The Eldritch Files

The Crystal Skull beside him had already dimmed, suppressed by the Mysterious Power in his right eye. But unexpectedly, an indescribable wave of Spiritual Power was suddenly transmitted through the connection between the skulls.

This Spiritual Power activated the Activity of the Crystal Skull before Han Su.

Brilliant colors swirled across the skull’s surface, then suddenly converged on the two empty eye sockets.

As this power built to a crescendo, the gaze became almost tangible. Possessing the deliberate aim of a living person, the gaze precisely bypassed his right eye and landed on his right hand.

At that moment, Han Su’s Spiritual Power was completely drained, leaving him almost defenseless. He could only feel a cold aura gathering on his right hand.

The low-sensitivity fiber glove suddenly tore to shreds.

The gloves were made of a fiber similar to the material of his briefcase and were a common protective item for rookies precisely because they could effectively block the Penetration of Spiritual Power. Who would have thought that the power projected from the skull’s eye sockets could corrode even the glove?

Han Su frantically jerked back as a frigid sensation snaked up his arm.

’An invasion?’

Han Su instantly realized that this rotting corpse actually contained the will of a living person.

Or rather, some kind of living substance.

It had been suppressed by the power in his right eye and was on the verge of being dissolved. But that mysterious woman had remotely activated and strengthened its will, causing the Crystal Skull to become ambitious.

Seizing the opportunity, the will even made a desperate, all-or-nothing attempt to launch a full-blown spiritual invasion against him.

And it chose his right hand. Because he was wearing a low-sensitivity fiber glove—gear typically worn by rookies for protection—it signaled to his opponent that this was the weak point for a Spiritual Power Penetration.

Han Su tensed. In that instant, two startling thoughts arose in his mind:

’One: the Crystal Skull Organization is far more terrifying than I imagined. From who knows how far away, they could spot my weakness at a glance just through the connection between the Crystal Skulls.’

’By invading from here, they could not only corrupt me faster but also preempt any resistance, sealing my fate.’

’And two: Of all the places to attack, you had to pick my right hand?’

Feeling torn between laughter and tears, Han Su suddenly clenched his right fist with all his might, halting the will’s invasion.

Moreover, as he halted the will’s invasion, he took a deep breath. His gaze hardened, fixing on the Crystal Skull as he spoke again.

”The Gods send down their decree...”

”...”

His Spiritual Power had been exhausted just moments ago, but after that brief respite, he was fully recovered. He recited the Spell again, and Spiritual Power once more seeped from his right eye.

An immense, invisible power instantly descended upon the Crystal Skull, which was radiating an eerie light.

This time, with no Crystal Plague to interfere, the power from his right eye struck the Crystal Skull more directly and tangibly. It instantly suppressed the skull’s newly revived colors, then dissolved and stripped them away, leaving it dim and lusterless.

The power was so fierce and overbearing that it even dissolved and severed the mysterious connection between this Crystal Skull and the others.

It was as if countless fine, intricate threads had been brutally severed.

In that instant, the will invading his right hand was cut off from its source.

’It’s working!’

This was something Han Su had discovered long ago. Reciting the Spell did indeed drain his Spiritual Power rapidly, causing dizziness and a sense of mental emptiness. But, he could recover with just a moment’s rest.

He didn’t know the specific reason, but he had already Mastered this pattern.

In that instant, Han Su thought he heard an enraged scream as the will that had emerged from the Crystal Skull began to collapse.

The rage was laced with confusion; it couldn’t understand why, despite having clearly invaded his spiritual weak point, the strange ability he was using remained completely unaffected.

Even the woman on the other side of the connection felt an indescribable shock when she sensed that the link between the Crystal Skulls had been destroyed by a power of an exceptionally high order:

’But his Spiritual Power was clearly exhausted...’

’...’

In its despair, the last vestiges of the Crystal Skull’s will surged up Han Su’s right arm with unprecedented madness and ferocity. It was even driven by a certain greed, a desire to burrow into his brain and seize his body.

However, the next moment, that greed turned to terror.

The moment it burrowed into Han Su’s brain, it saw an indescribable, boundless ocean. A scream that could have shattered the ceiling rang out inside Han Su’s head.

