Chapter 47: Why Young People Are So Enthusiastic About Courting Death

Chapter 47: Why Young People Are So Enthusiastic About Courting Death

Drawing a talisman in midair with a finger?

The hamster Xiao Pangzi squatting on her shoulder also blinked his tiny bead-like eyes in shock.

Wasn’t it said that Celestial Masters were extremely particular when drawing talismans?

Hand seals, stepping through ritual footwork according to the stars, chanting incantations to invoke deities, and even the way paper was laid out, ink was ground, the brush was held, and the brush was moved all had prescribed procedures.

Although the stronger one’s strength, the less complicated talisman drawing needed to be, wasn’t drawing a talisman in midair, even skipping yellow paper and cinnabar ink, a bit too economical?

A talisman consisted of the “talisman head,” the “presiding deity or Buddha,” the “talisman body,” the “talisman feet,” and the “talisman core.”

Even though the structure of the Summon Yin Talisman was not complicated and was a basic talisman that every beginner had to learn, wasn’t the speed at which she drew it a bit too fast?

“Teacher, are you sure this Senior isn’t some kind of bug virus?”

She was definitely a cheat-enabled super hacker, right?

Just as Xiao Pangzi finished his complaint, bursts of yin wind suddenly arose across the rooftop, blowing the short hair on the principal’s head into disarray.

After a minute passed, Min Yizhou’s ghostly figure still did not appear, and the Summon Yin Talisman formed entirely from primordial qi gradually dimmed before dissipating completely.

“Min Yizhou didn’t come.”

Zhu Chun’an softly uttered those words, making the principal’s whole body tremble.

“Is it really a vengeful ghost seeking a substitute victim?”

Pei Ye, however, said, “No. Min Yizhou didn’t come, but his soul is still here.”

The better the quality of the Summon Yin Talisman and the stronger the caster, the more clearly they could perceive a ghost’s condition.

“He refused the summons?”

Pei Ye carefully recalled the sensation from earlier and firmly shook her head.

“I could feel it. Min Yizhou wanted to respond to my summons, but he couldn’t manifest.”

Zhu Chun’an said gravely, “Why?”

“I don’t know. But one thing is certain, Min Yizhou himself is still somewhere on the university campus. We’ll try again later.” Pei Ye looked at the principal and said, “It’s broad daylight. A death has already occurred. If students see the two of us ‘charlatans’ ‘pretending to summon spirits’ around campus, public opinion will become even harder to control, right?”

Hearing those words, the principal’s extinguished hope reignited.

“Good, good, good!!!”

“I’d like to learn more about the student who jumped from the building three years ago. Would it be convenient for you to pull up his file?”

The student’s school records were relatively easy to access, but the contents of the police investigation were not.

At this moment, it was Zhu Chun’an’s turn to step in.

Officer Tang, who had handled the case, was also one of the informed insiders.

The moment he saw Zhu Chun’an appear, his brows furrowed tightly.

Zhu Chun’an shook his head. “No, this is a privately accepted job. We want to learn about the student who jumped from a building at X University three years ago. I’m asking whether you can make an exception.”

“If that’s the case, I can’t cooperate.”

Case files could not be casually shown to ordinary people.

Pei Ye asked, “We don’t need to see the case files themselves. We only want to know some details. If there are questions you feel unable to answer, you may remain silent.”

“This case... involves those things?”

Officer Tang asked in return. By “those things,” he naturally meant ghosts.

“It has some connection, but we’re not certain whether it is directly related to Min Yizhou’s death.”

Min Yizhou’s death was not necessarily caused by a vengeful ghost seeking a substitute victim.

Likewise, the person from three years ago might not have committed suicide either.

These were only Pei Ye’s suspicions, however, and it was inconvenient to state them directly in front of Officer Tang.

Officer Tang fell silent in thought for a while before nodding.

“What do you want to know?”

Officer Tang had never met Pei Ye before and assumed she was a colleague from Zhu Chun’an’s department.

