Beichuan Si turned around, flashlight in hand.
Under his gaze, a shadow dressed in black ’Magong Family Head’ hunting attire, kneeling behind the painting, began to slowly dissipate.
"What was that just now?" Beichuan Si wondered.
If this place was within the Magong Family’s domain, the person just now should be the Magong Family Head.
But this didn’t confirm whether he was the ’Lord Sonokata’ ntioned in the cook’s notes.
After all, Magong Zongfang could rely be a person of high virtue and esteem within the Magong Family.
Beichuan Si paused in his tracks for a while.
"Dongzi... Could it be referring to Magong Dongzi?" Beichuan Si raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Since Magong Dongzi had forgotten her affairs at the Magong Main Family, Beichuan Si had no choice but to co here to investigate, and naturally, he paid extra attention to her na.
Beichuan Si re-entered and groped around, especially where the residual image had been sitting, even reaching out to touch it.
But in the end, he found nothing.
It seed not every residual image had an object it resided in.
Beichuan Si walked out of the reception room, stepped directly onto the staircase, and headed for the second floor.
On the side of the second-floor corridor were bookshelves, stacked layer upon layer with various thread-bound books.
Beichuan Si was actually very interested in these books and records, as they might contain so traditional information about Shenzhu Village.
Beichuan Si browsed through the materials in the books,
His flashlight’s beam assisting him, he quickly flipped through them.
Since the thread-bound books mostly contained anecdotes from the village, Beichuan Si scanned them quickly, setting each aside after a minute or two.
Amid this intense reading, Beichuan Si soon found a yellowed note.
The note briefly stated:
’Soul Suppressing Twins, Soul Guiding Ceremony.’
’Every so often, the Magong Family births twins, both girls, known as the ’Soul Suppressing’ twins. The twins must hold the Soul Guiding Ceremony at the Magong Main Family to enhance spiritual sensitivity.’
’The eldest daughter is raised by the Shenzhu Shrine from childhood, taking the Shenzhu surna, while the younger daughter takes the Magong surna and is raised by the Magong Main Family without overstepping boundaries.’
"Soul Summoning Ceremony?" Beichuan Si had wanted to learn more about the specific process of the Soul Summoning Ceremony, but there was no further record of it.
He opened the rest of the books to take a look, but finding nothing more, he casually changed the flashlight’s batteries and shone it around.
The second floor was as quiet as ever—
Not just the second floor, but the surrounding environnt exuded a dead silence.
Aside from the slight movents made by Beichuan Si, the room was oppressively quiet, to the point of driving one insane.
No sounds from outside could penetrate in, and no sounds from inside could escape.
Just as Beichuan Si stood up, Nishijou Kurenai crawled out from his collar to scratch his face, her chubby little hands moving towards the left corridor.
"Is there sothing on the left?" Beichuan Si asked.
Kurenai vigorously nodded, then tugged at his expressionless face, signaling that he should be careful.
"I understand." Beichuan Si let Nishijou Kurenai secure her grip and walked composedly into the left corridor.
At that mont, sounds ca from the first-floor hearth. Beichuan Si gripped his flashlight and swept it over, just in ti to see a woman in a traditional kimono, her white clothing and rotting scalp, searching for sothing.
"I can’t find it, can’t find it, my comb... my—ah!!"
Accompanied by another large piece of scalp disgustingly sliding off her head, the woman let out a pained wail and vanished into pieces.
That was also a re afterimage.
Beichuan Si swept the second floor with his flashlight and, finding nothing left behind by the afterimage, continued to walk towards the left.
There were about four to five rooms on the left side, and at the end of the corridor, there seed to be stairs leading up to the third floor.
From Beichuan Si’s perspective, the rooms on the left were probably the dining area for entertaining guests, split into two layers from inside to outside.
Scattered on the outer layer were greyish-red cushions covered in mold.
The color of these cushions must have once been vermillion, but the passage of so much ti, coupled with mold and the moisture brought by weather changes, had long since faded them.
Beichuan Si walked straight into the inner layer and found a small notebook placed on a dining table for four.
The fragntary notebook contained the following page:
’Nayuki’s illness has worsened; she’s now begun tearing at her own scalp, and her ntal state is deteriorating, too. She’s started shouting loudly and keeps asking for her comb. We had no choice but to tie her up with a rope, hoping to restrain her self-harming behavior.’
’It seems the village clinic is no longer capable of treating her. After the ceremony, we’ll have to find a chance to take her out of the village.’
’The outside hospital should be able to handle Nayuki’s treatnt, right?’
’I’ve heard that Yongshi has a good relationship with Nayuki. Her presence after this ordeal should have a calming effect, shouldn’t it?’
The writing beca blurred and illegible further on.
Combining the symptoms with keywords like comb and scalp, it was not hard to deduce that the woman downstairs was Magong Nayuki.
"Only..."
Yongshi’s na had appeared twice now. Coupling this with the cook’s notes, the Soul Summoning Ceremony notes, and the diary entries of Magong Dongzi, it could be inferred that this Magong Yongshi might be one of the Soul Suppressing Twins.
"But if there’s already one of the Soul Suppressing Twins in the Magong family, what’s the deal with Magong Tong?"
If it was assud that Magong Tong was one of the Soul Suppressing Twins from the Magong main family, then what was Magong Yongshi’s status?
Beichuan Si frowned in thought.
But with so few clues at hand, he dared not make any hasty judgnts.
"Since Magong Yongshi lived in this mansion, it ans she must have left so traces of her own."
This was an undeniable fact.
If those traces were found, they would surely reveal so clues.
Beichuan Si had made up his mind.
But just as he looked up, he felt sothing was wrong.
There seed to be sothing extra on the ceiling.
He looked up.
Hanging from the ceiling was a man in a white robe.
His face was ghastly pale, and his eyes, which were nothing but whites, were staring motionlessly at Beichuan Si.
In response, Beichuan Si just flipped his wrist, Jian Ding ca into his hand and then left it, finally piercing into the spirit’s brow.
All of this happened in an instant.
Accompanied by an incomprehensible and horrifying sound, the robed man, clutching his head, vanished in agony.
Beichuan Si then stood still for a while—
waiting for the system notification sound.
It still did not co.
What in the world was going on?
Beichuan Si furrowed his brow.
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