World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 252 The Man in the Shadow

The ancestral spirits dared not speak, and in the silence, Lin An sensed something amiss.

Then something even more "exciting" happened.

The scattered fireflies tumbled and twisted, their yellow tails becoming a corrosive agent.

The insect's body first turned golden-red, then black, and finally became puddles of fluorescent liquid, which dripped down the wall.

Lin An remained calm; he had expected this.

In the empty mode of observation, the tent only has six visible, intense points of light, but their centers are surrounded by strange energy fluctuations that appear and disappear intermittently.

These anomalies are inextricably linked to that dreamer.

"Zayi"?

After searching, Lin An located the jar containing fireflies in the house. Zai's true form was either hidden inside or had stored its energy there.

The other party did not notice Lin An's invisibility, so the latter decided to strike first.

Lin An stomped on the jar and shattered it. The fireflies were startled and panicked. Zai's energy fluctuations became more and more obvious, but they were still hazy and illusory, as if they existed in another space.

This surprised Lin An.

All the mystics he had encountered before, regardless of their medium or rating, had a identifiable "body".

Zai, however, was a fluctuating mass of energy, and Lin An wasn't even sure if he was alive.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Lin An, and he thought of a possibility.

The mysticism of the Southern Continent leans towards pure souls, and as the level of corruption among mystics increases, their essence also undergoes subtle changes.

The higher the pollution level, the more the molecular structure of the human body deviates from human physiology.

In layman's terms, it means gaining more "passive abilities".

Zay's ambiguous existence perfectly illustrates this pattern.

Lin An could not "see" him with his own eyes, but was suddenly attacked and his strength suddenly weakened.

Because the entire tent was transformed into metallic mass by the Philosopher's Stone, Zai realized he couldn't escape.

With no other options, he had no choice but to launch an offensive against Lin An.

As the folk tune begins, its performance is full of deep emotion, each note seemingly carrying the heavy history of hundreds and thousands of years.

Those histories were unrecorded and unknown to the public.

The song exudes a deep sense of oppression, and Lin An sees a strange thing crawling out of the darkness.

His body was withered and slender, with abnormally protruding ribs, blind eyes like glass beads, and his neck and face were covered with long feathers, in which fireflies, earthworms and spiders crawled.

The blind man had no arms, only a pair of thin, bony wings, as if he were going through the process of transforming from a skeleton into a bird.

Zai, the creator of the totem!

Lin An frowned, and thoughts flashed through his mind.

"System, use the [Soul Exorcism Ritual] from the first volume of the 'Encyclopedia of Mysteries'!"

"The target does not exist. Do you want to transfer to the remaining targets?" the system's mechanical voice issued an incorrect prompt.

The so-called remaining targets refer to the six ancestral spirits. Lin An narrowed his eyes and canceled the Heti ritual.

Even if you were face-to-face with Zai's real body, you still couldn't "see" this dreamer...

Although unable to deliver the fatal blow, Zai, sensing the aura of the Heti ritual, was so startled that his feathers bristled and he lashed out at Lin An with his wings.

"Wow!"

A cool breeze brushed his face, and a dull pain shot through the depths of Lin An's brain. He used the same method as before to remove the abnormal status.

With a clear view, he looked closely and discovered that a group of menacing-looking soldiers were standing in front of him.

The scene changed completely. Under the blazing sun, soldiers wielded clubs and indiscriminately smashed them on the heads of a group of fleeing civilians. They beat women until they turned into a swarm of worms rolling on the ground.

The men were tied to the execution post, with an endless rainforest behind them and a row of soldiers with guns in front of them.

"Fire!" someone commanded.

The soldier pulled the trigger, a flash of white light streaked across the scene, and smoke billowed. Lin An instinctively used the back of his hand to block the fire, but when he removed it, the scene changed again.

Zai scratched at the Hebrew text protecting Lin An with his claws, stirring up a wave of heat. The two were suddenly on cloud nine, then fell down. The world was bizarre and shapeless.

Lin An understood that this was an illusion created by Zai invading and enveloping him, maintaining the mysterious magic of the "Judge" while pinpointing the shattered and torn reality.

Time stood still, and the blank faces of the six ancestral spirits were cut into small pieces.

The fireflies' light flickered endlessly in their eyes, scattered like stars, impossible to focus on, and hard to capture.

The "Dreamer's" madness continues as Lin An is dragged into a world rife with violence by Zai.

