CHAPTER 11
As soon as Meng Yunxi entered the basement, she was involuntarily drawn to the funhouse mirrors, and in doing so, her eyes regained their clarity.
The lights went out, the flames flickered, and the process was repeated. In the blink of an eye, the twin siblings reappeared before Sheng Qing and Meng Yunxi.
"Aunt Qingqing is amazing!" The older sister couldn't wait to take the doll from Sheng Qing's hand, but Meng Yunxi stopped her.
"The items have been brought as promised. Now, tell me your secret," Meng Yunxi said calmly.
The older sister awkwardly withdrew her hand, took a deep breath, and said, "Actually, this isn't exactly a secret to us. It goes in and out of there without ever trying to hide it from us."
"Where did Jiajia come from?" Sheng Qing asked, realizing his mistake as soon as the words left his mouth. "I mean, what exactly is it?"
The twin siblings shook their heads in unison.
"How do we get in? Have you ever been inside?" Meng Yunxi's curiosity was piqued.
The twins shook their heads in unison again.
"Your information is worthless. The deal is canceled." Meng Yunxi said calmly, ignoring the questioning look Sheng Qing gave her.
"Hey! What gives you the right to speak for Aunt Qingqing?" The older sister was furious, glaring at Meng Yunxi before turning her gaze to Sheng Qing. "Aunt Qingqing, can we let him leave?"
Meng Yunxi gently pulled Sheng Qing closer to her, her gaze defiant: "Do you think she listens to you or me?"
“Since we’re going to cooperate, there should at least be some honesty.” Sheng Qing exchanged glances with Meng Yunxi and said to her sister, “Tell me everything you know.”
"We'd better hurry. We can't guarantee that if we're too late, it won't notice anything amiss and come to stop us," Meng Yunxi added.
"Sigh!" The twins sighed deeply, as if they had made a very important decision.
The two of them, one after the other, finally managed to explain the general situation, expressing their disgust and fear of it. Sheng Qing had to interrupt them from time to time to bring the conversation back to the main topic.
According to the twins' speculation, it was probably transformed from something unknown, and it survived by absorbing the power of the secret realm and the vital essence of people like Jiajia and the twins.
It seems that the strangeness of this building and the monster under the Scarlet Night are also related to it, Sheng Qing and Meng Yunxi made further deductions.
"Now you can give us the doll, right?" The older sister held out her hand and muttered to herself, "We don't even know if this thing will work, yet we're already handing it over."
"Of course," Sheng Qing replied readily.
The twin siblings studied the doll for a long time without any results; they were almost ready to take it apart.
As Sheng Qing was thinking, the next second, her sister's fiery temper flared up. Crying and cursing, she was about to dismember the doll.
"Huh?" All three of them exclaimed in confusion.
What material is this doll made of? Is it that sturdy?
Sheng Qing didn't believe in superstitions either, so he tried it out himself.
But neither the slightly worn dress nor the head and limbs connected by joints could be pulled away.
"Let me try." Meng Yunxi took it, but failed as well.
"How about we try it with fire?" Sheng Qing suggested.
"No!" the twins exclaimed in unison, "We can't let them get burned!"
“I agree,” Meng Yunxi said abruptly. “Or do you intend to just let things drag on like this?”
The older sister glanced at her younger brother and nodded in agreement with no choice.
Contrary to expectations, the doll remained intact despite being burned by the flames.
"Perhaps we need to go back to the basement?" Meng Yunxi tentatively suggested.
Sheng Qing then realized that, strictly speaking, they were now on the other side of the mirror.
“But once we’re outside, there’s nothing to cover us. We’re afraid it will come.” The twins looked troubled.
After much persuasion, the twin siblings finally agreed to return to the basement.
The moment Sheng Qing returned to the basement, she felt that same gaze she had when she was stealing the doll from Jiajia's room.
"Have you felt it..." Before Sheng Qing could finish speaking, a lazy chuckle rang out.
"Did you hear that?" Sheng Qing cautiously looked around; the basement seemed no different from before.
"No." A look of wariness flashed in Meng Yunxi's eyes. "Explain clearly, what happened?"
“Something is watching us, and we heard laughter,” Sheng Qing explained quickly.
"Found it!" the twin siblings cheered excitedly.
Two bright lights rose from the dolls and eventually disappeared between the two people's eyebrows.
The once spacious basement suddenly felt crowded, with shadowy figures approaching, seemingly accompanied by sharp, clamorous noises.
"I can hear and see too." Meng Yunxi's words reassured Sheng Qing; at least she wasn't alone.
A cold, sticky aura swept by, and the basement returned to silence.
"It's not wrong, you really, really smell wonderful." The twins had strange expressions, as if they were trying to resist some force, but their bodies slowly moved closer to Sheng Qing.
"It doesn't smell like anything?" Sheng Qing raised her arm and sniffed it in confusion. "Why don't you smell it?" she said, extending her hand towards Meng Yunxi.
Meng Yunxi seemed a little embarrassed and coughed lightly, but still leaned down slightly to take a sniff.
“I can’t smell it; it might only be attractive to specific species,” Meng Yunxi added after a moment’s thought. “Once this is resolved, we can go to the treatment room for a checkup.”
"Aunt Qingqing, didn't you promise to help us get rid of this?" Seeing that she was about to be entangled by the twin siblings, Sheng Qing stepped back and accidentally bumped into Meng Yunxi again.
