In the gray passageway, the amnesiac shadow was still searching for his lost memories, while Ren Yifei stood far away, watching him being sealed by burning characters.
The void trembled slightly.
"Don't be nervous, I'll leave right away," Ren Yifei said to the rule-maker, and then turned and left without any hesitation.
Saman is currently unharmed, but it is unknown whether he chose to disappear or was restricted in his freedom.
Ren Yifei didn't know who did it, nor could he be sure if the person who cut off his butterfly was the same person who caused Saman's disappearance, but he was certain that the person who cut off his butterfly and the person who killed Yu Xueming were the same person.
Actually, his rationality returned after seeing Saman's shadow. Saman's dozen or so pages of props weren't enough to make him lose in a single encounter; it was his concern that clouded his judgment.
The most important thing now is to find the 'ghost'.
Ren Yifei sat in the school pavilion, watching students walk back and forth on the path not far away, all heading to lunch. He had his back to them, facing the lake.
"Stay calm, especially in situations like this, you need to stay calm."
The mystery of the handkerchief embroidered with L&Y has been solved.
A year or even two years ago, Yu Xueming had already been in contact with the vice president. Later, she became the vice president's secret girlfriend and also a hidden support character in this instance.
Yu Xueming is a susceptible individual, and she is exceptionally talented. Her cut hair even became the medium for the vice president who lacks spiritual awareness, namely the wig she wore during the ritual.
Perhaps because of this, Yu Xueming is greatly influenced by mysterious forces, and can even create wood carvings that can stimulate other vulnerable groups.
Because Saman replaced her as the vice president, she believed that her lover had been replaced by a wandering ghost, and murderous intent began to rise within her.
Later, whether due to being misled or misunderstanding, Yu Xueming believed that as long as the ritual was successful, the vice president would return to his body.
So she placed the wooden carving at the hospital, which prompted the player to commit suicide.
Ren Yifei is inclined to believe that someone is inducing him.
How did Yu Xueming know that the wood carving could definitely induce these people to commit suicide? Unless someone is very familiar with the rituals, they wouldn't be so certain.
This person can only be a 'ghost'.
Yu Xueming loved the vice president deeply, but did the vice president truly love her that much? He hid their relationship and used her hair as a medium to manipulate her into committing murder…
If I don't see you again, good morning, good afternoon, and good night.
This was Yu Xueming's last line. Why did she say that line? Who was she saying it to? A ghost?
Unable to find a clue, Ren Yifei pulled out a notebook from his bag. It contained some messy clues and occasional flashes of inspiration, like scattered beads.
"According to Yu Xueming, the sacrifice was to solve the vice president's problem of being male in body but female in mind." Ren Yifei highlighted this sentence, implying that even if it was just for temporary relief, the 'ghost' would choose a female identity.
Ren Yifei pulled out seven women from the group who were not susceptible to the disease.
It's too hard to find. Is there any way to make the ghost come out on its own?
With Saman missing on one hand and a confusing plot twist on the other, Ren Yifei felt a headache coming on. He closed his eyes and gently tapped his temples, trying to relieve the throbbing pain. Suddenly, a few characters appeared in his mind.
Those were characters the cursor was typing on his computer, resembling the hieroglyphs passed down from that tribe. He'd been so busy these past few days that he hadn't thought about them at all.
Ren Yifei immediately took a picture of the characters and sent it to Yu Yan's father: "Uncle, I saw this by chance, what does it mean?"
After sending it, he stared blankly at his phone. Fifteen minutes passed without any response, so Ren Yifei reached out and traced the same characters on the stone platform of the pavilion.
As soon as the characters took shape, they glowed with a faint light, and then space began to vibrate, as if something was responding to him.
He felt a sudden emptiness beneath his buttocks, all the chaotic sounds around him vanished, and the world seemed to change abruptly.
He appeared in complete darkness, the air thick with the pungent smell of seawater.
Without visual interference, humans become more sensitive to smells and conjure up many illusions of the deep sea just by smelling them.
Was he hallucinating again? Because of that character?
Ren Yifei thought he would see a giant beast in the deep sea, but when he looked up, he found himself standing in a dense primeval jungle.
It was nighttime, and as darkness deepened, a circle of red light appeared in the distant dense forest.
A dense, rain-like drumbeat echoed through the dense forest. It wasn't the sound of a cowhide drum, but the clear, crisp sound of a bronze drum—Ren Yifei didn't know why he was so certain, as he had clearly never heard the sound of a bronze drum before.
He parted the dense grass and walked toward that direction. The drumbeats grew more and more urgent, like a sudden rain, and the red light grew larger and larger, like the setting sun that had not yet set.
What lies ahead?
Closer and closer, he stood behind a huge tree that required two hands to encircle, and before him was a scene of ancient ritual.
A group of disheveled people, draped in brightly colored cloths, danced and sang barefoot around a campfire.
Among them was a special presence: a young woman with long hair, carried on the shoulders of a strong man, singing with her head tilted back, her voice hoarse, like the cold wind blowing in through a crack in a window in winter.
Priestesses, and singers and dancers.
