Compared to when he was on Mount Taixuan, where usurping the abilities of the Stove Ghost for ten minutes granted him a permanent "Primordial Bizarre Rule," the price for repairing a living person's body was child's play.
Li Mo looked up. The Knocking Ghost had already disappeared from the corridor and was at the manor's main gate. Like a spirit, it passed straight through the physical gate, ignoring its barrier, and vanished back into the mysterious black fog.
At 8:00 AM sharp, most of the Bizarre entities in the haunted manor instantly fell silent.
"The Knocking Ghost is gone. Time to wake Kanagawa up."
Li Mo pinched Kanagawa Yume's nose hard, but after holding it for a good while, she still didn't wake up. He had to give up.
Is her consciousness trapped in her dream?
Wounds were still continuously appearing on her body. Though not severe, if they kept accumulating, Li Mo would have to keep using "Usurpation" to keep her alive.
That was definitely not a good choice. If he overused his Bizarre powers, he would have a hard time surviving the coming nights.
He had to leave himself enough of a margin for error.
Li Mo glanced at the candle on the wall outside the ninth room. It had already burned out.
It had gone out in the middle of the night, but the Knocking Ghost still hadn't attacked.
The ninth room, holding hands, Kanagawa Yume sleeping—three factors had stopped the Knocking Ghost's attack. It was impossible to know which one it was, or if it was all of them.
But the candles in the other rooms hadn't burned out; they had simply been extinguished by the Knocking Ghost's approach.
"I hope this works."
Li Mo collected the candles from outside the seven rooms on the first floor, leaving one fully intact candle behind just in case.
Seven candles, each possessing the ability to suppress a ghost to some degree, even if it wasn't much.
"After all, they're just Bizarre items. They can't compare to a real ghost."
The power of a Bizarre item has its limits, but ghosts are different. They are like undying, unkillable abominations.
In a long war of attrition, a Bizarre item will inevitably reach its end, while a ghost is eternal.
The Knocking Ghost's level of completeness was absurdly high, so it was only natural that a single candle couldn't suppress it. Perhaps, if all the candles from all the rooms were gathered together... they could withstand an attack from a highly complete ghost from the manor.
Li Mo mentally filed this idea away. If the upper floors had the same layout, this idea might save everyone's life.
After all, they'd be spending the night on the second floor, and at 9:00 PM, the Knocking Ghost would appear again.
If he and Kanagawa Yume hadn't lured the Knocking Ghost to the end of the corridor last night, all the members of the Occult Club in the Outer World would have likely died.
Putting those thoughts aside, Li Mo laid Kanagawa Yume flat on the floor, as if preparing a body for burial, only without a coffin to seal it in.
He placed the seven candles around her.
Then he took out the Bizarre pistol and lit the unburnt candles one by one.
The first candle was lit. Its eerie, dim light shone on Kanagawa Yume's feet. Miraculously, the bloody handprints on her feet stopped appearing, the wounds stopped tearing, and the scratches stopped widening.
"It's working."
Li Mo lit the second candle. The flame flickered, illuminating Kanagawa Yume's left hand. Her left hand was no longer being ravaged by the ghost in her dream.
Similarly, he lit the third candle on her right side, placing her right hand in the protected area.
Li Mo adjusted the position of the fourth candle, placing it above Kanagawa Yume's head.
Under the candle's suppression, the wounds on her face stopped worsening. However, the injuries she had already sustained didn't heal. The candlelight didn't have the ability to restore a body; it could only suppress a ghost's actions.
"It seems the ghost in the dream is not very complete. One candle can suppress a whole area, and it's instantaneous, with almost no extra time for a rule conflict."
When two rules clash, one will inevitably have a higher level of completeness than the other, but the conflict isn't instantaneous. The smaller the difference in completeness, the longer the confrontation lasts.
It was like the Head Ghost and the Stomach Ghost. The Head Ghost couldn't beat the Stomach Ghost. But after devouring the rules and abilities of three other Bizarre entities, it had the capital to contend with it. They both fell silent and only reawakened three days later.
The fact that the candle could instantly suppress the dream ghost proved that the dream ghost was not as terrifying as the ghosts in the manor; it had not completed itself.
At least, not yet.
Li Mo picked up the fifth candle, considered for a moment, then placed it over Kanagawa Yume's heart and lit it.
