"Cluck, cluck."


    Atst, Chen Miao heard a different sound—it was a chicken crowing, but the sound abruptly stopped as if someone had suddenly strangled the bird; it was very sudden. Then, he saw her.


    Outside the window, there stood a woman in white, with long hair draped over her, staring straight at him through the window.


    Although he couldn''t see the woman''s eyes,


    he could feel the chill emanating from them.


    "..."


    Chen Miao narrowed his eyes and suddenly smiled, rising from the bed and walking over to the window. He pressed his cheek against the ss, maintaining his smile as he looked out at the woman.


    After several seconds,


    the woman left.


    Following her departure, a session of bizarre events kept urring.


    For example, the sound of gongs and drums suddenly filled the street, invisible to the eye but audible, as if someone were carrying a bridal sedan in a wedding procession. Another was the whitentern hanging on the door, which suddenly began to ooze blood.


    Rapid knocking on the door.


    The sound of marbles rolling across the ceiling.


    And so on, totaling eight or nine strange incidents. When thest bizarre event ceased, it was already four in the morning. After a night of unrest and indeed exhaustion, seeing that there was no further reaction,


    Chen Miao leaned against the headboard, his eyelids drooping slightly as he began to drift into a dozing state.


    He wasn''t truly asleep, ready to enterbat at any moment, but also didn''t allow himself to be too tense mentally.


    Although many eerie events had transpired tonight, perhaps due to the effect of the protection talisman, not a single incident caused them damage. As long as they waited for daylight, everything would be clear.


    ...


    Soon—


    Day broke.


    When the sky turned from the pale colors of dawn until the sun was fully risen, the burly man, with dark circles under his eyes, finally couldn''t help bursting out of his house and running to Chen Miao''s window, continuously knocking on the ss.


    Seeing Chen Miao lying in bed as if in slumber, he said in shock and disbelief, "Brother, you must be crazy, with all that ruckusst night, how the hell could you sleep?"


    "Huh!"


    Awakened by the noise, Chen Miao stretchedzily, rubbing his tired eyes, and walked out of the room, ncing at the burly man who clearly hadn''t slept all night and said casually, "We''re merely supernatural beings, not deities. Without sleep for a night, won''t you feel sleepy the next day?"


    "Who could sleep in that situation?" The burly man said in some agitation, "A moment of inattention and you could be dead. If you overslept, you might never open your eyes again."


    "Indeed."


    Chen Miao nodded nomittally and then strode toward the house of the two sisters. It was the older sister who had screamedst night, and he wanted to check if she was dead or not.


    When he arrived at her room,


    the door was tightly shut, and the curtains of the windows were not drawn. He saw the red-haired woman, looking utterly petrified, curled up on the bed, gripping her whip tightly, ready to enterbat at any time.


    Clearly, she had been terrifiedst night.


    "Hey."


    The burly man knocked on the ss and tentatively asked, "Are you okay? There was a lot of noise from your roomst night, did something break in?"


    "The... the protection talisman, it''s gone."


    The woman sat on the bed, eyes wide with fear, her finger trembling as she pointed to the spot by the door where the protection talisman had hung, now conspicuously empty.


    "What''s happened?"


    The burly man''s expression became stern as he instantly realized there was a special situation. He immediately knocked on the door signaling the woman to open it, so he could understand what exactly had happened the night before.


    Soon, the door opened.


    The burly man, with a look of urgency, began to inquire, "Did the protection talisman break? Or was it stolen by some sort of shadowy creature?"


    ...n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    "..."


    Only Chen Miao, standing aside, as he looked at this woman who bore not a single injury, began to narrow his eyes, a vague answer forming in his mind.


    He was the clearest about where the older sister''s protection talisman had gone.


    Yesterday evening, before night fell, he had approached the woman to discuss the possibility of setting up a short-rangemunication device to get through the night together, but the woman, lost in the infatuation of love with her younger sister, was spaced out, her gaze dull,pletely ignoring him.


    Seeing this, he knew the woman would be of no help.


    But she was still to serve some purpose.


    So he seized the opportunity while the woman''s gaze was vacant, stealing her protection talisman and hiding it under a nearby tree. He wanted to see if, without the protection of the talisman, someone would die.


    The result...


    The red-haired older sister, without the talisman the entire night, not only did not die, she didn''t even suffer a single injury.


    If that was the case, he had to question the effectiveness of the protection talisman.


    Was it truly useful?


    Or rather, were those eerie events fromst night genuinely threatening to them?


    ...


    Meanwhile, the burly man had also finishedmunicating with the red-haired woman. The reason for her screamst night was because a shadowy figure had broken into her room, and it was only when the figure entered that the woman snapped out of her emotional state.


    Then I found that the protective talisman at the door had disappeared at some point without knowing when.


    Caught off guard by the fright, I couldn''t help but let out a scream.


