A priest in North America, what the hell is the Demon Gate system?

Li Ang turned his head and saw a man wearing a cowboy hat raise his head and walk towards them.

The man was probably around thirty years old, and he also had a Chinese appearance. He was wearing a faded denim shirt with a leather vest over it, and a leather tool bag was strapped to his waist.

He approached the crowd, took off his hat, and revealed his flattened hair, which was not a braided style, but rather a standard layered mess.

He sized up Li Ang's Chinese face, then glanced at Nia and Wang Bingbing's obviously out-of-date windbreakers, his expression filled with confusion. He then spoke in Chinese:

"I am Wang Changming, the foreman in charge of this section of the Odum freight railway."

The man put his hat back on, his tone still relatively polite.

"May I ask who you are...?"

"The Uldum Freight Railway? Have I time-traveled again? Are you kidding me?! Who time-travels every day?!"

Li Ang's mind raced instantly. He turned to look at Wang Bingbing and whispered in English:

"Just follow my rhythm and don't talk too much."

Wang Bingbing clearly realized something; her mouth twitched as if she wanted to say something, but she didn't.

Sister Nia was still looking around blankly, her skirt swaying gently in the hot, dry wind.

"Foreman Wang."

Li Ang took a deep breath and revealed his signature gentle smile.

"I am Li Ang, a priest from the West Coast. This is my assistant, Sister Nia, and this is... a member of the congregation, Ms. Wang."

The moment Li Ang heard about the Uldum Railway, he had a guess in his mind, so he simply made up a longer distance so that no one could verify it in the short term, right?

Wang Bingbing's lips twitched, but she didn't say anything.

Wang Changming's eyes lit up, and he stepped forward, extending his hand, saying, "A Chinese? A priest? This is truly the first time I've ever seen one!"

Li Ang shook hands with him; his palms were rough and strong.

"Nice to meet you," Li Ang said, while his mind raced.

"I need to check the token; it might be a high-level illusion, who knows..."

Li Ang calmed down and silently extended his divine sense again.

This time, instead of sweeping it onto people, it spread outwards like fungi multiplying.

The faint steam rising from Nia's shoes, the railway tracks, the tool shed, the piles of timber, the workers at work... everything is real.

But Li Ang didn't stop. His divine sense continued to extend outward, beyond the railway line, and when he reached further away, a very strange tactile feedback suddenly came back to him!

It's like when you're sleeping naked at night, and the bed is warm and cozy, but suddenly you accidentally stick your feet out of the covers. That instant chill and a hint of fear of the dark is exactly that feeling.

After leaving the railway construction site, the divine sense seemed to suddenly cross some kind of boundary, and outside the boundary, the scene instantly distorted.

It was no longer a sunny construction site, but a dark and gloomy one.

The rails were rusted even more severely, the sleepers were rotten and broken, and dark red moss grew between the rails.

"It's a mirror world!"

Li Ang's hair stood on end instantly.

Good news, it wasn't time travel; they never left Uldum, or even the railroad!

The bad news is, it seems they've fallen into a fragment of space.

This small area along the railway line is frozen in time at a certain moment in history by some force; the sunlight, the workers, and the brand-new rails are all real scenes from that time.

But once you step outside this area, you'll find yourself in that gloomy, dilapidated mirror world.

Father Andrew's notebook, the black hand that snatched the elderly man, what James saw...

All the clues gradually began to come together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Li Ang had a bad feeling. Could it be that Father Andrew was also trapped in a similar place?

In another, different fragment of space?

"Old Deng, why don't you send me a WeChat message at a time like this?!"

Li Ang really hoped that Father Andrew's notes could provide some clues, but since the last battle at the cemetery, the notes hadn't responded even once.

[Ding! Emergency sect mission triggered: Escape the illusion]

[Mission Description: The steward is currently in a high-level illusion. Please return to the base within twelve hours.]

[Quest Reward: Fragment of the cultivation technique [External Avatar]]

[Failure to return within twelve hours will be considered a defection from the sect.]

"Thank you so much for the system I created!" Li Ang cursed inwardly as he looked at the system's prompts, but he felt a little relieved, knowing that there was still a chance to leave.

"Father Li?" Wang Changming's voice pulled him back to reality.

Li Ang snapped out of his reverie and noticed the foreman looking at him with concern, his tone earnest: "You don't look well. Are you tired from the journey? Why don't you rest at the work shed?"

"It's nothing, it's just a bit sunny."

Li Ang waved his hand and gestured to Wang Bingbing and Niya with his eyes to stay calm.

Although Nia was still confused, she remembered Li Ang's words and remained silent, simply holding the crucifix and silently reciting scriptures.

Wang Bingbing had already composed herself, displaying a poker face as if she were mute.

"Foreman Wang, how long has it been under construction on this railway?" Li Ang asked with a smile.

"The work started this spring, and we need to finish laying this section before winter," Wang Changming said, pointing to the railway tracks behind him.

"The biggest problem right now is this tunnel ahead. You know, every time we open a tunnel, we have to use explosives, and we're the ones who do all that work. I'm afraid people will die again..."

As he spoke, he sighed, took out a tin cigarette case from his pocket, pulled out a hand-rolled cigarette, and wanted to offer one to Li Ang. Suddenly, he remembered that priests were not supposed to smoke, so he smiled awkwardly and held the cigarette between his fingers.

As Li Ang listened, he quickly organized the information in his mind.

"Every detail matches up; it seems to be 1876, before the railway was completed."

"You just mentioned that you came from the West Coast?" Wang Changming tucked a cigarette behind his ear, his tone filled with curiosity.

"Are things better for the Chinese over there?"

The question came as a surprise, causing Li Ang to pause, his mind flashing through a jumble of historical fragments: California, San Francisco, the Chinese Exclusion Act...

Finally, he chose the safest explanation: "The Lord will protect all the devout, wherever they are."

Very official, meaningless platitudes.

Wang Changming nodded and didn't delve any further. He turned to look at the construction site, where several workers were struggling to carry a thick sleeper toward the railway tracks, their steps unsteady.

"It's quite a coincidence to meet a Chinese priest here," Wang Changming said, turning back with a sincere expression.

"If you have time, could you say a few words to the brothers? We've all left our homes and are suffering. Listening to the Lord's teachings might make us feel better."

Li Ang smiled at Wang Changming: "Of course, Foreman Wang, but we need to tidy up a bit, shall we talk later?"

"Thank you, Father Li. I'll go take a look over there first. Please make yourselves at home." Wang Changming nodded tactfully and turned to leave.

After Wang Changming walked away, Wang Bingbing immediately lowered her voice and asked, "What's going on? Have we...time-traveled?"

Nia also came closer, her beautiful eyes wide open, but before Li Ang could speak, she didn't ask any more questions or say anything more.

Li Ang glanced at Wang Changming's back and said in a low voice, "It's not time travel. Scientifically speaking... it's more like a wormhole? Anyway, we are indeed in the 19th century now."

He pointed to the railway tracks beneath his feet: "And we're still in Uldum, still on that railway. Except..."

After thinking about it, Li Ang decided not to explain the Mirror World to them any further.

After careful consideration, Li Ang slowly said, "This space is not stable. You can think of it as the railway being fixed in the past for a short period of time and space. We are like being in an old photograph."

"But once you leave the photo, it's like stepping directly from the space station into space—it'll be game over instantly."

Li Ang explained patiently, his gaze fixed on the distant railway tracks.

Following his gaze, Wang Bingbing saw that the construction site was also bathed in sunshine in the distance, with the grass and trees swaying in the breeze, showing no signs of anything unusual.

"How did you know?" Wang Bingbing couldn't help but ask.