The shadows of wolves emerged around Little Red Riding Hood, and then, with a thought from their master, silently scattered into the undulating dense fog.

Hu Li's numerous tails slowly spread out behind her. Six tails flew out of her body, circling the group like a Fox Travel Cannon, patrolling vigilantly. Another two tails were held in her arms, tip illuminated with flickering Fox Fire, ready to unleash at any moment — another tail was used for storage, drooping on the ground like an antenna.

Erin gently let her hand hang beside Yu Sheng, black threads of spider silk slipping from her fingertips. They moved through the fog like some kind of living substance, searching for any mental reactions hidden within the mist, while also guarding against any malicious entities — theoretically, the depth here was only L-2 or even L-1, but the Exotic Realm never followed logic. The depth and danger level didn't always correlate. There were instances of extremely dangerous entities appearing in shallow areas of the Exotic Realm.

Yu Sheng glanced at the people around him and sighed again — why were they all so cool!

"Honestly, I wish I could use those flashy skills like you guys," he couldn't help but mumble, "like swoosh, it doesn't matter if it's effective, just scare people..."

Erin, perched on his shoulder, turned her head: "You have your dramatic effects too, isn't your door-opening flashy enough?"

Yu Sheng sighed again and casually opened a door, pulling out his "Death by excessive bleeding with a scratch, severe injury with a hit" War Stick, resting it on his shoulder.

Erin expertly flipped and twisted to sit on the other shoulder...

Little Red Riding Hood looked at the War Stick pulled out from the door in surprise: "…You turned your door into storage space?"

"I connected the door to the basement of No. 66 Wutong Road," Yu Sheng beamed, "See, it works just like a storage space, doesn't it?"

Little Red Riding Hood clucked her tongue in wonder, while Hu Li thoughtfully watched Yu Sheng's maneuver, her thoughts unknowable. "Immortal Posture" — Yu Sheng's attention, however, was focused on the dense fog and the street scene within it.

It looked like the open space in front of the mall and the road, mirroring the real world outside.

Except the surrounding was filled with eerie dense fog, and there wasn't a soul in sight within the fog.

Yu Sheng cautiously took a few steps forward and saw the black vehicles of the Special Service Bureau — parked at the edge of the plaza, right where he remembered them.

Of course, there was no one inside the cars either.

"Is this... the world inside the mirror?" Little Red Riding Hood examined the scene with a slight frown, but soon shook her head, "No, it should just be an Exotic Realm with 'mirror characteristics'. It can reflect objects from the real world but not humans."

"Have you ever heard of this Exotic Realm?" Yu Sheng asked.

Little Red Riding Hood thought for a moment, slowly shook her head, "No... there are many Exotic Realms related to mirrors, but I've never heard of one that matches this situation."

"Savior, this fog feels strange," Hu Li murmured at this point, "It feels like something is approaching in the fog, but my Divine Sense detects nothing."

Yu Sheng turned to look at the puppet on his shoulder: "Erin, is there something nearby?"

The puppet shook its head, and Little Red Riding Hood added, "My Wolf Pack hasn't detected anything either — there's no entity formation around, nor any human scent. Logically, people shouldn't be able to run that far."

"Hmm," Yu Sheng nodded lightly, his gaze fell on the mall's entrance, "The 'brat' said he escaped from the mall, is it possible he went back inside when he saw things outside were bad?"

Erin thought for a moment: "…It's possible. Shall we go check it out?"

"Let's go check it out," Yu Sheng nodded, stepping towards the mall, also reminding the others, "Everyone stay close, Hu Li mentioned that this fog feels weird, if we get separated, who knows what might happen."

The group stayed close together, cautiously crossing the misty plaza and entering the mall through the open glass doors.

The mall was equally empty, with only the unfaltering lights illuminating the cold, desolate shops and open spaces. The thin fog pervaded, drifting softly like gauze before them.

And then, Hu Li exclaimed softly: "There are mirrors everywhere!"

The mall was filled with mirrors — shop glass doors had turned into mirrors, display screens broadcasting ads were now mirrors, even many items on the counters had transformed into mirrors of varying sizes. The few remaining items that hadn't turned into mirrors were distorted into strange shapes, resembling mis-scaled or rendering-failed geometric models, piled on shelves and counters, presenting an eldritch appearance.

Yu Sheng walked past a mirror, his gaze swept over its surface, catching sight of his reflection.

