Chapter 63 Changing Route

"They chose a smart person to be the psychotherapist this time."

"It's just that you're a bit too smart."

The old man said coldly.

Lu Yuan smiled.

In fact, he had already deduced a great deal.

For instance, this ghostly old man was incapable of leaving this intersection. Based on the classification of ghostly entities, this old man was undoubtedly a terrifying existence.

Yet, he possessed a fatal weakness, which was his range of movement.

This intersection was the absolute limit of where the ghostly old man could roam; he could go nowhere else.

This was actually quite easy to figure out.

If the ghostly old man had wanted to get his hands on the child named Jin Sheng sooner, he should have waited for Lu Yuan at the gates of Mingzhi Primary School, or perhaps lurked near the psychotherapist's clinic, rather than choosing a spot midway along the route.

However, Lu Yuan kept this realization to himself.

Some things were better left unsaid.

"What is the reward?"

Lu Yuan asked again.

This time, the ghostly old man did not offer a cold huff or display anger. Instead, he poked at the paper money that had not yet fully burned in the offering basin. "I will tell you the secret of the psychotherapist, and... their secrets."

Them?

Lu Yuan's heart stirred.

Could it be that this ghostly old man knew the origin of the television?

"Why should I believe you?"

Lu Yuan instinctively retorted.

The ghostly old man instantly flared up, and the resentment within the shrine began to spill outward. "So long-winded! If you aren't willing, I'll just kill you. They'll just pick a new psychotherapist to send in anyway; you're not irreplaceable."

Lu Yuan: ......

Look at that!

Getting impatient again!

Lu Yuan awkwardly rubbed his nose. "Fine, I agree."

Hearing this, the ghostly old man said no more. The resentment that had spilled outward quickly retracted back into the shrine. Only when the incense in the burner had burned down almost entirely did he finally speak: "Go."

Lu Yuan stood up and walked toward one of the directions leading out of the intersection.

After taking a few steps, Lu Yuan turned back. "Would you mind telling me your name?"

"Song Pei."

The old man lowered his head.

Lu Yuan muttered the name to himself. Suddenly, a wave of physical discomfort washed over him, filling his heart with shock. This ghostly old man was already evolving toward the level of an Entity of Three Nothings.

Earlier, when Lu Yuan had looked straight at the old man's face, his eyes had felt a stinging pain. But at the time, he hadn't thought much of it, assuming only that he had been straining his eyes for too long without a rest.

Now, it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

An Entity of Three Nothings.

An absolute taboo!

Invisible, inaudible, unspoken.

These three rules were simple to understand: one must not look directly upon its appearance, one must not hear its name, and one must not speak its name.

And Lu Yuan had just broken all three taboos in succession.

Fortunately, this ghostly old man was not a true Entity of Three Nothings; otherwise, the moment Lu Yuan saw the old man's face, he would have dropped dead on the spot.

With this thought, Lu Yuan dared not linger any longer and hurried away.

Not long after Lu Yuan departed, the old man picked up the shrine that had been resting near his feet, stood up, and brushed the dust from his clothes. The paper money in the offering basin had burned away completely, and the incense in the burner had burned down to nothing and extinguished itself.

Only then did the photograph within the frame become clear.

It was a black-and-white photo.

Unmistakably, it was the face of Lu Yuan.

In the photograph, blood was pouring from Lu Yuan's seven orifices, the glaring red disrupting the black-and-white layout, making it look exceedingly jarring.

The old man let out a cold laugh. "Another short-lived fool."

With that, the old man turned and walked away.

His slightly hunched figure gradually grew translucent until it vanished completely. At that very moment, all the motionless ghostly entities throughout the entire intersection sprang to life.

These entities began to slaughter one another.

Black blood flowed from their bodies, eventually converging into little streams of blood that trickled toward the offering basin at the very center of the intersection.

Inside the frame.

Lu Yuan's previously expressionless facial features began to twist, the corners of his mouth slowly curling upward into a bizarre smile.

.......

Lu Yuan walked briskly away from the intersection.

"That ghostly entity named Song Pei is definitely not simple."

Lu Yuan thought to himself as he hurried along.

After leaving the intersection, all of Lu Yuan's previously missing memories flooded back.

Song Pei had merely asked Lu Yuan for a favor, yet had failed to mention what the punishment would be if Lu Yuan failed—which in itself was extremely strange.

Lu Yuan had kept emphasizing the reward earlier precisely to test the waters. Since he had explicitly laid out the terms for a reward, logically, Song Pei should have also stated the penalty for failure.

Yet, the truth was, he hadn't.

Song Pei had let Lu Yuan go with surprising ease.

This indicated that Song Pei was not the least bit afraid of Lu Yuan plotting against him.

The consequences of Lu Yuan going to Mingzhi Primary School boiled down to two possibilities: either he died inside Mingzhi Primary School, or he made it out alive.

Died inside Mingzhi Primary School, and there was no need to elaborate.

Once dead, saying anything more was a waste of breath.

As for making it out of Mingzhi Primary School alive, though the difficulty was immense, it wasn't an absolute impossibility. Did Song Pei really assume Lu Yuan would definitely bring the child Jin Sheng out of the school?

Lu Yuan had plenty of choices.

He could choose not to bring Jin Sheng out of the school, or he could choose to bring Jin Sheng out of the school while deliberately avoiding this route back to the psychotherapy clinic.

Lu Yuan was certainly smart, but the ghosts of this world were not fools either.

Song Pei was smart too.

Whatever outcomes Lu Yuan could deduce, Song Pei could most likely deduce as well.

This was what puzzled Lu Yuan the most: why hadn't Song Pei mentioned the punishment for failure?

Lu Yuan frowned slightly.

That familiar sensation from earlier resurfaced.

Lu Yuan felt as though he had seen Song Pei somewhere before, yet no matter how thoroughly he searched his memories, he couldn't recall an old man of a similar age.

Before long, Lu Yuan arrived at the second intersection.

He passed through smoothly!

Lu Yuan let out a sigh of relief.

He had known it—how could every single intersection harbor such a terrifying ghostly entity? That would be utterly ridiculous.

A ghost like Song Pei was exceptionally rare across the entire dream-realm world, and true Entities of Three Nothings were scarcer still.

Running into one within a single day was misfortune enough; it was impossible to encounter a second.

Just as Lu Yuan was comforting himself with this thought, the faint sound of singing drifted from the distance of the street, gradually drawing closer to his position.

Lu Yuan's face turned dark.

Damn it!

What kind of rotten luck was this!

He had run into the singing again!

Although the singing wasn't quite as terrifying as an Entity of Three Nothings, it was still beyond Lu Yuan's ability to resist at present. Estimating the time, he needed to move even faster.

The three-day limit was almost up.

He had no time to hide and wait for the singing to pass before coming back out.

With this thought, Lu Yuan temporarily altered his route.

Proceeding straight down this street was the fastest path to Mingzhi Primary School and required the least amount of time. Changing his route meant weaving through several more alleys, making it somewhat circuitous.

Yet the time spent taking a detour was undoubtedly much shorter than the time spent hiding.

With a sharp turn, Lu Yuan plunged resolutely into the dark alley, his figure vanishing quickly into the shadows.

.......