Chapter 51: The Illusion in the Depths

Outside the door lay a thick, pitch-black darkness, a darkness so profound it seemed to swallow even light itself.

The blackness was pure. The very next second after Li Luyan stepped one foot into it,

a dizzying spin sent her right back to the starting room.

"Yay! I'm a little bear... ha哈哈哈..." 'It' split its mouth wide and began to laugh. The laughter was everywhere, as though countless mouths had suddenly sprouted within the tiny room, all cackling maliciously at once.

Li Luyan's expression grew stern. She looked over at Yu Yue.

The faint, yellowish light cast down upon the top of Yu Yue's head. With an ugly look on her face, she lowered her gaze and muttered, "I... I chose wrong..."

The faces of everyone present instantly turned ashen.

The air in the room seemed to freeze, leaving only the relentless echoes of 'it's' laughter.

Among them all, Zhao Meina looked the worst; she had even begun to shiver.

Everyone else possessed supernatural abilities and the capability to contend with 'it', but she did not. She was just an ordinary person, an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl who, under normal circumstances, should have been in her first year of high school, properly enjoying her campus life.

"I... I'm not playing anymore... I'm scared, let me go." Zhao Meina shook like a sieve, pressing herself closer to Lin Youwei.

"Bad child!" 'It's' mouth split even wider. Dense clusters of tongues slithered out from within, and its fingernails rapidly grew out, turning a brilliant, vibrant red. "Do you all want to... heh heh... end the game early?"

Its voice suddenly mutated, the words spilling out blurred and indistinct, as if someone had grabbed and yanked its tongue.

Cold sweat beaded on Li Luyan's forehead. The energy radiating around 'it' was simply too formidable; it was at least a Level 4 monster.

And this was only the beginning.

Staring at the frantically writhing tongue inside the monster's mouth, she forced down the nausea rising in her chest. "Of course we'll keep playing. We love playing games the most," she said, her voice carrying a barely perceptible tremor.

"All right then..."

'It' retracted all of its tongues. Once they merged back together, they formed a single, normal tongue once more.

Its fingernails also slowly returned to their original hue and length, though they still looked like they could inflict a painful scratch. "Then the game continues... heh heh..."

"Ten..."

'It' stood in place, obediently closing its eyes. Its back looked entirely harmless, much like 'it's' own illusions.

***

Li Luyan turned swiftly and sprinted toward the room painted with a giant mountain. The moment she stepped inside, the original wooden door transformed once again into a green iron door.

She pulled open the rust-encrusted iron door.

Outside, at that very moment,

"Two..."

"One..."

"I've come to find you... heh heh..." 'It' split its mouth open in a wide, expansive grin, resembling a child about to receive a sweet piece of candy.

'It' spun around once before finally coming to a halt in front of the door painted with an eye. Which door it opened first didn't matter to 'it' at all.

Anyway, 'it' had no fixed order for eating its food; the thrill of opening a blind box was far more fun.

Like an eagerly anticipating human child, 'it' first rubbed its hands together, then placed a hand on the doorknob and gave it a gentle pull—

Zhao Meina, inside the room, felt her heart nearly shatter with terror when she saw 'it' pull open her door. She shrieked in a piercing, lost voice, "Ahhhhh!"

'It' licked the corner of its mouth, its tongue writhing madly once more, splitting into hundreds of tiny, fine filaments like miniature snakes.

Zhao Meina scrambled frantically toward the corner.

The next second, 'it' froze. Its expression underwent a drastic change. It bolted out of the small partition and lunged straight for the compartment painted with the mountain, while red eyes lit up all across the ceiling of the entire chamber.

'It' was furious now. "Ahhhhh! Bad child! Bad child! How dare you violate the rules!"

An instant later, 'it' shoved the door open and stepped inside, but Li Luyan was nowhere to be found. "Fine... just you wait..." 'It' tore open the fabric of space with both hands and dove right through.

Meanwhile, after experiencing a wave of vertigo, Li Luyan found herself back in the original hallway.

She walked downstairs, only to find the space was caught in an endless loop. Whether she walked up or down, she invariably ended up back on this exact floor.

There was something deeply wrong with this hallway.

It lacked the damp, foul odor of before, and from every room came the sound of men and women talking, as if she had been transported back to the days before the apocalypse.

"Young lady, who are you looking for?" The newcomer had graying hair and carried a vegetable basket containing produce bought fresh that very day.

Fine lines crinkled at the corners of her eyes as she smiled narrowly. She looked utterly benevolent, the spitting image of the kind neighborly grandmother who would always buy treats for you.

***

Dragged here for no apparent reason—was this 'it's' domain, a projection of the deepest parts of its psyche? Why would it be hidden so deeply?

Li Luyan's expression shifted. That thing was pursuing her; the fluctuations of energy in the surroundings were massive, feeling like a blunt blade slowly sawing through her nerves.

She had to find a place to hide right now. She stood no chance against that thing in a fight. In the face of absolute strength, all schemes and plots were mere illusions.

"Grandma, do you want me to help carry that basket?" Li Luyan asked, taking the basket directly from the old woman's hands.

The kindly grandmother looked at Li Luyan in mild surprise. She had expected she would need to coax and deceive a bit, not that a fool would deliver herself right to her doorstep.

The layout of the old woman's home was similar to most apartments. It looked remarkably clean, furnished with a blue plaid sofa and a wooden table just as large as the couch.

She swept her gaze around. There wasn't a single mirror or reflective surface in the entire room, not even a television, and the tea set used for drinking water had a frosted texture.

She couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, but within 'it's' domain, her spiritual power was completely useless.

It felt as though an invisible layer of film had been smeared over her consciousness, rendering it utterly futile, doing nothing besides draining her supernatural energy.

"Young lady, take a seat for a moment. Grandma will cook you something nice to eat," the kindly grandmother said before scurrying into the kitchen. A thick iron door was fitted to the kitchen entrance; it looked less like a kitchen and more like...

A secret chamber, as if hiding something it was terrified of others discovering.

On the other side, following the successive disappearances of Li Luyan and 'it', the entire domain began to collapse. After a wave of dizziness, the others found themselves back at their starting positions.

Little Bastard and Liu Qingye looked at the three people returning unscathed, speaking almost in unison, "Where is Big Sister / My Lady?"

Yu Yue's expression was somewhat unsightly. "She vanished along with the monster." Why was she feeling this acute distress over Li Luyan's death? It felt as though a tight membrane was wrapping around her heart, even though this had clearly been her assigned mission all along.

Hearing that Li Luyan had vanished, Little Bastard wore the ugliest expression of all. It trembled violently, its little puppy ears drooping low. "We're done for! It's over... everything is over."

It suddenly leaped in front of Lin Youwei. "You're doomed! Don't even think about becoming any sort of divinity!"

"The gods have all betrayed Him, just you wait!"

The others wore puzzled expressions. Yu Yue nudged it with her foot, frowning deeply, "What kind of madness are you spouting?"