Chapter 52: Replication (3)
52 – Replication (3)
If Master Huo said wait, then they would wait.
The old lady strictly followed the master’s orders, even brewing tea to serve. As the master’s disciple, Lin Xun received half the respect.
During this waiting period, he surveyed the room.
Perhaps due to the dampness from the bathroom, the ceiling plaster had bulged, with a layer of green mold along the edges. Combined with the dripping water sound from next door, it was quite eerie.
The room was not large, with simple furnishings. The walls were adorned with some unremarkable plastic children’s drawings. Only one thing in the entire room caught Lin Xun’s attention.
It was a photograph on the desk.
Inside a black frame was a woman holding a child.
The child—now lying on the bed as Mingming—looked about two or three years old in the photo. The woman holding him had short hair—unusually short, dyed yellow, with small black earrings. She appeared around thirty-five, with two nasolabial lines on her face. Her eyes were large but fierce, with heavy lower eyeliner—thanks to Lin Ting, Lin Xun knew what “lower eyeliner” was.
At the same time, she wore heavy lipstick, a red short-sleeved top, and sport pants—Lin Xun didn’t know how to describe it, but he could only say this woman carried a certain streetwise aura, like a gangster’s woman.
Old Man Huo had clearly noticed it too, as he asked, “Is this the child’s mother?”
“My daughter,” the old lady replied. “She doesn’t come home much.”
Old Man Huo half-closed his eyes and nodded, indicating he understood.
Lin Xun mentally categorized Mingming as a left-behind child.
The wait was long, so he took out his phone and fiddled with it for a while.
The “Loving Family” group chat was still lively—since demons were more active at night, midnight was also the most active time for everyone’s demon-hunting activities.
People in the group were exchanging information or sending messages to report how many demons they had slain.
Amidst a pile of reports, one message popped up.
Jiyan Sect – Feihong: Three demon seeds at Tiandu Media have been eliminated.
Xiaoyaozi: Thumbs up.
Lin Xun: “?”
Was Qi Yun playing his undercover role this convincingly?
He opened the private chat.
After the trending search incident that day, Qi Yun had been sending him messages, asking about methods to buy trending searches. Lin Xun hadn’t replied yet.
A Happy Zhi Zhen: Have you turned over a new leaf?
Jiyan Sect – Feihong: Once I can openly enter the fourth floor of Chaoyang Community, I will retrieve the divine artifact for my master.
A Happy Zhi Zhen: You can’t get it now. I know about it.
Jiyan Sect – Feihong: …
Jiyan Sect – Feihong: So where did you find your sponsor?
Lin Xun suddenly felt like showing off.
A Happy Zhi Zhen: Came with cat adoption.
Jiyan Sect – Feihong: You’re pulling my leg.
A Happy Zhi Zhen: I am, because I’m adorable.
Jiyan Sect – Feihong: Vomit.
Jiyan Sect – Feihong: Old men and rich women what kind haven’t I seen advise you not to be smug my sword sect disciples never do such things.
This person not only spoke without periods but also used spaces instead of commas. Lin Xun’s recently ignited desire to chat was once again extinguished.
He sent Qi Yun a goodbye emoji and exited the chat.
He began to study seriously, reading a paper for nearly an hour—this one was quite insightful, so he saved it, planning to use it as a topic for his next conversation with Dong Jun.
His timing was precise. After finishing the paper, the seconds trembled a few times, and it was exactly midnight.
The child’s body jerked violently.
The world suddenly fell silent, as if suddenly vacuum-sealed, with only the dripping sound from next door exceptionally clear.
Drip, drip, drip.
Mingming on the bed began breathing rapidly, his lips turning cyanotic, his limbs twitching unnaturally, his eyes trembling.
As seconds ticked by, his convulsions grew increasingly severe. Just as Lin Xun was almost unable to resist dialing 120, the child suddenly let out a sharp cry: “Ah!”
The old woman trembled: “It… it’s just like this.”
Mingming’s body curled up. At one moment, he let out another piercing scream, then his limbs stiffened, and he rolled from the center of the bed to the edge.
—This behavior seemed as if an invisible person was violently beating him.
It continued.
The child’s cries grew louder and louder, his fists clenched, his body contorted into utterly unnatural positions.
Lin Xun frowned as he watched his movements.
One strike, another, another…
Although the child’s movements were wild and frenzied due to the violent convulsions, there was a rhythm to them.
Lin Xun looked toward that wall.
The next second, he saw Old Man Huo’s gaze also shift there.
Lin Xun took out his keyboard from his backpack, holding it in front of him.
In the next moment, a gleam flashed in Old Man Huo’s eyes!
He abruptly rose from his chair!
The room door was only slightly ajar, and Old Man Huo pulled it open with one hand.
Lin Xun followed closely behind.
He saw Old Man Huo kick the bathroom door with force!
At this moment, he knew exactly what to do. After quickly estimating the bathroom’s layout, he felt along the doorframe with his right hand and flipped on the bathroom light the next second.
A stark white light illuminated the room, and in the next instant, his heart raced wildly.
Behind him, the old woman let out a terrified scream: “Ah!”
A figure, a shadow—without a concrete form, purely a black silhouette. An elongated body, slender limbs.
It was half-crouched, its right hand—or perhaps a part that could barely be called a right hand—holding something shaped like an axe, striking the wall repeatedly.
The nearby faucet seemed broken or not fully closed, dripping water drop by drop. And the thing’s motion of swinging the axe, hacking at the wall, matched the frequency of the dripping water perfectly.
Old Man Huo shouted: “What evil creature are you!”
He raised the Eight Trigrams mirror disk high in his hand. A beam of majestic golden light seemed to flash from the disk, piercing toward the black shadow!
The shadow stiffened, its movements halting as it slowly turned—perhaps not a head, just a black, head-shaped shadow.
In the next moment, it lunged fiercely toward Old Man Huo.
Old Man Huo raised his palm to meet the attack.
But the shadow had no physical form, like a virtual 3D projection, passing directly through Old Man Huo’s body and charging toward Lin Xun.