Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

That evening, after everyone brought the unconscious Li Siqi back to the hospital, Su Su handed over the pill she had obtained from the right side hall to Yi Zanglan.

"This was taken from the alchemy furnace. The reason why the scholar entered the side hall was to retrieve this elixir for Emperor Yunxian, but we are not sure what it will be used for."

The pill looked no different from an ordinary pill, but the moment Yi Zanglan took it, it suddenly shattered into a smoky powder, which quickly dissolved into the lines of her palm and disappeared.

The incident happened suddenly, and her teammates were shocked. They were all worried that this was another special mechanism that had been activated, and they surrounded her and checked her for a long time.

But Yi Zanglan didn't feel anything unusual. Since it hadn't happened yet, there was no need to worry in advance.

After Du Songzi finished bandaging everyone's wounds, she told them to go back and rest. Even when Yan Zhao's team returned from scouting, she simply said hello and went back to their lodgings, agreeing to meet the next day to discuss things in more detail.

……

What was supposed to be a fairly smooth night was about to turn into the morning of the fifth day.

When the fifth day arrived, no one experienced a true dawn.

The sky remained shrouded in a dim, half-awake light; the sun had not yet risen, and the entire imperial city was enveloped in a bluish mist.

The boundary between day and night begins to blur, and the place remains completely silent, still maintaining the appearance of a dead city.

Even more frightening was that when the team members woke up and came to Hongde Hall to look for Yi Zanglan as usual, they found the hall empty and the bedding on the bed cold, indicating that he had been gone for a long time.

Tang Yunxi was shocked: "Where's Lanlan? Where did she go? Did she mention her last night?"

"No, she couldn't possibly have abandoned us and acted alone without even saying goodbye." Yan Zhao's face darkened as he looked around. "Something must have happened. Perhaps... she was transported elsewhere by some special mechanism?"

"Is it a special mechanism specifically targeting the captain?" The formation's effect had expired, and Wu Ying, who had just transformed from a fox into human form this morning, also seemed somewhat anxious. "Why was she teleported separately, yet we didn't experience any abnormalities?"

Shen Yubai suddenly seemed to remember something and quickly gestured to Wang Mingyue.

"Mingyue, where's the scroll?"

"oh!"

Wang Mingyue reacted quickly, immediately unrolling the scroll she carried with her, and everyone crowded around to examine it closely.

The seventh painting is now complete. It depicts a black-robed deity standing on a throne in the Qin'an Hall. The disguise has been partially broken, revealing half of Emperor Yunxian's face, which has been distorted and is now hideous.

But the eighth painting remained blank, offering no clues whatsoever.

"Are we supposed to wait for a hint before we know the captain's whereabouts?"

Yan Zhao clearly lost patience. She looked around the hall and finally stopped in front of the table.

"No need to wait that long." She thought for a moment, then turned to Su Su and asked, "Su Su, you just said that you got a pill last night, and after giving it to Lan Lan, it was automatically absorbed by her, right?"

Su Su nodded, then belatedly realized, "Could it really be that the pill was the problem?"

"I can't be sure for now, but if it is indeed the pill that caused Lanlan's abnormality, then I might be able to find her."

On the table was a blue hair ribbon, which Yi Zanglan must have casually tossed there before falling asleep last night. It was stained with a trace of blood and still retained her scent.

[System prompt: Use the [Vengeful Spirit Tracking] skill? Skill duration: 5 minutes. Can be used twice globally.]

【Yes. 】

As the purple mist, like threads, spread outwards along the hair ribbon in his hand, Yan Zhao became certain that his guess was correct.

The Vengeful Spirit Tracking technique can only be used to locate ghosts and monsters. Since there is a reaction now, it proves that Yi Zanglan has indeed been affected by some kind of force.

"Yunxi".

"Okay." Even though Yan Zhao didn't say much, Tang Yunxi understood. She decisively summoned her wheelchair. "Zhao Zhao and Xiao Ying, come with me. We'll leave marks along the way, so hurry up and catch up!"

Before the words were even finished, Yan Zhao and Wu Ying had already jumped onto the footrest with practiced ease. The wheelchair accelerated instantly, carrying the three of them at breakneck speed towards the outside of the hall.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

Southeast of the imperial city lies the Inner Court's mortuary.

This is where the bodies of palace women who died of old age or illness are collected. The bluestone slabs on the ground are old and cracked. Looking inside, there are countless coffins neatly arranged, faintly emitting a damp, musty smell of wood.

At the end of the mortuary, beneath the brick wall, stands a life-sized carved bronze mirror; no one knows when it was placed there.

At this very moment, Yi Zanglan was standing quietly in front of this bronze mirror.

Honestly, ever since I entered the game, whenever various mirrors appear in the game, it's usually not a good thing.

She sighed and tidied her hair in front of the mirror.

Her long, uncombed hair had turned gray, and deep wrinkles appeared around her eyes and on her cheeks, making her look like she was in her fifties or sixties.

She had just woken up this morning when she was automatically transported to this godforsaken place, where she witnessed her own rapid aging process.

Without a doubt, it was the pill in the Qin'an Hall that worked; it was a pill specifically designed for emperors.

Perhaps, this is also the key to unlocking the eighth painting.

Yi Zanglan squeezed her eyes shut, feeling inexplicably annoyed. She looked around, trying to find some useful clues; she couldn't just stay here forever.

"Lanlan, what are you looking for now?"

—Lanlan, what are you looking for again? You're always busy with this and that, come and read a book with me for a while.

The gentle female voice coming from the mirror instantly overlapped with the voice in her memory. Yi Zanglan felt as if she had been struck a heavy blow to the heart. She turned around abruptly and walked back to the mirror.

...Her image in the bronze mirror spread out like ripples, then slowly merged back together until it became clear again.

The other person was dressed in a dark red imperial court robe, with slanted eyebrows that swept upwards to his temples. He had no smile on his face, which was extremely gentle, yet it also had a touch of fierceness.

That was Yi Yuncen's face, seemingly familiar yet not quite.

Most incredibly, this was not an illusion; otherwise, she would never have been completely unprepared.

"Who are you……"

"Emperor Akihito." The person in the mirror gazed at her, repeating slowly, "Emperor Akihito, your mother."

"..."

An indescribable sense of absurdity quickly swept over Yi Zanglan. Never before had she felt such a throbbing pain in her rationality, as if it were about to snap.

She appeared calm, but when she spoke, she unconsciously clenched her teeth, giving off a strangely fierce tone.

"You'd better explain yourself clearly. I hate it when people impersonate her."

Emperor Akihito smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

She leaned forward slightly, and although there was a mirror between them, it felt as if she was already close to Yi Zanglan.

"Lanlan," she asked softly, "did you find the hairpin I was going to give you? Do you know what it looks like?"

—Lanlan, I found a really pretty hairpin in town. I'm giving it to you as a birthday present.

"..."

No, not found.

Everything was reduced to ashes in that fire; she could find nothing and leave nothing behind.

Yi Zanglan was clearly recalling these things, but the sharp pain in her mind was becoming more and more intense. She forced herself to calmly face the other person.

"That's my business. You just need to answer my question—what exactly do you want to do?"

"What matters is not what I want to do, but what you should do." Emperor Akihito stroked her cheek from afar, his tone indifferent to the point of being cold. "I never imagined that the curse of the Feng Kingdom would ultimately befall you."