Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Zuo Bai stood in place, his gaze behind the lenses cold and indifferent.

He watched as Feng Yuhuai was continuously gnawed by the Beautiful Spider, witnessing the terror and despair on her face, a surge of indescribable joy filled his heart.

Even though today’s performance hadn’t strictly adhered to the plan, the final result was still good—science ultimately triumphed over the Evil Sacrifice!

"A good Evil Sacrifice should lie on the operating table."

Zuo Bai gently pushed up his glasses with his finger, preparing to announce the conclusion of this experiment, a habit cultivated from years of scientific research.

Then, his pupils suddenly contracted, as he noticed in amazement that Feng Yuhuai’s facial expression froze for a second, and the fearful pleading sounds in his ears also paused for a moment.

This scene was like a brilliant drama being abruptly paused by some indescribable, extremely eerie force.

The entire world seemed to fall into deadly silence, even the Beautiful Spider seemed to sense something was wrong, its five tongues stopped licking, and the blood-stained faces turned simultaneously to look at Zuo Bai.

"Why are you not making a sound?"

Zuo Bai detested any abnormal detail during the experiment process, he frowned and asked:

"What are you looking at...?"

Feng Yuhuai remained silent, but those eyes, which had returned to human form, were staring unblinkingly at Zuo Bai, with a look more eerie than any circular eye.

The five heads of the Beautiful Spider also presented a state of stupor, the tongues that had been continuously licking drooped lifelessly, suspended in mid-air.

Facing Feng Yuhuai’s intent gaze, Zuo Bai felt a chilling sensation creep up his spine:

"They’re not looking at me, but at my... behind?"

Zuo Bai abruptly turned around, looking behind himself, but there was nothing, just emptiness.

"Nobody’s there, so what are they looking at?"

Immediately afterward, he whipped around, as if electrocuted, to see that Feng Yuhuai and the Beautiful Spider were still staring at him with those piercing eyes, as if looking right through him and seeing something he couldn’t see.

"What exactly are you looking at? There’s clearly nothing behind me!"

Zuo Bai felt a chill surge from his feet to the top of his head, causing his science-believing mind to momentarily crash.

Zuo Bai couldn’t see behind himself, but the three hidden cameras were capturing everything clearly.

Deng Jiajia, Ren Xuan, and Tang An seemed to be immobilized like statues, their eyes bulging as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, fixated on the screen playing the video, not daring to even breathe heavily.

In the shot, Zuo Bai unexpectedly turned around swiftly, his movements faster than ever.

However, at the moment he turned, his shadow in the sewage also followed, turning around and returning to his back.

Zuo Bai frowned slightly, looking skeptically at the air behind him, a flicker of incomprehension and unease in his eyes.

Then, he spun around again, even faster, attempting to capture some anomaly.

Yet, he still saw nothing, his shadow beneath him also turned back with him, always remaining behind him.

Only the sewage was disturbed with more muddy ripples by his movements, and as the waves spread, the smiling face in the shadow grew more wrinkled, yet increasingly lively and uncanny.

"Zuo Bai turns slowly, his shadow turns slowly... Zuo Bai turns quickly, his shadow turns quickly..."

Ren Xuan was fixated on the monitor, cold sweat trickling down his forehead, murmuring softly:

"No matter how Zuo Bai turns, his shadow maintains a perfectly consistent speed with him, always right behind him, because the shadow’s turning speed is his own speed..."

Tang An swallowed hard and added:

"That’s the law of physics, which is what Zuo Bai believes in... science!"

Deng Jiajia continuously adjusted the camera’s focus, her eyes almost glued to the lens.

Suddenly, she cried out in terror:

"Look, the thing in the shadow... it’s coming out!"

The three of them stopped their futile internal thoughts immediately and simultaneously saw that the sewage beneath Zuo Bai suddenly emitted a faint black light, like rice paper repeatedly soaked in ink, with thick black liquid oozing from the edges.

Asphalt-like black material rose silently, and the originally two-dimensional plane of the smiling face started to emerge into three-dimensional features.

Luo Ji’s face turned black, and he felt his breath caught in his throat.

His heart thumped erratically, as if trying to leap out of his chest cavity.

This scene was far more bizarre than anything he saw in the terrifying White Bone Palace of the Hidden Sect.

The monsters in the White Bone Palace, although frightening, could at least be seen and touched.

But the monster behind Zuo Bai was truly otherworldly to the extreme.

"Another monster, an even more bizarre, more horrifying monster... the fourth one. When did it appear? No, perhaps... it’s always been there?!"

Luo Ji’s thoughts raced, and as soon as he started to grasp some understanding, he felt his scalp tingling fiercely, like countless cold insects crawling on it.

It was a more terrifying tingling than anything he felt witnessing the terrifying forms of Feng Yuhuai, the Beautiful Spider, and Zuo Bai combined.

Feng Yuhuai’s morphing red line, the Beautiful Spider’s deformed ugliness, Zuo Bai’s calm madness, these images intertwined in his mind, yet none were as eerie as the mere tenth of the monstrosity behind Zuo Bai.

Luo Ji’s scalp tingled violently, as if countless cold insects were crawling on it.

Then his palms started itching, the itch spreading from his fingertips to his palms, as if some force was urging him to act.

A strong urge, a nearly insane desire, emerged from his soul.

He very much, especially, infinitely wanted to take out that mirror to look at the monster behind Zuo Bai.

He was desperate to know what kind of Life Chart such an otherworldly monster possessed.

That desire burned like a flame in his heart, almost consuming him.

"I... really want its [Life Chart]!!!"

Luo Ji’s throat went dry, and he roared fiercely in his heart as his hand involuntarily slipped into his pocket.

When his fingertips touched the cold surface of the [Life-Stealing Calamity Mirror], a chill spread rapidly through his body, causing him to shiver involuntarily.

However, this chill not only failed to extinguish his desire but made the impulse even stronger, as if an invisible voice echoed in his mind like the whisper of a demon:

"Take a look, just one look..."

The voice repeated, like a spell, slowly consuming his rationality.

Luo Ji’s breathing became rapid and heavy, his fingers gripping the mirror so hard his knuckles turned white.

He slowly pulled the mirror from his pocket, his wrist gently rotating, silently aligning the mirror with the twisted shadow behind Zuo Bai.

"Let me see... what kind of monster you really are..."