As night approached...
The Stone Marrow Hall's hall had been cleaned up, leaving only a chair in the middle.
In the dim light, Huai Shi held a candle in his hand, feeling like he was doing something cult-like.
"Is this really okay?"
"Probably not?"
Crow shrugged calmly. "I know you want to find clues about Old Yang through the Book of Fate, but I need to remind you that although it's a good idea, you may not find anything useful through regular reading... After all, his wife was obviously the most important thing to him. Of course, if you want to eat some dog food, then just ignore what I said..."
Huai Shi sighed. "Just say it, can you stop beating around the bush?"
"I'm just afraid you're not mentally prepared," Crow whistled. "To find something useful, you have to use... less safe methods, you know what I mean?"
"Take a risk, right?" Huai Shi sighed and sat on the chair. "."
"I won't go into too much detail about the principles. Do you know about spiritual communication?"
"Of course, are you going to let Old Yang possess you?"
"Something like that."
Crow shrugged very anthropomorphically. "Simply put, you can understand it as... the Book of Fate itself is the operator of an important item, and what you've been reading all along is just the table of contents.
It's like you have a computer and you're ready to do some cybercrime... What you need to do now is to use Old Yang's records as your account password, quietly climb over the wall to access a dangerous forbidden server, and then look for Old Yang's browsing history... Besides being monitored by the network supervision, there is also the danger of being implanted with Trojans and viruses, you know?"
"Will I die?"
"Not very likely. After all, Old Yang himself is just an ordinary person, and his records after his death are just a pile of old files that will naturally be overwritten."
Crow patted his shoulder. "Even if the worst happens, it's still better than death, right?"
"Oh, isn't that just my usual day?" Huai Shi accepted it calmly, and even had time to joke with himself. "Let's get started, hurry up."
"I'm so relieved that you have this kind of determination. Bring out the Book of Fate."
Crow glanced at him and suddenly turned into a handful of green smoke, dissipating to reveal a feather pen with a branching shape. As Huai Shi's palm unfolded, the Book of Fate, which had already merged with him as a source material, appeared in his hand.
As the cover opened, under her operation, countless records of Huai Shi's years were hidden, and then a hand-drawn login interface for an old-fashioned computer appeared.
"Fortunately, I intercepted a lot of source material in Old Tang Town, otherwise you wouldn't even be able to afford the dial-up fee."
Source material equivalent to dozens of people flowed out from the pen tip, turning into ink color. Under her sketching, the dial-up progress bar slowly increased.
"Remember, after you go in, you can only stay on the periphery. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely do not go deep inside, don't mess around, don't look around, don't touch anything... Anyway, don't do anything except what you need to do. Hold the candle in your hand, and if the flame goes out, come back immediately. Do you understand?"
Crow reminded him one last time.
Just as Huai Shi nodded, he suddenly felt his vision go black, and the ink on the book page twisted into a vortex and pulled him in.It felt like he had fallen for millions of years, yet it seemed like only a second had passed.
During this process, Huai Shi seemed to have experienced many things, but when he stood firm in the darkness, he quickly forgot.
"Don't look around anymore - those memories were erased by me. If you don't want to have nightmares, don't think about them anymore. You only have three minutes, little brother, hurry up!"
Crow's urging woke him up from his trance.
The candle in his hand was burning rapidly, illuminating the surroundings.
It was like an old library, with a scent of dust and mildew in the air. In the silence, Huai Shi stood among countless bookshelves, anxiously looking around.
In this silent darkness that even death would dissolve into, he was alone.
If it weren't for the candlelight in his hand, he would have gone crazy.
A distant scream and howl came, followed by a loud noise. In the rumbling sound, countless dust fell rapidly from the ceiling.
Huai Shi didn't know what had happened, and he wanted to lift the curtain to see, but when he saw the pale eyes staring at him outside the window through the broken curtain hole, he wisely dismissed the idea.
"You have two minutes and forty seconds left! How long are you going to procrastinate?"
Crow scolded angrily, "It's also dangerous for my sister to watch out for you! Do you know what that sound was just now? You were almost discovered by a predator! Hurry up!"
Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.
Huai Shi dared not procrastinate anymore. He looked down at the candle in his hand, and after merging with the broken records of Lao Yang, the candlelight pointed to the deepest part of the darkness, guiding him forward.
It seemed like there was something else in the darkness, with constant trivial sounds, but nothing could be seen in the dim light.
Only the sound of dripping water and the sound of friction.
It seemed like they were waiting for something.
Huai Shi accelerated his pace, and the sharp sound of the ancient floor being trampled on kept ringing out, spreading deep into the darkness. It was only after a long time that he heard Crow's voice:
"It's this bookshelf, the second book from the left on the third row! Hurry up! Only one minute left!"
Following her instructions, Huai Shi found the book she had mentioned among the thousands of identical book spines on the bookshelf.
All the books here seemed to be the same, with no distinguishing marks on the spine or cover, as if they were randomly thrown here, ignored by everyone.
However, when Huai Shi opened the book, he suddenly felt a chill, and the premonition of death surfaced again - something was staring at him!
In a non-human scream, the floor, bookshelves, and even the ceiling shook. Strands of blackness extended from it like black flowing water, touching and searching for the prey's traces.
With the candlelight, he could barely distinguish its appearance, but he couldn't believe it: it was all hair, strands of hair gathering together like a snake, spasming and convulsing! The dry, cold hair greedily groped around, and struggling and moaning sounds came from the darkness, followed by an unsettling chewing sound.
