This door was like a natural gateway.

On one side was swirling mist, ruins, darkness, and crumbling decay. On the other side was sapphire blue sky, porcelain white clouds, gentle breeze, and the sounds of the bustling world.

Was this the exit?

Cao Yanhua couldn’t help but walk forward two steps, craning his neck to look, when he suddenly heard Mu Dai loudly asking: “Where’s Luo Ren? Where’s Yi Wansan?”

In that thin layer of mist, there was mocking, strange laughter, then as if overlapping, one shadow overlapped another, merging into one, then merging again.

Finally, only one remained, just like with fierce spirits – at first you thought they each had different purposes, but later discovered that despite different appearances, they all spoke of the human heart.

Mu Dai felt that was Xiao Qi, still wearing around its neck the shoe she had angrily thrown at it.

It said: “They can’t come out anymore. You should leave. If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late.”

Mu Dai treated its words like nonsense: “Was it you who used sweet words to trick Luo Ren and the others so they can’t come out?”

Xiao Qi laughed loudly, its upper body folding over one hundred and eighty degrees, stacking with its lower body. At first glance, it looked like it had been cut in half at the waist.

It said: “No, we never said a single word to them.”

Luo Ren acted calmly, accustomed to gathering information from all sides before making his own judgments. Yi Wansan was already a clever ghost himself, the kind who could turn around and con the con men.

Perhaps the fierce spirits also understood their respective natures, knowing that when talking to smart people, the more you say the more mistakes you make, so they simply said nothing at all.

Mu Dai’s mind was in chaos.

Actually, with a fierce spirit as companion, things became simple multiple choice questions – you either believe it, don’t believe it, or selectively believe it. At most there were only three choices.

But if you had to figure everything out on your own, with Luo Ren’s excessive caution and Yi Wansan’s suspicion of everything, being too clever for their own good, this problem would branch out in countless directions, and they would sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of the Viewing Four Mirages Tower.

Xiao Qi said: “I told you from the beginning that I’m a good person trying to help you get out, but you just wouldn’t believe me. I’ve said every good word and bad word there is to say. If you don’t leave now, I won’t let you leave anymore. I’m going to turn hostile now.”

Fine tremors arose on Mu Dai’s arms. She couldn’t say exactly what these fierce spirits were – they weren’t human, clumsily mimicking human forms and language, but lacking smooth disguise and transitions. It was like an old friend casually saying “I’m going to turn hostile now” – but Mu Dai felt it was serious, and this turning hostile would definitely be fierce and terrifying.

She stiffened her neck and said loudly: “There’s no reason for just us to leave when Luo Ren and Yi Wansan haven’t come out yet.”

Xiao Qi gave a dry laugh: “Don’t you humans believe in sacrificing the few to save the many, sacrificing pawns to save the king? Originally just sacrificing two would be enough, and you three would still have a way to live – now you want to be buried together? Then nobody leaves. We’ve played with you for so long, we’re tired of playing, we’re not playing anymore.”

Before the words finished, an arm suddenly stretched out, abruptly coiling toward that door.

Yan Hongsha shouted: “It’s trying to destroy this door! Mu Dai, if the door is gone, none of us can get out!”

She rushed forward, grabbing that arm head-on. Suddenly her feet left the ground – she had been flung away by that arm. Cao Yanhua roared and threw himself straight at Xiao Qi. Hard to say what material it was made of – at first it felt soft and squishy, then suddenly compressed to paper-thin thickness, and with a swoosh, it slipped out of Cao Yanhua’s restraint. Its tentacle-like arm struck heavily at the door.

With a creaking sound, the door tilted slightly.

In the chaotic melee, Mu Dai couldn’t worry about techniques anymore. She and Yan Hongsha both pounced forward, pulling, kicking, stomping, tearing – using every move they could think of. Xiao Qi’s limbs were now like a python’s body – heavy, slippery, bending in unimaginable ways, stretching longer and longer, sometimes hooking necks, sometimes wrapping feet. It quickly entangled several people together, laughing with hissing sounds as it rapidly rolled away on the ground.

The binding grew tighter and tighter. The three people, like a twisted, overlapping ball, were carried in rapid rolling motion by Xiao Qi – top-heavy, spinning dizzyingly. Mu Dai felt her consciousness becoming blurred. One moment she was pressed down at the bottom, the next moment she rolled to the top where she could see the thin mist and five floating bridges extending into the thick fog, and could also see that they were getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff…

In that split second, Mu Dai suddenly thought of something and shouted: “Blood! It’s afraid of our blood!”

