I am a swordsman in a strange city

Chapter 77 Searching
Pei Ju put down the notes and came out of the room.

It was still dark, but people had already arrived to handle the aftermath. He was on the scene. Because he had previously obtained information about the Underground Club in the Professional Hall and was also Jin Fengyue's informant, he simply signed a document and left.

He walked along, lost in thought.

When I was in the mountains with my senior sister, I felt like there was nothing in the world that could bother me anymore, and nothing could arouse my interest.

There's nothing that really interests me right now, but there are things that annoy me.

The note reminded him of the people in the temple world five years ago.

Suspended Mirror Research Institute.

The Suspended Mirror Research Institute has long been deregistered, and the place is now deserted. Even the Dean, Mr. Mirror, is wanted by the authorities. But they are still alive, like fish that have entered the ocean, vanished without a trace.

When he returned to this city, it felt as if he had run into them again.

Many people like to look in the mirror, but he couldn't be sure if it was someone from the Suspended Mirror Research Institute, though he had a feeling it was.

Unlike his senior sister, he couldn't spontaneously calculate or enter a meditative state to sense a particular emotional trigger, but he still had some feelings.

This is the ability that comes from the sword's clear mind.

He tucked the sword into the belt at his lower back, put his hands in his pockets, and swaggered along.

Are they people who like to look in the mirror and want a clean body?
And then they set their sights on me?
Is someone lusting after my body?

Was I listed as a ghost in the depths of this dark cave?

During the five years I spent in the mountains, my senior sister always took me to terrifying caves to practice swordsmanship, so she became someone I remembered.

He remembered a saying in the secret arts that everything has a life of its own.

A house that has been uninhabited for a long time will give rise to a house spirit, a mirror will have a mirror spirit, an ancient jar may also harbor a spirit, an old tree can also nurture a spirit, and more commonly there are the spirits in temples, the mountain spirits in the mountains, as well as the internationally popular Ouija board spirits, and the spirits brought by various games.

Among them, various strange spirits are hidden in remote mountain caves, so there are people who specialize in studying them and there are clubs dedicated to this.

He wondered if the cave remembered him because he had practiced swordsmanship there too much.

Or perhaps something strange happened at Mr. Mirror's place.

He still went to the Pei Clan's Demon-Slaying Sword Hall. This time, he glanced at the room next door when he was at the entrance. It was quiet inside. There is a different feeling between a room that is occupied and one that is not.

A place where no one lives will have a cold and gloomy atmosphere, while a place where someone lives will have a lively atmosphere.

It's like two people lying there, one dead and one alive, it's easy to tell them apart.

Some things are invisible and intangible, yet they can be felt very clearly.

The house next door where Ye Youruo once lived has been deserted for a long time, yet when he was experiencing the Sword Hall, it gave him a rather unpleasant feeling.

He didn't know if it was just his imagination.

He stepped on the wall and leaped onto the courtyard wall, then looked at his living quarters on the second floor.

The door to that room was closed. He tried to recall if he had closed the door when he entered the room yesterday and chased after the 'person' out. He found he couldn't be sure.

He had a feeling that someone was watching him from behind that door.

He stood there motionless, then suddenly leaped up, stepping across the void and landing on the grape trellis. However, his foot barely touched the ground before he bounced up like a balloon being lifted, reaching the height of the second floor. With a quick reach, he flipped himself into the stairwell.

He arrived at the door of the room where he slept, slowly approaching to sense if anyone was inside, while his right hand gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist.

The feeling of gripping the sword hilt had always brought him a sense of peace, and it had slowly become a habit. He heard nothing, so he reached out and gently tapped the door. The door slowly opened with a creaking sound that was jarring in the quiet of the early morning.

The door opened, and the inside was dark.

Pei Ju was certain that no one was here.

He walked in step by step, looking around the room, when he suddenly noticed that the blankets on the bed looked like they had been moved.

Or rather, it's as if it's been covered up, because it's different from what he's seen before; it used to be crumpled up, but now it's spread out.

He unconsciously tightened his grip on the sword hilt, then his eyes suddenly sharpened as he scanned the room, but saw nothing.

On the table beside the bed were some books, and among them was a mirror, which he used to look at himself when he was reading. It was just an ordinary mirror, and his gaze involuntarily fell on it.

At this moment, the mirror was upside down on the table. He remembered that he started turning the mirror upside down after listening to Teacher Han's course on forbidden arts.

Teacher Han said that if a mirror harbors a spirit, then if the mirror is used for a long time, the spirit in the mirror will imitate the behavior of people outside and may eventually replace them.

Although mirrors with spiritual power are rare, Pei Ju began to turn mirrors upside down after hearing this.

He reached out and flipped the mirror over, leaving a dust mark on the table.

Because of the dim lighting, the reflection in the mirror was also dim, and Pei Ju's face was not very clear in the mirror.

His mind flashed back to Liu Xiangyu's light magic; that ability was indeed useful.

I put the mirror back on the table and looked around again, but I didn't see anything.

So he went out of the room, closed the door, went downstairs, and looked around the room below. He searched everywhere but still couldn't find anything. Then he came to the small house. The two portraits of Shen Tu and Yu Lei were gone, but the inlaid colored stones on the ceiling were still there.

By now, Pei Ju naturally knows how his maternal grandfather and senior sister got through it.

Because this little house was rearranged by my grandfather, and the nine stars above are part of the ritual array.

At the same time, it also incorporates the divinity of two mythological figures, Shen Tu and Yu Lei, because they are door gods. Pei Ju had also vaguely sensed that they existed on an ancient gate, and behind that gate was a symbol that could connect to any place.

My grandfather opened the door from that gate and entered the temple world directly.

The key item connecting the temple world is that shrine, which has been placed in this sword hall for so many years that its aura has become one with it.

Grandpa.

Thinking of his grandfather, a sigh involuntarily arose in his heart.

Because from beginning to end, he never saw his grandfather once, or rather, he only saw his grandfather once in the temple.

He didn't see him again at Xionglan Peak. At first, Senior Sister Yu said that his grandfather was in seclusion in his room and could not be disturbed while he was in deep meditation. As time went on, after he pressed her for details, Senior Sister Yu said that his grandfather's physical body had decayed and he had passed away.

A mental wandering?

What a mythical word!

Where did my mind wander off to?
Senior Sister Yu didn't say anything, only that, "I'm still searching too."

Instead of mentioning her grandfather's passing, Senior Sister Yu said he had traveled in spirit and that she was still searching for him. This surprised Pei Ju, because he knew that Senior Sister Yu was very capable, even unfathomable, and that she was not someone who would lie.

Therefore, she believed that her grandfather had gone into a trance, and that must be it.

(End of this chapter)