Chapter 180: Leaving Traces

Erin released her hand, and the unfolded "secret letter" immediately rose with layers of illusory flames, then in the blink of an eye shrank and folded back into an utterly ordinary piece of paper.

Yu Sheng, however, remained motionless, staring at the paper, his brow furrowed with gravity and contemplation.

After a good while, Little Red Riding Hood's voice finally came from beside him: "... Old Zheng... he really is him..."

The girl's tone carried hesitation and resistance; clearly, she found the clue before her difficult to accept, even though she had come here specifically to uncover something—but now that she had actually found something, the result was not what she had hoped for.

The sacrifice in the white exhibition hall of the museum was indeed a trap set for her, and the one who led her into this trap was indeed that familiar "contact" of hers.

Although it was not hard to judge from the words on the secret letter that the contact called "Old Zheng" was likely also deceived and misled.

"The signature is 'Servant of the Angel,' it's obvious; the one who wrote this letter is that group of followers of the Dark Angel, the same bunch that performed the sacrifice ritual in the white exhibition hall," Yu Sheng shook the paper in his hand and said calmly, "The reason they use such a primitive method of communication as 'letters' seems to be to use this special 'spell' to hide their tracks."

"The person who received the letter must have been thoroughly duped," Erin said from the side, "Blessings, breaking curses, goodwill, being misunderstood by the world—all classic lines of cults, but sometimes they really work."

The sound of Little Red Riding Hood's exclamation coming from beside him suddenly faded away, turning into a stretched, intermittent static.

At first, a look...

Little Red Riding Hood said nothing, simply shifting her gaze back to the other letters and note papers.

"I want to help them...

"Let me look," Erin agreed, sitting down in the middle of the pile of things on the table and starting to rummage through them.

But after searching for a long time, she found nothing.

A strange sound, as if something were slowly wriggling, came from above.

It seemed that the things related to the Angel cultists had either been moved in advance or already destroyed; only this last letter hadn't been processed in time.

As if someone's "thoughts" were strongly projected into this bizarre space-time, Yu Sheng saw the constantly emerging characters spreading in all directions—

There was nothing hidden under the carpet, but on the floor, some traces that were already difficult to distinguish could barely be seen.

Little Red Riding Hood also sensed Yu Sheng's intention; she began to check every corner of the room along with him, even summoning her wolf, letting these shadow creatures inspect clues that were difficult for human eyes to distinguish.

Speaking of this, he paused, then after a moment of contemplation said again: "Moreover, this letter also reveals another important piece of information... those guys were probably not targeting you personally, but the 'Fairy Tale' behind you."

But Yu Sheng was not discouraged by this; he simply observed the room more carefully, then began to inspect every corner of it.

"They were a bit suspicious; I suspected they were related to some illegal secret cult, but they showed me some things..."

"That's it; the rest are all ordinary things, including these few letters—it seems using traditional letters to communicate was this person's personal hobby," the small doll sat on the table, legs dangling over the edge and swinging, then looked up and scanned the surroundings, "I also took a general look around this room; there's nothing worth noting."

Yu Sheng listened, noncommittal, and after a moment of deep thought simply squatted down, slowly brushing his hand over those blurred dark red traces.

He saw that in places where the "sunlight" could not reach, on those gray walls and floors, characters were constantly emerging.

Letters or items directly related to the Angel cultists might indeed have been moved in advance or completely destroyed, but this did not mean there were no other clues left here—the contact had obviously sunk very deep, even to the point of actively contacting the Dark Angel; therefore, this influence must have manifested in his daily life: changes in habits, some traces left inadvertently, fragments of words left in a diary... A living person always leaves traces; he couldn't have cleaned everything up.

"The tree planted by the previous Little Red Riding Hood has grown very tall; today another new child came to me, saying she is the new Little Red Riding Hood...

"Could it be used to communicate with the Dark Angel?" Yu Sheng asked curiously.

"... Probably for quite some time," Yu Sheng recalled the content of the secret letter just now, thinking as he spoke, "The letter mentioned scenes like witnessing with one's own eyes, indicating that 'Old Zheng' not only believed the verbal promises of those Angel cultists but may even have been dragged by those cultists to participate in certain rituals, or at least had contact with things related to the Dark Angel—before tricking you into the white exhibition hall, he had already sunk very deep."

Then he suddenly pulled a small knife from his pocket and made a small cut on his hand.

