowly spread out behind her. Six of them detached from her body and flew out, serving as fox roaming cannons that circled the group, slowly patrolling and guarding the surroundings. Another two tails were held in her arms, one on each side, with foxfire flickering at their tips, ready to strike. The last tail was for storage, still dragging on the ground like a ground line.

Erin, meanwhile, let her hand drop lightly from Yu Sheng's side, and black spider silk from her fingertips, like some substance with a life of its own, spread through the mist, searching for any mental activity that might appear, while also guarding against something malicious—even though theoretically the depth here might only be L-2 or even L-1, foreign realms rarely made sense, and their depth and danger weren't always proportional. It was possible for extremely dangerous entities to appear in shallow foreign realms.

Yu Sheng glanced at the people beside him and sighed inwardly again—why was everyone so cool?!

"Seriously, I wish I could use these flashy skills like you guys," he couldn't help muttering. "With one swoosh, regardless of whether it's useful, it scares people first..."

Erin, sitting on his shoulder, turned her head. "You have flashy effects. Isn't opening a door flashy enough?"

Yu Sheng sighed again upon hearing that, then casually opened a door and pulled out his 'Principle' combat staff—the one that would make you bleed out from a scratch and cripple you from a hit—and hoisted it onto his shoulder.

Erin immediately performed another skillful backflip, grabbed his neck, and swung around to sit on his other shoulder...

Little Red Riding Hood watched with some surprise as Yu Sheng pulled the staff from the door. "...You've turned your door into a storage space?"

"I opened the door to the basement of 66 Wutong Road," Yu Sheng said happily. "See? Doesn't it work just like a storage space?"

Little Red Riding Hood clicked her tongue in wonder, while Hu Li watched Yu Sheng's operation thoughtfully, probably associating it with some 'immortal's posture' or something. Yu Sheng himself focused on the dense mist around them and the street scene within it.

This looked exactly like the open space in front of the mall and the main road, corresponding to the real world outside in every way.

Except that everywhere there was an eerie dense fog, and the mist was empty of people.

Yu Sheng cautiously took a few steps forward and soon saw the black vehicles of the Special Affairs Bureau—several cars parked at the edge of the small square, exactly where he remembered them.

The cars were naturally empty as well.

"So this is... the world inside the mirror?" Little Red Riding Hood frowned slightly at the scene before her, but quickly shook her head. "No, it should be a foreign realm with 'mirror characteristics.' It can reflect objects from the real world, but it can't reflect humans."

"Have you heard of this foreign realm?" Yu Sheng asked.

Little Red Riding Hood thought carefully, then slowly shook her head. "I've never heard of it... There are many foreign realms related to mirrors, but none that match this situation."

"Benefactor, this fog gives me a strange feeling," Hu Li muttered. "I keep feeling like something is approaching in the mist, but when I sweep with my spiritual sense, there's actually nothing."

Yu Sheng looked back at the puppet on his shoulder. "Erin, is there anything nearby?"

The puppet shook her head, and Little Red Riding Hood also spoke. "My wolves haven't found anything either—there are no entities forming around us, and no trace of any human scent. Logically, that person couldn't have run that far."

"Hmm," Yu Sheng nodded slightly, his gaze falling on the mall's entrance. "'Big Nephew' said he escaped from the mall. Is it possible that when he saw the situation outside was bad, he hid back inside?"

Erin thought for a moment. "...Maybe. Let's go take a look?"

"Let's go take a look," Yu Sheng nodded and began walking toward the mall, not forgetting to remind the others. "Everyone stay together. Hu Li said the fog feels strange. If we get separated in it, who knows what might happen."

The group stayed close together and carefully crossed the fog-filled small square, entering the mall through that open glass door.

The mall was also empty, with only lights that hadn't been turned off yet illuminating the cold, deserted shops and open areas. Thin fog seeped in through every gap and crevice, drifting slowly like gauze before them.

Then Hu Li exclaimed softly, "This place is full of mirrors!"

The mall was full of mirrors—the glass doors of shops had become mirrors, the advertising screens had become mirrors, and even many of the products on the counters had turned into mirrors of various sizes. The few items that hadn't been replaced by mirrors were twisted into strange shapes, like geometric models with incorrect proportions or rendering failures, piled on counters and shelves, presenting a grotesque semblance of their former selves.

Yu Sheng passed by one of the mirrors and glanced at the reflection of himself in it.

