Illusions, Lies, Truth

Volume 4, 4: Do You Believe In, Part 3—Son

Volume 4, Chapter 4: Do You Believe In, Part 3—Son

Translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespasserby & J Tao)

“Hu Lican didn’t pick up either.”

Jiang Ziya hung up, almost unable to bear seeing how terrible Lu Yang’s expression might be.

Lu Yang made a shushing motion at him. His call had gotten though, which was a relief.

“Gramps, Dad and I made arrangements to meet by the school gates. He said he would come pick me up, but still hasn’t yet. Can you come ov—”

He was interrupted before he finished speaking. “I have nothin’ much to say. You have to solve this big matter by yourselves.”

Lu Yang frowned. It would be understandable for Gramps to lend a hand in a case as big as this one, yet Gramps wanted Lu Yang and his dad to solve it on their own. Could Lao Jun have given some sort of directive?

“Xiao Yang!”

As Lu Yang pondered over the reason, the person on the other side of the line switched. This was his grandma’s voice.

“Lao Jun stressed several times. Somethin’ impossible is impossible. Don’t you go believin’ in it.”

Lu Yang jolted. “Okay, I got it.”

Like I thought, Lao Jun must have indicated that Gramps can’t interfere. Gramps even needed to have Grandma relay the hint instead.

This something that was “impossible”… Lu Yang only had to think for a moment to understand that she must be referring to “Resurrection.”

Lu Yang frowned and told Jiang Ziya, “We’ll head in directly.”

“Is your gramps really not coming?” Jiang Ziya could not wrap his head around it at all. The grandson had just gotten in a traffic accident and the son-in-law had gone missing, yet he still was not coming. It’s too ridiculous to even call this being easygoing!

“No.” Lu Yang was still frowning as he said, “Gramps probably calculated that his interference would worsen the situation and got the same result by asking Taishang Laojun, so he can’t interfere.”

Only then did Jiang Ziya understand. He gave an “oh” and asked, “Then, what should we do now? Should we search for the number of the other policemen?”

Lu Yang summoned Slay to his side, ready at any moment.

“No, since we won’t be able to get through to them either. I’m afraid that this entire campus is a barrier dimension. Creating such a huge and stable barrier dimension isn’t something that can be easily accomplished just by placing down a few tools. It requires a much more complete set up, as well as sufficient time for the barrier dimension to take shape. My guess is that there must be someone behind Xu Xikai. This isn’t something he can do by himself; he’s too young. It isn’t like he could have started doing this when he was ten.”

Lu Yang breathed in deeply and resolutely said, “We’ll head in directly, Ziya. From now on, you have to be alert. We’re going to destroy every barrier dimension on the way!”

Jiang Ziya immediately readied 120% of his attention.

The two of them stepped onto campus. There weren’t a lot of students walking around, but the ones who were did not appear odd.

Lu Yang glanced at the trees lining both sides of the path. The leaves fluttered along with the gentle wind, which felt about the same as how it had outside the campus.

Jiang Ziya turned a full circle and felt troubled. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the campus. Even though there were fewer people than usual, several homicides had just occurred, so it was normal for people not to want to linger at school.

“Where are the police and your dad?”

The basketball courts were right next to them. This was one of the locations of the school wonders, but weren’t there even any policemen patrolling it?

Lu Yang’s complexion was terrible as he said, “They must be in the barrier dimension. Their target might be the policemen, while we haven’t entered the barrier dimension at all. We’re heading back! We have to return to the school gates and search for how to enter the barrier dimension.”

The two of them rushed back to the entrance. Jiang Ziya searched carefully but did not discover anything strange. Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Lu Yang tightening his lips. Even though Lu Yang was worried, he was enduring it and did not rush Ziya.

Jiang Ziya opened his eyes wider, wanting even more to find the entrance to the barrier dimension. Finally, he saw something odd on the ground before the gates. There were a few curved, dark lines that appeared systematic and unlike scratches.

