The man in the black suit walked at the front, with Chen Fu right behind him. The two ordinary people were in the middle, and Ruan Xing was at the rear.

This was the group's formation.

Yang Fan kept glancing behind them. When he finally noticed that there was no movement from the back, he suddenly turned his head. "Where is he?"

He ran a few steps toward the outside, looked around, and saw only injured civilians passing by and staff members hurrying around. That tall figure was nowhere to be found, as if he had vanished into thin air.

The suited man was the calmest. "Let's go inside. We will check the Quarantine Center's surveillance later."

Chen Fu nodded.

Since the man in the suit was from the Enforcement Division, he arranged for Yang Fan and Huang Mao to be taken care of, then went with Chen Fu to the monitoring room.

When they got a clear look at the footage, everyone in the room gasped.

After Yang Fan and Huang Mao entered the monitored area, the moment Ruan Xing lifted his leg to step forward, he just… disappeared into thin air.

"Wait. Play it in slow motion," the man in the black suit said, still managing to keep his composure.

At an extremely slow speed, they could see it clearly.

When the young man stepped through the doorway, he showed no sign of noticing anything. It was as if he had walked straight into another space... first his toes, then his leg, then his whole body vanished from the camera.

What's going on?

Everyone looked at each other. Even the Quarantine Center staff had no idea what had just happened.

The key point was, the detection instruments reported nothing abnormal. The pollution level was normal.

If it wasn't pollution, then what was it?

Meanwhile, Ruan Xing coldly watched the "teammate" who had melted into a puddle of water and raised his eyelids slightly.

Fu Gui let out a startled cry. "Good grief, what's this? An impostor followed us all the way?"

Ruan Xing said, "Doesn't seem like it."

He glanced at his wristband. Strangely, there was no indication that the pollution level exceeded the limit.

No pollution?

Or was it hidden deeper?

Ruan Xing lifted his gaze. The bustling scene in the Quarantine Center's lobby had vanished, leaving the place completely empty, like a ghost town.

Behind him, the way they had come was still visible, but it looked hazy and unnaturally stiff, like a flat image pasted onto some obstacle, blocking his way forward.

The automatic door beeped in protest because he had stood there too long.

Ruan Xing stepped into the Quarantine Center again. He had been here many times before.

But now, everything he saw felt strange.

The decorations were exactly the same, yet his whole body felt uncomfortable.

It was odd. The discomfort was not due to the lack of people, but rather to the environment itself.

It was like the place where you had lived your whole life. Everything looked exactly as you remembered, but one day, when you saw it again, it no longer felt familiar, even though you knew it was the place you knew best.

That rift between perception and recognition created the abnormality.

However, the problem was that he couldn't determine whether the abnormality stemmed from his perception or his recognition of it.

The Quarantine Center had been converted from a hospital, so its facilities were similar. The building in front was the former outpatient building, with a skylight and a semicircular reception desk below.

When they reached the front desk, Fu Gui finally realized the source of the discomfort.

Everything here matched reality exactly, but it was all reversed.

The position of the chairs, the direction of the front desk, the placement of the plants: the details were identical, but all flipped.

They had entered a mirror world.

It's like seeing a mirrored version of your own photo on your phone. It was still you, but somehow it no longer looked like you, and most people would think they looked worse in the mirrored version.

Look at mirrored objects for too long, and everything starts to feel strangely unfamiliar.

Fu Gui flew up toward the skylight and circled down. "No good. This is just a model room. All the corridors are sealed shut. It looks spacious, but it's just an illusion created by reflections."

Whoever had brought them here didn't want to attack. It seemed that they only wanted to trap them.

The mycelium crawled down from Ruan Xing's hair, curling slightly as if studying the surroundings.

Ruan Xing tried touching a door handle, but what he felt was cold glass.

Fu Gui was right, these rooms were fake. The problem was, in a place full of mirrors, how could you find the exit?

Follow the rules of the one who made them, or break through as quickly as possible?

Ruan Xing chose the latter.

Countless black arrows were ready, shooting rapidly toward the surroundings.

But unexpectedly, the sound of shattering glass never came. Ruan Xing watched as the arrows passed through the mirrors, leaving ripples like water.

It was as if the mirrors swallowed them.

Then came the sharp whistle of something breaking through the air.

The mycelium instantly spread out, blocking the incoming arrows from behind. The arrows that were the very ones Ruan Xing had fired.

Swallowing the attack and sending it back?

This mirror… was strange.

Fu Gui's tone turned heavy. "This ability reminds me of someone."

"Who?"

Ruan Xing waved his hand, dispersing the arrows.

"Pei Yi."

