Chapter 76: Finding Xia Ta

Gao Tian sprinted down the long white path, keeping an eye on the endless nothingness in the distance.

This place was incredibly empty. No matter how far he ran, his surroundings never changed—just the white path stretching forward and the boundless expanse of black in the distance.

The only exceptions were the mirrors lining the path, reflecting various scenes from reality.

This place would make a perfect ghost prison—an ideal spot to let spirits serve their sentences.

But if it became too crowded with ghosts, the Mirror World wouldn't be safe anymore. Gao Tian wouldn't be able to use it to scout the enemy or dodge real-world attacks like he was doing now.

It boiled down to two options, and he could only pick one.

Either imprison Fierce Ghosts or use it to travel himself.

For now, Gao Tian could only treat the Mirror World as a defensive item. He would figure out the rest later.

The mirrors in this row seemed to correspond to all the rooms on the fourth floor. Gao Tian checked every single one, searching for Room 413.

The first mirror.

A cozy little room with walls covered in cartoon posters.

A tall, gray creature stood inside. Its impossibly long, thin arms dragged on the ground, its entire skin was grayish-white, and it bore the face of a human woman.

It faced an empty crib, gently rocking it while humming a lullaby.

...

The second mirror.

A massive man, built like a mountain of flesh, lay on a collapsed sofa amidst a pile of empty beer bottles. He gripped a fresh bottle, chugging it down, though the liquid inside had long since turned into a thick, black sludge.

The man's stomach had long rotted hollow. Countless tiny black hands grew from the cavity, swaying like grass.

Begging the man to drink more of the sludge in the bottles.

...

The third mirror.

It looked like a living room. The lights were off, leaving it dim, but the pure white furniture was spotless. The owner clearly favored a minimalist style.

No one was in the room. Bizarrely, human-like eyes grew in the most unexpected places—on the walls, the table legs, under the sofa—and they were constantly blinking.

...

The fourth mirror.

A family of ten, all dressed in black funeral attire, sat motionless in a tiny room no larger than twenty square meters.

They weren't watching TV, eating, chatting, or doing anything at all.

Men and women, young and old—every single face was completely blank.

As Gao Tian passed this mirror, the family seemed to sense something and glanced in his direction.

...

Not daring to linger, he kept sprinting through the Mirror World.

Finally, Gao Tian came to a halt in front of a somewhat familiar mirror.

The room it reflected was plain. Two figures sat on a sofa with their backs turned. Opposite them sat the remains of a television that had been smashed with a hammer, fizzing with static. Bizarrely, despite being smashed like this, the program on the tiny remaining sliver of screen was still broadcasting normally.

The two figures on the sofa watched it with rapt attention.

This ghostly room—wasn't this Room 413, where they had been earlier?

Lan Zhu had taken one of the mummified corpses before fleeing, leaving only one behind on the sofa. But for some reason, Xia Ta hadn't been teleported away; she was the only one left in the room. Surprisingly, she hadn't tried to escape either. Instead, she had simply sat down on the sofa alongside the corpse.

It was an eerie sight. From behind, Xia Ta and the corpse looked almost like a father and daughter spending a lazy afternoon watching TV.

Gao Tian's mirror was quite far from the sofa.

He couldn't reach her, and he didn't dare step directly into Room 413. All he could do was slap the glass, trying to catch Xia Ta's attention.

Aside from the static of the television, Room 413 was dead silent. A mirror vibrating against the wall was impossible to ignore.

Xia Ta slowly turned her head toward the mirror. When she spotted Gao Tian inside, her calm facade finally slipped.

She immediately left the front of the television and walked up to the mirror as quickly as possible. Once she confirmed it was Gao Tian inside, the expression on her face relaxed slightly:

"How did you get inside the mirror?

"But it looks like you're still alive, which is great. What about the others who were teleported away? Did they survive?"

Judging by how freely Xia Ta could leave the sofa and converse with the mirror, she wasn't under any physical control, and her mental state appeared relatively normal.

That was truly strange. Since she hadn't been teleported to another room, why hadn't she tried to leave Room 413, choosing instead to sit on the sofa?

This room exuded an ominous aura everywhere, and there was no time for questions here. Gao Tian spoke urgently through the mirror:

"Don't say so much right now. I'll bring you into the mirror, and we'll leave this room. We can take our time talking once we meet up with Jiang Yang and the others out in the corridor."

