At this moment, the guidance process of Liu Xing's psychoanalysis finally came to an end. "Because you've successfully performed psychoanalysis on yourself, you'll lose half the amount of SAN points in this check. Thus, you've only lost 1 point of SAN, and you've gained 1 point of Cthulhu Mythos knowledge."
Liu Xing let out a sigh of relief, not expecting psychoanalysis to be so potent, directly halving the loss of his SAN points.
"Liu Xing, are you alright now?" Akira Akashi, seeing Liu Xing returning to normal, asked with concern.
Liu Xing nodded with a smile, somewhat embarrassed, "Sorry for worrying everyone. The impact of Tina's words was just too strong, which made me lose my composure for a moment."
Akira Akashi simply smiled and shook his head, "It's fine, as long as you're okay. After all, with Li Ming in his current state, our troubles would be much greater if something were to happen to you as well."
At this point, Tian Dao came back, hoisting Li Ming onto his back again, "As long as you're fine, Liu Xing, we shouldn't waste any more time. Let's hurry and check inside the temple."
Calculating the time, Liu Xing and his companions had already spent about ten minutes in the mirrored world. Up until now, they had come up empty-handed, so it was crucial to make haste.
Thus, Liu Xing and his group prepared to enter the temple. Upon opening the doors, they found the interior fully illuminated, leaving no place for shadows to hide. Tina, leading the charge, wasn't worried about traps and walked straight in.
Seeing that Tina had entered without incident, Liu Xing and the others followed. After all, this was still the lowest level of the Cthulhu RPG Game, essentially a novice's dungeon, so it was unlikely for there to be any traps.
Besides, in Cthulhu RPG Game, it was rare for modules to contain trap mechanisms. After all, if the intention was to ensnare the players, it would be much more straightforward and efficient to throw a few mythical creatures into the mix.
Thus, Liu Xing and his companions unobstructedly made their way into the depths of the temple, where a large mirror stood before them.
"This must be the mirror that brought us here, right?" Tina said, unsure.
Looking at the mirror, Liu Xing confidently stated, "That's right, it must be this mirror that brought us here. If I'm not mistaken, we must use this same mirror if we wish to leave!"
Liu Xing was so sure because the mirror reflected the real world inside the temple, where a stream of people were kneeling before the mirror—or rather, the deity statue behind it.
What caught Liu Xing's attention, however, was that while the real-world altar in the mirror was laden with offerings, the altar in this mirrored world lay bare.
With an epiphany, Liu Xing spoke to Akira Akashi and the others, "Look, there are so many offerings on the real-world altar, but none here. I believe we need to place offerings on the altar in this world to possibly return to the real world."
This theory was unanimously agreed upon by the group, as the clue seemed rather obvious, short of KP Cao outright stating it.
So, Tian Dao pondered before saying, "That means we now need to find grapes, peaches, and bamboo shoots, right?"
Liu Xing nodded, but with a hint of uncertainty, he said, "However, that being said, we probably don't need to find as many offerings as this, do we? The quantity of offerings in the real world seems excessively large."
Indeed, as Liu Xing had mentioned, there were far too many offerings in the real world; there were over a dozen peaches alone. If Liu Xing remembered correctly, there seemed to be only a few peaches on the tree in the mirror world.
After some thought, Tian Dao spoke up, "That's true. For now, I'll go and see how many peaches I can pick from that tree."
Tian Dao was a man of action. After speaking, he put down Li Ming and jogged away from the temple, too quickly for Tina to even remind him to be careful.
"This guy really is in a rush," Tina frowned and said to Liu Xing, "Why don't you go keep Tian Dao company? I'm worried he might encounter danger on his own."
Liu Xing nodded; after all, being alone in a Cthulhu RPG Game was not advisable.
Thus, Liu Xing also left the temple, heading towards the peach trees. But just outside the temple doors, he saw Tian Dao standing on the staircase, as if gazing into the distance.
Liu Xing approached and patted Tian Dao on the shoulder, "Hey, Tian Dao, what are you doing?"
Tian Dao turned around, looking puzzled, and said to Liu Xing, "When I left the temple, I heard a strange noise from below, so I came here to see what was going on. Then, it seemed like I saw a figure running at high speed toward the commercial district on the right."
Liu Xing understood this was another plot twist. After all, Tian Dao was an experienced player to be involved in this promotional game; he wouldn't likely act alone under such circumstances. The figure Tian Dao saw was almost certainly Nan Xiaoniao's mother!
With this in mind, Liu Xing couldn't help but complain to KP Cao, "KP, where do you keep finding these plot twists?"
KP Cao responded with an innocent look, "These plot developments are all part of the scenario's design. How can you blame me? That's not fair."
"Really? Why do I feel like you're deceiving me?" Liu Xing said skeptically.
"Eh, how should I put this... It's for your own good, helping you to advance the plot more quickly. So, I just triggered the plot twist a bit sooner, that's all," KP Cao said with a forced laugh.
Liu Xing laughed; KP Cao indeed liked to stir things up.
But, as KP Cao had said, his actions indeed moved the plot forward. At least Liu Xing now knew that Nan Xiaoniao's mother would be in the right side of the... No, that's not right, because this is the mirror world, she should be on the left side of the commercial district, or rather, at the Grape Gallery!
Liu Xing's brow furrowed; the Grape Gallery was a necessary destination. After all, the grapes needed as offerings could only be found there, and Nan Xiaoniao was bound to meet her mother.
As for what would happen when Nan Xiaoniao met her mother, Liu Xing didn't know, but he was certain it wouldn't be a perfect reunion with tears of joy.
And besides, it was about time for "the tiger" to make an appearance.