Qi Cong was not a little girl, so he naturally wouldn’t think that was a ghost. Seeing that the other party had no intention of revealing themselves, he thought the people in the ancient castle had discovered him and were intentionally messing with him. Resigned, he got up and continued to climb the stairs.

At this moment, Yan Jiayu opened her eyes. She looked towards the door, rubbed her eyes, got out of bed, and walked out with a lighting prop, without turning on the lights.

The light that could previously illuminate dozens of meters now seemed compressed, reduced to a radius of about three meters around her. She looked into the depths of the darkness and saw, in the unclear vision, a child seemed to have passed around the corridor’s corner.

Yan Jiayu carried the lamp and walked in that direction, unexpectedly bumping into Xu Huo, who was standing silently ahead.

"Not asleep yet?" The two were three meters apart. Xu Huo was standing at the boundary between light and dark. From Yan Jiayu’s angle, she could clearly see his legs, but his upper body became blurred, and his face was even dimmer.

Grinning, she said, "Are you guys playing hide and seek? Count me in?"

Xu Huo was silent for a moment, then replied, "Okay."

After speaking, he turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

"Super Evolutionary with Mental Powers playing hide and seek has quite an advantage." Yan Jiayu pinched her fingers, "That’s what makes it fun!"

She simply put away the lighting prop and began to search inside the castle based on her intuition and perception.

The castle was not small, but for players, even if searching room by room, the search could be completed quickly. Yan Jiayu searched for half an hour and never entered a room twice, as if the castle had suddenly expanded several times over.

Additionally, although she felt Qi Cong was always on the stairs, she never found him upon passing by. When she stood on the stairs, Qi Cong in her perception would completely disappear, yet every time she passed, the shadow would flit by her.

"I do enjoy a direct challenge." Discovering the shadow again, Yan Jiayu moved quickly, reaching out to grab the shadow’s arm, but felt no solid touch under her hand, and the shadow dissipated the moment she touched it.

"Does this count?" She looked at her hand, "Isn’t that a catch?"

No one answered. Yan Jiayu assumed her understanding was correct, so she repeatedly lured the shadow to appear, then tried various ways to catch it, grabbing its arms or legs, or simply pouncing to pin it down, even strangling from behind. But each time, just when she exerted force, it would turn into a wisp of black smoke and vanish, like it was intentionally messing with her.

However, Yan Jiayu was not angry; in fact, she became more eager, even making a few traps of her own, though they were mostly ineffective.

Since the traps didn’t work, she took out an assortment of snacks and toys she carried, using them to entice the shadow, lurking behind doors or perching on rafters to ambush.

Those things indeed worked; the shadow lingered longer. Once, while rummaging through toys, Yan Jiayu, wearing an invisibility prop, pounced from the wall, "Haha! Caught you!"

This time, the shadow did not disappear but was pinned directly to the ground. It didn’t struggle, gently turning its head to face Yan Jiayu with a faceless look.

"What, want to cheat?" Yan Jiayu made a face, then quickly stood up, took hold of the materialized knife formed by spiritual power, and instead of retreating, rushed forward to slap the shadow’s head, "You can’t break the rules in a game!"

The shadow’s head turned into a swirl of black smoke, yet its body remained standing. Sensing the aura released from its form, Yan Jiayu jumped back a few times to widen the distance and solemnly stated, "The rules of the last game were set by you, this time it’s my turn. Do you agree?"

The shadow reformed its head and nodded towards her.

"Alright then, last time we competed with words, this time we’ll do it with skill." Yan Jiayu said with a broad smile.

The shadow had no objections. Psychic energy dispersed from its feet, attacking the person ahead along all sides of the corridor. However, just as the materialized items were about to encircle Yan Jiayu, she sat cross-legged, placed a chessboard on the ground, and beckoned to the shadow with a finger, "Bring it on."

The shadow looked down at the board, noticing pieces inscribed with "General," "Advisor," "Chariot," "Horse," and quickly withdrew its spiritual power before sitting across from Yan Jiayu.

"I learned chess from my master. Since I won the first game against him, I haven’t lost another. I’ll give you a three-move head start! How about best of three?" Yan Jiayu offered generously.

The shadow seemed unfamiliar with the game, and after a crushing defeat in the first round, successfully checkmated Yan Jiayu in the subsequent second and third rounds.

Yan Jiayu scratched her head, "This round doesn’t count. I let you win."

Resetting the pieces on the board, they officially began the match. Still, in a best of three, Yan Jiayu lost again.

"How about best of five?" she requested. "You cheated earlier too."

The shadow watched her and then set up the pieces again.

However, with more games played, Yan Jiayu’s losses increased, and finally, seeing no chance of a comeback, she said, "This time I lost, but I won once, and you won once, so let’s call it even. To truly determine the winner, we need a new game."

The shadow nodded silently, acknowledging her words.

Yan Jiayu chuckled, "Let’s play hide and seek again, but this time, I’m hiding and you’re seeking. I’ll count to ten then we’ll start!"

Before she finished speaking, she was already catapulting from the spot, disappearing at the end of the corridor.

Ten seconds later, the Shadow Personality vanished from the spot, directly appearing before Yan Jiayu, who had just hidden in a room!

Successfully evading his outstretched hand, Yan Jiayu snapped her fingers, and simultaneously all the doors and windows in the castle opened, as she flipped out of a window, laughing, "Come catch me!"

The Shadow Personality vanished again, preemptively blocking at the next room’s window. Seeing him, Yan Jiayu clung to the castle’s outer wall like a gecko and leaped into the adjacent room; by the time the Shadow Personality phased through the wall, she had already darted into the opposite room like a monkey, leaving only a trail of laughter behind.

In the following half hour, the Shadow Personality continuously flashed within the castle’s range. His speed was faster than Yan Jiayu’s, and he could easily block her, but Yan Jiayu was agile; each time blocked, she would bolt immediately without hesitating even for half a second. Climbing walls and jumping through windows were commonplace tactics for her; every unthinkable escape move she could execute. Moreover, despite the prolonged chase, she showed no signs of fatigue, getting even more spirited and deliberately teasing the Shadow Personality.

The Shadow Personality grew angry, wanting to trap her in the spiritual world, but Xu Huo, who had been interfering all along and remained invisible, prevented this move. As Yan Jiayu once again skimmed past him, the Shadow Personality opened doors all around her, but just as she stepped out through one and then reappeared, her foot suddenly missed a step, and she fell into another portal—the one Xu Huo created.

The Shadow Personality jumped in after her.

The castle vanished, replaced by a pure white space. Yan Jiayu, who had fallen, was nowhere to be seen. Standing in the center was Xu Huo, who caught the Shadow Personality as he jumped down, holding his hand and said, "Got you."