Volume 3 Chapter 2 Part1 (1/2)

Illusions, Lies, Truth Volume 3: In the Name of G.o.d, Part One

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 2: Pract.i.tioner, Part 1—The First Mission—translated by lucathia (proofread by Trespa.s.serby)

”Gēge, good morning!”

”Yaygēge, morning!”

Jiang Ziya lazily walked to the living room and got attacked by two girls' morning greetings.

”Morning, Jiang Jiang, Xiao Xue.”

Jiang Yu blinked and glanced in puzzlement at the clock on the wall. It was currently only seven. She hadn't thought she would see her brother up so early. She asked in curiosity, ”Why are you up so early? Don't you have afternoon cla.s.ses today? Even your brother-in-law is still sleeping.”

”I'm heading out with Lu Yang.” Jiang Ziya yawned widely. Yesterday, just as he was about to sleep, he received a call from Lu Yang to check up on him. He had hesitantly told him that he had a morning mission and asked if Jiang Ziya wanted to go.

Of course, Jiang Ziya immediately answered in the affirmative. In fact, he was afraid he'd get ditched!

Jiang Yu nodded and didn't ask anything more. After all, the boys were probably going to play some kind of sport.

”I'll get some breakfast together for you.”

”Help prepare breakfast for Lu Yang too and put it in a paper bag. I'll bring it and eat with him.”

”Okay, help me look after the girls for a bit.” Jiang Yu was immediately so excited that she almost rubbed her hands together. Two grown boys could eat quite a lot for breakfast. As a professional housewife, she was going to show off her skill!

Jiang Ziya wasn't surprised over how happy his sister was. She had always liked to cook. Although her skills weren't on the level of their neighbor, House Keeper's, normal people shouldn't entertain the thought of competing with someone who wasn't human.

”Yaygēge.” Xiao Xue happily pulled on Jiang Ziya.

Right away, Jiang Ziya deliberately sat down on the sofa and lifted Xiao Xue onto his lap. He began to feed her breakfast. On the other end, Jiang Jiang was not jealous and was doing her best to use her little spoon to eat breakfast. If anyone tried to feed her, she would actually be unhappy about it!

Xiao Xue whispered, ”Yaygēge, are you and Lu Yang-gēge going out to do that?”

Jiang Ziya felt that her phrasing was a little strange, but he wasn't going to argue over a three-year-old child's language. After all, they had already talked about not bringing up anything related to illusions, lies, and truths at home. Xiao Xue using ”this” and ”that” in subst.i.tution—was he supposed to blame a three-year-old child for having too small of a vocabulary?

”Yup.”

Xiao Xue scrunched her small eyebrows together. Worried, she said, ”Then, be careful, Gēge.”

”No worries, Lu Yang will take care of everything. I'm just there to 'look around.'” He specifically emphasized those two words.

Xiao Xue nodded and seriously instructed, ”Then, you have to hold Lu Yang-gēge's hand tightly and follow him closely.”

”…That's a little hard.”

Xiao Xue began pouting.

Jiang Ziya could only toss out the first part and promise, ”I'll follow him closely.”

Jiang Jiang, who had been quietly eating, lifted her small spoon and said, ”That's how to be an obedient gēge.”

Jiang Ziya felt helpless. One of them wanted to be spoiled, while the other was like a small grownup. Even though they currently looked identical, they were truly super easy to tell apart. Just by their expressions, he could determine who was who.

A delicious aroma filled the air. Jiang Yu walked out of the kitchen, holding a large paper bag in her hands. She said, ”Here, Ziya, take this.”

Jiang Ziya took it. He had known that even lunch would be taken care of today. His sister always felt that grown men should eat a lot, so would stuff him like a pig. This time, there were even two pigs, so this bag of breakfast was three times the normal weight.

”Then, I'm off!”

The moment he opened the door, he was taken aback. The door across from them was also open, and in the doorway stood a person… to be more accurate, a familiar named House Keeper.

