Chapter 744: Longchang Ancient Buildings

The Underworld Live Show didn't unlock the second optional task until I picked up the clay pot.

Reading the message in my inbox, I felt a little caught off guard. 'The task info says to retrieve "my" shattered face. How should I interpret that? Does "me" refer to the Woman in Red? And what's with the shattered face? Why was her face cut off to begin with?'

The task description was simple, but the details it revealed were cruel and complex.

'The reward is generous. The Live Show's broadcast tasks always balance risk and reward, which means the second optional task is extremely dangerous for me right now.'

The clay pot was covered in dust, looking like it had been sitting there for years. There was some dark red residue at the bottom, though I couldn't immediately tell what it was.

'The tenant living on the top floor must know the Faceless Woman in Red. He might have moved into the Red Building specifically to investigate this.' An ordinary person couldn't possibly live in the Red Building for three months without being controlled by an obsession. The most logical explanation was that he had received the protection of the Faceless Woman in Red.

'What is their relationship?' I picked up the black plastic bag from the floor and placed the clay pot inside. 'The heart in this pot most likely belongs to the Faceless Woman. She didn't come back out after entering the elevator just now; I bet she anchored herself within her own heart.'

It was just a guess. Looking at the pot in the black plastic bag, I knew full well that curiosity killed the cat. I didn't open it again, merely keeping it bagged and carrying it with me.

'The Faceless Woman doesn't bear much hostility toward me. If I handle this well, she might even become a huge asset to my stream.'

The Faceless Woman often appeared on rainy nights. Even the blind Old Granny knew this, so the Red Building Tenants definitely knew it too. They had put her heart in the elevator and sent it to the top floor, likely to grab her attention and lure her away.

'What are these people doing? Why lure the Faceless Woman away? Are they afraid she'll interfere? And where did the top-floor tenant go?' As my thoughts slowly straightened out, my expression darkened. 'Regardless of where he is now, his life is in danger. The Red Building Tenants lured the Faceless Woman's obsession away—probably just to kill him!'

The Red Building was a venom-soaked spider web; once you stumbled in, it was almost impossible to leave.

'I still have too few clues. If I want to complete the optional task, finding that top-floor tenant is key.' Having figured this out, I grabbed the black plastic bag and turned to leave the top floor of Unit Four.

There was no point in staying here any longer. The Red Building had become an empty shell; its tenants had quietly slipped away at some unknown time.

'Just the Red Building alone was enough to alert the Blood Fox, and its footprint is barely a fraction of the Old Site of Pig Cage Apartments. Tonight's stream has probably only just begun.'

The Red Building Tenants were setting a trap, and I had walked right into it. Setting aside whether other streamers were interfering, just figuring out the cause and effect would take a massive amount of time.

Holding the incantation seal the Blood Fox had given me, I hurried down the fire escape and quickly returned to the sixth floor. I didn't see a single person or ghost along the way.

The boy suspected to be Gu Junsheng's reincarnation lived on the sixth floor. I opened the door and walked in, but the little guy wasn't there.

'There's a half-eaten apple tossed on the floor. He must have been taken by force.' I scanned the room, eventually entering the bedroom to look at the mirror hidden behind the door.

The glow from my phone screen hit the mirror, casting a pale white light over my face. My reflection looked somewhat terrifying.

'This really is just an ordinary mirror. Why would the little guy have this in his room? Do Zhu Li and the others know it's here?' I felt like my brain was about to explode. 'The Red Building needs outsiders to move in every so often to serve as vessels for obsessions. When Li Ming was abducted, he was tied under the bed while he acclimated to the obsession. Could this mirror be here so the obsession can admire its new appearance the moment it successfully invades a living person?'

It was a strained explanation. Suppressing the urge to smash the glass with a punch, I grabbed the black bag and retreated from the sixth floor.

I made my way down. When I returned to the Old Granny's door on the second floor, I was surprised to find it open. The red candle inside was dim, and a rustling sound drifted from the room.

"Granny? Are you in there?" Right as I spoke, I saw the old woman walking out, wearing a black coat and holding a black umbrella.

The wrinkles on her face were scrunched tightly together, and she was carrying a bamboo basket containing a pair of scissors.

"Are you heading out?"

Hearing my voice, Granny gripped the wall, her tone frantic. "Junsheng ran off! He went toward the Ancient Buildings!"

"Don't panic. Tell me slowly."

"Junsheng usually doesn't leave until just before dawn. After you left, the child became extremely anxious. He paced around the room, gesturing at me frantically, and then he ran out on his own. My eyes might not be able to see the things of this world, but I can see him. I watched him run straight into the Ancient Buildings with my own eyes!"

The old woman was probably too anxious, her words tumbling out clumsily.

"What was he gesturing about?"

