Chapter 56: An Accidental Intrusion into the Sorcerer's Residence

Everything went black before their eyes, and when the members of the Bamboo Grove Guild awoke, it was already morning.

The first to wake was Erhu, who found the door to the room shut. He pounded on it with his fists and kicked it furiously, but it still wouldn’t open, cursing all the while.

“Damn door—whoever built this is a real piece of work! Locked me in here like I’m some prisoner!”

Half-asleep, Xiaozhi groggily heard Erhu’s tirade.

“Erhu, when did you become both the grandpa and the dad? If you scold like that, no one’s going to answer.”

Erhu paused, realizing there was sense in those words, but refused to admit it and rolled his eyes.

“I’ll say what I want! Open up for your grandpa! Open the door, hey!”

His loud shouts roused Uncle De and Yan Shan from their sleep. Both were startled by the daylight streaming in.

Uncle De exclaimed, “Oh my! Wouldn’t have guessed it!”

Yan Shan echoed, “I didn’t expect it to be morning already. How have we been in here so long?”

Uncle De beamed with satisfaction. “After years of insomnia, I lay on this bed and finally slept well! What a restful sleep!”

Everyone’s reactions were different. Luo Gan’s head throbbed, his stomach burned, and he felt as if he was suffering a terrible hangover.

There was no sign of Farmer A in the room. When Luo Gan got up and looked outside, he found the breeze gentle, the sun shining, but strangely, Farmer A had vanished.

Luo Gan struggled to his feet. Erhu had nearly given up on kicking the door and was drenched in sweat.

“Luo Gan, come over here and look!”

Xiaozhi called from by the bookshelf. Luo Gan, holding his aching head, trudged over with difficulty.

“The books… they’re all yellowed! And these aren’t the same as yesterday. Wasn’t this one a comic before? What is this?”

Yellowed? Comics? What on earth was going on?

In Xiaozhi’s hands was a thread-bound volume that had become an ancient-looking tome. In the modern day, it would be a museum piece, but flipping through the pages, he found that the contents weren’t written with a brush— they were all modern-printed comic strips.

Uncle De looked around the room and cried out in distress.

“Oh no! Where are my talismans? My protective charms?”

Sure enough, not a single charm was left.

Uncle De’s expression darkened. “We must have run into something supernatural. It has to be!”

Erhu was growing impatient, though his tone betrayed some anxiety.

“Uncle De, quit shouting, you’re scaring us.”

“How can my shouting compare to you? We’re trapped in here and can’t get out. I told you yesterday not to go upstairs, and now look what’s happened!” Uncle De clapped the back of his hand against his palm, scolding like an elder chastising a child.

Yan Shan, quick-witted as ever, immediately went to the window to assess the situation. The street below was deserted, and there was no sign of Liu Buwen or Zhang Jifeng, who had been keeping watch at the door.

“Guildmaster, something’s wrong. There’s no sign of Head Constable Zhang or Young Master Liu outside.”

Luo Gan remained silent, recalling the two times they had sneaked into the Sima Mansion. The first time, they’d found the Annals of Anping County; the second, he’d seen a lazy guard asleep on the bed. The timing in the Sima Mansion didn’t match the real world.

“Time,” Luo Gan repeated to himself. There was something unusual about time here. It was already morning outside. He’d only stayed in the room a short while and it was already morning when he left; now, they hadn’t even left the mansion—could it already be several days in the outside world?

Anxious uncertainty surged in Luo Gan’s heart. The secret of the Sima Mansion was not just time, but in this game where every second counted, being trapped here for too long would be disastrous for his chances.

No, this wouldn’t do! Luo Gan grew anxious and went to the door to bang on it, at first jiggling the handle, then pounding with his fists, and finally kicking it, just like Erhu.

Erhu joined him, the two of them kicking the door with all their strength.

Xiaozhi asked, “Is there a brick wall behind the door?”

“Don’t open it! Don’t open it! There could be monsters behind it! Monsters!” Uncle De shouted, terrified of ghosts and ghouls, enough to make Yan Shan shiver.

Both Erhu and Luo Gan grew weary from their exertions, panting for breath.

Yan Shan stammered, “What if the monster behind the door is thirty feet tall and as strong as an ox…”

“Or has a red nose, wild hair, and is dressed like a lunatic!” Erhu added.

