HAGLTP Chapter 66

Outside the door was a desolate corridor, and the person who had placed the mirror had long since vanished.

No one would naively interpret this act as an accident or a prank. If it were merely a pure supernatural adventure, there would be no need for such life-and-death stakes.

Unless… the person who placed the mirror had some other purpose hidden away, a temptation great enough to allow him to cruelly trample on human lives.

For instance, a wish that could turn a despised outcast into a wealthy individual.

“Should we go out and see who placed the mirror?” Cui Yunjin asked.

Xiao Lu shook his head: “The probability that person is still here is very low. Let’s check the clues in the study first.”

At least for now, they had just dealt with the maid Xiao An who had been lurking in the study. Compared to the unknowns in other places, this area was temporarily safe.

They needed to hurry and gather more clues from Yin Sen.

Beside the desk was a small display case containing a statue carved from an unknown black stone, shaped like a standing crow, about the length of an arm.

The crow hung its head, looking down, and although it had the face of a bird, the artisan’s exquisite craftsmanship captured the scrutiny and mockery in its eyes.

It seemed to be looking down on some insignificant existence, listening to their trivial wishes to pass the time.

Xiao Lu reached out, trying to pick up the statue for a closer look. The moment he touched the cold stone, a voice seemed to transcend the barriers of time and echoed in his ears.

Before him appeared a vast expanse of yellow sand, and a small figure draped in a cloak appeared.

The girl’s voice was tender and sweet, like freshly picked grapes still glistening with dew: “I want to save the oasis.”

Another voice was vague and ethereal, indistinguishable in age or gender: “This place is barren, isolated, and sparsely populated; it is not suitable for living. Why not migrate?”

“This is my home; I want to protect everyone. Father said that rootless fallen leaves cannot find a place to return to, they can only drift alone. I don’t want everyone to become like that.”

“What can you offer?”

“My eyes.”

“Let me see… Hmm… You have a pair of perfect eyes that can see through illusions and gaze directly at the essence of all things; you should already know this.”

“Yes.”

“Such eyes can help you achieve your own brilliant future, worth far more than any treasure in the world. You can be revered by thousands, possess absolute power and status, and have your name passed down for centuries.”

“And without them, you can only be a weak and ignorant ordinary person, and even worse than an ordinary person because of your blindness. You will no longer have a brilliant future, nor will you meet your destined lover; those glories etched in fate will no longer belong to you.”

“Are you still willing to exchange them?”

“I am willing.”

“Hehe… You are quite interesting.”

“As you wish, my little lamb; your homeland will no longer suffer from a lack of water, the barren land will become fertile, and the fierce winds in the desert will treat it gently.”

“Thank you, my god; the Daina tribe will forever remember your gift.”

“This is not a gift; it is merely your wish that pleases me…”

The voice vanished.

In addition, there was an ancient bronze mask and a stone tablet inscribed with a story. The content on the tablet was familiar to Xiao Lu; it was one of the entries he had seen in Principal Yang’s notebook.

But only the statue could produce sounds and images upon touch.

Xiao Lu stood up: “It seems Principal Yang was right; Yin Sen did make a wish to something.”

“But his final outcome was not very pleasant. What do you think?” Cui Yunjin asked.

Xiao Lu pondered for a moment: “Perhaps the problem lies in the ‘wish’ itself; his desire or price did not please that existence.”

The investigation had reached a point that was outside the narrative provided by the system. And these seemed to be the true secrets of the story.

The dog system had them searching for the core of the world but did not provide important clues. Was it a deliberate act of malicious amusement, or did this world contain a wealth of information that even the main system was unaware of?

If it was the latter, the main system’s behavior would imply a sneaky theft from others’ homes.

·

Two figures were frantically running down the corridor.

This was the middle-aged couple, around 40, who had entered the inn with Xiao Lu and the others. They had previously been very low-key, with almost no presence except when questioning Guo and Jiang.

But at this moment, as they ran, their speed was not inferior to that of any young person.

The woman’s coat was gone, revealing a sports tank top underneath, and her arms were muscular, unlike an ordinary middle-aged woman.

The man was already tall, and at this moment, he looked even more imposing than a tough guy in a movie. Undoubtedly, if they were to engage in a fight, even against double their number, they would not be at a disadvantage.

However, what was chasing them now were not living beings.

A group of people dressed in clothing from a century ago was relentlessly pursuing them. These figures looked ghastly. A woman in a qipao held her own head in her hands, a muscular man had no skin, and a well-dressed gentleman was missing his lower half.

Their faces were as pale as paper, and their hollow eye sockets revealed no trace of human emotion.

Only murderous intent remained.

The floor, walls, and ceiling were all filled with these irrational ghosts.

They fixated on the living beings before them, attempting to devour the two, dragging them into eternal despair like themselves.

The corridor seemed to have become a maze; the originally simple and clear path led nowhere.

“Sis,” the man suddenly spoke, “you run ahead; I’ll hold them off.”

The woman was startled: “Don’t be reckless; this situation is strange. We might be experiencing a ghost wall.”

The man looked at her ankle, which bore three claw marks, and said solemnly, “You won’t be able to run for long. We, the Luo family, cannot all die here.”

If there had been others present, they would have been surprised by the term “Luo family.” According to what they knew, these two were named Wang Ning and Zhen Xin, neither of whom had the surname Luo.