“The student from three years ago had always been negligent about his studies. Why did he suddenly become hardworking? The principal also said his emotions were extremely tense and that even minor setbacks made him become radical and even engage in self-harm.” Pei Ye felt that if they wanted to determine the causes of death of these two deceased individuals, both of whom could not be summoned even after repeated attempts, they had to sort everything out from beginning to end.

Even if that student had been afflicted by evil influences, there should have been some warning signs.

Officer Tang shook his head. “We questioned his roommates and close friends. They all said they didn’t know.”

“Not even the slightest warning sign?” Pei Ye pressed.

Officer Tang carefully recalled the matter. Thinking of the special identities of the two people before him, he suddenly let out a sigh.

“Shortly before he became studious, they held a courage-testing gathering.”

“A courage-testing gathering? Did they say what kind of test it involved?”

Officer Tang said, “They invited some friends to an abandoned fitness equipment storage building on the university’s back hill to play ghost-summoning games, things like summoning the Pen Spirit and the Four Corners Game.”

Pei Ye looked at Zhu Chun’an in confusion.

“Can those things really summon ghosts?”

Wasn’t it said that one needed a Summon Yin Talisman to attract ghosts?

Zhu Chun’an answered, “Everything in the world can become a spell. A game is a special kind of spell, language is a special kind of spell, and the rules of a game are likewise a special kind of spell. Of course, because ordinary people are involved, these spells usually cannot summon special entities, unless those entities happen to be nearby when the spell is performed.”

Ghosts were once human as well. At their core, they were not much different from living people.

If several living people used a ‘game spell’ to invite ghosts to join a game in a place where ghosts existed, then naturally the ghosts might join.

Of course, once they joined the game, they also had to accept the constraints of the game’s rules, which formed the spell.

As long as people did not recklessly court disaster, nothing would usually happen.

Officer Tang added, “According to our later investigation, nothing happened when they summoned the Pen Spirit, but after the Four Corners Game, Zhu Yang’s expression seemed off.”

Zhu Yang was the student from X University who jumped from a building three years ago.

The rules of the Four Corners Game were very simple.

At midnight, four people stood in the corners of a dark, empty room, one person per corner, facing the walls. They could not turn their heads or talk to one another. Once the game began, the person in one corner would walk to another corner and lightly pat the occupant’s shoulder. The person whose shoulder was patted would then walk to the next corner and pat the third person. When it was a person’s turn to move toward an empty corner, they would cough once and continue past that corner before proceeding onward. In each complete cycle, there had to be one cough. If an entire cycle passed without anyone coughing, it meant a fifth person had appeared. A ghost had appeared!

“A ghost appeared?”

Officer Tang said, “We’re not sure. There was nothing abnormal about the game.”

During the investigation, they had also believed it might be ghost-related. Celestial Masters had become involved, but in the end no abnormalities were found.

No matter how one looked at it, it seemed that Zhu Yang had jumped from the building because he could not withstand the pressure of the CET-4 and CET-6 exams.

Pei Ye frowned deeply and continued asking Officer Tang about Zhu Yang’s usual hobbies and interests.

After Officer Tang left, Xiao Pangzi scrunched up his chubby hamster face and complained.

“Even professional police investigators couldn’t find anything. What clues can a few ghost hunters like us possibly uncover?”

They were skilled at catching ghosts, but investigating and solving cases was the police’s professional expertise.

Using one’s weaknesses to compete against another person’s strengths, even a Celestial Master would end up defeated.

Pei Ye said, “Let’s go take a look at the abandoned warehouse on the back hill where they held the courage test.”

After walking around the warehouse once, they discovered that it contained not only abandoned equipment but also many discarded teaching aids and textbooks.

“These teaching materials are quite old. I wonder which professor used them.”

She checked the date.

“...Textbooks from twenty-four years ago? These really are quite old... And this class schedule, the timing is far too unreasonable...”

Most of the classes were concentrated in the evening and late at night, while the remainder were scheduled around dusk in the afternoon.

After leaving the warehouse, there was still not a single ghost in sight nearby.

At last, Night Wind’s debt had finally been repaid. (:з」∠) Like a salted fish.