He wasn't wearing that laughingly proper outfit, rather a light-colored dress s.h.i.+rt and navy green jeans. He looked just like a normal person, a very handsome one. He was even holding a bag in his hand, and the delicious aroma from that bag did not lose to the bag in Jiang Ziya's hand.

The corners of House Keeper's mouth lifted slightly. ”Good morning.”

I didn't think we would meet like this. Jiang Ziya forced himself to say, ”Morning.”

”I was just about to bring over some freshly baked bread and cookies to your place,” House Keeper said as he took out some bread. He asked, ”You have breakfast in that bag you are holding, yes? How about adding some bread to that?”

Faced with a temptation he could not turn down, Jiang Ziya could only obediently open the bag, letting House Keeper put something that looked like pie and several bread buns inside. He had a feeling that even dinner was now taken care of.

After he was done, House Keeper said with a faint smile, ”There, I hope this time's quiche and cheeseburger are to your liking. Then… see you later?”

”Yeah, see you later.”

Jiang Ziya felt that he couldn't dally any longer either. He was already hard pressed to make it on time to meet Lu Yang. After he gave his goodbye, he rushed down the stairs, but he only took a few steps before he was seized by a strange feeling.

Thank you for accepting the invitation. We will definitely see each other again later.

He abruptly turned his head. House Keeper was still smiling faintly. Seeing that Jiang Ziya was looking back at him, House Keeper even waved his hand in farewell, as if nothing was wrong at all. Rather, he even gave the intimate feeling of a friendly next door older brother. Even though his appearance was just as handsome as always, he no longer had the standoffish feeling like that of a magazine model.

”…” Jiang Ziya had a premonition. This time, Yu Shu really will kill me, won't she?

Guilty and perturbed, Jiang Ziya arrived at the promised time… half an hour late.

Even though Lu Yang was currently looking at his cell phone with his head lowered and didn't appear like he was fed up from waiting, Jiang Ziya still felt full of guilt. He was late on the very first day of the job. This was too outrageous. He should be fired right away!

”Sorry, sorry! Something came up in the morning, and traffic was bad.”

Lu Yang lifted his head. He wasn't very bothered. He had used the time to look over the information. ”What came up? Is your family okay?”

”They're fine…” Jiang Ziya hesitated for a moment, but he still told him in detail about his encounter with House Keeper this morning. He was just too worried, yet he didn't dare ask Yu Su about it. She really would hack him to death with her sword!

Lu Yang rolled his eyes at him several times and snapped, ”Haven't I told you many times not to accept invitations?”

”How would I know that even 'see you later' would be an invitation?!” Jiang Ziya was about to go crazy. He had been so wary, yet saying a mere ”see you later” had rendered all his hard work useless. How am I supposed to guard against this? Should I just never speak again?

Hearing that, Lu Yang frowned and said, ”Even though he took advantage of the fact that you don't know much, that familiar was actually able to use a single phrase to secure an invitation with you? That's simply too powerful. Isn't he an illusory familiar? Even though he has accidentally become a lie, logically speaking, he still shouldn't be that strong.”

Lu Yang didn't understand it, and he was also super worried, so he just called home to ask his dad. Since he was home for once, of course Lu Yang was going to take advantage of that!

”It's because Jiang Ziya helped him become a lie, so he can be considered half of a master. That's why it was so easy to secure an invitation. There's no need to worry too much about him. He's just an illusory familiar. If any problems actually come up, just use Slay to dispatch him. Ha…”

After saying that, Liu Yis.h.i.+ gave a large yawn and said, ”I'm still jetlagged. I'm going to sleep.”

Lu Yang raised an eyebrow and looked at Jiang Ziya. The conversation just now had been on loudspeaker, so there was no need to repeat it.

”Can I slay him?”

”Yu Shu will kill you.” Jiang Ziya felt it was best not to anger the neighbor across from him, or something even scarier than demons appearing would happen.

