Looking up at the blazing blue fire atop the high tower that illuminated the sign reading "Tinghai Shuns You," Bai Zhou suddenly felt a chill creep down his spine.
A heavy oppression settled over his chest, stirring an inexplicable sensation within him.
He felt as though the blue flame were watching him—watching all of Tinghai, in fact.
It was as if committing certain taboos would provoke an attack from the blue fire across the distance.
...Even though Bai Zhou still had no idea what the local "taboos" were.
The black cat appeared atop the building, its nimble body scaling down the exterior wall in the eerie quiet.
The square tiles of the sidewalk were slick and wet. Stepping on them gave the slimy sensation of treading on rotten bananas, or walking across a slightly hardened swamp.
None of the buildings cast shadows because they were "shadows" themselves—hazy, unreal to the touch, not entirely tangible.
This sensation was very different from the Deep Ruin Realm.
Because the true body of modern civilization still resided on the surface of Earth, everything here was merely a "reflection" of the mortal realm—suppressed atop layer upon layer of pre-civilization ruins.
Not until countless years later, when a new civilization arose and the current Blue Star civilization was buried by time, would its final remnants appear beneath the reflection of that newer civilization.
Only then would the civilization manifested in the Ruin Realm be "complete" and "upright," rather than this bizarre, inverted existence.
Yet by that time, that civilization would surely be nothing more than ruins as well.
So, despite having spent plenty of time in the Deep Ruin Realm, Bai Zhou still found everything here novel and strange.
Was this... the convergence where countless Extraordinaries spent their entire lives exploring?
*Patter, patter...*
The cat paws took two elegant steps.
By the roadside stood a bright, vivid green trash can, emblazoned with the white words: "Recyclable Waste."
Bai Zhou merely gave it an extra glance, and it wobbled in place with a clatter.
"Look again! Go ahead, keep looking!"
"I'll eat you up!"
"—!"
The massive trash can angrily flipped open its lid at Bai Zhou, revealing huge, jagged teeth as it tried to devour him.
A tongue cobbled together from red plastic bags shot out, thrashing wildly.
*Where did a mimic come from?!*
Bai Zhou scrambled aside.
With an agile dart, the black cat flashed to the opposite side of the street.
"Grrr!"
With a furious roar, the trash-can-turned-mimic paced angrily beneath the streetlight, making no move to pursue him.
*Clack-clack! Thud-thud!*
It seemed capable only of spinning in circles where it stood, its rectangular body swaying left and right as its lid snapped open and shut with a racket.
Sizing up the trash can from a distance, Bai Zhou looked at it with curiosity.
To be honest...
When Bai Zhou had first emerged from Wancheng and seen the base's oversized trash cans, he had also thought those green contraptions were treasure chests left by the aliens.
If mimics truly existed in reality, they probably would look like this.
Even if there were no treasures inside, only a tongue made of red plastic bags.
In a way, the appearance of this trash can actually fulfilled one of Bai Zhou's old daydreams.
Unfortunately, beating it wouldn't yield any loot.
Through constant probing questions to Crow, Bai Zhou had learned quite a bit about the Reflected Ruin Realm despite never having visited before.
In the Reflected Ruin Realm, monsters that occasionally spilled over from the deep layers were covered in treasures. They represented disaster as well as opportunity, often provoking fierce competition.
Yet such encounters were exceedingly rare. At the very least, they weren't something Bai Zhou could randomly bump into on the street the moment he stepped inside. Talking about destiny was fine when chatting with Crow, but taking it seriously would just be fooling himself.
Things like this trash can were merely reflections of modern civilization that had become contaminated and mutated after absorbing concepts from earlier civilizations.
They were like the physical manifestations of Reflected Tinghai's rules, varying in strength and roaming within fixed territories.
No one knew their origins. Out of nowhere, another such entity might appear in some corner of Reflected Tinghai.
Even if one killed them, they would pop right back up in the same spot the next day, alive and kicking—because they were an intrinsic part of this grotesque metropolis.
To date, Extraordinaries had found that killing them yielded nothing at all.
