Mirror World

"Bloop!" Zhang Chen surfaced, shook the water from his head, and saw that Jia Xin had already pulled Er Wa onto the little wooden bridge. He could still stand, though his face looked terrible after swallowing so much water.

Zhang Chen swam to shore and sincerely said to Jia Xin, "Thanks."

Jia Xin smiled and quickly slipped a note into Zhang Chen's soaking-wet pocket before leaving.

Zhang Chen hurriedly caught Er Wa, unsure how to bring it up because he did not know whether Er Wa had seen that female fish monster.

"Cough, cough..." Er Wa coughed twice more.

"Second Brother, how could something go wrong with your equipment?" Zhang Chen asked tentatively.

"Damn it, cough... Who knew there was a clump of waterweed there? I always thought waterweed was nothing, that only people in movies got fake-tangled in it. Who knew it was really this dangerous?"

Zhang Chen breathed a sigh of relief. If Er Wa had really seen the female fish monster, everyone would probably have started panicking, setting off a chain reaction.

It would be absolutely unwise to flee the villa in such a panicked state. Leaving aside the dangers of the villa and the forest outside, even if they made it through the woods, Jiaoping Village beyond them was extremely dangerous in Zhang Chen's eyes.

So the only feasible plan now was to calm everyone down first, then work with Jia Xin to reduce the danger as much as possible, and finally find the source.

"Er Wa, you're all right now, aren't you? The water's pretty clean. Swallowing a little won't hurt you. Get some rest first, and come down for dinner later. I'll explain things to everyone."

In fact, underwater emergencies like this could do serious damage to a person's lungs, so rest was necessary. Zhang Chen supported Er Wa and took him back to the bedroom.

After leaving, he pulled out the small note Jia Xin had stuffed into his pocket. It read:

"Meet in the dance studio at eight tonight. Be there on time."

Zhang Chen crumpled the note into a ball and tossed it into the trash. After reaching the kitchen and telling everyone about Er Wa getting tangled in waterweed, their faces all went pale. Tan Fei immediately put down the iron pot he had been using to cook and rushed upstairs.

Wang Yizhi and Dai Xu went upstairs as well.

Before long, they actually brought Er Wa, who had supposedly been resting, back downstairs. He even insisted on helping chop vegetables, as if the incident had not affected him at all. Truly worthy of a man from Class 3, Grade 2007.

Although dinner that night consisted entirely of vegetarian dishes, it still looked plentiful: cold shredded vegetables, stir-fried shredded potatoes, eggplant with green beans, and more. The colorful dishes made everyone eat happily. Everyone present had just graduated from middle school, and most of them were probably tasting food they had cooked themselves for the first time.

Er Wa even found a whole case of beer at the bar on the second floor. Though minors were not supposed to drink, it would not be a problem for Er Wa alone to finish half a case. The students from No. 1 Middle School, who had initially been somewhat unfamiliar with one another, ended up drinking with Tan Fei and Er Wa as though they were sworn brothers.

Naturally, Zhang Chen claimed that he could not drink, since he still had something important to do that night.

After eating and drinking their fill, everyone returned to their rooms. They had all been tired from the day's events and naturally went to sleep early.

Zhang Chen sat in his room and saw that there were still forty minutes until eight. He began considering his plan for going to the dance studio. Based on what Shen Qiutian had described, the problem should lie with the mirror. If so, the thing in the dance studio this time was another creature capable of hiding within an object, the type Zhang Chen hated most.

If it really is fused with the mirror, it'll depend on whether Jia Xin can force its physical form out. As long as he can force it out, it'll be much easier to deal with. Zhang Chen felt that having a partner might actually be quite good.

But although Jia Xin has been helping me at every turn, it still feels like he's hiding quite a lot. And I don't know if it's just my imagination, but his true nature doesn't seem to match what he shows others. If I had to compare him to an animal, he's like a desert scorpion—able to hide in the sand, then deliver a fatal strike to an enemy that discovers him.

After this is settled, I can ask him a few questions. Zhang Chen stopped thinking about it and changed into a cheap tank top and shorts, making it easier to move around.

At eight o'clock, with everyone already back in their rooms, the entire first floor of the villa was shrouded in darkness.

Zhang Chen carefully opened his door and went downstairs. To his surprise, Jia Xin was already standing before a painting on the first floor, studying it intently.

Zhang Chen walked over as well. By the moonlight streaming into the villa, he saw the image in the painting: a middle-aged woman in a white ballet outfit, balanced on her toes in a dancing pose. Beneath the picture was an English name:

"Camille Rodin."

"This should be the villa owner's wife, right?" Zhang Chen said, noticing that they shared the same surname.

"She's the one we're going to kill tonight." Jia Xin turned and said to Zhang Chen.

"How do you know?"

"Just guessing."

Zhang Chen could not even force a laugh. In a situation like this, Jia Xin was still joking around.

"Let's go." Jia Xin turned and headed straight for the dance studio, with Zhang Chen following close behind.

"Creeeak—" The long sound of the door opening echoed through the silent hall.

The two of them walked directly to the center of the room before stopping. With the mirrors reflecting the moonlight, the room was brighter than the first floor outside.

"Can you sense anything?" From the moment he entered, Zhang Chen had unleashed his Telekinesis to carefully examine every corner of the room, but he found nothing unusual.

"No," Jia Xin said.

"Didn't you say you had a way tonight?"

"I do have a way, but it's a little dangerous."

"Quit being mysterious. Let's hear it."