Ren Yifei kept his mouth tightly shut, controlling himself to not make any unnecessary sounds.
They emitted animalistic roars that were unimaginable to humans, yet these roars were so orderly and synchronized, like an absurd ballad.
Around this group of dancing and singing savages were six blood-red stone pillars, and around the pillars were wooden frames, each with a person tied to it, their heads severed.
Ren Yifei's gaze shifted to the campfire, his pupils dilating—all the heads were piled up in the fire.
Goosebumps crawled onto Ren Yifei's skin.
This was a ritual that was about to end. The young priestess jumped off the man and walked to the campfire, holding a bronze dagger in her hand.
The gleaming dagger, which looked to have been made not long ago, was briefly heated over a flame. The woman showed it to everyone before slashing it at her own neck.
She wasn't trying to commit suicide; she had simply cut off a lock of her long hair and slightly cut the skin on her neck, drawing a little blood. The woman threw the hair into the campfire, where the flames crackled from the grease on her head.
After about a minute, a burst of flames suddenly erupted from the campfire, and burn marks appeared on the woman's neck. The mysterious entity had left its mark on her body.
The woman suddenly stretched out her arms and let out a long howl towards the sky. The others came over, knelt down around her, touched the hem of her dress, and then pressed it to their foreheads.
This action seems to signify loyalty.
"So that's how it is." The priestess of the club was actually a female priestess who prepared for this in order to gain power and qualifications? Then, the claim that the vice president performed the ritual to change his male body and female mind is a complete lie.
He may have known he was inadequate, so he used Yu Xueming's long hair in an attempt to deceive her, but the ritual still failed.
However, after Saman inherited his body, the sacrifice was successful, and Saman became a recognized 'priest'.
"Whoosh." The wind blew by, and the world fell still once more. The people around the campfire, like ashes from a fire, slowly dispersed, and the altar, connected to the dense forest, began to sink.
They sank all the way to the deep sea, and gradually, the seaweed climbed onto the rocks, and the rocks decayed.
Ren Yifei shed his human form and became his most authentic self.
The world seemed to have passed for a very long time, a thousand years, or ten thousand years. The seabed cracked open, revealing two red spots, as red as churning lava, and the black mist rising from them was a sign of the return of hell.
What is awakening from its slumber in the depths of the ocean?
But those hellfire-like eyes closed again after a moment. It awaited the opportune moment to awaken. When that time came, the world might descend into utter madness and carnage.
Ren Yifei was suspended in the sea, looking at the mountain. The eyes on the mountain were closed, as if it were asleep.
The tribe that performed the sacrifices had been extinct for thousands of years, wiped out by the ancient Dian people, but its sacrificial methods have been revived in modern times in another form.
Is it its guidance?
It can appear in dreams and influence and change people's souls. Was the vice president influenced by such a dream?
Is this a prank, or a return exercise?
Because it needs chaos and disorder to accompany its return.
Ren Yifei stretched out his finger and traced the characters he had written down in the water.
The characters in the seawater emitted a ghostly blue light, and a monster as large as a mountain opened its magma-like eyes.
The moment it opened its eyes, the dark seabed was illuminated. With the slightest movement of its body, the earth's crust cracked, and a continuous rumbling sound filled the air.
Ren Yifei sensed the chaos and disorder surrounding it, as well as the 'beginning'.
Like the morning star, its awakening is a signal that will bring more things hidden in the darkness to life.
Of course, these are all issues that people in that world need to worry about, and the process of awakening is very long and cannot be calculated in terms of human lifespan. Perhaps by then, humanity will have already moved to outer space.
"You called me here, is there something you want to say?" Ren Yifei didn't speak. He used the communication method of evil beings, compressing all kinds of negative emotions into strings, playing a melody that would make humans line up to commit suicide.
The seawater in front of him split open, revealing another layer of space inside. A golden shadow floated out from inside, drifted to Ren Yifei's hand, and lay in his pale palm.
The frantic shadow calmed down as soon as it landed on his hand, even closing its eyes and falling asleep.
Ren Yifei's heart suddenly calmed down, and he even began to feel sleepy.
He was like a dragon that had found its treasure, wanting only to carefully carry it back to its cave. However, Ren Yifei still remembered his manners, thanked the owner of the place, and then left this deep dream.
The sky was blue, the water was clear, and the sounds of students moving around and talking filled the air. Ren Yifei gazed at the lake for a while, then yawned.
The marked shadow of Saman returned to where it was meant to be.
The evil beings see humans as toys, so this was probably just a small toy given to them by a new acquaintance—because Ren Yifei went to the passage several times and seemed to really like the toy.
Ren Yifei breathed a sigh of relief.
Saman was tricked into becoming someone else's priest, and if this mysterious being doesn't give it to him, it will be quite troublesome for him to try and take it.
Now that this constraint is gone, he has fewer reservations when he acts. All he needs to do now is reveal the 'ghost's' current identity.
Let the instance end, and Saman, who is currently missing, can return smoothly.
"Hmm?" Ren Yifei picked up his phone and opened it, only to find that Yu Yan's father had replied to his message a few minutes ago. The message contained only five words:
"Welcome, my kind."