With this, Kanagawa Yume's entire body was bathed in candlelight. The ghost in the dream should be completely suppressed.
Five was enough; he had even taken two extra.
Li Mo returned the two extra candles to their original places, then came back to Kanagawa Yume's side and squatted down.
He pushed her shoulder and called out coldly, "If you don't wake up now, I'm leaving you here alone..."
Suddenly, a strange thing happened.
The moment Li Mo finished speaking, Kanagawa Yume sat up with a jolt, like a conditioned reflex.
Large beads of sweat rolled down her scarred cheeks.
Kanagawa Yume gasped for breath, clutching her chest, her body shaking violently.
"I was just..."
"I know. You encountered a ghost in your dream."
"How did you..."
Kanagawa Yume was about to ask, "How did you know?" but then she remembered that this was Li Mo's job. When it came to all sorts of sudden paranormal events, his judgment and analysis were bound to be far superior to an ordinary person's.
"Hiss... my whole body hurts so much. Those damn little shits, it's not like I'm the one who killed them. Every single one of them acted like an avenging spirit, but I've never even fucking met them!"
Kanagawa Yume said angrily. The look on those ghosts' faces was as if she had brutally murdered them, even though she had never seen them before.
"Ghosts don't care about human logic. The Bizarre cares even less," Li Mo explained simply.
"The Bizarre? An upgraded version of a ghost? The elite of ghosts? A ghost king?" Kanagawa Yume asked.
Li Mo neither confirmed nor denied it, replying casually:
"A concept. It can be a ghost."
"Let's not talk about that for now. You should have heard the noise from the main hall. It's been rowdy for a while. I think we're back in the Outer World. Your classmates are discussing something in the hall."
Li Mo pointed to the opposite end of the corridor. Now, brilliant morning sunlight shone through the cracks and windows, bathing the entire mansion in a golden splendor.
There were many luxury goods here that hadn't been taken, as well as paintings that looked like they would fetch a high price.
It looked just like a magnificent mansion.
But after last night's events, no one cared about these things. Everyone just thought it was a haunted house and wanted to escape as soon as possible.
"Right... are you... coming with me?" Kanagawa Yume asked.
"Of course. I was the one who ordered them to blow out the candle last night, not you. Besides, I also need to remind them of some key points for survival. Assuming they're willing to listen."
Li Mo directly took responsibility.
Last night, a ghost had gotten into the second room of the Outer World. In a fit of anger, Li Mo had directly told the Occult Club president to blow out the candle and leave the ghost isolated. This meant that someone had definitely died last night.
The reason was simple. When the club members realized the classmate behind them was a real ghost, they would panic and flee in terror. In the chaos, any ordinary person who was left alone would be killed instantly.
Not until someone from the Occult Club came to their senses, immediately hid back in a room, relit the candle, and threw the ghost out while the suppressive effect was still active.
He just didn't know how many had died.
Li Mo estimated the time between the candle going out and being relit last night. It should have been two to three people, four at most.
"After you get back to your companions, you might run into a little trouble."
"What trouble?"
"You'll know when you get there."
Li Mo strode forward. Under the threat of death, human trust was like a burst dam, collapsing in an instant.
He had no intention of explaining too much. Letting the person experience it for themselves was the best option—it saved time and effort.
"Wait, the way I look right now..."
Kanagawa Yume glanced at herself, looking like she had just crawled out of a pool of blood. Her body was covered in wounds, and blood had stained her thin clothes.
To students who had rarely seen blood, Kanagawa Yume looked like she had just been tortured in a basement for a night.
"Your classmates should have extra clothes. You can't stay like this, it's a problem for everyone."
"Right."
Kanagawa Yume also felt sticky and extremely uncomfortable. She just needed to quickly think of an explanation.
Soon, Li Mo led Kanagawa Yume to the first-floor hall. After a quick scan, Li Mo confirmed there were fifteen people in the hall.
The Occult Club had twenty-four members. Excluding the two who became ghosts and Kanagawa Yume, that left twenty-one. So six had died last night?
It was more than Li Mo had expected. By his calculations, the ghost should have only been able to kill two or three people, not six.
Unless someone had done something stupid.
"President, President! What does the Bloody Newspaper say? Where on earth is Yume? When can we finally leave this damn place?"
