After Ruan Xing and Ming Zhi had put the things away, they went to check on the humans in the cave. They'd thought Lloyd would arrange things properly, but at that time, the sinkhole was already completely empty.

Not long after, Lloyd was also killed.

Ruan Xing never imagined he would see those humans here. For a moment, he even felt a little dazed.

Perhaps it was because of pollution, or perhaps for some other reason, but now these white-haired humans were no longer as dull and vacant as they had been in the sinkhole. Instead, they had become extremely aggressive.

The owner of this mirror space was most likely the one who had killed all the pollutants in Mist City.

A suspicion that had already been forming was now confirmed, yet Ruan Xing didn't feel any joy. Looking at the humans before him, who had completely turned into pollutants, his expression grew unusually grave.

Fu Gui spat. [No doubt about it. Pei Yi is probably one of the culprits, and the other is likely Will. After so many years, that bastard hasn't changed a bit in his twisted ways.]

The mirrors around them rippled more and more violently, as if someone were shaking a basin of water. Ruan Xing could barely keep his balance and felt as though his feet were slowly being swallowed by the mirrors.

Just like Ming Zhi's spatial ability, if it could hold this many humans, then there must also be space inside the mirrors.

Ruan Xing floated up so he wouldn't be dragged in by the shifting mirrors, but the human corpses were drawn in, just like when they had first arrived. Slowly, like drowning victims, they sank away into the glass and disappeared.

Just as he had suspected, there was space inside the mirrors, and not a small one.

The mirrors around him melted like water. Before, it was still possible to tell up from down and left from right. But now, all Ruan Xing could see was emptiness. When he walked on the floor, his steps made a tap, tap sound, yet there was no reflection of any scenery, not even the place where his feet landed.

All of his attacks met no feedback, as if the mirrors' reflective properties had vanished.

Just as he was about to try breaking through with brute force again, a figure suddenly appeared in the glass.

It was Ruan Xing himself.

The same trick again?

He looked at the face in front of him with disdain and sent an arrow. However, the scene he had expected, one where he could easily take care of it, didn't happen.

In front of the fake Ruan Xing, a snow-white wall appeared, woven from mycelium.

He didn;t expect it to copy the mycelium ability. Realizing this, he followed up by sweeping flames toward the figure.

But the figure chanted water magic, and a water sphere extinguished the fire.

Interesting.

Ruan Xing thought of something Fu Gui had once mentioned: the concept of "feeding an artificial intelligence."

Initially, it only produced crude imitations. But once it gathered enough information, it could evolve on its own, perfectly copying the original.

It was obvious the figure opposite him wouldn't answer any of his questions.

The mycelium seemed to lose its temper and lunged at the copy, but surprisingly, the fake's mycelium could block the sharpness of its own.

The real one froze for a moment, then attacked more fiercely, the two masses of white filaments tangling together.

What surprised Ruan Xing even more was that the fake acted half a second before he did, as if it could predict his moves.

He dodged a fireball that came his way, a lock of his hair singed by the flames.

The fake "Ruan Xing" was unscathed.

Ruan Xing frowned in displeasure. He thought of Pei Yi's wind ability.

Could it sense air flow during movement and deduce the opponent's next move?

Fu Gui spoke. "The pollution in this one is spread evenly. It's not the mastermind. There's no fatal point. The real culprit is still behind the scenes."

Ruan Xing's mind raced through all the magic he could use at the moment.

The mirrors could reflect abilities, but there had to be limits. What if the energy was strong enough to break the rules?

He stared at the fake, reciting a long incantation as a powerful force gathered inside him.

The fake Ruan Xing lifted its eyelids, watched his lips, and spoke the same incantation. An invisible wind began to swirl around them.

Fu Gui's feathers were blown in all directions, and he clung to Ruan Xing's clothes to avoid being blown away.

In the strong winds, the mycelium was like a rootless plant, blown far away and squeaking in protest.

It was as if two invisible blades were dueling in the confined space. The shrill scraping against the mirror walls made one's teeth ache, and Fu Gui's feathers stood on end as if shocked by electricity.

The surroundings began to warp. The space was enclosed, so there was no loud outside wind, but that same enclosure created a substantial enough pressure difference to make some of the mirrors tremble.

Seeing this, Ruan Xing continued to pour power into it. The empty scene was lifted in one spot, revealing a bare surface beneath.

The scenery was just a set, and under external force, it finally revealed a weakness.

Fu Gui peeked through and saw a pure void behind it. Not even the kind of boundary seen in polluted zones, but absolute darkness.

"What the hell?"

It looked back at Ruan Xing and felt the energy in the space growing stronger and stronger. The pressure was so great that it was hard to breathe. The walls were fragile. Once one fell, more and more mirror pieces were blown away.

But Ruan Xing didn't stop. The wind around them grew stronger. In the eye of the storm, Ruan Xing stood unmoving, and the fake wore an expression of grim determination.

Yet Fu Gui clearly saw cracks appear on the fake Ruan Xing's face.

