He just broke up with his girlfriend and is already living with the devilish rich girl.

The two stepped into the building again.

Bai Ziheng followed behind Zheng Xingguang, his eyes scanning warily the emergency light that was still barely hanging on in the lobby on the first floor.

The dim light made the scattered flyers and scraps of paper on the ground look like huddled, ghostly piles.

The air was filled with a damp, musty smell, mixed with the lingering fishy odor from the market that hadn't been properly cleaned, which made one's stomach churn.

"Be careful, there's something wrong with that elevator," Bai Ziheng warned in a low voice.

Zheng Xingguang didn't turn around, he just smiled.

"Brother Bai, that's not an elevator at all."

Bai Ziheng paused, "What do you mean?"

Zheng Xingguang walked to the rusty elevator door and reached out to touch the crack in the door.

A layer of grayish-white powder clung to his fingertips. He brought it to his nose and smelled it, his expression knowing.

"A sleight of hand to solidify Yin energy."

He brushed the dust off his hands.

"To put it bluntly, it's a fake product made from the resentment of the filth in this building."

"It looks like an elevator from the outside, but inside it's a separate space specifically designed to trap people. It works on the same principle as a spider web; what looks like a path is actually a trap when you step on it."

Bai Ziheng felt a chill run down his spine when he recalled being trapped inside, climbing up to the 999th floor, and then being thrown down.

But his face remained expressionless as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket, shook it out, and put it in his mouth: "Then where is it really?"

"Go ahead and look for it. Hey, Brother Bai, aren't you afraid of getting lung cancer from smoking so much?"

"My constitution is different. I can be a chimney every day without any problems. Don't worry about me, let's solve the problem first."

Zheng Xingguang took out a vermilion pen from his backpack and then pulled out a blank yellow talisman from a hidden compartment.

He slapped the talisman against the elevator door, twirled the vermilion pen between his fingers, and then put pen to paper.

The brushstrokes flowed like dragons and snakes, completed in one go.

"The gates of heaven open, the gates of earth connect, and the spirits of the dead and the dwellings of the living go to the west and east respectively."

He recited the words aloud, his pen never stopping.

The cinnabar branded ancient seal characters onto the yellow talisman paper, each one looking as if it had been branded with a hot iron.

It glowed with a dark reddish light under the dim light.

"Azure Dragon on the left, White Tiger on the right, Vermilion Bird in front, Black Tortoise behind."

"The old ox is at my waist," Bai Ziheng added.

Zheng Xingguang was stunned.

"Brother Bai... um, could you please be quiet for a moment?"

"Fine." Bai Ziheng moved to the side, looking somewhat sullen.

As he wrote the last stroke of the talisman, he suddenly raised his wrist.

The pen tip traced a semi-circle in the air, leaving a trail of tiny red sparks, like red-hot iron filings being flung into water.

"The Three Realms and Five Elements, the Boundaries—"

He tore off the talisman and slapped it against the wall opposite the elevator.

"Break through the barrier!"

With a muffled thud, it felt as if something had smashed into the entire wall from the inside.

The plaster on the wall was peeling off with a crackling sound, and cracks spread outwards from where the talisman was pasted, forming a dense network like a spider web.

A dark green light shone through the crack, and a cold wind blew out from the crack, causing the dust on the ground to swirl and fly up.

After the wall plaster peeled off, an elevator door was revealed.

It's much newer than the previous one. There are no small blemishes or rust on the stainless steel door panel; it's almost too clean.

Soft, warm yellow light shone through the crack in the door, completely out of place with everything else in this dilapidated building.

"Look, Brother Bai—" Zheng Xingguang put the vermilion pen back into his pencil case, patted the wall dust off his hands, and turned around with a grin.

"This is a real elevator."

Bai Ziheng stared at the elevator door that appeared out of nowhere for several seconds, then looked at Zheng Xingguang.

He really didn't understand anything, but he didn't ask.

Asking means you've already lost.

"Then this time there shouldn't be any problems, right?"

He reached out to press the elevator button.

Zheng Xingguang grabbed his wrist: "Hey, Brother Bai—"

"What's wrong? Isn't this real?"

"It's true." Zheng Xingguang's expression was a mix of amusement and exasperation.

"But once you go inside the elevator, it's a normal building. The fourth floor is the fourth floor, the ninth floor is the ninth floor, and it stops at each floor in a very orderly manner."

"Sitting in this thing upstairs, in the middle of the night, all we can do is go find prostitutes, nothing else."

"Yo ho."

Bai Ziheng gave a cold laugh.

"You look like an honest, simple guy, and you even know about brothels? Have you ever been to one?"

"Huh? Why would I do something like that? But isn't it often depicted in TV dramas and novels?"

Bai Ziheng raised his hand and tapped him on the back of the head.

"Be serious, stop watching things that aren't suitable for children, or your sister will beat you up if she finds out."

Zheng Xingguang smiled and nodded.

"Brother-in-law, let's get down to business."

For some reason, he subconsciously called out "brother-in-law" again.

It's just because these few lines of dialogue are so much like that kind of relationship.

Bai Ziheng stared at the elevator door for a few seconds before taking the cigarette out of his mouth.

"Our purpose in coming here is to find its strangeness, so we can't enter the correct elevator."

"That's right."

"So what were you showing off over there just now?" Bai Ziheng pointed to the real elevator that had appeared on the wall, and then to the fake elevator next to it that was still making a hissing sound.

"With cinnabar, talismans, and incantations, it's like they're performing a ritual—"

"It's not about showing off skills."

Zheng Xingguang pulled the compass out of his sleeve and held it in his palm; the needle was slowly rotating on the bronze disc.

"It serves as a stepping stone."

"What do you mean?"

"Tell this thing about our methods."

Zheng Xingguang gently flicked the edge of the compass with his thumb, slowing the rotation of the pointer slightly.

"The Special Administration Bureau came to investigate, and the Supernatural Administration Bureau also came to investigate. In the end, they either went insane, went missing, or didn't remember anything."

"The thing in this building is sure that no one can control it, so it does everything in a blatant manner. It even dares to openly place a fake elevator at the main entrance, without bothering to disguise it."

"We just exposed its trickery right under its nose, which is tantamount to telling it that we can see through its scheme. If it knows what's good for it, it should show itself and talk, instead of forcing us to tear down its building."

Will it know what's good for it?

"That depends on how intelligent it is."

Zheng Xingguang walked to the still-screeching fake elevator and pressed the up button.

"Let's go, Brother Bai, let's go and have a look at it."

Bai Ziheng stood still, his expression stiffening for a moment: "Still sitting here?"

"Of course. How could you find it in a real elevator? It's hiding in the space created by the fake elevator."

Zheng Xingguang pushed open the rusty elevator door, and the car was still lit by that creepy, dark red light.

"It attacked you first, but this time with me here, it can't do anything to you. Besides, I've already added a restriction to the talisman, locking down the entire outer space of the building, so it can't escape."

Bai Ziheng threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it out.

He really didn't want to experience the 999th floor freefall again, but he also didn't want to back down in front of this kid.

So I stepped inside.