"President, let's just leave now while it's daytime! Since the door won't open, we can climb out the windows! It's bright and sunny outside, it must be safe!"
"What are you talking about? Didn't you see someone die outside? As long as the black fog doesn't disappear, we can't leave!"
"You don't know shit! She was just unlucky! If it wasn't for you suggesting we come here, I'd be at home ordering takeout and binge-watching anime right now!"
"My fault? You were the first to agree, wanting to prove the haunted manor had no ghosts. Now you're blaming it all on me? Have you no conscience!"
"President, you brought us here, you have to protect us and get us back safely."
The noisy clamor echoed through the hall. It was clear the Occult Club was not so united.
With eight dead and one missing, everyone had become extremely agitated, unable to calm down and think.
The Occult Club president, Yugawa Fuwan, pressed her temples and bit her lip, shouting, "Quiet! Quiet! The Bloody Newspaper said we can get out alive as long as we can get to the fifth floor."
"You've all seen the videos on the supernatural forums. As long as we follow the Bloody Newspaper's instructions, we'll definitely survive the second night..."
Yugawa Fuwan had no confidence herself, but to calm everyone down, she had to force herself to believe in this Bizarre Bloody Newspaper that had appeared out of nowhere on a portrait in the hall.
Everyone had seen the videos on the supernatural forums and had some idea of what the second floor was like.
The Bloody Newspaper had given many rules for survival, but none were difficult.
Rule 1: Do not leave the haunted manor.
Rule 2: The rooms with burning candles are safe. At night, as long as you stay in the room, you can sleep soundly until 8:00 AM the next day and be fine.
Rule 3: You must have a companion when entering a room.
Rule 4: If the candle flickers when you enter a room, it means you have already violated Rule 3.
Rule 5: Do not enter the ninth room, not even near the door.
Rule 6: Do not wander around outside at night.
Rule 7: Survivors on the first floor should go up to the second floor as soon as possible and go to the eighth room. This is the key to survival.
"Right, we still have the Bloody Newspaper! We have hints! If we rely on the Bloody Newspaper to survive the second day, we can do the same on the third."
"President, does the Bloody Newspaper have any other hints?"
The president took out the Bloody Newspaper. A thick, fishy smell wafted from it, like blood, or like paint that hadn't yet dried.
The president took a deep breath and asked cautiously:
"Ahem... I have some things I want to ask you."
Soon, crimson words quickly appeared on the Bloody Newspaper.
"President, President, there's something on the Bloody Newspaper!"
Everyone gathered around, watching intently.
[Yugawa Fuwan, I am you from five days in the future, and I am telling you what will happen through this newspaper.]
"Five days later? President, the newspaper said before that the stairs to the next floor appear after each day we survive. That means we just need to hold on for four days to reach the fifth floor, and then leave according to what the newspaper says!"
"That's great! The first day was too scary. With the Bloody Newspaper, the next few days should be much better. At least we won't be running around like headless chickens like last night, if it weren't for..."
The person speaking suddenly fell silent, as if what happened in the second room last night was a taboo subject.
[By the time you see this sentence, I will have already left the haunted manor. Please trust me, I can lead you and all the members of the Occult Club out of the haunted manor safely...]
Seeing the Bloody Newspaper's response, everyone couldn't help but be overjoyed, their faces beaming with delight.
The president hesitated for a long time, then asked another question.
"I need to confirm. Since you say you're the future me, you should be able to answer my questions."
"I'm asking you now, what is my date of birth and my hobbies."
[As you wish. You were born on November 1, 1997. You currently serve as the president of Ryuzaki High School's Occult Club, but what you love most is not the supernatural, but reading novels. The supernatural novel Kanagawa Yume posts online is your favorite.]
"...The Bloody Newspaper is right. It seems it really is a record left by the me from five days in the future."
"Isn't this better? President, you have to get us out of here alive!"
Just as everyone was surrounding the Occult Club president, Li Mo emerged from the darkness with a blood-soaked Kanagawa Yume.
Kanagawa Yume shouted, "President! It's me, Kanagawa Yume."
Instantly, everyone turned around in astonishment, staring at Kanagawa Yume.
Especially after seeing her covered in wounds, they instinctively took a step back.
The president's expression was complicated. After taking a deep breath, she mustered the courage to walk forward.
As the president, she naturally had to take on these responsibilities.
Including questioning a companion.
