"Betty?"
"Betty!"
"Betty!"
Inside the house, the Curry couple kept calling their daughter’s na, neither of them noticing that the front door had suddenly opened from the outside, only to gently close again, as if nothing had happened.
Upstairs, while summoning the soul, Sun Yan saw the Soul-Calling Banner in his hand suddenly rise, the fabric that was previously soft now hardened like iron, with the pointed end of the triangular flag decisively pointing towards a certain direction within the room.
Turning his head to look, Sun Yan saw an unnoticed little girl standing quietly in the corner wearing a white dress. She was holding a bluish candle, staring blankly at the unconscious Betty lying on the bed.
"How could this be?!"
Upon seeing the little girl walking towards Betty’s body, Sun Yan’s expression suddenly changed dramatically, filled with disbelief.
There are three flas on a person, and when the soul erges, it takes one away. The little girl appearing with the candle precisely represented one such fla for Betty.
In other words, she symbolized Betty’s ergent soul, yet the girl looked entirely different from Betty; she was not the real Betty.
"What on earth is happening?" Sun Yan felt a chilling sensation in his heart, inexplicably feeling a little fretful.
The current situation completely exceeded his expectations; how could there be a soul within Betty’s body that did not belong to her, and where had the real Betty’s soul gone?
Facing the unfamiliar girl holding the candle, Sun Yan could only lay down the Ghost Torturing Stick, helplessly watching her climb onto the bed, returning to Betty’s body.
The originally unconscious Betty slowly opened her eyes after her soul returned, her doll-like long eyelashes fluttering slightly.
She did not acknowledge Sun Yan who was standing by the bed watching her; she rose directly, moved to the table, picked up so crayons and A4 paper, and started drawing hastily.
Sun Yan walked behind Betty and quietly observed her drawing.
This little girl, who had been unconscious for days, appeared full of energy as she tightly gripped the crayon and swiftly sketched on the paper.
Several arcs joined together were colored brown by her, with many greens mixed around them, resembling mountains and forests.
Deep within the brown mountains lay a white cube, around which Betty had added many black crosses.
At this mont, Betty appeared like an artist bursting with intense inspiration, continuously drawing, tossing aside her freshly finished sheet, and imdiately reaching for a second A4 paper to continue unceasingly. Her excited yet strained smiling manner weirdly sent chills down Sun Yan’s spine.
Sosia asked Sun Yan, "Does this count as a successful summoning?"
"Halfway, I suppose. The situation behind this is far more complicated than I anticipated, likely even the Curry themselves aren’t aware of the precise timing of their daughter’s predicant." Sun Yan picked up the freshly painted sheet by Betty, pondering deeply.
He lowered his tone, feigned affectionateness, and smilingly asked Betty, "Little one, what location are you drawing here?"
"I’m scared, terrified. There are so many strangers there, they’re so terrifying." Betty quickened her drawing pace, her voice tinged with a crying tone.
No matter how patiently Sun Yan continued querying, Betty refused to speak further, treating Sun Yan as air, wholly absorbed in her drawings.
Seeing this, the helpless Sun Yao could only turn and walk toward the door, "It appears we can’t extract anything useful; Betty didn’t encounter the issue when she fell unconscious three days ago. Her soul seems to have gone missing when she began drawing suddenly half a month ago. What exactly happened to Betty then still needs further clarification from the Curry; otherwise, her daughter’s soul can’t be found."
...
On the dining table were many sheets of drawing paper, all filled with crayon drawings at the level of a young child, each depicting different images.
The first drawing showed crosses drawn with black crayons on brown soil, under which lay motionless people. So were long-haired won, others were short-haired bearded n, all maintaining the sa posture as if in slumber.
The second drawing featured a white house filled with n and won with red wings, so of which were damaged or singular. They all gazed in one direction, seemingly watching sothing.
The third was a green pool with nurous bones floating, a hand reaching out from the pool’s bottom, clutching a pink heart.
The fourth...
Sun Yan sipped his coffee as he flipped through each sheet of drawing paper. These were Betty’s creations from recent tis, and he hoped to glean so useful clues from them.
