In this situation, Mu Anqi made a prompt decision. With one hand holding the now-enlarged candy cane and the other clutching the substitute paper figurine, she walked into the village.
In every new instance, the first thing to do was gather information and look for a place to rest. If she happened to encounter a ghost, that would be even better. Regardless of the type of ghost, it would always provide some clues.
A death village?
What was the main body of this Black Mirror vortex this time? If the event occurred in the village…
Mu Anqi pondered as she arrived under that strange and bare locust tree to take a look. There were no strange marks on the tree, nor were there any red papers or white strips hanging from it. As for this locust tree being strange—it looked from a distance like a person struggling and crying for help. But to say it was normal…
Sorry, it's in a death village. No matter how you look at it, it's not normal.
"Bon voyage?" Mu Anqi tried saying a blessing to the tree, but it had no response. It really did seem to be just an ordinary tree. Mu Anqi felt a little helpless and glanced at the stone table beside the locust tree—it really resembled the kind of setup elderly men used to play chess at the village entrance. A thick layer of dust had settled on the stone table, clearly abandoned for quite some time.
Mu Anqi walked toward the first household. The courtyard of this house was empty, and the tree inside was bare. As soon as she stepped into the yard, the chill became even heavier, and a sense of irritation rose in her heart. She lightly nudged open the wooden door with the end of her candy cane. The door let out a shrill "creak." As Mu Anqi poked her head inside, she was immediately startled by the feeling of cobwebs brushing her face. "Smooth sailing" slipped from her lips instinctively.
A spider-human with a huge belly dropped down, performing a high-level split with its eight legs…
The spider's eight legs were especially thick and muscular. The spider part was black and looked smooth and shiny, with only a red hourglass-shaped mark on its abdomen. As for the upper body… it was a woman?
Mu Anqi was terribly frightened by the huge spider. She pointed her candy cane at the spider-woman, and scalding syrup instantly sprayed out! Holding the candy cane with both hands, she continuously chanted blessings—
The hot syrup splashed over the spider-woman, making her struggle and shriek, but the sound she made was a monster's hissing, not a human wail.
"Where's your weapon?"
Mu Anqi didn't turn her head. She gritted her teeth and shouted loudly, "I haven't saved up enough points to exchange for one yet! I don't have any offensive active skills either!"
Mu Anqi relied on the scalding syrup and blessing phrases to force the spider-woman back. To be honest, their battle looked quite ridiculous—after all, a giant spider monster bouncing around with eight legs felt more like disco dancing than fighting. Meanwhile, Mu Anqi gripped the candy cane tightly, continuously spraying hot syrup onto the upper body of the spider creature.
Hearing the loud crunching of candy from behind her, Mu Anqi suddenly remembered General Ji's rule about submitting 1,000 Guansi after every game. She instantly transferred 2,000 Guansi from her Guansi bank card into a red envelope with a thought. Holding the candy cane in one hand, she fiercely flung the red envelope toward Ji Huaichu with the other!
Money Makes the Ghosts Go 'Round—activate!
Spider monster killed!
The crunching candy sounds ceased. Ji Huaichu stood at the doorway, looking at the red envelope held between her index and middle fingers. Naturally, she had received Mu Anqi's skill request as well.
Seriously… how bold.
Ji Huaichu couldn't help but let out a low chuckle as she toyed with the red envelope in her hand. Looking across the entire Taiyin Realm, not even those from the Underworld Capital dared to offer her two thousand Guansi to make a move. As for the ghosts under her command, they didn't even dare to entertain such a thought.
In fact, this time, it was supposed to be Xia Fenghua who continued guiding Mu Anqi.
But after the last game ended, Xia Fenghua didn't take Mu Anqi around the Taiyin Realm to help her get acquainted. When Ji Huaichu asked about it, Xia Fenghua confessed everything truthfully.
This player had acquired quite an impressive ability—very promising. During the earlier circus game, Ji Huaichu had found the player's mental strength to be decent, and in that trial, she grew to admire Mu Anqi's rationality and character even more.
What mattered most was Ji Huaichu liked Mu Anqi's attitude toward ghosts.
Fear? Disgust? Contempt?… Even among the players who had been recruited by Shattered Mirror powerhouses—those who had passed the trials and received invitations—many still harbored deep prejudice against ghosts.
On the Shattered Mirror Continent, there were indeed cases where Shattered Mirror powerhouses were severely wounded due to sneak attacks or betrayal by players. Feigning loyalty, waiting for the right moment to kill the ghost kings—did they really think this was just like a game, where killing the boss would drop legendary loot?
In the instances on the Shattered Mirror Continent, as long as the location cooperates with the Nirvana Space, ghosts won't truly die even if they're killed. But they do become weakened, and their strength will drop for a period of time. There was even a Ghost King in the Opening Origin Stage who was once backstabbed by a powerful player they had recruited, resulting in resentment and trauma that caused them to fall back to the Barrier-Breaking Stage. It wasn't until they hunted that player down across multiple games and finally killed them completely that the Ghost King once again broke through and returned to the Opening Origin Stage. However… it's said that ghost no longer wishes to recruit players anymore.
