Silence.
Dull and murky.
A sinister wind brushed past.
Compared to before, there seemed to be no obvious change. There was only a Soul-Calling Banner and a red candle at the entrance beneath the residential building across the street.
"I didn't see anyone, nor did I see any ghosts."
"It was as if they appeared by themselves."
Jiang Qiao tossed away the scraps of paper in his hand and walked out of the courier shop.
He did not linger.
He went straight to the Soul-Calling Banner.
It was a crude thing.
A moldy bamboo pole hung with a long strip of white paper. Four large characters, "Receive Souls and Ascend to Immortality," had been written on it in thick black ink. On either side of the large characters were twelve smaller ones: "The Golden Lad Pulls the Banner to Guide the Way; the Jade Girl Holds the Lamp to See Off."
"Ascend to immortality?"
"That immortal character again."
The Soul-Calling Banner was very old. The black characters on it had faded slightly, and stuck by the roadside, it gave people the illusion that they had entered the homeland of the dead.
The candle beside it had already burned down a little.
The candlelight was very bright.
Abnormally bright.
It looked like a 200-watt incandescent bulb, especially glaring on the dim street.
What was more, the candlelight was perfectly steady.
The sinister wind rippled around it, yet the flame did not waver in the slightest.
"There's no problem on the surface."
"Candles in the Supernatural Circle usually have three functions. The first is to guide the way—to illuminate darkness, dispel fog, or act as a beacon to point out the direction, ensuring that people won't get lost and can see the road beneath their feet."
"The second is isolation."
"The candlelight