Ruan Xing knew the name. Even Chen Fu had mentioned it before.

"But he's a wind ability user, right?" Ruan Xing asked.

He remembered Chen Fu saying the man had wind powers.

Fu Gui looked up at the changing surroundings. The scene of the Quarantine Center's lobby began to melt away, revealing its true form: just mirrors.

And what were mirrors in their true form?

They reflected everything around them.

Countless mirrors enclosed them, reflecting Ruan Xing and Fu Gui from every angle, replacing the original lobby. In the empty space, their reflections moved as they moved.

Ruan Xing didn't panic at the sight.

Fu Gui continued, "Yes, wind ability, like Pei Ye. But Pei Yi is a knight. After fusing with purification powers, he changed."

"So, he awakened mirror powers?"

Fu Gui hesitated. "No, he didn't awaken it himself. This should be an ability taken from a pollutant."

Ruan Xing froze. "What?"

Humans can take abilities from pollutants?

Fu Gui nodded gravely. "In fact, research into this matter started in the Tower a long time ago."

"Pei Ye became a knight after killing a mirror monster during one of those selections."

"In that same selection, Pei Ye and Pei Yi both participated. After that, the two went their separate ways."

Ruan Xing didn't expect such a story. He shook his head. "Brothers turning against each other, what a pity."

"But you don't seem certain that it's him?"

Fu Gui nodded. "As far as I know, this mirror's ability is to ambush people, pull them into a mirror space, and kill them. It doesn't have surveillance capabilities."

He meant the feeling of being watched that Ruan Xing had experienced earlier.

Fu Gui had felt it too.

"Maybe Pei Yi got stronger?" Fu Gui spread his wings in a shrug. "After all, as they say, you should look at someone with new eyes after three days apart."

Ruan Xing didn't know that the saying didn't quite fit here. He only felt that the mirrors around them were beginning to tremble.

In the layered mirror space, countless reflections of Ruan Xing and Fu Gui appeared. But now, the crow in the mirrors had disappeared, leaving only Ruan Xing.

In the mirrors, all those "Ruan Xings" turned their heads to look at him, expressionless.

Fu Gui muttered, "Uh-oh, I think your comment about brothers turning against each other hit a nerve."

The mirrored images of Ruan Xing grew larger and clearer. Then one of them lunged out from the mirror.

【Haste】

Ruan Xing dodged the creatures, but the mirrors seemed endless. More and more figures poured out, until they were packed so densely that it appeared like there was no end.

Not just from the mirrors around him. Bodies also began falling from the mirrors above.

"Thud, thud…"

They hit the ground with loud impacts.

A rain of himself fell, each pale face turned toward him, making his skin crawl.

They seemed to feel no pain, standing up stiffly and rushing toward him. The once-spacious scene now felt crowded with human figures.

Countless identical faces looked up at him, their eyes filled with venom and resentment, like the deadliest poison.

Seeing so many copies of yourself wearing the same hateful expression was more of a mental blow than a physical attack.

Ruan Xing frowned. Fu Gui grew angry at the sight. "Pei Yi! Are you working with Yin Zhu to ambush people now?"

The sheer number of falling bodies was overwhelming. Some landed too close for Ruan Xing to avoid. When they brushed against him, it was as if they gained awareness. Those faces, full of venom and hate, burned into his vision like a brand.

Countless pale, veined hands reached for him.

But Ruan Xing had seen tricks like this before. Unmoved, he only looked thoughtful.

When one of them grabbed his hand, he felt a force trying to pollute him. But with one cycle of magic through his body, the faint pollution was erased.

The mycelium formed a circle around him, keeping the monsters away.

But he was puzzled. These were real human bodies. A bit polluted, but still alive.

More importantly, where did they come from?

Could the mirrors lead to another space?

Fu Gui grew anxious. "We need to leave now!"

At this rate, they would be buried before they could find the way out.

Ruan Xing nodded.

A clear, mysterious chant echoed through the mirrored space. The monsters' expressions softened, and then, as if the rain had been paused, they stopped moving.

Back in the candy city, Ruan Xing had used the other half of this magic,【Death Aria】, to save Su Xiaona from being surrounded by robots. Now, facing countless versions of himself, he chose mercy.

【Holy Aria】

The monsters smiled peacefully, as if seeing the most beautiful thing in the world. They slowly curled up on the ground and stopped breathing.

Then Ruan Xing saw ripples spread through the mirrors again.

As the mirrors trembled, their ability to reflect everything weakened. The "Ruan Xings" on the ground revealed their true faces.

To Ruan Xing's surprise, once the disguises faded, they revealed the white-haired humans who had disappeared from the cave in the Holy City.