Wu Xiaoming opened his eyes and stood up. As he looked beyond his immediate vicinity, the internal structures of this place were indeed different than before he sat down. He held up the lantern to look around, and picked a gateway where there seemed to be less grotesque structures along his way.
From the looks of things, if he simply walked around and tried his best to avoid being lured, he should be safe from the little girl. But what could have caused the previous victims to suffer sickness and bad luck after they woke up? The most obvious theory would be that they had been wandering for too long, their anxiety and stress had gotten the best of them and led them to make mistakes, or simply brought the little girl in a red garb right to them.
But they were alive, at least. If his memories about the legend of the Mo-sin-a were correct and applicable to this world, most of the time their victims end up dead, even in less serious cases they would end up insane. Which meant that the guidance and protection provided by the man was effective - that or the power of the Mo-sin-a had dwindled, after this many years away from its "homeland".
Which meant, Wu Xiaoming had an even bigger chance than he previously thought in defeating this creature. If he, as an outsider, could influence this world, then unless there was a trap, it only meant that he had much more power in this world than he was first led to believe.
With this thought in mind, he stopped midway on the walkway behind the gateway and began looking around - there were alleyways on both sides, and even a staircase leading up.
The little girl in a red garb tried to lure him earlier with gold, gems and simple relief sculptures of beautiful women, this could be an indication that it did not have as good a perception of his internal thoughts, otherwise the bait would be more obvious. So, if he was to somehow defeat it, he would need to get closer and maybe even set up a trap himself.
He had not tried going up or down in this structure, so he approached the staircase. Under the light from the lantern, he saw no obvious grotesque structure within range, so he rushed up, just to see what the upper level was like.
It was nothing different - same style of buildings, same lanterns and candles placed at different corners. He turned back, just as he expected, the staircase disappeared. He walked out into a relatively open space, then started checking around with the lantern in hand.
How did the Mo-sin-a get to the other victims? Aside from the obvious answer of stress and anxiety making them easier to be fooled by illusions, it stood to reason that there must be some other confusing and disorienting element.
His sight, Wu Xiaoming stopped. The skill Affinity granted him the ability to sense energy flows and see spirits - earlier he was able to see the black smoke representing the dead woman's lingering spirit. It was a "passive" ability that was active all the time, he had to actively suppress it so that he could see what "civilians" saw with naked eyes.
With his sight suppressed, he took another look around with the lantern close to his face.
Gray, old, decayed, but not as creepy and dark as before. The "underlayer" of the surroundings became much "friendlier". He stepped up his speed and paced around, and after around half a minute he finally found a structure that was revealed only in the lantern's light - a tree. An old, leafless tree, with scars all over its body. Its trunk was crooked and contorting to the side, forking into four branches that shot out in different directions. The bark on it was full of scratches and scars, one very obvious scar was a carving the shape of a heart, with two letters inside: "X" and "J".
"Xiaoming and - and Jennifer?" This was all he could come up with, the only answer that made sense to him. But if this was the case, it could only mean something quite horrible - the Mo-sin-a could read his memories. Or at least, the memories of the previous Wu Xiaoming, which surely still remained in his head to a certain extent.
He DID have a strange reaction to the name "Jennifer Richardson" when he first heard it, even though he never knew her. Then - the only explanation was that the previous Wu Xiaoming had some sort of crush on her, or to be less charitably, lust for her. This memory was not that hard to dig up, apparently, but if the little girl in a red garb could really dig, it would use -
The letter J was no longer there just in this mere moment where he was not paying attention - it changed to "L", as in Lu Yu, the girl who he wanted to ask to be his girlfriend before the damned truck hit him.
Wu Xiaoming took a few steps back immediately. The Mo-sin-a just read his thoughts and changed what was in front of him. He took a look at the carving again - still the same heart shape, with letters "X" and "L" inside.
He took a few deep breaths before turning back and pacing away. While he kept his speed up, he began brewing stress and anxiety in his mind - what would happen to him if he could not wake up and finish the shoot; what if his father and brothers were disappointed in him; what if the show was not a success and was utterly forgettable, so on and so forth.
As his presumed stress level increased, the walls around him started to gray and dim as well. The lanterns and candles began flickering, and somehow, in this confined space, chill winds began blowing.
A string of giggles sent another wave of chills down his spine. He looked to the right, where the giggles came from. At the corner of his sight, the figure of a young girl in a red garb flashed by. Right at this time, a gateway appeared on his right.
Without hesitation, he went through it and came into a small open space with a doorway in front of him and two doorways on both his sides. And under the lantern's light, the empty open space turned into a small Chinese-style garden, but with all the plants and flowers in ashen or wilted state, nothing alive in sight.
"They're dead." Just this moment, a young girl's voice behind Wu Xiaoming.
Wu Xiaoming turned around, the lantern in hand. The little girl in a red garb was standing a few arms' length between two flower pots. Her garb was ragged, her hair was messy. Tear marks on her face, eyes with no white staring right at Wu Xiaoming. A smile of only the mouth and skin hung on its face, exposing its dark, crooked teeth. The lantern's light bounced on its face as the lantern shook from Wu Xiaoming's movement, revealing the tree-bark-like skin with fur poking out from between the cracks.
"What's dead?" Wu Xiaoming forced himself to calm down and released the intentional suppression of his vision. The appearance of the little girl changed - its figure became blurry, dark smoke shrouded its entire body; while under the lantern's light, glowing pustules, pieces of old cracked wallpaper and worn carpet covered its body where the skins and cloth should be on its body. "What are you doing here?"
"Them." The little girl in a red garb spoke in an abnormally calm, almost chilling tone: "All those guests - they're all dead."
"No. I don't think so." Wu Xiaoming took a few careful steps forward and knelt down, his face full of concern and worry: "Where are your parents?"
"They're also dead." The little girl in a red garb replied, the completely dark eyes still fixed on Wu Xiaoming, the corners of its mouth raised slightly, and its tone still chilling: "They're all dead. Everyone. "
"Oh. I'm sorry." Wu Xiaoming took a deep breath and put his right hand behind him.
"Aren't you afraid?" The little girl in a red garb asked.
"It's okay. It's okay." Wu Xiaoming shook his head and smiled: "It will be okay. Because - "
He whispered as he swung a morningstar right into the little creature's face:" - you're ugly and you'll go with them too!"