"Yume, how did you know that person yesterday was a ghost? Where were you last night? We didn't see you in any of the rooms in the haunted manor, but only the rooms are safe."
"Why are you covered in so many wounds?"
"And... who is this man?"
The president's eyes were extremely vigilant, one hand held behind her back.
The barrage of questions stunned Kanagawa Yume for two seconds.
"I..."
Before Kanagawa Yume could explain, Li Mo stepped in front of her, his tone cold, and answered one by one: "I was the one who used her phone to message you last night. In the haunted manor, anyone who is alone will fall into another world. We were also in the second room, you just couldn't observe us."
"The wounds on her body are none of your business."
"As for me, I'm here to deal with the haunted manor. I have no intention of clashing with you."
"So... take the knife out from behind your back and put it away. Blades... aren't meant to be pointed at your companions."
Li Mo stretched out his hand and pointed at the president's right hand, which was hidden behind her back.
"President Yugawa?"
Kanagawa Yume was stunned, muttering the president's name in confusion.
Only when she saw the other girl slowly bring out her right hand, which was indeed clutching a fruit knife.
That fruit knife... was one she had brought from her own home, so everyone could eat fruit conveniently in the haunted manor...
"I'm sorry, Yume. We can't confirm that you are you right now. That ghost last night killed many people... Since a ghost can disguise itself as a person, it can also disguise itself as you."
"The ghost that disguised itself as a human before... killed many of our classmates. So until you can prove who you are, let's keep our distance. This is for your own good too. After all, we can't prove that we're still human either."
The president's speech was sincere, her tone proper.
Just as Li Mo had guessed, the people in the Outer World would not accept Kanagawa Yume, nor would they believe him.
"Yume, you don't need to explain. I know you must have also encountered many bizarre things last night."
"At least for now, you should probably stick with the person next to you. Don't be alone," the president kindly reminded her.
"Mm..."
Kanagawa Yume was a little disappointed. She looked up and found that her classmates' gazes were all very strange.
They were muttering, seemingly saying something about her, whispering.
They were usually close classmates who went to school and came home together. She had even treated many of them to milk tea and meals.
"..."
"I understand."
Kanagawa Yume took a step back, her gaze shifting away from the classmates in front of her. At this moment, explanations were meaningless.
The president was actually being very tactful, repeating herself several times. The other members of the Occult Club still couldn't accept her after she had returned from being alone.
"She doesn't have to be with the group, but you should give her what she needs, and prepare a change of clothes," Li Mo said calmly.
The president completely ignored this question, asking instead, "What's wrong with your eyes?"
"Like her, I don't need to explain. You wouldn't listen anyway," Li Mo threw the president's own words back at her.
"...Alright. I'll give you what Yume needs. After that... we'll go our separate ways. If you need anything, find me."
"If you find any clues, you can also tell me. I have the Bloody Newspaper. It can help us get out of the haunted manor alive."
"From the current intelligence, we just need to survive for four days to reach the fifth floor of the haunted manor and then leave safely."
Knowing she was in the wrong, the president told Li Mo the general situation, then had a club member pack up a power bank, a flashlight, some food, and a change of clothes, and tossed it to Li Mo from half a meter away.
She didn't tell Li Mo that the Bloody Newspaper said the eighth room was the key to survival.
The other Occult Club members also remained silent in tacit agreement. Because Li Mo and Kanagawa Yume's identities were currently unknown, and Li Mo's appearance was very strange and untrustworthy.
So they wouldn't tell Li Mo they planned to stay in the eighth room tonight, lest Li Mo find out the eighth room was safe and insist on coming in.
Li Mo turned sideways, his peripheral vision catching Kanagawa Yume hiding behind him, her spirits low.
Then his gaze turned to the Bloody Newspaper in the president's hand.
There was something strange about that newspaper.
Li Mo sniffed the pungent smell in the air. It was like blood, freshly seeped from a wound.
It definitely wasn't Kanagawa Yume; her wounds had already scabbed over and wouldn't be bleeding.
And this pungent smell was more like rust, or... paint.
Li Mo raised his head and looked around the hall. Besides some precious antique porcelain, the paintings on the walls were exceptionally vivid.
"Can I see it? The Bloody Newspaper you're talking about," Li Mo asked, holding out his hand.
He could have snatched it, but there was no need.
Li Mo only needed to confirm two things.
