Chapter 734: Extinguished

I still remembered the bullet comments Chu Men had posted in the livestream room. The master hypnotist had provided plenty of evidence proving that reincarnation existed.

Seventy years separated the little boy and Junsheng. Without Old Granny serving as a bridge for those memories, there would have been no way to tell they were connected.

I rubbed my chin, my brows tightly furrowed.

If everything the old woman said was true, then the little boy on the sixth floor had to be Junsheng's reincarnation. This blurry, short shadow before me was one of his three souls and seven humors—the soul of spiritual wisdom, which contained his intelligence and emotions.

This place lay close to the Animal Realm, where cracks in reincarnation existed. Instead of entering reincarnation, this single humor had escaped.

It was truly incredible to think about. A single humor from his past life had fled reincarnation, carrying feelings it refused to cast aside. It had reunited in the place etched deepest in its memory with the person who had been waiting for him all along—and through a twist of fate, his current incarnation had also found his way here.

Karma and cause in this world were truly hard to explain.

The short black shadow's memories were fragmented and incomplete—perhaps because he had given up too much to escape reincarnation. He simply stayed close to the old woman out of instinct.

Looking at the old woman and the child sitting before me, I didn't have the heart to speak.

Both the old woman and Junsheng were pitiful, and the little boy on the sixth floor was an entirely innocent victim. Because Junsheng's soul of spiritual wisdom had fled reincarnation with his emotions, the remaining three souls and six humors had formed an incomplete boy. The tragedy was still repeating itself.

If Junsheng's soul of spiritual wisdom returned to the little boy's body, would he stop being simpleminded and become a normal child?

Of course, that thought only flashed briefly through my mind. I would never say something like that in front of the old woman.

After all, no one could guarantee whether Junsheng's memories would survive once the soul of spiritual wisdom returned. A new life for the little boy might just mean Junsheng's complete obliteration.

The atmosphere in the room felt stifling. The old woman stared blankly at the Embroidered Ball, then rose to place it in a bamboo basket before picking up her brocade handkerchief and needle and thread to resume her unfinished work.

No one spoke. The short black shadow stood silently behind the old woman, watching quietly.

There was still plenty about the Red Building that the old woman hadn't explained clearly, and the short black shadow might also be hiding the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment the Underworld Live Show had tasked me with finding. Every clue pointed toward them, yet I had no intention of pressing any further.

Seventy years was practically an entire lifetime for most people. For the two of them to finally reunite in the end had been far too hard-won.

'Finding the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment is an optional task, so it's fine if I skip it. I'll just stay safely here at the old woman's place until daybreak. Once the main livestream task is finished, I can go door to door looking for the streamer who lives in the Pig Cage Apartments. After dawn, the obsessions might be suppressed, and my safety will be guaranteed.'

Once I thought it through, a weight lifted off my shoulders. "Granny, I'll wait out in the outer room. Don't worry, I'll leave as soon as day breaks."

"Go on, and don't forget the three things I told you," the old woman said with a nod. "I've saved others who stumbled into the Red Building by accident. As long as you do exactly as I say, you'll be fine."

"Thank you." I cupped my hands in salute, recalling the instructions Granny had given me earlier—don't touch the iron chain on the door, don't go near the windows pasted with red paper, and don't let the red candle in the room go out.

Granny hadn't explained the specific reasons behind them, and I didn't bother asking. Everything existed for a reason, and going by my experience from over a dozen livestreams, if an old local told you not to do something, it was best not to even touch it.

Lying on the wooden sofa in the outer room, I took out my Live Show Phone. While I was talking with the old woman, it had been sitting in my pants pocket the whole time. With the screen blacked out for so long, my viewer count had probably dropped quite a bit.

I glanced over the bullet comments and saw that Socrates Paradox and the master hypnotist were still flooding the screen. People at the very top of their fields were seriously stubborn—though maybe that was part of the reason they had reached the top in the first place.

Losing interest, I was just about to toss the phone aside when a short bullet comment flashed past amid the stream of messages, like an inconspicuous ripple on the ocean.

'That looked like it came from Jiang Fei...' I didn't look closely, simply feeling a pang of emotion. Because of the Underworld Live Show live broadcast, both I and many of the people around me had changed.

'Just what kind of entity is the Live Show?'

My jacket had been left behind in Zhang Shuxue's room. I rubbed my hands together and watched the dancing flame on the candlestick, as though that faint glow could bring me warmth.

I slowly closed my eyes. Having fled all the way from Jiangcheng to Jinghai, running for my life, my body would have given out long ago if opening my Heart Aperture hadn't multiplied my stamina several times over.

'I might as well get some sleep. Dawn is still a long way off.' I had just propped my phone up on the table when, barely a few seconds later, the flame on the candlestick suddenly began to flicker violently!

It looked as though wind were blowing through the room. I pushed myself up. 'The doors and windows are shut tight. Where is the wind coming from?'

The dancing flame set my heart racing with unease. Old Granny had just warned me that I must never let the candle go out.

