Newcomer

Bai Yanliang settled into the old house on Qingyi Street. Although he occasionally caught sight of strange shadows in the old locust tree during this time, nothing else bizarre occurred.

To Bai Yanliang's surprise, Gao Fei's profession turned out to be a criminal investigator, but... he was not a typical officer; he was a forensic pathologist.

He was the type of investigator who utilized various technical means to conduct on-site medical examinations, medical follow-up evidence collection, live medical examinations of injuries, autopsies, symptom analysis, relic identification, and special physical examinations—a whole suite of forensic medical procedures.

When Gao Fei first stammered out that he was a forensic pathologist, Bai Yanliang simply said, "That's impressive," and showed no other reaction.

This caused Gao Fei's favorable impression of Bai Yanliang to increase significantly.

However, his work was always busy; he often returned home in the early hours of the morning and wouldn't wake up until one or two in the afternoon.

Overall, the two of them got along quite pleasantly.

Bai Yanliang sat on a stone bench, holding a book he had borrowed from Gao Fei—a textbook on forensic medicine.

Come to think of it, more than half a month had passed since Du Shangjing had contacted him, and if nothing went wrong...

Just as he thought this, Bai Yanliang suddenly felt his heart skip a beat.

Is it here?

He could clearly feel a strange, suffocating sensation welling up from the bottom of his heart.

Thump-thump—thump-thump—

Bai Yanliang's heart was beating rapidly, uncontrollably fast.

This was that feeling...

This was the summons of the Mist Gathering.

Bai Yanliang reached into his collar and pulled out a silver key.

To prevent losing it, he had strung it onto a necklace and wore it around his neck.

This time, his limbs did not lose control.

He really wanted to test what would happen if he forcibly resisted this feeling and refused to open the door.

But... his reason told him that doing so right now would definitely not lead to anything good.

Bai Yanliang stood up and inserted the silver key into the keyhole of his bedroom door.

Just like last time, the key and the keyhole, which looked completely incompatible, clicked open.

Bai Yanliang gave it a gentle push, and the door... opened.

The Mist Gathering was filled with chaotic mist, and dense crowds of figures had already appeared ahead.

Bai Yanliang discovered that he was actually the last one to arrive.

Of the previous batch of newcomers, aside from the deceased Shen Changrong, even that somewhat strange Qi Nian had arrived early.

Speaking of Shen Changrong, Bai Yanliang had inquired about him during the month. Not only about Shen Changrong, but he had even searched for information regarding the Ruyi Inn in Yingcheng.

However, the results were not satisfactory.

Shen Changrong had become a missing person, and the shares he held in the Baisheng United Group were rapidly carved up.

Even more bizarre was the Ruyi Inn in the real world.

Bai Yanliang could not find any information about the Ruyi Inn at all. Whether in newspapers or on the internet, this inn, which had claimed several lives in the Mist Space, seemed to have evaporated from the face of the earth. No... to be precise, it was more like a keyword that had been blocked.

Perhaps it still existed, but its existence had been blocked, or even erased, from the fundamental level of cognition.

This was the only explanation Bai Yanliang could think of.

"Mr. Bai, you're here?"

Zhou Li greeted Bai Yanliang with a friendly attitude.

Previously, Du Shangjing had posted the task process that Bai Yanliang had summarized into the group chat.

Everyone had carefully read through the sequence of events.

Most people saw the eeriness and terror, but only a small number saw Bai Yanliang's extraordinary way of thinking and his thought process.

Among them was Zhou Li.

Zhou Li was handsome and young, with a promising future. Although he was trapped in this bizarre and terrifying place, he had not completely lost hope.

He believed that one day he would be able to get out alive and completely rid himself of this damned curse.

To achieve this goal, relying on his own strength alone was far from enough. Therefore, Zhou Li had been observing, watching for those in the Mist Gathering who were "qualified" to escape the curse with him.

Fortunately, although there weren't many such people, the number still exceeded Zhou Li's expectations. Several people were exceptionally capable, although... they weren't ranked at the top of the Mist Gathering, but that was only because they had entered later.

In Zhou Li's view, Bai Yanliang was one of these people.

Although his name was currently at the very bottom, his potential might far exceed the vast majority of those ranked ahead of him.

Bai Yanliang nodded in response to Zhou Li's greeting.

There were quite a few people looking at him now, but there were few whose names and faces Bai Yanliang could match up. He knew very little about his unfortunate "companions" before him.

"Bai Yanliang!" Li Yuejun walked toward him.

Bai Yanliang looked at her; beside her, Jiang Li and Xu Zhi'an were also walking toward him.

"We originally wanted to contact you in reality, but... Mr. Du said you don't really like being disturbed in the real world."

Hearing this, Bai Yanliang looked up at Du Shangjing and shook his head slightly: "It's fine, I just don't like posting in the group chat."

That Mr. Du had asked him a very strange question last time: what did it mean to "feel like something is not quite right with yourself"?

Perhaps he had misunderstood something, or perhaps... there were certain things Bai Yanliang was unaware of.

The group stood scattered, not huddling together; they were clearly demarcated, with a palpable sense of distance, even among the trio of Li Yuejun and the others.

Bai Yanliang remembered that Li Mu had said last time not to trust anyone.

And that "Feng Yiru" had also said not to trust Feng Xiuxue.

Perhaps... there were rules in Mist Gathering that Bai Yanliang did not know about?

Just then, a change occurred...

Bai Yanliang and his group watched with their own eyes as a door opened in the void, and a strange figure stepped through.

Bai Yanliang was very familiar with that door, because it was... a hospital door.

He had spent ten whole years in a hospital, even if it was a psychiatric hospital.

"How come there is only one newcomer this time?" a puzzled voice rang out.

Li Mu stood silently in the distance, watching the door open in the void and the figure entering, lost in thought.

Du Shangjing stood beside him, his brows locked in a deep frown.

"Mist Gathering is becoming more and more abnormal. Newcomers are becoming Grudge-Bound, Wei Xiu's team was wiped out, and Yu Hanzhou's team even had curses starting from within Mist Gathering. And this time, Mist Gathering didn't even replenish the total number to forty-nine? It only added one newcomer..."

"Li Mu..."

Li Mu shook his head slightly, his incredibly ordinary face revealing no expression.

"I don't know, and there's no need to know. The only thing we need to consider right now is how to survive the mission."

Du Shangjing opened his mouth, but was left speechless.

Over there, the sole newcomer had already slowly emerged from the gray mist and appeared before everyone.

"Excuse me... where... is this?"

A gentle woman's voice drifted out from the mist. She was in her early twenties, her eyes as bright as autumn water, her unadorned face still lovely, with long hair draped loosely over her shoulders. As she asked this, there was no fear on her face, only a faint sense of confusion.

Everyone's gaze toward her couldn't help but freeze, not because of her beauty, but because she... was actually sitting in a wheelchair.