The narrow staircase of the South Building, a path meant for ghosts, ran tight against the wall where the north and south sections met.
As Ji Li passed through the east, west, and north corridors and slowly approached it, he could clearly sense an increasingly strange feeling.
That strange feeling came from deep within him, yet had no discernible direction.
Nothing about Old Yu Street seemed different. The building facades submerged in the Red Pattern looked as though some mysterious seal had been placed upon them, glowing in time with their breathing.
Yet Ji Li could distinctly sense that something was changing. The closer he got to the South Building, the stronger that feeling became.
He lifted Pang Guijuan's severed head and studied it carefully for a while.
Her eyes remained shut, her breathing even and deep, a strange smile hanging on her lips as she lay in a relaxed sleep.
Ji Li lingered before the stairs, hesitating for a moment as he looked at the Red Pattern covering the entire building. In the end, he braced himself on the Stage Sword and stepped onto the stairs.
Every wooden step on the narrow staircase was caked in dust, as if no one had walked there for countless years.
The instant one foot landed on it, the wood let out a groan. The trembling was obvious, as though it could snap at any moment.
But when Ji Li truly stepped onto the South Building's narrow staircase, the world before his eyes underwent a tremendous change.
The faint starlight in the night sky above the cage formed by the four buildings went out in an instant. With all natural light gone, the Red Pattern alone illuminated everything.
As he stepped onto the South Building's narrow staircase, Ji Li could clearly feel the