Chapter 186 - 186 43

Words : 1410 Updated : Sep 21st, 2025

186: 43. Evil Spirit Ritual 186: 43. Evil Spirit Ritual “You’re an Exorcist?” Lu Li asked. “No.” “A Night Watcher?” “Not that either, I’m not one of those guys, but it’s pretty similar.” The mysterious man ignored the shadowy figures around him. He walked over to a nearby dining table, placed the briefcase he was carrying on the ground by his feet, and took a seat. “Well, no harm in telling you, I belong to a different division, an investigator, still in training.” Lu Li noticed that he was still carrying the briefcase. “It shows.” Lu Li put the flintlock pistol back into its holster, but did not let go of the grip. He didn’t think that a Night Watcher or a formal investigator, who dealt with the strange on a regular basis, would maintain the stranger’s current optimism. “So can you tell me what happened?” “I can. You seem surprisingly calm, are you an Exorcist?” “Yes.” “Then I might as well tell you.” The mysterious man put his hand holding a match on the table. “We’ve been targeted by two evil spirits... do you know what evil spirits are?” “I know a bit. Is this related to the trouble we’re encountering now?” “Exactly, we’re inside their ritual.” “Ritual...” The term made Lu Li think of what Hades had said about the unique “ceremonial sense” of evil spirits. “Are you sure now’s the time to talk? Moreover...” Lu Li shifted his gaze from the surroundings back to the burning match in the stranger’s hand; he left the latter part of his thought unspoken. How much longer could the match burn? “This match is a Homogeneous Item, it will burn for a while longer. We are safe until it goes out.” To prove his point, the mysterious man deliberately shook his hand wildly. The faint flame flickered brightly and dimly, but did not go out like a normal match would. “But don’t think about lighting anything else on fire, it’s no use. The only way for us to get out of this is to seek help from someone else. So come on over, let’s figure out how we can escape this ritual.” In silence, Lu Li walked over to another empty wooden chair beside the dining table and sat down. He noticed that at the edge of the faint light, a ghostly long dress seemed to follow closely behind him. Anna, who was hidden in the Inner World, revealed her outline in the light of the match. So the match was a Homogeneous Item similar to an Illusion-Breaking Candle? “You want to know what happened, right?” The mysterious man ignored Anna, perhaps because he was well aware of her presence. He casually released his fingers, letting the match fall freely and land on the wooden table. This match, emitting the scent of sulfur and burning wood, and seemingly indistinguishable from other matches, continued to burn without interfering with the wooden table. The delicate flame cast an uncertain glow, diffusing hazily across the entire dining table. Two silhouettes sat opposite each other, while outside of the subdued light, something seemed eager to pounce. “I had initially thought that it was the Abyssal Depths that had attacked us. Its ritual involves pulling a person into a projection of the abyss, just like our current situation. Complete darkness, invisibility, except for some special items that allow us to see light. Incidentally, we are actually still in the real world, and everything in the real world is normal. Right now, the street outside should be brightly lit, glowing with the light from oil lamps in the tavern hall—” “In other words, our current situation is us sitting in a brightly lit hall, with pedestrians passing by on the street outside, but we have been excluded by the attack of the Abyssal Depths. If someone were in the tavern, he could see everything we’re doing including our conversation, but we can’t see them.” “Entirely correct.” The mysterious man nodded in approval and continued, “But just before the attack by the Abyssal Depths, you saw a dry, pitch-black claw like a shadow reaching for the oil lamp, and then the lamp went out. That’s the ritual of the Shadow Thief of Fire. It emerges from the darkness and extinguishes nearby sources of fire. Hmm... speaking of which, these two types of evil spirits have been appearing more frequently lately. Before the disaster of the dark night fell, they would only cause some trouble, but now...” However, there are some troublesome things in the darkness now. Lu Li asked, “How should we deal with them?” “It’s simple at the Abyssal Depths, you just need to make contact with people or creatures that haven’t been pulled into the ritual. As for the Shadow Thief of Fire...” A bizarre scene unfolded, a pitch-black, slender claw like that of an infant’s arm appeared at the edge of the light, climbing up the table leg and spreading towards the burning match lying in the middle of the dinner table— Crack! The mysterious man suddenly reached out and struck down on the Shadow Thief of Fire’s ghastly claw with his palm, causing it to retract sharply back into the unseen gloom as if startled. “Just like that.” “...” Lu Li fell into silence. It was somewhat different from the evil spirits he had imagined, the ones that evolved from grudges. “Is this your first encounter with an evil spirit?” the mysterious man guessed Lu Li’s thoughts and asked. “Probably.” Maybe the umbrella-carrying girl he had encountered before was also an evil spirit. “No wonder.” The mysterious man’s face showed a sudden understanding as he waved his hand, causing the flame to flicker: “Evil spirits are not as scary as you imagine... but they are also very terrifying. You think it’s simple because you know their rituals. To put it another way, the horror of evil spirits lies in ignorance; you can’t know which evil spirit is attacking you, what its ritual is, or even if what’s attacking you is an evil spirit. If it were only you sucked into the ritual now and I didn’t tell you all this, how long do you think you could hold out here?” “Either the bullets run out and we’re plunged into darkness, or we rush to the street for rescue,” Lu Li answered. The second possibility was very low, because Lu Li’s fourth bullet had been aimed at the Shadow Figures, and the result of pulling the trigger was unlikely to be good. The mysterious man spread his hands: “This is information that generations have exchanged with their lives.” Lu Li slightly bowed his head, his tone as calm as ever: “Thank you for informing me.” The mysterious man might have merely mentioned it in passing, but it could save Lu Li, who knew nothing of these matters, a lot of detours. “It’s nothing.” The mysterious man waved his hand and listened as Lu Li continued, “But shouldn’t we be trying to get out of the evil spirit’s ritual now?” “It’s not the time yet... It’s rare to be able to interact with evil spirits at a relatively safe boundary, I want to observe for a bit longer,” the mysterious man replied. “Are you scared?” It seemed, the difference between a night watchman and an investigator was substantial. The former avoids knowing too much because the more they know, the faster they die. Meanwhile, investigators must understand as much as possible—the more they know, the better their chances of survival. Lu Li couldn’t judge which approach was correct, perhaps they were both right. Ignorance and scholarship were, respectively, the elements they needed to survive. Lu Li looked around the surroundings: “It’s not fear, it’s just that I’m worried if we delay any longer, we’ll be too late.” “What...? Why do you say that?” The mysterious man had a bad premonition. “Because they seem to be getting closer to us.” In the gloom, the surrounding shadowy figures appeared to have edged closer than before. The mysterious man’s face turned ugly, and he barked, “You go first! Don’t worry about me!” “Okay.” Lu Li nodded and without hesitation fled towards the exit of the tavern.

Chapter 186 - 186 43

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