Amidst the scream, the Crystal Skull’s will managed to convey a single, complete, and clear message.

A vulgar curse came with it: ”You’re... not human...”

”...”

”...”

The despair of the Crystal Skull’s will at that moment was impossible to describe.

Even Han Su himself only began to gain some Understanding of his own Spirit World as the crystal will invaded him.

It was like not knowing how well you could take a punch until you got hit in the face.

The fundamental purpose of the Crystal Skull was to spread the Spiritual Plague, which was a form of spiritual invasion.

Spiritual invasion meant using one’s own spirit and will to corrupt another person’s.

It involved devouring the target’s life memories, starting from the most recent and working backward through time—age 60, 50, 30...—until the corruption reached their earliest memories from when they were two or three. Only then would the corruption of their entire timeline be complete.

In this type of invasion, older people held a significant advantage over the young.

Older people possessed decades, even centuries, of memories, whereas younger people had several, or even ten times, less. That’s why, upon successfully entering Han Su’s Spirit World, the will wanted to press its luck, even with what little power it had left.

That was a fatal mistake.

When invading another’s Spirit World, one would find a straight road, a linear progression of time moving forward year by year.

But after invading Han Su’s Spirit World, it did advance smoothly for a few years—ten years, to be precise.

Then, it got lost.

Countless forks in the road appeared, as intricate and complex as a maze.

Even a dead man couldn’t take it. ’What the hell kind of life is this?’

The shock and despair were so great that its will almost instantly collapsed.

’I just got called ”not human” by a living skull?’

Han Su didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He finally understood why he’d always sensed that his Spiritual Power was different from others during his experiments with Miss Crow and Cui Qiao.

’I’ve just lived too many lives...’

Flashing again and again, returning to the past, then returning to the future.

He had no idea how many times he had gone through this, nor what kind of refinement his spirit had undergone across all those timelines.

The only thing he was sure of was that, in terms of accumulated Spiritual Power, he had amassed several hundred years’ worth from the first time he grew up until the present. And that entire length of time was fragmented, piled together in a chaotic jumble.

This also explained why his Spiritual Power was consumed so quickly each time he recited the Spell, yet recovered just as fast.

Each ”segment” of his Spiritual Power had its limits and could be completely drained by the high-intensity Spell.

But he could just switch to another one.

As simple as changing a battery.

...

...

’So, my spirit and soul have, to some extent, transcended time and space?’

’And only this Spell can activate them?’

As he sighed inwardly, Spiritual Power surged from his right eye, and the invisible force flooded toward the Crystal Skull on the floor.

The Crystal Skull, so solid that even a punch from Han Su’s left fist had failed to shatter it, suddenly began to make a sound like cracking glass.

Countless spiderweb-like cracks suddenly appeared across the skull’s surface, and its colors instantly faded.

As for the will within his Spirit World, it was not only collapsing but also desperately trying to retreat, as if to protect some secret of its own. It never expected that by the time it tried to pull back, its escape route was already gone.

The shattered and faded Crystal Skull could no longer house its will, leaving only strange, pure streams of spiritual energy to permeate the narrow space.

The moment they collided with Han Su’s own Spirit World, endless, fragmented images flooded his mind.

Han Su suddenly realized: ’This is information?’

The spirit has an innate function to carry information, and the human mind contains an infinite amount.

Normally, spiritual energy released by a person is controlled by their will and is filtered of information, just as a person can control whether or not to speak the secrets on their mind.

This particular Crystal Skull, due to some unique property, had retained the ability to ”think” and ”store information.” After its failed attempt to invade him, it had become trapped in his Spirit World.

As it collapsed, all its information was laid bare.

Now, he was essentially reading countless spiritual fragments.

’According to Miss Crow, this is probably an extremely dangerous thing to do.’

But when he thought of Song Chushi, who had deliberately led him here, and of the mysterious relationship between the Crystal Skull Organization and that woman, Han Su steeled himself. More of his Spiritual Power seeped out, penetrating the endless spiritual fragments.

For Han Su, the process was even familiar. Every time he returned to the present from the past, he went through a similar experience of ”memory reading.”