The figure was of short stature.
Ning Yitao had spiritual power gathering in her hands, ready to strike a fatal blow at any moment.
When the mist cleared, she finally saw who it was.
It was Zhaocai.
The grown - up Zhaocai.
He had shed the body of a child and grown into what he would be in primary school.
There was less childishness on his face, and his features were starting to take shape. He looked like a little adult.
Ning Yitao had thought someone else would appear.
"Such a waste of spiritual power," she said.
Ning Yitao dispersed the spiritual energy in her hands and turned her head away, indicating that she didn't want to talk to Zhaocai.
Zhaocai jumped out and giggled on his own. Looking at them with a big smile, he said,
"Hey, there you are!"
He didn't sense Ning Yitao's mood change. From the moment he appeared, his target was clear: it was Liu Qiaozhi.
Zhaocai just grabbed Liu Qiaozhi and was about to drag her into the room.
Dust was billowing out of the room, falling on Zhaocai. Liu Qiaozhi was choking from the dust,
but Zhaocai didn't loosen his grip. Instead, he pulled even harder.
Liu Qiaozhi stopped him. Her face was all scrunched up. She covered her nose and mouth with her only hand and stepped back.
Feeling something was off, she asked,
"Where on earth are you dragging me?"
But Zhaocai still had that silly smile on his face. Taking it for granted, he said,
"Come on! I found something strange in there. If you're any later, I'm afraid it'll run away."
Liu Qiaozhi didn't want to go, but Zhaocai actually tried to force her in.
Seeing that neither of them was willing to listen to him, his tone turned impatient and angry. He said,
"What on earth are you two doing? Didn't you hear me? If you're any slower, that guy will run away."
But when Zhaocai turned to look at Liu Qiaozhi again, he suddenly felt something was wrong with what he was holding.
He was shocked to find that what he was holding was actually a skeleton.
The smile that had been on Zhaocai's face disappeared completely. A sinister expression appeared on his innocent face, making him look extremely vicious.
Zhaocai had never shown such an expression before.
In fact, Ning Yitao and Liu Qiaozhi hadn't left.
Ning Yitao had noticed something was wrong when "Zhaocai" grabbed Liu Qiaozhi.
When "Zhaocai" tried to forcefully drag Liu Qiaozhi away, Ning Yitao rescued her, and then the two of them went invisible.
Ning Yitao blocked the perception of those around them towards herself and Liu Qiaozhi.
Liu Qiaozhi was finally out of "Zhaocai"'s grasp. Fearing another trap, she tightly held Ning Yitao's hand.
Seeing this "Zhaocai", Liu Qiaozhi felt goosebumps all over her body.
They quietly watched what this fake Zhaocai was going to do.
Since his target had escaped, the fake "Zhaocai" spat on the ground, angrily broke the skeleton in his hand, and said with disgust,
"Damn it! What the hell is this? Trying to play tricks on me."
"These days, no one is easy to fool. I'm so unlucky today. Two of them got away from me."
Ning Yitao caught the key point in his words.
"What does he mean? Two people? Besides us, has someone else come here earlier?"
Ning Yitao started to go through the list in her mind.
If Zhaocai was excluded, the most likely ones were Ji Wangqiu and Ji Yeran. After all, this was the illusion in their family.
They must know more about this illusion than she did.
The fake "Zhaocai" gradually shed his disguise and returned to his original form. His voice became rough.
His hands and feet became long and slender, with extremely long fingers tightly gripping the ground. His back was hunched high, like an alien monster. His body looked thin and tall, but his face seemed to have only eyes.
His eyes turned blood - red, full of blood vessels. This was what Liu Qiaozhi had seen at the door lock earlier.
Liu Qiaozhi hid behind Ning Yitao. When she saw those blood - red eyes, she tightened her grip on Ning Yitao's clothes, afraid of being discovered by the monster.
Ning Yitao tried to distract Liu Qiaozhi to ease her fear. She explained,
"He's a wild earth sprite. They're quite common. They feed on other people's spiritual energy. They're a low - level evil creature, but they're good at hiding."
Liu Qiaozhi asked curiously,
"Is this place special?"
Liu Qiaozhi saw Ning Yitao looking at the storage room with a mysterious look. It was pitch - black inside, and no matter how hard she tried to look, she couldn't see what was inside.
Ning Yitao didn't answer her question. Her eyes were fixed on the wild earth sprite.
The wild earth sprite moved his long limbs and walked into the house.
He was like an alien mantis, with his front two hands hanging in the air.
Ning Yitao and the others followed the wild earth sprite.
They got into the house just before the door closed.
Ning Yitao looked around. The decoration inside the house was exactly the same as the last time she came in. Even the position of the white dust covers on the furniture hadn't changed.
The wild earth sprite didn't notice that Ning Yitao and the others were following him.
He just walked inside on his own.
He didn't go to the Anguo room where Uncle Cao had gone last time. Instead, he went to the farthest room.
He opened the door, and inside were all kinds of human - shaped corpses. A stench hit them.
The energy here completely covered his scent. This wild earth sprite was really smart to choose such a perfect hiding place.
The first thing the wild earth sprite did when he came back was to smell the corpses in the room.
His expression was one of ecstasy, and he squinted his eyes as if he was enjoying it.
This scene made Liu Qiaozhi shiver.
Suddenly, a tiny sound came from the corner of the room.
This sound also caught the wild earth sprite's attention, and he cracked a smile.
There was hardly any room for other facial features on his face except for his eyes.
This smile took up all the remaining space on his face. His eyes seemed about to be squeezed out and fall to the ground.
Liu Qiaozhi turned her head away. She felt that if she looked at him any longer, she would scream.
The wild earth sprite sneered and muttered to himself,
"Almost forgot about you. I've got something today after all."
The wild earth sprite walked towards that corner.
Ning Yitao couldn't sense what was there. The magnetic field in this place was too chaotic, and everything was covered.
The wild earth sprite stretched his long fingers towards the hole.
Then they heard a familiar voice.
Zhaocai!
No one had expected that Zhaocai would end up here.
He had entered the illusion with Ning Yitao and the others, but they had landed in different places.
Zhaocai was unlucky. He had landed right in the wild earth sprite's lair.
Caught off - guard, Zhaocai could only be captured.
The wild earth sprite was quite happy about this unexpected gain.
People often randomly landed in this illusion,
and the wild earth sprite had even set up traps in the places where people often landed.
And Zhaocai had fallen right into one of them.
Zhaocai just felt speechless about his bad luck today.
The wild earth sprite could transform into a human form.
Ning Yitao recognized Zhaocai, but she didn't step in to rescue him.
Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her chest and was ready to watch with interest how Zhaocai would escape.
In this room, Zhaocai couldn't fully unleash his spiritual power.
Most of his abilities were suppressed.
He was even forced to transform into his original form to hide.
But he couldn't escape the wild earth sprite's long fingers.
After the wild earth sprite rummaged around the hole a few times, Zhaocai was dragged out.
Zhaocai returned to his normal form and tried to escape through the door, but he was pulled back as soon as he touched the doorknob.
During their fight, they also broke the wild earth sprite's "exhibits".
This really angered the wild earth sprite, and he waved his limbs and screeched.