Little Red Riding Hood was instantly startled and instinctively reached out to stop him: "Hey, what are you doing! You can't just use something with an unclear target like that..." "Hard to say," Little Red Riding Hood frowned and shook her head, "You know, I've always avoided dealing with matters of this kind; I've only heard that although those Angel cultists claim to have the ability to communicate with the 'Messenger,' in reality, most of the time they just produce manic hallucinations from taking too many drugs; the Dark Angel itself actually never responds to humans, or rather... its way of responding is to drive people directly mad." Speaking to this point, she paused, her expression slightly dim: "Old Zheng, who was obviously a 'newbie' tricked into falling for it, used such a basic spirit-summoning technique; it's hard to say what he could successfully communicate with... most likely it's just another layer of deception prepared by those Angel cultists, to make him mistakenly believe he could truly listen to the 'Divine Will'."

Afterwards, he noticed that the vague "gauze" in the surrounding environment seemed to gradually fade away.

Little Red Riding Hood instantly frowned, stepped forward, and tore open that carpet.

Yu Sheng rubbed his eyes and rose from the ground; he was somewhat surprised by the situation before him but not greatly so—after witnessing so many strange and bizarre scenes, his acceptance level for such "sudden changes in situation" was extremely high, his nerves having become roughly as thick as a main support beam.

"No one can; the Special Bureau can't, the Association can't either; I've collected and studied so many things used to break curses and fight dreams, but I can't either."

Little Red Riding Hood listened silently, never opening her mouth; after a good while, she muttered, breaking the silence: "A person who deals with 'Oddities' and foreign realms all day long, how could he fall for such a trick... how long has he actually been tricked?"

"Only fourteen years old; she said she wanted a job..."

"I went to the orphanage again; after several months... another familiar face has disappeared..."

Yu Sheng glanced at the expression on Little Red Riding Hood's face, thought for a moment, then spoke: "Judging from the content revealed in the letter, 'Old Zheng' actually didn't know it was a trap; he might have thought he was helping you... he might even have wanted to help you for a very long time, and because of this, he was tricked by those Angel cultists."

The blood was absorbed by those blurred dark red traces in the blink of an eye, like a drop of water on a sponge.

The room was still that room, but everything was dyed a layer of gray; the daylight spilling in from the window turned into a dim pallor; although it still looked very bright, it seemed that no matter what, it could not illuminate the area beyond the window.

Yu Sheng looked up and saw that everything in the room seemed covered by a layer of gauze; the vague feeling was like falling into a dimension that was gradually peeling away from reality; Little Red Riding Hood and Erin had become two shadows stagnating not far away; they seemed to still be slowly moving toward this side, yet the entire process seemed stretched to an infinite duration.

Erin also began to carefully flip through the papers and books on the table—even though these things were all utterly ordinary "mundane objects," clues might still be hidden within these ordinary notes and messages.

Yu Sheng was not surprised by the small doll's answer.

Bright red blood dripped onto the floor.

"Looks like it was smeared with blood," Little Red Riding Hood frowned, carefully distinguishing the extremely faint traces on the floor, "It's a very basic spirit-summoning ritual, but only the traces of runes were left; without offerings and accompanying prayers or chants, it's hard to track what it was specifically used to communicate with."

Yu Sheng suddenly widened his eyes.

The characters extended across the floor and walls, extended through the air, extended within Yu Sheng's field of vision, finally almost covering every inch of space within his sight, then gradually faded away in silence.

"... Someone actively came to the door; he said they could help..."

Just then, a shadow wolf suddenly stopped in the center of the room, emitting a low whining sound, and repeatedly pawed at a carpet beside the bed.

"Erin," Yu Sheng immediately reacted, "do you see anything else here similar to this letter, something hidden?"

Those were strange symbols and lines, arranged in a circle about one meter in diameter; their color vaguely carried a dark red; they seemed to have been carefully scrubbed once by someone, leaving only very faint traces, but perhaps because this "smear-scrub" process had been repeated too many times, the floor still retained those vague outlines.

Yu Sheng slowly raised his head, looking toward the direction from which the sound came.

He saw that the ceiling of the room had cracked open a hole at some point, a circular gap corresponding to the dark red circular trace on the ground.

Low, chaotic static came from the gap, accompanied by the strange sound of some creature moving and rubbing slowly; a long limb, its surface covered with strange bumps and fine patterns, reached out from inside.

This tentacle silently expanded and contracted in the air, began to slowly patrol, and gradually drifted toward Yu Sheng's position...

(End of Chapter)