According to Lan Yu's calculations, the "third stage" he had predicted should have been peace in the Yang World, with all ghosts in the Yin World sent back for remolding.
The following day would be a long-awaited stretch of calm, left for the surviving staff members to consolidate information before facing another dangerous night.
However, on the night of January 3, many people had done many things, and quite a few of them should never have happened.
The first among them was Ji Li.
His actions had been too drastic, affecting nearly every human and ghost on Old Yu Street.
To some extent, the Root Ghost's decision was likely some kind of destructive correction in response to what he had done.
The second was probably Chang Nian.
At an inappropriate moment, she had forcibly taken the lead and become the first among both humans and ghosts to enter the Yin World.
This might also have caused considerable turmoil in the Yin World, perhaps even altering the original order of this place.
But according to Lan Yu's speculation, neither Ji Li nor Chang Nian could possibly have caused consequences this severe through their actions.
Because an impact of this scale was far beyond what the living could accomplish.
"It had to be a ghost capable of shaking the foundation of the entire mission. Its intervention broke the mission's original order. That was the only explanation."
Lan Yu was one of the most knowledgeable people around, and it was easy for him to infer what had happened from the current situation.
A forty-eight-hour mission could not possibly be forcibly cut short by the Root Ghost after only twelve hours. That was an ironclad rule.
What Ji Li and Chang Nian had done could at most cause superficial disorder. Human power could never