Chapter 157 The Ouija Board (34) "Nothing will happen."...
Before Xue Hong arrived, the ghosts and monsters were already stirring.
After the twelve sacrifices, the ritual diagrams were further refined, and the black goat pattern was no longer visible, transitioning towards the solar calendar stone.
The dense, dark clouds hung even lower, the air thinned, and a faint, eerie atmosphere spread through the campus, breeding evil and causing it to grow rampant.
Ghosts and monsters emerged from the strange tales and old stories in every corner of the ancient academy, breathing greedily.
That was the magic that the player naturally infused when drawing the core incantation.
Xie Tan's dazed state was no different from dreaming, so he didn't know whether he was asleep or not.
Maybe I fell asleep, but I don't know how long I slept. Time is temporarily irrelevant here. It may have been several midnights, but it's still the fourth day.
All he remembered was that he must have been browsing the forum, where everyone was discussing the Mirror God, saying that He was evil and had ulterior motives, and that they hoped he would use his terrible wisdom and schemes to wash Him away.
That's giving him too much credit.
He dragged his heavy body, almost floating to the window. The dark campus was filled with shadowy figures, seemingly crowded with people.
As soon as he appeared, they all turned their faces and looked at him.
They smelled the "source".
They moved toward his location, like a swarm of ants crowding together in a nest.
Xie Tan couldn't see them clearly; his vision was somewhat blurry, and his eyes appeared empty.
It was as if they were completely unaware that they were surrounded.
When the dormitory door was knocked on, that handsome face flashed through his mind, but he quickly suppressed it. He heard the sound of a sword being swung.
This is bound to be a tough battle for the veteran detectives who have a history of arm injuries.
So he opened the door, and a gust of cold wind blew in first.
In the dark corridor, there was a ghostly figure at each end. Three dormitory doors were half open. In one dark room, red eyes like those of a cave bat emanated from the darkness. In another room, there was only darkness and eerie crawling sounds of four legs. In yet another room, a human upper body like a snake emerged. There was also another figure clinging to the ceiling with long hair hanging down, all of them facing the person in the center of the corridor.
The disheveled old detective gripped his long peach wood sword, utterly alone and helpless.
However, as soon as Xie Tan appeared, the ghosts' attention was instantly drawn away, giving him a moment to catch his breath.
They were restless, making all sorts of shrill noises that spoke of their excitement and fascination.
"Quiet down, everyone," Xie Tan said, though he could barely see them clearly. "I need to attend to a guest. Could you wait a moment?"
The ghosts, excited by his words, shook themselves, creating even more superimposed images. They wanted to get closer, but remembering his words, they barely restrained themselves and wandered around in place, feeling wronged.
"If anyone follows, please convey this message." Xie Tan's smile was fleeting, like a dragonfly skimming the water. "Otherwise, I'll be sad."
Like knights receiving a king's consolation, the ghosts instantly sprang to their feet, arrogantly guarding their positions and conveying his decrees to those who came after him, thus protecting his time for receiving guests.
"Come in."
At the doorway of the back room, a boy, like a cold, shadowy moon in the night, tilted his head and looked at him.
Xue Hong shuddered. This was more terrifying than any ghost he had encountered along the way. It was like a dead man's hand gripping his heart. The coldness made his heart muscle contract violently, and he fearfully wanted to get away from that inhuman temperature.
He cautiously moved forward, receiving a sinister glance from the monsters as he passed them. They seemed to want to tear him apart out of jealousy, but they did not pursue him further.
His sword hilt was covered in sweat, and it wasn't until he entered the dormitory and was shut out by Xie Tan's closed door that he finally let out a long, suppressed breath.
"Officer Xue."
A cold, clear voice came from behind him, and Xue Hong froze.
But in an instant, he relaxed and slumped into a chair, exhausted: "Don't scare me. I really should take some nitroglycerin after this journey... What's wrong with you? Do you have a fever?"
"I thought you were more afraid of me?" Xie Tan ignored the latter part of his words and slowly sat down opposite him.
Xue Hong paused, then frankly admitted, "Even ghosts give you some leeway; I call it showing respect to professionals in unknown fields."
“You were like this when we first met.” Xie Tan stared at the Ouija board paper that had reappeared on the table at some point.
Xue Hong thought he was looking at the peach wood sword he had placed on the table: "By the way, did you leave this sword behind?"
The sword was the same seven-star peach wood sword that had originally hung in the old teaching building's office to ward off evil spirits.
Xie Tan shifted his gaze upwards and looked at him.
Xue Hong: "Something happened at your school again, so I went to the scene. This morning... Oh, the student who jumped off the building on the 26th was last seen in the old teaching building before the incident. As soon as I entered that building, I arrived here. This sword is right next to my feet, but the small one that I always wear on my wrist is gone. These two swords are the keys that allowed me to enter here, right? I must say, the big one is more useful."
Xie Tan: "You shouldn't ask me, you should ask the person who gave you the sword."
Xue Hong laughed: "You had the same attitude before you went to Art Harbor."
Xie Tan: "Really? I don't remember."
Xue Hong: "And then you showed concern for me."
Xie Tan: "Paranoia is a disease."
Xue Hong: "I thought about your motives for a long time afterward. At first, I thought it was a threat, but then I realized that was unnecessary for you. Did you want to hitch a ride with me on the coastal highway? Then you had even less reason to persuade me to stay away from these strange events, and you know I would still go. Your warning seemed more like you were touched by something, a sudden surge of patience and compassion—and before that, we were talking about that peach wood sword that you 'completely don't understand'."