Yet such "anomalies" were everywhere in this city, as if Reflected Tinghai had spawned them purely to make life difficult for Extraordinaries.
...Which might genuinely be the case.
***
That was why Crow had repeatedly stressed to Bai Zhou how fraught with danger the Reflected Ruin Realm was.
For a novice Extraordinary, this place was a labyrinth of deathtraps where survival hung by a thread.
Veterans with combat prowess and seasoned experience had it much better.
As long as one remained vigilant, avoided terrible luck, and kept excessive curiosity in check...
At the very least, they wouldn't die a violent death on the street.
Commonplace, low-grade "anomalies" like mimics could only bully ordinary mortals and greenhorns taking their first steps into the extraordinary.
If an Extraordinary like Section Chief Liu came here, he could incinerate three of them back-to-back without breaking a sweat.
As for Bai Zhou?
Compared to what he usually endured alone in the Deep Ruin Realm—
Where every step held a sinister, bizarre trap or a crazed skeleton flying overhead with unfathomable power—
This wasn't even on the same level!
*Beep, beep, beep—*
Not far away, a broadcast began to blare.
At the corner of the ground floor of an all-glass bank high-rise, a dilapidated wooden shack was embedded with jarring incongruity.
A crooked signboard hung from the faded wooden door, bearing the faint inscription: "Yongxing Credit Cooperative."
And the late-night broadcast that had abruptly started up was drifting intermittently from deep behind the credit cooperative's shut wooden door.
*Crackle—crackle—*
"Exit access is forbidden."
"The night is clear, please do not water... Repeat, the night is clear, please do not water..."
"Welcome to make a deposit! With an annual interest rate of negative two hundred percent, what are you waiting for?"
A mechanical, uninflected male voice seemed to read the broadcast from the depths of the credit union, accompanied by the distinct static of an antique radio.
All the modern elements—glass curtain walls, steel trestles, LED billboards—were inexplicably spliced or fused with things that did not belong to this era.
Such as brand-new telephone booths, old hair salons flashing neon lights, and abandoned schools.
Here, the concept of time was completely scrambled, past and present woven together.
The past overlapped with an even more distant past, and finality intertwined with an even deeper oblivion.
Everything that had ever occurred across the soil of Tinghai, the entire modern history of this civilization's development—all gathered here in distorted, uncanny forms!
Just then, a gust of wind swept by, rustling slogans plastered on a nearby wall like grasping claws:
"Righteous whistleblowing among neighbors, candid accusations between husband and wife! Privacy is the breeding ground of crime; let us build Tinghai Utopia together!"
"West City Mass Grave, new housing development! A century-old prestigious residence! Infinite appreciation, down payment only seven figures!"
Every line was chilling upon closer thought, sending shivers down one's spine.
*Hum—*
Bai Zhou reverted to his human form, scrutinizing them closely, his clear eyes blinking twice.
From the bottom of his heart, he felt...
It was so welcoming!
This flavor was simply too authentic! It was practically identical to Wancheng!
In the mortal realm, the cold concrete jungle and flickering neon lights had instead made him feel alienated and strange.
These archaic, illogical, hair-raising elements...
Were actually what Bai Zhou was most familiar with, what he had grown up with since childhood!
For a moment, Bai Zhou even felt the warmth of coming home.
No wonder Crow had said Wancheng was built somewhere along the periphery of Tinghai. The two were far too similar.
Bai Zhou even had good reason to suspect—
Did this place share the tradition of taboos? If someone acted too "normal" and violated a taboo too severely, would they attract attacks from "anomalies"?
If severe enough, might it even draw the gaze of that blue flame atop the high tower?
Yet walking through such an environment, Bai Zhou felt neither dread nor horror; on the contrary, he was like a fish in water.
After all, in a sense, people from Wancheng could be considered the local nobility of Reflected Tinghai, steeped in local "culture" and "etiquette" from an early age.
...Even if these local nobles were later rounded up and dragged away in ropes by outsiders.
Putting on a face mask and pulling up the hood of his trench coat, Bai Zhou stepped alone into the mist at the end of the street.