"My master once said that ghosts attached to mirrors are extremely difficult to deal with. Most of them loved looking in mirrors when they were alive. In their eyes, their reflection was even more beautiful than their real selves."

"There is another condition: they must have been killed by someone else, and died in front of a mirror. Watching their own miserable death, the resentment in their hearts overflowed. They abandoned their flesh and fused their souls with the mirror."

"After enough time passes, even when they find the murderer who killed them and vent all their hatred, they still refuse to leave the mirror."

After hearing this, Zhang Chen asked, "Then what danger were you talking about?"

"Creatures like this abandon their flesh for so long and treat the mirror as their body that, over time, they truly become part of the mirror. I have no way to lure it out."

"However, our sect has an array called the Five Elements Reversal Array for dealing with mirror ghosts. We can use it to enter the mirror and find the monster's true form, then kill it."

"That doesn't sound too difficult." Zhang Chen was rather amazed that Jia Xin possessed so many magical artifacts at such a young age.

"Once we enter the world inside the mirror, it will be the creature's territory, making it extremely troublesome to handle. Second, the world inside the mirror is reversed from reality. Under my master's guidance, I entered the reversed mirror world many times before I could adapt to it. Once you go in, I'll stall the ghost first. You must adapt as quickly as possible."

Jia Xin looked very serious as he spoke. Zhang Chen could hear the danger in his words. He could only vaguely imagine what a reversed world was like. He would have to experience it for himself after entering.

"When you're ready, I'll begin." After saying that, Jia Xin grabbed a handful of crystal-like sand grains from the bag at his waist and scattered them in a circle around the center of the room. Then he took out five small flags and planted them at equal intervals along the ring of sand.

"Stand inside with me," Jia Xin said.

The next second, both of them stepped into the array. The crystal sand around them slowly floated into the air and adhered to Zhang Chen and Jia Xin's bodies. Then Zhang Chen suddenly felt as though something had been stripped away, and the crystal sand on his body fell to the ground.

"It worked," Jia Xin muttered.

Zhang Chen could also clearly sense an unsettling aura and a feeling of danger. Yet when he tried to turn his head to the left, it actually tilted right. When he tried to raise his left hand, his right hand rose instead.

Every command issued by his brain had been reversed.

Beside him, Jia Xin skillfully pulled a small compass from his waist. Seeing Zhang Chen's condition, he said, "The ghost doesn't seem to be in this room. I'll go out and meet it first. One more thing: the mirrors in this Mirror World cannot show our reflections, but they can show that creature. So we can use mirrors to find it."

With that, Jia Xin took the compass and left alone.

Zhang Chen remained there, slowly adjusting to his body. Gradually, he was able to perform some basic movements, but if he encountered a ghost now, he would basically be dead for sure.

Zhang Chen slowly turned his head and looked at the mirror before him. Just as Jia Xin had said, there was no reflection of himself in it. Looking around, he realized that this was still the dance studio.

"Although there's an uncomfortable aura here, the ghost itself doesn't seem to be here." Zhang Chen slowly released his Telekinesis and checked the surroundings. To his delight, his Telekinesis did not seem to have been reversed.

"I should go out and take a look first." Zhang Chen slowly walked out of the dance studio step by step. When he pushed open the door, the scene outside was exactly the same as reality. If he had not known beforehand, he might never have realized this was the Mirror World.

The right-side corridor on the second floor of the Mirror World.

Jia Xin frowned as he followed the direction indicated by the Spirit Guiding Needle up to the second floor. What troubled him was that the mirror ghost seemed to have targeted one of his classmates.

The moment he reached the second floor, the Spirit Guiding Needle pointed straight toward the right side, where the rooms for his class were located. As he walked down the right-side corridor, the needle accurately pointed to one room. The person inside was Shen Qiutian, who had danced in the studio that afternoon.

"The simple treatment this morning still wasn't enough. Why does it have to cling to Shen Qiutian? Because she likes dancing?" Jia Xin could not wait any longer.

In an instant, four long, thin silver needles appeared between the fingers of his left hand—the same needles that had driven back the female fish monster that afternoon.

Creak! The door was not locked, and Jia Xin opened it with a twist.

No one lay on the two-and-a-half-meter bed anymore. Shen Qiutian stood motionlessly by the window with her back to Jia Xin, dressed in white pajamas. Combined with her waist-length hair, the sight was truly terrifying.

"Qiutian," Jia Xin called softly. He knew that Shen Qiutian would definitely turn around if she heard his voice. Yet Shen Qiutian remained completely still.

"Possession?" Jia Xin looked at the compass in his right hand. Its needle pointed firmly at Shen Qiutian by the window. The silver needles in his left hand were ready to strike.

Step by step, Jia Xin slowly approached Shen Qiutian while continuously calling her name. He was finally about to reach her, yet she still did not move.

Suddenly, Shen Qiutian, with hair reaching her waist, spun around and tightly embraced Jia Xin before he could react. Jia Xin saw that her eyes had turned completely white. She was definitely possessed.

However, the compass in Jia Xin's right hand suddenly began spinning, its needle pointing behind him.

"Damn, I fell for it." Jia Xin hurriedly flicked the compass with his right thumb. The compass, which had been a needle, transformed into a mirror.

Shen Qiutian's strength was astonishing, and Jia Xin could only use the mirror to see behind himself.

In the mirror stood a woman without a head or toes, dressed in a white ballet costume, waiting at the doorway...

P.S. Thanks to the reader "Yutianzhe" for this book's first reward. Thank you!