He backed up a few steps and hopped onto the short stone pillar by the gates. Lowering his head, he observed for a while before saying, “There are seven sigils on the ground, forming a larger sigil. Even though they’re very blurry, they should be the sigils of the seven deadly sins we saw before.”

“The seven deadly sins, huh?”

After Jiang Ziya said so, Lu Yang focused his eyes to look. The sigils on the ground gradually appeared until the entire sigil formed a clear, round magic circle. With a few quick steps, he rushed right into the school and immediately took stock of his surroundings. However, nothing was wrong like before. He had not entered the barrier dimension.

“Lu Yang!”

Jiang Ziya worriedly rushed into the school. He only relaxed when he saw Lu Yang standing in front of him. He was really afraid that this guy would ditch him to do something dangerous even while sporting injuries.

Lu Yang turned his head. In that instance, he saw a blue light glow in Jiang Ziya’s eye. At once, he rushed over to grab Ziya’s head and observe his left eye.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Ziya was taken aback. Not knowing what had happened, he didn’t even dare to move.

“Nothing.”

Even though he had said it was nothing, Lu Yang was frowning to himself. He did not know if it was an optical illusion, but he felt like the blue patch in Jiang Ziya’s left eye had become more obvious. Perhaps also larger?

However, he was uncertain. Irises weren’t large in the first place, and it wasn’t like he usually plastered himself against Jiang Ziya to look at it. He was unable to ascertain just how big that patch of blue was.

Lu Yang frowned. “Go back to the gates and try stepping on or touching the sigil. See if you can activate the barrier dimension so we can enter.”

Jiang Ziya walked to the gates and did as told. Nothing happened even after that.

“Why can’t we enter?”

As someone who always randomly ended up in barrier dimensions, Jiang Ziya hadn’t yet met a situation where he couldn’t enter one.

“There might be a condition.” Lu Yang was a bit impatient. He wanted to use Slay to blast the entrance open but was afraid that he could destroy it completely.

“Wait, there seems to be a line of words running along the large circle formed by the sigils.”

Jiang Ziya hopped on the stone pillar to scrutinize it. The words were not large and were also written in an ornate script. He had to squint his eyes to be able to somewhat make them out.

His left eye is glowing again! Lu Yang stared at this sight with wide eyes. He had a foreboding feeling, yet could not put a stop to this. They could only rely on Jiang Ziya’s left eye now to enter the barrier dimension. When his left eye glowed, his power clearly increased.

“In the name of God, the devil seals here. Common folk retreat, except God’s servant. He who wields the Holy Bible may enter.”

After listening to those words, Lu Yang snapped furiously, “This condition for entering the barrier dimension targets my dad! That guy must have been planning this ever since learning that my dad has returned to the country, so he dug up all this stuff on the seven deadly sins to force a connection with him!”

Jiang Ziya said in confusion, “But didn’t you just say that this barrier dimension requires a lot of time to set up?”

“The barrier dimension for the entire school takes preparation, but setting a condition for the entrance at the last minute doesn’t take a lot of time. Shit! Where are we supposed to find a servant of God now?”

Lu Yang impatiently stalked back and forth but could not come up with a solution. They could not ask for a normal priest to come, since they could not even fulfill the requirement of “wielding the Holy Bible.” A normal Bible was not the same as wielding the Holy Bible, but it was impossible to find an actual exorcist in Taiwan. Even if he asked the papacy to send someone over on behalf of Liu Yishi, it would at least take two days. Even stir-fry daylilies would have cooled by then!

“Um, what about Hold Keeper?” Jiang Ziya thought about it and suggested, “Even though the god he believes in his book is not a god in reality, he looks just like a priest. On top of that, when he played at being a charlatan to save those people, he actually used a cross to defeat the devil. I don’t think it would be difficult to have him manifest the Holy Bible?”

