Chapter 753: Turning Point

My clothes were already soaked by the rain, and where they clung to the blood on my chest, they brought bursts of stinging pain.

I hadn't even taken a few steps before a short, dark figure dashed out ahead of me.

Junsheng was far more worried about the old woman than I was.

I didn't know if he had understood the young man's words or simply sensed something. Regardless, I had no time to stop him and hurriedly gave chase.

The Red Building Tenants seemed to have anticipated this. They darted into the Longchang Ruins and scattered in all directions. Obscured by the heavy rain, even with my Judging Eye, I struggled to track their movements.

Zhu Li had initially sent a few people out to move the corpse just to lower my guard. He wanted me to drop my vigilance, creating the illusion that such a massive body couldn't possibly be hidden even if they took it away.

In reality, this group possessed a special method to extract something from the Phantom Pig—which was exactly what they needed. As they dragged the Phantom Pig's corpse, they used their bodies to block my line of sight while secretly carving up its flesh and organs. By the time I bypassed the Longchang Main Building and chased after them, all I saw was a torn pigskin discarded on the ground. The organs branded with human faces had vanished without a trace.

'I had too little intel, and he still outsmarted me.' I didn't know what use the Red Building Tenants had for the Phantom Pig's organs. According to the young man, it likely had something to do with reincarnation.

'The Red Building Tenants got what they wanted. I'm at a severe disadvantage now...' I pondered this as I picked up the pigskin. Suddenly, Junsheng sprinted back the way we had come. His body was ethereal, so I couldn't touch him, much less stop him. I had no choice but to follow closely behind him just in case.

Although Junsheng's memories would vanish at dawn, the unseen connection between him and the old woman could not be severed. That was a bond that transcended time and reincarnation. For him to leave so urgently now, it definitely had to do with Granny.

Dodging the obsessions blocking our path, I didn't go after those dark figures suspected to be the Red Building Tenants. Instead, I chose to trust Junsheng. I sprinted after him for a few minutes, only to find ourselves back at the Red Building.

'What is he doing here? Is Old Granny in her own room? Did Zhu Li and the others not have time to make a move yet?' Before I could come to any conclusion, Junsheng had already entered the stairwell. The voice-activated lights on the first floor flickered on, revealing a floor covered in footprints and shoe tracks. Most of them had just been left behind and were incredibly clear.

'A portion of the Red Building Tenants returned here!'

As we dashed upstairs, Junsheng didn't even turn his head when passing the second floor where Old Granny lived. Obviously, the old woman wasn't there. Filled with curiosity, I continued following him up. To my surprise, the boy finally stopped on the sixth floor of Unit 1.

'Isn't this the little boy's room?' The outer iron gate was open, and a layer of paint had peeled off the red wooden door inside, exposing the original wood beneath.

I wanted to stop Junsheng and tell him to be careful, but I couldn't touch him at all. I could only let him go inside.

Kicking the door open, I found the floor inside completely covered in shoe prints as well. At a rough glance, about four or five people had come in and out.

The coffee table and chairs remained in their original positions. A bad feeling rose in my chest as I slowly pushed open the bedroom door.

The bed was just as it had been, but several people lay sprawled haphazardly across the floor. Aside from Zhu Li, the Security Guard, the Doctor, and Old Granny were all there. Startled, I rushed over to help the old woman up. But the moment my hand touched them, I found their skin freezing cold. Devoid of any warmth, they felt exactly like corpses.

After coming in, Junsheng didn't even look at Old Granny on the ground. Instead, he waved his arm, pointing behind the door.

Understanding his meaning, I closed the bedroom door. When I looked behind it, my expression instantly turned grim.

The mirror installed behind the door, situated in the darkest corner of the entire room, had changed.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the smooth surface, fracturing my reflection into pieces. But that wasn't what worried me the most. The mirror was smeared with fresh blood and painted with bizarre symbols, as if some sort of ritual had been performed.

'Li Ming was originally tied up in this room. Like a sacrifice, his limbs were bound and stretched out to the four posts of the bed.' In ancient times, this was the binding method for sacrificing livestock; in the Red Building, they had simply replaced the livestock with a human.