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from beyond the door. Luo Gan and Erhu braced themselves, unsure what was approaching.

Everyone held their breath. Xiaozhi backed away, Uncle De hunched on the bed ready to spring, and Yan Shan scanned the room for anything that could serve as a weapon.

A loud voice rang out from outside, “Who? Who are you calling a monster?”

Luo Gan and Erhu readied to kick, but the solid door swung open, smacking them both and knocking them to the floor.

Time seemed to freeze. A man dressed like a sorcerer stepped into the doorway.

Xiaozhi and Yan Shan stared in astonishment. Uncle De raised two fingers as if performing a ritual.

“Heavenly spirits, earth spirits, away with you, monster!” he shouted, brandishing his fingers at the sorcerer to no effect.

The sorcerer looked exasperated. “People like you playing at magic are ruining the business. Stop with the nonsense.”

When his gesture failed, Uncle De doubled his efforts, waving both hands with no effect at all.

The sorcerer shook his head, stretched like a crane rising to the clouds, and said, “Who uses the little finger and the middle finger to cast spells? Are you flicking someone on the forehead?”

Uncle De blushed in embarrassment. The sorcerer raised his index and middle fingers in a proper spell-casting pose, looking every inch the Daoist master.

Erhu’s head was still wedged in the door, while Luo Gan, holding his face—nose bloodied from the impact—looked up and was astonished to recognize the sorcerer.

“Yuan Shu! It’s you, Yuan Shu!”

The sorcerer turned to see Luo Gan, still holding his pose, and nervously pointed at him.

“Not Yuan Shu, Yuan the Sorcerer! You! You’re that fool, aren’t you?”

The words turned Luo Gan’s surprise to annoyance.

“What fool?”

Yuan the Sorcerer came up to him, laughing. “I’ve never met anyone who asked about clothes before. You’re the most interesting one I’ve ever seen.”

Luo Gan remembered when he first entered the game world, how clueless he’d been, making all kinds of blunders, and his very first thought had been to get a fancier outfit. It was all so naïve and laughable now.

But things were different now. He was no longer Li Chuanglai but had become Luo Gan in the game, with a group of subordinates—he understood now that, from beginning to end, the only person he could truly rely on was himself.

“Hmph! I was young and foolish. But how can you wear a Daoist robe in this cold weather and not freeze?”

Yuan the Sorcerer’s eyes lit up as if he’d found a kindred spirit.

“So you noticed!” He opened his robe to reveal thermal underwear, leaving Luo Gan dumbfounded.

“Thermal underwear? Yuan Shu, did you smuggle that out of a factory?”

Yuan the Sorcerer preened at the praise, but soon remembered more serious matters.

“So, you all broke into a private home?”

Sensing the situation, Yan Shan stepped up beside Luo Gan, her professionalism kicking in.

“We… we’re here to clean. Not trespassing.”

She glanced around; the floor was thick with dust and cobwebs hung from the corners—cleanliness was not their strong suit.

“Oh, very professional. Spotless,” Yuan the Sorcerer said sarcastically.

“We just arrived, haven’t started work yet.”

At Xiaozhi’s feet lay a wooden staff carved with a dragon. Yuan the Sorcerer pointed at it. “Do you need a staff for cleaning?”

Xiaozhi quickly replied, “It’s for knocking down cobwebs. All of us are too short to reach.”

A talisman fell from Uncle De’s robe. Yuan the Sorcerer asked, “So your charms are for warding off spirits in the house?”

Thinking quickly, Uncle De replied, “They soak up water—helps with cleaning!”

Yuan the Sorcerer raised an eyebrow, picked up a charm, spat on it, and examined it closely, while Uncle De winced, pained at seeing his family heirloom handled so roughly.

“Hmm, it does work, I suppose.”

With the sorcerer holding the upper hand, the group found themselves on the defensive. Luo Gan seized the opportunity to ask, “Yuan Shu, what are you doing here?”

Yuan the Sorcerer glanced around, tossed the charm to the ground, and raised his chin.

“What do you mean, what am I doing? You barged into my room, and you’re asking me?”

Our room? The Bamboo Grove Guild members were thrown into confusion. Was this not the Sima Mansion after all?