Snap.
The silver-white metal cover of the Zippo lighter slides open and makes a crisp sound.
Yuuki Makensuke lit a special cigarette.
The blurred smoke was inhaled into the lungs, and then exhaled. In the white smoke, he narrowed his eyes slightly and carefully observed all three spiritual masters who had just entered Jixiang Su.
Didn't see any problem.
There was no evil aura left on the three of them.
"Have you ever had close contact with a tree turned into a person?" Yuuki asked.
"There is."
"knew."
Then, Yuuki Makensuke looked towards the street again. The streets were also empty at dusk, and he didn't see anything strange.
However, in several other places in Jixiangsu, you can vaguely see the ghostly atmosphere. These sneaky auras appeared like light black smoke in Yuki's eyes. There were probably dozens of places in the sky above the entire town with such black smoke curling up.
Presumably the source of these ghostly auras are the victims who were transformed from humans into trees.
"Okay." Yuuki put out the half-burned cigarette and breathed out lightly, "I think we have to go into Jixiangsu again."
"Well, Mr. Yuki, will there be any danger after entering?" Officer Hanai was so nervous that sweat broke out on his forehead. "I mean, is it possible that we will also be infected with that weird change?"
"No. That weird change shouldn't spread so easily."
People turned into trees, and the number of victims reached dozens in a short period of time.
It is tempting to think that this change is contagious.
However, Yuki carefully observed the three spirit exterminators who had entered Ji Xiangsu and had close contact with the "Human Tree", and there was nothing abnormal about them.
In addition, Yuki just wondered whether there was a problem with the environment of Jixiangsu.
For example, are there pollen, spores or other things floating in the air that ordinary people can't see? Once they come into contact, they will turn into "human trees".
But when I observed the situation in villages and towns just now, this conjecture was rejected again.
In a sense, the environment here is quite normal.
Judging from Yuuki's rich experience, the dozens of ghostly ghostly auras rising up are similar to ordinary ghostly auras.
It does not have the characteristics of infection and attachment.
If it could really be contagious, from the perspective of Yuuki lighting a cigarette, those ghostly auras should be more "viscous".
Therefore, it is still difficult to determine how the strange events in Jixiang Suli spread. Just know that it is not easy to spread, and simply entering Jixiangsu is not enough to be infected.
"Okay, okay."
Officer Hanai raised his hand to wipe his sweat, and decided to arrange his manpower to follow Yuki in.
Although the special system of the countermeasure room is relatively independent, it is also subordinate to the police system, and relatively speaking, members of the countermeasure room have more power. In addition, Yuki Masakisuke himself is a senior member of the countermeasures room directly under the Bureau. In terms of position, he is much higher than the police chief of Hanai.
His orders commanded, and others could only choose to follow them.
"Be careful, keep your weapons and follow me."
Before entering Jixiangsu, Yuuki patted Nagatomo on the shoulder and said this.
…
The sun gradually sets on the west side of the Black Hat Mountains.
Probably because something strange happened, the entire Xiangjisu was extremely quiet, and every door of every house was closed. It's just that occasionally the dog at home barks uneasily when he hears the footsteps of Yuuki and his party on the street.
After walking for a while, everyone came to an old house near a farmland.
"Mr. Yuuki, the owner of the house here is named Kusakabe Kokichi. He is a 75-year-old man who lives alone. According to our judgment, he is probably the first person to turn into a strange tree." Officer Hanai introduced this while uneasily I looked at the courtyard of the house a few more times.
Because the sky had faded, the courtyard was dead, blurry, and gray.
The night wind blew the clothesline in the yard, and a few old shirts and trousers hung on it, swaying.
"The three of us first came to Jixiangsu because we learned about the strange things that happened to the old man Kusakabe. We had entered this place before, and the strange tree we had close contact with at the beginning was also this one. At that time... we were not sure which tree it was. The tree was transformed by Kusakabe.”
"The old man usually lives in seclusion, and because he lives alone, he may have been dead for a long time by the time he was found. According to the locals in Jixiangjuku at the beginning, the old man Kusakabe was not seen out for at least four to five days. Pass."
The exorcist lady, whose surname was Fukuyama, who had previously stated that she had entered Jixiangsu, also roughly began to talk about what they had learned here.
Yuki Makensuke was outside the station room, listening to them carefully and lighting another cigarette at the same time.
That's right.
The ethereal black air I saw before was the strongest here.
Probably that old man Kusakabe was really the first one to turn into a strange tree.
However, the ghostly energy that was as big as a teacup only curled up, and disappeared when it reached a high altitude. There was no sign of spreading to the surroundings.
