Zhang Yong returned soon after. He said with excitement, "I think I've found a nest or something! After prying further, there were quite a few shadow beasts hiding in that place."
However, he realized, no one was paying attention to him. He guided his sight to the other cores and came to realize why. Li Yinyi had entered the illusory world. Her significance needed no explaining.
...
The time for Li Yinyi resumed once more, and she found herself at the grey basement. For those other customers, this illusory world had endless fields, a wide sky, and endless possibilities to explore, but for her, there was only this small room and the little, broken-down hut above it. She hadn't even seen the village with her own eyes.
However, she did not mind. Everything paled in comparison to the masked woman in front of her, the moment she had met the witch, Li Yinyi needed to know everything there was about her. It almost felt like love at first sight—though she had never truly experienced that feeling.
The last instance had been a few days already, but the young girl nevertheless remembered everything clearly, and now she stood before the scene once more, no difference to be seen. It was as if she had traveled back in time.
"Watch out! She may steal a body part of yours," Li Yangyi shouted.
The witch raised her hands (causing even the onlookers to take a stifled breath), but in the end, it fell again, slowly, but with purpose. She turned around, leaving for the door. But Li Yinyi had realized, she was no longer bound or locked behind bars. "Does it mean she at least somewhat approved of me?" She waited for the steps to disappear, then waltzed out of the stuffy room. Observing everything around her, Li Yinyi realized that the whole basement may be bigger than the rest of the house. "If this really was the house of that family that founded the village, then I should be able to find some stuff relating to that, no doubt." She nodded to herself.
The layout in the basement was not particularly complicated, though the many rooms may still cause someone to get lost. But as Li Yinyi didn't search for anything particular, she did not worry about that happening. If she called out the witch, would she come to help her? Probably not. Instead, she might just blast her away.
Many different rooms simply contained scrolls, books, and some papers that were either old and brittle, or contained incomprehensible stuff written within them. Li Yinyi wasn't interested in them. If it were someone like Mei Xue, she may have been able to decipher it, but for her, trying to understand these felt like a waste of time. It did bring her back to the first time she came visiting Shous' store though. During her first time within this world, she had also wandered through the hut. But now, she was a lot wiser. . . or at least she had people watching over her who could offer some help.
"So far, you've only found rooms containing experiments and knowledge. " Ah Liang spoke first. "I wonder, is this basement sorely dedicated to research? They all look a little different, is it because they all have different studies?"
"Hey, don't just throw them away, they may be related to the mystery of these beasts," Zhang Yong spoke into her mind.
Li Yangyi followed right after. "Also, if you find anything related to martial arts, you gotta tell your brother. Come on, show them to the screen."
"I don't even know how to do that," Li Yinyi complained back. She wondered, should she just shut off the communication system? "You guys just stay put, okay?"
The people on the other side said no more, and Li Yinyi continued exploring. She strolled through the basement, happily, as if on a picnic. She had noticed that this place, even though underground, was well-lit, and it was not through candles. She wondered if maybe these things were similar to the mechanism used for illuminating the Store of Fates.
After around an hour, Li Yinyi came across a room that resembled less a scholar's residence, but more of a scientist's laboratory. She was internally amazed by the sight. Her heart beat a little faster, as her adventurous spirit was roused. In this room, there were many different scrolls, and tables filled with messy notes. The floor had a beautiful carpet, though many different ink splotches and weird scratches made its appearance wane. However, these were not the things she found interesting. Vials and Jars, full of different kinds of substances decorated this place, giving it a complex smell of numerous herbs.
Li Yinyi felt the urge to sneeze.
"In the first place, what makes the supposed family so miraculous," she asked herself. If she knew anything about them, she may have understood if this was a hint or not. Sadly, the only thing foretold had been that they were some kind of healers that could cure injury and disease. "Is this place full of some mythical elixir? No, that could not be the case, right?" The girl peeked into one of the pots. It contained a green, viscous liquid, that had hardened, presumably due to time. A bright idea suddenly appeared in her mind. "Hmm, should I try eating it?"
"That's absolutely out of the question," Li Yangyi resolutely chimed in.
"Che, you are no fun." The sister shook her head, glancing at the tables full of notes. There were several ink bottles next to them, though they had all hardened, indicating that no one had used them for a long, long time. If that was the case, this may have been the belongings of the original residents, the family?
She read through some of them.
"—a spiritual vessel consists of the Qi around us and the consciousness of the everlasting Dao. In theory, by gathering them both and combining them, one may be able to create a host for the soul."
"I've captured a Yin Spirit, though [part unreadable]. Following the dimensional mass conversion, these things [an ink splotch] What makes it different from any normal spirits?"
"—guiding my mind into the world of consciousness, I have found [blurred]. Taking [blurred] requires an immense amount Qi, which at the . . . . time needs to be controlled. A wrong decision may change the course of the Material Plane. Further research is required—"
"The light finally shone upon me! It appears the answer had lain before me the whole time. Is this what one perceives as fate?"
Reading through these things, Li Yinyi felt her head spin. For some time she wondered if these were the same language she knew of. "Guys, does this mean anything to you?"
". . . Nope, not at all," Zhang Yong replied, his brain similarly hurting.
Ran Wei spoke, "It reads like a bunch of nonsense. Let's just ignore it."
"I don't think it is that simple," Mei Xue, who had returned from her own illusory world spoke. Right now, all the attention was on Li Yinyi. "But there's no use worrying about stuff like that. I hear you've been struggling to find the relation between this hut, the witch, and the family. It's probably because you are searching for the wrong stuff."
"What does miss Mei mean with that," Li Yinyi asked, confused.
Mei Xue replied. "You need to find personal stuff for that. Family portraits, biographies, belongings, and maybe even the rooms they stayed in. Not some unobtainable research."
"I see." Li Yinyi nodded, understanding. She had indeed been looking for the wrong things. "I'll have to go up for that." The witch won't mind, right?
"Good luck."
It wasn't hard to leave the basement. Clearly, this was not built to be a prison, and she had passed the stairs that led up a long time ago. She made her way up, somewhat regretfully though, since she had not explored everything on the underground floor—which is why she had missed one last room, though it was locked behind metal chains anyways.
How the hut appeared above ground was no news for anyone. The walls were broken, most of them burned, and the furniture and items strewn across the floor as if a hurricane had passed by several times. If it weren't for the near dustless rooms, no one would have doubted that this place had been abandoned for several decades.
Li Yinyi walked decisively. She knew the one place to find personal stuff. It was where she had first seen the painting and subsequently met the witch. She remembered with joy the first time she was killed by her. As they were basically friends now though, that woman would not mind if she snooped around again, right?
"This is it," she spoke, pointing at the large artwork hanging on the wall. It depicted, as she remembered. A man, a woman, and a young girl. "Do any of these guys ring a bell?"
Nobody spoke. Clearly, they hadn't ever seen them before. This time, Li Yinyi took a closer look at the room, and rummaging through the drawers and the trash on the floor, she came across a smaller picture. It depicted a young man with short hair and a smile. He gave off an erudite vibe.
"Ah, no way!" The abrupt scream surprised Li Yinyi, she realized it was Lin Zhuyue. "That is the wizard! The statue! I am sure of that!"