I was just about to ask for details, but the Old Granny clearly had no patience for a chat. Holding her black umbrella, she actually looked ready to head to the Ancient Buildings to find Junsheng herself.

Seeing this, I quickly stopped her. "Granny, I'll go find Junsheng for you. Don't worry, I promise I'll bring him back. It's pouring outside—just stay safely in your room. If something happens to you too, Junsheng would be even more heartbroken."

I wasn't very good at comforting people, but every word was the truth.

"He's never done this before. He must have sensed something, he must have..." The old woman's voice trembled as she dug the Embroidered Ball out of her bamboo basket. "I'm old, and I walk too slowly. Take this and go ahead. If he's nearby and sees this Embroidered Ball, he'll definitely come to you."

The Old Granny offered the Embroidered Ball with both hands, acting as if it weighed a thousand pounds.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely find Junsheng!"

Having finally managed to persuade the old woman, I took the Embroidered Ball and her black umbrella, then bolted down to the first floor without stopping.

'Junsheng suddenly acting out of character and heading to the Ancient Buildings... could it be that the little boy on the sixth floor is in mortal danger? Did his past life's remnant soul sense it, prompting him to rush over and try to stop it at all costs?' I formed a guess based on my limited clues. 'The ones who took the boy have to be the Red Building Tenants. If that's true, finding Junsheng means I can track down Zhu Li and the rest!'

Reaching the first floor, I swept my Judging Eye over the footprints at the entrance to the stairwell.

They were chaotic and varied. It seemed the tenants had been extremely active during the time I'd spent inside the Red Building.

I opened the umbrella and charged into the rain. Compared to the sprawling cluster of Ancient Buildings in the dark of night, I felt as insignificant as an ant.

'If the Red Building Tenants laid a trap just to murder the guy on the top floor, they should all be together right now. Looks like I need to speed up.'

The situation was critical, and tonight's stream had reached a turning point. For protection, I kept the Fate Ghost close behind me. One man and one ghost sprinted through the rainy night, one after the other.

Thanks to the Old Granny's story, I already had a basic understanding of the Old Site of Pig Cage Apartments.

The very earth beneath my feet was practically filled with the bones of the living. It was a massive graveyard where obliterated humanity lay buried.

Raindrops hammered against the cracked walls. Following the dense, drum-like pitter-patter, I saw hideous fissures crawling all over the structure, the peeling plaster leaving it jagged and uneven.

The entire complex of Ancient Buildings was divided into an inner and an outer layer, shaped like a massive bowl turned upside down.

The outer buildings were low and dilapidated, battered beyond recognition by the wind and rain. These had been built later by refugees. As for the barely recognizable six-story stone blocks in the center, those had to be the Pig Cage Apartments built by the foreign concessions back then—the original core of the Longchang Community from decades ago. The mirror the Old Granny had mentioned was inside one of those buildings.

'Many of the houses on the outskirts have collapsed. There's no point searching them.' My Judging Eye pierced the curtain of rain. I didn't spot anything in the outer perimeter; instead, faint ghostly silhouettes flickered inside the central Ancient Buildings.

'That's where Junsheng ran out from. Is the rift to the Animal Realm hidden inside those buildings?'

I suppose it was true that supreme skill breeds supreme courage. I navigated through the outer complex and ran straight for the center.

The Longchang Community was built during a time of war. Perhaps for security reasons, it hadn't been constructed using traditional architecture. There were four main buildings arranged in a square enclosure shaped like the character for "well", with exits to the north and south. The ground-floor tenants practically never saw the sun all year round.

'Jinghai was a concession back then, and this place was built by foreigners. They didn't have the slightest understanding of feng shui.'

The four main buildings looked like a bottomless deep well, and the tenants inside were like prisoners trapped at the bottom. The abnormalities might not be obvious right away, but live here long enough, and malevolent entities were bound to spawn.

As I got closer, the ghostly silhouettes inside the buildings were no longer visible. It was as if they had all vanished.

The pitch-black windows looked like gouged-out eye sockets. The entire building radiated an aura of death.

The road was muddy, and rainwater dripped from the edge of my umbrella. I didn't hesitate, entering the Longchang Community straight through the southern gap.

These dilapidated, eerie structures before me were the true Longchang Community. I tilted my head back, looking at the towering Ancient Buildings on all sides, and drew in a sharp breath. 'On the distress call, that streamer told me to find him at the Pig Cage Apartments. I wonder if the Pig Cage Apartments he meant were the Red Building, or these Ancient Buildings right in front of me.'

Thinking about it now was pointless; finding Junsheng was what mattered most. Hugging the Embroidered Ball tightly to my chest, I walked into the nearest Ancient Building. The pitch-black stairwell gaped like a monster's maw, ready to swallow me whole.

A strange odor wafted through the run-down hallway. Shattered doors lay on the floor, crawling with moss...