The story begins with an eight-foot-tall lady surrounded by ghost story ladies.

The eight-foot-tall lady appeared before that thing.

Its three-meter-tall form resembled a flowing jade monument, completely enveloping the writhing darkness.

The white mourning clothes that tightly wrapped around her plump body were almost torn apart, and the fabric in front of her body was stretched into two astonishing arcs.

Her body trembled slightly as she bent over, as if it might collapse at any moment.

She lowered her head, her clear, cold eyes looking down at the writhing darkness.

Then it reached out a hand and pinched its face.

But this time it wasn't torn apart.

Instead, pinch it.

Like pinching a noisy insect.

The thing let out a scream...

It was no longer the mother's voice, but a harsh noise resembling the distortion of metal.

Its face twisted and deformed between the eight-foot lady's fingers, and its skin flowed down like melting wax, revealing its shapeless, pitch-black body underneath.

"Okusan," Natsume Fanyu said.

"Don't break it, it's still useful."

With a flick of her fingers, Madam Bachi squeezed the object into a fist-sized black sphere, its surface covered with tiny, wriggling tentacles.

Then she casually tossed it, and the black ball rolled to Natsume Fanyu's feet with a muffled thud.

Rin Jinguji watched this scene unfold.

Then, she raised her head and met the gaze of Madam Bachi.

The three-meter height difference made this eye contact inherently unequal.

Lady Hachisho's gaze slowly moved down from Jinguji Rin's face to the short sword in her hand, which was engraved with Sanskrit.

It paused for a second, then moved away.

No expression.

But Rin Jinguji read a message in her eyes that she hadn't said aloud...

They've got some guts, though.

"Let's go."

Natsume Fanyu picked up the black ball from the ground and weighed it in his hand.

Then he lifted his foot, stepped over the pool of melted wax residue, and walked into the darkness.

Rin Jinguji followed.

The eight-foot-tall lady walked last.

Darkness swallowed the three figures.

Behind me, the twisted door slowly closed, completely shutting out the afternoon sunlight at three o'clock.

Deep within the mansion, darkness is not darkness.

After entering, Rin Jinguji realized that there was indeed light here.

There is light, but the light is reflected.

The ground is above us, the sky is below us, and all the light comes from the boundless, upside-down black sky below.

She looked down at her feet.

Countless faces float in the "sky" beneath your feet.

Every face had its eyes closed, its expression serene, as if it were in a dream from which it would never wake.

"They're all those who have gone missing," Natsume Fanyu said.

Rin Jinguji counted the faces...

Seventeen images.

They were all faces she recognized.

The group consisted of members of the Jinguji clan, servants at the mansion, and two exorcists sent by her father to investigate.

"Are they still alive?"

"A little more troublesome than living."

Natsume Fanyu squatted down and placed his palm on the surface of the "sky" beneath his feet.

A dark golden light spread from his palm, expanding in all directions like cracks.

"Their consciousness has been drained, leaving only empty shells."

"The entities are using their consciousness to weave something."

He raised his head and looked into the depths of this inverted space.

"It is creating a 'world'."

Rin Jinguji followed his gaze.

At the deepest point of the upside-down sky, there is a point.

A point that is darker and denser than the surrounding darkness, like the source of all shadows.

That point is pulsating, one beat after another, like a heart, or like a fetus sleeping in the uterus.

With each jump, the faces beneath her feet would twitch in unison.

It's not pain, it's more like... resonance.

It's as if they are being breathed by that "point".

"What is that?" Jinguji Rin asked.

Her voice was a little lower than before, because she realized something...

The frequency of that beating was exactly the same as her own heartbeat.

"That must be something that your Jinguji family has been worshipping for generations."

Natsume Fanyu stood up, his eyes gleaming with a faint dark gold in the darkness.

"They've just been fed for so long that they can no longer distinguish between being worshipped and being imprisoned."

As he spoke, he looked at Jinguji Rin again, his gaze moving from her eyes to the short sword in her hand, and then to her abdomen, specifically the area around her uterus.

"But now, it... is hungry again."

Rin Jinguji tightened her grip on the sword.

"Then what should we do?"

Natsume Fanyu did not answer directly.

He formed a hand seal with his hands, his ten fingers overlapping in a hand gesture that Jinguji Rin had never seen before.

It is the starting posture of the Earth God Mantra, which is one of the eight great divine mantras of Taoism.

"The Primordial One secures peace, and proclaims this to all spirits."

"True officials of mountains and rivers, spirits of the land."

"The altars of the land and grain are on the left and the granaries on the right; do not be alarmed."

"Returning to the right path, achieving inner and outer clarity..."

The moment the incantation ended.

The upside-down sky, with its seventeen sleeping faces floating in the air, seemed to be held down by an invisible giant hand.

The ripples stopped, and the trembling subsided.

The subtle expressions of pain on those sleeping faces all relaxed.

At the same time, waves of Qi emanated from his body and spread in all directions.

It was neither expulsion nor merely suppression.

Instead, it asserts with an unquestionable attitude that it informs every spirit, every inch of soil, and every distorted space on this land...

This place is temporarily under my jurisdiction!

As the last sentence fell.

That beating "heart" stopped.

Like a restless child being held down by an elder and forced to quiet down.

Natsume Fanyu withdrew his hand seal, turned to look at Jinguji Rin, and said:

"Miss Jinguji, I have good news for you."

Rin Jinguji was slightly taken aback: "What good news?"

"Your mother is not dead; she is in that mirror over there."

Rin Jinguji's pupils suddenly contracted, and his body trembled slightly uncontrollably.

In those usually sharp phoenix eyes, disbelief was first seen, followed by a surge of indescribable, complex emotions.

Surprise, bitterness, guilt, and the obsession that had been buried for many years and never died out.

She subconsciously took a deep breath, suppressing her surging emotions, and her gaze became firm again.

Natsume Fanyu looked at her and continued:

"If you still want to save your mother, then the rest is up to you."

"But...you might end up like your mother, trapped in it forever."

Jinguji Rin looked at him, her sharp phoenix eyes filled with unwavering determination.

"Mr. Natsume..." she said.

"If I don't get out, you won't get your payment."

"I'm not worried about that."

Natsume Fanyu spoke in a nonchalant tone.

"I just hope that Ms. Jinguji remembers what she said..."

"Name your price."

"The Jinguji family never goes back on its word!" Jinguji Rin said resolutely.

"You just need to tell me what to do?"

"Go over there."

Natsume Fanyu raised his chin.

"Just touch that mirror."

That's it?

Rin Jinguji's brow furrowed for a moment, then relaxed.

She didn't ask any more questions and turned to walk forward.

The "sky" beneath her feet rippled with each step she took.

The sleeping faces swayed gently in the ripples, like a school of fish startled.

She didn't look down; her gaze remained fixed on the stopped heart.

The closer you get, the bigger that heart appears.

When you get to a position about ten steps away from it.

Rin Jinguji finally saw its full form.