"What do a bunch of dead people hope to accomplish in the end? Step aside. You have no future left. Even if you intervene again, it will be meaningless."
The Wraithlord spoke coldly. I quietly watched Serena Chen among the twelve, as well as Hugh Go, whom I had seen before. All twelve now stared at us with solemn expressions.
"Rachel Lan, I warned you before. I told you to leave this place. I didn't expect that in the end, you'd still be swayed by the Wraithlord."
I shook my head.
"Going to the Illusory Realm is entirely my own decision. I have to go."
I spoke with conviction. Suddenly, I saw twelve beams of light, each a different color, shoot from the hands of the twelve people. The Wraithlord smiled and stepped in front of me, raising a hand.
With a series of sharp cracks, the beams aimed at me were instantly deflected. The Wraithlord burst into laughter and slowly rose into the air.
"Do you really think any of you are a match for me now?"
For a moment, the twelve said nothing and began to fade away. I watched in confusion as the Wraithlord, now looking grim, scanned the surroundings.
"Let me see what tricks you have, how many paths you can block."
In an instant, the Wraithlord appeared before me, motioning for me to follow. I hurried after him as he led me straight toward the mountainside. I stared in surprise.
"Don't worry. Just follow my lead."
As he spoke, the Wraithlord had already slipped into the mountainside, and I quickly followed. It was the same narrow path I had seen before. The Wraithlord laughed as he raced along it.
"Whatever you do, don't lose me or go off on your own. Now those twelve will do anything to block our way to the Illusory Realm, but there are so many paths here it's impossible to count them all."
We ran along the small path by the riverside, above the mountainside. Soon, we reached a dilapidated shrine overgrown with weeds. The Wraithlord walked straight over and kicked aside some stones.
"Jump down."
Without another word, the Wraithlord made a jumping gesture. I followed him, and suddenly I was falling. Darkness surrounded me, but in the blink of an eye, the Wraithlord and I were standing on the edge of a rice paddy. All around us were newly planted fields. The Wraithlord began walking along the embankment, his expression grave.
"What's going on?"
I asked.
"Looks like we'll have to take a detour. The routes controlled by those twelve have all been sealed off, but I still have one way left."
The Wraithlord glanced around, then dashed toward a small house on the embankment, kicking the door open.
As soon as I stepped inside, I found myself on a broad street paved with white stone slabs. The street was crowded with people—ancient people, judging by their clothes—which surprised me.
"Hey, where have you been these past few days?"
Suddenly, I saw a beggar sitting by the roadside strike up a conversation with the Wraithlord.
"Oh right, let me ask you something. Do you still remember the location of that underground pit you visited before?"
As the Wraithlord spoke, he extended his hand, which now held a handful of coins. The beggar accepted the money and immediately started talking to him. Then the Wraithlord grabbed me and took off running.
"What is this place, anyway?"
Puzzled, I watched as the Wraithlord and I left the small city and suddenly found ourselves running across a lake. It was bizarre—I couldn't even tell where we were.
After crossing the lake and passing through a patch of grass, the Wraithlord looked around. Then I saw him find a cave hidden in the grass. We crawled inside and discovered it was enormous—a cavern stretching deep underground. The Wraithlord smiled.
"Don't say anything. Let's stay here for a while. They won't be able to find us for now."
"What..."
The Wraithlord immediately pointed outside the cave. When I looked, I realized I could see everything outside. But as soon as I snapped back, it was just the cave again. Whenever I wanted to see outside, I could—an almost unbelievable sensation.
I saw an Azure Dragon gliding across the lake's surface before vanishing into the distance. The Wraithlord explained that this place was a tangled space, and the twelve had already figured out how to travel through it. Together, those twelve understood more of the chaotic time-space than the Wraithlord did.
This time-space belonged to the inner world of a beggar who died here. Unaware of his own death, he continued living happily in this world as a beggar. The cave, in fact, was his home—his final resting place.
As soon as I thought of the dead beggar, I suddenly saw a skeleton—long since reduced to bones—lying quietly among a pile of broken things not far from us in the cave.
