Illusions, Lies, Truth

Volume 3, 5: Ceremony of the Devil, Part 2—Floor by Floor… Upwards?

Volume 3, Chapter 5: Ceremony of the Devil, Part 2—Floor by Floor… Upwards?

Translated by lucathia (proofread by Taffygirl13 & Trespasserby)

Immortal Lady He: Was the stupid brat angry?

Liu Yishi looked at his cell phone quite helplessly. His wife was always so audacious. Their son had been called a stupid brat since he was a kid. He’ll turn rebellious like that! Fortunately, he always called him sweetheart or darling and used love to spoil their son so that he could grow up properly.

Detective Exorcist: He was only angry for a little while. See how nice he is to you?

Immortal Lady He: I bet he just doesn’t care where his dad and mom are.

Liu Yishi was so agitated that he almost coughed blood on the screen of his cell phone.

Detective Exorcist: Our son loooves us a ton!

Immortal Lady He: You obviously have that son complex thing.

Detective Exorcist: …

Immortal Lady He: Fine, I’m not going to squabble over this with you. You’re worried about that destiny thing Dad brought up? They were destined in the first place. They’re brothers!

Detective Exorcist: Brothers? Wifey, don’t tell me that you and Jiang Shang… Sob sob sob!

Immortal Lady He: Cut the tears. If you want to die, just say so! Don’t you remember when I said that they’d become sworn siblings if they were the same sex, and they’d get married if they were the opposite sex? Of course Jiang Ziya is our Ah Yang’s brother!

Detective Exorcist: But, dearest, our daughter-in-law has already married another.

Immortal Lady He: What?

Detective Exorcist: Jiang Ziya has a twin sister.

Immortal Lady He: … Damn, we were too slow.

Liu Yishi snickered. Dearest, you’re always so adorable!

Footsteps sounded. Liu Yishi lifted his head and saw Hu Lican and Fang Da walk out.

Detective Exorcist: It’s about time. I’m off to deal with the case.

Immortal Lady He: Okay, make sure to look for Jiang Shang. I remembered he was a strange guy. He shouldn’t have kicked the bucket so easily.

Liu Yishi pondered over it but still typed a final sentence.

Detective Exorcist: So it’s easy for Yang Jiayin to kick the bucket?

After waiting for a while, he didn’t receive a reply from his wife. Liu Yishi didn’t find it strange. Before he went offline, he would mention going first, but his wife on the other hand would leave without a word. She would only reply later when she remembered to do so.

“Mr. Liu.” Hu Lican immediately walked over after he saw that Liu Yishi was done.

Liu Yishi smiled and said, “No need for pleasantries. Let’s head in now. I’m sure it wasn’t an easy task to arrange even this short period of time.”

Don’t I know it? Hu Lican laughed awkwardly.

There were five policemen at the scene, along with Hu Lican and Fang Da. The number was pushing it, but it was just within the acceptable limit for Liu Yishi. He glanced at Hu Lican, who immediately flashed him a brash smile.

Even though he appeared to be a rough guy, he was quite perceptive. Liu Yishi was satisfied with the contact person from the police that his son had chosen. Of course, what he was satisfied about was that his son had a good eye.

Liu Yishi walked up to the stairway of the first floor. Ignoring the surrounding gazes of the policemen, he said, “I’m heading up to the second floor now.”

The policemen looked at each other before uniformly looking at Hu Lican in the end. Even if they were supposed to respond, it should be their superior who did the responding.

Hu Lican had worked with Lu Yang for a long time and thoroughly understood that when a practitioner was doing his job, they should just stay in the background and do nothing. Therefore, he didn’t say anything. After Liu Yishi headed upstairs, he trailed after him, never too close but never too far either.

The policemen shared glances but hurriedly rushed after their superior when they saw him head up and even turn to glare at them.

Liu Yishi was calmly observing the room across from him, the location of the murder. It was the same room on every floor. Even if one claimed this wasn’t a murder case, no one would believe it.

A dark figure was standing inside the room.

Liu Yishi heard the movements of the police behind him. They weren’t reacting to it, so it seemed that they couldn’t see it.

He quietly stood there for three minutes, but the dark figure didn’t react at all.

“I’m heading up to the third floor now.”

After walking up to the third floor, there was another dark figure inside the other room, but it was slightly clearer than the second floor’s. Liu Yishi heard a gasp behind him.

“Who gasped? Come here.”

A rather young-looking policeman nervously walked over to him. Under the sympathetic gazes of the other police, he grew even more nervous.

“You’re…” Liu Yishi was a bit shocked. He had thought that it would be Hu Lican. He tried to recall the other person’s name and asked, “Fang Da?”

