The Eldritch Files

”Actually, for the Disaster Management Bureau’s Executioners, reaching the stage of Spiritual Activity already has many benefits. It allows you to develop traits like intense focus, sharpened senses, and the ability for self-hypnosis.”

”You can also use certain mystical items—but only through physical contact, of course.”

More Spiritual Power seeped into Han Su’s Spirit World, carrying with it more information.

Spiritual Penetration doesn’t have to carry information. It can also be used to just coldly agitate another’s Spirit World. But that’s like two people eating a meal in silence—it gets so awkward you feel you have to make conversation.

This was the case with Miss Crow. She had thought she could easily awaken Han Su’s Spirit World, but it was proving more difficult than expected. So, as she increased the pressure, she unconsciously began to include more information.

It was as if she’d gone from a quiet young woman to a bit of a chatterbox, her mouth running a mile a minute.

”Spiritual Activity, Penetration, and Transformation are the three recognized steps to opening the door to the supernatural. They’re also one of the strict requirements for obtaining an Investigator License from the Qinggang Disaster Management Bureau.”

”Each of these concepts represents a dangerous and vast discipline. Some see them as steps on a ladder that must be climbed, but others believe that by simply expanding one’s mastery horizontally and deepening their understanding, they can achieve even greater abilities.”

”Beyond that are three further transformations: Understanding, Stealing, and Mastering Authority. But that’s far beyond what we can comprehend right now.”

”...”

Han Su passively absorbed all this information. After a while, he started to feel a little embarrassed. ’Someone’s been talking to me this whole time, and I haven’t even grunted in response. Isn’t that rude?’

So, after waiting a long while and feeling nothing in his Spirit World besides that sliver of cold, he gave a small smile and said:

”So, you...”

The two were currently in the midst of a ’spiritual’ exchange. Miss Crow was speaking to him by embedding information within her Spiritual Power, and Han Su’s reply instinctively followed the same ’spiritual’ channel.

It was an act of his will.

And with that will, his Spirit World—that vast, dead sea—suddenly stirred.

It was just the slightest tremor.

But it was as if a branch stirring the surface of a lake had suddenly woken some behemoth from the depths. That tiny branch churned up a colossal, world-turning tidal wave. A small pebble had been dropped onto the water, casting a shadow like the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb.

Han Su’s eyes flew open. He sensed something was wrong.

He had a vague feeling that something inside him had been awakened.

It was the sea inside his mind.

Normally, that sea would only ’awaken’ when he encountered something grotesque or when he deliberately recited a Spell.

But now, that cold power from her palm seemed to have roused it, just a little. In a flash, it suddenly surged and concentrated in the right hand Han Su held her with.

Miss Crow was in the process of transmitting her ’spirit’ into Han Su’s body. And because she couldn’t seem to stir his ’sea,’ she had been gradually increasing the flow of her Spiritual Power.

This was a form of spiritual ’stimulation’ that only someone more powerful could perform on someone less so. The superior party wouldn’t intend to harm the subordinate, so their Spiritual Power would be gentle, and they would remain vigilant for any unexpected developments.

It was in this state that she was suddenly hit by a counterattack, launched in an instant by the infinite Spiritual Power within Han Su’s body.

It was like reaching into a mouse hole and pulling out Godzilla.

The moment Han Su’s Spirit World awakened, it repelled the Spiritual Power Miss Crow had sent in. It wasn’t even a deliberate act—merely the aftershock of an instinctive counterattack.

Not only did it instantly repel the ’coldness’ coming from Miss Crow’s palm, it surged right back along her hand in a counterattack.

The air itself seemed to let out a low HUM as invisible ripples suddenly radiated outward in all directions.

Centered on where they sat, the ripples instantly slammed into the surrounding walls. Upon the pitch-black surfaces, rows of runes suddenly flared to life, pulsing with an eerie red light.

The red light reached a blinding intensity. The lights in the training room began to flicker, followed by those in the entire training area, and then, the whole base.

Suddenly, the air became thick with a ’crowded’ feeling, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Miss Crow, still holding Han Su’s hand, suddenly turned deathly pale.

