A warm yellow desk lamp was on in the living room, and there was a half-empty whiskey bottle on the table, as well as two empty glasses. Bai Haorui was sitting at the table, holding three Five Emperor Coinss on his fingertips. The copper coins were slowly turning between his fingers, making a crisp collision sound. There was a layer of almost invisible red gold True Fire lingering around him, blocking out the chill in the room.
Bobby hung up the phone, slammed the receiver on the landline, his brows knitted into knots, and when he turned around, his face was filled with uncontrollable irritation.
"Still no one answered." Bobby picked up the wine bottle, poured himself a full glass, and drank most of it in one gulp, "Olivia, that girl has known me for so many years, and she has never failed to answer so many of my calls."
The Five Emperor Coins on Bai Haorui's fingertips suddenly stopped, and the copper coins that were rotating smoothly froze for an instant. His eyes darkened, and he looked up at the west window. Spiritual Sense spread out like a tide, and he instantly captured the fleeting evil and resentment that carried the Hell aura.
"Bobby." His voice was steady, but with an unmistakable solemnity, "To the west, there is a very strange yin energy. It is not the resentment of ordinary ghosts, it is forcibly triggered by black magic. The resentment is wrapped in the smell of Hell sulfur, and the feeling of Soul-Binding Spell."
Bobby paused for a moment. "Tomorrow morning, let's go over and take a look. Nothing seems right these days. First Dean crawled back from Hell, then an angel appeared, and now this kind of ghost thing happens again."
Bai Haorui put Five Emperor Coins into his pocket, picked up the mahogany sword beside the table, and brushed the runes on the sword with his fingertips. The red-gold True Fire followed the runes in a circle, and the sword flashed a faint light under the light.
He leaned against the door frame and looked out the window at the overwhelming darkness, a glimmer of understanding flashed in his eyes:
Angels have arrived, Hell black magic has changed, and Lilith has indeed taken action. The first seal of Apocalypse in the original work was Rise of the Witnesses. Now it seems that most of it has been broken. Dean just came back from Hell. In the past four months, Sam has mixed with Ruby and drank a lot of demon blood. This scene, which God has written for thousands of years, is finally about to begin.
The study was in chaos as if it had been swept by a tornado. Thick ancient books were piled all over the table. Scattered pages and draft paper filled with notes were spread on the floor. The air was filled with the smell of ink, old paper and whiskey.
Dean stood by the desk, folding his arms, his face tensed, and he was red-faced after arguing with Sam who was sitting on the chair. Bobby sat behind the desk, burying his head in flipping through a pile of ancient cuneiform books, his brows never loosening. Bai Haorui leaned on the bookshelf by the window, holding a piece of deerskin in his hand, slowly wiping the mahogany sword engraved with runes, but his ears listened to the quarrel between the two brothers, and True Fire's fingertips brushed the sword blade from time to time.
"Then tell me, what else can it be?" Sam's voice was filled with helplessness, and a hint of urgency that he didn't even notice. He needed a "good news" so much, and a force that could resist Hell.
Dean sneered, his eyes full of resistance. "Listen, all I know is that I have never been touched by any angel."
"Okay, Dean, why do you think Castiel lied to you?"
"Maybe he is some kind of demon?" Dean spread his hands and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Devils will always lie. Isn't this their specialty?"
"A demon who is immune to salt bombs, Devil's Trap, and even Ruby's knives?" Sam leaned forward and said in a serious tone, "Dean, even Lilith is not completely immune to these things! We have tried all methods, and we can't hurt him at all!"
"You haven't thought about it, if angels really exist, how come you haven't heard of any hunter, and when did you see them once?" Dean's voice rose a little higher, "It has been thousands of years, there must be a living hunter who has seen it, right? Why am I the only one so 'lucky'?"
"I've seen you before, Dean." Sam looked at him and said word by word, "It's you."
Dean was choked and scratched his hair irritably. "I'm trying to think of a reasonable explanation, okay? Just cooperate with me."
"Dean, we already have a reasonable explanation."
"Yeah, I want a less fairy tale explanation, thank you." Dean rolled his eyes, "Angel? God? You might as well tell me that Santa Claus is real and the Easter Bunny will give me eggs."
