Unlike Zhao Guogu, who was enjoying hot dumplings, Xia Yun was sandwiched between the two Green Vine Demon sisters, forced to listen to their gossip and chit-chat the entire way.
"I just don't really get Zuo Xiaoqing and Zuo Xiaohong. One's a Peony Demon, the other's a Bamboo Demon, so why give themselves names like that, as if they're sisters too."
"But their relationship does seem really good, doesn't it?" Ye Muyun thought about the two sisters' story and added quietly, "Back then, they both fell for the same demon. When they found out the other also liked him, they immediately let go. Although in the end, neither of them ended up with the one they liked."
"Really?" Ye Jingmeng found this quite novel. "So, did they end up together?"
"Who knows? Like you said, they're just very close sisters." As Ye Muyun spoke, she suddenly raised her hand. A vine shot out from under the wall and retrieved a… water bottle? A mineral water bottle? "What's this? It was glowing over by the wall just now."
"Mineral water?" Xia Yun was stunned. Why were they randomly finding mineral water here? "Is the water inside safe to drink?"
"The seal on the cap hasn't been broken." Ye Muyun unscrewed the bottle, poured some water onto a vine, and immediately concluded, "It's drinkable water. You have it." The vine coiled around the bottle and offered it to Xia Yun. Meanwhile, Ye Jingmeng also spotted something glittering in a corner. A vine retrieved it, revealing an unopened bag of hand-shredded bread.
"This game is kinda interesting. Is it about killing monsters and picking up items in the dark?" Ye Jingmeng grew somewhat excited; this kind of "entertainment" seemed to pique her interest.
Holding the mineral water and bread, Xia Yun was a bit dazed. She felt this Black Mirror Vortex probably wasn't that type of game, but the next second, she watched Ye Jingmeng effortlessly manipulate vines to strangle another headless red-skinned wolf that pounced at them, so she quietly closed her mouth.
Rip— She tore open the bread packaging and began eating the bread bite by bite. To a certain extent… the Green Vine Demon sisters' understanding of the Black Mirror Vortex's mode was correct.
Is this what it feels like to be carried? It's pretty nice.
…
…
After casually feeding Ji Huaichu a hard candy, Mu Anqi held her candy cane and stored all the supplies the group had found into her storage ring. The white mist around them had mostly dissipated by now, making Mu Anqi suspect she was playing some kind of game involving fighting monsters, collecting supplies, and finding teammates.
They had scavenged a huge amount of both food and water from the houses. Mu Anqi had also picked up quite a few items like daggers and longswords whose descriptions sounded impressive but were easily snapped by the demon-slaying katana with one slash. But after all this work, they still hadn't encountered a single teammate?
After searching another house, Mu Anqi decided to go check out the surrounding wall. Thanks to the dispersing white mist, Mu Anqi quickly arrived at the base of the black clock tower using her hand-drawn simple map and then approached the wall.
The towering black wall loomed high. Players could touch it but couldn't destroy it. The phenomenon encountered earlier at certain houses appeared again on the wall. He Guxia rode her sword and flew up, even higher than the wall, but even then, she couldn't leave the area enclosed by the wall.
"An invisible wall?" Mu Anqi was somewhat puzzled. "What's outside the wall?"
"Pitch black," He Guxia said.
"…" It seemed like it wasn't designed, or perhaps that wasn't an area for players to tread? How troublesome. Thinking this, Mu Anqi called out loudly, "Senior, could you please go take a look at that black clock tower!"
The building topped by the black clock tower was massive and the tallest structure Mu Anqi and the others had seen. Upon hearing this, He Guxia directly rode her sword over—
Bong! A sound rang out.
The toll of the bell was drawn-out and ancient, as if coming from a place extremely far away, echoing continuously here. As the sound of the bell spread, Mu Anqi felt an indescribable sensation in her heart, as if something was "stifling" her. However, this feeling only lasted for a moment before disappearing immediately.
After this inexplicable "toll of the bell" passed, Mu Anqi and the others looked up, only to find that He Guxia had vanished without a trace.
"That sword cultivator didn't just get taken out, did she?" Jiang Yuexia wondered aloud. The strength of these two ghosts beside her was formidable; if they were to be defeated in this Black Mirror Vortex… wouldn't that be a great chance for her to show off her own power?
"Vanished… Could the black clock tower be some kind of teleportation array?" Fang Yunjiu looked up at the black clock. She couldn't understand for the life of her why such a large black clock would make a sound like a temple bell. Wasn't that just too strange and incongruous? "We need to go up and check. Should we go through the building's interior or climb from the outside?"
"Let's go from the inside. There might be some clues." After a moment's thought, Mu Anqi said this. She looked at Ji Huaichu and Jiang Yuexia. "What do you think?"
After gaining everyone's agreement, they pushed open the first-floor door and entered the interior of the clock tower.
The first floor of the clock tower was extremely spacious, devoid of any extra structures or furniture. There was no elevator, only escalators leading upwards, but thankfully the number of floors wasn't very high.
As Mu Anqi and the others reached the fourth floor, they suddenly heard the roar of some kind of beast. Accompanied by a bellow, a four-legged creature covered only in blood-red skin charged out! It didn't even have a head, so how could it still make noise?! And it let out a wolf's howl?!
"Keep going up," Ji Huaichu said calmly. In the next instant, black shadows gathered at her feet, and countless ghostly figures darted out, pouncing on the headless wolf and tearing it apart, devouring it.