And Luo was the surname of the wealthy merchant family that had perished here long ago.

“Ning Sheng, we can’t give up yet,” the woman gritted her teeth, grabbing her brother and continuing to run forward.

Her expression was bitter: “We underestimated this place. Grandpa has always kept silent about what happened to our parents and sister back then, even preventing us from going abroad to investigate related news.”

“Maybe he was right…”

When their parents had the accident, the siblings were still studying abroad. The news of their parents’ deaths came suddenly, and the family’s avoidance of the topic was also very strange.

The siblings only knew that their father, besides being a businessman, was also a folklorist, and it was said that their parents’ deaths were related to the things they had been investigating.

They had been trying to investigate what happened back then, but separated by oceans and decades, and with the elders’ deliberate concealment and obstruction, their progress had been very limited.

It wasn’t until the news of the Autumn Twilight Inn reopening that they set foot in their unfamiliar hometown, pretending to be a couple to check into the inn, but in reality, they were there to uncover the old stories of their parents.

Little did they expect that the dangers of the past far exceeded their imagination.

It wasn’t murder, nor had they uncovered forbidden information, nor were they caught up in local power struggles, but rather an uncontrollable force.

The endless corridor looped repeatedly, and along with the attacks from the ghosts, it rapidly drained the siblings’ stamina.

They had lost count of how many times they had been attacked and how many times they had narrowly escaped with each other’s support, as if trapped in an unending nightmare, struggling in vain, unable to find hope of waking up.

Even if they were both skilled in combat, what did it matter? Their attacks could not harm these ghosts at all.

New wounds continuously appeared on their bodies, while the direction of their advance remained an unending corridor; they couldn’t even discern whether escaping the ghosts’ attacks was due to their own strength or the ghosts’ deliberate manipulation.

“Ugh—” the man let out a cry of pain as blood blossomed from his back.

A blood-soaked female ghost giggled, her bright red lips splitting open, her dark fingertips smeared with still-warm crimson.

“Ning Sheng!”

Seeing the female ghost’s fingers turn into claws, about to attack her brother again, the woman acted without thinking, throwing herself forward to shield the man, who had stopped due to pain, with her back.

To die together with our parents… could be considered a family reunion…

Luo Jingxin consoled herself sadly.

“Excuse me.” A cold voice suddenly rang out from above, as if a hallucination at the brink of death.

The two looked up in shock and saw a bony hand, with a string of white jade beads wrapped around the wrist.

“How about coming in to chat?”

…

Luo Jingxin and Luo Ning Sheng remained dazed until the surroundings quieted down. Had they truly escaped from a desperate situation, or had they fallen into a gentle near-death hallucination?

As the elder sister, Luo Jingxin was the first to regain her senses. She thanked Xiao Lu, who had extended a helping hand, and then looked around: “What is this place?”

“The study of Yin Sen; those ghosts outside should not dare to enter here,” Xiao Lu replied calmly.

“Yin Sen!”

These few words startled the siblings, who had just regained their lives. Yin Sen, if nothing went wrong, was the most ruthless existence in the Autumn Twilight Inn…

Had they actually mistaken the most dangerous place for a resting area?

“Don’t worry, Yin Sen is not here right now; he only sent a ghost maid to guard this place,” Cui Yunjin kindly explained.

“Ghost ghost ghost… maid…” Luo Ning Sheng’s tall figure stiffened, like a big teddy bear just thrown into a washing machine.

Cui Yunjin smiled and pointed behind her: “Master Lu has already dealt with it.”

The siblings glanced at the shattered mirrors scattered on the ground, their awed gazes landing on the young man in a moon-white long robe, whose demeanor was calm. They remembered that the young people had called each other “male god.”

The male god was indeed very divine.

Xiao Lu inquired about their previous experiences and learned that the two had come here to uncover the truth behind their parents’ deaths.

“The death of your parents is closely related to the ghosts here. I do not recommend that you continue to investigate; this has already exceeded the range in which you can protect yourselves.”

The siblings bit their lips; leaving just like this was certainly unsatisfactory, but seeking revenge against the ghosts was utterly absurd for them.

“Knock knock knock—” A rhythmic knocking sound suddenly came from outside the door.

The few people inside looked towards the door, but no one stepped forward to open it—there were no feet visible beneath the door.

“Master, you said that the ghosts here should…” Luo Jingxin forced herself to remain calm.

Xiao Lu stared at the door.

As far as he knew, this was Yin Sen’s territory; the ghosts weaker than him in the inn should instinctively avoid this place, especially those souls that had died at his hands, just like the student ghosts’ fear of Principal Yang.

What could make the one knocking at the door defy their instincts?

His gaze suddenly swept over the injured siblings. They were willing to risk everything to seek the truth for their tragically deceased parents; what about the one being sought?

“Can you play the pen fairy?”

The siblings clasped the pen, nervously reciting the incantation to summon the pen fairy, and then watched as the tip of the pen began to move little by little.

The pen moved slowly, the writing crooked and uneven, not as composed as it had been downstairs; it was clear that the ghost writing these words was not at ease.

【Xin Xin】

【Sheng Sheng】

The middle-aged siblings suddenly felt their eyes welling up, a sourness rising in their hearts: “Mom…”

It had been over twenty years since anyone had called them that.

【Leave, never come back】

【This is an abyss that should not be gazed upon】