Do I even have a choice?
"Mr. Lugo, what are you saying! Of course you have a choice. You can choose to be paid in gold or in US dollars."
Wu Heng looked at Kane Lugo with some surprise, seemingly not expecting him to ask such a question.
Kane's lips moved; he wanted to say that wasn't what he meant.
But when he looked up and saw Wu Heng's half-smile, Kane instantly understood that Wu Heng had actually understood his meaning all along, but was just politely refusing.
"That's good, then I can rest assured." Kane smiled wryly and caught up with Wu Heng's group. What kind of mess was this?
Wu Heng didn't care about Kane's opinion; he only wanted to utilize all the power he could.
He raised his hand and launched the drone, which circled in the sky amidst the astonished gazes of the surrounding tourists who had never seen anything like it before, before finding the dark-skinned Mike Hanlon.
He put away the drone and walked straight toward Mike Hanlon.
" Mike Hanlon!"
Holding a sign in the crowd, Mike Hanlon, looking bewildered, turned his head upon hearing this and then slightly grinned, revealing his white teeth.
" Father List, welcome to Delhi."
Mike Hanlon was wearing an ordinary gray shirt, with an excited expression on his face.
"This isn't a blessing. We're still on the outskirts of Derry, aren't we? Let's find somewhere to talk first; time is of the essence."
Wu Heng didn't stand on ceremony and led everyone out of the airport. The fierce expressions of the group of prisoners beside him made Mike Hanlon a little reserved.
"Father, are these all your people?"
"Yes, they are helpers."
After leaving the airport, we found ourselves in the largest private room of a teahouse called Vintoge Cafe, which was just the right size to accommodate everyone.
" Mike Hanlon, I heard you've been studying it for over 20 years, so you must know a lot about it. Tell me about it first."
Wu Heng planned to confirm some things about the Pennywise with Mike Hanlon.
"Father, do you understand fear?"
"Fear is an innate human feeling. I understand it as a defense mechanism of the brain. Fear often originates from childhood, when encountering something causes intense discomfort. The stimulated brain remembers this thing and will avoid it in the future. The fear formed in this way can accompany one throughout life."
"It can sense people's fears and exploit those fears that people dare not face as weaknesses to attack us. To defeat it, one must have a strong heart to face fear directly."
"I've discovered a method for imprisoning Pennywise in an ancient book, if you..."
Mike Hanlon first shared his understanding of fear, and then he was about to talk about the ritual bottles he had discovered in the primitive tribe, but Wu Heng interrupted him.
" Mike Hanlon, I know about that bottle and the primitive tribe you mentioned. Let me tell you clearly, that method is fake. It was left as a trick to amuse humans. You've been fooled."
Wu Heng mercilessly refuted Mike Hanlon's attempt to gamble on his luck.
Perhaps it was the constant fear of Pennywise the Pennywise that had tormented Mike Hanlon Hanlong for the past 27 years, making his fear so intense that he still harbored illusions about an obviously fraudulent ritual.
Just like some people who are addicted to illegal investments, they still believe in the scammers even after being deceived, and the advice from parents, friends and the police has no effect.
Wu Heng took out a map and a piece of red paper.
" Mike Hanlon, point out the location of the Well House, then write your name on the red talisman and go find Ben."
Mike Hanlon sat there dumbfounded. The method to seal the Pennywise that he had searched for 27 years to find had been so easily revealed by Wu Heng. His only hope had been shattered, and he suddenly didn't know what to do.
Upon hearing Wu Heng's words, Mike Hanlon instinctively circled the location of the Well House and wrote down his name as instructed.
"Here's some money; it'll be enough for your food, clothing, and shelter."
Wu Heng then gave Mike Hanlon a stack of banknotes.
Mike Hanlon was just a supermarket clerk who often looked up information about Pennywise the Pennywise while working, and he didn't have much savings.
Simply asking him to find Ben without offering him any money—perhaps just the cost of a plane ticket—would have already financially prevented Mike Hanlon from doing so.
In United States, ordinary people can hardly move an inch without money.
Mike Hanlon accepted the money; this country doesn't have a tradition of subtle refusal, so he accepted it directly when he genuinely needed it, and expressed his gratitude verbally.
"You should set off to find Ben now, or you might not be able to leave."
Wu Heng said something pointedly.
After studying the location of the Well House, he paid the bill and left the teahouse, parting ways with Mike Hanlon, and led the evil spirits to the border between Derry and Tucker Town.
Wu Heng stared intently at the boundary line, not venturing any further.
Because he wasn't sure if Derry was truly the embodiment of Pennywise Pennywise, and whether taking that step would mean stepping directly on the Pennywise himself.
" Kane, tell me, in this town, the most evil place you can sense," Wu Heng turned to ask the old psychic he had met in the cabin.
The old man frowned, carefully observing the direction of Derry. He seemed to have discovered something, and then closed his eyes to sense it more deeply.
Pfft!
Like the sound of a balloon bursting, the old man's eyes suddenly exploded, spraying out a clear liquid and a gray substance.
"Ah--! It's 100 meters north of the circled spot on your map, 60 meters underground."
"Old Kane screamed, covering his eyes with his hands as if trying to hide the intense pain," he said.
"Okay, thank you for your hard work."
"It's just a minor injury, don't make a fuss. You're an old man, you're so unreliable."
Wu Heng took out the white nematode fluid, pried open the old man's hands, and dripped a drop into each of his shriveled, broken eyelids.
The shriveled eyeballs quickly filled up, becoming round again, and the pupils turned blood red. Fresh blood trickled from the corners of the eyes, covering the previous bloodstains.
Old Man Kane fell into a coma and slowly woke up ten minutes later. He opened his eyes and curiously observed everything around him.
The emerald green pine needles, the black soil, the azure sky—everything became clear. His presbyopia completely disappeared, just like the vision of a child. Kane even felt that some of his bone pains and rheumatism had improved, and he felt like he had become more than ten years younger.
"This!"
"I said it was just a minor injury. Now that your eye is healed, please mark the location in detail, according to what you see."
Wu Heng handed the map to Kane to re-mark, and after confirming the location, he turned to look at the 26 evil spirits beside him.
They chose to leave behind four evil spirits with area-of-effect attacks, and sent the remaining 22 evil spirits into Derry. They all carried monitoring equipment and rushed straight to the location of the Well House.
These fearless evil spirits, led by four mutated evil spirits modified by Wu Heng, arrived at 29 Neibolt Street.
The location at number 29 dates back to World War II in 1941, when locals built an exquisite red wooden house in the Cape Cod style over an old well in the street.
Later, Neibolt Street fell into disrepair, and people moved away one after another. Number 29 was abandoned and became Ghost House for the town's homeless and drug addicts. The old well inside the house was the confluence of the Derry's sewers and also the Pennywise's hiding place.
Today, this Silence, foul-smelling wooden hut It Comes a group of uninvited guests.