The Eldritch Files

”That damned white knight. Is he really not even afraid of death?”

The displeased voice of the tall, slender woman echoed from a spiritual positioning device at the D7 Experimental Base.

Song Chushi’s recent shot had caused a slight malfunction in the positioning machinery, interrupting her attempt to capture Han Su.

For a fleeting moment, Han Su actually had a chance to escape the room.

But he didn’t take it. Instead, his eyes remained locked on the woman’s projection, a flare of impulsive anger in them. ”Did you give birth to me just to shove me in a cage?”

”You raised me until I was ten just to send me to the Ancient Castle. Was it because I had some special purpose?”

”...”

”You’re asking this now?”

The tall, slender woman looked coldly at Han Su. ”The only thing special about you is your terrible luck!”

”You were unlucky as a child, and you’re still unlucky now that you’ve grown up...”

”Don’t you understand? If you weren’t so stubborn, if you hadn’t overestimated your own abilities, you could have enjoyed the last ten years. When you were little, I taught you to hide from things you can’t beat. But why...”

”...did you insist on approaching them?”

”...”

As her final word fell, she leaned slightly forward, her form growing clearer.

The cold light in her eyes could have pierced Han Su right through.

The earlier stutter from the positioning machinery had affected the interwoven Spiritual Force Field, causing her form to blur and recede from reality. But she had proactively reinforced her Spiritual Power connection, turning the tables and seizing control of the device herself.

The next moment, chains manifested from Spiritual Power appeared beside her, snaking rapidly toward Han Su.

At the end of these chains was the very same iron cage.

In less than a second and a half, she had erased the effect of Song Chushi’s shot and resumed her attempt to capture Han Su.

And in the face of her power, Han Su’s only option was to surrender.

”Then maybe...”

Facing the overwhelming onslaught of chains, Han Su’s thoughts grew tangled.

’Maybe she really did teach me to run, to hide, before I was ten.’

’If it hadn’t been for Flashing dragging me back time and time again, maybe I really would have hidden from everything related to the kidnapping?’

’But I had the misfortune of encountering something even more terrifying, didn’t I?’

As these countless thoughts flashed through his mind, Han Su’s voice rang out. ”Because I wanted to see just why I’m so damn unlucky!”

As he spoke, he clenched his left fist. A cross-shaped copper mark surfaced on the back of his hand, and his voice turned cold. ”And now I know.”

”My only misfortune was being born to you!”

”...”

’I’d warned my friends from the Ancient Castle before that some of their parents might have known the truth about the kidnapping and sent them there in the original timeline.’

’I was even careful when I said it.’

’It’s a terribly cruel reality, and anyone who discovered it was true for them could never be called lucky.’

’But who could have guessed...’

’The first one confirmed to have this fate was Bai Shi. The second is me!’

As he spoke with the tall, slender woman, the black briefcase in his hand was steadily dripping, leaking copper-colored blood.

His Spiritual Activity was currently suppressed, leaving him no different from a mortal. But Copper’s Will remained. By using the Fishing Song to drive Copper’s Will, he gained control over the copper-colored blood. It poured from the bottle and spread across the ground.

As he clenched his left fist, the copper-colored blood spread out rapidly, forming a bizarre and complex Ciphertext Array.

And Han Su stood precisely in the center of this Ciphertext Array.

This was Han Su’s trump card.

It was the ace up his sleeve he had thought of the moment Li Moxi brought him to this isolated place. It was the source of his confidence, what gave him the nerve to cooperate with someone as ruthless as Li Moxi.

The tall, slender woman could suppress his Spiritual Activity, but the power of the copper was not his own.

Half of it came from Copper’s Will, which could be forcibly controlled with the Fishing Song.

The other half came from Bai Shi’s blood, which could be controlled by Copper’s Will.

The blood Bai Shi had left behind contained a potent Mysterious Power, making it a weapon in its own right. While this weapon might not amount to much against the tall, slender woman, wielding it through Copper’s Will could unleash astonishing power.

Simply put, this was the power of the Copper Inheritor.

The power that erupted in that instant could briefly surpass even what Bai Shi himself could unleash.

Of course, the weakness was that Han Su’s knowledge of the copper was insufficient, creating vulnerabilities in his control. Still, it was enough to break free from his predicament.

”Is it really you?”

As the copper-colored blood finished tracing the complex Ciphertext Array at Han Su’s feet, the chains winding toward him were all thrown back by a bloody, copper-hued light, shattering link by link.

A few fragments even ricocheted against the tall, slender woman, clattering loudly before slowly fading into nothing. Yet, as the woman watched this unexpected turn of events, her face showed no anger.

There was only a flicker of sorrow, and even fear.

”It’s really on you...”

”So you’re the real reason the Seven Days of Divine Descent failed...”

”...”

Her voice trembled slightly. Behind her, from a cabinet beneath her desk, a crystalline light began to glow. It resonated with her from afar, causing her form to waver, as if becoming blurry and mysterious, her appearance shifting.

”What have I done...”

She leaned forward slowly, as if trying to get a clearer look at Han Su.

This movement brought her closer to Han Su, so close she seemed to be entering reality itself.

Han Su’s heart seized. His left hand was already at the small of his back, gripping the handle of his gun.

