“If it’s convenient, please send us the photos.” Li Bai’s phone screen was too small, and she wasn’t willing to hand it over, so it was difficult for everyone to see clearly.

Li Bai had no reason to refuse this suggestion. They added each other on WeChat and even created a group. Soon, the photos were sent to the group, and Fatty clicked to save them immediately.

The group then discussed what to do next, but inexplicably, as Fatty was about to put his phone away, his eyes subconsciously scanned the photos. His expression froze; he seemed to have discovered something strange.

Zooming in on the photo, and zooming in again, Fatty leaned closer to examine it carefully. In the photo, not far in front of Yao Shunyu, under a tree, Fatty saw an extremely horrifying sight.

“Holy crap!” Fatty’s scalp crawled. “You guys need to see this!”

Everyone immediately crowded around. Following Fatty’s finger, Lin Qianqian couldn’t help but gasp. In the dim light filtering through the leaves, they could vaguely see a pair of legs standing there.

Even more eerie was that the space above the legs was empty, as if… only a pair of severed legs were standing there.

Seeing this, even Yao Shunyu, who was usually nonchalant, paled. After all, he had been on the scene and was no more than five meters away from those severed legs, yet he hadn’t noticed anything.

Li Bai’s reaction was much stronger than Yao Shunyu’s. She immediately took out her phone, found the photo, and zoomed in, but unexpectedly, in her photo, the space where the severed legs stood was empty.

Except for her phone, everyone who saved the photo later could see the legs when they zoomed in.

The situation was obvious: they had inadvertently photographed a ghost.

Lin Qianqian looked at Li Bai with a complex expression, a mix of fear and sympathy. “Miss Li, you said you felt someone was watching you…”

“It seems… it seems like it’s this thing,” Li Bai forced herself to remain calm.

Finally, Yuan Shanyuan spoke, his gaze sweeping over Yao Shunyu and Li Bai. “You two, don’t panic. Since you were able to return safely, it means that thing doesn’t have the ability to harm you yet.”

“Mr. Yuan is right,” Luo Tianhe echoed, then looked outside. The sky was getting dark, and in the mission world, darkness was always associated with death. “Let’s go back to the Wu mansion first and then make further plans.”

The approaching night in Wolong Town contrasted sharply with its usual hustle and bustle. It wasn’t far from the Wu mansion, and the group followed the path they had taken, quickly finding the gate.

At the moment, the Wu mansion gate was open, and several servants were moving ladders to take down the large lanterns hanging on either side of the entrance, removing the lanterns first, then replacing the candles inside with new ones, lighting them, and hanging them back up.

One red and one white lantern hung on the left and right, making the faces of the servants appear somewhat distorted.

After watching the servants hang the lanterns, everyone prepared to walk over, but Ding Zhenzong reached out to stop them. “Wait, don’t go over yet, it seems… it seems they’re not finished.”

Sure enough, just as Ding Zhenzong said, after the servants hung the two large lanterns in front of the gate, they placed many more lanterns behind the gate. The placement of the lanterns was very particular, with varying heights, appearing quite mysterious.

“What are they doing?” Lin Qianqian asked softly.

Ding Zhenzong narrowed his eyes, his voice losing its previous gruffness and becoming strange. “Looking at the lantern and flower lantern arrangement, it seems a bit… a bit like the *bagua*, like some kind of formation.”

“Yin *bagua*…” Luo Tianhe stared intently at the flower lanterns at the Wu mansion gate, his tone unsettling.

“What’s the Yin *bagua*?” Li Bai was the first to react.

“The *bagua* we usually refer to are Qian, Kun, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Li, Gen, and Dui, used to symbolize the eight natural phenomena of heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountain, and marsh. With heaven and earth as the ‘parents’ and the main aspects, and the others as the ‘six children’ and auxiliary aspects, they evolve the source of the world’s creation and all kinds of changes. These eight trigrams are also known as the Yang *bagua*.”

“According to the symmetry of Yin and Yang, there is also the Yin *bagua*, namely Xiu, Sheng, Shang, Du, Jing, Si, Jing, and Kai. It is said that Zhuge Liang once used ten square feet of earth and stone to set up a *bagua* formation, which startled and drove back Lu Xun, Lu Boyan, of Eastern Wu. This *bagua* formation was evolved according to the *gua* signs of the Yin *bagua*, and later generations often referred to it as the Yin Eight Gates,” Yuan Shanyuan explained to everyone.

“Mr. Yuan is truly knowledgeable and well-informed, we are enlightened,” Lin Qianqian complimented.

“I only know a little; to say I’m proficient, it’s still Mr. Luo,” Yuan Shanyuan and Bai Yu stood together, like an ordinary grandfather and grandson, but no one dared to underestimate the weight of these two.

Luo Tianhe ignored them completely and casually took out a few silver coins, held them in his palm, and threw them down with his palm facing down. The silver coins scattered on the ground, and Luo Tianhe stared at the silver coins, his face becoming even more gloomy.

Even Fatty could tell that he was definitely divining, predicting good or bad fortune.

Ding Zhenzong was an impatient person, staring at the silver coins on the ground and hurriedly asked, “How is it, Mr. Luo?”

“The Sheng Gate falls, the Si Gate opens, extremely ominous.”

Luo Tianhe’s words made the already unclear prospects even gloomier. Looking at the strange mansion gate with the large lanterns, Fatty swallowed, feeling like it looked more and more like the gates of hell.

“Now that things have come to this, we have to break through even if it’s the gates of hell,” Luo Tianhe picked up the silver coins, gave one to each person, and instructed them to carry it with them. The group walked towards the mansion gate.

After showing their wooden plaques, the servants politely welcomed them into the mansion, and then someone ran to inform the Second Young Master.

“Who told you to arrange the lanterns like this?” Luo Tianhe asked.

Among the servants, a man dressed in short gray cloth stood out, bowed, and said, “In response to this master’s words, it was ordered by our master.”

Li Bai frowned and subconsciously replied, “Isn’t your master already…”

Before she could finish speaking, Lai Fu, whom they had seen before, trotted over and said that the Second Young Master had heard that they had returned and wanted to invite all the masters to come and talk. Coincidentally, that was also everyone’s intention.

They followed Lai Fu into a relatively remote room where the Second Young Master was already waiting.

To everyone’s surprise, in just one day, the Second Young Master’s leg disease seemed to have worsened, and he could only barely sit in the chair, his face pale and bloodless, and his lips were even turning blue.

The weather wasn’t cold at all, at most just a bit chilly in the morning and evening, but the Second Young Master had already put on a fur coat, wrapping himself up like a *zongzi*. Seeing everyone enter, a faint smile barely squeezed out of the Second Young Master’s pale face, and he leaned forward politely. “Everyone… everyone masters has worked hard.”

Seeing this appearance, the Second Young Master probably wouldn’t last many more days. The situation was becoming more and more critical. Luo Tianhe gripped the silver coin in his sleeve, sat down, and then asked in a calm voice, “Second Young Master, what’s the matter with the lanterns in front of the gate?”