Confrontation

When Kraun hurried back to town, he remembered that there was not much food left at home and decided to stock up first.

For the next few days, he could not go out again. The inexplicable black spots appearing on his body gave off an ominous feeling.

Running into other people would be one thing, but if he encountered Father, things would become seriously troublesome.

He tugged his sleeves down, covering as much of his arms as possible, and headed straight for the mill.

After buying rice and flour, he went to the butcher on Squirrel Street.

Seeing the shop tightly shut, Kraun had no choice but to buy eggs from the butcher's neighbor first. "Twenty pounds of eggs."

His voice was hoarse, like a knife scraping across a burr-covered metal plate, startling even himself.

"Sure thing." The egg seller paid no attention to how unpleasant his customer's voice was and answered enthusiastically.

"Eggs are 2 Silver Coins and 50 Copper per pound, fifty Silver Coins altogether."

Kraun cleared his throat, took out a Gold Shield from his inner lining and handed it over. Lowering his voice, he asked, "Why isn't the meat seller next door open today?"

"You don't know?"

The vendor accepted the Gold Shield and scratched the top of his severely balding head. Somewhat fearfully, he said, "It's the Evil Spirit causing trouble. It's been four or five days now. Eight people, and not a single one survived."

Kraun narrowed his eyes and asked, "Do you remember exactly which day it was?"

The vendor found it strange that this unpleasant-voiced customer was asking so many details, but considering he was a major customer, he tried hard to recall. "Um, it should have been the twenty-fourth. Yes, that's right. The twenty-fifth was Sunday, so Kidd didn't open for business. I reported it to the patrol officers that afternoon."

The twenty-fourth? That's right. That was the morning my body started having problems.

Kraun became even more convinced of his judgment. The Evil Spirit slaughtering people in town was also the former occupant of this body!

"Sir, your change, and your eggs!"

Kraun bared his teeth in a grin. He did not correct the ambiguity in the vendor's words, accepted the coins and eggs, hoisted the grain onto his back again, and left at a brisk pace.

After returning home, Kraun washed the rice, put it in the pot, and quickly started a fire to cook.

Once the fire was going, he cut all the remaining air-dried cured meat in the house into large cubes, preparing to stew it all at once today.

When the rice was cooked, he put the meat cubes on to stew and added dried vegetables such as long beans and radish greens.

Before long, the food was ready.

He ate a bowl of rice with the stew. Once he felt about eighty percent full, he set down his bowl and spoon and began Visualizing the Golden Light Incantation.

Kraun sat cross-legged on the floor, formed the Golden Light Seal with both hands, and entered the Visualization state very quickly.

When the Visualization reached its final stage and he Visualized the Golden Light in his Dantian radiating loudly through his entire body, that mad, terrified voice arrived as expected.

The abnormal changes in his body occurred again. Kraun keenly noticed that this time, they were slightly milder than the first.

More than ten minutes later, he returned to normal.

Wiping the sweat from his back, Kraun took off his shirt, exposing his not particularly Robust chest.

He went to the backyard, served himself another bowl of rice, piled a large plate with stewed meat, and began eating in huge mouthfuls.

The bodily changes had lasted only a short time, yet Kraun had consumed an enormous amount of mental and physical energy.

After finishing the rice, he licked the plate clean as well.

After washing his face, Kraun sat cross-legged on the floor again and said softly through gritted teeth,

"Evil Spirit, I'm going to fucking play you to death!"

He formed the Golden Light Seal with both hands and began a new round of Visualization.

By the time the sun set and the moon rose, Kraun had performed the Golden Light Incantation Visualization twenty-one times and had eaten every last bit of the huge pot of rice and stewed meat he had made that morning.

After resting briefly, Kraun cooked another pot of rice and fried half a pot of eggs.

You Hour referred to roughly five in the evening to seven at night. With no timekeeping tool at home, Kraun could only judge from experience that he could perform the Bright Moon Silent Illumination Visualization around five times.

To be safe, he decided to perform only three Visualizations under the moonlight.

He entered the bedroom and pulled open the heavy curtains. Moonlight filled the room.

Kraun sat cross-legged, formed the Moonlight Seal with his hands, placed them on his knees, and closed his eyes.

He Visualized a Silver Moon rising before him. After silently illuminating his entire body for a moment, the silver moon entered his brow.

The instant he completed this step, an icy sensation suddenly arose in his mind.

Before Kraun could marvel at how immediate the effect of Moon Radiance cleansing his soul was, the icy sensation exploded and rapidly spread throughout his body.

He felt as though something had squeezed into his body, after which a thin membrane wrapped around his consciousness.

His body stood up beyond his control. In his terror, the body walked over to the full-length mirror.

The moonlight was bright. Kraun saw that "his" eyes had turned into golden vertical pupils, while a mass of black fleshy tendrils shot out from his face.

The person in the mirror gave a sinister smile, revealing a mouthful of gleaming white teeth.

Then he saw his right hand slowly rise. His index and middle fingers bent and gradually approached his face.

Kraun suddenly understood. The monster controlling his body wanted him to gouge out his own eyes.

In utter shock, his mental strength focused as never before.

The membrane wrapped around his consciousness seemed to tear apart, and Kraun felt that he had regained some control over his body.

More precisely, he had taken over control of the left side of his body.

He suddenly seized his right hand, which was almost touching his eye, with his left hand and pushed outward with all his strength while leaning his head back as far as possible.

A bizarre scene unfolded in the room. The man stood before the mirror, his right hand trying to reach forward and grab his face while his left hand desperately pushed it away.

This was a contest of will. The winner took all; the loser was finished.

Kraun did not know how he held on, but only when a rooster crowed in the distance did the sensation of his body being controlled by something else recede like a tide.

His body collapsed to the floor, convulsing all over as his mouth hung open and he desperately gulped down air.

Before this, he had never felt that being able to breathe freely was such a blessing.

His body was exhausted, and so was his mind.

Kraun forced himself to stay alert and refused to sleep.

When the pain from the convulsions had eased considerably, he struggled to his feet.

He fetched a basin of water and poured it over himself for a bath.

While drawing water, Kraun saw his reflection in it. His face was bluish-black, covered in many coin-sized black circular spots.

The cold bath refreshed him greatly. He collected his thoughts, ate a large amount of cold rice and fried eggs, then began Visualizing the Golden Light Incantation.

The monster could appear at night. If it came again tonight, he did not think he could hold on.

Therefore, he had to make full use of the daytime, Visualizing the Golden Light Incantation for as long as possible to weaken and injure the enemy.

Only then would he have any hope of surviving. If he could not weaken the monster enough during the day, he might never see tomorrow's sun again.