"Um... sure."
The president didn't object. Li Mo was alone, and there were over a dozen of them. The living couldn't leave the haunted manor; Li Mo couldn't escape even if he wanted to.
After taking the Bloody Newspaper, Li Mo brought it to his nose and sniffed lightly.
A musty, metallic smell of rust was overwhelming, further confirming his thoughts.
If he could find such a painting on the second floor...
Under the nervous gazes of the others, Li Mo asked the Bloody Newspaper a question.
"Who are you?"
[Li Mo, I am you from twenty years in the future, and I am telling you all possible futures through this newspaper.]
The first sentence of the Bloody Newspaper hadn't changed at all. The only things that changed were the name and the future date.
"Twenty years later? He can get out alive too?"
"Li Mo? That's not a Japanese name. He's from China."
"How does he know how to use the Bloody Newspaper?"
Ignoring the murmurs around him, Li Mo began to communicate with the Bloody Newspaper.
Unlike the president, Li Mo showed not a trace of reverence, only vigilance and hostility.
"Is that so? If you're not lying, then I'll still be alive in twenty years."
[Of course. You're still alive.]
[You obtained many Bizarre items and dealt with countless Bizarre entities, big and small. Twenty years later, you finally welcomed a time of beautiful peace...]
[You gave MEI the wedding of the century. Pardofelis, Elysia, Hua... were guests at the wedding. You turned the Bizarre Kiana back into the Kiana Kaslana you missed most, washing away the Bizarre contamination from her body. Like the ending of a perfect fairy tale, you felt unparalleled happiness...]
Li Mo's hand involuntarily tightened, his expression still cold.
The next second, his tense hand suddenly relaxed, and he returned the Bloody Newspaper to the Occult Club.
"I have no more questions. Since we're going our separate ways, please go upstairs first. We'll follow."
"Okay," the president agreed.
Even if Li Mo hadn't urged them, they were going to rush to the second floor first, because that's what the Bloody Newspaper had said.
The Occult Club members went to the staircase and found that the previously non-existent stairs had miraculously appeared, connecting the first and second floors.
Without taking the time to observe, the club members excitedly went upstairs, completely oblivious to the fact that the paintings in the hall seemed to have changed slightly.
The change was very faint, almost indistinguishable from the previous paintings.
But it still couldn't escape Li Mo's eternally eidetic memory. Even the most minute change, Li Mo could recognize.
"The paintings have become more vivid."
Li Mo looked at the first painting in sequence on the wall of the hall. The paint on it was very bright, a kaleidoscope of colors.
It was as if...
Never mind. He could only verify this guess after going to the second floor. Any more changes now were just baseless speculation, unable to withstand scrutiny.
Li Mo thought to himself, then turned to look at Kanagawa Yume.
She not only hadn't leaked anything about the notebook, she hadn't even told the Occult Club about the hints it had given.
"Don't you want the Bloody Newspaper? With your skills, there should be many ways to get it," Kanagawa Yume suddenly said.
"There's no need. It's just a ghost that can read the user's memories, and it can't even read them completely. It's not worth my time to collect."
Li Mo gave his candid assessment.
"Read memories? Not completely? A ghost? How do you know?" Kanagawa Yume was puzzled. She had watched Li Mo use the Bloody Newspaper from beginning to end.
Even if there were problems with the newspaper's answers, it shouldn't have been enough to draw so many firm conclusions. At least, she hadn't noticed at all.
"It's simple. It knows people I know, which means it can see parts of my memory, very important memories..."
"But it has almost no understanding of human logic. I don't have a habit of reading newspapers. Even if I did in the future, I wouldn't believe a newspaper that appeared out of nowhere. The idea of my future self leaving a message for my past self through a newspaper is absurd."
"Besides, I have a better alternative. In comparison, the benefit it can bring me is far less than what I can figure out on my own."
"More importantly, from the moment I picked it up, all I could think about was burying it. And within two days at most, I would definitely find a suitable way to do so. Yet it seemed to have noticed nothing. It's neither all-knowing nor all-powerful, and it even lies."
"If it could predict my actions, know my future and past, and was the complete me from the future, then it should have known my personality, and my approach to Bizarre items like it that possess intelligence."
"But it didn't. It couldn't even sense my hostility."
"Why would I take such a useless thing?" Li Mo said calmly.