    But immediately after, the ck shadow retreated on its own, as if it had suffered a heavy blow. After letting out a hiss, it fled through the window again.


    This scene was exactly the same as the one in Chen Miao''s house.


    Chen Miao''s eyes narrowed slightly but he said nothing. The ck shadow receding in his house could be exined by the protection talisman taking effect, but the red-haired woman''s talisman was gone, so what struck the shadow with such force?


    The ck shadow intruding, suffering damage, escaping.


    This whole process felt like it was fixed, as if it would happen regardless of the presence of a protective talisman. If nothing unexpected urred, the same events should have happened in the other two people''s roomsst night.


    At least, the three of thempared notes, and the strange events that happenedst night were exactly the same for all of them.


    The only exception was the strong man; he was missing the ck shadow intrusion, which was the first strange event.


    And at this moment—


    The man in the tailcoat had already left the house, not knowing what information he had, but he seemed confident, casting a disdainful nce at the rest, then strode towards the vige chief''s house, apparently ready to pay his respects again.


    The vige chief''s approval.


    Is a condition that must be met to pass through this secret realm, Chen Miao could understand the man in the tailcoat''s behavior, but he did not think that one could simply pass a C-level secret realm by ttering and fawning.


    If it were that simple, then they should just send Zhou Shen to breeze through this secret realm perfectly within minutes.


    Especially since...


    The Tomb Guardian said demons had passed through this secret realm; Chen Miao would rather believe there was a chef sneaking under his bedst night making "Emperor Qianlong''s Cabbage" than believe a demon managed to pass through the secret realm by paying respects.


    ...


    Chen Miao walked into the strong man''s house alone. He wanted to see what was different about the strong man''s house and why the strong mancked one strange event. After scanning the room, the furnishings were almost exactly the same as in his house,


    To be precise.


    All the furnishings in the house were almost identical, as if they were copied and pasted.


    But Chen Miao quickly found the difference.


    There was no mirror on the strong man''s wall.


    At that moment, the strong man followed in close behind, and with a somewhat nervous expression turned to Chen Miao, "How is it, brother? Did you find anything?"


    It had to be said that this strong man was very clear about his role. A higher-level Supernatural being, willing to follow behind a junior Supernatural, constantly asking for the former''s opinion, takes a certain kind of fortitude, not everyone can do this.


    Pride is something that is bound to arise at a higher level.


    If pride isn''t found in someone of a high position.


    There are only two possibilities.


    The first is the other person hides it well, with pride in their heart.


    The second is due to pride having resulted in many losses, and thus they no longer allow themselves blind arrogance.


    "Where is the mirror from your room wall?"


    Chen Miao didn''t hide his curiosity but stared at the empty nail on the wall and directly asked.


    "You mean this?"


    The strong man hurriedly took out the mirror wrapped in a bedsheet from the bedside table: "Based on my experience with many strange secret realms, mirrors often aren''t anything good. Before nightfall yesterday, I took down this mirror and wrapped it up."


    "Is it useful?"


    "I was going to smash this mirrorst night, but then I hesitated, worrying that just maybe this mirror could be a mission item. If I smashed it andter needed it, I''d be at a loss. So I didn''t smash it and hid the mirror," he replied.


    "No worries."


    Chen Miao narrowed his eyes, pondering without speaking. ording to the strong man''s information, no ck shadow intrusion happened in his housest night, and he had not seen the ck shadow, but he had heard the sound of it being heavily damaged.


    Doesn''t this scene feel a bit familiar?


    It''s like the screen going dark, but the sound still ys.


    Let''s make a bold guess.


    Last night''s ck shadow was not a real monster, rather an artificially created strange event, with the source being this mirror. That would exin why the strong man''s room had the sounds, but no visual of the ck shadow.


    Because the disy had been hidden away by the strong man.


    After pondering for a moment, the possibility in Chen Miao''s mind grew clearer, and suddenly he looked up, smiling towards the window, "Go outside and take a look. I bet the vige chief hasn''t gotten up yet."


    "Not up yet?"


    Muttering to himself, the strong man headed for the door, "We''ve got just over two hours until Noon, didn''t the vige chief say yesterday that there would be a trial on the high tform for those three people today?"


    As soon as he walked out the door, he saw the man in the tailcoat walking away from the vige chief''s doorstep towards his own house, clearly having failed to rouse the vige chief.


    "No way, he really hasn''t woken up?"


    "If he had woken up, it would be a miracle."


    Chen Miao suddenly grinned, "This is getting interesting, I thought it was a folklore horror type of secret realm, but it turns out we are stepping into the realm of science at the end."


    "That''s good; it makes things much simpler."


    He retracted his words fromst night; these teammates were not entirely useless. If Hungry Monkey and the others hade, he wouldn''t dare risk their lives for experiments. Sometimes, randomly matched strangers have their pros as well.


    At the very least, they''re durable.