Chapter 71: Spirit Mediumship (Seeking monthly votes)

The moment he saw the "midwife," Lu Mian's heart seemed to stop beating.

She is still alive?

I clearly saw her killed by Ryan, and her spirit was destroyed!

Lu Mian remembered very clearly that the "midwife" finally turned into small pieces of flesh and blood all over the ground, and some parts couldn't even be found.

This is bumping into a ghost, right! No, there is breathing! Lu Mian associated it with fragments of his sister's novels, and his heart turned from stagnation to wild beating instantly.

If it weren't for the fact that the "midwife" didn't even look at him, self-consciously pruning the branches of the flower tree, he would have likely made a reaction.

*Clack, clack*, small branches growing messily fell to the ground, waking up the stunned Lu Mian.

He subconsciously took a step forward, walking toward the place where tulips were blooming.

The "midwife" didn't stop him, didn't even turn her body.

Lu Mian couldn't help but peek at her again, only to see her focused, her movements earnest, her side face set off by the shadows brought by the flowers and trees, looking very dark and gloomy.

Not daring to stay, Lu Mian picked a few tulips and left the Administrator's castle.

Until he returned to the village, his heart was still beating wildly.

After calming his emotions, seeing it was still early and not yet the node for Aurora to actively trigger the loop, Lu Mian walked toward Raymond Craig's house.

This was also a two-story building, but compared to Lu Mian and Aurora's house, it was clearly more dilapidated, more broken, and smaller, with the outer wall revealing the gray of stones, and many green plants climbing on it.

At this time, the front door of the Craig house was wide open, letting people see the stove on the left, the table on the right, and the wooden barrels one after another in the back at a glance.

According to Lu Mian's memory, those wooden barrels were used for storage, and the space isolated by them had two simple wooden beds, belonging to Raymond and his sister.

Lu Mian didn't knock on the door, and walked straight into the Craig house as usual.

Raymond's sister and younger sister were helping their mother prepare dinner, while Raymond's father, Pierre Craig, sat on a chair by the wooden table, drinking cheap wine gloomily.

"Heard Raymond is missing?" Lu Mian asked Pierre Craig first, with a concerned face.

Pierre Craig seemed to have aged a few more years than before, the few wrinkles on his face becoming more obvious.

He raised his head, looked at Lu Mian, and asked with doubt and surprise:

"You don't know?"

At this time, Raymond's mother, sister, and younger sister all stopped what they were doing and looked at Lu Mian.

Lu Mian said the truest truth that couldn't be truer:

"I've been busy with my own things during this time, haven't seen Raymond for several days."

Pierre Craig had already inquired and knew Lu Mian was telling the truth, otherwise, he, who suspected this bastard kid instigated Raymond to run away from home, would have come to question the other party this afternoon.

"On the afternoon of two days ago, they said it was the 29th, Raymond went out and never came back." Pierre Craig said with a gloomy expression, "We have been looking for him, his two brothers are still looking for him outside. Where do you think he would go?"

Lu Mian thought for a moment and said:

"He always said he didn't want to learn shepherding, but he didn't have any money on him, so he couldn't have left by himself. Let me see if he left anything..."

He walked toward the wooden barrels one after another in the back of the first floor very naturally, passed through the gaps between them, and arrived at Raymond's bed.

This bed was very simple, as if made of a few pieces of wood, but the gray-blue bed sheet, the pillow stuffed with straw, and the quilt with traces of mending were all very clean, looking like they were washed often.

This was because Aurora loved cleanliness and didn't allow lice and other things to appear in the house and on her body, and Lu Mian also developed this habit. Therefore, when getting along with little friends he often played with, he would consciously urge them to keep good personal hygiene, not allowing those guys to be dirty all day, dealing with lice and fleas.

If Raymond and the others were lazy for a period of time and were discovered by him to have grown lice again, they would definitely suffer pranks, and might even be forcibly pushed into the river, having to wash whether they wanted to or not.

After years of oppression, Raymond would habitually help clean the environment when he returned home.

"We didn't find a note." Pierre Craig followed to this area and said with a bitter face.

Lu Mian sat on the edge of Raymond's bed and reached his hand under the pillow.

There were two things there, a dark red fountain pen with a crack and a notebook with many words written on it.

Raymond was very eager for knowledge, but had no opportunity to receive education.

In the era of Emperor Roselle, Cordu and such villages all established compulsory township schools, the location was in the building where the Administrator worked now—it also had a conscription office, a new recruit physical examination committee, etc., but the staff came and went, and there were only those few.

In the past few decades, many villages no longer had schools. In those with more population, the church would hold Sunday schools. In villages like Cordu, they could only rely on elders who had received education to guide the children in their spare time. Generation after generation, some young people became illiterate again.

When Lu Mian was in a good mood, he would always claim he wanted to raise money for wine, so he sold the old fountain pens and notebooks to Raymond, Ava, and others at a low price, and by the way, taught them to recognize some words.

Every time they studied, Raymond was very earnest, just like he practiced fighting and helped shepherds make cheese to earn money.

He was trying so hard to change his destiny.

Lu Mian took out the fountain pen and the notebook, gazed at them, and didn't move for a long time.

"I asked the parish priest to look at it, he said these are all very simple words, not forming sentences." Pierre Craig sighed.

Lu Mian looked through the notebook, only to see the handwriting changed from messy and ugly to acceptable as the page numbers changed.

"There is indeed no note." He first echoed Pierre Craig, then added, "But I'm not sure if this is a code, which can be translated into a sentence. You should have heard similar stories, Aurora told many children in the village, did they mention it when they went home?"

This included Raymond's younger brother and sister.

