“Grandma, thank you.” Shang Jianyao waved his hand, bidding farewell to the old lady cooling off under the tree.

He skillfully switched identities, greeting people of different ages and states, chatting about various things, in order to figure out exactly where this was.

In this way, he chatted until his mouth was dry and his mind was exhausted, roughly confirming that his current location was the family area of the Fourth Research Institute.

This research institute was located deep in the desolate wilderness, with its main body underground, similar to “Pangu Biology.”

After the Old World was destroyed, because their attached farms and pastures were not affected, they stubbornly survived until the 21st year of the New Epoch.

Yes, in the memory of the room's owner, it was now the 21st year of the New Epoch.

And the people Shang Jianyao currently encountered in this psychological shadow, although seemingly agile, able to chat, and possessing their own memories, were not as good as the passengers in the cruise ship shadow. Because once his thinking jumped and the topic was pulled too far, these people not only couldn't answer, but would also talk nonsense, completely unrelated to the subject.

Based on this, Shang Jianyao judged that the reason they could answer questions and chat seemingly normally was because the room's owner had a long-term relationship with them, occasionally engaging in various conversations involving many things.

After these memories were mobilized by the subconscious, the corresponding characters appeared quite real.

“Still haven't encountered any danger, as comfortable as being back home.” The honest Shang Jianyao didn't hide his doubts.

The calm and rational Shang Jianyao pondered for a moment and said:

“Maybe the focus of this psychological shadow isn't the courage to face danger directly, so there's no superficial danger.”

The current psychological shadow didn't exist in the guide provided by “Pangu Biology.” After all, in order not to affect the owner of Room “506,” using this place as a place for newly entering Awakened Ones to adapt to exploration, everyone strictly adhered to the “rules,” leaving after passing through at most two psychological shadows. But Shang Jianyao suspected that because he didn't take the usual path in the first psychological shadow, he skipped the second psychological shadow.

“Then what should we do?” The reckless Shang Jianyao blurted out, “We've already chatted with everyone, and we haven't found any clues except for gathering some intelligence.”

He was referring to clues to pass through this psychological shadow.

Master Pudu was quite calm about this:

“If we can't find it, then so be it.

“We can always switch to another room with a guide.”

During the discussion, Shang Jianyao didn't forget to observe his surroundings.

Combining some details he had noticed during the previous chats, he gradually discovered an anomaly:

No one in this family area had ever approached the exit door!

No matter how complex and diverse their actions were, they didn't involve that area.

“Is it the room owner's psychological shadow at the exit, causing everyone here to ‘subconsciously’ avoid it, or were there indeed regulations in the Fourth Research Institute's family area that prohibited approaching that area?” The calm and rational Shang Jianyao rubbed his chin.

He didn't wait for his other colleagues to join the discussion and suddenly handed his body over to the reckless one.

The reckless Shang Jianyao immediately turned his body and walked towards the door at the exit.

The other Shang Jianyaos, with the mindset of trying it out to see if it could stimulate beneficial changes, successively chose to default. Only the sinister and vicious one controlled the mouth, constantly rambling:

“Don't have the mentality of being skilled and daring!

“Don't think that since you've even passed through a psychological shadow involving the Year Star, it's impossible to capsize in the gutter in such a simple room.

“This is related to the Nine Great Research Institutes of the Old World, so it's better to be cautious!”

Amidst the rambling, Shang Jianyao slowly approached the door area.

Everything was calm and peaceful.

He suddenly turned his body back, looked at the people in the family area, and found that no one was paying attention to him.

Shang Jianyao kept his current posture unchanged, moving step by step towards the iron fence gate with sentries in a backward manner.

Suddenly, the people in the family area who were either cooling off, busy, or passing by simultaneously turned their eyes over.

The white-haired old lady sitting on the bench under the tree then showed a horrified expression.

Some of the others were flustered, some were nervous, some were angry, as if Shang Jianyao had offended them, and some were full of hatred and resentment, seemingly saying with their eyes, "Why do you dare to do what we don't dare to do?"

Rumble!

An explosion suddenly occurred in the door area, and a cloud of fire rose slowly with smoke and dust, turning into a huge mushroom cloud.

Shang Jianyao jumped out in advance, and a military exoskeleton device "manifested" on his body.

With the help of this thing, he leaped dozens of meters, not being enveloped by the explosion, but his back was still hit by the shockwave.

Pa-ji, even with the military exoskeleton device, Shang Jianyao failed to maintain his balance, falling in a dizzy mess, feeling like several of his bones were broken.

At the same time, the expressions of the people in the family area had new changes again.

Their expressions were indifferent, the muscles on their faces were stiff, and there was no emotion in their eyes, as if they had already died, but they were all staring at the intruder who was trying to break the stable lives of themselves and others.

Seeing this, Shang Jianyao immediately shouted:

“Don't move!”

Everywhere his voice reached, everyone stopped moving, as if playing the game of Red Light, Green Light.

