Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 55 The Spirit Meeting

"How to do?"

Stepping out of the restaurant, Inspector Lestrade approached Levi and asked in a low voice. Logically, they should have found an excuse to leave by now and started searching the area. After all, everyone in this hotel was attending some kind of psychic ritual; there was no one else around.

But the problem is that this group of people looks like they're about to summon a boss to unleash a powerful attack, which makes Inspector Lestrade somewhat uneasy.

He didn't believe in these things before, but now... well, that's hard to say.

"Let's see what they're up to."

Li Wei didn't think this was a good opportunity. He was more worried about the so-called spirit communication ritual. As for the investigation, he could wait until everyone was asleep at night to investigate slowly.

Anyway, the house is right here. If all else fails, Li Wei has already decided to have Inspector Lestrade go back and talk to the tax office. They'll definitely be willing to come and have a good talk with these tax evaders. They can put up a seal and seal it off for ten days or half a month. Then they can investigate however they want.

After all, the monk can run away but the temple can't. Li Wei didn't believe that the house could grow legs and run away.
But if this spiritual communication causes any trouble, then it will be a real problem.

Li Weining managed to have the house seized by the tax bureau; it's better than a murder case, right?

Unfortunately, silencers don't exist in this world yet.

Li Wei had asked Benjamin, and he actually preferred weapons that could kill silently. Revolvers certainly looked intimidating, but when it came to actually firing, Li Wei didn't want to reveal himself. Being able to take down the opponent silently was better than a direct gunfight, wasn't it?
Benjamin was quite interested in Levi's requests and ideas, but Levi couldn't quite articulate them clearly. He wasn't exactly a weapons enthusiast; he had handled a few guns occasionally, and had even had some fun shooting them while traveling abroad. But that was just for fun; he had no intention of building guns, so who knew the underlying reasons?

So Li Wei just picked up some things he had seen online and told Benjamin as guesses, letting the latter figure it out himself—he figured it out, Benjamin was the kind of person who feared nothing more than a peaceful world, and his life's work was probably on how to research and manufacture stronger, more ferocious and better weapons.

Who knows, one day they might just accidentally develop an atomic bomb.

After making their decision, Levi and Inspector Lestrade followed the others to the recreation room. They found all the windows closed and the curtains drawn. A round table stood in the center, usually used for playing cards, but now a psychic tablet sat on it.

Seeing this, Li Wei raised an eyebrow. The spirit board was actually a rectangular wooden board with letters and numbers engraved on it, and two options: yes and no.

This is actually the precursor to the Ouija board in horror movies, or rather, the Ouija board evolved from this. The process is the same: people gather together, place their fingers on a wooden block, and invite spirits to help them answer their questions.

The reason this thing is so popular is indeed somewhat justifiable. No one feels their fingers moving, yet the squares they're pressing seem to move on their own. This sparks considerable curiosity, novelty, and excitement in many. However, scientific research suggests this is more like a form of mass hypnosis; you feel like you're not moving, but in reality, you're controlling your fingers to apply pressure.

Of course, this is a scientific conjecture, and whether it is true or not, no one can say for sure.

However, this thing... is actually very difficult to implement in China.

It's not without reason that spiritualism originated in the West. With 26 letters, Arabic numerals 1-0, and YES and NO, how much space could they possibly take up?
Japan made some improvements, but they simply replaced the alphabet with the Japanese syllabary (五十音图).

But how do we do this for Li Wei?
Using pinyin and tones? Are you kidding me with homophones?

Using Wubi input method? There aren't many people who know how to use Wubi these days, and I doubt Ghost knows it either.

Directly engrave the characters? How big of a magic board would it take to engrave thousands of Chinese characters? Even if you could engrave them, the resulting plate would be bigger than a banquet.

The movie cleverly made the ghost write by itself, but if the ghost can write by itself, what's the point of having you guys? Wouldn't it be more convenient to just put a cell phone there?
So please, I'll have to ask you to send me a message in my dream. This foreign stuff really doesn't fit our national conditions.

Well, these things are just a matter of national context. Take psychologists, for example. If you encounter something unpleasant at work, they'll just advise you to be more magnanimous, to change your mindset, to treat others with peace, and if all else fails, to change jobs instead of torturing yourself... You've spent a lot of money and gotten angry, so what's the point?