She had never imagined such a bizarre event could occur. In a panic, she tried to pull her hand away, but Han Su’s Spiritual Power was so turbulent that after she had separated their hands by a mere three to five centimeters, her own hand suddenly froze in place.

As if caught in an invisible magnetic field, their palms simply could not be pulled any further apart.

The next moment, with a sharp SNAP, their hands were pulled back together.

It was because Han Su’s counterattacking Spiritual Power was so fierce. It had already flooded into Miss Crow’s hand, and the will inherent within it was now fighting her own for control of her arm.

And as their hands clasped together again, the invasion of Spiritual Power began.

A moment ago, Miss Crow had been carefully guiding her Spiritual Power into Han Su’s palm. Now, the process was reversed. Han Su’s Spiritual Power was surging upward, invading Miss Crow’s body.

And it possessed none of the caution she had shown, only a crude and domineering instinct.

It didn’t just invade her body; before either of them could even react, it had already penetrated somewhere deeper.

Suddenly, a series of strange, fragmented images flickered hazily before Han Su’s eyes.

He thought he saw a classical, antique-style courtyard with rockeries and flowing water. A man in a high-collared tunic suit was shaking his head and sighing. He turned toward a room where a baby was crying and snarled, ”A curse! You’re a curse! You’ll only bring disaster!”

Then he seemed to see servants and nannies hiding far away, their whispers passing between them: ”They say she’s the devil’s child. Anyone who gets near her has nightmares...”

The scene changed again. A woman in a Red Windbreaker with an imperious air was squatting before him, looking down at her. ”You’re an unlucky kid,” she said.

”You were being watched from the moment you were born.”

”So, I’m bringing you into this world. Before you have to truly face ’It,’ I’ll make sure you can stand on your own two feet. All right?”

”...”

After that, the images flickered and shifted nonstop. He saw a small, weak girl walking across a desolate landscape, the clouds hanging low on the far horizon.

He watched her venture alone into the ruins of a city overgrown with vines, a sky full of crows circling overhead.

He saw her, knife in hand and covered in wounds, crawling out from a mountain of bodies. The woman in the Red Windbreaker looked down at her and said, ”The Tide is about to descend. It’s time for you to come home. I have a mission for you...”

In the final moment, deep within the countless flashing images, Han Su was startled to see a single, pitch-black eye. It existed in eternal solitude, staring fixedly at ’him.’

...

...

”Haaa...”

The endless stream of images flashed past his eyes in less than a second, and then Han Su snapped back to reality.

The moment he did, he found the will to rein in his Spiritual Power. He let go of Miss Crow’s hand as if he’d been shocked, his body lurching backward.

Freed from his grasp, Miss Crow looked as though she’d been granted a pardon. She leaped to her feet, putting distance between herself and Han Su.

”That was...”

The shock in Han Su’s heart was indescribable. He looked up at his own palm, still breathing heavily, enveloped by that strange and miraculous feeling.

’What I just saw... was that her memory?’

’Because my Spiritual Power invaded her unconsciously, I brought back ’information’ from her?’

’That immense loneliness and despair... even the madness and ruthlessness from her past... How could all of that belong to the quiet, meek, and almost withdrawn girl standing before me?’

His gaze slowly shifted from his hand to Miss Crow’s face. He saw a fine sheen of sweat on her forehead as she stared blankly up at him. Their eyes met, and for a moment, he felt that strange sensation of their Spiritual Powers connecting again.

”So this is what Spiritual Penetration feels like?”

Han Su forced a smile, wanting to ask his ’tutor’ before him.

”BEEP—”

Before Miss Crow could answer, alarms suddenly blared all around them.

Immediately after, hurried footsteps echoed from outside. The door to the training room was thrown open, and fully armed security personnel filed in, forming two lines. The black muzzles of their guns were instantly aimed at the two people inside.

Behind them, someone shouted in alarm, ”Did someone lose control of their spiritual abilities?”

”Who’s in there?”

”What’s happening?”

Once the security personnel who entered first had secured the room, Zhang Chiguo and Secretary Cui Qiao came in behind them.

Seeing Crow and Han Su in the training room, he was instantly struck with a bad feeling.