Yuki spent a little more time and carefully observed the black smoke coming from the top of the house, confirming that his initial judgment was correct. The smoke did not have the characteristics of infection, and then called to the people around him:
"Go in and take a look, no one is left alone."
Elder Kusakabe's home has thin wooden walls and debris everywhere, making it a bit crowded.
The old man's bedroom is on the first floor.
There is no bed, just tatami mats.
The floor was covered with bedding, which was a little yellow and damp, as if it had been soaked in some turbid mucus, and a strange tree grew on top of the bedding.
The ghostly energy comes from the trees.
This tree is about 1.8 meters tall. I can't tell what kind of tree it belongs to. The roots of the tree have passed through the quilt and penetrated into the floor. The branches and leaves are spread out very lushly, the leaves are green, but the veins are red.
The trunk is as thick as a bowl, and the bark is wrinkled and full of ravines. The surface is bulged and intertwined like annoying proliferative tissue. If you look closely, it looks like it is crowded with distorted faces.
In addition, there is a vest and pants on the trunk. The clothes and pants were torn, but they seemed to have completely grown into the trees and were inseparable.
A tree that makes people feel uncomfortable looking at it.
Yuki was the first to speak in the crowded room: "You didn't mention the things on the ground."
Yes.
There's something on the ground.
Centered at the base of the trunk, some slender red flowers grow.
There are not many, only six or seven.
The flower stalks are slender, and the flowers are clustered like dragon claws. The big red flowers are so delicate and red, as red as blood.
"Is this Manzhu Shahua?"
Sheriff Hanai, who was already a little fat, began to sweat again on his forehead. If he could, he didn't want to stay in this room full of weird atmosphere for a moment longer.
"Yes, Higanbana." Yuuki Makensuke nodded.
"These flowers, these flowers, were not available when we came in last time." Ms. Fukuyama explained anxiously.
"I know, I don't mean to blame you."
With the help of the smoke from the cigarette, Yuki looked at several bunches of Hibiscus flowers again, but found no problems.
Simply staying in this room, whether next to strange trees or those other side flowers that don't look right at first glance, will not have any real impact on people.
There is clearly something weird everywhere here, but no core problem can be found.
The current findings are like scratching the surface.
Yuki held a cigarette in his mouth and continued to observe the strange tree. His eyes looked back and forth at the leaves and trunks through the blurred smoke.
Everyone else was holding their breath, fearing that any effort in breathing would affect him.
After watching this for a few minutes, Yuuki's expression suddenly changed: "Here..."
He seemed to have found something.
I saw that on the tree trunk covered with ravines and raised burls, the uneven and rough texture was vaguely pieced together to form some kind of symbol.
Because the tree trunk itself is covered with twisted and convex ridges, it is normal for the general spirit exterminator not to notice this.
Yuki himself only discovered it after he lit his cigarette and looked at it carefully for a long time.
He took out a notebook and a pen from his pocket, and using the smoke, he started copying the small area where the symbols could be vaguely seen.
The black ballpoint pen kept drawing on the paper.
"Hiss...that's not right."
Yuki scratched his hair with one hand and drew it three times, eliminating the interference of unnecessary raised vertical lines, and finally restored the symbol to the paper.
Then, he looked at his notebook and pondered briefly:
"The talisman... looks familiar."
Yuki took out his mobile phone and took pictures of the tree pattern on the strange tree and the clearly restored talisman pattern on his notebook.
After that, he made a call directly to the countermeasures room in front of everyone in the room.
After a while, Yuki's cell phone rang. It was the countermeasures room that sent him some pictures.
Then, he looked at the pictures on his side and compared them with the pictures sent by the countermeasures room, and his expression became more and more gloomy.
"Mr. Yuuki?" Nagatomo called him softly.
"Hey..." Yuuki breathed out and looked at the other people in the room, "Let's go out first. Everyone, we seem to be in big trouble."
The group of people walked outside the house.
On the way, Nagatomo came over and asked carefully: "Mr. Yuuki, is this matter more troublesome than the tasks we have dealt with before?"
"Well, you haven't been exposed to this yet. We have to find more people to come over." Yuuki nodded, "Also, we have to inform that kid from Kamiya to come to Tsushima Island."
…
Tokyo, Arakawa, Kamiya's house.
Kamiyagawa is currently having dinner with Hannya and Zashiki.
I was only halfway through eating when I received two pictures from Yuuki Makensuke.
Kamiya looked at the message notification on his phone and felt a little helpless. He thought to himself that Uncle Yuki would not give up and send him a photo of the marlin he caught in the afternoon, right?
But when I clicked on the message, I found that this was not the case.
[picture]
This seems to be an indoor photo. You can see that the room in the background is a bit old and crowded, but the center of the photo is the trunk of an unknown tree.