Crack, crack, crack.
Huai Shi swallowed a mouthful of saliva, carefully moved his position, and the black hair rushed past him like a snake, flowing into the depths of darkness.
"Are you here to watch the Animal World? Don't worry about the book administrator who has been assimilated by hell. Before the candle goes out, she won't be able to find you!"
Huai Shi took a cold breath, "What kind of place is this?""Isn't it a bit late to ask that now?" Crow sighed. "You have fifty seconds left."
Huai Shi didn't dare to waste any more time. He opened the cover and, using the light from the book, saw densely packed characters on the page. The characters didn't seem to need to be read; when he looked at them, they seemed to come alive and enter his consciousness, transforming into countless flickering lights and shadows.
At first glance, Huai Shi saw Old Yang cheering himself on while sitting on the toilet.
"My eyes..."
Huai Shi instinctively held his breath and quickly flipped past that section.
All the records seemed fragmented and disorganized. He could only flip through them randomly, finding mostly trivial matters, such as confessing to his art teacher when he received a gold star in third grade.
"Old Yang, you were quite precocious..."
Huai Shi sighed and saw that there was only a small section of the candle left. He quickly flipped past that part and continued searching.
Soon, he saw his pale-faced sister-in-law in the hospital room, and Old Yang sitting by her bedside, looking energetic.
"Don't worry, wife, I have money! We'll transfer to the provincial hospital at the end of the month. I've already found the experts." He gently covered her slightly pale hand. "In a couple of years, when you're healthy again, give me a chubby son, or a daughter, I'll love them both..."
Looking at her smile, Old Yang smiled too, as if he had been redeemed.
Huai Shi turned the page sadly.
But if he continued reading, the memories became fragmented and full of pain, fear, and unease. In the end, a figure appeared, with a sneering smile, yellowed hair, and a pair of red gloves that Huai Shi would never forget.
"Then it's settled."
As the five fingers opened, they covered Old Yang's face.
A cold feeling flooded into Huai Shi's mind.
After that, there were only continuous nightmares and confusion. More and more fragments appeared, like being drunk, maintaining daily life but gradually becoming a zombie, not even knowing what he was doing...
"Huai Shi, can you do it? You have twenty seconds left!" Crow urged.
"Almost there, almost there!"
Huai Shi looked at the candle burning down and frantically flipped through the fragments: delivering food to the hospital, transferring money at the bank, calling to collect payments, and then receiving a phone call...
"The Tachibana Group's welcome party needs a cellist, right? Leave it to me... You've met Huai Shi, haven't you? He's capable, right? Alright, it's settled."
After hanging up the phone, Old Yang smugly crossed his legs and wrote a brief note in his notebook, sending a text message to Huai Shi: "That kid was so happy he jumped up and down when he heard the news."
But when he wrote the address, his expression suddenly stiffened.
The address he sent was completely different from the one he had just written down.
Then, he dialed an unknown number and reported in a monotone voice: "Transporter No. 4 is in position."
"Very good. Come to me."
A hoarse laughter came from the phone.
Old Yang stood up and picked up his keys.
In that moment, a gust of wind blew, and the candlelight flickered.
A strand of black hair quietly wrapped around Huai Shi's ankle, bringing a cold touch like being frozen by ice... slowly creeping upwards...
In an instant, Huai Shi's half of the body went numb."Damn it, how did the waves of the Silver Sea transmit over here... Huai Shi, come back immediately!" Crow's angry voice came through, "You've been entangled!"
"Hurry, almost there! I'm almost there..." Huai Shi didn't have time to respond, accelerating and flipping through the pages of the book, but the countless strands of hair grew faster and faster, avoiding the candlelight and entangling around his limbs, tightening more and more.
Meanwhile, Old Yang was driving, heading east along the main road, turning left onto the Bin Hai Avenue... Huai Shi accelerated again, hearing the distant sound of the ocean waves.
The black hair wrapped around his neck, tightening until he couldn't breathe.
The candle flickered, its last bit of light about to go out.
Old Yang had already parked the car and walked out of the underground parking lot, slowly making his way forward, turning left, going up the stairs.
Huai Shi felt his neck ache, and his hair was climbing up his face, almost entering his eyes and nose.
The premonition of death was like falling into an icy sea, gradually becoming cold from the inside out.
In that moment, he saw Old Yang push open a door.
Behind the door, a familiar face appeared in the darkness.
In that moment, the candle went out.
The darkness surged up and swallowed him.
In the last moment, an invisible force pulled him upwards, breaking through the pitch-black fog like riding a roller coaster backwards, but then a strand of black hair floated up and coiled around his ankle, pulling him down.
"Get out of here!"
Huai Shi used all his strength and swung his invisible axe, cutting off the black hair.
In the moment he lost consciousness, he only heard an angry scream from the darkness.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back in the familiar living room, bending over and vomiting the last bit of food in his stomach, hearing Crow's scolding.
"Are you crazy? You were so close! You were almost assimilated there! Don't ever think about going back there before you break through to the fifth level and become a crowned one!"
"I found him..."
Huai Shi gasped for breath, tears and saliva flowing out of him, but his eyes were shining like high beams on a highway to hell.
"I found him..."
He murmured hoarsely, "I found him!"
RECENTLY UPDATES