Deng deng deng, Shang Jianyao, wearing the military exoskeleton device, ran wildly, jumping from time to time as if he had thorns in his back.

Finally, he ran to the building where he had first appeared.

With one step, he left Room “506,” rushed into the corridor, and then lay on the dark yellow thick carpet in a completely ungraceful manner, spread his limbs, and gasped for breath.

After a long while, the honest Shang Jianyao spat twice:

“No martial ethics!

“Why not warn first, then shoot, and then bomb?

“How could a normal person bury that kind of amount of landmines at the door? There are also people responsible for guarding there!”

The sinister and vicious Shang Jianyao sneered:

“This is a psychological shadow, and it doesn't strictly match reality.

“As long as the room owner has ever encountered it, or even just seen it, the corresponding things may be piled up in the same place.

“I told you, be careful, but you didn't believe me!”

“Namo Amitabha, only injured by the explosion, and the spirit is a little traumatized, not a big problem.” Master Pudu answered peacefully.

The calm and rational Shang Jianyao said thoughtfully:

“I suspect that not only is there a problem with the door area, but anyone who tries to leave that family area will encounter various dangers.

“This belongs to the mapping of the room owner's corresponding fears.”

“So, facing these dangers means you've passed through the psychological shadow?” The reckless Shang Jianyao manipulated the body and stood up suddenly, looking like he was going "back now to be bombed a few more times."

He was forcibly controlled.

The calm and rational Shang Jianyao rubbed his chin:

“I always feel like it won't be that simple.

“The fears corresponding to each psychological shadow are somewhat different. Simply avoiding danger and escaping from a certain place has already been experienced before.

“Let's explore a little more and figure out this problem. I think it's more stable.”

“Yes, yes.” The Shang Jianyao who didn't have much opinion expressed his agreement.

The sinister and vicious Shang Jianyao stood on the side of the colleague he hated the most this time.

Based on the fact that everyone had been bombed, injured, and needed to recover their spirits, the Shang Jianyaos withdrew from the “Mind Corridor” and fell into a deep sleep.

…………

349th floor, C zone, No. 12.

Because her parents had gone to a colleague's house to visit, Jiang Baimian was leisurely in the study, browsing some public messages using her father Jiang Wenfeng's account.

Not finding anything interesting, she took out the copied pattern of the Multi-Children-Multi-Grandchildren Talisman, opened the Old World Folklore Database she had built, and tried to search and compare.

For this reason, she also specially used a drawing board to trace the corresponding pattern.

“There are no completely identical ones.” Jiang Baimian was busy for a while, looking at the computer screen, and muttered to herself silently, “It can only be said that it looks similar at first glance, but it doesn't actually follow the corresponding rules. Of course, it may also be that my database is not perfect and has many omissions.”

After pondering for a while, Jiang Baimian disassembled the pattern.

After repeated disassembly and recombination, she frowned slightly.

From the simplest point of view, the pattern was composed of a woman and a baby, both of which had a bit of the meaning of hieroglyphs, but Jiang Baimian was sure that it was not a true hieroglyph.

“A woman, a baby, it's enough in terms of meaning, but it seems not attentive enough, too simple…” Jiang Baimian shook her head, planning to listen to Long Yuehong's inquiry results tomorrow.

…………

The next morning, 647th floor, Room 14.

Long Yuehong told them the information he had obtained from his grandmother and the corresponding feedback in full.

“Is it my turn to play next?” Although Shang Jianyao's face was a little pale, he was still very excited.

“It should, be like this.” Long Yuehong suddenly hesitated a little.

Letting this guy go to test it out, would it make the problem bigger?

He had that kind of trait!

“Yes.” Bai Chen replied very firmly.

Jiang Baimian glanced at Shang Jianyao:

“What's wrong with you? Didn't sleep well last night?”

“When breaking into the ‘506’ room’s psychological shadow, there was a bit of a situation. Fortunately, the headache will recover in two or three days and won't affect the usual use of abilities.” Shang Jianyao was quite honest.

Jiang Baimian "heh"ed:

“Even the most recognized simple ‘506’ room, you can come up with troubles?”

“More troubles are conducive to mastering more intelligence.” The calm and rational Shang Jianyao skillfully changed the topic, “I have confirmed that the owner of the ‘506’ room is from the Fourth Research Institute.”

Jiang Baimian immediately became interested:

"Is that so?"

After discussing this issue for a while, Jiang Baimian thought for a while and said:

“I suspect that the key to this psychological shadow is not breaking out, but there is something else strange.

“Its performance doesn't seem to be mainly about danger, it may represent another kind of fear.”

Shang Jianyao nodded happily:

“I think so too!”

Pa pa pa, he applauded for himself and Jiang Baimian.

Nothing happened all day. When it was almost time to get off work, the four members of the "Old Task Force" gathered together again to discuss Shang Jianyao's request for the Multi-Children-Multi-Grandchildren Talisman.