Chapter 389: Ghost Possession

"When did I... go home afterwards..." Lu Xiuqi's face was full of surprise, "Are you lying to me?"

"This poor monk is a renunciate; I do not speak falsehoods." Tang Luo took out the materials Lu Xiuqi had given him, "Reporter Lu might as well take a look at this."

Lu Xiuqi took the materials and began flipping through them; his complexion instantly changed drastically: "Where did you find these!"

"You gave them to me." Tang Luo said.

"I gave them to you?" Lu Xiuqi stared at the materials in his hand; the text on them was all handwritten, in his handwriting.

There were even some small habits from when he wrote them; he would not mistake them.

These things were written by him!

Lu Xiuqi's hand trembled slightly; he raised his head to glance at the calm-faced Tang Luo, then lowered his head again, flipping through the materials somewhat quickly.

"Have you thought about the matters above?" Tang Luo pointed at the materials and said.

"I have..." Lu Xiuqi said, "But this is just a boring joke; not only me, some of my colleagues have chatted about this topic when they had nothing to do, and nobody took it seriously!"

"You took it seriously." Tang Luo said, "And made detailed materials and analysis."

Pausing for a moment, Tang Luo met Lu Xiuqi's shocked gaze: "Thanks to Benefactor Lu's blessing, this poor monk did what should be done."

Lu Xiuqi was not stupid; on the contrary, he was very smart, his thinking extremely agile.

So he instantly understood the meaning of Tang Luo's somewhat baffling words.

The person before him, the monk before him, had killed the Empress!

Lu Xiuqi nearly threw the materials in his hand at Tang Luo's face; he retreated two steps, turned toward the treadmill's direction, and took deep breaths in large gulps.

His chest heaved violently.

A full fifteen seconds later, Lu Xiuqi turned back, stuffed the materials back into Tang Luo's hands: "You wait here for me! Five minutes — no, two minutes will do!"

Saying this, he hurriedly ran out of this room.

Just over a minute later, Lu Xiuqi ran back, panting heavily, carrying a messenger bag on his back, and holding a black baseball cap in his hand, which he handed to Tang Luo.

"Put it on!" he said.

Tang Luo also couldn't be bothered to explain he had a special stealth method, and readily put on the cap.

The two left together through the back door, arrived at the parking lot, and got into Lu Xiuqi's car.

After getting in the car, Lu Xiuqi was visibly much more at ease.

Lu Xiuqi was not young, around forty years old; for a middle-aged man of this age, a car is the warmest shelter from the storm.

What, home?

Two menopauses and a puberty gathered together — it's really hard to find peace of mind.

Only the car, alone, spacious, everything so familiar, so comfortable.

The feel of the steering wheel, the "weight" of the accelerator, the just-right curve of the seat cushion — all were tailor-made for Lu Xiuqi.

Even the car's cigarette lighter and the traces of ash in the car were no exception.

Lu Xiuqi took out a cigarette and offered it to Tang Luo; Tang Luo waved his hand to indicate he didn't want it.

He didn't press either; he clamped one in his mouth, took out the lighter, and asked before lighting it: "Do you mind?"

"I mind." Tang Luo said.

"Uh —" Lu Xiuqi froze for a moment, I was just being polite, how do you not know to be polite back?

Shouldn't a renunciate go with the flow?

Putting the lighter back down, Lu Xiuqi took the cigarette out of his mouth, started the car, and slowly drove out: "Still haven't asked for the Dharma Master's..."

His peripheral vision shifted, and his words stopped, because on this monk's legs, a cat had appeared at some unknown time.

"This poor monk is Xuanzang." Tang Luo said.

"So it's Master Xuanzang." Lu Xiuqi withdrew his gaze; it was just a cat, "Master, can you tell me in detail what exactly happened?"

"I can." Tang Luo nodded.

He recounted in full everything that had happened after Lu Xiuqi caught up to them that night.

As for the Empress's matter, he glossed over it in a few light strokes.

He merely said they had seen the undying Empress, and incidentally guided the Empress to transcend and depart westward — a basic operation, not worth minding.

Lu Xiuqi forced himself not to mind, and said: "Then, Master, you're saying my situation... is it schizophrenia?"

He completely did not remember when he had made those materials.

But all signs, and reason, told him those materials indeed came from his hand.

There were no journalist friends either; Ao Yulie's guess was correct — it was indeed fabricating friends out of nothing.

My friend is myself.

This situation often appears on the internet.

For example, "My friend can only last one minute, is that normal?", and the netizen bros would give their care: anyone exceeding one minute counts as sick.

"My friend" would instantly feel relieved, and entrust the asker to express thanks to everyone.

Lu Xiuqi's situation clearly went beyond this; he not only fabricated friends out of nothing, but also didn't remember doing things, yet the things were done by him.

Then, explaining from a scientific angle, it is schizophrenia.

Lu Xiuqi didn't study medicine, and didn't know whether different personalities in schizophrenia share memories.

But he clearly didn't remember the things his other self had done; now that he knew, and it even involved the Empress's death, he instantly panicked.

As a journalist, he indeed wanted a big scoop, but not this kind of big scoop; if this kind of big scoop deviated, he would be held responsible.

And he couldn't afford that responsibility.

He, Lu Xiuqi, was just a small reporter at a local newspaper; he had no experience chatting and laughing with big shots.

The most glorious moment of his life, aside from the "Undying Empress Investigation" he was completely unaware of, was accompanying a group abroad to investigate the "Mist Event".

