Lan Chu’s appearance caused the strange figures chasing them from the study to vanish inexplicably.

And for a long time, they did not return.

Jiang Yang wasn’t entirely sure of the principle behind it.

He could only theorize that the stories created by the ghost journal manifested in reality by feeding on people’s fear. But since Lan Chu’s brain lacked the concept of fear, she couldn’t see the five strange figures hunting them. Her cognitive dissonance caused the entire story from the journal to collapse.

Of course, now wasn’t the time to study the mechanics of the study. They had survived, and that was what mattered.

There was no time to thank Lan Chu. With the crisis in the study resolved and the three of them having escaped their respective rooms, they regrouped in the hallway. The next step was to find Gao Tian and Xia Ta, who were still missing.

Lan Chu, currently locked behind the mirror, was in a strange state. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be in any mortal danger. In fact, she looked like she was having a great time, so Jiang Yang decided not to worry about her.

"Have you seen Gao Tian and Xia Ta?"

In response to Jiang Yang’s question, pressed against the mirror, Lan Chu thought for a moment.

"I haven’t seen Xia Ta. Gao Tian? I was just talking to him a moment ago."

"The two of us were teleported to a strange alley full of mirrors. An old man pulled me into a mirror and invited me to play with him. But Gao Tian just kept pounding on the outside, looking like he wanted to tell me something."

"But I didn’t have time for him. In this world, every window along the path corresponds to a mirror in reality. It’s so much fun! I went for a walk somewhere else and happened to run into you guys, freaking out at thin air in the hallway."

Jiang Yang and Zhao Zhenjia exchanged a look. ’Gao Tian is in that Mirror Alley?’

They remembered the Mirror Alley. It was right outside that bizarre study, visible through the window.

It was just that at the time, all their attention had been focused on the study’s interior and Lin Nan’an’s journal. They never imagined that Gao Tian was right on the other side of that windowpane.

’Mirror Alley... which room is Mirror Alley in...’

Jiang Yang ruffled his hair and began to think.

’Lin Nan’an’s study is 414. The Mirror Alley is next to it, and it can’t be 413, so it must be 415.’

’Gao Tian was sent to 415. We’ll go there to get him.’

"Lan Chu, I’m begging you, stay here. We’ll be back for you in a bit. Please don’t run off again."

Jiang Yang and Zhao Zhenjia sped back down the hallway, arriving at the door marked 415 at lightning speed.

Before entering, they took a careful look. There were no shoes placed one in front of the other before this door.

They hadn’t forgotten what Yu Sheng had told them: a homeowner who arranged their shoes like that did not welcome outsiders. Entering rashly meant death.

Zhao Zhenjia, as the Wind Attendant Buddha, raised his hand and smashed a heavy fist against the door.

The iron door just shuddered and CLANGED, but it was far from being knocked down.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Gao Tian, in the Mirror Alley, suddenly felt as if all the mirrors in the alley were shaking slightly.

As if they had sustained some massive impact.

Outside, Jiang Yang drew his revolver, aimed at the doorknob, and pulled the trigger. BANG! The bolt was blown apart. With an added kick from the Wind Attendant Buddha, the door CRASHED heavily to the floor, revealing the scene inside the room.

It was a very narrow room. There was no living room, bedroom, or bathroom... just a gray, concrete floor of about twenty square meters. It clearly wasn’t meant for living in. It seemed to be a bit of space the construction crew had saved in a corner, originally intended as a temporary storage closet.

Inside this storage room, seven or eight mirrors were placed haphazardly, and a short, hunched skeleton lay in a corner. At this moment, Gao Tian was pacing back and forth between the mirrors as if possessed, a look of anxiety on his face, unable to escape as if trapped in an Eight Trigrams Array.

In a storeroom of less than twenty square meters, Gao Tian had somehow been pacing for over an hour. From his perspective, the Mirror Alley was an endless, layered labyrinth. No matter how far he walked, there were only more mirrors. There was simply no end in sight.

It seemed an old man had once lived alone on this floor. For some unknown reason, he loved collecting mirrors. After he died alone in his room, and with the entire fourth floor being consumed by supernatural phenomena, the old man had become a Mirror Ghost, passing in and out of the mirrors.

The endless corridors of the Mirror Alley were likely the old man’s dying fantasy.

"Gao Tian, wake up!"

Knowing he was bewitched, Zhao Zhenjia didn’t hesitate. He forcefully pulled the 1.8-meter-tall Gao Tian out like he was lifting a chick and slapped him hard across the face, left and right.

"Look around you! How long are you going to wander around this godforsaken place?"

