Lu Li’s dark eyes fell on the dining table, a note that did not belong here lay on the dust.
The oil lamp was placed at the table’s edge, picking up the note, its written content didn’t belong to any known language, illegible, incomprehensible.
Temporarily putting the suspected clue in his pocket, Lu Li lifted the oil lamp, which left a circle of dust marks on the dining table, and observed other corners of the living room.
All things covered in dust indicated this place had been long deserted; the floor bore only Lu Li’s shoe prints, as if the note had appeared out of thin air.
From the dim kitchen, scanning across the window, his gaze fell upon the stairs leading upstairs, continuing upward—a pair of clear footprints printed at the edge of the ceiling near the stairs.
Lu Li raised his gaze, following the footprints back to directly above, the footprints extending towards the door and window.
Quietly observing for several seconds, Lu Li suddenly moved the dining table, amidst the sound of clashing plates and bowls, brought over a wooden chair, stepping onto the dining table.
His black strands almost touched the ceiling as Lu Li raised the oil lamp close to observe the shoe prints.
Being too close made the shoe prints difficult to discern, but as details erged up close, they beca clear; from the shoe print patterns, Lu Li recognized: these were his own footprints.
Besides the door and window, there was another pair extending into the unknown depths of the stairs.
The footprints numbered two pairs...
Bang.
Stepping down from the table, leaping back to the ground, Lu Li took out the eyeball wooden box from his pouch, flicking it open with his thumb, then approached the window to peek outside.
Lurking in the shadowy houses along the street, extending into the depths, the architectural layout here resembled a street from the surface—yet Lu Li did not see the star-like glimr of the Alchemical Tower from afar.
Soon after, rchant Anthony erged from the shadows.
"Where am I?" Lu Li moved away from the window.
"The Corrupt Sewers."
Regrettably, Lu Li knew very little about this forbidden place, but rchant Anthony, who possessed information, could assist Lu Li.
"Tell the information about this place."
Lu Li arrived next to the staircase, stepping onto the dust-filled steps leading to the second floor.
rchant Anthony knew little about the Corrupt Sewers, only knowing they were called the Land of Oblivion, once located at the end of the old sewer’s main line, Spirit Town. Then disaster suddenly struck, with the Divinity and church sinking alongside the town, rging into the old underground sewers.
No survivors escaped.
The March Championship placed its second phase in the Corrupt Sewers, letting all contestants enter here... Is there any deeper aning?
With two of the three forbidden places being the first two phases of the championship, in the distant third phase, are the final Mysterious Dense Forest awaiting them?
Upon reaching the second floor, Lu Li once again saw the briefly vanished ceiling footprints. The footprints stretched into the depths of the corridor, then returned from the other side of the corridor, entering the two doors on the second floor.
Lu Li followed the footprints, another self appeared in his mind, walking into the room at the end, then returning to the corridor, exploring the other two rooms—
Stopping in front of the corridor’s end door, Lu Li reached out to push open the wooden door.
With a teeth-grinding and alertness-inducing "creak", the room’s scene was revealed.
This was a guest room, with the window long shattered, glass scattered all over the floor, the breeze gently swayed the curtain like gauze, the culprit’s five stones quietly lay on the floor.
Casting his gaze around the empty guest room, Lu Li walked to the window fra with shattered pieces of glass still attached.
Not far away, ten ters away, an open second-floor window of a house faced directly at the guest room beneath his feet.
After waiting a while, no activity ca from the opposite house, Lu Li’s attention fell back to the footprints on the ceiling. The inverted other self, like him, wandered in the guest room before returning to the corridor.
Following the footprints leaving the guest room, Lu Li pushed open the first wooden door, revealing a storeroom.
The footprints paused at the door, not entering.
The other room was a bedroom, the chaotic bed and everything in the house alike, covered in dust.
The footprints lingered in the bedroom, briefly pausing at the edge—his gaze returned to the floor, the ceiling footprints’ resting place, a book that had been flipped through lay on the bedside table.
Lu Li approached, picking up the brown-covered book with his left hand.
"Martin and the Dog", a novel of emotional intrigue and grievances among noble won and their slaves, popular during the Old Era.
Opening the cover, the pages contained no layered papers or inserted note, just an ordinary novel for leisure by the house’s owner.
Putting the book back, Lu Li and the "self" on the ceiling similarly searched the bedroom, returning to the downstairs living room.
Lu Li raised the oil lamp, his gaze returning to the ceiling’s footprints, observing those in the middle of the living room extending to the front of the door, returning to his original position; extending to the window, then back to the original position, and simultaneously extending to the stairs—
Did two "selves" once walk on the ceiling?
Realizing sothing, Lu Li inquired to rchant Anthony, who hadn’t left yet: "Did I summon you before."
"Twice."
His gaze fell on the ceiling’s close yet un-overlapping vague footprints: "Both tis standing on the ceiling."
The inquiry was confird, yet Lu Li had no recollection of the first two tis.
Land of Oblivion...
Recalling the alternate na for the Corrupt Sewers, Lu Li asked rchant Anthony to detail the specifics of the first two summons.
The information was less than expected, during the first two instances, Lu Li was unable to communicate with rchant Anthony. The inversion affected not only the body, but also language.
Lu Li thought of the indecipherable Parchnt on the dining table, wondering if during the first two tis, he could read it, and if breaking free from the inversion was related.
He retrieved his notebook from the pouch, tearing off two pages, on one Lu Li transcribed the note’s content, on the other he wrote down content for a possible "next ti".
[I am Lu Li, this is the third ti. The first two tis had inversions, the ceiling footprints provide answers. Previous mories were forgotten, this is the Corrupt Sewers, the house holds no clues. The upstairs guest room’s window is shattered, five stones on the floor, next I will]
Suddenly, a faint conversation ca from outside the window, causing Lu Li to stop his pen, leave the dining table, and stand at the window.
A silhouette on the distant street called out to a hesitant figure, leading it into a house beside it.
That seed to be a contestant, Lu Li surveyed the street, empty once more, left the window, picked up the pen, and continued to write: [There are other silhouettes on the street, they entered a house with a hanging wooden sign, next I will approach there.]
If there is another instance, then he can know much information beforehand.
The premise is that this page and the note are not reclaid together.
Confirming no residual clues remained in the house, Lu Li picked up the oil lamp and arrived at the door.
Click—
The street’s empty breeze replaced the silence inside the house.
Lu Li, carrying the oil lamp, walked lonely on the shadow-shrouded street, only the footsteps echoed emptily.
During the approach to that house, Lu Li saw behind the houses’ windows on both sides of the street, terrifying inverted figures hung peeping. So hid as Lu Li looked, while others maintained their gaze.
Each one without exception wore contestant badges.
Click—
As Lu Li approached that house, the door was opened from inside.
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