It wasn't an illusion. As the clash between the two forces intensified, the cracks deepened. When the fake lifted its head, the components making it up seemed ready to shatter at any moment. Even over the roaring wind, the sharp crack of breaking could be heard.

Suddenly—BANG!—a loud shatter, and the fake exploded into countless tiny fragments.

In the end, it was the fake who lost the fight.

Ruan Xing finished his incantation, and the violent storm swept through the mirror space.

Through the countless mirror shards, Ruan Xing thought he saw a pair of calm eyes.

—

Crash!

A long blade came down, and a moth as tall as a person was sliced in two in front of Fu Zhi. The mother holding her child buried the child's head against her shoulder, her heart still racing, and kept thanking the man with the sword.

Fu Zhi flicked the liquid from his blade and didn't sheathe it. "The Quarantine Center is not far. You can come with me."

The mother looked at him and nodded firmly.

Fu Zhi didn't mind having one more person with him. Seeing no reply to the messages on his wristband, his brow furrowed.

Where did Ruan Xing go, and why didn't he respond?

Just then, a message from Chen Fu arrived: 【We have arrived at the Quarantine Center, but Ruan Xing may have been caught in a polluted zone. Come quickly.】

A shadow of gloom flashed through Fu Zhi's eyes.

If it were only ordinary pollutants, that would be one thing. But if the Tower or Will appeared, he couldn't guarantee Ruan Xing's safety.

After all, Fu Zhi himself had suffered more than once at Will's hands.

When the seal was lifted, memories of the vanished Mist City had also returned.

The moment he had entered the Mage Tower, everything came back. His mistake was made out of longing, having been used by the Tower, and even forgetting himself… countless emotions surged through him.

The golden-haired man's soft voice rang out, affectionate in tone, like speaking to a treasured possession, but the words were more terrifying than any ghost.

"Fu Zhi, bringing people to try to destroy this place, this is how you repay me?"

"Your master is gone. He died long ago."

"Only remembering now… how foolish, Fu Zhi. You deserve it."

Remembering that golden-haired man, even Fu Zhi couldn't suppress his killing intent.

The child seemed to sense something and began crying. The mother apologized over and over, soothing the child, afraid Fu Zhi might abandon them on the road.

"Get in."

Fu Zhi drove a vehicle from the Quarantine Center. It was spacious. When the mother got in, she saw a bouquet of lilies of the valley in the back seat.

Even before the apocalypse, these flowers had been outrageously expensive. She wondered where he had found them.

She was startled for a moment, then avoided the flowers and sat with the child at the edge.

The child found the flowers fascinating and reached for them, but the mother stopped him. Through the rearview mirror, she studied the man in front of her.

A figure she had only seen on TV now sat before her, making her heart pound.

Fu Zhi drove quickly, and before long, they reached the Quarantine Center. It was already in chaos as someone had turned into a moth shortly before he arrived.

This was inevitable. The infection spread so rapidly that, within just ten minutes, people lost their reason, and within only an hour, they could reach the second stage.

After handing the two over to the staff, Fu Zhi went straight to the monitoring room.

The man in the black suit saluted. "Major General!"

Fu Zhi nodded in return. After watching the footage, he asked a question.

"On the way here, did you feel anything strange?"

Chen Fu and the man in the suit exchanged looks. "No."

"You mean we were being watched from the start?" Chen Fu asked.

Fu Zhi nodded, then rephrased it. "Did you feel like you were being watched?"

Chen Fu's face changed. "I thought it was the surveillance cameras! So that was when we were targeted!"

Fu Zhi nodded, his expression still grim. "It's the Tower."

The man in the suit asked cautiously, "The Tower made a move, but why?"

Perhaps only by asking the person involved could they know.

Fu Zhi rubbed the hilt of his sword and told the suited man, "Find me a mirror."

Ruan Xing stood in complete darkness. He had thought that once the mirrors vanished, he would return to reality. However, the owner of this space proved to be far more troublesome than he had expected.

The space was vast, its boundaries unseen. Ruan Xing was certain it wasn't the edge of a polluted zone, but he wasn't sure where it was.

As he walked forward, his footsteps echoed, sounding just like when he had stepped on the mirrors earlier.

Up ahead, not far away, countless pale limbs appeared, thrown on the ground like garbage.

A mountain of corpses... truly a mountain, so high he could barely see the top.

The stench hit his nose so hard it nearly made him retch.

These humans, or non-humans, had long since lost their lives. No one knew how long they'd been dead.

Some had faces growing from their hands, or a navel where their face should have been. Others looked like hybrids of insects and animals. Anything imaginable, or unimaginable, could be found in this heap, like creations from a surreal painter's brush, with no pattern at all.

On their faces, Ruan Xing saw no sign of death. It was as if they were still alive, glaring at the world with pure hatred.

There were also many figures of normal humans, their bodies covered in bruises and stitched scars, tubes stuck into them like discarded medical waste, every face twisted in a grimace.

Looking at the toy-like monster corpses and the familiar white-haired deformed humans, Ruan Xing finally realized where he was.

He was now on the back side of the mirrors.

And just as he understood this, a black-haired figure appeared before him.

It was Pei Yi.