"Well, look, I'm not saying we're 100 percent sure, I just think we-"
"That's enough, that's the point." Dean interrupted him sharply, his eyes as sharp as knives, "We can't be 100% sure, so I won't believe that it is some bullshit God's angel just because of a word about it!"
"You two fools, do you want to continue arguing about religion, or should you come over and take a look at this?"
Bobby finally raised his head from the book, glared angrily at the two people who kept arguing, and put the ancient book in his hand on the table. The heavy book hit the table with a clang. Sam Dean immediately shut up and moved to the desk. Bai Haorui also put down the mahogany sword and deerskin, walked over slowly, and stood beside Dean.
"I looked through tons of legends, from the Bible, from before the Bible, and some were even written in fucking cuneiform." Bobby pointed to the ancient text on the page and tapped one of the lines with his fingertips. "All records are consistent. Only angels can fish souls out of Hell, and from the deepest part of Hell, not the edge."
Dean's Adam's apple moved, but he still refused to give up. "Is there anything else?"
"What else?"
"Is there anything else that can do it?" Dean, he really needs another answer, an answer that doesn't require him to face such ghosts as "God, angel, chosen".
Bobby looked at him, his tone calm but unquestionable. "Airlift your ass out of the fire pit? As far as I know, no. Not even the devil in Hell can do it. Hell's rules are locked, and only the power of Heaven can break it."
"Dean, this is good news." Sam looked at him.
Dean suddenly turned his head to look at him, his eyes full of disbelief. "What's so good about it?"
"Because this time, it's not another round of demon trouble." Sam's voice softened, "I mean, maybe you were really saved by a good person, understand? We finally have allies who can fight against Lilith and Hell's allies."
"Okay, even if it's true, even if there really are angels, so what?" Dean's tone softened, but he felt more uneasy, "Is there really God?"
Bobby picked up the whiskey and took a sip, shrugging. "On this one, the odds in the casino are even better."
"I don't know, guys." Dean leaned on the edge of the table, folded his arms, and looked out the window. His anger was gone, only confused, "If there really are God angels, then where were they when mom died? Dad's whole life Chasing the devil and risking his life in the end, where were they? When Sam was targeted by Yellow-Eyed Demon and his whole life was ruined, where were they? Now they suddenly appeared and fished me out of Hell? Why?"
Sam opened his mouth and was about to speak when he was interrupted by Dean.
"Evidence?" Dean looked at him, "The evidence you are talking about? Proves that there really is a God, and he cares about my personal evidence? Sorry, I don't believe it."
"Why don't you believe it?"
"Because why is it me?" Dean's voice was higher, with self-denial in his eyes. "If there really is God, why would he care about me? I have saved some people, okay? I thought this could make up for my bad things of stealing things, cheating money, and dumping girls. But why should I be saved? I am just an ordinary person, a hunter with blood on my hands. I can't even protect my own brother."
"Dean--" Sam's tone softened, "Obviously, you, an ordinary person, are very important to the person upstairs."
"Then I just feel creepy." Dean twitched the corner of his mouth and showed a smile that was uglier than crying. "I don't even like being called out alone at birthday parties, let alone being called out by...God. It feels like someone is holding a magnifying glass and staring at the little thing in my crotch every day. It's so damn disgusting."
"Well, that's too bad, Dean, because I think he just wants you to wear a party hat."
Dean took a deep breath and finally relaxed, but still had a face full of resistance. "Okay. So what do we know about angels? We can't just believe what others say, right?"
Bobby said nothing. He bent down and picked up a pile of ridiculously thick books from under the desk, and placed them in front of Dean with a clang. The pile of books almost reached his chest.
"Start reading." Bobby raised his eyebrows.
Dean looked at the pile of books in front of him, his face instantly collapsed, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he turned to look at Sam, his eyes full of hints of "you understand what I mean."
"You go buy me a pie." Dean raised his chin and pushed the book aside confidently, "Cherry flavor, add more frosting."
Bai Haorui was leaning on the bookshelf. He raised his eyes when he heard this, and with a faint smile on his lips, he added, "Bring me one too, with apple filling and less icing sugar."