In the center of the picture, you can see the strange tree patterns with raised and sunken tree trunks, which are twisted and vaguely arranged into some kind of symbols.
[picture]
This photo was taken on notebook paper.
A talisman was clearly drawn on it with a black ballpoint pen, which looked somewhat similar to the tree pattern in the first picture.
"This is?"
Kamiya stared at the second photo for two seconds, feeling vaguely familiar.
Then there seemed to be a thunderclap in his mind, and he quickly thought of something.
Then, the third photo was sent.
[picture]
Another talisman.
But it was drawn with cinnabar on yellow paper.
Fu Shengu recognized this one, and he himself had taken a photo to keep it.
It’s the yellow talisman hidden in the locked “hidden half layer” of the Haunted House at Ci Ursu Hospital last year!
By comparing the second picture and the third picture, although the two talismans are not exactly the same, we can see the similarities. They are definitely talismans from the same spell system.
It is the breeder's talisman.
When he committed suicide, he said that he would turn into a ghost and come back to Kamiya River. This was definitely his Yomi Naraku Curse!
Buzz.
The phone continues to ring.
Yuki sent a positioning and a paragraph:
[Boy, what I found here is not right. The breeder's Yomi Naraku Curse appeared in Tsushima Island, Nagasaki. You have to come over. ]
Kamiya's expression darkened: "Breeder, is he back?"
…
Almost all the members of the countermeasures room who participated in the crusade against the Wushi Breeder knew that at the critical moment, it was "Ghost and God Disciple" Shen Guchuan who directly prevented the Breeder and the Plague God from approaching the Nuo Formation.
Therefore, the breeder had a strong grudge against Kamiya before his death.
And high-level officials like Yuki Masakisuke are almost certain that the breeders have never been completely eliminated.
He may have turned himself into a ghost through the Huangquan Naraku Curse. Like the plague god, like the ghosts under his command.
There is a good chance that the breeder will come back as a monster.
But everyone believes that this should be a very long process, including Kamiya himself.
But now, the breeder's curse actually appeared on Tsushima Island in Nagasaki. Less than a year has passed since the last action.
“Could the breeder be back so soon?”
Kamiya isn't sure.
But one thing is for sure, he has to put down everything he is doing and go to Nagasaki.
With Hannya's help, Kamiya quickly packed his luggage and directly bought a high-priced flight late tonight, planning to fly to Nagasaki overnight.
Going to Tsushima Island requires crossing the strait, and the ghost car cannot cross the water, so Oishi and the others were arranged to stay at home.
As for other arrangements for strange stories.
The little sun can be used as a weather pendant stably, so bring it with you.
Red Deer has appeared to be reliable recently and has a lot of sense of belonging to the group. Kamiya's trust in it has increased, but Red Deer's ability itself is very strange, so he also brought it with him.
Princess Wenche, who is undergoing prenatal care, seems to be relatively docile at the moment, but in order to prevent her from causing any trouble when she is not at home, she simply puts it into a [Mirage Cloth Bag] and takes it away just like the previous arrangement.
In addition, there are eight-foot girls.
Contact Xiaolu and entrust Bachiyang to come over on the Kisaragi train to provide help again.
In real-life activities, it is better to be more careful.
The worst thing to do is to compensate the young apprentice and Bachi Xiang well afterwards.
Before leaving for the airport, Kamiya asked Fu Bao to test the fortunes of himself and his family.
There is no evil or good luck in the house.
Kamiya himself has both good and bad luck.
Then he thought of something else and called Kido Keiko and Kanazawa Seira directly.
Kido also has the breeder's flower seed, which is her mother Futakuchi. Although judging from subsequent contacts, Futakuchi-onna seems to have been purified by Honganji.
But if the breeder does return, it's hard to say what will happen.
Anyway, Mr. Kido is quite rich, and he had arranged for his daughter to rest in Honganji Temple for a long time.
Let Kanazawa communicate directly. Kido Keiko will definitely stay in Honganji Temple during this period.
Kamitani Chuan is now too busy to do anything, so giving a reminder like this is the most benevolent thing to do.
With everything ready, Kamiyagawa boarded a flight to Nagasaki late that night.
After sitting down, the plane slowly drew out. Kamiya sat by the window, holding his chin in a daze. From his position, he could see the lights outside the airport reflecting on the plane.
"The talisman that Uncle Jiu copied is definitely related to the Huangquan Naraku Curse. But is the breeder really back? Or maybe it's something else on Tsushima Island..."
The plane took off, and when you looked down from the window, you could see brightly lit lights, like a huge gold powder scroll spread out in the dark night.
The world is dark and thousands of lights are on.
Kamiya didn't appreciate this.
(End of chapter)
