Chapter 65: The Broken Mirror Threat

Inside the building, the only sound was the rhythmic tapping of two sets of footsteps.

Passing the elevators without a second glance, the two men headed straight for the stairwell, intending to walk up to the thirteenth floor on foot.

Choosing the stairs over the elevator was a habit the store clerks had long since formed. Without needing to exchange a word, they walked side by side toward the steps.

While keeping a wary eye on his surroundings, Yu Guo could not suppress the churning excitement within his heart.

Having truly faced a malevolent entity, his obsession with A-Lian had grown increasingly urgent. Although he had mentally prepared himself not to see A-Lian tonight, as the moment drew near, anticipation still fluttered in his chest.

Trailing behind, Ji Li wore a gloomy expression. He felt everything was proceeding far too smoothly, as if that ghost were deliberately letting them ascend.

Especially when he noticed the slight tremor in Yu Guo’s back as he walked ahead, Ji Li knew the man’s composure had shattered due to their impending arrival.

"Don't pin too many hopes on this. You already have nothing left to lose."

Ji Li knew he shouldn't have spoken at this moment, but for the sake of both their lives, he felt compelled to offer a warning.

Startled by the icy tone, Yu Guo felt the feverish heat in his mind instantly doused. He took a deep breath, turned his head toward Ji Li, and said with absolute sincerity, "Thank you."

Ji Li had no desire to respond. His eyelids twitched slightly, and the little finger of his left hand began to spasm uncontrollably.

This felt much like one of his innate abilities; whenever the presence of a ghost nearby grew too dense, his left-hand pinky would issue a warning.

It was a conclusion he had deduced from the previous mission. For instance, after Li Xing had touched the hotel phone, when Ji Li reached for it later, his little finger had shaken uncontrollably.

Yet, Ji Li remained unsure of the exact reason behind this phenomenon.

He simply believed it to be a physiological change triggered by his psychological intuition, forged through prolonged dealings with supernatural entities.

Before long, Yu Guo led Ji Li into the corridor of the thirteenth floor.

In the silent hallway, thirty locked doors lined the left and right sides, each bearing a label indicating the office of a faculty member.

Yu Guo’s gaze immediately locked onto the fifteen rooms on the eastern side.

Ji Li kept a close watch on Yu Guo's demeanor. As he looked in the same direction, his heart sank.

Earlier downstairs, he had sensed that one of the eastern rooms on the thirteenth floor was profoundly abnormal, and now it seemed everything was unfolding precisely as he had feared.

Yu Guo wore a vacant expression, as though he hadn't visited this place in a very long time. Confronted with the familiar scene, a flood of heavy emotions washed over him.

Previously, he had been entirely ignorant of everything, but through his experiences of late, he had gradually gained a deeper understanding of ghosts.

Anyone else, having witnessed the horrors of the supernatural, would surely have cast away such a deep obsession.

Yet Yu Guo was an utter anomaly.

The more he marveled at the power and bizarreness of the entities, the more convinced he became that the day he would see A-Lian again was inevitable!

Because if A-Lian had truly transformed into a ghost, he could witness and experience her existence firsthand, even if she was no longer among the living and lacked any human emotion.

Even if it meant being killed by A-Lian’s own hands, he was willing!

Observing Yu Guo’s loss of composure, Ji Li found it all the more bizarre. He simply could not comprehend how a person could harbor such profound attachment to another...

He had never experienced it himself, and therefore refused to believe it.

"Is it 1307...?"

Gazing down the deepening corridor, Ji Li probed the man walking ahead of him.

Yu Guo’s body stiffened. He turned his head with a dazed expression and asked, "How did you know?"

A silent sigh escaped Ji Li’s heart. He strode past Yu Guo and walked briskly toward the door of 1307, speaking as he moved:

"From outside, I noticed a certain room on the thirteenth floor being swallowed by the moonlight. There is definitely a ghost inside that room."

Hearing this, Yu Guo showed no sign of terror; instead, he grew even more agitated. Yet strict self-control kept him in check, causing his body to tremble with a strange rigidity.

Ji Li stared at the locked door in front of him and fell silent.

Yu Guo retrieved a key from his pocket and thrust it into the keyhole. "This was left behind by the academic administrator who brought me here before, after she was murdered. I’ve carried it with me ever since."

The metal key turned within the lock, but as time dragged on, there was no sign of the door opening.

Yu Guo’s expression turned grim as he finally pulled the key out. "The lock has been changed!"