In a series of serious reports, he had "appeared on camera" in the capacity of an "accompanying reporter".

"Schizophrenia," Tang Luo said. "Possible. But this poor monk isn't a doctor; from this poor monk's perspective, I'm more willing to call this situation 'ghost possession.'"

The muscles on Lu Xiuqi's face twitched uncontrollably.

Ghost possession, schizophrenia — which explanation is more terrifying?

As someone who received a modern scientific education, Lu Xiuqi found ghost possession harder to accept.

After all, this is a brand new, unknown realm, and the unknown brings fear.

Just like in horror movies, the scariest moment is always when the ghost hasn't appeared yet, that stretch of time before it appears.

Or when it flashes by in an instant; in short, once the "ghost" truly appears, the horror level is actually not as high as when it hasn't appeared.

"Master, you mean there's a ghost inside my body?" Lu Xiuqi asked with a stammer.

Good thing he was an old hand at driving; otherwise in this state he wouldn't have been able to drive at all.

"Perhaps," Tang Luo said. "But for now, this poor monk can't tell."

Up to now, Lu Xiuqi had been acting normal, just like that night, without revealing any clues.

"Then can I still be saved? Master," Lu Xiuqi said with a long face.

"This poor monk can take a look," Tang Luo said.

"Good, good. Then Master, do we need to prepare anything?" Lu Xiuqi acted like a devotee who'd been sweet-talked into losing all bearings.

Fortunately, this Tang Luo was definitely a real master, the kind with boundless magic power.

Finding a place to park, Lu Xiuqi gazed at Tang Luo with burning eyes.

"Then let's begin. This poor monk will perform an eye-opening for you," Tang Luo said.

"Just like that? Here?" Lu Xiuqi froze. No prior preparation at all? Not a shred of ritual sense — ghost possession is no small matter.

"Mm." Tang Luo nodded, reached out, and pressed his hand on the crown of Lu Xiuqi's head.

Lu Xiuqi instantly froze motionless, like a quail; he could even hear his own heart pounding violently.

Ferry Soul!

Lu Xiuqi had a light, floating sensation, as if drifting in water.

He instinctively looked around and discovered he was suspended in midair; everything around him had already come to a standstill.

The cars on the street, the pedestrians, the clouds in the sky, even the leaves in midair — all completely motionless.

"Master?"

Before him was that Master Xuanzang, with a halo added behind his head, emitting a faint glow.

"Oh, I see." Tang Luo looked at Lu Xiuqi's soul, nodded, and said.

Lu Xiuqi lowered his head to look, and asked blankly: "Master, right now I am..."

"Benefactor, you are currently in a soul state; your body is in the car, no need to worry," Tang Luo said. "This poor monk misspoke just now; Benefactor is not ghost-possessed, at least not in the conventional sense of ghost possession."

"Huh?" Lu Xiuqi looked at Tang Luo, uncomprehending.

Ghost possession is divided into conventional and unconventional?

The special thing about Lu Xiuqi lies in his soul — it's a Two-Face, not the disfigured Two-Face from DC's Gotham City.

Lu Xiuqi's front face is perfectly normal — the look seen under normal circumstances.

But the back of his head isn't a back of the head; it's likewise a face.

This face is the other Lu Xiuqi that Tang Luo and Ao Yulie saw that night.

Moreover, behind it there is an extremely faint, extremely fine thread, stretching out and disappearing into the void.

After a moment's thought, Tang Luo suddenly reached out, turned Lu Xiuqi's head around, and ended the Ferry Soul state.

Lu Xiuqi's head wasn't twisted off; it was just like a normal head-turning motion, completely unaffected.

The Lu Xiuqi in the car began to convulse wildly.

His appearance was changing — the muscles on his face, his features, all altering.

This change was incomparably hideous, presumably also very painful; one could see Lu Xiuqi's one hand clutching the steering wheel for dear life, the other clutching the gear shift.

Veins bulged on the backs of his hands, nearly wrenching the gear shift to pieces.

The transformation process lasted a total of ten seconds before Lu Xiuqi turned into another person.

He panted heavily, his gaze at Tang Luo gradually shifting — not fear, not amusement, but pleasant surprise.

"Master Xuanzang! That Empress really has a problem; I saw the news..." Lu Xiuqi's speech was both urgent and rapid.

"Heh." Tang Luo let out a laugh.

Very interesting — this fake Lu Xiuqi shares memories with the real Lu Xiuqi and has confabulated to a certain degree.

For instance, what Tang Luo told him about "ghost possession" and "schizophrenia" were all confabulated by him into matters concerning the Empress.

Tang Luo coming to find him this time was also for the Empress's affairs.

No wonder Tang Luo and Ao Yulie both failed to detect any abnormality or lying behavior from Lu Xiuqi.

Because in this fake Lu Xiuqi's world, nothing he said was false in the slightest; everything was real.

The real Lu Xiuqi is the same — when the fake Lu Xiuqi appears, he too rationally confabulates the other's various behaviors.

Treating them as his own doing.

Except for one matter: the investigation data on the "Undying Empress" — one believes it was done by a friend, the other believes he never did it at all.

Double negative equals affirmative.

This matter was accomplished by the two joining forces.

As for why this one is said to be fake, the reason is also simple: the previous Lu Xiuqi's appearance matches the one on his ID documents; the latter one doesn't.

At least it can be confirmed that the former is the primary one conducting daily life.

The latter actually appears very rarely.