"Why should I go?" Sam rolled his eyes, "If you want to read together, why should you two be lazy at home while I go run errands?"
"Because I am your brother, and I just crawled back from Hell and was almost torn to pieces by Hellhound, and now I have to read these ghost things that are thicker than bricks." Dean straightened up Angry, he picked up a book from the top, opened it and frowned at the Latin on it, "Besides, your Latin is better than mine. You can read these things easily, but I have a headache after reading them, so you can go out and buy some things and come back to catch up with my progress."
Sam sighed helplessly, stood up, picked up his coat and walked out. "Okay, okay, I really owe you."
Dean watched him walk out, and the smile on his face fell instantly. After turning two pages of the book in his hand, he could no longer read it. He stared at the words on the page with a blank look in his eyes:
Bullshit angel, bullshit God. If this thing really existed, how could so many innocent people die at the hands of the devil? How could I be torn apart in Hell for decades? Now suddenly appear as a good guy? There is definitely a pit in this, a huge pit. They definitely didn't have good intentions when they took me out. They must have other purposes. I don't believe in the nonsense of "God selected".
Bai Haorui looked at him, tapped the mahogany sword lightly with his fingertips, and said nothing. He knew very well that Dean's uneasiness was not unreasonable. Heaven took him out, never out of goodwill, just for Michael's container, and for the Apocalypse decisive battle that they had planned for thousands of years.
The so-called God is just a bastard who writes scripts and plays. This Apocalypse was arranged by him from beginning to end. Winchester Brothers is the core chess piece in his hand. Dean I still don't know He said that what he called "being chosen" was just asking him to give up everything and become a skin for an angel. Sam also didn't know that his so-called "fighting against Lilith" would only push him into the arms of Lucifer.
Impala stopped on the side of the road, its tires ran over the gravel on the side of the road, and stopped steadily. Sam opened the door and got out of the car, while making a call on his mobile phone, his tone full of helplessness.
"Yes, yes, Dean, I will buy potato chips and beer, barbecue flavor, okay?"
"Dude, when did I forget to buy a pie? Just be patient."
"That's it, hung up."
He hung up the phone and just turned around, he saw Ruby standing under the shade of a tree not far away, with a black leather jacket wrapped around her body, her face pale, and her eyes filled with panic. Sam's face instantly darkened, and she glanced around subconsciously, and after confirming that no one was there, she walked over quickly.
"Ruby." His voice was very low, with caution in his tone. He was afraid that Dean would know that he was in contact with Ruby.
"Is it true?" Ruby's eyes were full of questions, "Did an angel really rescue Dean?"
Sam paused and nodded. "You've heard all about it."
"Who hasn't heard of it?" Ruby sneered, but the charm of the past was gone, only uneasiness remained, "Hell's heart is exploding. Lilith is so angry that all the demons are spreading, Heaven's people are coming down and they are going to start a war."
"We're not 100% sure yet, but I think it's true." Sam looked at her, "How much do you know about them?"
Ruby: "Not many. I have never seen them, and I don't want to see them. I only know that they are the natural enemies of the devil. They don't care whether I am helping or not. They always act first and ask questions later. As long as they are devils, in their eyes Damn it, no exceptions." She paused, looked up at Sam, and said urgently, "Be careful, Sam. Angels are not as simple as you think, they are not here to be saviors."
"I'm not afraid of angels." Sam's eyes darkened, and there was a hint of paranoia in his tone that he didn't even notice. "As long as I can kill Lilith, I don't care whether it's an angel or anything else."
Ruby looked at him, opened his mouth, but finally said nothing. He broke away from his hand holding his arm, turned around and walked quickly into the shadows at the corner of the street, disappearing in an instant.
Sam stood alone, still holding the car keys in his hand, frowning,
What about angels? Dean doesn't believe it, and I don't believe it all. Only power is real, and only the ability in my hand can kill Lilith. Dean must not know about me drinking the devil's blood, absolutely not... If he knows, he will be extremely disappointed with me, and he will think that I have turned into a monster. But I have no other way. This is the only way to protect him and stop all this.
