novelraw Chapter 368: The Real Home
Chapter 368: The Real Home
"Am I already dead...?" Confusion clouded the ghost's eyes, like an ordinary person who had lost their memory and was desperately trying to remember something.
"Yes," Lu Li replied.
Missing Person Notice:
[Alice]
[19 years old]
[Long, chestnut-brown hair. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing a white dress with a small floral print. If you have any information, please contact Parrot Street, number 43. We desperately ask for your help.]
"She..." Alice turned her head listlessly, her vacant gaze falling on the figure beside Lu Li.
Anna was sitting there.
"Just like you," Lu Li answered.
Alice looked at Lu Li again, a flicker of awareness in her clouded eyes. "I don't remember how I died..."The next thing she knew, she was standing under a streetlight, seeing the notice and an approaching carriage.
"But if I'm dead... then I suppose that's that..." Alice raised a hand, gazing at her translucent palm as if finally letting go. A shade of humanity returned to her eyes. "Could I ask you for one favor?"
"I'll let your parents know," Lu Li replied, understanding her unspoken request.
"Thank you."
Alice offered a sincere bow of gratitude. Then she raised her head and looked off in a specific direction, as if drawn by some unseen summons.
Her spiritual form began to dissolve like mist, slowly dissipating.
"Wait," Lu Li called out to the fading Alice.
As Alice turned a confused and uncomprehending gaze on him, Lu Li reached for his belt and unlatched his holster.
"I'll help you."
...
The drumming of the rain nearly drowned out the clatter of hooves. Driven by gusts of wind, sheets of water swirled and scattered like a frantic school of fish.
Rainwater streamed into the roadside gutters, swelling into turbulent torrents that coursed down the streets. If visibility had been better, one could have witnessed the impressive spectacle of these streams flooding the city as they rushed toward the coastline.
Sometime later, the carriage pulled to a stop before a house. Light glowed in the windows, a clear sign that someone was home.
Lu Li knocked on the door.
The door soon opened to reveal a man with a quizzical look on his face.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" The tall, cloaked figure on the threshold filled the man with an inexplicable sense of unease.
The source of his anxiety was the stillness that surrounded the stranger. A storm was raging, yet Lu Li seemed untouched by the wind and rain—even the hem of his cloak was perfectly dry.
"I'm an exorcist. I've just found your daughter's ghost."
As he spoke, a sudden flash of lightning split the sky behind him, making his words sound like a pronouncement from Death itself.
"Darling, who is it?" a woman asked, approaching from behind the man.
Lu Li repeated what he had said.
The news struck the family like a physical blow. The woman fell into her husband's arms, sobbing.
"We should have been prepared for this," the man murmured, gently rubbing his wife's back.
Something occurred to him, and he looked up, but the cloaked figure was gone. The carriage had vanished into the rain.
...
"I thought you were going to avenge Alice," Anna said, sitting beside Lu Li with her chin propped in her hand.
She did her best to conceal her aura, but uncontrollable emanations of the Unseen Aura still seeped out, and it worried her.
The last thing Anna wanted was to harm Lu Li.
"She let it go herself. There's no point in deciding for her," Lu Li replied.
Unlike Anna had once been, Alice radiated no coldness or malice. They had both died from accidents or natural causes; neither had been murdered.
Alice's house was more or less on the way, so the carriage continued on toward Elm Street.
After a short silence, Lu Li's voice broke the quiet in the carriage. "What is your mental projection ability?"
Telekinesis, Anna's ability to move objects with her mind, wasn't unique to her. Nearly all ghosts possessed that power, and that power alone.
Only vengeful spirits on the verge of becoming evil spirits developed a unique mental projection.
It was the nascent form of an evil spirit's ritual.
Anna's mental projection took the form of a distorted shadow. She had yet to use her power.
"Fusion," Anna answered after a moment of silence.
Her mental projection—her ritual—involved her distorted shadow enveloping a target's shadow until it was completely consumed. The victim would then become a part of her power, granting Anna access to their memories and thoughts.
The counter was simple enough: move to a place without shadows, such as complete darkness.
As the name suggested, a mental projection was born from an inner obsession—an obsession that was always dark in nature.
For instance, even if a person had been obsessed with protection in life, upon becoming an evil spirit, their mental projection would invariably twist into something malevolent, not protective.
So, was the dark desire hidden deep in Anna's soul... a desire to know everything about me?
Lu Li mused in silence.
It was entirely possible; Lu Li knew how curious Anna was about his feelings and origins.
But there could be other reasons, too...
Thankfully, Anna also recognized the danger of her mental projection and treated Lu Li as if he were made of glass.
Anna watched Lu Li. The moment his expression grew thoughtful, she knew he had understood.
Yet Lu Li showed no disgust, no revulsion. He acted as he always did.
It felt so good to be trusted...
The cold in Anna's scarlet eyes seemed to thaw a little.
Forty minutes later, the carriage reached Elm Street.
Half a month had passed. The ruins of the destroyed, infected houses had been cleared away, leaving only empty foundations behind. Unlike the bustling streets they had just left, where most windows were lit, only a few homes here had lights burning.
After the "Man-Eating House" incident, many disturbed residents had abandoned Elm Street.
Given the choice between the safety of the city center and the dangers of the outskirts, few would choose to stay.
After stopping briefly at a warehouse on Elm Street to load a processed slab of Deep Sea Stone, Lu Li headed toward the Elm Forest.
A normal carriage could have handled the weight of two slabs of Deep Sea Stone in fair weather, but in this storm, Lu Li wasn't willing to risk seeing if they could make it all the way to the clifftop.
The houses lining the street fell away, and the uneven cobblestones gave way to a muddy track. Whenever the wheels became mired in the muck, Anna would give a flick of her wrist, using her power to push the carriage free.
The sky, though it was day, was as dark as dusk, and sudden flashes of lightning illuminated the withered, gnarled trees along the road.
The Elm Forest, steeped in negative emotions, wrapped its consciousness around Lu Li and Anna. The forest's awareness felt even more distinct than his last visit, as if on the verge of becoming a true sentient being.
Waves of sorrow, pain, and despair washed over Lu Li, but his unshakable will prevented them from seeping in.
These emotions weren't aimed at Lu Li specifically; they pressed in on anyone who entered the woods.
As they neared the clifftop, the ambient consciousness began to shift.
A few hundred meters from the summit, the oppressive emotions receded from the carriage. By the time they were a hundred meters away, the feeling had become almost welcoming.
This was Lu Li's home.