The next instant, watching for the right position as they rolled, she stretched out her arm and scraped it directly against a sharp, protruding stone on the ground. Her hand stung with pain, and seeing blood, she didn’t care about anything else and pressed her hand against Xiao Qi’s body.

Sure enough, the ear-piercing hissing laughter turned into pained groans. The restraint on their bodies loosened, and several people tumbled apart. Mu Dai had just stood up when she heard Xiao Qi’s fierce roar – the entire high platform trembled and shook, stones rolled down from the cliff edge, and those floating bridges swayed precariously.

Mu Dai realized: “If they can’t come out, we’ll go find them! We just need to bring them out!”

She stumbled and ran to the entrance of a floating bridge, vaguely seeing the seal script character “wood” on the entrance stepping stone. This wasn’t it – this was the path she had come out on. She needed to find Luo Ren’s.

The high platform shook even more violently. Mu Dai was knocked down by the tremors and crawled using both hands and feet until she finally saw the ancient form of the character “metal.”

She called out instructions: “I’ll go find Luo Xiaodao. One of you go find Yi Wansan, and one stay to guard against the fierce spirit!”

After saying this, she gritted her teeth, got up, and rushed onto the floating bridge. Strangely, once on the bridge, it didn’t shake as badly. The further forward she walked, the thicker the fog became. Mu Dai gripped the railings on both sides, her palms sweating.

She didn’t know how long she walked. The moment she stepped into the corridor, from all directions, everywhere around her, came Xiao Qi’s strange voice: “Everyone can only walk their own path. Do you think that by barging in like this, you can bring him out?”

Do you think that by barging in like this, you can bring him out?

What did this mean?

Only after entering did she discover this wasn’t the kind of corridor she had walked before. There were no mountain walls, no wave shadows – it was like a vast, barren, boundless open space.

Mu Dai wandered aimlessly inward.

Inadvertently, she suddenly stepped into a luxuriously decorated room. Looking around, that kind of prosperity felt outdated, like something from decades ago.

There was a middle-aged woman standing in front of an ornately carved dining table, her hands trembling as she unscrewed a medicine bottle. Several pills slipped out and fell into the soup bowl on the table, creating bubbles.

The woman neurotically picked up the soup spoon and stirred frantically in the bowl.

Mu Dai asked: “Who are you? Do you know Luo Ren?”

The woman acted as if she hadn’t heard anything. Mu Dai turned around in confusion and found herself facing a full-length mirror, but somehow she couldn’t see her own face in the mirror.

Just as she broke out in a cold sweat, the entire room suddenly began to float. She remained in place while the room drifted farther and farther away, as if contained in a giant soap bubble, trembling and swaying, looking like it could be popped with a finger.

Mu Dai told herself to stay calm. Perhaps this time the rules were different from before. She couldn’t panic – she needed to stay steady and observe.

The next time she landed, she was in a dirty but noisy alley. A crowd had gathered in front of her, and she could hear a man’s furious shouts: “I’m telling you not to learn bad things! Raising you is worse than raising a dog!”

As Mu Dai approached, she heard a crack – a wooden ruler snapping. A middle-aged man, panting heavily, stepped back two paces and threw down the broken ruler in his hand.

Standing in front of him was that person, that was…

Mu Dai almost cried out: that was Luo Ren.

It was the teenage Luo Ren, already very tall, a full head taller than that man. His neck was stiff, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, looking sideways at the man with disdain. His face and neck were covered with bloody marks from the ruler.

With complete indifference, he smiled at the man and said: “Dad, finished beating me? Nothing else? If there’s nothing else, I’m leaving. You rest up – when you have energy, you can beat me again.”

After saying this, he straightened his disheveled collar, parted the crowd, and came out. Mu Dai went up to meet him, her calves trembling, saying: “Luo Xiaodao, do you remember me?”

Luo Ren blocked her with his arm, saying: “Excuse me, let me through.”

Mu Dai staggered backward, watching Luo Ren walk away. Luo Ren’s father cursed violently and threw a brick with great force. The brick flew past Luo Ren’s shoulder, grazing it. Luo Ren moved his neck but didn’t even turn his head.

