Breaking the Wall?

The writing on the bus stop sign had long since been worn away by the wind and rain.

Only the final destination was still legible: a place called X-Gate Village.

K turned his gaze away from the sign and looked at Tang Luo. "Monk, what do you think?"

As one of the only two "veterans," K felt the monk was the only person he could consult about completing the mission.

Perhaps they could help each other when the time came.

As for the other newcomers, they just needed not to hold him back.

K wasn't counting on them.

"Let's wait."

Tang Luo looked up at the sky.

The rain had darkened the sky, making it hard to tell what time it was.

If it was still early, waiting here might get them a bus.

That was the safest way to reach the final destination.

But a bus clearly headed for the outskirts of the city would probably stop running at five thirty.

If they missed the last bus, they knew almost nothing about anything related to the mission.

Finding the final destination wouldn't be so easy.

The mission was to reach the final destination and spend one night there.

Clearly, it had two parts.

If they couldn't even find the final destination, the mission would definitely fail.

And if they found it but couldn't stay there for one night, the mission would fail just the same.

There was no option to avoid completing the mission and let the experts handle it while they lay low and waited things out.

They would either succeed or fail.

There were only two possible outcomes.

"Wait?"

K frowned slightly. This laid-back attitude clearly wasn't his style.

If the bus had already gone by, waiting here would be a waste of time.

He looked down the road, toward the houses barely visible in the distance.

"I'm going over there to ask around and see if anyone's there," K said. Without asking what the others thought, he pulled up his hood and walked straight into the curtain of rain.

He wore a waterproof jacket as his outer layer.

The downpour didn't bother him at all.

The others had no such luck.

The moment they stepped outside, they'd be soaked to the skin.

Mi Ke in particular kept rubbing her arms, clearly freezing.

It was noticeably colder here than in the real world.

Auntie Shufen kindly took off her apron and handed it to Mi Ke.

It wouldn't keep her warm, but at least it could cover her up a little.

"Such a young girl, wearing so little. You're showing it all off to everyone," Auntie Shufen said.

Mi Ke smiled awkwardly.

"Tch, they're fake and squeezed out anyway. What's there to look at?"

That seemed to hit a nerve with Lin Zi'ang, who couldn't help speaking up.

Mi Ke looked even more embarrassed.

She shrank back a little, too.

"What kind of thing is that for a young man to say? Who was it just now who couldn't even gouge his own eyeballs out?" Auntie Shufen glared at him.

"You..."

"What about me? You want to start a fight?"

"I..."

"Oh, so you really do want a fight. Young people these days—"

That was what Auntie Shufen said, but she looked eager to get into it, almost raising the broom in her hand.

It was obvious that when she said "fight," she didn't mean a civilized battle of words where no one laid a hand on anyone.

"Crazy old woman!"

Lin Zi'ang swore and retreated to the side.

For the record, Auntie Shufen was only a little shorter than the Russian girl.

And by "the Russian girl," he meant the kind who'd been past her expiration date for more than twenty years.

Her arms were thick, nearly one and a half times the size of Lin Zi'ang's.

If they really fought, Lin Zi'ang probably wouldn't stand a chance.

"Amitabha Buddha."

Tang Luo chanted a Buddhist prayer to stop things from escalating. "This humble monk plans to go take a look at the houses."

K had already disappeared into the rain. It was impossible to tell whether he'd reached the houses yet.

Because of the rain, the sky wasn't very dark, but visibility was poor.

Tang Luo stood up and pulled the white hood behind his back over his head.

His outfit came with a hood.

He usually left it down, but could pull it up when needed to keep out the wind and rain—and in the dark, he could pull it low enough to hide most of his face.

"Little Master, give me a blessing before you go, would you?" Auntie Shufen said.

"All right."

Tang Luo put his palms together and recited a few lines of scripture no one understood.

"That's it?"

Auntie Shufen flexed her arms and legs.

Tang Luo nodded. Without another word, he walked into the rain and headed toward the houses.

If the three of them had sharp enough eyes,

they would have noticed that the rain falling on Tang Luo's clothes couldn't wet them at all.

It simply slid down the fabric, leaving not a trace behind.

When he reached the two houses, K looked up and studied the neighboring buildings.

Their exteriors were bare, rough cement, with no tiles or other decoration.

Beside a small, dilapidated door that looked decades old was a sliding window, with security bars on the outside.

Looking through the window, he could see nothing but darkness and a faint reflection of himself.

The screws holding the security bars were covered in rust. They had been there for years.

K slapped the small door and shouted, "Anyone home?"

He wasn't sure whether anyone lived in either of the neighboring houses.

In weather this gloomy, visibility was poor both indoors and out.

If anyone was inside, they should have turned on the lights.

Besides, these were the only two houses standing alone by the road.

Sure enough, after he knocked twice, there was no response from inside.

K punched the door hard and kicked it.