'This isn't the first time Zhu Li and the others have abducted living people into the Pig Cage Apartments. Why do they trick the living into coming here every so often? Is it just for a sacrifice?' I had accidentally stumbled upon the Red Building Tenants' ritual. It seemed like a coincidence, but in truth, several invisible hands were pushing from the shadows, forcing me into this trap.

'The Pig Cage Apartments hide a crack into reincarnation. It seems someone wants me to enter reincarnation!' With my strength enhanced, the height from which I viewed things was naturally different from before. I stroked the cracked mirror and found a few strands of silver hair wedged in the crevices!

'Old Granny is the only one in the Pig Cage Apartments with white hair...'

The silver hair slipped from my fingers. Upon seeing it, Junsheng's tiny figure repeatedly threw himself against the mirror, completely disregarding the sharp glass. He seemed to want to enter the mirror.

'Old Granny, the Doctor, and the others are all unconscious on the floor, looking like dead bodies. It's as if they've lost their souls. I possess the Judging Eye and can discern yin and yang, yet I didn't see anything on the way here. If their souls were truly snatched away, then they can only still be in this room.' Looking at the mirror before me, I grew increasingly uneasy.

'I searched the entire Red Building and only found this one mirror. Could this be the passage leading to reincarnation? Is there another world on the other side?' I wasn't making this guess without reason. The optional task issued by the Underworld Live Show was related to a mirror. I had noticed this mirror from the very beginning, but because it was different from my Broken Mirror Shard, I hadn't investigated it further. Thinking about it now, even if this mirror wasn't the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment I was looking for, it was definitely far from simple.

'The Animal Realm might be hidden behind this mirror. Junsheng's strange behavior is the best proof of that.'

I still remembered Master Tianxin saying that the living could never enter reincarnation. This corroborated with the living corpses scattered across the floor, further confirming my suspicions.

The mirror had originally been smooth and flawless, but now it was full of cracks. No matter how much Junsheng bashed against it, nothing changed.

"Little guy, stop!" I called out to Junsheng, but he completely ignored me. It wasn't until the mirror let out a soft crack and the glass shards began to fall off that he slumped in front of it in despair. Man proposes, heaven disposes. I had done my best tonight, but heaven was clearly not on my side.

Despite all my calculations, I had still missed a detail, allowing Zhu Li to seize the opportunity.

Often, brute strength wasn't the only way to solve a problem. Sometimes, overwhelming power could even blind you.

'The obsession controlling the Red Building Tenants has likely already entered the mirror. Now that the glass is cracked and the only passage in and out of reincarnation is destroyed, the chances of me turning the tables tonight are slim. At this point, the best approach is to group up with the young man living on the top floor and find a way to pry more clues out of him.'

After thinking it through, I glanced at Junsheng, who stood motionless before the mirror. My heart ached a little for him. I subconsciously reached out to pat his shoulder, but my hand grabbed empty air.

'I always habitually forget that this little guy comes from another place...' At this thought, a sharp gleam flashed in my eyes, and an overlooked detail surfaced in my mind. 'The first time I saw Junsheng was in Bai Ya'er's apartment. He was still in the Longchang Ancient Buildings back then; he only entered the Red Building later! In other words, this little guy sneaked out from a different crack! That's right! Old Granny once told me that she followed Junsheng into the Ancient Building and ended up finding a mirror inside the Longchang Main Building!' Heaven leaves no dead end for man. Following my realm breakthrough, my mind was sharp and clear, and another forgotten detail welled up in my heart.

On the top floor of the Longchang Main Building, when Junsheng and I passed the wall where Li Ming's corpse hung, the little guy had cast a highly unnatural glance at that wall. It was as if something was hidden there, something incredibly important to him!

Putting it all together, I suppressed the excitement in my chest and crouched in front of Junsheng. "Little guy, Granny's soul was taken into another world by that bunch of lunatics. If she doesn't come back soon, her life will probably be in danger. The only way to save her now is to find the other passage so we can enter that world too."

There were many things I couldn't be certain about, and most of what I said was just my own speculation. Yet, those exact few words brought a turning point to the whole ordeal.