Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Mo Fan and Ai Jiangtu were anxious about the condition of their teammates. They could not care less about the concept behind the wooden clapper.
As Nanyu mentioned, they only needed to treat the world inside it as an illusion. The only way to deal with the amorphous demon spirit was by going into the illusion.
Jiang Shaoxu followed Nanyu’s instructions and hypnotized Mo Fan and Ai Jiangtu, before Nanyu used some special method to guide their souls into the vessel.
The truth was, the wooden clapper was imbued with the magic of the Curse Element. The curse was able to drag the soul of any living human nearby into the vessel and trap them like a cage. It was the main reason why the locals referred to it as a Soul Eater!
It was not an exaggeration to call it a Soul Eater. Among the Curse Element spells, both the Sinister Spider Trap and Demon Torture were able to inflict damage directly to their target’s soul. Demon Torture could even torment the target by separating their soul from their body!
——
Mo Fan felt his eyelids falling heavily after he was hypnotized. He sat beside the wooden clapper and closed his eyes.
Strangely, when he opened his eyes again, he somehow felt restless.
He glanced at Ai Jiangtu beside him and saw the man had just opened his eyes too. They both shared a similar experience.
“Damn!” Mo Fan cursed all of a sudden.
Ai Jiangtu quickly rose to his feet and scanned the surroundings, yet they did not see Jiang Shaoxu or Nanyu!
“What happened? Where did they go?” Ai Jiangtu was confused too. He looked around in the old and shabby temple, yet he did not see the two girls.
“The wooden clapper is gone too, in just a blink of an eye…” said Mo Fan.
“Either way, we should go and look for them first,” said Ai Jiangtu.
Zhao Manyan and Mu Ningxue had already fallen victim, and now the two girls had gone missing right beside them. The situation was a lot more complicated.
The two took the same path back and soon realized something strange.
They remembered the path was previously covered by shrubs and vines, and the stone lamps on both sides were hidden by thick bushes too.
But now, the path was clear and spacious. Not even dust could be seen on the marble path. It was clean enough to reflect the two’s faces…
“What’s going on?” said Mo Fan.
Ai Jiangtu shook his head. He too found the series of events extremely odd.
They continued along the path and went back to the main temple, and discovered that the temple was livelier than they thought…
Around eight monks were busy carrying baskets of fresh ingredients and vegetables around in the kitchen. Meanwhile, a slightly plump monk was giving orders and pointing his fingers around.
“Hey, you two…oh, pardon me, but you’re not allowed to go to the back of the mountain. It’s not open to visitors,” the plump monk said in an unpleasant tone when he saw Mo Fan and Ai Jiangtu.
Ai Jiangtu and Mo Fan exchanged glances with one another. They had no idea how to respond. The truth was, they could not understand what the monk was saying, as he was speaking in Japanese.
They proceeded to the main hall and saw lots of people visiting the temple. They even saw an endless line at the entrance.
Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan were dumbfounded. They immediately went to the room to find Nan Rongni, Mu Ningxue, and Zhao Manyan, but all the rooms were occupied by visitors from other places. There was no sign of their teammates.
“Did we somehow go back in time?” Mo Fan stared at the lively temple in disbelief.
Ai Jiangtu remained silent as he pondered. He glanced at the walls of the temple and said, “Mo Fan, I believe we’ve entered the world in the vessel.”
Mo Fan was startled, but he soon understood what Ai Jiangtu was trying to say.
“Are you saying that the world inside the wooden clapper is actually this temple?” said Mo Fan in astonishment.
“Mm, didn’t Nanyu tell us that we’re going into an illusion created by the vessel? I think we’ve fallen asleep, and our consciousness has entered someone else’s dream,” said Ai Jiangtu.
Mo Fan calmed down and began to think.
If Miyata was a Vessel Demon Spirit, the world inside the vessel was most likely constructed based on her memories, including the monks, visitors, and residents…
“It feels too real, so real that we can’t even tell we’re experiencing an illusion,” exclaimed Mo Fan.
“By combining the Curse Element and the Psychic Element, it’s possible to convince a target to believe that a nightmare is real and torture the target to death using it,” said Ai Jiangtu.
Ai Jiangtu possessed the Curse Element, and so was rather calm after realizing the situation.
“If everything we see is part of an illusion or a dream, doesn’t that mean we can do whatever we want?” asked Mo Fan.
Ai Jiangtu shook his head and replied, “It’s unwise to think like that. The illusion is based on reality, so if we killed someone, the people of the Enforcement Union would appear and sentence us to death, too. Once our souls die in here, we will never wake up.”
“It turns out that it isn’t as real as I thought; I have lost my sense of smell and taste,” said Mo Fan, helplessly munching on a carrot that he stole from the kitchen.
“We can still feel pain,” emphasized Ai Jiangtu.
“Screw it; we won’t be able to understand what’s happening in this world, so let’s find that goddamned demon spirit as soon as possible,” said Mo Fan.
After all, the illusion was still different from the real world. Once Mo Fan calmed his thoughts and observed his surroundings closely, he realized how different the world in the vessel was compared to the world outside. It felt similar to the moment he was about to wake up from a deep sleep. His vision was still in the dream, yet his smell, hearing, and touch were on the bed. It felt extremely strange!
Mo Fan was munching a carrot, yet not only was it tasteless in his mouth, his nose had captured a totally different smell…
The scent resembled the fragrance of a rose. Somehow, Mo Fan felt like Jiang Shaoxu was beside him, and standing very close to him.
—-
As a matter of fact, Jiang Shaoxu was indeed standing right in front of Mo Fan. She was trying to see if Mo Fan was really asleep while his consciousness was roaming somewhere!
Jiang Shaoxu never thought that her perfume would somehow remind Mo Fan that he and Ai Jiangtu were still in the temple at the back of the mountain where they found the wooden clapper.
—
However, Ai Jiangtu and Mo Fan were troubled when they stood in front of the temple. They could see all of Xixiong City from here. How were they going to find the demon spirit in this world? The people in the illusion looked perfectly alive. They could not tell the difference between them and ordinary humans.