Ji Huaichu thought, the players she favors and successfully recruits ought to receive some preferential treatment.
The methods other Ghost Kings use to train players don't suit her.
Mu Anqi had no idea what Ji Huaichu was thinking, as only a minute or two had passed. But to Mu Anqi, those couple of minutes felt unbearably long—so long she thought she had angered General Ji. After all, she didn't know what General Ji's bottom lines were. Maybe the general despised opportunistic subordinates?
Mu Anqi felt a bit of regret, but she truly believed that the candy cane couldn't possibly kill the spider monster. In that moment, she deeply regretted not gritting her teeth before this instance and spending everything to buy that special gun—she still had a free resurrection left anyway.
Why was she even trying to save up points! And even if she did—so what? Even if she cleared this game, there was no way she could afford the specially enhanced Gatling gun with her current points.
Just as Mu Anqi was falling into despair over the stalemate, a red-tasseled spear suddenly shot out from behind, piercing straight into the spider monster's belly. The entire creature was pinned and flung across the room, impaled against the wall.
"You did well. It was my oversight."
As General Ji's voice rang out, the spider monster hanging on the wall began to crack apart. The entire creature disintegrated, eventually turning into black smoke along with the red-tasseled spear and merging into Ji Huaichu's hand.
A money tree—what kind of offensive power did it even need? As long as she could play a good support role, provide supplies for Ji Huaichu, and remain calm and sharp in critical moments… what more could one ask for? Besides, Ji Huaichu didn't really need subordinates with maxed-out offensive strength.
What she needed to cultivate was Mu Anqi's ability to analyze the different instances, not rely on brute force to directly destroy the Black Mirror vortex. Although Ji Huaichu was especially good at that method of clearing games. Not that she couldn't solve things another way—just that for most Black Mirror vortices, overwhelming them with force was faster and more efficient.
"Use your own methods to discover the cause behind the Black Mirror vortex. During your investigation, as long as you can restrain the ghosts with your abilities, I will step in."
General Ji, who was in the Opening Origin Stage, had extremely strong control over her own yin energy and pressure. Coupled with her deliberate restraint, the malicious thoughts within this Black Mirror vortex, though instinctively sensing her as dangerous, did not generate fear or terror. At most, they simply avoided getting close to her. As a result, the main focus within this vortex naturally shifted to Mu Anqi.
This was to train the little money tree's reaction capability when facing ghosts—letting her gather clues on her own and deduce the cause of the Black Mirror vortex and the source of the malice. Even though Mu Anqi didn't have the power to tear through malicious thoughts with her bare hands, she could still clear the game using another method.
Come to think of it, maybe she could bring the little money tree along to witness a large-scale Black Mirror vortex next time. Ji Huaichu mused. After all, Mu Anqi's control ability was genuinely useful, and it didn't have any major drawbacks. However… before that, she should still let the money tree team up with other players and clear a few more Shattered Mirror instances to grow a bit more.
While Ji Huaichu was pondering how to cultivate the only rare money tree she had recruited, the "money tree" herself was seriously examining the interior of the house.
Only after the spider monster was dead did Mu Anqi finally feel safe enough to observe. The house was also covered in dust, but what was puzzling… was that the dining table still had dishes and utensils on it, with food so decayed it was unrecognizable. It seemed the family was still eating as usual before they met their end? As for the bloodstains on the wall and floor—long dried and splattered—it appeared a murder had once taken place here. Mu Anqi also found a piece of torn cloth on the floor, likely from clothing, though it was unclear how it had been ripped off. It felt somewhat stiff to the touch, as if soaked through with blood.
…Did the woman of the house turn into a spider monster and eat the man?
Mu Anqi walked toward the master bedroom. She cautiously pushed the door open, only to be choked by a wave of dust and moldy odor, causing her to stumble back. Her eyes watered from the irritation—she tried to suppress her coughing but couldn't hold it in. Covering her mouth and nose, she sneezed several times in a row.
The room was furnished quite ordinarily, except for one thing Mu Anqi couldn't quite understand—a god altar? The statue on the altar was an unusually round and cute baby boy. Mu Anqi stared at it for a long time but couldn't figure out which deity it was. She pinched a bit of incense ash but found nothing unusual.
Mu Anqi earnestly recited three or four blessing phrases to the statue, but nothing happened. She sighed and headed to the next house.
Mu Anqi didn't want to fall into stereotypes, nor did she want to be prejudiced. But… a village, a young couple, a baby boy statue, and when she thought about superstitions—it all gave her the strong feeling this was some kind of "have a son" cult. As for why the woman ate the man… could it be like a black widow spider? Where after eating the mate, the female gets better nourishment and then… gives birth to a son?
Mu Anqi was shocked by her own line of thinking. Though it oddly made logical sense, she couldn't help but think—if this really were a superstitious family, why would the man willingly let himself be eaten? And this was a death village; it couldn't be that every household had a giant spider, right?
If that's really the case, why didn't Nirvana Space just name this instance "Spider Village"?