Why not spend fifty yuan to find a fortune teller? He'll see you and praise you as an extraordinary person, but recently you've been plagued by a villain. If you can overcome this obstacle, you'll surely rise to great heights, and the villain will suffer a terrible fate...

Ah, that sounds much better.

Psychology can be considered a kind of metaphysics from a certain perspective, and it's not much different from fortune telling, except that the latter can better serve clients.

Otherwise, why would so many emperors and high-ranking officials in ancient times like to have their fortunes told or go to temples and Taoist temples to chant sutras and preach Buddhism? To put it bluntly, wasn't it all to treat their psychological problems? If we're talking about psychology, those abbots and Taoist priests would probably all be psychology experts today.

After all, their skills were earned with their lives, and today's experts probably don't have that kind of opportunity.

While Li Wei was thinking about these random things, he had already started fiddling with things over there.

Under the manager's direction, the newlyweds, the middle-aged man, and the two maids sat down around the table, followed by the old female medium and the manager himself. Levi and Inspector Lestrade watched from the sidelines, not intending to intervene—after all, they could intervene in time if anything went wrong.

The manager didn't seem to object, and while the others were somewhat uneasy, they remained silent. Levi sat on the sofa by the window, while Inspector Lestrade stood tacitly at the door.

It had started raining outside, and even through the window, you could hear the howling wind mixed with the raindrops pattering against the glass, and occasionally, a low rumble of thunder. Hmm... putting everything else aside, just this scene alone gave you the feeling that it would be a waste if it weren't haunted.

After all, the atmosphere has reached this point, wouldn't it be a waste not to do something special for such a grand event?

"Okay, turn off the lights."

At the manager's command, the maid in charge turned off the lights around the room, leaving only a single candle in the center of the round table, casting a dim, flickering flame.

This is why many people believe that so-called psychic arts are a form of hypnosis. With only a small light in the room, people's attention will involuntarily focus on it. In addition, by collectively chanting incantations to summon evil spirits, those with a keen mind can create a hypnotic effect by manipulating the room slightly.

However, for Li Wei, the simplest way would be to push the plank himself and then deny everything.

While pushing hard, he exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, I didn't move, how did it start moving by itself?"... It's the simplest, most convenient, and least likely to be exposed.

After all, you can't possibly take a lie detector test when you're playing a supernatural game.

At this point, the old lady had each participant extend one finger and place it on a wooden board about the size of a bowl with a circle cut out in the middle. Then she closed her eyes and began to mumble in some unknown language.

Since Li Wei had nothing better to do, he leaned back on the sofa and opened [Soul Vision].

He wanted to see if this psychic communication was real or fake.

If it's fake, that's fine, but if it's real... then that's troublesome.

The house was pitch black. In Levi's eyes, only the souls of the people sitting at the table were white, and then there was Inspector Lestrade leaning against the door. Levi specifically looked at the manager; the latter's soul was also white, at least on the surface, he seemed fine.

"Gibberish... Gibberish... Gibberish!"

The old woman's soul-calling voice grew louder and louder, and at the same time, Li Wei suddenly sensed that the surrounding scenery had changed.

Within the [Soul Vision], the originally pitch-black objects gradually began to glow faintly, though not very brightly. Immediately afterward, Li Wei sensed that the surrounding temperature seemed to have dropped, and he could hear the howling of the cold wind.

"Waaaaah..."

A gentle breeze blew from afar, and the people at the table seemed to sense something amiss, glancing around nervously.

Then, the old woman who was a spiritual medium spoke again.

“Souls slumbering here, heed my call and bestow your wisdom upon us…”

Immediately following the old woman's words, a miraculous scene unfolded.

Li Wei's eyes widened in astonishment, because at that moment, he saw a white figure "float" in from the direction of the door! The figure passed by Inspector Lestrade, but the latter did not react at all!

Is there really a ghost?

Seeing this, Li Wei was also dumbfounded. Although he had seen many monsters, this was the first time he had ever seen a ghost.

Under the gaze of [Soul Vision], the white figure gradually approached the table.

Is this for real? Do ghosts really exist in this world?

Seeing this, Li Wei was also dumbfounded. Just as he was considering whether to pull out his gun and shoot that thing…

"Boom!"

With a thunderous roar, a blinding white light burst forth, piercing through the dark curtain and illuminating the entire room with dazzling brilliance.

Immediately afterwards, a shrill scream rang out!

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!"

(End of this chapter)