Chapter 53: Copy (4)
53 – Copy (4)
A person’s capacity for acceptance is limited. What they can accept is generally built upon things they have already witnessed.
Thus, even a ferocious monster is less terrifying than this shadowy figure—because it is completely outside human cognition, like a three-dimensional shadow.
Lin Xun took a breath and slid sideways.
One should pick the softest persimmon to pinch; this demonic creature had good judgment, but he wasn’t actually soft.
Over the past few days, Lin Xun had become adept at quickly disconnecting from the network. With a swift tap on the keyboard, the black shadow came roaring toward him, seemingly about to tear him in half, yet it couldn’t touch his physical form, passing right through his body.
At that moment, Old Man Huo’s assistance arrived. A powerful surge of Qi, like an indestructible wall, separated Lin Xun from the shadow. Seizing the opportunity, Lin Xun flipped behind Old Man Huo—!
Old Man Huo strode forward, shielding him. With a clatter, the compass fell to the ground. He clasped his hands together, gathering a formidable surge of Qi, compressing it into a single point, and then thrust it forward with force.
The momentum was overwhelming, clashing head-on with the shadow’s attack.
Meanwhile, the old lady tremblingly grabbed a mop, but before she could raise it, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted from fright.
Lin Xun watched unblinkingly, quietly reconnecting to the network to observe the battle between his master and the shadow.
Both had complex codes circulating within them, but not the kind of virus attacks Lin Xun was familiar with.
Old Man Huo’s internal circulation was continuous, vast, and rigorous, employing a highly efficient computational method. In contrast, the shadow’s method was utterly savage, relying purely on brute force, yet its offensive power was surprisingly strong.
Their attacks collided at a point in mid-air!
The compressed Spiritual Power instantly decoded and expanded, like the explosion of a supernova, instantly enveloping the shadow.
The shadow shrieked in terror and fled toward a corner of the room!
However, in the very second it was attacked by Old Man Huo, its firewall had already developed vulnerabilities due to the powerful assault. Lin Xun immediately planted a Trojan virus.
The shadow’s program operation became chaotic, and Old Man Huo’s attack followed closely.
Lin Xun picked up the fallen Bagua Mirror and followed his master, watching as he cornered the shadow.
The shadow seemed to sense the immense pressure emanating from Old Man Huo, curling up and shrinking smaller and smaller under the push of Spiritual Power, with wisps of black energy dissipating around it.
Yet Lin Xun frowned as he watched.
Time passed second by second.
One second, two seconds, three seconds, four seconds…
When he counted to the tenth second, the situation suddenly changed!
The shadow, which had been suppressed and reduced by Old Man Huo’s Spiritual Power to the size of a fist and seemed on the verge of annihilation, suddenly emitted a sharp screech. It transformed into a needle-thin thread, piercing through Old Man Huo’s Spiritual Power suppression and darting straight toward the ceiling.
—But it was too late.
Lin Xun, who had been waiting nearby with the Bagua Mirror, grabbed the mirror and trapped the black entity on the ground.
—A treasure used by the Qingcheng Mountain Sect Leader, Senior Xiaoyaozi, to suppress the fourth-floor residence was surely no ordinary artifact.
Just then, Old Man Huo exclaimed, “What a fine mirror!”
As Lin Xun pressed the mirror down, he felt an immense resistance. But after holding it against the ground for a minute, the resistance gradually faded.
He glanced at Old Man Huo.
Old Man Huo reached out and pressed his hand against the mirror, making contact with him, then lifted the mirror.
On the yellowed octagonal surface of the mirror, a black thread continuously writhed and struggled, yet it could never break through the mirror’s boundary.
Old Man Huo said, “The Bagua Limitless Mirror from Mount Qingcheng is quite adept at subduing demons and vanquishing evil. Although our Limitless Sect advocates the ‘overwhelming force breaks all techniques’ approach, these magical tricks—hmph—cannot be said to have no merits.”
Lin Xun said, “Master’s power is boundless.”
Old Man Huo handed him the mirror to hold, then clasped his hands behind his back and walked over to the old woman.
The old woman was completely unconscious. Old Man Huo first lifted her eyelids, then checked her meridians, saying, “She’s in shock from fright. She’ll wake up on her own shortly.”
Immediately after, the two entered the child’s bedroom.
The child was no longer thrashing or screaming. Instead, he lay on the bed like any ordinary child, breathing steadily and calmly.
Old Man Huo stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the child. “Demonic creatures cannot appear out of thin air. There must be something unusual about this family.”
Lin Xun said, “I think so too.”
In fact, not only could he guess it, but even the system quest hinted at this—after eliminating that shadowy demonic creature, the side quest progress reached fifty percent, not one hundred percent, indicating that there were still hidden dangers not yet removed.
Thinking of that shadowy demonic creature, Lin Xun said to Old Man Huo, “Master, why didn’t this demonic creature attach itself to a living person?”
Old Man Huo walked into the bathroom, scanning the surroundings. “This old man has never seen a demonic creature that doesn’t need to attach itself to a living person.”
He continued, “There are two possibilities.”
Lin Xun asked, “What are they?”
Old Man Huo said, “First, the demonic creature’s power has advanced further, allowing it to roam the world relying solely on pure demonic Qi. According to ancient texts, to achieve this, the demonic creature must at least be at the late Nascent Soul stage.”
Lin Xun said, “The shadow earlier didn’t seem like that.”
Although the shadow was formidable, its strength was still a notch below Old Man Huo’s.
“Exactly,” Old Man Huo stroked his beard. “Therefore, I suspect…”
He lowered his voice, sounding somewhat grave. “Someone died here.”
The dim, eerie environment, the dripping sound of water, combined with Old Man Huo’s words, made Lin Xun’s heart skip a beat.
