Bai Yanliang entered the room, took out the silver key hanging around his neck, and inserted it into the door lock.
A thin mist slipped out from the crack in the door and wrapped around Bai Yanliang’s feet.
Bai Yanliang pushed the door open, but everything in front of him made him freeze—Fog Gathering... changed!
The chaos, darkness, and gray mist all dissipated. Everything in front of him in all directions turned white, emitting a pure white glow. For original chapters go to n0velfire.net
The mist no longer obscured one’s view. Everyone could see each other clearly. Bai Yanliang even saw a door suddenly appear in the void, and then, Li Mu walked in, looking dejected.
As soon as Li Mu came in, most people expressed concern for him, as his mental state was visibly problematic.
He looked very tired, with bloodshot eyes and heavy breathing.
What happened to him?
Li Mu waved his hand, thanking everyone for their concern.
His mind was full of questions—how did Fog Gathering suddenly experience such a big change?
Li Mu looked around. The only thing unchanged was the two long, crimson light balls hanging above. They resembled a pair of eyes, overlooking everyone.
However, at present, the changes in Fog Gathering seemed beneficial. The bright, white, and spacious environment was at least not as oppressive as before.
Just as a door opened, a voice came over.
Bai Yanliang looked back and saw Yu Sheng emerging from a door.
As the door quickly closed, Bai Yanliang vaguely saw a silhouette.
"Yu Sheng." Bai Yanliang approached Yu Sheng and asked, "Did you tell Ren Wudao about Fog Gathering?"
Yu Sheng shook her head in surprise, "No?"
As she spoke, she also glanced back at the now closed and disappeared door, whispered, "I just deliberately distracted him..."
"Perhaps I was mistaken." Bai Yanliang said thoughtfully.
Just as Yu Sheng was about to say something, Li Mu’s voice suddenly rang out.
"Mr. Bai, could you come over for a moment?"
Bai Yanliang turned, six pairs of eyes were looking at him.
Li Mu, Feng Xiuxue, Xu Zhifei, and three others, most likely Yu Wenxuan, Song Que, and Gu Pingsheng.
"Excuse me for a moment."
Bai Yanliang said to Yu Sheng.
Yu Sheng nodded, watching as he hurried towards Li Mu and the others. Her gaze lingered on Feng Xiuxue and Xu Zhifei for a moment before slowly shifting away, remaining silent in place.
Bai Yanliang had just approached and hadn’t had the chance to introduce himself to Yu Wenxuan and the others when he heard Li Mu say:
"I’ve been haunted by a ghost."
The six people’s attention immediately focused on him. Everyone there had seen firsthand, or even interacted with, abnormals in the real world, but being haunted by a ghost in reality was unimaginable.
"I’ve been repeating the same dream lately."
Li Mu recounted his experience, though it sounded incredible.
"Before, when I woke up from a nightmare, seven to eight hours would have usually passed. But... as time went on, the time difference between the dream and reality grew larger. Until today, the same length of dream only took two hours in the real world, and for the entire next day, I couldn’t fall asleep again."
Li Mu’s voice was somewhat hoarse, clearly tormented by nightmares for quite some time.
There’s a saying that humans can live 20 days without food, 7 days without water, but only 5 days without sleep.
Environmental and individual differences aside, the importance of sleep to the human body is self-evident.
Li Mu’s sleep time was shortening. Eventually, would he only be able to sleep for half an hour a day, ten minutes, or even worse... not be able to fall asleep at all?
"Have you tried sleeping pills?" Feng Xiuxue asked.
"They don’t work. I fall asleep quickly, but the wake-up time is the same." Li Mu grabbed at his hair. This young police officer had noticeably lost weight. He wasn’t afraid of dying, he just didn’t want to die so unclear, so humiliated.
"Have you considered that being haunted by a ghost in reality might be related to the changes in Fog Gathering?" a young man’s voice suddenly said.
Bai Yanliang looked over to see a young, handsome man with earrings, exuding a somewhat carefree air, repeatedly flipping a coin.
"Song Que, if you have something to say, say it clearly." Feng Xiuxue seemed to dislike him greatly, her tone somewhat sharp.
Bai Yanliang quickly glanced at him, young, confident, flamboyant—his demeanor was like a fresh graduate from a prestigious university who had never faced setbacks, a child prodigy who had grown up.
At least on the surface, this was the case.
But Bai Yanliang accidentally noticed his eyes, calm, vigilant, thoughtful—interesting.
Perhaps aware of Bai Yanliang’s gaze, Song Que nodded slightly at him, as a form of greeting.
"Wasn’t my meaning clear enough? Feng Xiuxue, it’s a miracle you’re still alive." Song Que tossed up a coin, then caught it steadily in his palm, saying, "Alright, listen. The biggest difference between Li Mu and us is the time he has spent in Fog Gathering. Perhaps, I’m just saying perhaps, Fog Gathering has an invisible standard. When someone’s survival time in Fog Gathering reaches that standard, some kind of change occurs, and correspondingly, that person also experiences some kind of change, like... faded names, ghost hauntings, etc. It might be a test, get through it, and maybe you can permanently leave Fog Gathering."
Although she never liked Song Que from the first time she met him, she couldn’t deny that his logic, when combined with the changes in Fog Gathering and Li Mu’s experiences, was absolutely correct, even... it was very likely as he said.
"Fog Gathering has indeed changed. This time... no new people joined in." Gu Pingsheng said.
Compared to Song Que, he seemed more mature and reliable. In fact, it was true. Gu Pingsheng was thirty years old and already a leading surgical doctor in the country.
"Don’t you think it’s preparing to eliminate this batch of us?" Yu Wenxuan squinted his eyes, smiling as he spoke.
Towards Yu Wenxuan, the people in Fog Gathering had a consistent attitude—caution, vigilance, and defense.
The way this person conducted himself... raised suspicions that he was a ruthless criminal in reality.
Just then, individual blood-red names suddenly appeared in the whitened void.
But strangely, not all names appeared this time, only seven!
Zhong Yi, Su Jieyi, Su Jiexian, Bai Yanliang, Qin Chuan, Xu Zhifei, Du Shangjing.
The seven names appeared at the same time, indistinguishable in order, equally blood-red!
Everyone stood agape, staring at the seven names. This intensity of blood-red meant resentment!
Could it be... these seven individuals are this instance’s resentful?
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