As long as Xia Ta entered the mirror, all of Room 413's Killing Rules would be blocked outside.

Worst case scenario, once they were back in the corridor, they could just trouble Zhao Zhenjia to whip up two Wind Attendant Buddhas.

Just as Gao Tian's hand crossed through the mirror to grab Xia Ta, she simply stood in place, showing no intention of entering the mirror.

Gao Tian froze.

He suddenly realized she might be suspicious of him.

After all, a familiar face suddenly appearing inside a mirror was exactly the kind of trap a Fierce Ghost would set. An experienced administrator like Xia Ta naturally wouldn't believe his words so easily and walk right into the mirror.

Time was tight right now; he had to make Xia Ta believe him quickly.

As Gao Tian was trying to think of what evidence to present to explain himself, Xia Ta simply looked at him in the mirror and spoke calmly:

"Student Gao Tian, I believe it's you. You're progressing much faster than I imagined. You manage to master a new item in every supernatural incident.

"I've never suspected you were a Fierce Ghost in disguise. You don't need to rush to explain yourself on that point."

Gao Tian was stunned.

If Xia Ta knew from the start that he was a living person, then why was she unwilling to leave Room 413 with him?

Xia Ta continued:

"When the host on the television called me his daughter, I was furious at first. There is a massive blank spot in my memory; I can't remember my past or my family. It's as if my life only began two years ago. As soon as I had memories, I had already arrived at the Living Apartment, participating in its cruel games.

"I thought these Fierce Ghosts were trying to inflict Cognitive Pollution on my cognition and memories through dialogue.

"But after all of you were teleported away and I alone was left here, I started to realize something wasn't quite right.

"At the time, we were clearly under the effects of the Fierce Ghost Prohibition. It was impossible for the Fierce Ghosts in this room to inflict Cognitive Pollution on me.

"I sat down on the sofa and felt a faint sense of familiarity, as if when I was still a child, I used to sit exactly like this on the sofa, right between my parents, watching boring television with them until I drifted off into a deep sleep."

Looking at Xia Ta's calm face, Gao Tian felt his chest grow increasingly heavy.

What was she talking about? Had she gone insane?

He couldn't understand what she was saying at all.

There had to be some kind of mistake. How could the two mummified corpses in Room 413 possibly be related to her?

Gao Tian said:

"Are you trying to say that the two mummified corpses in Room 413, or the two hosts on the television, are actually your parents?

"Wake up, Xia Ta. They are ghosts from the fourth floor. They've been here for who knows how many years; how could they be your parents from outside the Apartment?

"Calm down first and come back out to the corridor with me. Everyone is waiting for you."

Xia Ta's expression was incredibly calm, not looking in the least like she was being controlled:

"Thank you, Student Gao Tian. But hear me out.

"Unlike your situation, my memories weren't altered by ghosts. On the contrary, that memory is a trauma from my childhood, the past I am least willing to recall in this life. My brain actively sealed away that past out of self-protection.

"Perhaps it was fate that I came to the Living Apartment, and then to this room. It made me remember who I truly am."

Gao Tian watched in astonishment as, behind Xia Ta, the glass screen of the shattered television slowly began to swell and rise like an inflating plastic bag.

The back casing of the television had been completely smashed in. Yet this had no effect whatsoever; the rustling static reverted into the perfectly enunciated voices of a male and female host. Those two lingering hosts had actually reappeared on the television.

"Xia Ta, there's no time left, hurry and enter the Mirror World!

"The evil ghosts are resetting!"

Xia Ta didn't even bother to look back at the two ghosts reappearing on the television. As if she already knew what would happen next, she continued to say mildly:

"My parents once ran a private kindergarten. They made a substantial income every year and could be considered middle class. My childhood was the happiest time of my life; I used the best mobile phones and stationery at school, and when I came home, I had the love of a father and mother who treated me as the apple of their eye.

"But the good times didn't last. A sudden, massive fire broke out at the kindergarten. The accident report came out quickly; my parents had cut corners to save money, resulting in fire safety facilities that failed to meet standard requirements. They were the primary parties responsible for the fire.

"The two of them didn't have to face the law, because in that fire, they were burned into two mummified corpses. And I became an orphan."