Death—such matters still felt too distant for him.
He said nothing, only watching Old Man Huo’s movements.
The faucet.
Old Man Huo walked toward the faucet that had been dripping continuously.
Water droplets fell one by one into a blue plastic basin, the primary source of the room’s terrifying atmosphere.
Lin Xun knew that, according to legend, when water drips, the water meter doesn’t move, and no water bill is generated. Some frugal elderly people intentionally don’t tighten the faucet completely, using a basin to collect the water.
But this wasn’t that.
Old Man Huo twisted the faucet back and forth a few times. Even when turned to the end, it couldn’t be fully closed—it was a broken faucet.
Lin Xun stepped forward for a closer look and noticed some dents and scratches on the metal of the faucet.
Old Man Huo glanced at him.
Understanding his meaning, Lin Xun took out his phone and photographed it.
The two continued inspecting the bathroom—aside from the broken faucet, there was nothing particularly noteworthy. The walls were smooth and clean, the water heater was somewhat old, and everything else seemed normal.
Old Man Huo walked toward the bathroom exit but stopped at the doorway.
Following his gaze, Lin Xun saw him looking at the washing machine by the door.
The fully automatic washing machine was haphazardly piled with various items and rags, all covered in dust and not particularly clean. There were some stains on the side—though nothing unusual, as daily life inevitably produces all sorts of grime.
However, Lin Xun noticed Old Man Huo looking toward the bathroom wall again, then scanning the entire bathroom.
With that glance, he realized the problem.
Indeed—experience truly matters.
The tiles on the wall where the faucet was located were smooth and white, as if they had just been scrubbed, while the other fixtures in the room—such as the washing machine and the somewhat old water heater—were not particularly clean.
Moreover, the old woman’s home as a whole wasn’t spotless either, merely tidy.
Under these circumstances, the tiles on that wall seemed even more deliberately cleaned.
Lin Xun was not lacking in imagination, and his mind immediately conjured unsettling associations.
Just then, a faint sound came from the doorway, as if the old woman had struggled to her feet—she leaned against the wall, panting, her eyes filled with fear as she stared in their direction, clearly not having forgotten what had happened earlier.
Lin Xun helped the old woman up. “The evil entity has been eliminated by my master. It won’t return.”
The old woman’s knees went weak, and she was about to kneel before Old Man Huo when Lin Xun barely managed to stop her.
Old Man Huo said, “It is our duty to vanquish demons and evil spirits. There’s no need for such formalities.”
The old woman trembled. “A… a great kindness…”
Halfway through her words, she looked at Old Man Huo again. “M-master, will that thing really not come back?”
Old Man Huo replied, “It has been completely expelled by me.”
The old woman stared fearfully at the spot, breathing slowly. “Good, good…”
Then Old Man Huo asked, “Are the child’s parents not home?”
The old woman said, “His mother rarely comes home, and his… his father has gone out to work.”
Old Man Huo stroked his beard, seemingly deep in thought. After a moment, he added, “Has anything else happened here?”
The old woman was still trembling and shook her head vigorously. “N-no.”
Old Man Huo looked at her for a long while without speaking, finally saying, “Very well. The evil entity has been eliminated. The rest is not for me to concern myself with.”
For some reason, after Old Man Huo said this, Lin Xun felt the old woman’s emotions had calmed considerably.
What followed was another round of profuse gratitude. Old Man Huo declined any reward from the old woman, saying the night was deep and the dew heavy, and it was time to return.
The old woman then shakily escorted them to the door.
As they stepped out of the building entrance, Lin Xun glanced back at the old woman, knowing the task was not yet complete and this matter could not simply end here.
He walked back, took a pen from his pocket, wrote his phone number on a sticky note, and handed it to the old woman. “Grandma, this is my number. You can contact me if anything happens.”
The old woman hesitated slightly but eventually accepted it.
Lin Xun bid farewell to the old woman and caught up with his master.
As they neared the entrance of the residential complex, Old Man Huo suddenly spoke.
“Although the demon has been eliminated, there must be something unusual about this matter,” he said. “During the day, find one or two companions to stake out this place. It would be best to speak with the child and ask about his parents’ situation.”
Lin Xun replied, “Understood.”
He thought for a moment. His master was busy eliminating demons, and since there were no more demons here, it wouldn’t be right to trouble him further. Brother Chang Ji was in seclusion, striving to form his Golden Core, so he was unavailable as well. After much consideration, perhaps he should ask Qi Yun to accompany him.
He opened his phone, intending to jot down this to-do item in his notes, but saw a message from Dong Jun on WeChat—very brief.
Dong Jun: I’m boarding the plane now.
His idol was coming back.
Lin Xun thought about how he would soon see Dong Jun again, feeling half happy and half flustered.
He typed four words into the input box: “Have a safe trip.” Just as he was about to send it, he felt something was off.
No, he couldn’t reveal that he was still awake past one in the morning and had been wandering outside.
He deleted the message.
—He would wait until six or seven in the morning, pretending he had obediently slept through the night and woken up on time, before replying.
He immediately headed straight back to Chaoyang Community. Looking up from downstairs, Wang Anquan had already gone to bed, while Zhao Jiagou’s window still glowed with light—probably gaming.
He wondered if Zhi Zhen was asleep.
Afraid of waking Zhi Zhen with any noise, he quietly opened the door and turned on the living room light with the gentlest of movements.
The light flickered on.
Lin Xun: “…”
His gaze met Zhi Zhen’s.
Snow-white Zhi Zhen sat atop the TV cabinet, right across from the door, in a poised and aloof posture, her icy blue eyes fixed on Lin Xun.
Even though it was just a cat, Lin Xun felt as if this little trickster was now expressionlessly scrutinizing his late return.