The hotel's female employee looked at Xia Tianqiong, with only one thought in her mind. She hoped he wouldn't choose her true self, so she could be the sole survivor.
Suddenly, she saw him take out a small gold ingot, holding it in his palm. Not understanding what this meant, she showed confusion, only to notice her mirrored doppelgangers acting strangely. Though they mimicked her expressions, their eyes were filled with uncontainable greed, like dogs seeing a feast.
"Damn it!" She realized something and turned to see Xia Tianqiong pointing at her. "You are the real one!" he declared. As his words fell, the mirrored doppelgangers attacked, and she died. The death game ended within ten minutes, leaving six people dead. In this eerie era, human lives were as insignificant as weeds.
Only Xia Tianqiong remained alive in the mirrored space, as his twenty-plus doppelgangers vanished with the game's conclusion. However, one remained—the true form of the mirror demon. It ceased imitating Xia Tianqiong and said with a displeased expression, "The game is over. Congratulations on surviving. You may leave now."
According to the death rule, it couldn't kill the last survivor. Xia Tianqiong could leave anytime but didn't hurry. He sincerely looked at the mirror demon, inviting once more, "Contract with me. I have money and will take care of you!"
"Get lost! I don't need a human to take care of me!" The mirror demon retorted angrily.
Enraged, Xia Tianqiong pulled out a small mirror from his pocket, where the gambling demon resided, and used it to perform "Mirror Immobilization" on the mirror demon.
"The gambling demon contracted with you?" The mirror demon, realizing its legs were immobilized, understood the trap. The gambling demon had deceived it to get contracted, "You traitor, helping humans deceive your kind?"
From within the mirror, the gambling demon's voice emerged, "The master is wealthy. I advise you to contract as well. It's for your own good."
"Never!" Though immobilized, the mirror demon conjured dozens of doppelgangers to attack Xia Tianqiong, as it no longer had to abide by the no-kill rule.
The mirror doppelgangers could snatch souls, leading to certain death if caught. Yet, Xia Tianqiong remained unfazed, vanishing in an instant and reappearing in the mirror demon's shadow. Though humans couldn't touch the mirror demons, other entities could. He had a delivery demon attach to his body, embracing the mirror demon and using "Shadow Teleportation" to move to the nearest doppelganger's shadow, then crashing into a mirror.
With a shattering sound, they emerged from the mirrored space, returning to the real world's bathroom. The numerous doppelgangers did not follow, dispersing as the mirror demon left the mirror—a weakness of the mirror demon clan.
As the mirror shattered, the mirrored space disappeared, and six corpses fell, cluttering the bathroom.
"Despicable human! Let go of me!" The mirror demon, now translucent in the real world, struggled. Without the delivery demon's attachment, Xia Tianqiong couldn't have held it.
"Either contract with me or remain here until you dissipate!" The mirror demon clan couldn't stay out of mirrors long, their ghostly energy gradually evaporating until they vanished completely. Xia Tianqiong intended to force it into a contract this way.
Desperately, the mirror demon struggled but couldn't break free, immobilized by the gambling demon and held by the delivery demon.
"Brother, stop struggling!" The delivery demon's head emerged from Xia Tianqiong's neck, looking eerie like a double-headed figure. Whispering in the mirror demon's ear, "Our master is generous. I get ghost money daily. Contract and you won't dissipate in vain."
"Never! The mirror demon clan never yields to humans!" It remained resolute, just as the delivery demon once was.
The gambling demon also persuaded, "Brother, the master can produce vast amounts of ghost money. I lured you for your good. Look there."
The mirror demon, following the direction, saw a pile of gold ingots, stopping its struggle, eyes filled with shock and greed. "So much gold? Can he really make ghost money?"
Thus, it became simple. Persuaded by the delivery and gambling demons, and unwilling to dissipate, the mirror demon finally contracted with Xia Tianqiong—a master contract. Xia Tianqiong's rule was equality unless forced into a master contract.
After the contract, Xia Tianqiong found a small mirror shard for the mirror demon to inhabit. It mastered three ghostly techniques. The first, "Mirrored Space," created an alternate space within a mirror for residence or storage, requiring the demon's constant presence.
The second, "Mirror Devour," created a suction force to pull objects, humans, or lower-ranked ghosts into the mirrored space.
The third, "Mirrored Doppelganger," conjured doppelgangers for about fifteen minutes, useful in special situations.
Xia Tianqiong used "Mirrored Space," creating a duplicate hotel room in the mirror. The space could expand infinitely with enough ghostly energy. The mirror demon warned, "Master, this is my limit. To expand, I need ghost money."
"How much gold for how much space?"
"A tael expands a cubic zhang." A zhang is about 3.33 meters, equating to around ten cubic meters per tael. Xia Tianqiong calculated, giving fifty taels, "Start with this!"
The mirror demon, shocked by the amount, considered it wasteful. "I want more but lack gold. I'd expand to thousands of square meters for storage."
Feeding the gold to the mirror demon, Xia Tianqiong expanded the space to over five hundred square meters, creating a replica hotel floor. Rooms connected by a corridor, each could house people or store goods.
After arranging this, Xia Tianqiong packed his and Jiang Yu's belongings into the mirrored space, planning to leave the hotel. The mysterious disappearances, including two policemen, would draw official attention, possibly locking down the building.
Using shadow teleportation to evade hotel surveillance, he left without checking out, not even exiting through the door, but teleporting room by room to the hotel's exterior.
After leaving, he intended to help Jiang Yu buy survival supplies but learned she had already arranged deliveries to her warehouse. Deciding not to meet her, he drove to Jiuhua City to hunt a fierce ghost.
Minutes after leaving, police arrived at his room, discovering the eerie corpses. Soon, the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs sealed the building.
"Six people lost their souls, likely encountering the mirror demon clan!" Fang Moyuan examined the bodies, noticing her captain's odd expression. "What is it, Captain Zhou?"
Zhou Boyu's eyes glowed silver, scanning the room. "There's residual contract power, similar to room 303—a master contract. There's also ghostly energy, indicating a ghost's death."
"Impossible!" Fang Moyuan exclaimed, "Killing ghosts is hard, forcing a master contract even harder. Only a rare few in the Bureau can do that."
"Captain, I found something." A team member reported, "The room was booked by Xia Tianqiong, a tenant at 702, Haikang Community."
"So it's him! He might have contracted the ghost mother or baby, with teleportation abilities. But how did he force two master contracts?"
Zhou Boyu pondered many questions, ordering, "Have the police search the city for him immediately."
The team member left, and Fang Moyuan continued investigating. Minutes later, she excused herself to the bathroom, making a secret call. "I have info on a freelance ghost hunter. Are you buying?"
"Of course, if it's accurate," a woman's voice responded eagerly.
"I don't want money, just a ghost artifact."
"That depends on the info's value." The voice grew cold, doubting the worth.
"He's contracted at least three ghosts, two under master contracts, surviving the 'ghost mother's search' rule, with teleportation powers. Isn't that worth a ghost artifact?"
Fang Moyuan felt this person was extraordinary, even surpassing many Bureau hunters. The woman on the other end hesitated, "Are you serious? Ghosts only recently started appearing. How can a freelance hunter be so powerful?"
"You know my status. Would I lie?" Fang Moyuan's arrogance showed; the Bureau governed ghost-related ancient families too.
"Give me his details. Once verified, you'll get your artifact." Fang Moyuan provided Xia Tianqiong's info. With their resources, they could find him faster than the police.
Throughout history, many families utilized ghosts for wealth and power, known as ancient families. These families, owning ghost contracts and seeking more hunters and ghosts, lurked behind major corporations and financial empires.