"Yes." Pierre Craig nodded.

If Cordu villagers didn't have money to go to the tavern, they would often gather in the kitchen at night to chat and tell stories. And the first time they were invited to be guests, they needed to bring a bottle of wine according to the etiquette that was about the same everywhere in Intis, which could be very cheap.

Pierre Craig heard similar stories at such gatherings from his youngest son.

Lu Mian raised the notebook openly and righteously:

"I'll take it back for Aurora to see, to see if she can discover anything."

"Good." Pierre Craig didn't feel this was anything precious.

After leaving the area surrounded by wooden barrels, Lu Mian walked toward the door, and Pierre Craig sat down again.

After walking a few steps, Lu Mian heard Pierre Craig sighing and talking to himself there:

"He could have told me if he didn't want to learn shepherding, why did he leave..." 【71-5

"In a little while, our family will be rich, and we won't need to go learn how to herd sheep..."

Rich? Lu Mian's heart stirred. He turned his body and asked, feigning curiosity:

"Is there some opportunity to get rich?"

Pierre Clagg didn't look at him; he kept his head lowered and said gloomily:

"Our family's constellation is about to change, and our luck will get better..."

This... Lu Mian felt a bit of a chill hearing that.

"Who told you this?" he pressed.

Pierre Clagg didn't answer him, remaining there in his self-pity.

…………

Back home, Lu Mian immediately told his sister the news that the "midwife" was still alive.

Aurora knitted her golden brows:

"She might not be a living person."

"Huh?" Lu Mian was stunned for a moment.

Aurora said while pondering:

"Didn't we discuss this before? The path Lady Pualis is on very likely has the power to control the undead; that might be a living corpse."

"But I saw her without even activating my Spirit Vision, and besides, there were no signs of stitching on her body. Back then, she was hacked into many small pieces by Ryan," Lu Mian recalled. "Also, I heard her breathing!"

Speaking of this, Lu Mian paused:

"However, she was indeed a bit sluggish, her expression very gloomy, and her eyes lacked vitality. She was very much like, very much like Naroka! The Naroka I saw at night in the cycle before last, the Naroka who walked into the Other Shore World of her own accord!"

That Naroka with the pale complexion and vacant eyes.

Of course, the "midwife" was clearly closer to a living person.

Aurora nodded gently:

"Some kind of special state, closer to the undead?"

She couldn't deduce the answer, so she signaled for Lu Mian to talk about other things.

Lu Mian detailed the state of the castle, where everything seemed as if nothing had happened, and the words of Raymond's father.

Aurora listened quietly, then nodded:

"Lady Pualis doesn't seem to want to pursue the matter of the castle, and I don't know what she's wary of...

"Also, your discovery does prove that a portion of the anomalies in the village is related to her, but she doesn't seem to be involved in the cycle..."

She meant that the anomalies Lady Pualis was connected to were mainly birth, death, souls, and the Other Shore World, without the cycle of time.

"I think so too." Lu Mian had had this realization while exploring earlier. "It seems the person behind the parish priest and the others is likely not Lady Pualis."

Connecting it to the words of Raymond's father, he guessed for himself:

"The person who spread the word that doing a certain thing could influence the constellation and gain good luck?"

Aurora said "Mm":

"Let's do an investigation tomorrow, and see if we can perform spirit mediumship on Raymond at night."

…………

After dinner, when night fell, Aurora saw that the time was about right and began to set up the altar.

This time, she was still praying to herself, so she only placed one candle, but the candle had been replaced with another made from materials like Deep Sleep Flower.

After lighting the candle according to the procedure, Aurora sanctified the silver dagger, created a Wall of Spirituality, and then dripped pure dew made from Night Fragrance Herb, Moon Flower, and other ingredients onto the orange flame, stirring up a hazy mist.

Seeing that the preliminary preparations were complete, Aurora glanced at the notebook on the altar, took a step back, and said in Ancient Hermes:

"I!"

With the utterance of this word, her eyes became deep, and invisible winds seemed to swirl around her.

"I summon in my name:"

This was the second sentence she spoke, switched to Hermes.

—Because she didn't know where Raymond's spirit was, she couldn't perform direct spirit mediumship and could only attempt it through summoning. As a wild Beyonder, she didn't dare pray to the "Evernight Goddess" who governed this domain and could only rely on herself. The probability of success wouldn't be very high unless Raymond's spirit was indeed somewhere within Kordu Village, at a very close distance.

Aurora continued to chant:

"The spirit wandering in Kordu Village;

"The man named Raymond Clagg;

"The owner of this notebook..."

The orange candlelight suddenly swayed, absorbing the surrounding mist, and grew slightly larger.

Its radiance rippled, stained with a deep blue color.

Aurora's forehead broke into a sweat as she began to borrow power from the various materials.

Amidst a howling wind, a human figure floated above the deep blue flame.

In the eyes of Lu Mian, who had long since activated his Spirit Vision, the figure was in a semi-transparent state, with brown hair and brown eyes, looking ordinary—it was indeed Raymond Clagg.

He was indeed still in the village.

At this moment, Raymond's body was bloated, his face pale, and blood-colored tears dripped from the corners of his eyes.

This... Aurora was clearly stunned.

After the cycle restarted, Raymond had only gone missing and hadn't been drowned yet, so how did his spirit become like this?

Then again, if he hadn't been drowned, how could he have become a spirit?

It was contradictory...

Amidst her confusion, Aurora spoke up and asked:

"Raymond Clagg, why did you go missing?"

Raymond's expression suddenly turned ferocious, and he shrieked:

"They drowned me!"

PS: Seeking monthly votes~

(End of chapter)