The child in the mirror saw that Chen Ge looked calm and asked curiously, "Now that you know the wheel reward was a scam, aren't you angry?"
"At first, I really was. I thought I had incredibly bad luck. Later, I realized that all the luck I've ever had in this life was spent on the moment I met her." Chen Ge shifted a few steps closer to Zhang Ya. "She's the most beautiful person I've ever seen, and the greatest fortune of my life. So no matter what, I'll always be grateful to you."
Zhang Ya seemed to be in a daze. Seeing Chen Ge move closer, she gathered her black hair and leaned slightly toward him as well.
They stood together in front of the mirror, yet it could not reflect their images.
"In that case, you really should thank me." The child in the mirror felt as though Chen Ge was showing off on purpose. "Before Zhang Ya became a Red-clothed ghost, she was hunted by another Red-clothed ghost and wandered deep into the Blood City. I saw that her abilities were extremely rare, so I guided her in secret. At the time, I had to split my attention to resist the Director's curse, and it was very hard to protect a vengeful spirit who wasn't even Red-clothed within the chaotic Blood City. So I detached a thread of the Blood City's will and placed it on her, then had her hide in the haunted house within the Blood City."
The child in the mirror looked at the present Fierce God Zhang Ya, and a trace of helpless resignation crossed his face. "Who could have guessed that thread of Blood City will would fuse with her—something even I couldn't extract? Zhang Ya became the most unique existence in the entire Blood City. If one day I were to disappear due to some accident, she would take over as the new consciousness of the Blood City. That was one of my contingency plans against the Director."
"So to avoid being wiped out in one fell swoop, you sent Zhang Ya out of the Blood City and had her hide in reality?"
"Apart from me, only a handful of people ever knew Zhang Ya had entered the Blood City." The child in the mirror looked Zhang Ya up and down, still feeling an odd sense of unreality. "I knew she was special, but for her to become a Fierce God so quickly—that was still somewhat beyond my expectations."
"When it comes to talent, Dr. Gao's speed in becoming a Fierce God was no slower than Zhang Ya's." Chen Ge glanced to the side. Dr. Gao had never left; he had followed Chen Ge into the haunted house.
Chen Ge was still very wary of this former president of the Oddities Association.
There was no helping it—Dr. Gao was not only terrifyingly powerful in combat, but his intelligence alone was enough to crush the vast majority of people.
"Dr. Gao spent twenty years scheming in order to become a Fierce God. From life to death, he paid a price you cannot imagine." The child in the mirror turned his gaze toward Dr. Gao.
Dr. Gao raised his head, his lips moving slightly. For the first time since the Director's death, he spoke: "I've completed the task you gave me. From now on, we owe each other nothing."
"You two have met before?" Chen Ge realized that Dr. Gao and the Good Thought in the mirror had apparently struck some kind of deal.
"Dr. Gao once entered this place through the door of your haunted house. He became lost in the deepest reaches of the Blood City, and I saved him. It was precisely because he learned the truth that he chose to commit suicide during the underground morgue scene, entrusting his daughter to your care." The child in the mirror pointed at the bathroom stall door. "The Nightmare pattern on that door panel was left by him."
"The Nightmare pattern? This three-headed demon—is that the Nightmare?"
"Some call it the Nightmare, some call it the Inner Demon. It's a creature that lives in the depths of the Black Fog, feeding on nightmares and negative emotions. It can stir up the evil in people's hearts, shatter Blood Gates, and wields power completely opposite to that of the Blood City." Hearing this, Chen Ge immediately understood.
Before his death, Dr. Gao had entered the door of his haunted house and carved the Nightmare pattern on it—a safety net, of sorts. After all, at that time, Dr. Gao also believed that only the Gate Opener could control the door. If he ended up trapped in the world behind the door with no way out, he might as well destroy the Blood Gate and escape.
It was the same reason Chang Wenyu had carved the Nightmare pattern on the door of the Spirit Channeling Ghost School.
In reality, the Blood Gate represented the Blood City, and the Nightmare represented the Black Fog Sea.
Many old questions now had their answers. After asking a few more questions, Chen Ge carried his parents to the mirror. "I found them in the sea of blood at the Cursed Hospital. Now that the Director has been obliterated, they still haven't woken up."
"Soul wounds are very difficult to repair. I'll do my best. Take them to the prop room—there's a blood pool there. Place them in the pool, and leave the rest to me." The child in the mirror turned and left, and Chen Ge led several Fierce Gods out of the bathroom and into the prop room.
Compared to the first time he'd visited, not much had changed.
But after only a few seconds, the corner of the prop room was torn open by an outside force, revealing a bloody rift.
Chen Ge knew that corner well—every time he drew an item from the Black Phone, those items always appeared in that same corner of the haunted house's prop room.
Black-red blood threads surged forth, dragging Chen Ge's parents into the blood pool in the corner. The pool seemed to be connected to the underground of the Blood City itself.
Immersed in the black-red blood, all manner of curses and dark characters surfaced beneath their skin. As the blood washed them away, their complexions gradually returned to a healthy flush, and they looked a good deal more alive.
The entire process lasted a full hour. When Chen Ge's parents were finally lifted from the blood pool, they looked much improved.
"Once they leave the world behind the door, they'll awaken." A child's figure appeared in the prop mirror set up in the room. The Good Thought seemed unwilling to let the parents see his current appearance, so he hadn't let them wake up directly.
"Thank you."
"The one who should be thanking me is you. I originally thought I'd never see them again." The child in the mirror gazed at the churning sea of blood beneath the pool, his words carrying a hidden meaning. "The power the Blood City has accumulated over the years should be just enough to fully repair one damaged soul and help her welcome a new life."
"What do you mean? If Zhang Ya enters the blood pool, she'll have a chance to become human again?!" Chen Ge seized Zhang Ya's hand, instantly growing excited. "With her soul repaired, plus my Living Doll talent…"
"There is that chance. But for a Fierce God, the odds of success are only one in ten thousand. The weaker and more ordinary the soul, the higher the success rate. Are you sure you want to let Zhang Ya enter the blood pool?" The child in the mirror controlled the black-red blood threads, and the prop room was split apart, revealing the surging sea of blood below.
To be reborn as a human—she could make up for every regret of the past, and step toward the beauty of the future. So even if the odds were only one in ten thousand, it was still an incredibly precious chance.
Taking Zhang Ya's hand, Chen Ge asked what she thought.
Standing beside him, the red had faded from Zhang Ya's eyes, revealing a flicker of longing. But after a moment, she gently shook her head.
Her pale fingers drew a thread of blood from her heart. Zhang Ya removed the heart of her Fierce God form and placed it back into Chen Ge's shadow.
She said nothing, but her choice was already made.