But before he could make out any details, the mirror shattered with a crack, and then, as if it had experienced countless years of weathering and corrosion in an instant, the glassy surface began to rapidly shrink, wrinkle, and turn into a curled, blackened mass, silently turning into black ash.

Yu Sheng only remembered seeing a pitch-black humanoid silhouette, cloaked in black mist, standing inside the mirror.

Erin was startled. "...What the hell, it just broke!"

Yu Sheng didn't know what was happening either. Seeing the black ash scattered on the ground, he instinctively bent down, touched a bit with his finger, and rubbed it between his fingertips—he didn't know what this would accomplish, but he had seen in detective shows that when big detectives found powdery substances at a scene, they always rubbed them like this.

But as soon as he rubbed it twice, he saw all color drain from everything around him, and a black-and-white world of the dead suddenly descended. A voice faintly barged into his mind—

"...Whaaat the hell I'm dead!"

In just about a second, the black-and-white world before him faded, and normal colors and sounds returned to his senses.

Yu Sheng stood up, completely bewildered, and a thought popped into his mind: Rubbing actually works?

Hu Li beside him seemed to sense the change in Yu Sheng's aura and immediately turned her head. "Benefactor, what happened?"

"It seems I've discovered two things," Yu Sheng said with an odd expression, patting the black ash off his hands. "First, the mirrors here are alive. Second, I heard its last words."

Hu Li, Erin, and Little Red Riding Hood all looked bewildered.

Erin: "What did the last words say?"

Yu Sheng: "The last words said it died."

Erin: "...What the hell!?"

"Don't ask me, I'm confused too." Yu Sheng frowned helplessly, then cautiously glanced at the other mirrors around.

However, the expected scene of all the mirrors shattering one after another with a 'Ah, I'm dead!' didn't happen—those mirrors simply stopped reflecting his figure.

In the largest mirror directly in front, only Hu Li and Little Red Riding Hood stood there, while Erin seemed to float in midair—his figure had been directly 'cut out' of the image.

They weren't even pretending anymore.

Yu Sheng frowned. "Can you see me in the mirrors?"

"Yes," Little Red Riding Hood nodded. "You're standing right next to us, looking normal... Wait, you can't see yourself?!"

Yu Sheng nodded slightly. "...Right, I can't see myself."

So, the key isn't 'who is reflected,' but 'who is looking'? Or perhaps both conditions working together caused the mirror to 'die' just now?

But why? What's the principle behind it?

Yu Sheng had a head full of question marks, and the others had even more.

"I don't know if this place is creepier or you're even creepier than this place," Little Red Riding Hood said, looking at him with a strange expression. "...Do you usually eat too much random stuff?"

Yu Sheng: "..."

This small incident didn't affect the group's search efficiency in the mall.

With Hu Li's spiritual sense, Erin's spreading spider silk, and Little Red Riding Hood's phantom wolves released into the thinning fog, the entire mall was roughly searched quickly, but no trace of anyone hiding was found.

Helpless, Yu Sheng and his group returned outside the mall, once again facing the boundless thick fog.

Whether it was an illusion or not, the fog seemed even thicker than before, to the point where even the few black high-end vehicles at the edge of the square were hard to see.

"Don't you guys feel like this fog is following us?" Erin suddenly muttered. "Wherever we go, it gathers, and more and more is coming from all directions."

Yu Sheng frowned. He couldn't sense the 'pursuit feeling' that Erin mentioned or the 'something approaching in the fog' that Hu Li mentioned, since he didn't have cool spider-silk sensing or spiritual scanning abilities like the puppet and fox spirit girl. But he did notice that the atmosphere around them was starting to feel off—like his spiritual intuition was about to start jumping wildly and was just warming up.

The fog was undergoing a 'transformation.'

From deep within the thick fog came a sound.

Little Red Riding Hood's expression changed sharply. "My wolf was attacked!"

The next moment, a shadow wolf abruptly appeared beside her. Its body looked as if something had taken a huge bite out of it, nearly cutting it in half. It let out a chaotic and angry roar, but the roar soon turned into the defeated, unwilling whimper of a loser. After rubbing against its owner's leg twice, it retreated dejectedly into the depths of the shadows.

The defeated wolf relayed valuable information.

Little Red Riding Hood suddenly looked up. "There's a huge monster in the fog, with many limbs and sharp teeth. I didn't see its exact form—but it can instantly defeat a single wolf!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Erin raised her hand and pointed at the mall's huge glass curtain wall. "...Is that the thing climbing down the wall right now?"