“This person looks exactly like the man who replaced his severed hand and leg with a mirror,” He Fei said.

It was also exactly the same as the Shen Jiyue Mu Sichen had encountered in the sanatorium, save for subtle differences in clothing and hairstyle. The Shen Jiyue in the sanatorium had shoulder-length hair and should have possessed a kind of artistic beauty, but he was covered in too many blister-eyes, and Mu Sichen hadn’t had much time to observe him closely before the “Pillar” appeared, forcing him outside by its power. When he saw him at the processing plant, his hair was neatly styled above his ears; since he met him at the sports field, he was wearing sportswear, giving him a refreshing look in addition to his handsomeness.

Now, the Shen Jiyue in the library was dressed in a white shirt, his physique slightly thin, his skin excessively pale and somewhat sickly, yet still strikingly handsome. He Fei told Mu Sichen that the Shen Jiyue he saw in front of the restricted area was dressed in a suit with his hair slicked back, giving off a refined scoundrel vibe, completely unfazed even as his limbs were devoured by the mist, appearing calm and arrogant.

Mu Sichen couldn’t help but feel a shred of suspicion. Could it be that these four Shen Jiyues were not the same person? They were actually four individuals controlled by Shen Jiyue; while Mu Sichen was discussing countermeasures with the Shen Jiyue in the sanatorium, there was another Shen Jiyue in the processing plant and one in the library.

Thinking of this, a chill ran down Mu Sichen’s spine. He immediately took out a Pillar-level “Self” sticker, preparing to use it at any moment.

“Stop looking,” Mu Sichen told He Fei. “I’m worried something terrifying is about to happen.”

“Looking won’t hurt, right?” He Fei muttered.

“Do as I say!” Mu Sichen’s tone was stern and his expression extremely grave. He Fei rarely saw him so serious, but still wanted to fight for his right to know.

At that moment, He Fei saw what seemed to be an octopus tentacle rise from Mu Sichen’s lower back, waving threateningly at him. He Fei suddenly felt as if he were seeing the Octopus Saint, and that feeling of being dominated by rationality surged into his heart.

He immediately pulled out a book, from which he took out a highly mechanical-looking VR headset and a pair of full-coverage earphones.

“I’ll watch a holographic movie; tell me when I can look,” He Fei said, finding a chair in the library to sit in, looking as comfortable as if he were in a cinema. He Fei was truly a person who wouldn’t wrong himself in any situation.

Mu Sichen breathed a sigh of relief and continued to observe this somewhat sickly Shen Jiyue. The sickly Shen Jiyue rolled up his sleeves, revealing some self-inflicted scratches on his arms. He took a pen from his shirt pocket and gently wrote the words “Shen Jiyue” in the registration book.

Mu Sichen was stunned when he saw the pen. He took a pen out of his own system backpack; this was the pen he had obtained from the owner of the diary the first time he logged into the game. Two identical pens didn’t prove much; perhaps they were standardized pens distributed in Eye Town. But the sickly Shen Jiyue’s emaciation—as if he hadn’t eaten in a long time—and the wounds scratched onto his arms from an emotional breakdown, made Mu Sichen suspect that this was indeed the missing diary owner.

For a person to disappear silently in Eye Town, unknown even to the followers delivering meals daily… This was Eye Town, which was supposed to be able to see everything; how could a person not be found? Perhaps it was precisely because this person had changed their appearance and become someone else. Since Shen Jiyue could mimic the Sky Eye’s power using reflected light from a mirror, projecting his appearance onto several other people didn’t seem difficult.

No wonder the Shen Jiyue in the sanatorium had Qin Zhou’s totem on him; because this person really was sent by Qin Zhou, yet had their body occupied by Shen Jiyue. What a terrifying ability, that not even Qin Zhou discovered another face had been pasted over his totem skin.

Mu Sichen watched as the sickly Shen Jiyue merely read books every day, looking toward the direction of the sanatorium from time to time, seemingly waiting for something.

