"Don't co any closer! I'm warning you, stay back—"
Ai Shiping held up his hamr, slowly retreating.
As one advanced and the other retreated, the distance between them remained completely static.
Suddenly, Ming Po lunged forward, and Ai Shiping swung the hamr right at him!
But the instant the hamr swung out—
Ming Po dropped the hamr in his own hand. Moving a split second later but arriving first, he snatched Ai Shiping's wrist in midair!
Ai Shiping's descending hamr halted in an instant.
Effortlessly pressing a pressure point in the center of the wrist, Ming Po twisted the arm up and back, forcing Ai Shiping to drop his weapon in pain.
"How bold, you unfilial son!"
Ming Po bellowed, kicking Ai Shiping to the ground with a single strike.
He roared in fury, "Not only refusing to surrender, but daring to resist!!"
"Spare , spare , my lord! I've been wronged!"
Ai Shiping imdiately cried out. "I just saw so freak impersonating you, I'm having an acute stress response!"
"If you can articulate that you're having a stress response, you definitely aren't!"
Ming Po shouted back.
He reached out and hauled Ai Shiping up from the floor. His blood-speckled face looked utterly terrifying.
But Ai Shiping just smiled, playing the fool.
Ming Po let go of him, glancing at the pool of dried blood on the ground. His tone gradually leveled out. "I'll count that as a job well done. I won't ask about the one inside, but how did you recognize the one outside?"
"—Uh."
Ai Shiping froze for a second.
He had an animalistic premonition—if he admitted right now that he recognized him through his dialect, he'd probably get beaten up.
"Chemistry! It's our chemistry, my lord—"
Ai Shiping grinned cheekily. "Besides, he wasn't strong enough! How could he be as sharp as you, catching my hamr mid-swing—"
"True," Ming Po nodded. "If he could be solo-killed by you, it proves he at least didn't copy my physical attributes. That's fortunate."
Even if ambushed, there was no way Ming Po could be hit by Ai Shiping.
The difference in their reaction speed, strength, and stamina was far too vast. Furthermore, Ming Po was nearly 1.9 ters tall, while Ai Shiping barely broke 1.8 ters; the disparity in their reach was significant.
In close-quarters combat, wingspan and weight largely dictated the 'level' of the fight itself.
"They're really weak."
Ai Shiping's tone was light as he flicked the dust off himself. The floor here was genuinely covered in a thick layer of gri. Getting kicked down had left him coated in it, like he was covered in cat hair.
As he patted away puff after puff of dust, he casually remarked, "They forced us to separate precisely because they lack strength.
"Whether it's altering mories, creating illusions—or even disguising themselves as you—it's all designed to make us doubt ourselves and kill each other."
As he spoke, he recounted everything he had encountered to Ming Po.
Because he had just explained it all to 'Ming Po Number One', Ai Shiping spoke with unusual fluency this ti. He stuck only to the key points, quickly sharing his intelligence with Ming Po.
He even suspected that those black snakes might have just been hallucinations.
Because he had been literally chased here by the black snakes.
Yet he hadn't been in the room for even two minutes before the 'second Ming Po' appeared outside.
If there truly was a tide of black snakes out there, how could he calmly stand at the door and knock?
This was one of the reasons Ai Shiping had suspected him.
And later, when the real Ming Po swiped his card to enter, he hadn't seen an ocean of black snakes outside either.
He even fought the other Ming Po right at the doorway!
Ai Shiping lowered his voice, analyzing. "Their original plan was likely a trap within a trap. Use the illusion of the black snakes to herd into this specific room—and then have a fake 'you' prepared inside.
"He intentionally left many flaws to make suspicious. When I doubted and attacked him, I would subconsciously assu the 'you' outside was the real one.
"Or, I might have been unable to tell which was the real you because they were fighting each other.
"And if I assud both of them were fake, I would doubt you when you appeared next—I might even have continued to attack you. You might have attacked back, and then we'd end up killing each other—
"I would have been eliminated by you as an anomaly."
If this trick had been used on two or three people who weren't deeply familiar with each other, it absolutely would have worked.
But—
"—What is their goal?"
Ai Shiping was completely baffled.
When his mories were being altered earlier, if the enemy wanted him dead, they could have killed him right then.
He had absolutely no ability to resist at the ti.
And if they had simply blocked him from entering when the black snakes surged forward—or pushed him back out just as he got inside—he likely would have been killed by the illusion.