If no one was there, he'd leave.

But the moment his foot struck it, the door fell inward with a crash.

It slammed onto the floor inside, sending up a cloud of dust.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Caught off guard, K inhaled a mouthful of dust and stumbled back, coughing.

"No one's here." K peered inside.

He could just make out an empty space with only a few old pieces of furniture left.

Apart from the dust, cobwebs were everywhere.

After stepping back outside, K did the same thing to the other house, kicking its door open.

This one was empty, too.

It looked a little cleaner than the first.

At least it didn't kick up as much dust. Having learned his lesson, K didn't breathe in nearly as much this time.

After a moment's thought, K went inside.

He didn't venture up to the second floor, only looked around downstairs.

The former residents had cleared out pretty thoroughly.

K took a quick look but found nothing.

He turned to leave.

But just as he stepped through the doorway and headed outside, he suddenly stopped.

A confused look slowly spread across his face.

"Wasn't I walking out?"

K's eyes widened. In front of him was the black, gaping "room."

Behind him was the doorway he had just come through.

K spun around and looked back.

The door he'd kicked aside was still there, half in the light and half swallowed by darkness.

The light shining into the pitch-black house seemed to form a beam.

He could see dust floating in its "glow."

It looked just like tiny living organisms drifting around.

Something that should only happen under bright sunlight was appearing strangely on this rainy day.

K felt his heart begin to race.

His movements sped up, too.

He spun around and stamped forward, sprinting out through the doorway.

He rushed into a patch of darkness.

K had no choice but to stop.

His toes pressed against the front of his shoes, and they hurt.

Once again, he had somehow ended up back inside the house.

"Am I caught in a ghostly wall?"

K warily surveyed his surroundings.

He was ready to use his skill.

Including this one, K had been through three missions: he'd succeeded twice and failed once.

He had two skills.

Would he really have to use one here?

But neither skill seemed particularly suited to dealing with something like a ghostly wall.

Forget it.

There was no time to dawdle. When danger appeared, he had to act decisively.

K ran toward the door again.

This time, as he approached it, he slowed to a stop.

One foot was over the threshold, and the other was still inside.

"Not..."

Once he'd confirmed he was facing the right way, K's foot still inside the house suddenly pushed off.

He practically hurled himself outside.

Unlike the feel of the floor underfoot, the surface beneath K was wood.

He looked down. His right foot was planted on a wooden board.

Once again, he was back inside the room.

K had no idea how he'd gotten there. He hadn't even blinked.

He stayed perfectly still.

K listened closely. There wasn't a sound inside the house.

Only his breathing, the beating of his heart, and the rain outside.

He began backing away bit by bit, reached the doorway, and continued retreating.

When he finally saw himself truly leave the house, he felt a rush of joy and spun around.

"..."

His delighted expression froze. He was looking at a door.

The light coming through it was much dimmer than it had been when he first entered.

K sucked in a deep breath. Even breathing had become difficult.

It was as if something had sealed his mouth and nose shut, and covered his eyes, too.

A ghostly wall—and now a ghost covering his face?

"Come out!"

"Come out!"

K let out a roar that echoed through the house.

It drowned out the rain outside.

K bent down, hoisted the door off its hinges, and began swinging it around as if fighting an invisible enemy.

Then he hurled the door toward the window with all his might.

The window, covered with black paper on the inside, shattered. The door slammed into the security bars with a loud crash.

K charged toward the entrance again.

Then his face struck something as if it were a wall.

Pain and numbness overwhelmed him, and tears and snot streamed uncontrollably down his face.

With his eyes squeezed shut, he couldn't see what was in front of him.

He instinctively reached out, seemingly caught the doorframe, and yanked hard.

Raindrops landed on him, and Yixi felt a surge of joy.

He didn't dare open his eyes and kept charging forward with his head down.

So closing his eyes was enough to break through?

Then his head seemed to hit something. Judging by the feel of it, a hand?

Was he being held down by a "person"?

Without a moment's hesitation,

K raised his hand and unleashed his skill, Gale Slash!

A pale blue glow appeared in his palm, forming a sharp, curved gust of wind.

It slashed toward the obstacle in front of him.

The obstacle swung his other hand outward, striking the pale blue Wind Blade with the back of his hand.

Like smashing a wave, he dispersed it in an instant.

At that moment, K opened his eyes too.

"You?"

He froze. The figure before him wasn't the ghost he'd imagined.

It was a person.

The monk who called himself Xuanzang.

"Indeed, it is this humble monk. Quite a distinctive look you've got there, benefactor." Tang Luo let go.

Some spiderwebs clung to the hand that had been holding K's head, but the rain washed them away.

K reached for his head.

Only then did he realize that, at some point, his head and face had become covered in a thick layer of spiderwebs.

"Cough, cough, cough."

K began coughing loudly, his face turning bright red.