Famine was rampant, corpses of the starved littered the fields, and beggars filled the city center.

Children starved to death, flies gnawing at their wide-open eyes; roads are paralyzed, drivers die suddenly from high blood pressure attacks behind the steering wheel, car exhaust fumes becoming accomplices to the scorching sun; housing construction plans are tools of unscrupulous businessmen's corruption, leaving ordinary people homeless; soldiers go on a killing spree, guns pointed at students, indiscriminately slaughtering them.

Riots are frequent throughout the country!
The prison was overcrowded, and the stench of excrement mixed with blood was unbearable.

Zai flicked its claws, flapped its wings, and flew from one city to the other.

Powerful and influential officials held lavish banquets, indulging in food and drink all day long, their sweat reeking of strong alcohol.

The band performed energetically, incorporating the sponsor's name into their songs with a flirtatious air; leftover food was splattered on the gleaming floor, trampled and crushed by the guests without restraint; delicacies were served in a variety of innovative ways, and guests from all directions devoured them.

Armored vehicles loaded with soldiers rumbled into the city, amidst constant coups, each suppression followed by a new war.

"quack!"

Zai opened his bird's beak wide and spat out a string of endless prayer beads.

Each bead represents a successful assassination of a head of state; a mysterious number representing those who failed in a coup attempt; or a verdict that was executed in the early morning.

He led Lin An into a period of history that was both absurd and incredibly real, like a madman wielding a machine gun, mixing his own past with mythological elements and firing it into Lin An's temple.

"Sizzle... sizzle..."

Claws pierced the deep blue Hebrew protective barrier. Zai led Lin An through countless sweltering afternoons, and the accumulated years of time converged and merged at this moment.

What a disaster-prone place...

If this country continues on its normal trajectory without any changes, their suffering will never end.

As soon as Lin An had this thought, the system immediately issued a notification.

"The Dreamer's ideas are omnipresent in the Realm of Illusion. By empathizing with his dreams, you have obtained 'Dreamer' x1."

"Your pollution level has increased by 1% due to the radiation from the 'Dreamer'." It turns out that the way to obtain the "Dreamer" is to accept the ideas of a Dreamer.

After unlocking the method to reduce pollution levels, Lin An no longer felt "pollution level anxiety" and even felt that the compassion he showed was quite rare.

This would never have happened in the past.

Lin An never cared about social news. If it weren't for social etiquette, he wouldn't bother to care about whether other people were doing well or not, whether the world was fair or not, or how many tragic events were happening.

But when he first saw the suffering in Nanzhou, the captain's face flashed through his mind.

If it were Simon, he would definitely force himself to take on the responsibility of protecting these vulnerable people...

The moment the idea popped into my head, the pollution level spiked.

"Sigh, I can no longer remain indifferent like I used to," he thought silently.

But wishful thinking won't solve the problem.

Lin An's gaze pierced through the billowing smoke and sea of ​​fire, where the endless cycle of war formed a vicious circle like an ouroboros.

Soldiers raised their bayonets and stabbed their comrades. Bombs exploded violently, limbs and severed bodies flew everywhere, and blood gushed from the broken palm tree trunks. Limbs, intestines, and eyeballs mingled together in the wet bushes.

Protected by the Mishna, Lin An's consciousness sank into the Hermes statue in the Philosopher's Stone, where the sun and moon shone gently in the small world.

Amidst the mesmerizing melody, pure alchemical energy surges against the current.

That’s it!
Lin An opened his eyes, grasping at a corner of the illusion.

The air currents shattered the crescent-shaped curtain, and metallic colors surged. The reality of the tent, like a discordant note, forcibly inserted itself into this endless symphony of chaos.

"what!"

Zai screamed as his wings shattered along with the disintegrating illusion, leaving only half of his head.

The next moment, he pointed the double-barreled shotgun at his forehead.

With a "ping," Zai's head exploded like a watermelon, feathers flying everywhere. The large bird withered and deformed, turning into a pool of twisted and writhing flesh, like a highly poisonous insect.

The baby is born from flesh and blood, returns to the world, and begins to grow.

He looked at Lin An, his young eyes filled with undisguised frustration.

"We seem powerless to help each other."

After a moment of silence, Zai revealed this unfortunate truth.

Lin An's thoughts were racing, but he didn't want to alert the enemy, so he asked in a calm tone.