"I think I understand now."
Ming Po looked thoughtful, his voice deep. "It should be—fear. Or so other negative emotion."
"Fear?"
"Have you read Master Ai's Miscellaneous Sayings? There's an idiom that says ghosts fear evil people—of course, I'm not saying I'm an evil person. I just think the setup here is far too deliberate."
"Are you saying—"
Ai Shiping thought back to how they were separated in the first place.
When he entered that bathroom, he hadn't closed the door. Just by stepping out of sight, he had instantly entered another layer of reality.
"—Could it be because I was scared?"
"It's possible."
Ming Po nodded. "The Master suddenly disappearing might be for the sa reason.
"Think about it again. Of all the people who suffered 'accidents' in this resort—not a single one was forcefully killed while in a healthy state of mind.
"The man who failed his investnts in 2008 was likely in despair.
"The 2013 fire incident, and the 2016 incident where the little girl suffocated, were likely driven by fear.
"The bathtub suicide in 2015 could have been despair, or perhaps severe depression.
"No matter which one it is, they all share a common thread—their ntal states were deteriorating."
He thought of soone.
Zhang Leyao from the Deceptive School.
During the later stages of the Deceptive School incident, Zhang Leyao had experienced extrely severe hallucinations.
She saw a cursed array as a purification array, perceived lingering cursed energy as a sphere of cleansing light, and viewed the security guards as ghosts and monsters—she had even perceived the 'ritual of sacrificing oneself to summon ghouls for revenge' as a ritual to save everyone.
In her subjective consciousness, she truly hadn't killed a single person.
Because she believed she was saving those students whose minds were corrupted by the curse, and the security guard she pushed down appeared to her as a mangled monster.
And this was because—she 'hoped' these students were being manipulated, that this wasn't their true nature.
This situation of forgetting part of one's mories, having a twisted perception, and generating intense hallucinations—was quite similar to what Ai Shiping had just gone through.
He didn't know if this was the work of the sa ghost, or if it was simply a characteristic of this worldview.
Tracing back through everything Ai Shiping had encountered, a pattern erged—
The more afraid Ai Shiping beca, the more terrifying the things he saw beca.
From the hair in the bathroom, to the black snakes, then the won's shoes in the female restroom, the coughing doll—and adding in the sudden, eerie changes to the stream's comnts.
By that point, Ai Shiping could even be manipulated by the hallucinations.
He then saw the hanged Xiao Li, and snakes erupting from Xiao Li's body—these things seed illogical, but from Ai Shiping's perspective, there was an underlying logic!
Perhaps it began because he saw the closed stall in the bathroom, triggering a terrifying association.
He imagined a female ghost might be lurking there, so black hair appeared; then he mistook the hair for snakes, and since he was genuinely afraid of snakes, actual black snakes materialized.
Later, when he turned on the faucet in the washroom, he was thinking 'it might bleed', so he was prepared for the faucet to bleed and wasn't afraid of it. But at that mont, what he feared most were snakes—so snakes poured out of the pipes instead.
He saw the children's shoes and thought the doll might be an incarnation of a ghost. So the doll really started coughing.
He feared the livestream audience were all ghosts, so the chat actually transford into ghost comnts.
Even after hallucinating, he was still afraid of Xiao Li and the black snakes, so he saw Xiao Li, and then saw black snakes erging from him—because he was still terrified of the black snakes at that mont.
While so of these anomalies might have actually happened, most were likely exaggerated manifestations of Ai Shiping's fears!
Ming Po was different.
He wasn't afraid at all.
So the ghosts here had absolutely no way to deal with him.
Whether it was that vicious monkey, or the man who suddenly appeared behind him, Ming Po instantly took them out. As for moving windows, opening doors, or phantom footsteps, those tricks couldn't scare him in the slightest.
Because he wasn't afraid, the ghosts here were powerless against him.
So it set a trap, trying to force Ming Po and Ai Shiping to kill each other—hoping to create emotional turbulence in Ming Po through this thod.
Is that why it's called—Phantom Shadows?
Since that was the case, he had a pretty good idea of how to crack this dungeon.
Ming Po stroked his chin, speaking with certainty. "I have an idea."
"What is it? What is it?"
Ai Shiping leaned in closer. "Is there anything I can help with?"
Ming Po nodded aningfully. "There is."
Since things had co to this.
He'd just have to use his good buddy as bait first.
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