Impala's engine sound came from far and near, and it stopped steadily in the yard of Bobby's house. Before the car stopped, Bobby walked out of the house with a solemn expression, walked quickly to the car window, and knocked on the glass.
"Don't turn off the engine." Bobby's tone was urgent.
Sam put down the car window, his face full of confusion. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"I have a friend in a neighboring state, Olivia Laurie." Bobby frowned, "I called her for three days about the angel. She has never failed to answer so many calls from me, not even once."
"Olivia·Laurie--right?" Dean's careless face instantly faded away, "I remember her. We handled a werewolf case together a few years ago, and she was pretty good at it."
"Yes." Bobby nodded and walked towards his pickup truck, "Let's go see her, you follow me."
Dean immediately opened the door, threw the potato chips in his hand to Bai Haorui who had just sat in the back seat, and motioned for Sam to move to the passenger seat.
"Move over." Dean raised his chin, "I'll drive."
Sam rolled his eyes helplessly, but moved to the passenger seat. Dean sat in the driver's seat, and as soon as he started the car, he opened the storage box in front of the passenger seat. When he opened it, his face suddenly darkened.
"Brother?" Dean turned to look at Sam, his tone full of danger of "You're finished."
"Huh?" Sam was loading the shotgun. Hearing this, he looked up at him.
"Where's the pie?" Dean pointed at the storage box, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot, "Where's the Cherry Pie I want?"
Sam froze in action for a moment, slapped his forehead, and said with annoyance on his face, "Damn it! I forgot to take it!"
"Good guy--" Dean laughed angrily, "Sam, I remember you went out just because I asked you to buy a pie, right? Now you went out for a walk and came back like this?"
"Okay, okay, when we come back from Olivia's house, I'll buy ten for you, okay?" Sam comforted him helplessly, "Let's do business first, Olivia might have had an accident."
Dean snorted and stepped on the accelerator. Impala let out a roar and followed Bobby's pickup truck onto the highway. Bai Haorui was sitting in the back seat, but a hint of understanding flashed in his eyes.
Bobby took the lead in pushing open the door of the house with a loaded shotgun. He walked very lightly and vigilantly swept through every corner of the living room. Dean and Sam followed behind with salt shot guns, back to back, one staring at the left, the other The person stared to the right. Bai Haorui was walking at the end, with a trace of imperceptible red-gold True Fire lingering on his fingertips. Spiritual Sense spread out like a tide, covering every corner of the entire house, detecting all traces of evil aura.
"Olivia?" Bobby's voice was very low, echoing in the empty house, but there was no response.
The four of them walked in step by step. As soon as they entered the living room, their footsteps stopped instantly.
Olivia was lying on the floor covered in blood. He died tragically. His neck was twisted at a weird angle. His eyes were open and staring at the ceiling. The wounds on his body were deep enough to see the bones. At first glance, he looked like he had been killed by a resentful spirit. Teared to death. Bobby's body suddenly froze, his hand holding the shotgun tightened, and his knuckles turned white. He turned around silently, walked out of the room, leaned against the wall outside the door, and exhaled heavily.
"Bobby?" Dean looked at his back and shouted, but got no response.
Sam squatted down and pointed at the trampled salt line at the door, with a solemn expression. "Salt line, she drew the salt line, but it was broken through, and it had no effect at all."
Dean picked up the EMF detector that fell next to the body. "Olivia turned on the EMF at the time. She knew there was a spirit here."
"There are spirits moving, and they are not ordinary spirits." Sam nodded and looked up at Dean, "It is impossible for ordinary ghosts to ignore the salt line, let alone to make people like this. I have never seen a ghost with such a strong power, and can ignore the restraints of salt and iron."
At this moment, Bai Haorui squatted next to the body. He did not touch the body, but a very thin trace of red gold True Fire popped out from his fingertips. True Fire touched lightly. The skin on Olivia's wrist. At the moment of contact, the originally pure golden red True Fire suddenly had a trace of strange black lines on its surface, as if it had been eroded by something. It made two hissing sounds before dissipating.