The emptiness in Xie Tan's eyes gathered, and his pupils focused again.
“This sword has a connection with you, or rather, with someone you care about,” Xue Hong said. “I lied to you. It wasn’t given to me by a friend. I was just testing you. It happened more than twenty years ago. When I was on vacation, I encountered a group of people at the hotel who seemed to be following a girl. They were numerous and strange. They disappeared in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t handle them alone, so I called for backup. I borrowed a waiter’s food and sent her a note to remind her.”
He said, "She must have received my message because those people quickly made another move and evacuated the hotel. I followed them, but I lost them as soon as I stepped out the door... I'm a criminal police officer, which is laughable to say, but it's true. Whether it was the ones following or the ones being followed, I didn't catch a single one, and I didn't even see their faces. It all seems to be just my paranoid imagination. I'm even having professional habits during my vacation."
"When we got to the room where she was, the door had been broken open and the window was open. She jumped out of the window and left nothing behind except a small peach wood sword and a note that said 'thank you' with a smiley face drawn on it. That night, a fire broke out in the abandoned shopping mall on Qiufeng Road. Fortunately, there were no casualties... but nearby residents witnessed that it seemed someone had gone inside."
"You weren't even born when all this happened, were you? So after all this time, what are you going to accomplish with this sword? Let's put it bluntly."
Xie Tan: "You seem to trust me a lot."
Xue Hong: "If I don't trust you, will everything not go according to your plan? I might as well just be straightforward."
The experienced veteran detective practically had "discretion is the better part of valor" written all over his face, almost as if he were mocking him.
"Besides, this sword has helped me a lot over the years, in areas where I'm not good at it, far more than I ever helped back then. I should do something in return, otherwise I'd feel really bad." He became much more serious.
Xie Tan looked at him for a while and said softly, "This cannot be compared. That is what you have done. I should say that what follows is my request."
Xue Hong: "Speak."
Xie Tan placed the pen on the paper: "Have you ever played with a Ouija board?"
...
"Ouija board spirit, Ouija board spirit, you are my past life, I am your present life. If you want to continue our bond, please draw a circle on the paper."
The pen moved.
Xue Hong inhaled sharply.
He stared at the pen in his hand for a moment, then suddenly said, "May I ask a question?"
Xie Tan had tinnitus in his ears, and it took him a while to realize what he was saying: "Whatever."
Xue Hong was the last person to enter this place, and there were many things he didn't know, so it would be strange if he didn't ask any questions.
He only hoped that there would be less doubt and probing from him, because Xie Tan was afraid that he wouldn't be able to hold on.
Xue Hong asked, "The Ouija board... will everyone be alright?"
It's perfectly normal to ask about other people's safety.
But the Ouija board couldn't provide an answer.
Xie Tan then realized that Xue Hong wasn't asking "Are you alright?" but rather "Will everything be alright?", which was a question about the future.
How did the Ouija board know...?
No, the Eye of Observation ignores time. This is a ritual centered around the Eye of Observation, and the spirit within the array might actually know about it.
So the reason for not answering is...
"The scope of your question is too broad; exclude me," Xie Tan reminded him.
"Why exclude you?" Xue Hong's somewhat cloudy eyes suddenly sharpened. "The Ouija board, that lip-shaped monster, will it harm the person in front of me?"
The pen remained silent.
Xue Hong pinpointed the only two masterminds behind the scenes, and he was right on the spot every time he used the forbidden words.
Fortunately, the Ouija board spirit is Su He now; if it were Sun Enze or Xu Jinbo, they would be trembling with fear.
"Ouija board spirit, are the people who have left here safe?" Xie Tan asked on his behalf.
This time, the Ouija board gave a clear answer: "Yes."
Xie Tan asked Xue Hong with a calm gaze, "Are you at ease now? Is there anything else you want to ask?"
Xue Hong sighed, "You've taken them to a safe place, but what about you? Will you be safe? The spirit of the Ouija board can't answer that, but can you?"
"..." Xie Tan couldn't escape the old policeman's concern, and his head throbbed even more. He said, "If I answer yes, will you believe me?"
"I believe you," Xue Hong said without hesitation.
He said, "Because you don't care about death, and separation is nothing to you, separation from me won't bother you... If that kid were sitting here today, you might be the one lying."
Xue Hong smiled, trying to lighten the mood.
The sword was still on the table, outside the Ouija board, lying between them.
Xie Tan stared at the Big Dipper on the sword, trying to steady his swaying vision.
"Nothing will happen." He stated this in the calmest, most ordinary voice, as if he had escaped the state of pheromone overload, stating a given fact with absolute clarity.
“They will be happy to hear this answer.” Xue Hong looked at him for a while, let out a long breath, and, as he had said, chose to believe.
"Can we continue?" Xie Tan asked patiently.
Xue Hong asked, "Ouija board spirit, how can I save you?"
This time, without the reflection of the sun's fire, Su He, the spirit of the Ouija board, should be in his position. Xie Tan didn't look closely. The police officer who was testing people left, which made him secretly relieved. He lowered his head and calmed down.
However, perhaps as more and more people were being refined, his condition became difficult to alleviate. He felt like a fish out of water, and breathing seemed like a futile task.
In the afterglow of the double image, Xue Hong's figure was obscured; it was the newly washed Ouija board.
And... did that peach wood sword light up?
etc.
Xie Tan slowly froze.
Sitting opposite him at that moment was a woman.
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