Lu Yang gave two hmphs and declared, ”I'm not afraid of her.”

”You don't live across from her!” Jiang Ziya huffed, ”Besides, House Keeper has saved us before!”

If House Keeper hadn't reached out in time to grab him and Lu Yang, who had been about to fall off the building, the two of them would have become meat paste, so how would he even be able to use Slay to kill him then?

Lu Yang also felt he wasn't being honorable, but how could honor come into play with something like familiars? If one day, House Keeper actually caused casualties, whose fault would that be? He said, vexed, ”Just pay more attention to him. If something goes wrong, he has to be dealt with. Otherwise, if he causes someone to die, you'll definitely regret it your entire life!”

Jiang Ziya nodded. He wasn't actually worried that anyone would end up dying. If House Keeper really were to kill anyone, he would start with Yu Shu, and Jiang Ziya didn't believe that she would die so easily.

Lu Yang didn't dwell on it any longer either. After all, the problem in Jiang Ziya's home was much more serious than a familiar who had become a lie. In comparison, House Keeper couldn't even be considered a problem and could even be helpful. According to his father, Jiang Ziya was half of a master to House Keeper. Even if the familiar wanted to rebel against his master, Yu Shu would be ahead of him.

”Breakfast?” Lu Yang only felt hungry after smelling the food.

Jiang Ziya handed the breakfast bag over. Lu Yang took it. After opening it, he laughed.

”Are you the reincarnation of a starved ghost?”

”My sister is stuffing us like pigs, and House Keeper is at the side, giving her a helping hand.”

”Let's eat it over the course of the day.”

”That was my plan too…”

The two of them leaned against Jiang Ziya's motorbike to eat breakfast. As Lu Yang ate, he asked, ”Have you looked at the information I sent you?”

”Yup.”

Just thinking about the information gave Jiang Ziya goose b.u.mps. He had thought that nothing would happen at school with Lu Yang there, yet their mission this time actually had something to do with the school. It was just two streets over at the abandoned school campus.

In fact, he had pa.s.sed by the place several times before, but he had never given it much thought. He had thought it to be a construction site, yet it was actually an abandoned school campus.

”Rumor has it that it was originally going to be a dormitory, but accidents kept happening during construction. In the end, someone even died, so the construction was stopped. This is one of our school legends.”

Thankfully, Lu Yang was already on it. Otherwise, if the Supernatural Phenomena Society came to investigate it later and something happened, that would be bad.

Lu Yang shook his head and said, ”I had police investigate it. Nothing like that happened. No one died during the original construction. It was purely a case of shady transactions causing the construction to stall for investigation. Later, because of fewer kids getting born, enrollment began to decline. The university already had plenty of buildings, so the plans for that campus ended up going nowhere. The rumor of something happening during construction most likely came about from the students' gossip later on.”

Jiang Ziya was speechless. So it's actually fake?

”If that's the case, why are we here?”

”Six homeless people have died there one after another, from illness, hunger, and the cold. One of them even died from nothing. That person's heart simply stopped.”

Lu Yang lifted his head to look at the abandoned school campus. It appeared just like a construction site, but further observation would show the overgrown weeds within, as well as several buildings at different levels of completion.

”Because none of them were murders, and the deaths didn't occur closely, the police didn't have much of a reason to investigate. If not for the number of deaths acc.u.mulating, they wouldn't have started to investigate. I know a policeman on the case. He thought that something was off, so he asked me to come take a look.”

”What did he feel was odd?” Jiang Ziya followed the rules of a newbie—ask when he didn't know.

”A lot of stuff. For example, the person who died from the cold died in October.”

People were more likely to die of heat than of the cold in Taiwan during October. Jiang Ziya immediately began to feel nervous. Something was wrong.

Seeing that, Lu Yang scratched his head and said, ”Don't be too nervous. It might not be anything. Often, I investigate for a long time only for it to be nothing. Let's just head in and take a look first.”

