Chapter 770: Gu Junsheng! (2)

Tens of thousands of faint lights converged, illuminating the entire floor. Standing beside me, Uncle Xu covered his eyes and stumbled back a few steps in shock.

The girl standing right beside me jumped in fright. The sudden change left everyone at a loss.

"Damn it!" The moment the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment on me lit up, I realized the Live Show had set me up.

This trap had been laid several broadcasts ago, all for this very moment!

I had brought both the Black Jade Pixiu and the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment out of the Deep Dream Layer. To save Ye Bing, I had originally planned to back out of that broadcast, but then a Live Show Mission dropped that sent me directly into her dream. Thinking back, the circumstances of that broadcast and this one were eerily similar. I had come to Longchang to find another live show streamer, yet the Underworld Live Show's mission just so happened to be set here too.

There couldn't possibly be that many coincidences in the world. Both broadcasts had to be part of the Live Show's grand scheme. I had been deliberately guided, step by step, to this very predicament. I was nothing but a pawn in their game, a piece manipulated by whatever was hiding behind the curtain. The Reincarnation Mirror Fragment in my hand was the ultimate proof.

I was naturally cautious. After discovering that the Mirror Fragment couldn't reflect my own image, I had obviously grown suspicious. In fact, that was exactly why I kept the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment on me at all times. Looking back, the Live Show had completely seen through my personality and psychology. They had exploited my own caution to turn me into an obedient, useful pawn without me even realizing it.

"The Deep Dream Layer broadcast was to let me obtain the Mirror Fragment and find clues, so what is the goal of this broadcast?"

The Mirror Fragment in my pocket resonated with the Longchang Grand Formation, replacing the one in the Doctor's hand to become the formation's new anchor.

Everyone in Longchang must have seen this scene. It wouldn't be long before the lunatics from Room Four came rushing over.

The Reincarnation Mirror Fragment in my hand was unique. Unlike the two mirrors suspended at the top and bottom of the main building, I could actually touch it and hold it in my palm.

"The Red Building Obsessions seem capable of using the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment to travel between Yin and Yang. If they find out I have this mirror, they'll throw everything they have at me to steal it." There wasn't much time left to react. Gripping the Mirror Fragment, my expression shifted rapidly. "Even if I throw it away now, the People of Room Four will still zero in on this room. The light originated here, so they'll definitely cast an inescapable net around the area. If they do, it'll be nearly impossible to safely use the Copper Mirror to return to the Yang Realm. No, I have to lure them away!"

I didn't bother explaining anything to the girl or Uncle Xu. "Uncle Xu," I said rapidly, "per our agreement, you're in charge of looking after her now."

"What about you?" To Uncle Xu, the girl was nothing more than a hostage. He was far more concerned with when he could finally leave Longchang. "How about you tell me the way out first?"

How could I not see through his scheming? If I told him the Copper Mirror was the exit, the old bastard might hand the girl over to the monsters from Room Four to save his own skin, treating her like dead weight.

"All I'll tell you is that this girl is the key to leaving. She cannot be harmed!" I said. "I'm going to lure away the People of Room Four. You two find a new place to hide, but don't stray too far from this room."

In the pitch-black expanse of Longchang, there was no way to hide the light radiating from the Mirror Fragment. The monsters prowling the area would know my exact location at all times. My best option right now was to act as bait, drawing away the Red Building Obsessions to buy the girl some time. Of course, this plan had one massive flaw: if the Copper Mirror activated while I was gone, I would likely be trapped in the Animal Realm forever.

I gripped the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment tightly, its sharp edges slicing into my palm. After a moment of thought, I decisively grabbed the girl and pulled her aside.

"I have something to tell you," I whispered into her ear, keeping my voice so low that only she could hear. "If the Copper Mirror hanging above the doorway across from us changes, don't hesitate. Find a way to get close to it. Once you step through that mirror, you'll be able to find Junsheng. Do not tell anyone else about this."

It was a white lie. If the girl could make it out safely, she would naturally remember everything.

The girl's hands and feet were ice-cold as she stared at me with wide eyes. Without waiting for her to speak, I bolted out of Uncle Xu's room, Reincarnation Mirror Fragment in hand.

The grand formation was stable now. The giant beast's body was completely wedged in Longchang's back gate, unable to advance or retreat. Its heaven-shaking roars rattled the mind.

"The Black Jade Pixiu is the bait, and the grand formation in Longchang is the cage. Looking at it that way... could the Live Show's goal be to capture this giant beast from the Animal Realm?"

Unable to figure out the Live Show's intentions, I sprinted down the corridor, the bright light of the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment moving with me.

I had two choices right now. The first was to toss the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment somewhere and sprint in the opposite direction. If I was lucky, I might even make it back to rendezvous with the girl. The Live Show never assigned impossible missions, so this was likely the survival route they had laid out for me. As for the second choice, the risks were much higher. The Doctor's Reincarnation Mirror Fragment was useless now. Even if they caught the girl, they would need to find another Reincarnation Mirror Fragment to cross through reincarnation. If I could seize control of all the remaining fragments in advance, I would have the leverage to negotiate with them.