Taking out a standard coin from the mortal realm along with a black grain of "cinders," Bai Zhou set them neatly on the ground, one above the other.
Then, biting his fingertip, he drew an irregular triangle on the pavement.
"With the wealth of worldly realms, I ask where the crossroad lies."
"Guide me—"
Bai Zhou's voice was steady, devoid of emotion:
"To the ghost market!"
The next instant.
The fog before him began to coalesce, growing unnaturally thick as it pointed in a specific direction.
That was the way.
Bai Zhou immediately gathered the coin and the cinders, setting off in the direction indicated by the gray mist.
This was the standard ritual for traveling to the ghost market.
The incantation and ritual diagram were dedicated solely to reaching the ghost market, circulating among the Extraordinaries of Tinghai City.
Without guidance, wandering aimlessly through Reflected Tinghai—which was a hundred times larger than normal Tinghai—one could forget about reaching the ghost market.
Not wandering straight into the jaws of an "anomaly" would already be a stroke of miraculous luck.
Mist swirled thick as the lone traveler walked on.
Pulling his hood low, Bai Zhou advanced cautiously.
As he walked...
Bai Zhou suddenly noticed that the sides of the street looked familiar.
Slightly aged residential buildings stood in serene quiet.
Yet deep into the night beneath the shroud of grayish-white mist, dim yellow lights still glowed inside these apartment blocks.
...Isn't this the building where Little Charmander lives?
He had even slept half a day inside.
Things from the mortal realm had a chance of finding uncanny counterparts in the Reflected Ruin Realm.
He hadn't expected such a coincidence.
Glancing upward, Bai Zhou looked toward the floor where Fang Xiaoxia lived.
The light was on. A silhouette in a nightgown stood by the window with disheveled hair.
It looked like Fang Xiaoxia.
The goofy monkey with the wide grin on the nightgown was especially familiar.
But how could Fang Xiaoxia be here?
Not just Fang Xiaoxia—vague silhouettes seemed to stand before every single window.
The anomaly wasn't Fang Xiaoxia, but this entire building!
Subconsciously on guard, Bai Zhou immediately tore his gaze away and stopped looking.
...In fact, the building itself might not even be an anomaly.
Yet no matter how normal an object was, once projected into the Reflected Ruin Realm, contamination would inevitably twist it.
The open, empty street was actually the safest place.
The more "concealed" an area was, the more likely "anomalies" were entrenched there!
***
Because he was pressed for time to reach the ghost market, Bai Zhou had no intention of investigating and hastened his steps without lingering.
Yet at that very moment—
The shadow by the window stirred.
The black contour lost its form and slid down the glass. The silhouette of a monkey detached from the nightgown and hopped nimbly onto the windowsill.
The goofy monkey that always bore a brilliant smile had come to "life" just like that.
...Another "anomaly."
Bai Zhou grumbled inwardly, seeing no need to get into a conflict right now.
Though it was merely a brief glance, Bai Zhou could tell this goofy monkey was at most Rank 1 Extraordinary in strength.
Pathetically weak.
Or rather, the current Bai Zhou was terrifyingly strong.
Even in his severely wounded state, handling a minor incident like this presented numerous instantaneous solutions.
Yet doing so would either require drawing a gun or expending the spirituality stored in the token.
The former would cause a commotion and easily attract other Extraordinaries; the latter was simply not worth the cost.
Most importantly, dealing with an "anomaly" yielded zero profit!
Better to just walk away briskly, exactly as he had done with the mimic!
With that in mind, Bai Zhou maintained his guard while helplessly quickening his pace on the opposite side of the street.
Yet just as he turned the corner, he saw a monkey plush doll half the height of a person sitting blankly against the wall, its fur an eye-searing red.
Its eyes were like hollow black pits, staring silently at Bai Zhou as he appeared ahead.
Then, the mouth of the big-jawed monkey stretched wide into a brilliant grin, baring densely packed razor-sharp teeth that snapped together with a *clack-clack*.
As if saying to Bai Zhou: "Surprise!"
*Giving it an inch, and it wants a mile.*
Bai Zhou scratched his head.
What rotten luck.