"Mr. Jack, with your help, my daughter has regained consciousness. Is there still a problem?" Mr. Curry slid the papers over to Sun Yan, asking apprehensively.
"Yes, the soul within your daughter right now is not Betty’s soul. Yet these drawings were all made by her hand. This ans that half a month ago, your daughter’s soul had already vanished from her body. Mr. Curry, I must tell you this is very serious. We must hurry to retrieve Betty’s soul; otherwise, she will beco a wandering ghost. Think carefully about whether anything strange happened at ho before Betty started drawing half a month ago and then answer ."
Sun Yan took another sip of coffee, lifted his head, and spoke to Curry.
Curry’s expression turned deathly pale. He clenched his fists in panic: "How can this be, half a month ago... nothing happened half a month ago. I haven’t heard my wife ntion anything strange happening to Betty."
"In that case, Mr. Curry, could you tell what happened to your eldest daughter, Bellea, that led to her passing? There might be so connection there."
Sun Yan didn’t know much about what happened to Belia Elizabeth, but when he first learned of the body buried in the Demon Exorcism Tomb, he only knew that the deceased was still haunted by evil spirits, filled with unresolved grievances—extrely dangerous.
Now that Betty, Belia Elizabeth’s younger sister, was also having strange experiences, Sun Yan couldn’t help but suspect that both sisters might have provoked sothing unclean, resulting in their consecutive misfortunes.
"Bellea... " ntioning his eldest daughter, Curry’s eyes imdiately reddened, and he blinked back tears. For the safety of his younger daughter, he steeled himself to reopen old wounds and disclosed Bellea’s cause of death to Sun Yan.
"Before her death, Bellea had planned a camping trip in the mountains near Yellow Rock Town with so of her college classmates. She was a camping enthusiast, so my wife and I didn’t stop her. But after returning from the mountains, Bellea’s behavior beca peculiar. Often, we saw her talking to thin air, as if she were conversing with soone. Then she began self-harming; that’s when I realized sothing was wrong and took her to the city for a diagnosis. The doctor said it might be due to stress-induced hallucinations from a nervous breakdown.
We left Bellea in a psychiatric hospital for a month to recuperate until her behavior normalized before bringing her ho. We thought everything was behind us, but less than two weeks later, Bellea relapsed. She pleaded for rcy in front of mirrors, shattering every piece of glass in the house with her forehead. Even the blood she spat out was black—that’s when I had soone introduce us to Father Stephenson and invited him to Yellow Rock Town to examine what was wrong with my daughter."
Wiping his tears, Curry spoke with intense sorrow and regret: "It’s my arrogance and ignorance. I neglected my daughter’s problems for too long. Even Father Stevenson couldn’t save her, and I had to watch helplessly as a demon killed my daughter."
"Camping in the mountains... the mountains..." Sun Yan gazed at the spread of drawings, his brows furrowed.
"Mr. Curry, have you consulted those who went camping with your daughter? During their ti in the mountains, did they encounter anything unusual?"
Curry sighed deeply: "Like Bellea, after returning from the mountains, they all fell seriously ill. Once recovered, they could hardly rember anything that happened in the mountains."
"I suspect Betty’s issue might stem from this. Write down their contact information on this paper, and I’ll reach out to them. Perhaps it will lead to a new clue."
"I appreciate your help, Mr. Jack. But how do I face Betty? I can’t co to terms with a stranger’s soul occupying my daughter’s body."
"It’s alright; don’t provoke her for now. Let’s wait until I recover Betty’s soul and bring her back."
Sun Yan stood up and gathered all the drawing papers on the table: "I’ll take care of these drawings for now. I’ll inform you if there are any breakthroughs in the investigation."
Betty’s false soul has already been summoned back, but retrieving her true soul may not be possible with a simple soul-calling ritual. Staying in the Curry household serves no purpose now. The priority is to find Betty’s true soul so Sun Yan can confidently request paynt for this exorcism service from Curry.
Among Bellea’s college classmates who went camping together, one was also a local from Yellow Rock Town, living right in the town.
Sun Yan and Sosia left the Curry house and, following the address information Curry left on the drawing paper, headed straight over to pay a visit.
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