Library

As night approached.

Stone Marrow Hall's lobby had already been cleaned up, leaving only a single chair in the middle.

In the dim light, Huai Shi still held a candle in his hand, feeling like he was conducting some kind of cult ritual.

"Is this really going to be okay?"

"Probably not?"

Crow shrugged calmly. "I know you want to search for clues through Old Yang's records in the Book of Destiny, but I need to warn you first: even if the idea is good, ordinary reading might not uncover anything useful—after all, the most important thing in his life was clearly his wife. Of course, if you want to get fed dog food, pretend I said nothing..."

Huai Shi sighed. "Just say what you mean. Can you stop beating around the bush?"

"Wasn't I worried you weren't mentally prepared?" Crow whistled. "If you want to find anything useful, you'll need to use a method that's... not quite so safe. You understand, right?"

"Taking a risk, huh?" Huai Shi sighed and sat down in the chair. "..."

"I won't go into all the principles. You know about spirit possession, right?"

"Bullshit. Are you going to let Old Yang possess me?"

"Something like that."

Crow raised her "shoulders" in a very humanlike shrug. "Put simply, you can think of the Book of Destiny as the interface for some important object, while everything you've read so far has merely been its catalog.

It's like having a computer and planning to commit some cybercrime—you need to use Old Yang's records as an account and password, secretly bypass the firewall to access a dangerous prohibited server, then search for Old Yang's browsing history... Besides the possibility of the cyber police checking the network, there's also the danger of getting infected by trojans and viruses. You get it, right?"

"Will I die?"

"Not very likely. Old Yang himself was just an ordinary person, and his records after death are only old files that would naturally be overwritten if left alone."

Crow patted him on the shoulder. "At worst, you'll just wish you were dead."

"Oh, so just an ordinary day for me?"

Huai Shi accepted it calmly, even finding time to joke about himself. "Let's make this quick. Time's tight, so hurry it up."

"I'm truly relieved by your level of resolve. Take out the Book of Destiny."

Crow gave him a glance, then suddenly turned into a puff of green smoke. As the smoke dispersed, it revealed the event-branch quill. When Huai Shi opened his palm, the Book of Destiny—now transformed into Source Matter and fused with him—appeared in his hand.

The cover opened. Under her manipulation, countless records of Huai Shi's past faded away, replaced by a hand-drawn login screen for an old-fashioned computer.

"Good thing I intercepted plenty of Source Matter back in Old Pond Town. Otherwise, you couldn't even afford the dial-up fee."

Source Matter equivalent to dozens of people flowed from the tip of the quill, turning into ink. Under her strokes, the dial-up progress bar slowly began to fill.

"Remember, once you're inside, stay on the outskirts. Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely do not go deeper in. Don't mess around, don't look around, don't touch anything... Anyway, do nothing except what you came to do. Hold the candle in your hand. The moment its flame goes out, come back immediately. Understand?"

Crow gave him one final warning.

The instant Huai Shi nodded, his vision went black. The ink on the pages suddenly twisted into a vortex and dragged him inside.

It felt as though he had fallen for ten million years, yet it also seemed like only a second had passed.

Huai Shi seemed to experience many things during that process, but when he steadied himself in the darkness, he quickly forgot them all.

"Quit looking around—those memories were erased by me. If you don't want nightmares, don't think about them again. You only have three minutes, little brother. Hurry up!"

Crow's urging snapped him out of his daze.

The candle in his hand was burning rapidly, illuminating the scene around him.

It resembled a dilapidated library. Dust and mildew hung in the air. Amid the deathly silence, Huai Shi stood among countless bookshelves, uneasily scanning his surroundings.

In a silence and darkness where even death seemed capable of dissolving, he was all alone.

If not for the candlelight in his hand, he would have gone mad.

A shrill scream came from afar, followed by a tremendous crash. Amid the roar, countless specks of dust rained down from the beams.

Not knowing what had happened, Huai Shi desperately wanted to lift the curtain and take a look. But when he peered through a hole in the tattered curtain and saw a pale eye staring at him, he wisely abandoned the idea.

"Two minutes and forty seconds left! How long are you going to dawdle?"

Crow scolded him. "It's dangerous for your big sister to keep watch for you too, okay? What do you think that sound was? You nearly got spotted by a predator! Move faster!"

Huai Shi dared not waste any more time. He lowered his head to look at the candle in his hand. After merging with Old Yang's fragmented records, its flame pointed toward the deepest part of the darkness, guiding him onward.

There seemed to be something else lurking in the darkness, constantly making faint noises, yet nothing could be seen in the dim light.

Only the sound of dripping water and soft scraping.

As though something was waiting.

Huai Shi quickened his pace. The old floorboards shrieked sharply beneath his feet, the sound traveling deep into the darkness. Only after a long while did he hear Crow's voice.

"That bookshelf, third row, second book from the left! Hurry, hurry! One minute left!"

Following her directions, Huai Shi found the book she had mentioned among the identical spines on the shelf.

Every book here seemed exactly the same. There were no markings on either their spines or covers, as though they had been casually tossed here and left untouched.

But the instant Huai Shi opened it, a chill ran down his spine. Death Sense surfaced once more—something had noticed him!

With an inhuman, piercing shriek, the floor, bookshelves, and even the ceiling began to tremble. Strands of blackness extended from them, spreading outward like flowing black water, touching and searching for traces of prey.

By the candlelight, he barely made out its appearance, yet he could hardly believe it: it was all hair, strands upon strands gathering together—hair twitching and convulsing like snakes! Dry, icy hair greedily groped through everything around it. Struggling and hissing came from the darkness, followed by unsettling chewing sounds.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Huai Shi swallowed and cautiously shifted his position. The black hair shot past his feet like snakes and flowed into the depths of the darkness.