However, before he could discern any details, the mirror shattered with a "crack," instantly undergoing centuries of weathering and corrosion. The glass-like surface began to wrinkle and shrink, turning into a bundle of shriveled, charred material, silently crumbling to black dust.

Yu Sheng only remembered seeing a dark humanoid silhouette, shrouded in black mist, in that mirror.

Erin was startled by this: "…What the heck, it just shattered!"

Yu Sheng also had no idea what was going on, staring at the black dust that used to be a mirror. He instinctively bent down to touch some with his fingers, rubbing it — unsure what he hoped to find, but like in detective shows, he figured the professionals always rubbed mysterious powders like this.

After two rubs, everything around him lost color. The black and white gray world of the dead suddenly descended, and a blurry voice intruded into his mind —

"...What the hell, I'm dead!"

It took just a second for the black, white, and gray world in front of him to fade away, and normal colors and sounds returned to his senses.

Yu Sheng stood up with a confused look on his face, and a phrase jumped into his mind: Rubbing really works?

Hu Li, next to him, seemed to sense the change in Yu Sheng's aura and immediately turned his head: "Savior, what happened?"

"I seem to have discovered two things," Yu Sheng said, patting the gray off his hands with a subtle expression, "First, the mirrors here are alive. Second, I heard its last words."

Hu Li, Erin, and Little Red Riding Hood all looked flabbergasted.

Erin: "What did the last words say?"

Yu Sheng: "The last words said it died."

Erin: "...What the hell!?"

"Don't ask me, I'm just as baffled," Yu Sheng replied helplessly while frowning and cautiously glancing at the other mirrors around them.

However, the expected scene of all the mirrors shattering with a "I'm dead" did not occur—instead, the mirrors simply stopped reflecting his image.

In the largest mirror in front of them, Hu Li, and Little Red Riding Hood could still be seen standing in place, while Erin appeared to be sitting in mid-air—his image had been "cut out" of the reflection entirely.

Not even faking it anymore.

Yu Sheng frowned: "Can you guys see me in the mirror?"

"Yes," Little Red Riding Hood nodded, "You're standing right next to us, it looks totally normal... Wait, you can't see yourself?!"

Yu Sheng nodded slightly: "...That's right, I can't see myself."

So, the key wasn't "who is reflected," but "who is looking"? Or perhaps both conditions needed to occur simultaneously for the mirror to "violently die" just now?

But why? What is the underlying principle?

Yu Sheng's mind was filled with questions, and the others had even more than he did.

"I can't tell if this place is haunted, or if you're even more haunted than this place," Little Red Riding Hood looked at Yu Sheng with a strange expression, "Do you usually eat a lot of weird stuff?"

Yu Sheng: "..."

This little episode didn't affect their efficiency in searching the mall.

Hu Li's divine sense, Erin's spreading spider silk, combined with Little Red Riding Hood's continuously releasing Phantom Wolf Pack into the fog, searched the entire mall swiftly, but they found no traces of anyone hiding.

With no other options, Yu Sheng and his group returned to the outside of the mall, facing the boundless thick fog once again.

Whether it was just an illusion or not, the fog seemed even thicker than before, and now they couldn't even see the few black luxury cars at the edge of the square.

"Do you guys feel like this fog is following us," Erin suddenly murmured, "It gathers wherever we go, and it's coming at us from all directions, getting thicker and thicker."

Yu Sheng frowned. He couldn't sense this "chasing" sensation nor the "something approaching in the fog" that Hu Li had mentioned. After all, he didn't have cool abilities like the puppet's spider silk or the demon fox's divine sense, but he did feel that the atmosphere around them had begun to feel off... like his spiritual intuition was getting ready to start bouncing, currently doing warm-up exercises.

The fog was undergoing a "transformation."

From the depths of the thick fog, there seemed to come some noise.

Little Red Riding Hood's face suddenly changed: "My wolf is under attack!"

The next moment, a Shadow Wolf suddenly appeared at her side. Its body seemed to have been abruptly gnawed by something, almost cutting it in half—it let out chaotic and angry howls, but then the howls turned into defeated whimpers, and it slumped weakly back into the shadows after rubbing against its master's feet a couple of times.

The defeated wolf brought back valuable information.

Little Red Riding Hood quickly looked up: "There's a huge monster in the fog, with lots of arms, legs, and sharp teeth. Couldn't see the exact form—it can defeat a lone wolf in an instant!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Erin raised a finger to point at the mall's huge glass curtain wall: "...Is it that thing climbing down the wall?"

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