Chapter 180: Leaving Marks
Irene released her grip, and the unfolded ‘sealed letter’ immediately ignited into layers of illusory flames, which, in the blink of an eye, contracted and folded into an ordinary piece of paper.
Yu Sheng, however, remained motionless, staring at the paper, his brows furrowed in deep thought and contemplation.
After some time, the voice of Little Red Riding Hood finally broke the silence: ‘…Old Zheng… it really is him…’
The girl’s tone carried hesitation and resistance. Clearly, she found the current clues difficult to accept. Even though she had come here to uncover something, the reality of what she had discovered was not what she had expected.
The sacrificial ceremony in the White Exhibition Hall had indeed been a trap aimed at her, and the person who had led her into this trap was none other than her familiar ‘contact.’
From the words in the letter, it was apparent that the ‘Old Zheng’ who had served as her contact had likely been deceived and manipulated as well.
‘It’s signed by the Servant of the Angel. It’s obvious now. The one who wrote this letter is part of the same group of Dark Angels worshipers who performed the ritual in the White Exhibition Hall,’ Yu Sheng said calmly, shaking the letter in his hand. ‘They used the old-fashioned method of writing letters to hide their tracks, likely as a form of special ‘magic’ to cover their actions.’
‘Whoever received this letter must have been thoroughly misled,’ Irene added, ‘Blessings, breaking curses, good intentions, misunderstood by the world—these are classic lines from cults, but sometimes they do work.’
Yu Sheng then glanced at Little Red Riding Hood’s expression, thinking for a moment before continuing, ‘Based on the content of the letter, it seems that ‘Old Zheng’ didn’t know it was a trap. He probably thought he was helping you… He might have been trying to help you for a long time, and that’s how he got tricked by the Angel Cultists.’
Little Red Riding Hood remained silent, listening intently. After a long pause, she muttered, breaking the silence: ‘A person who spends every day dealing with ‘strange objects’ and the Otherworld… how could they fall for something like this… How long has he been deceived?’
‘…Probably for a while,’ Yu Sheng replied, recalling the content of the letter, ‘The letter mentioned things like ‘witnessing firsthand’ and such, which suggests that ‘Old Zheng’ didn’t just believe the Angel Cultists’ words but may have even participated in some rituals with them, or at least came into contact with things related to Dark Angels. He was already deeply involved before he lured you into the White Exhibition Hall.’
Yu Sheng paused and thought for a moment before continuing, ‘And the letter also reveals another important piece of information… They are not just targeting you, but your ‘Fairy Tale’ behind you.’
Little Red Riding Hood remained silent, her gaze shifting to other letters and notes on the table.
‘Irene,’ Yu Sheng quickly added, ‘Look through these letters and notes. Are there any others like this letter that have been hidden?’
‘I’ll have a look.’ Irene agreed, sitting down among the pile of papers on the table and starting to sift through them.
However, after a long search, she came up empty-handed.
‘Nothing. The rest of this stuff is all normal, including these few letters. It looks like using traditional letters was just this person’s personal preference,’ Little Doll sat on the table, swinging her legs, then glanced around the room. ‘I also took a quick look around here, nothing too noteworthy.’
Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised by Little Doll’s response.
It seemed that the items related to the Angel Cultists had either already been moved or destroyed. Only this last letter had been left behind.
Nevertheless, Yu Sheng wasn’t discouraged. He carefully scrutinized the room, examining every corner.
While it was likely that any direct correspondence or items related to the Angel Cultists had been removed or destroyed, that didn’t mean there weren’t other clues left behind. Given how deeply ‘Old Zheng’ had gotten involved—reaching the point of directly engaging with the Dark Angels—there had to be traces of that influence in his daily life. Changes in habits, subtle traces left unintentionally, lines in his diary… everyone leaves marks in life; he couldn’t have cleaned everything up.
Little Red Riding Hood also noticed Yu Sheng’s intent and began to help him search the room, even summoning her Wolf to check for clues that human eyes might miss.
Irene also began to carefully examine the papers and books on the table. While these were ordinary ‘mundane items,’ the clues could be hidden among these plain notes and messages.
At this moment, one of the Shadow Wolves suddenly stopped in the center of the room, growling softly as it repeatedly pawed at a carpet beside the bed.
Little Red Riding Hood furrowed her brow, quickly stepping forward to pull back the carpet.