”I should have realized it long ago, but I kept getting misled by other things. I always hesitated at critical moments, grew soft-hearted, and let you go. I... The moment I discovered the Copper Will was missing, I should have captured you and dissected you...”

”If I hadn’t been so soft-hearted then, I would have understood what you were...”

”...”

With her sigh, Han Su could see her with perfect clarity, and could even feel her presence at close range.

This was no longer mere positioning. The two spaces had been grafted together by Spiritual Power, achieving a brief connection.

This was the moment Han Su had been waiting for.

In response to the tall, slender woman’s lament, his eyes turned cold. He drew his gun and snapped, ”What’s the use of talking about how you were soft on me? Do you expect me to be grateful?”

The instant he raised his gun and aimed it at the woman, countless tendrils of copper-colored blood floated up from the Ciphertext Array at his feet. They swarmed over the gun in his hand, modifying it in a fraction of a second.

BANG!

The next moment, Han Su pulled the trigger.

He fired violently, without a hint of hesitation.

The gun, modified by the copper-colored blood, fired a single, precise bullet straight at the woman’s frustration-filled face.

Nearby, from his chair, Bai Senmang’s eyes were wide open, watching Han Su open fire.

If he were still conscious, he would realize that Han Su hadn’t been lying to him.

Mother, relationship—none of it mattered. To Han Su, this woman was nothing but an enemy.

That’s why he had fired the moment he saw her, the very first chance he got.

’Of course, I still had plenty of my own questions. What was this so-called Seven Days of Divine Descent?’

’What was her ultimate goal in all of this?’

’According to her, if their plan failed because she found Copper’s Will on me, then why did their plan still fail in the timeline where I never obtained it, getting delayed to this day?’

’Of course, I’d ask these questions if I got the chance, but if I didn’t, it couldn’t be helped.’

’No matter how many questions I had, my chances to kill her were far too few. Since I had one, I had to take the shot first and worry about the rest later.’

’She was the enemy!’

...

BOOM!

A shot infused with the Copper Will had, in a sense, far surpassed the limits of reality.

The bullet, once fired, seemed to take on a mystical quality.

In an instant, it crossed from Han Su’s space into the tall, slender woman’s, its power undiminished. It pierced through the weave of Spiritual Power and flew right at her face.

But the woman, who seemed completely defenseless, didn’t even spare it a glance. She merely tilted her head slightly. The bullet grazed her cheek and flew past, striking the wall behind her with a BOOM. Its power erupted, corroding a large hole in the wall.

The tall woman turned her head. She gently raised a hand to her cheek, where the bullet’s passing wind had left a scratch. It wasn’t deep, but beads of blood had already begun to form.

Her gaze fell on Han Su’s face, and there seemed to be something strange hidden within it. ”You actually shot at me...”

”Without any hesitation? No reluctance at all?”

”...”

’A shot like that, and it couldn’t even make her flinch?’

Han Su had no time for her words. There was only a bitter, teeth-gritting frustration. The sheer difference in their level of power filled him with a profound sense of helplessness.

’First objective: kill her. Failure.’

’Then I have to at least achieve the second objective: force her into reality, so she can’t just sever the connection and vanish at will.’

But he had no time to waste. The Copper Will had failed to kill her, but it had shattered the endless chains, freeing him from his suppression. His Spiritual Activity was finally beginning to recover.

Without hesitation, he poured all of it into the Pocket Watch in his jacket’s inner pocket.

It was one of the items he had brought out of the Ancient Castle, and it contained the power of Number 10: [Knowledge Beast].

This power came from a bizarre lifeform born of knowledge, related to intellect and thought. Han Su had used the Emperor’s Book to perform Stealing on the power they contained, but he hadn’t taken all of it. He had left a portion behind to maintain their mystique.

After all, he had to return it to Lu Neng. If he just gave back two ordinary items, someone with Lu Neng’s temperament would never let it slide.

And because he had preserved its mystique, the Pocket Watch had its own special uses. Han Su had already learned its function through the Emperor’s Book. It wasn’t miraculous, but it was useful.

[Mind-Stealing Pocket Watch!]

This Pocket Watch could steal time and apply it to one’s own thought process.

For example, three minutes, ten minutes, or an hour.

Different lengths of time required different amounts of Spiritual Power; the longer the duration, the greater the cost.

After stealing time, Han Su’s mind would become highly active for the duration, granting him that much time to think.

For example, if he stole three minutes, in reality, only an instant—the snap of a finger—would pass, but Han Su’s mind could operate at high speed for a full three minutes, mulling over his current problem or anything else.

Now, Han Su stole the maximum amount of time he possibly could. As the Pocket Watch’s hand began to tick down rapidly from the three-minute mark, his mind flared to life. His body felt as if it were trapped in glue, but countless pieces of information were flowing and connecting rapidly in his mind.

He took in everything around him, analyzed the entire situation, and let countless ideas flash through his mind before finally settling on the craziest one.

Meeting the tall, slender woman’s surprised, almost sad gaze, Han Su suddenly raised the gun in his hand again.

He aimed it at his own temple and viciously pulled the trigger.

’Scared now, aren’t you?’

’I don’t just dare to shoot you—I dare to shoot myself!’