"What do we do next, then?" Shui Rao'er's question was clearly directed at Su Jiu.
Mask Man placed his stones even more slowly. Only after a long while did he finally shift his gaze from the chessboard to Shui Rao'er's face.
An unnatural reddish flush tinged his eyes, making Shui Rao'er's heart jolt with unease.
"Wait," she heard him say.
Looking at the lush green grass before her and the blue sky that seemed to have been washed clean, Su Jiu almost had the illusion that she had already left the formation.
But Su Jiu knew she had not.
"So this is what it looks like inside the Mirror Image Formation's Final Gate."
Su Jiu shook her head. "According to ancient texts, what appears inside the Final Gate isn't fixed. The Mirror Image Formation is so powerful that the Final Gate has developed its own rules. In other words, the place we're in now probably isn't under Mask Man's control."
Yun Huanling drew a deep breath of clean air before turning back to Su Jiu. "Probably?"
"This is my first time experiencing a Mirror Image Formation, too. Most of what I know comes from books. As far as I'm concerned, I won't give a definite answer about anything I haven't personally experienced." Thus, she could only express her thoughts with her usual tentative word: "probably."
The Mirror Image Formation was still far too unfamiliar to Su Jiu, and the books devoted only a few scant lines to the Final Gate.
After all, anyone who entered a Mirror Image Formation would choose the easiest route out rather than head straight for the Final Gate as they had.
Even those who entered the Final Gate by mistake could scarcely ever emerge again, which showed just how dangerous it was.
Yet opportunity