"Perhaps the special aura you exude can really help. Why not give it a try?" Meng Yunxi gently patted Sheng Qing's shoulder.
Sheng Qing felt as if she had been pushed forward by some force, perhaps due to a strange attraction between her and the twin siblings.
The moment their bodies touched, they were unable to separate; Sheng Qing felt as if all the strength in her body was being rapidly drained away.
After an unknown amount of time, a breath passed through her nasal cavity. Sheng Qing wiped it with the back of her hand and found that she had a nosebleed.
"Enough!" Meng Yunxi snapped.
The twin siblings smiled contentedly, their figures gradually becoming ethereal.
"Go through there and you'll reach the secret realm." Before disappearing, the older sister pointed to the innermost part of the basement.
"Where?" Sheng Qing was startled by her own weak voice.
"Take a break, I'll go check." Meng Yunxi helped Sheng Qing to a chair and then quickly went to the indicated location.
Sheng Qing touched his nose again and, finding no new bloodstains, breathed a sigh of relief.
"Is there any situation?" Sheng Qing asked, glancing in Meng Yunxi's direction.
Where did she go? In the blink of an eye, Meng Yunxi had vanished.
Sheng Qing abruptly stood up from his chair and cautiously approached the innermost part of the basement. "Meng Yunxi?"
Before she could finish speaking, Sheng Qing's feet slipped, and her body plummeted straight down, finally landing on a soft sandy surface.
"...Yunxi?" It was too dark and too quiet, so Sheng Qing's faint calls sounded exceptionally clear, drifting and echoing back, but there was still no response.
It took Sheng Qing a while for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She looked up to see where she had fallen, but all she could see was pitch black.
It seemed to be a narrow passageway. Sheng Qing groped his way to his feet and slowly moved towards the open space, leaning against the wall.
After several turns, a ray of light finally appeared.
Sheng Qing then remembered that he could summon firelight for illumination, and with a thought, a cluster of flames lit up.
Using the flickering flames as a guide, Sheng Qing strode towards the light.
Isn't this it?
Sheng Qing was once again awestruck by the magnificent architecture before him.
Isn't this the place I dreamed about before?
Five snake-bodied, human-headed goddess statues surround a giant stone statue.
As if permeated by an invisible force, Sheng Qing was in a daze, and it took him a while to see Meng Yunxi standing in front of the goddess statue.
"Meng..." For some reason, Sheng Qing stopped speaking before he could even utter the word "Meng." Perhaps simply speaking was a desecration of this place and of the statue.
Sheng Qing himself couldn't tell whether the oppressive aura came from the five goddess statues or the enormous, exaggerated stone statue.
"Is this the place?" Sheng Qing approached Meng Yunxi's side and finally heard his mutterings.
"Meng Yunxi?" Sheng Qing called softly.
Meng Yunxi turned around expressionlessly, exuding a chilling and murderous aura, as if she would snap Sheng Qing's neck at any moment.
Sheng Qing took several steps back and asked tentatively in a soft voice, "Meng Yunxi, what's wrong? I'm Sheng Qing, I'm with you."
"I know." Meng Yunxi suppressed her aura, her expression turning cold, and said calmly.
"Is this the place you dreamed about?" Meng Yunxi turned around and tilted her head slightly. She then carefully examined the huge stone statue.
“Yes.” Sheng Qing felt that the statue was strange, perhaps because Meng Yunxi had become strange. Finally, she stopped in an open space three or four body lengths away from Meng Yunxi and looked up to examine it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sheng Qing caught a glimpse of a white shadow flash by. She quickly looked away and searched, but found nothing unusual.
Perhaps his eyes were blurry from looking up for too long, Sheng Qing silently comforted him.
Turning back, Meng Yunxi had already approached the goddess statue and was trying to move it a little.
"What are you doing?" Sheng Qing quickly caught up, hesitated slightly, and said, "Just moving the statue like this? Won't that break some taboo?"
Meng Yunxi ignored him and moved the goddess statue's face to the position facing the huge stone statue in the center.
Sheng Qing tried touching the goddess statue, and felt a slight tingling sensation as if an electric current was passing through his fingertips. He then quickly withdrew his hand.
"If you can't help, then stay away." Meng Yunxi seemed to be in some strange state, her tone extremely cold.
The five snake-bodied, human-headed goddess statues were moved to face the giant stone statue. Meng Yunxi then summoned the powers represented by the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) in a clockwise direction, corresponding to the symbols on the statues' heads, to illuminate them.
As luck would have it, just as Meng Yunxi was trying to light up the last symbol with the earth element, the symbols above the heads of the first four symbols simultaneously went out.
Meng Yunxi stood there pondering for a moment, then started lighting up the statues with the gold symbols one by one, proceeding counter-clockwise. However, she failed when she tried to light up the last statue.
For some reason, a five-pointed star image flashed through Sheng Qing's mind, and his mouth involuntarily uttered, "Five-pointed star."
Meng Yunxi glanced at Sheng Qing and tried to light up the symbols for metal, water, earth, wood, fire, and metal in turn.
A few seconds later, the five statues emitted five dazzling beams of light in the order they were lit, eventually forming a bright five-pointed star.
The five rays of light converged to form a space that perfectly enveloped the enormous statue. Sheng Qing imagined the perspective from above and suddenly felt a strange, uneasy feeling rise in his heart.
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