429: Large-scale themed haunted house

She closed her eyes and focused, her Sea of Consciousness spreading out like a tide, firmly latching onto that faint thread of energy, while frantically analyzing the prayer's structure.

This thing wasn't just a beacon; it also contained a bizarre spatial logic.

"Peel away the superficial... peer into the real..."

She repeatedly chewed on the core of the prayer.

Shang Wan Ning instantly understood the key: the authority of the Thousand-Faced Shadow was disguise and prying.

Its hiding place must be concealed within the core of "falsehood."

Her Sea of Consciousness surged along the thread, breaking through layer after layer of spatial barriers, but was blocked by countless false coordinates and chaotic ripples.

It was all a bewildering array set up by the Thousand-Faced Shadow, intending to trap any searching deity in spatial turbulence.

Her thoughts raced, and she gave up on a direct pursuit.

This evil god relied on faith anchor points to take root in the main world, and the blood marrow ore and prayers were one of its most secret anchor points. If she couldn't find it from the outside, she would seek it from within.

She mobilized her divine power, simulated the original aura of the blood marrow ore, and resonated with the rhythm of the prayer... "Buzz!"

The surrounding space suddenly emitted a strange resonance, like a drop of water hitting a calm lake, spreading out ripples.

[great host, there's a reaction.]

Xiao Si's alert sounded in her Sea of Consciousness.

Shang Wan Ning locked onto the node with the strongest resonance, her divine power surged at her fingertips, and she slashed fiercely at the void.

"Tear!"

A long, narrow spatial crack opened in response.

Behind the rift was not a stable demiplane, but a chaotic region of bizarre and motley light. Countless Blurry face floated and howled within, and a chaotic, deranged aura rushed forth, almost scattering her Sea of Consciousness!!!

"Mirror Corridor?"

Shang Wan Ning recognized the nature of this area.

A barrier created with authority between the main world and a slumbering demiplane, full of distorted illusions and spatial traps... She stepped into it without hesitation.

As soon as she landed, her surroundings instantly changed dramatically.

She seemed to be in a labyrinth made of countless mirrors, each reflecting a different scene.

Prosperous cities, desolate wildernesses, deep seabeds, burning purgatories... and even some fragments of her memories were distorted and presented.

Countless "Shang Wan Ning"s in the mirrors grinned, cried, and roared at her, trying to disturb her mind.

Even more troublesome, these mirrors were not static; they were constantly moving and reorganizing, and the spatial rules here were in utter chaos.

"Oh my, this is practically a large-scale real-life haunted house!"

Xiao Si's electronic voice was mischievous, full of schadenfreude.

"The Thousand-Faced Shadow's taste is really awful."

Shang Wan Ning didn't want to bother with Xiao Si's complaints. Her Sea of Consciousness spread out, cautiously probing a mirror beside her.

The mirror reflected Ling Qi's profile, bent over a desk, reviewing official documents, her gold-rimmed glasses chain draped around her neck, her expression focused.

But the next second, the person in the mirror suddenly tilted her head, giving her a captivating smile that was seductive to the bone, completely devoid of her usual aloofness.

Illusion.

As her Sea of Consciousness touched the mirror surface, a sticky force wrapped around it, trying to stir up her mind.

She flicked her finger, and Netherworld Divine Power burst forth, directly shattering the mirror, along with the seductive person in the mirror, into dust.

Where the mirror shattered, the space trembled slightly, revealing another identical-looking Mirror Corridor behind it.

"great host, the mirrors are all full of intimate scenes~"

"It seems Her Majesty the Empress has a very rich social life."

"Too much talk!" Shang Wan Ning reprimanded indifferently, her gaze sweeping over the new Mirror Corridor.

The mirrors here reflected her and Olexia discussing how to trick Sabrina's clone at the Abyss Church outpost.

In the scene, the Goddess of Desire was lazily swirling a wine glass, a calculating arc on her red lips.

She did not linger, directly shattering several core mirrors with divine power to open a path.

These illusions were constructed based on her memories and perceptions. While they would be lethal to those with weak wills, to her, they were merely annoying gnats.

After continuously breaking through three Mirror Corridors, the illusions that appeared became increasingly tricky.

In one mirror, Princess Shang Wugou was actually squatting at the bottom of the Wangchuan River, holding a twisted lump of yin mud, looking up with her small face, her crimson eyes full of adoration: "Mommy, do you think I made it look like you?"

Shang Wan Ning's footsteps paused.

Her brow beneath the mask furrowed slightly. This evil god really knew how to play on people's minds.

She did not shatter this mirror with her hand; she merely cast a cold glance, and the illusion was crushed by an unseen force, silently annihilating along with the mirror surface.

"Ding, detected spatial rule Disorder increased by 37%." Xiao Si reported the data, "Host, forcing your way through like this is too inefficient. This labyrinth is using your divine power to reinforce itself."

Shang Wan Ning stopped, standing in the middle of a seemingly endless Mirror Corridor.

The mirrors reflected different versions of herself, some majestic and awe-inspiring, some lazy and casual, some full of evil... a thousand faces and myriad forms, swirling around her.

"Peel away the superficial... peer into the real..." She silently recited the core of the prayer again.

The authority of the Thousand-Faced Shadow was disguise and prying, and this Mirror Corridor was an extension of its authority.

Brute-forcing her way through was simply an inferior approach.

She closed her eyes and focused, no longer using her vision or her Sea of Consciousness to charge directly.

All Netherworld Divine Power was retracted, her consciousness entered a state of emptiness, carefully capturing the most subtle fluctuations in space.

All messy thoughts were cast aside, and the flickering light and shadow of the mirrors were disregarded.

Gradually, she touched the "foundation" of this space. A bottom-level fluctuation that followed the authority of the Thousand-Faced Shadow, constantly creating falsehoods and obscuring the truth.

"Found it, found it!"

Xiao Si immediately shouted.

Shang Wan Ning suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze locking onto a seemingly ordinary mirror diagonally ahead, reflecting a blurry light and shadow.

The fluctuations emanating from there were different from all the surrounding mirrors that created illusions; it was more stable, more... "hollow."

She raised her hand, not using divine power, but merely condensing a trace of aura at her fingertip, highly simulating the origin of the blood marrow ore, and pointed it into the air at that mirror.

"Buzz..."

The mirror rippled like water, and the blurry light and shadow it reflected rapidly faded, revealing an unadorned passage behind it.

At the end of the passage, a chilling evil god's pressure faintly emanated.

"Beautiful!" Xiao Si praised.

"Use its own spear to attack its own shield. Use its own power to open the way to its lair."

Shang Wan Ning stepped into the passage, and the Mirror Corridor behind her twisted and closed, returning to being part of the endless labyrinth.

"Oh, and great host."

Xiao Si suddenly remembered something, "Should we take care of the cultists behind Viscount Morris while we're at it?"

"No need."

Shang Wan Ning's tone was indifferent as she steadily walked down the passage. "When the Thousand-Faced Shadow falls, the cultists who rely on divine grace for their existence will suffer a backlash of power, and their minds will collapse."

"Cockroaches hiding in the sewers don't need the Abyss Church to personally step on them."

[Tsk, tsundere, a tsundere indeed.]

Xiao Si rolled its eyes.

[She clearly said she didn't want to change places to 'experience life' for now, fearing that the undead would rush out and flatten the town. But after just one day, she's already here to settle accounts with the main culprit.]

[A woman who says one thing and means another.]