Why were the anomalies in this Reflected Ruin Realm all acting like rabid dogs, fixating on him alone?
Was everyone treated like this, or was he the only unlucky one?
Maybe it was a beginner's welcome gift for first-timers.
Yet while this was his first time in the Reflected Ruin Realm, he was no greenhorn.
Taking him for an easy target was a dead wrong mistake.
The goofy monkey before him let out a cackle, beating its chest with both hands. Its expression grew bloodthirsty and vicious as drool dripped from its mouth toward Bai Zhou.
If he didn't teach this monkey a lesson, did it really take itself for a "person"?
Beneath his hood, Bai Zhou's expression was calm. He stepped back two paces and reached into his coat.
The black baton settled into his grip.
Anomaly or not... a few solid whacks would ensure it neither cried nor fussed.
*Roar—*
The monkey crouched low like a tiger, eyeing Bai Zhou for a moment.
Suddenly, it dropped onto all fours, kicked off with force, and lunged straight at Bai Zhou.
A foul, rancid wind blew into his face, the gaping maw revealing chillingly sharp fangs reflecting the light of the blood moon.
The next instant.
"That's enough!"
A crisp, resonant shout rang out, as if descending from the heavens.
*Hum—*
An incomparably dazzling beam of searing light fell from the sky.
Like divine retribution, the beam struck the monkey with pinpoint accuracy.
*Boom—*
A tremendous surge of force detonated across the monkey, reducing it to flying ash.
*Thud—clatter-clatter-clatter.*
A red gem shattered, bouncing and rolling across the ground.
Looking closer, however, one would realize it wasn't a ruby at all, but a high-grade imitation—
An oversized red marble?
"What's this...?"
Bai Zhou blinked, silently putting away the primed baton and turning his head to look.
*Tap...*
Moonlight fell like a gossamer veil, blanketing the ground in crimson mystery.
Within the hazy pool of light cast by the red moon, a figure descended slowly.
A striking, elegant form clad in a dark dress blending Gothic and Lolita styles, her face concealed beneath half of a delicate silver mask.
Her beautifully sculpted chin tilted up with regal pride. Cupping assorted "gems" in her hands, the masked witch descended before Bai Zhou.
"You're welcome," she said coldly.
The magnificent masked witch drew near, carrying a waft of perfume.
Yet the scent was somewhat sharp and pungent, like cheap cologne.
With her velvet-gloved right hand, she elegantly tucked away the "gems," then naturally produced a stack of flyer-like papers from the pleated folds of her dress.
Expertly pulling off the top two, the grand witch thrust them into Bai Zhou's hands.
The smell of printer ink wafted to his nose. One flyer was vivid green, the other bright blue, with an indistinguishable black smudge between them.
Bai Zhou: "?"
What was this?
He couldn't make heads or tails of it.
As she stuffed the two sheets into Bai Zhou's hands, Her Excellency the Witch muttered under her breath with an air of great mystery.
She said:
"One custom marble: three yuan."
"Ritual production cost: five yuan and twenty-seven cents."
"Total cost: eight yuan and twenty-seven cents."
"QR code payment supported. Just scan it when you get back."
Bai Zhou:
"...?"
What on earth was QR code payment?
"And you are?" Bai Zhou probed cautiously.
"Eh?"
The young witch blinked in surprise.
"You... don't recognize me?"
Bai Zhou shook his head honestly, thinking that he might well be more famous than she was, and she didn't seem to recognize him either.
"Even if you haven't seen me before..."
"You should have heard my name."
Shaking her head, the young witch raised a hand to adjust her silver mask.
Her voice was cold, elegant, and thoroughly solemn:
"Chronicler of love's elegant verses, guardian defending reason's scales—"
"Agent of Justice, Beloved of Talent, Guide of the Radiant Glow—"
The "gems" in her left hand flared to life right on cue, putting on a light show as the blazing radiance framed her with immense splendor and nobility.
With utter solemnity, she nodded at the bewildered Bai Zhou:
"Indeed, it is exactly who you're thinking of—"
"I am the Gem Witch."
Chapter 64