Why are you attacking me for no reason?

You have entered my dream.

Zai first spoke in a grand yet gentle tone, then his voice suddenly turned sharp and sarcastic.

“I was originally a carpenter, until the warlord kidnapped my son, my wife was lying in the hospital, and my daughter was talking nonsense in the streets and alleys.”

"What does this have to do with me?"

"They're all dead, so I wanted to build a paradise in the rainforest to escape reality. Is that any of your business? Who knew there were outsiders here too? What a bunch of maggots I can't shake off!"

As Zai spoke, the baby grew up and became a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy.

"I'm talking about you! You lying intruder!"

Upon hearing this, Lin An suddenly realized that Zai might have thought he was with the group of Flanders.

"【Red Poppy Merchant Guild】?"

Zai nodded: "Outsider, you have the blood of an invader, but there seems to be an ancient connection between us, which is why I decided to speak with you."

“I am not a member of the Red Poppy Merchant Guild, much less an intruder.” Lin An shrugged. “You hate killing each other so much in the illusion, yet you have indiscriminately created an enemy.”

“If you are no match for me, you will die sooner or later,” Zai said without any remorse. “You will understand what I mean; your wife has a thorn in her side.”

Through observation, Lin An identified the mysterious prototype of this person.

The person in the mirror, also called the person in the shadow, is pronounced "Kishi". It is the character carved on the stone during the gathering of ancestral spirits and totems.

The Shadow People are inhabitants of the underworld, a mixture of ancestors who cannot return to the mortal world.

Through years of monotonous life, they learned the magic of possessing insects, crossing the river between life and death, and hiding in the shadows of people in the mortal world.

As long as the sun and moon continue to shine, their influence will not disappear.

【Shadow People】like to fill people’s minds with evil and bizarre ideas; prolonged exposure will drive people insane.

Locals wear a palm leaf amulet to protect themselves from being corrupted by the "Shadow Man".

As Lin An pondered, Zai's once lustrous skin gradually developed wrinkles, aging with the passage of time until his form stabilized, returning him to a half-human, half-bird state, with all sorts of insects darting back and forth in his mind.

It turns out that this person was hiding in the "underworld" on the other side of the Kalenga Line, separated from Lin An, who was a "living person".

When hidden in another world, Zai cannot affect reality, but this master of transformation puts mystery into a vessel that transforms into an insect, crosses the Kalenga Line, and remotely influences areas of the mortal world through shadows.

However, the more dispersed his energy, the weaker his power becomes.

After Lin An stomped on the jar, fireflies flew everywhere, casting thin and chaotic shadows, which prevented Zai from unleashing his full power.

He'll never be able to perform at his best again.

Lin An couldn't cross the line between life and death to attack Zai's true form, but he came up with a way to "pull" Zai out of the underworld.

Although it was just an attempt, Lin An decided to launch a sudden attack when Zai was at his weakest, having exhausted a lot of his mental energy to return to his original form.

Two [God's One Eye IV] lights up, and they look quite similar to the amulets used to protect against attacks from [Shadow People], perhaps even sharing some common features.

Sure enough, Zai froze when stared at by those two menacing eyes.

Like a corpse rising from the water, a thin film peeled off his body.

The opportunity was fleeting, and Lin An manipulated the [Little Man in the Bottle] to pounce on the unsuspecting Zai.

The Encyclopedia of Magic II - The Naming Rights of the Animal Kingdom!
Zai was instantly split in two. One part spiraled and spun, flowing towards its core along with the resonance of the little man in the bottle; the other part fled in panic, quickly returning to the underworld and sinking deep into the depths.

Yellow petals fluttered in the air, like an endless stream of butterflies.

Darkness descended, obscuring Lin An's vision.

When the light reappeared, he saw the faces of the six ancestral spirits who had somewhat recovered, and the intricate and arrogant illusory space had completely vanished.

They knew nothing of the battle between the two; it all happened in the blink of an eye.

Lin An raised his palm, and saw that one-third of Zai's mystery was trapped inside the [Bottle Man], causing a dark and ambiguous glint to flash in the eyes of the alchemical life form.

Thank you to Rulercz, Crazy Mountain Range, Beef Porridge Saddy, Chemical Engineering, and Lei Yunfeng for the monthly tickets, and thank you all for the recommendation tickets and subscriptions.
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(End of this chapter)