Mu You continued to examine the other pages of the experimental records, suddenly feeling a stirring coming from his own body. Glancing down, he took off a backpack from his waist.
This was a pocket dimension backpack he kept for when he entered the door, only openable in the Star Spirit World.
At this moment, a knocking sound came from inside the backpack.
Among those he knew, the only one capable of such a thing was Ye Rumeng.
Mu You opened the backpack, and sure enough, the little girl’s head immediately popped out.
"Mu You, are we about to find my sister?" Ye Rumeng asked with hopeful eyes.
Mu You was taken aback: "How did you know?"
"I don’t know, I just suddenly felt very tired and when I woke up, I was in this backpack..."
The little girl climbed out of the backpack, looking around with bewilderment: "This place... it feels so familiar, like I’ve been here before..."
As she spoke, she moved about observing her surroundings, growing more and more certain. Turning to Mu You with a look of surprise and joy: "That’s right, this is the place, the last time I saw my sister was here... I remember, my sister and I were confined here... It’s right over there!" She pointed abruptly at the darkness connected to the platform in front.
"Mu You, my sister must be here, let’s go save her!" Yer Rumeng quickly turned back, pleadingly looking at Mu You.
However, when she turned around, she found Mu You looking at her feet with a somewhat stunned expression.
"What’s wrong?" Ye Rumeng was confused.
Mu You shook his head: "Nothing, lead the way."
"Oh... Follow me, it’s this way!" The little girl didn’t hold any doubts, pulling out a flashlight from nowhere, shining it into the darkness ahead and charged directly in. She waved back, signaling the two to follow quickly, her shadow stretching long behind her.
By this time, Lin Xue had also noticed the little girl’s change, looking at Mu You in slight surprise.
Mu You gave a helpless shake of his head to her, and Lin Xue quickly understood, not asking any further, the two silently followed behind.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Ghost in the Gu Venom Pool below, who had been busy killing bugs, seemed to have sensed something. It paused its movement, lifting its head to look at the platform above. Upon seeing the figure of a little girl rushing into the darkness, it immediately let out a low growl, not caring about the bugs anymore, it promptly climbed up the platform, chasing the three.
Ye Rumeng bravely ran into the darkness, swiftly breaking through the darkness as if she knew the way, and ended up in a hospital floor.
Looking at the double rooms on both sides of the hallway, more and more familiar objects appeared before her eyes.
"That’s right, it’s here..."
Ye Rumeng’s eyes brightened. The familiar environment brought back more and more lost memories, recalling the experiences she had been through here. She also remembered that room - the room she and her sister shared at the end of this corridor.
Ye Rumeng looked hurriedly towards the end of the corridor, and indeed, on the dormitory door at the very end, there was a carved sign of a familiar pillow.
Joy spread across her young face, she couldn’t wait any longer, she rushed over, swinging open the door.
"Sister, I’ve come to save..."
Her voice abruptly came to a stop.
The room was not as she remembered - neat and tidy with children’s toys and supplies spread all around.
Instead, it had become a desolate ruin. Broken bricks and tiles, shattered glass littered everywhere, dust covered all the objects, it was obviously long abandoned.
The little girl looked blankly at this scene, too stunned to react at the moment.
If her sister wasn’t here, then where could she be?
A roar came from the side.
Ye Rumeng turned her head instinctively. On the other side of this corner corridor, a Shadow Ghost more than three meters high stood in the front. As soon as the Shadow Ghost detected the living creature, it emitted a strong killing intent from its body.
The next moment, the Shadow Ghost bared its fangs and charged at Ye Rumeng.
Ye Rumeng was startled, instinctively backing away, but she tripped over the door frame and fell to the ground.
The Shadow Ghost was almost upon her instantly. Its claws flailed, its eyes a glaring red, its towering height and monstrous body filled Ye Rumeng with fear, prompting her to close her eyes instinctively.
However, just as the Shadow Ghost’s claws were about to land on Ye Rumeng, another roar echoed from behind.
Immediately afterwards, a larger shadow rushed towards the child from behind. It darted past her, landed on the Shadow Ghost in front, and angrily tore at it.
The regular Shadow Ghost was clearly no match for the more aggressive one, it quickly got torn to pieces under the latter’s furious assault, leaving only a pile of wriggling shadow remnants behind.
The little girl stared blankly at the Shadow Ghost protecting her, but didn’t have time to say anything as more growling sounds echoed from the front.
"So you have finally returned here, number 14..."
The little girl and the Shadow Ghost both looked up, at the end of the corridor in front, a transparent cylindrical device stood upright filled with some kind of liquid. Inside the device was a person submerged, a respirator attached to the mouth and nose, and various tubes plugged into the body.
Outside of the cylindrical device, countless Shadow Ghosts gathered, at least hundreds. Each one was bound by a black chain, their other ends all connected to the device, forming a protective barrier around the central device like a wall.