Lu Yang stilled. At first, he wanted to say that it was impossible, but with Jiang Ziya and that left eye of his, glowing with blue light, around…

He shook his head and said, “No, a mere illusory familiar does not have the ability to trick a barrier dimension.”

“Um, when we returned last time, Hold Keeper had already become a lie…”

“…”

Lu Yang held back his discontent as he looked at Jiang Ziya’s left eye. With the help of this eye, they might actually be able to trick the barrier dimension. Even though he was uneasy about Jiang Ziya’s truth-seeing eye growing stronger and stronger, the people by his father’s side were possibly in danger right now…

“Then, let’s have Hold Keeper come over and give it a try. Doesn’t matter if it works or not.”

Jiang Ziya saw that Lu Yang could not make up his mind, so he decided to just call Yu Shu directly.

“…You want to borrow Hold Keeper? Haha, it would be no problem for me to send House Keeper over to suck you dry instead!”

Yu Shu shouted furiously, “Jiang Ziya, do you think I’m your mom or what? Every time you run into trouble, you come and cry for your mommy? Maybe you want to be a big baby, but I don’t want to be your mom!”

Jiang Ziya’s ear was about to be blown off, but he could only beg, “Please, we need Hold Keeper to save people. It’s extremely dire. Any later, and we’ll be in trouble!”

“You’re in trouble all the time anyway! Go find that God of the Eastern Sky, Dong Huang Taiyi. Why are you seeking out a shut-in when you have a god you can pray to?!”

“We need a servant of God, and he even needs to have the Bible…”

Yu Shu gave a dry laugh. Her family’s holy knight had truly switched professions. She really didn’t know if she had failed in creating the illusory familiar, or if the bastard Jiang Ziya was the one dragging her child in a sprint on the unstoppable path of a career change.

“Qing Wei Gong will owe you one.” Lu Yang snatched the cell phone over and said, “Lend that familiar to me. As long as your request is within my power, I won’t turn it down.”

“My only wish for life is to plant myself at home and never have to go out!”

Lu Yang quickly said, “No matter how strong your two familiars become in the future, whether or not they become truths, I will not do anything about it, as long as they don’t harm anyone.”

Hearing that, Yu Shu was not tempted by the stipulation, just shocked that Lu Yang was willing to make such a promise. It meant that matters were very serious. She calmly said, “Quickly summarize everything for me.”

“There’s no time…”

“I’ll have Hold Keeper head over now. He needs some time to arrive.” Yu Shu impatiently said, “But whether or not he will help when he arrives is still up in the air! Take this chance to tell me what’s going on.”

Since Hold Keeper was already on his way, Lu Yang was happy to tell Yu Shu about what was going on and have her analyze it.

After Yu Shu heard about everything that had happened, she praised, “He actually drove a car into you to land you in the hospital? What a pro move!”

Lu Yang’s lips twitched. Yu Shu’s words could really land someone in their grave from anger.

“Since you were in the hospital, Jiang Ziya must have gone to the hospital to take care of you. With how dangerous this case is along with the risk of dying, your dad, as an elder, would not have asked for Jiang Ziya to follow him. Am I right?”

Lu Yang froze. She was correct.

“No Jiang Ziya means no truth-seeing eye. It would be much easier to sabotage your dad. If it were me, I would create hallucinations of you dying. Tell me, would your dad, who loves you more than his own life, end up helping the enemy manifest the Book of Resurrection?”

Lu Yang’s eyes widened. He was nearly unable to hold onto the cell phone. Yu Shu’s words following that sounded like they were coming from a great distance—he could not grasp them.

“You know, I feel like the enemy must know your dad. He is clearly very familiar with your dad’s personality.

“Fortunately, he is still wary of Master Ah Lu. In order not to mobilize your grandpa, he didn’t kill you off directly, instead choosing such a complicated detour to create a mirage of your death.