Bai Haorui frowned immediately, raised his eyes to look at Dean and Sam, and said in a solemn tone, "Her soul was forcibly torn into pieces, and the three souls and seven souls were completely scattered. There was no chance of reincarnation. The body was marked by Hell's black magic, which is a combination of Soul-Binding Spell and the curse."
"What do you mean?" Dean immediately squatted over and looked at him.
"These resentful spirits did not come back by themselves." Bai Haorui's fingertips brushed the ground, and True Fire's fingertips swept through the remaining Yin Qi, burning those evil spirits cleanly. "Someone used black magic to forcibly remove them from their resting place, and even It was Hell who pulled back the edge and used spells to amplify their resentment dozens of times, turning them into monsters who only know revenge. It is precisely because of this that they can slightly resist the nemesis of ordinary ghosts such as salt and iron. If their resentment is strong enough, they can temporarily break through their restraint."
"Damn it." Dean cursed and his face became darker.
At this moment, Bobby walked back to the room with his cell phone, his face as pale as paper, and his eyes full of unconcealable heaviness.
"I called several hunters nearby." Bobby's voice was hoarse, "Jed, Carl, R. C., and three children who often travel together."
Dean looked at him and had a bad feeling in his heart. "Okay, we just need help, what did they say?"
"... But they didn't answer the phone either." Bobby's Adam's apple moved and he said this.
The room fell into dead silence for an instant, with only the whistling of the wind outside the window. Sam and Dean looked at each other, their faces filled with unbreakable solemnity.
Something is wrong, something is so wrong. It is specifically targeting hunters, how can you not be afraid of the resentful spirits of salt and iron, and yet so many hunters have lost contact at once... This is definitely not a random event, someone is deliberately causing trouble. Is it Lilith? What on earth does she want to do? Kill all the hunters, and then no one can stop her?
The phone rang wildly in the empty house, over and over again, and finally clicked, and the answering machine automatically connected.
"Hey, I'm Jed, I'm not at home, please leave a message."
"Jed, I am a friend of Dean·Winchester, Bobby·Singer." Dean's voice came from the phone, "Listen, we think something has happened and hunters are being targeted. I just want to make sure you are safe, give me a call."
The message ended and the busy tone echoed through the house.
Slowly sweeping across the entire room, the floor was covered with blood, broken glass, scattered salt bags, and a shotgun dropped next to the body. Jed's chest was torn open. The death condition was exactly the same as Olivia's, even more tragic. The salt line at the door of the room and the iron fireplace poker were bent into scrap metal and fell next to the body, without any effect.
There was no one in the house, and only the smell of blood filled the air, too strong to be dissolved.
Dean and Sam walked down the steps of the house. Both of them looked ugly, and there were still blood stains on their bodies that had not been wiped off. Dean held the mobile phone and put it to his ear. The only thing that came from the phone was a busy signal. He was so angry that he slammed the car door so hard that his knuckles turned red.
"We are at Jackson. The situation is terrible." The call was finally connected. Dean spoke to the receiver, his tone full of suppressed anger, "He died worse than Olivia. The same death situation, the same trampled salt line, the same resentful spirit that ignored salt and iron. How are you doing there?"
The screen cut to Bobby who was driving. He was holding the steering wheel in one hand and his mobile phone in the other. Bai Haorui in the passenger seat was looking out the window with his brows furrowed. Five Emperor Coins on his fingertips was spinning very fast. Spiritual Sense was sweeping all the way. There was dissipated resentment spurred by black magic everywhere.
"R. C. Over there." Bobby's voice was hoarse, with unconcealed fatigue, "We went to see Carl·Bates and R. C.·Adams. Their homes were all renovated in red. No one survived."
"What the hell happened, Bobby?" Dean's voice rose a little higher, "Why do so many ghosts suddenly want to kill off-duty hunters? And they specifically picked the ones we know and those we went on missions with?"
"I don't know, but until we find out, you two should hurry back to me." Bobby's tone left no room for doubt, "It's too dangerous outside now. These things are specifically watching hunters. We must get together."
"We're going over there." Dean hung up the phone, threw the phone on the passenger seat, started Impala, and the engine made an angry roar.