This wolf wasn't alone; that roar might have been a charge signal. However, Ji Huaichu was completely unfazed by numbers. No matter how many these wolves were, the number of her ghostly shadows would only exceed the wolf pack, slaughtering them before these headless beasts could even get close.
The sounds of wolf howls mixed with miserable screams filled the entire building. Mu Anqi steadied herself and led everyone further upstairs. Fang Xunjiu, by the side, nervously clutched his "Nice Guy Card," looking hesitant and uneasy. Fang Yunjiu swallowed back the chuunibyou line she was about to blurt out.
Jiang Yuexia let out a whistle, teasing, "You get to show off again, huh?"
The atmosphere gradually relaxed. Just as they ascended another floor, accompanied by a loud crash, the wall was violently smashed open. A grey-skinned giant over two meters tall, clad in iron armor, with a sharp horn on its head and fangs, wielding a chain and a giant hammer, charged at them.
"Smooth Sailing!"
"Seeking death."
The control command caused the Unicorn Giant's assault to abruptly freeze. Its entire body lost balance due to the sudden stop, and the control prevented its already unbalanced body from making adjustments, even forcing it to perform the finger heart action of a magical girl. This sudden ambush had truly angered Ji Huaichu. This giant had clearly been waiting behind this very wall, ready to break through the moment they came up! Ji Huaichu hadn't heard any extra noises before.
Yin energy converged. Ji Huaichu raised her hand, directly condensing a halberd nearly two and a half meters long. With a mere flick of her wrist, she threw it. It slammed hard into the giant's iron armor, piercing into its body through the now-dented armor, and sent the giant flying back through the hole it had smashed in the wall—
Boom!—
It sounded like something being smashed through the opposite wall by tremendous force.
The monsters here seemed pre-programmed, or like another kind of creature devoid of reason or pain. They feared neither pain nor death—after all, they weren't really alive to begin with. They had just come up the clock tower, yet Mu Anqi and the others hadn't found any clues. Instead, they cleared wave after wave of monsters. It was as if many monsters were originally hidden inside the building, just waiting for explorers like them to "walk right into the trap."
Squeak— A heavy, rusted iron door was pushed open. Mu Anqi and the others reached the top floor and stood before the black clock. The clock's three hands turned unhurriedly, yet after each tremor, their positions remained completely unchanged.
00:00:00
As if glued in place, unable to break free no matter what. They forever reached upward, forever unable to take that final step.
Did this time hold special meaning? Or was this the reason the walled city was forever locked in night?
"It might teleport us. Everyone, gather closer." Not acting rashly, Mu Anqi held Ji Huaichu's hand. After everyone had gathered close, she raised her hand and touched the clock—
Bong! A sound, as if struck inside her own mind. Mu Anqi was even stunned for a moment. And in that moment of stunned confusion, the scenery around her changed. She was no longer in front of the black clock, and the walled city was no longer behind her.
A strange figure in a black robe stood before her, uttering low chants she couldn't understand. Behind the robed figure was a massive pool of blood, with an iron cross-like object standing upright within it. Looking closer, the cross was covered in dense, sharp spikes, resembling some kind of torture device more than anything else.
The robed figure continued speaking in a language Mu Anqi couldn't comprehend. She had clearly been holding Ji Huaichu's hand before coming here, so why was she alone now? Oh, right, her mental protection was gone. Well, that explained it.
Without any courtesy, Mu Anqi slashed down at the robed figure with Ghost Slash. However, the figure split into two patches of black mist under her blade. After briefly dissipating, it reformed into the robed figure. And it was at this moment that Mu Anqi suddenly understood what the robed figure was whispering.
—"Lost and ignorant traveler, please offer your respect to the great god. Visualize in your mind the person you wish to sacrifice—Our Lord will return the stagnant time to you and set you free."
Mu Anqi never expected that the first wave of chuunibyou cringe on this trip wouldn't be provided by Fang Yunjiu! She didn't hesitate, slicing the robed figure apart again with Ghost Slash while simultaneously tossing out a blessing. After this, Mu Anqi unhesitatingly thrust the demon-slaying sword directly into the blood pool!
Sacrifice to a god? And this whole blood pool setup? They probably didn't know the traits of her [Demon-Slaying Sword: Ghost Slash], did they! Not only was it a blade forged from bloodlust and malice, but it also had growth potential.
Instantly, the entire blood pool began to boil. The blood within clearly contained immense malice and resentment. However, Ghost Slash was also a blade condensed from countless amounts of Yin energy and resentment. Thus, no matter how fiercely the blood pool boiled, Ghost Slash remained unaffected. The curses contained within the blood attempted to coil around Mu Anqi, but unfortunately for them, Mu Anqi's Golden Thread Soft Armor had a 25% weakening effect on curses. With the armor's support, the moment Mu Anqi felt something was wrong, she immediately withdrew the blade and retreated, throwing an incendiary bomb into the blood pool with her other hand, giving the curses no chance to invade.
"…Evil…Punish…"
Mu Anqi heard the robed figure scream out some words, heart-rending and lung-tearing, but its enunciation was unclear; she only caught those two. Probably cursing her with some chuunibyou lines like "How dare you! The god will punish you!" or something similar. She plunged headfirst into the darkness, and in the blink of an eye, landed in Ji Huaichu's embrace.