The crowd dispersed with various comments. Mu Dai stood there in a daze.

Luo Ren had said, “Excuse me, let me through.”

He saw her, but seemed unable to hear her words.

While she was still stunned, this alley, along with everything around it, began to float again, leaving only her standing in place, looking up at the giant soap bubble trembling and swaying as it flew toward the sky. When it reached a certain height, as if unable to bear the pressure, it burst.

Why was this so strange? Why did Luo Ren clearly see her but act as if he hadn’t – instead of like Cao Fatty, who upon seeing her immediately picked up the gradually forgotten memories of the past?

Mu Dai’s steps became hesitant. In the alternating light and darkness before her eyes, she suddenly entered a long corridor. From the far end came thunderous cheers, and two dark-skinned, tall white bodyguards leaned against the wall smoking.

Mu Dai walked past them – they acted as if they hadn’t seen her.

She kept walking until she reached the end and pushed open the door.

Shouting, applause, smoke, and the smell of alcohol hit her in the face.

This was an underground boxing ring.

Luo Ren was coming down from the ring, with a bruise on the corner of his mouth. Someone nearby ran up to hand him an ice pack. On the ring, a burly, massive man lay on the ground groaning continuously, while below the ring, a voluptuous woman in a gold sequined bikini approached with red wine.

Mu Dai shouted: “Luo Xiaodao!”

He couldn’t hear her. Here, no one could hear her.

Mu Dai stood biting her lip, watching him take the red wine and drain it in one gulp. The manager approached happily, probably reporting how many fights he’d won and how much commission he’d earned. The bikini woman threw flirtatious glances at him, gold powder shimmering on her eyelids.

For one moment, Luo Ren casually turned his head and saw Mu Dai. He seemed puzzled about why such a girl would be standing alone in this place, and smiled at her.

Mu Dai sat down slowly on the ground, cross-legged.

Then this entire underground boxing ring, along with all the noise, along with her Luo Xiaodao, began to float away slowly like a soap bubble that had lost its breath.

Mu Dai felt completely at a loss.

Here, everyone couldn’t hear her voice, including Luo Ren.

Everyone couldn’t see her, except for Luo Ren.

But what use was that? Thinking about how she couldn’t see her own face in the mirror, Mu Dai felt extremely dejected.

The giant soap bubble rose into the air, countless human figures like floating colors stuck to the surface of the soap bubble, dazzling to the eyes.

Then it burst.

Mu Dai murmured: “Like a dreamlike bubble.”

She supported herself on the ground and slowly stood up, dusting off her clothes. She had only taken two steps forward when she suddenly stopped.

Do you think that by barging in like this, you can bring him out?

Like a dreamlike bubble…

Mu Dai suddenly understood.

She couldn’t enter into the life that Luo Ren was re-experiencing at all. What she had entered was Luo Ren’s dreams!

Dreams have different lengths, so there would be countless soap bubbles, rising one by one, then bursting.

So everyone couldn’t see her, except for Luo Ren!

But even this “could see” was discounted – she couldn’t use her voice or her face to remind him, to awaken the memories and attachments to them that always existed deep in his heart.

Mu Dai started running.

She needed to find one of Luo Ren’s dreams where she wouldn’t be disturbed, where she could get close to him. Even if her face was blurred and she couldn’t speak, so what? Wasn’t it said that lovers could have telepathic connections?

She kept running.

She ran past bars with energetic song and dance, past the blood-stained corridors of the Mindanao Imperial Hotel, past the endless yellow sand of Xiao Shang River, then suddenly stopped.

The moonlight was like silver.

This was the Philippines, Mindanao Island, jungle.

Tall, dense trees, cold water droplets from leaves dripping down her neck, nearby there was the faint chirping of insects, and in the distance, the low roar of some unknown wild beast.

Mu Dai pushed aside branches, carefully skirting around thorns, walking toward the campsite not far away.

This was the most rudimentary campsite she had ever seen. The people on the ground used wooden branches as pillows, holding their guns, with mosquitoes buzzing around them. The campfire had been carefully scattered – using the smell of burning wood to repel mosquitoes, but ensuring the smoke wasn’t too thick to avoid attracting potential enemies with ill intentions.

Luo Ren, who was keeping watch leaning against a tree stump, looked up alertly, then supporting himself on his gun, slowly stood up.