"Uncle Xu said that out of the Reincarnation Mirror Fragments in Longchang, one of them is on the roof." I had memorized the architectural layout of the Longchang Ancient Buildings before entering reincarnation, so I knew the wooden ladder leading to the roof wasn't far from my current position.

I found the wooden ladder and vaulted up to the top floor. This was the highest point in Longchang, and right above my head, a mirrored surface hung suspended upside down.

The sensation was bizarre, like standing on the border between two different worlds. If I just raised my hand and tapped lightly with my fingertips, it felt as though I could brush against my future self.

"There it is!" If the grand formation hadn't activated, it would have taken quite some effort for me to locate the Mirror Fragment.

Near the edge of the roof, a pillar formed from countless motes of light shimmered with all kinds of mystical brilliance.

With no one to block my path, I lay flat on the rooftop of the main building, gripping the edge tightly as I leaned halfway over the drop. Only then did I get a clear look: a coin-sized Mirror Fragment was wedged into the blue brick.

I reached out to grab it. The mirror plainly existed, yet I just couldn't touch it. It was as if I were only looking at an illusion.

"This didn't happen in the Deep Dream Layer. Can this mirror only be touched with consciousness?" I had found the mirror in a dream, and I hadn't run into any resistance back then.

Gripping a crumbling stone brick on the edge of the building with one hand, I projected my intent outward, locking my focus onto the mirror's surface.

This was likely a test left by whoever set up the formation to prevent it from being stolen by an obsession. The moment my will wrapped around the mirror piece, it shifted. The surrounding grit was knocked loose, and the mirror piece originally wedged into the blue brick slowly began to slide down!

"Not good!"

This was the roof of the main building. If the Mirror Fragment fell down, finding it again wouldn't be easy.

In the nick of time, I whipped my own mirror piece out of my pocket and held it right beneath the blue brick. A sharp clink then rang out.

I looked up and realized that the Reincarnation Mirror Fragment sliding out of the blue brick had actually seamlessly melted into my mirror, just like a drop of water!

"What's going on?"

The two Mirror Fragments had merged into one. Their shape hadn't changed at all, but the mirror's edges were no longer sharp, having rounded out considerably.

The light in the night sky merged as well. The mirrored surface overhead began to flow like a galaxy of stars, undergoing unknown changes.

"That's not quite what I expected!" I had originally assumed the so-called Mirror Fragments would need to be pieced together to restore the main body. Now it seemed this Reincarnation Mirror held far more secrets.

The Red Building Obsessions could catch up at any second. Not daring to linger, I pocketed the mirror piece and rushed back the way I came.

The moment I hopped off the wooden ladder, I heard the frantic clatter of footsteps echoing from the stairwell to my left.

I hadn't stepped into the Breath Listening Realm yet, so if I could hear them even so, it only proved that those monsters were very close to me!

"They're fast!" I changed directions and charged down the stairs. I hadn't made it very far before several towering figures appeared before my eyes.

"Junsheng? Why is the light coming from you?!" The one leading the pack was none other than the head of Room 9, someone I'd crossed paths with once before. The crude, pig-headed monster was a bit slow on the uptake and still hadn't figured out what was going on.

I didn't dare stand around chatting with him. Lowering my head, I sped up, wanting to rush out before he could react.

"You're the closest to that girl who ran off. She's submissive and would never do something so outrageous on her own. You put her up to it, didn't you?!" The head of Room 9 didn't take me seriously in the slightest. Just as he had during our first encounter, he raised a massive hand, wanting to shove my head down. "You hid her, didn't you? Talk! Where is she?!"

His hairy, pig-like hand swooped down at me. Once I was grabbed by him, breaking free again would be difficult.

With the Red Building Obsessions closing in right behind me, I couldn't afford to delay even a single second here!

"Get lost!" Reaching into my coat, I clamped my hand down on the lid of the White Bone Jade Box. The suffocating baleful aura I'd accumulated over a dozen broadcasts surged forward. A will that treated life and death as meaningless and disregarded everything slashed out like a razor-sharp blade!

His raised hand froze in midair. Stunned by my roar, the head of Room 9 stood entirely frozen. He never could have imagined that the weak, easily bullied child from before would actually say such words. More terrifyingly, for a split second just now, he seemed to actually feel genuine killing intent.

Seeing him stop, I naturally wasn't about to stick around and chat with him. I slipped right through the gap between them and bolted down the stairs.

Another Reincarnation Mirror Fragment was in some corner on the first floor. With the grand formation running, that area had to be blanketed in a faint glow.

When I reached the first floor, I found even more monsters around. Aside from the Red Building Obsessions, the vast majority of the remaining entities had their memories sealed. They still treated themselves as dying refugees desperately struggling to survive in Longchang.