"Are you here to watch Animal Planet? Stop worrying about that librarian assimilated by hell. She can't find you before the candle goes out!"

Huai Shi sucked in a cold breath. "What kind of hellish place is this?"

"Isn't it a bit late to ask that now?" Crow sounded helpless. "You have fifty seconds left."

Huai Shi dared not delay any longer. He opened the cover, and by the book's light, saw densely packed writing on the pages. Yet the words seemed not to require reading. The instant his gaze landed on them, they seemed to come alive, slipping along his line of sight into his consciousness and turning into countless fleeting scenes.

At first glance, Huai Shi saw that bastard Old Yang squatting on a toilet and psyching himself up.

"My eyes..."

Huai Shi instinctively held his breath and hurriedly flipped past that part.

All the records seemed fragmented and disorganized. He could only flip through them at random. There were rarely any substantial passages, only trivial little things, including Old Yang confessing to his art teacher after getting a little red flower in third grade.

"Old Yang, you matured pretty early..."

Huai Shi sighed. Seeing that only a short length of candle remained, he hurried past that section and continued searching.

Soon, he saw his sister-in-law's pale face in a hospital room, along with Old Yang sitting beside the bed, full of energy.

"Don't worry, honey. I have money now! At the end of the month, we'll transfer to the provincial hospital. I've already found the specialists." He gently covered her somewhat pale hand. "In a couple of years, when you're better, give me a big fat son. A daughter would be fine too. I'd love either..."

Seeing her smile, Old Yang smiled as well.

As though he had found salvation.

Huai Shi gloomily turned the page.

But further down, the memories became fragmented. Within a string of broken images were pain, fear, and unease. At last, a figure appeared.

A mocking smile, withered yellow hair, and those Red Gloves Huai Shi would never forget.

"Then it's settled."

Five fingers spread open and covered Old Yang's face.

An icy sensation flooded into his brain.

What followed were continuous nightmares and delirium. More and more fragments emerged. It was like being drunk—maintaining daily life, yet gradually becoming more of a walking corpse, often not even knowing what he was doing.

"Huai Shi, can you do this or not? Twenty seconds left!" Crow urged.

"Almost there, almost there!"

Huai Shi looked at the candle, nearly burned to its base, and frantically flipped onward. Fragments, fragments, fragments. Delivering meals to the hospital, transferring money at the bank, calling to demand the remaining payment, then receiving a call...

"The Tachibana Group's welcome banquet needs a cellist, right? Leave it to me... Haven't you met that kid Huai Shi? His skills are fine, aren't they? Ah, right, then it's settled."

After hanging up, Old Yang smugly crossed one leg over the other. He took out a notebook, jotted down the details, and texted Huai Shi. "That kid will be so happy when he finds out that he'll jump for joy."

But as he wrote the address, his expression suddenly froze.

The address he sent was completely different from the one he had just written down.

Then he dialed an unknown number and reported stiffly, "Courier Number Four is in position."

"Very good. Come to me."

A hoarse laugh came through the phone.

Old Yang stood up and picked up his keys.

At that instant, a gust of wind blew by, and the candlelight trembled.

The lingering light flickered.

A strand of black hair silently wrapped around Huai Shi's ankle, bringing an icy sensation, as though he had been frozen by ice... creeping upward, strand by strand...

In an instant, half of Huai Shi's body went numb.

"Damn it, how could waves from the Silver Sea reach this place... Huai Shi, come back! Immediately!" Crow's angry voice rang out. "It's latched onto you!"

"Almost there, very soon! I'm about to find it..."

Huai Shi had no time to respond. He sped up, flipping through the pages, but the countless hairs stretched out ever faster. Avoiding the candlelight, they grew and spread behind Huai Shi, tangling around his limbs and tightening more and more.

Meanwhile, Old Yang was driving east along the main road, then turning left onto Coastal Avenue... Huai Shi sped up again and heard the Tide sound in the distance.

Black hair wrapped around his neck and tightened. He could not breathe.

The candle trembled, its last sliver of light about to go out.

Old Yang had parked and walked out of the underground parking garage, moving forward with maddening slowness. He turned left, went upward, and climbed the stairs.

Huai Shi felt his cervical vertebrae groan. The hair was creeping upward along his face, about to burrow into his eyes, nose, and mouth.

The sense of death was like falling into the Ice Sea.

He grew colder and colder from the inside out.

At that instant, he saw Old Yang push open a door.

In the darkness beyond the door, a familiar face was revealed.

At that very moment, the candle went out.

Darkness surged like a spring and swallowed him.

In the final instant, an invisible force pulled him upward, suddenly tearing through the black fog. It was like riding a roller coaster backward, racing upward at breakneck speed. But then a strand of black hair rose up, coiling around his ankle like a rope and dragging him downward.

"Get lost!"

Huai Shi used the last of his strength. An invisible axe fell and severed the black hair.

The instant he lost consciousness, all he heard was an enraged scream from the darkness.

When he opened his eyes again, he had returned to the familiar living room. He bent over and violently vomited the last scraps of food from his stomach as Crow berated him.

"Are you fucking insane?! You were this close! This close! You nearly got assimilated by that place! You would've been trapped forever in the hell of Depth 27, keeping company with those ghostly things!"

She glared at Huai Shi. "That thing remembers you now! Until you break through the fifth rank and become a Crowned One, don't even think about going back in there!"

"I found him..."

Huai Shi struggled to breathe. Drool and tears ran down his face in a miserable mess, yet his eyes shone frighteningly bright, like high beams on a highway to hell.

"I found him..."

He muttered hoarsely, "I found him!"

Sorry, I caught a bad cold and forgot to set the scheduled update.