Jiang Ziya nodded right away.

Lu Yang took out a large ring of keys from his pocket and said, ”I'm full. Let's go.”

”Why do you have the keys?” Jiang Ziya was curious. Could this be the rumored master key?

”The university president gave it to me. Six people have died in a row at this abandoned campus. He's very nervous about it too. Even though the cases were all closed and deemed as accidents, if people keep dying, it would hit the news. The moment the police headed over, he handed over the keys.”

Lu Yang opened the old, rusty gates to the construction site and urged, ”Come on in. Don't dally and draw any attention.”

Jiang Ziya immediately flitted inside after him. As Lu Yang locked the gate, he took measure of their surroundings. The weeds were overgrown, so much that the road was nearly obscured. Several of the buildings were only half constructed. Only one building looked more complete, but the outside was just cement.

Lu Yang looked down at the information on his cell phone to ascertain which building it was.

”Which building do you think it is?” He turned his head to ask Jiang Ziya in curiosity. Just how powerful is the truth-seeing eye?

Jiang Ziya pointed at the building that was the most complete.

”… What did you see?” Lu Yang was taken aback. He had just asked out of curiosity. He hadn't thought that Jiang Ziya really would see something. Isn't that too powerful? What need is there to investigate anymore? All he has to do is arrive at the place and take a glance!

Jiang Ziya rolled his eyes at him and said, ”Only that building can have anything hidden inside. All the others are just steel frames. What other building could it be?”

”You're right.” Lu Yang rubbed his nose. He was being too stupid.

The two of them headed toward that building.

”I feel like there's not much of a tense atmosphere. There are fewer odd things around here too!” Jiang Ziya scratched his head. Even though he knew that demons and familiars didn't just show up at night, the ones in the daytime still made him feel a lot less nervous.

”What odd things are there? Describe them to me.”

”There are some fairies flying around in the air. There are huge flowers that look like Rafflesia flowers growing out of the vines climbing along that building's walls. A bunch of humanoid shapes are squatting in the thickest expanse of gra.s.s to our left.”

Lu Yang felt that hoping Jiang Ziya could discover what was wrong was a pipe dream. None of the things that this guy saw with his eye were normal. How could he tell what was wrong? Lu Yang could only see the humanoid shapes squatting in the gra.s.s. He couldn't see the fairies or Rafflesia flowers or the like at all. But after Ziya mentioned them, he felt that there really was something off about those areas.

”A white, humanoid shape flitted across the window.” Jiang Ziya suddenly gestured at the building and said, ”Fifth floor.'

”Do you think something's wrong?” Lu Yang didn't feel that a humanoid shape was anything to be alarmed about. There were even several squatting among the gra.s.s.

”His posture just now looked like he was looking at us.” Jiang Ziya honestly said, ”The kind of fellow that would pay attention to us is usually more troublesome.”

Hearing that, Lu Yang frowned and said, ”Let's go. We'll head in and take a look.”

The two of them entered the building directly. It was rather empty inside, with only some random items placed by the wall. Among them, there were even blankets, hinting that the place was not short on homeless people who used it as their shelter. There was even a faint odor about the place.

”This odor smells like something rotten. Don't tell me there's a corpse?” Jiang Ziya's face was pinched. Even though he had seen plenty of ridiculous things, seeing an actual body would still be different, right? Even this odor made him want to retreat.

”This odor might have been left behind from earlier. Few people come here, and the bodies of those six homeless people all took a long time for anyone to discover. Besides, you think the university would spend a lot of money to thoroughly clean this place up?”

”Which floor was the body found on? Don't let me step on that floor, thanks.”

Lu Yang shrugged and said, ”One on every floor. The police found that strange too. It's like those people planned it that way, one floor per person. There are only eight floors to this building, yet none of the six have repeated a floor, each laying on one floor from the first to the sixth.”