Fang Da nervously nodded. “Yes, I’m so sorry. I didn’t make a noise on purpose.”

“What did you see?”

Fang Da stilled. Seeing Liu Yishi look at him encouragingly, he understood that he hadn’t made a blunder. Relieved, he told him, “I thought I saw a person in that room when I just got up here, b-but after taking a closer look, there was no one there. I was just mistaken, I think.”

Liu Yishi nodded but didn’t say anything. He turned toward the stairs and said, “I’m heading up to the fourth floor now,” and then he headed up.

This time, all sorts of reactions happened: gasping, crying out, and even frantic footsteps. The dark figure was only there for a moment, but they couldn’t explain it away using Fang Da’s explanation from the previous floor, of being mistaken. Could this many people be mistaken at once?

As for Fang Da, he was about to faint. Earlier, he could say he was mistaken, but currently, there was a figure inside standing there without moving!

Liu Yishi frowned. This school wonder is actually true?

“I’m heading up to the fifth floor now.”

We don’t want to go to the fifth floor! With tearful faces, the policemen all uniformly turned to look at Hu Lican. The latter didn’t want to head up to the fifth floor either, but the problem was that at least a few policemen had to become familiar with this sort of stuff. Only then would they know what was going on if they encountered it in the future and would know who they should seek out to solve it.

Hu Lican walked in the front as the first one and even used his gaze to urge the rest to quickly follow.

The policemen could only slowly shuffle forward. Then, they remained rooted to the spot, nearly forgetting to breathe, until that persistent voice sounded again.

“I’m heading up to the seventh floor now.”

In the back were the policemen who trembled nonstop. After they arrived at the seventh floor, the figure was no longer a shadow but entirely the shape of a person who was wearing a ragged but warm coat. It was exactly the appearance of a homeless person. If the policemen hadn’t already read the profile of the deceased, they might have gone over to him to chase him away from the scene of the crime, but unfortunately, they had all read it.

As he looked at the homeless person in front of him, Liu Yishi wasn’t in a hurry to leave this time. First, he wanted to see if anything would happen if he stood there longer. Second, he was thinking about what might appear on the eighth floor. According to his son, Jiu Ge had already helped the deceased’s spirit ascend, but was that enough to prevent the spirit from appearing here?

These spirits hadn’t been here in the first place but had appeared using the method detailed in the school wonder. Liu Yishi didn’t feel that they actually had anything to do with the victims, so the thing on the eighth floor should still appear.

Liu Yishi pondered over it as he observed the homeless person. There was no reaction.

He turned to face the stairs. This action made the seven policemen behind him pale.

“D-do we have to go up to the eighth floor?” Fang Da was trembling fiercely. But even the others were of no more help than this newbie.

Liu Yishi’s response was… digging out his cell phone.

“It’s past three already… Darling, why haven’t you contacted me at all?”

He scratched his head and, after mulling it over for a bit, still decided to call him. However, the call didn’t go through.

Of course, there were many reasons why a call might not connect, such as poor reception, but his son was merely in the neighboring campus, not some faraway mountain zone. It was three something in the middle of the night, and the school wouldn’t have elevators that Lu Yang would be taking, causing poor reception.

Most importantly, Lu Yang hadn’t sent any updates in such a long time. They had already agreed that Lu Yang would be the one to initiate contact.

“Mr. Liu, are we heading up or not?”

Even Hu Lican couldn’t stand it anymore. There was a ghost glaring at them in close proximity, and they were stuck here getting glared at, not to mention that they might be heading up to face an even scarier one in the next moment!

Moreover, above them was the final floor. Would it be like now, where nothing happened? Then, why had they come here today? To take a stroll in a haunted house? If something were to happen, what would it be…

Damn, this kind of torture is inhuman! The pleading gazes of his subordinates were about to burn a hole into Hu Lican.

Liu Yishi looked at his watch and said, “We will wait here for my son to call. If he doesn’t call in half an hour, we won’t head up. We’ll go over to the school to find them.”

Liu Yishi didn’t get the call. Instead, it was Hu Lican who got one. The policemen all wished that there was a shootout, a car chase, or a turf war—in any case, any reason they could leave this place was a good one!

“Someone called the police from the school.”

Liu Yishi frowned. “Is it a homicide?”

“Seems to be a fire.” Hu Lican frowned. “It seems to be the medical campus. It’s pretty far from here, so we don’t have to worry that it’ll spread here.”

Liu Yishi’s complexion changed. He knew that several school wonders had to do with the medical department. He immediately turned to go downstairs.

No matter how strong my son is, he can’t win against a fire!