The reason he brought me here is that beggars are insignificant to them, and in the beggar’s inner world, his sense of self is humble. So this world is very small and hard to find. Even though they know about it, nothing is obvious at a glance. But the end point of this beggar’s inner world is invisible to them. As long as we avoid them, we can slip past the Zodiac Successors’ blockade and find a path to the Illusory Realm.
I had no idea how much time had passed. We kept waiting in the cave. After a while, I heard a commotion—it was the same beggar, returning with a pile of food, most of it leftovers. He sat happily at a broken table in the cave, eating and drinking, and his skeleton was gone. He seemed content.
What puzzled me was that the beggar couldn’t see us.
"How were you able to talk to him before?"
I asked, and the Wraithlord smiled.
"When I first entered this guy’s inner world, I realized I couldn’t find his room—the place he lived in his mind. So I disguised myself as a swordsman who often gave him alms and asked him for news about the city. Every time I gave him a little reward, I learned more about this place. But the location changed every time, so I always had to ask. Then, pretending I needed him to hide something for me, I’d give him money, and he’d tell me the spot and keep watch over it for me."
The Wraithlord pointed at the pile of broken junk nearby. The beggar lounged comfortably on it, apparently drunk.
"How much longer do we have to wait?"
I asked. The Wraithlord shook his head.
"It’s still uncertain. Serena Chen already searched once, so now they’re all looking for us in each person’s inner world. We can’t leave yet. The only route I know is in a tavern in the city. If we get there, we can enter the Drunkard’s inner world. By accident, when he was drunk, he found the entrance to the Illusory Realm—and he really did take me there once."
I let out a sound of surprise, and the Wraithlord smiled at me.
"Everyone’s inner world is connected, yet independent. For example, when you met May Shaw, her world was lonely and rejected others, so no one else existed in it. In everyone’s inner world, other people act like performers, helping build everything in that world."
I frowned, finally grasping the nature of this place.
"For instance, when we left the city, we saw the tax collector—his inner world only had women. Or his subordinate, the bailiff—his world made him the emperor."
"What kind of nonsense is that!"
I couldn't help but mutter, and after a while, the beggar was thoroughly drunk. Night began to fall outside. The Wraithlord led me out of the cave, and we crossed the lake, entering a brightly lit small city. At the entrance of a tavern, the Wraithlord took me upstairs.
"Here to buy me another drink?"
A drunken man was counting peanuts at the table, holding a wine jug. The Wraithlord went over and skillfully ordered good food and wine from the waiter.
"That place you went last time—can you take me there again?"
"No problem, no problem. Once I've had my fill, I'll take you."
I watched as the Wraithlord and the Drunkard drank cup after cup. No one else seemed to notice me. Then I saw a woman carrying a pipa come upstairs. Suddenly, the tavern was filled with calls for her. She began to play and sing, while an old man occasionally picked up money tossed onto the tables.
"Inside this woman’s inner world, she’s actually a man."
I swallowed, watching the beautiful woman play. I couldn’t imagine her as a man at all.
Finally, the Drunkard was completely wasted. The Wraithlord propped him up and staggered out of the tavern with him. The Drunkard rambled incoherently, while the Wraithlord kept asking about the location from before.
After a while, the Drunkard led us into an alley, where we saw a well. The Drunkard laughed and pointed at the wellhead.
"It's inside, right inside. I swear, the thing is really in there."
The Wraithlord grinned and shoved the Drunkard aside, then shot me a look. With no choice, I followed him and jumped into the well. The moment I opened my eyes, I found myself in a bustling marketplace. There was the Drunkard, hawking his wares.
"Come on, come on, try my Thousand-Cup Drunkenness!"
A crowd gathered as the Drunkard sat at a table, downing bowl after bowl of wine. People watched in amazement.
"Now we just have to wait for him to get drunk."
The Wraithlord smiled. I swallowed, looking around at what seemed to be a small marketplace in the mountains.