I found a box of matches beneath the wooden table and kept my eyes locked on the flame, ready to relight it the instant it went out.

Strange things happened one after another. As the flame on the red candle swayed and jumped, it wasn't long before the padlock-fastened iron chain behind the wooden door began to rattle for no apparent reason.

The movement was slight, but I saw it clearly.

The wooden door didn't budge an inch, yet the iron chain clinked on its own, as if an invisible hand were reaching through the door to take it off.

'What's going on?' I picked up my Live Show Phone and started toward the door. Halfway there, I saw Old Granny coming out of the inner room carrying a quilt in her arms.

"It's chilly out, and you're dressed too thinly. Cover yourself with this." She looked toward the wooden sofa, completely unaware that I had already walked over to the door.

"Thank you, Granny." I took the quilt and asked casually, "Did you hear the iron chain on the door rattling? Is that a common occurrence in the Red Building too?"

The old woman shook her head and was just about to say something when the flame on the candlestick sputtered a few times and abruptly went out.

The room plunged into darkness. After my mind went blank for a split second, I threw down the quilt and rushed to the table.

Using my Judging Eye to make out the candlestick's position, I pulled out the matches.

Scratch!

The spark I expected never came. The box of matches had been sitting in the room for far too long; it was badly damp, and most of the red phosphorus strip on the side had flaked off.

I refused to give up, striking one match after another as cold sweat slowly beaded on my forehead.

On my fifth try, something slammed hard against the outer iron door with a loud bang.

The sound echoed sharply through the Red Building, loud enough for the entire corridor to hear.

My expression darkened. A sound like that wasn't likely to have come from an obsession.

'Someone's outside the door!'

Having fought the Two-Faced Buddha for so long, I could see through schemes like this at a glance. Unfortunately, my enemy was hiding in the shadows. He knew my whereabouts, but I didn't even know his true identity.

At the loud crash, Old Granny's expression changed as well. Her wrinkles bunched together as she turned toward the door. "Who's out there?"

No one answered. Gradually, that strange noise rose again from the corridor, mixed with the sound of shuffling footsteps.

The sounds drew closer and closer, as though coming down from upstairs.

Something was wrong. The short black shadow clutched his Embroidered Ball and shrank back behind the old woman, while I kept my attention on the door and tried to get the candle lit.

'My cigarettes and lighter are both in my jacket, or this wouldn't be such a hassle! That noise outside had to be made by a person, but who could be so vicious as to not even spare an old woman?'

The more anxious I grew, the harder it was to strike a light. Matchsticks littered the floor as I listened to the commotion outside. About ten seconds later, someone pulled open the outer iron door.

The slow creak of the door hinges was like a thin steel wire tightening bit by bit around my heart.

Bang!

Without warning, another deafening crash rang out as something outside rammed into the wooden door.

Worn down by age, the red paint peeled away in flakes and wood splinters flew around the lock. It clearly wasn't going to hold much longer.

Moments after the second loud bang, the wooden door was struck again. Neither of us knew what was standing outside; we could only watch as the lock worked looser and looser.

"Granny, get into the inner room! Whatever's out there is probably after me—take the little guy, hide in the bedroom, and don't come out no matter what!"

My voice was urgent as my fingers mechanically repeated the motion of striking matches.

"They aren't here for you. When Junsheng came to me in the past, something like this happened too—it's as if the two worlds aren't allowed to intersect." The old woman's voice was low. She stood right by the doorway like an ancient tree that had rooted there for half a lifetime, firmly shielding the short black shadow behind her.

'They?' Things might be more complicated than I had imagined. Still, there was no denying that I was largely the reason this was happening tonight; someone behind the scenes was definitely fanning the flames.

My fingers swiped downward, and before I even registered it, a faint glow flared from my fingertips.

'It's lit!' Carefully cupping the tiny flame, I was just about to light the candle when the battered wooden door finally gave way under the battering. The lock popped loose, and the door was smashed wide open!

An icy wind poured into the room, blowing out the match in my hand before I could even bring it near the candle.

My hands and feet went ice-cold as I stiffly turned my head to look.

Sweeping my Judging Eye across the pitch-black corridor, I saw two charred human heads poking into the room.

'Obsessions!'

Something even more horrifying stood behind them. Flaking wall plaster scraped loose as a wobbling, bloated figure with a belly over a meter in diameter leaned against the railing, its mung-bean-sized eyes scanning the room greedily as if searching for food.

Its skin was nearly transparent, like a water-filled balloon. Under the gaze of my Judging Eye, I could clearly see its internal organs, blood vessels, and meridians—it looked as if its organs had grown on the outside, hanging right off the surface of its body.

'This is another type of obsession Zhu Li painted.' I drew in a sharp breath and clenched both fists. There was no escaping this now.

The obsessions outside looked at me first, and then their greedy gaze locked onto the short black shadow behind the old woman.

Charred fingers gripped the doorframe. After pausing for roughly half a second, they seemed to receive some kind of command and surged into the room, scrambling over one another!