Ji Li nodded. In truth, he had anticipated this. He reached into his tool pouch and produced two thin wires, attempting to pick the lock.

"You can do this?"

"In our line of work, we need more than courage and wits; sometimes, we require unorthodox methods. There are many skills we must learn and be capable of executing."

This time, things went smoothly. In less than two minutes, a crisp click echoed from the door lock, and it swung inward, revealing a narrow gap.

Yet through that gap, Ji Li saw a pale, misty moonlight seeping out...

Yet viewed from the outside, the windows of this room should either have been blocked by black cloth or had their light source devoured by a supernatural entity. The scene before him did not match Ji Li’s expectations.

Yu Guo pressed a hand against the door, but turned to look at Ji Li, seeking instruction.

After a brief hesitation, Ji Li nodded.

"Boom..."

The door was pushed open from the outside, and the interior of 1307 lay fully exposed.

Silvery moonlight, like a layer of dew, was evenly scattered across every corner of the room. Two work desks faced one another, completely bare.

The room was as neat as ever, looking as though no one had set foot in it for ages. The moment he stepped inside, Ji Li’s eyes fell upon the full-length mirror standing against the innermost wall on the right.

"There's no sign that anyone has touched this place..."

Frowning deeply, Ji Li glanced at Yu Guo, who stood nearby looking utterly lost.

"That's not right. Over the past year, these two desks should have been reassigned to new hires. How can it be so clean...?"

Yu Guo understood Ji Li’s implication. After A-Lian and the female teacher died, the academy would have hired new faculty to fill the vacancies, but looking at it now, this place had clearly been abandoned for a long time.

"Then there is only one possibility. The teachers who reported here later were likewise murdered by the entity, and all traces of them were erased."

Ji Li began to wander around the room, while Yu Guo crouched on the floor, pulling a few offerings and photographs from his backpack, and began to murmur in a low voice.

Gradually, the layout of the room became entirely clear.

In the end, Ji Li fixed his gaze once more upon the full-length mirror. Whether judged by Yu Guo’s description or what he himself had witnessed, the source of all this bizarre phenomena seemed to be this very mirror.

The murdered female teacher had been invisible to the naked eye, yet could use this mirror to lure the administrator away and kill her.

Although subsequent teachers assigned to this office had also been killed, the mirror remained intact, standing here undisturbed.

Ji Li could not help but cast his suspicions directly upon it...

At that moment, Yu Guo stepped up from behind and gently brushed his hand against the wide frame of the full-length mirror.

"I observed this carefully last time and even took it apart to check. It's just a completely ordinary mirror."

Watching Yu Guo’s fingers trace across the glass surface, Ji Li felt a growing sense of uncanniness.

This room 1307 seemed to be the epicenter of the anomaly. The ghost already knew they were here, yet why had it delayed making a move? Furthermore, neither his third personality nor he himself had sensed even the faintest aura of a ghost since entering.

"Still, if it truly is connected to that entity, perhaps it's normal that our limited perception cannot uncover the truth."

Yu Guo’s tone carried a hint of reluctance. There was very little they could accomplish on this trip; with the entity remaining hidden and no trace of A-Lian to be found, his journey was essentially in vain.

He walked away and sat down in the chair A-Lian once occupied, falling into silence.

Meanwhile, Ji Li drifted into an indescribable state of mind. As he gazed at his own reflection in the mirror, a strange sense of familiarity began to well up within him...

It wasn't the mirror itself, but rather something residing within the mirror that felt strangely familiar.

Yet Ji Li was certain he had never set foot in Tiannan Academy before, nor had he ever laid eyes on this mirror.

Slowly, he reached out and pressed his palm against the glass surface. The freezing chill sent a jolt through his heart.

And the instant Ji Li’s left hand made contact with the mirror, a sudden change erupted!

A line of blood-red characters slowly materialized across the glass surface, as though awakened by his touch:

"You have arrived a season too early. Leave or die."

Less than a second after these words abruptly appeared, the entire mirror shattered with a deafening crash!

Fragments of glass flew in all directions, slicing Ji Li’s fingers and face, and startling Yu Guo to his feet in an instant.

The mirror, which both Ji Li and Yu Guo had assumed to be the source of the entity, had destroyed itself without warning and with terrifying ease!

"What's happening?" Yu Guo hurriedly grabbed his bag and rushed over to the shattered glass.

Standing amidst the debris, Ji Li stared with a stunned expression at his blood-stained left hand, as a single bead of liquid crimson slipped down his cheek and soaked into the collar of his trench coat.