Suddenly, the ground of the entire library trembled, and the mist outside turned into bright moonlight and blood-red light. Mu Sichen still remembered this light; it was the light that had spilled onto the ground when Shen Jiyue’s true form appeared in the breeding area and fought with the Sky Eye. Just seeing these rays of light caused many people in the library to roll on the ground in madness. Half of the Apostle of Famu’s eyes withered, and his hair fell out; having originally had thick, long hair, he instantly became bald.

The Apostle of Jiantong and the Apostle of Famu met eyes, and the two immediately made a decision. The Apostle of Famu tore off all his remaining hair, while the Apostle of Jiantong muttered something, the registration book in his palm unfolding. The Apostle of Famu’s eyes, which had not yet withered, flew into the registration book, and a pillar of light appeared from it. As the Apostle of Famu’s eyes and body vanished together, the pillar of light grew larger and larger, enveloping the entire library, and the people who were going mad in the library stopped.

And the sickly Shen Jiyue, sitting by the window, smiled silently.

Not long after, the moonlight outside vanished, leaving only the blood-red light of the Sky Eye. The Apostle of Jiantong breathed a slight sigh of relief, and just as he was about to close the registration book, the sickly Shen Jiyue’s entire body erupted with moonlight.

Seeing this, Mu Sichen decisively stuck a Pillar-level “Self” sticker on the back of his neck, while taking out a second one to hold in his hand. Sure enough, the sickly Shen Jiyue’s body disappeared, turning into a bright, full moon hanging at the top of the library. Everyone in the library who was reading books looked up simultaneously and asked in unison, “What is that?”

Expressions of bewilderment and curiosity appeared on their faces. At that instant, the moon dominated everyone’s curiosity; the curiosity that originally belonged to the “Pillar” was usurped by the moon! Within the “Pillar,” the eyes of the Sky Eye’s totem were gradually transforming into a full moon.

The Apostle of Jiantong could still resist this power. Seeing that things were going south, he simply abandoned his body, took off a pair of eyes, threw them into the pillar of light, and his entire body vanished as powder under the moonlight. As a result of his action, the transformation of the totem stopped, turning into a bizarre appearance, half crescent moon and half eye.

But this couldn’t stop Shen Jiyue’s true form from descending. With the power of the library, the moon rose into the sky. Seeing this scene, Mu Sichen felt an extremely terrifying gravitational pull. It was as if the moon’s gravity suddenly amplified infinitely, not only raising a terrifying tsunami but also causing blood in the entire body to boil, the heart to beat violently, and the spirit to go uncontrollably frantic.

Mu Sichen’s mind was occupied by thoughts like “What is this,” “What is the moon,” “I want to go to the moon to see,” “I want to understand the moon.” His brain was about to explode, his thoughts occupied by Shen Jiyue. If this continued, his brain would explode from the explosive information, and his heart would burst from a heart rate exceeding 500.

Just then, a cool air injected into his body from the back of his neck, stabilizing Mu Sichen’s thoughts, heartbeat, and blood flow, helping him hold on through this page.

Fortunately, after Shen Jiyue temporarily gained control of the library, the book turned the page. Mu Sichen gained a moment of respite, and the “Self” sticker on the back of his neck vanished.

Shen Jiyue was far stronger than the Sky Eye; the power of the two was not on the same level at all! He had to know that this was merely a record of past events, not a direct view of Shen Jiyue’s true form; what he saw was merely a historical image! Even so, Mu Sichen had almost died because of it, saving his life thanks to the “Self” sticker.

This “Self” sticker was not wasted; at least he knew how Shen Jiyue had taken over the library and had gained a certain amount of information by directly viewing this historical image. By forcibly descending into this “Pillar” using its true form, Shen Jiyue had also suffered some damage. Coupled with the fact that Shen Jiyue, having absorbed half of the Sky Eye’s power, was currently busy digesting this massive power, Shen Jiyue’s true form would not descend upon the library again under any circumstances before the Upper Quarter Library became the Full Moon Library.

