It was pitch - black inside the door. As soon as the two of them entered, they saw two unconscious contestants lying on the ground.
Xu Ning's face turned deathly pale. He trembled and said, "They... they aren't dead, are they?"
Yu Nian walked up to the contestants, gently placed her fingers on their pulses, and said calmly, "They're not dead. They've just been forcibly kicked out of the illusion."
In other words, they were eliminated.
The judges' seats were in an uproar. Xu Yufang turned her head and looked at the two dimmed spirit stones in a row in the front - left of the judges' seats. She let out a soft sigh.
The spirit stones corresponded to the contestants' competition status. If a contestant was eliminated, the spirit stone would lose its luster.
"Two contestants have been eliminated right after they entered the illusion. How are we going to proceed from here?"
Yu Nian stepped forward to help the two contestants up. She bit her finger and dotted two red marks on their foreheads to prevent their souls from being severely damaged.
After settling the two of them, Yu Nian began to look around. There was a distinct dividing line at the junction between the room and the corridor. The dim light made the whole room eerie.
A tattered calendar was pasted on the wall. Yu Nian flipped a few pages back and found that June 6th was circled in red pen. That was the day of the college entrance examination. There were several old marks on the wall beside the calendar, emitting a faint stench.
Xu Ning was a bit frightened. "What's this? It can't be human blood, can it?"
Yu Nian's gaze swept over and she nodded. "You're right."
Xu Ning's face paled and he quickly followed Yu Nian's footsteps.
This should be a sketch studio. The easels were closely arranged, leaving no passage for people to walk through.
They could only weave through the easels. As a result, their speed slowed down, and their eyes involuntarily fell on the drawing papers.
Xu Ning exclaimed in surprise, "These are really well - drawn! It's a pity that half of them have been torn."
The faces on all the drawing papers were of the same person, in the same pose, smiling brightly. Yu Nian recognized the background in the paintings. It was the playground of Wanju High School.
The painter had also drawn many floating ribbons and balloons. It seemed that Wanju High School was holding some kind of event.
However, each painting was in tatters. The edges were jagged, and some even had only half a face left.
Yu Nian bent down to carefully examine the drawing papers. Suddenly, the bullet comments started to roll.
[Look! What's that rolling in Yu Nian's shadow?]
Xu Ning also quickly noticed something was wrong. There seemed to be something alive wriggling in their shadows. Black air kept seeping out. In the blink of an eye, distorted human faces emerged from the four walls of the room, writhing wildly in the air. For some reason, they felt that these faces were somewhat familiar.
In an instant, the room was filled with human faces. Above each face grew extremely long and thick black hair. They opened their blood - red mouths wide and lunged at the two of them like a tidal wave.
Xu Ning was startled. He quickly pasted a talisman paper on the ground and said to Yu Nian, "You can't deal with them. Hide behind me safely!"
He quickly chanted the incantation, trying to unleash his previous ability.
Unexpectedly, his talisman paper was like waste paper in front of the ghosts. It was easily torn and fluttered in the air.
Xu Ning froze on the spot. He couldn't believe it. "How could this happen..."
While Xu Ning was in a daze, a pale human face suddenly bit his arm. Xu Ning cried out in pain and struggled desperately. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a swift figure. He saw Yu Nian forming a seal with one hand, and a fire talisman flew into the human face at a speed that the naked eye couldn't catch.
But soon, the fire talisman was devoured by the human face.
Xu Ning was utterly exhausted. He frowned and shouted, "Yu Nian, come back quickly. These human faces are full of too much resentment. The fire talisman can't burn them to death. Don't cause trouble..."
Half - way through his words, he suddenly fell silent.
For some reason, Xu Ning seemed to see a glimmer of golden light in the thick shadows. In an instant, the golden light grew larger and larger.
With a loud "bang", a mighty divine power shot straight into the sky, dispelling all the gloomy aura in the room.
The next second, a deafening roar filled the room. Huge fireworks exploded in the air. Amid the shrill screams of the human faces, Xu Ning seemed to hear two clear cries.
An inky - golden phoenix burst out of the flames. As it spread its wings and soared, it continuously spat out golden flames from its mouth, burning the shadows and human faces to ashes.
Xu Ning slumped to the ground, too shocked to speak.
The army of human faces that had eliminated two contestants was so vulnerable in front of Yu Nian!
Xu Ning wiped his face. He had actually taught Yu Nian how to draw talismans just now... How dare he!
Naturally, Yu Nian didn't know what was going on in Xu Ning's mind. She just thought that he was unusually silent after they walked out of the room, and his words were even respectful.
Yu Nian didn't pay much attention. The two of them continued walking and were about to open the door of the next room.
But Yu Nian suddenly stopped when she passed by a mirror.
Xu Ning didn't even dare to breathe. ".. What's wrong?"
Yu Nian frowned and reached out to touch the mirror.
"There's Feng Chengyuan's aura inside."
"Mr. Feng? That's impossible. How could he be trapped in the mirror? Are you mistaken?"
Yu Nian slowly placed her palm on the mirror surface. Suddenly, she felt a powerful suction force, as if it wanted to drag her into the mirror.
She withdrew her hand and tentatively called out, "Feng Chengyuan?"
Two dull knocks immediately came from inside the mirror. Yu Nian's expression finally softened a bit. She said calmly, "You'd better hide far away."
Yu Nian quickly drew a talisman on the mirror, then kicked it hard. With a loud "bang", the mirror shattered.
Feng Chengyuan nimbly jumped out of the mirror. He sized Yu Nian up and down, and only let out a sigh of relief when he saw that she was safe and sound.
Grandpa Fu on the judges' seat curved his eyes and whispered to his butler, Gui Xiao, "See? They're very in sync."
Xu Yufang twitched the corner of her mouth. She suddenly wanted to ask this senior: Are you here as a judge or to ship a CP?
...
Xu Ning looked at the remaining doors with a worried frown. Just opening one door had already led to so many dangerous things. What should they do next?
Yu Nian didn't say a word. She slowly walked to the middle of the corridor. As she chanted a clear incantation, several red threads whirled out from her wrist. The ends of the threads precisely tied to each door.
Xu Ning shook his head disapprovingly. "I checked just now. The material of these doors is special, and there are dozens of iron claws inside. It's very difficult to open them by brute force."
Yu Nian gave him a cold look, then gently turned her wrist. With a loud "rumble", dust and broken soil flew everywhere. Several large doors were actually yanked off.
Xu Ning twitched the corner of his mouth. He decided never to say a word again.