There was nothing hidden beneath the carpet, but on the floor, some faint and hard-to-distinguish marks could still be seen.
They were strange symbols and lines arranged in a circle about a meter in diameter, with a faint dark red hue. They appeared to have been carefully wiped once, leaving only faint traces, but perhaps due to the repeated process of ‘smearing and wiping,’ the outlines remained, still vaguely visible on the floor.
“Looks like it was painted with blood,” Little Red Riding Hood frowned as she carefully examined the faint marks on the floor. “It’s a very basic spirit summoning ritual, but only the traces of the runes are left. There’s no sign of offerings or accompanying prayers or chants, so it’s hard to trace what was specifically communicated.”
“Could it be used to communicate with the Dark Angels?” Yu Sheng asked curiously.
“Hard to say,” Little Red Riding Hood shook her head, still frowning. “You know I don’t usually deal with these kinds of matters. I’ve only heard that those Angel Cultists, despite claiming they can communicate with the ‘Messenger,’ are mostly just hallucinating from too much drug use. The Dark Angels themselves don’t respond to humans. Or rather… their way of responding is by driving them insane.”
She paused for a moment, her expression growing grim. “Old Zheng, being such a clear ‘novice,’ using such a basic Spirit Summoning Technique, it’s hard to say if he was able to contact anything. It’s more likely that the Angel Cultists set up another layer of deception, making him believe he was truly hearing the ‘divine will.'”
Yu Sheng listened, non-committal, then after a brief pause, squatted down and gently brushed his hand over the blurry dark red marks.
Suddenly, he pulled out a small knife from his pocket and made a shallow cut on his hand.
Bright red blood dripped onto the floor.
Little Red Riding Hood immediately recoiled in surprise, instinctively reaching out to stop him. “Hey, what are you doing?! You shouldn’t be messing with something like this that doesn’t have a clear purpose—”
Before she could finish, the blood was absorbed by the dark red marks on the floor, disappearing as quickly as water absorbed by a sponge.
The sound of Little Red Riding Hood’s exclamation seemed to fade, stretching into a distant, intermittent noise.
Yu Sheng looked up, his gaze widening. He saw the entire room seem to blur, as though a thin veil had descended over everything. It felt like he was slowly slipping into a dimension that was gradually detaching from reality. Little Red Riding Hood and Irene became motionless shadows in the distance, their movements slowed as though time had stretched infinitely.
Yu Sheng rubbed his eyes and stood up. Though the situation was strange, he wasn’t too surprised—after witnessing so many odd events, his tolerance for sudden “shift in circumstances” had grown to an almost indestructible level.
Then, he noticed the blurry “veil” around him gradually dissipating.
The room remained the same, but now everything was tinged with a dull gray. The daylight streaming through the window had turned to a pale, wan light. It looked bright enough, but no matter how much it shone, it couldn’t seem to illuminate anything beyond the window.
Yu Sheng’s eyes widened.
He noticed that in the areas where the “sunlight” couldn’t reach, on the gray walls and floors, words began to appear. They seemed to manifest from thin air, like the intense projection of someone’s thoughts into this eerie space. Yu Sheng watched as the words spread in every direction—
“I want to help them…
“I went to the Orphanage again, after a few months… Another familiar face has disappeared…
“The tree that the previous Little Red Riding Hood planted has grown tall, and today a new child came to find me, claiming to be the new Little Red Riding Hood…
“She’s only fourteen, and she says she wants a job…
“Nobody can help, not the Special Affairs Bureau, not the Association, and despite all the things I’ve collected to lift curses, to fight nightmares, nothing works.
“…Someone came to the Door, claiming they could help…
“They seemed suspicious, and I suspect they are connected to some illegal cult, but they showed me something…”
The words spread across the floor and walls, stretching into the air, expanding in Yu Sheng’s vision until they covered almost every inch of space before silently vanishing.
A strange sound, like something slowly writhing, came from above.
Yu Sheng slowly looked up towards the source of the noise.
He saw the ceiling had cracked open, revealing a circular hole that matched the dark red ring mark on the floor below. From the hole came a deep, chaotic noise, accompanied by the eerie sound of something moving slowly. A long, slender limb covered in bizarre bumps and intricate patterns slowly emerged from the hole.
The appendage pulsated silently in the air, moving as if it were searching for something. Gradually, it began to move toward Yu Sheng…