“But what’s unfortunate is that Master Ah Lu really can’t interfere. If the opponent had seen that Master Ah Lu would join in anyway, he might directly kill both you and your father, placing his bets on Master Ah Lu and your mom trying to manifest Resurrection as a result. Both of them are super powerful people!”

Hearing all of that, Lu Yang returned to his senses and shouted with a strangled voice, “Yu Shu, help me! I won’t interfere even if your son drinks blood from people in the future. As long as he does his best not to suck them dry!”

The call disconnected. Lu Yang quickly called back, but Jiang Ziya tugged on his sleeve and gestured at the sky. Lu Yang lifted his head.

In the dark of the night, a gigantic pair of bat wings blocked the moon, turning the full moon into a quarter moon.

Empty black wings stayed in the air, but the one who descended from them was actually a priest glowing with gentle white light, in possession of golden hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, pure as an angel of lore. The only thing missing was a pair of white wings.

“You wanted the Holy Bible?”

Hold Keeper held his hand out. A pure white Bible with a golden cross etched on it floated above his palm. He had done a superb job with the special effects. The book looked even more striking than Liu Yishi’s.

Hold Keeper smiled as he said, “Jiang Ziya, what do you think of this Bible of mine?”

Jiang Ziya sincerely answered, “It looks pretty powerful.”

Hold Keeper watched in satisfaction as the glow of the Bible turned gentle, and the cross that was depicted on it transformed from a mere drawing into an embossment.

“Then, I hope that this book is powerful enough to aid the two of you.”

“It definitely is!”

At this time, House Keeper retracted the black wings and landed on the ground in a single breath. However, he maintained a great distance from Hold Keeper. In fact, he could not even look his way. The book was so bright that it was about to blind him.

Hold Keeper glanced at House Keeper, who was standing so far away, and angled his body a bit to block the Bible.

“So, what do you want me to do?”

Hold Keeper asked cheerfully. He was in a good mood. All he had been doing was sitting around at home when the book dropped out of thin air . Even though he did not know what he could do with this book, and he could not really become an exorcist either, he was happy to get some use out of this!

He hadn’t even done anything yet, yet had already gotten rewarded for it. That was why Hold Keeper had turned pliant.

Lu Yang gestured at the ground and said, “Stand in this magic circle and recite words of prayer. Use the book to illuminate the true appearance of the entrance. The school gate is such an obvious flag. My dad must have used his book to investigate it, and probably discovered that something was wrong, so he didn’t notice the problem under his feet.”

As instructed, Hold Keeper stood inside the sigil. He turned to look at Lu Yang and asked, “What kind of prayer? Even though I can make a bunch of stuff up, it’s probably better to directly use the prayers your dad uses?”

Lu Yang nodded and recited a prayer that his father often used.

After hearing it, Hold Keeper relaxed his smile. He had the “Bible” float in front of him. His voice was soft yet steady. Listening to it was calming.

“In the name of the Lord…”

The more he spoke, the more serious he became. In the end, he finished it with a sharp chant.

“Let all filth, let all evil have nowhere to hide before the Lord. In the name of the Lord, I command you to show your true visage right this moment!”

Pretty good acting. This familiar resembles an exorcist even more than my dad! Lu Yang’s face was twitching. His conduct might even be grander than a lot of exorcists’ from the papacy.

After he finished chanting, sigils of the seven deadly sins appeared on the pillars to each side of the school gate, but nothing happened to the magic circle below their feet.

Jiang Ziya immediately looked at Lu Yang. What if it didn’t work? Then, we have no other solution! Will it be any use to ask the boss for help?

Lu Yang, however, was calm. He indicated for Jiang Ziya to follow along. The two of them entered the school together.

It was a completely silent campus, void of sound and students, in which even the trees seemed afraid to sway and with the murky, dark night pressing down upon them so they were unable to be at ease.

They glanced at each other.

We actually succeeded in entering!