However, if Mu Sichen actually stayed in the real world for a full seven days, the library would probably become the Full Moon, and when he came back here, he would face Shen Jiyue’s true form. The time the system left for them was not a holiday; it was a death notice.

Fortunately, there was that unlucky guy He Fei; Mu Sichen didn’t know for a moment whether this roommate was unlucky or lucky. Just now, when the library was in chaos, He Fei was actually still watching a movie, seemingly a martial arts film, dancing around as he followed the action. Mu Sichen went up and tapped him; He Fei took off the VR headset and earphones, looking as if he had just woken from a dream, asking, “Can I keep watching? Heavens! Why have you turned into this look!”

After seeing Shen Jiyue’s true form, Mu Sichen was drenched in sweat, his lips had no blood color, his clothes clung to his body, and he was as weak as if he had suffered from a severe illness.

“It’s fine, I’ll be fine after resting a bit,” Mu Sichen said. He sat in a chair, watching the changes in the library with He Fei.

After turning the page, the two walked into the library; one was the Shen Jiyue in a suit, the other was a man who looked like a total shut-in. The Shen Jiyue in the suit drew a totem in the sky above the library. It was the first time Mu Sichen had seen Shen Jiyue’s complete totem: six phases of the moon—New Moon, Crescent, Upper Quarter, Half Moon, Full Moon, and Lower Quarter—surrounding in a semi-circle the grass symbolizing plants, butterfly wings symbolizing insects, rabbits symbolizing animals, and a brain symbolizing human spirit.

This seemed to represent the domain Shen Jiyue could control. The shut-in lay beneath the totem, and under the illumination of the moon totem, his entire body transformed into spots of light and disappeared; within the spots of light, a book appeared.

The Shen Jiyue in the suit threw this book, which had a moon on its cover, into the sky, and the book turned into countless spots of light, scattering among every book in the library.

From this point on, the Crescent Moon Library had turned into the Upper Quarter Library, and the people who were reading in the library had all vanished. Afterward, the page turned again, and people walked into the library one after another. These people looked completely different from the people of Eye Town; their accessories, such as hairpins, necklaces, and rings, mostly featured moon elements. These people also entered the books.

At this point, the two felt their bodies become light and left “A Brief History of the Library.”

A bookmark appeared in each of their hands; the bookmarks were blank, just like the ones Mu Sichen had seen on the second floor of the library.

He Fei glanced at the bookmark system, scratching his hair and saying, “If the bookmark is blank, we won’t get any points. We entered a book for nothing and didn’t get anything, and 300 points were deducted for entering the book! Mu Sichen, how many points do you have left? Is it enough for the next book? Do you have the 1000 points consumed in a day? If you don’t have enough points for a day, you will be erased!”

Mu Sichen only had 400 points left, but he was not afraid; he had already obtained enough information from this book.

“Brief History” told him that the “Pillar” in the library had split into two parts: one part was the Apostle of Jiantong, who had hidden away with the power of the original Pillar; the other part was the new foundation stone transformed by the shut-in Apostle sent back by Shen Jiyue.

Since the book transformed by the new foundation stone had disappeared among countless books, it meant that the original Pillar and the Apostle of Jiantong were also hidden in a book. The new moon and eye bookmarks obtained by He Fei proved this.

Shen Jiyue’s Apostles were searching for the Apostle of Jiantong in the library, eager to occupy this part of the power and allow the Pillar, split into two, to merge together.

Knowing this information, what Mu Sichen needed to do was simple. He had to find the Apostle of Jiantong before Shen Jiyue did. As long as he could obtain the other half of the “Pillar,” Shen Jiyue’s half would naturally come to his doorstep.

As for the whereabouts of the Apostle of Jiantong, it was not completely untraceable. The note on the second floor read, “My Lord has not completely fallen; He is in my heart, in the books, in the gazes of everyone who reveres Him.” There must be a clue hidden within this sentence.

Mu Sichen only had enough points to enter one book, so he had to carefully choose the next one.