With the first slap, the "Mirror Alley" in Gao Tian’s perception crumbled. The second slap was somewhat redundant. Both his cheeks instantly swelled up like steamed buns. Combined with the slaps he’d given himself earlier, Gao Tian had truly become a professional at taking slaps today.

Seeing that he was lucid again, Zhao Zhenjia finally let go of his collar. With a burning face, Gao Tian briefly exchanged information with the others. When he learned that they had found Lan Chu, he said only one thing:

"Take me to her."

The group rushed to the other end of the hallway. Lan Chu was still behind the mirror, spinning in circles out of boredom. Thank heavens she hadn’t left.

"What happened in room 415? How did she get pulled into the mirror?"

"Do you have a way to get her out?"

Seeing that Gao Tian seemed to know something, Jiang Yang asked tentatively.

Gao Tian mulled it over for a moment. These were all reliable teammates, so he decided to reveal a part of his ability.

"To some extent, I do control the entrance and exit to the Mirror World. But it’s restricted by rules."

"Getting into the Mirror World is completely free; I can send someone in at any time. But getting out isn’t so simple."

"You have to lock a person or a ghost inside to be able to pull someone out."

"The problem is, to rescue Lan Chu, one of the three of us has to go in."

Hearing Gao Tian’s description, Zhao Zhenjia suddenly asked:

"You just said it doesn’t matter if it’s a person or a ghost, as long as you lock one in, you can let the person inside out, right?"

Gao Tian nodded.

"Yes."

Then, a flash of insight struck him, and he understood what Zhao Zhenjia was planning.

"Are you saying you’re planning to send a Wind Attendant Buddha into the mirror to swap it with Lan Chu?"

Those Wind Attendant Buddhas weren’t valuable; Zhao Zhenjia could whip one up in five minutes.

If they could trade a Wind Attendant Buddha for a living person in the mirror, it would be a massive score.

It would mean that in the future, Gao Tian could enter and exit mirrors freely with almost no cost.

Zhao Zhenjia nodded.

"That’s what I was thinking."

"But a Wind Attendant Buddha isn’t a person, nor is it a ghost. It’s a puppet created in my likeness. I don’t know if it can trick the mirror."

Gao Tian said,

"Let’s try."

"There’s no cost if we fail, anyway. And if it works, it’s a huge win."

At once, Zhao Zhenjia focused his energy, and a new "Zhao Zhenjia" formed from flowing wind slowly took shape in front of the mirror. At the same time, a pair of strange, blood-red hands slowly emerged from the mirror, pressed down on the "Zhao Zhenjia’s" shoulders, and began to pull it inside like a vicious ghost.

Even for someone as experienced as Jiang Yang, seeing a living person harness the rules of a vicious ghost was an extremely rare sight.

His gaze fell upon Gao Tian. ’This newcomer... I don’t know what kind of fortuitous encounters he’s had, but his potential is truly limitless.’

’His rate of progress is just too fast. If he’s lucky enough to survive until the end, I can’t imagine what his limits will be.’

’Of course, that’s assuming he can survive the first five green-text missions, and survive the fourth floor today.’

Just then, Zhao Zhenjia’s astonished voice rang out.

"It... it worked?"

"I was just trying it. I can’t believe it actually went in."

Watching the entire Wind Attendant Buddha being pulled into the Mirror World just like a real person, Gao Tian could hardly believe his eyes. His heart skipped a beat.

It was truly unimaginable that the Mirror Ghost had judged the Wind Attendant Buddha to be a living person.

If this combo was proven to work...

The Wind Attendant Buddha and the Mirror Ghost. Two seemingly completely unrelated existences.

Then, he, Gao Tian, would be able to enter and exit the Mirror World freely from now on. As long as he carried a small vanity mirror with him, he would never have to worry about getting trapped inside, since Zhao Zhenjia could always help him out.

This Mirror Ghost, while currently unable to capture truly powerful malevolent ghosts, could allow him to travel through mirrors. In the future, as long as he wanted to leave, no ghost could stop him.

This was the most powerful combo he had mastered so far. Whether it was the Terror Blade and the black tie, or even the Ghost Card and the inverted cross, they were all likely a notch below this one.

Of course, Gao Tian snapped out of his excitement and calmed himself down.

’Now is not the time to be complacent. There’s still a lot to do. Xia Ta is still missing.’

He reached his hand directly through the mirror and grabbed Lan Chu.

"The game of hide-and-seek is over. Come on out, Lady Lan Chu."

Lan Chu looked reluctant—the world inside the mirror was too much fun—but she was still forcefully pulled out by Gao Tian.

Now, of the five-person team that had come upstairs, four were assembled.

Only the last one, Xia Ta, remained.