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墨書 Inktalez
As I stepped into the inn, I began to observe its layout. Although I had never been to the second floor, the inn had a compact design, with a maximum of six rooms; there was no way there could be a Room 07.
I held the keycard in my hand and leisurely made my way to the second floor.
Given the inn's small size, which only had three stories, there was no elevator installed.
The staircase leading to the second floor was made of wood, and most of the planks were cracked in various places. Although those areas had been reinforced with additional boards, I could still hear them creaking under my weight.
"Hmm? What's going on?" I frowned slightly. Just a moment ago, I had suddenly heard two sets of footsteps coming from above. One set was mine, but whose was the other?
I didn't stop; I continued up the stairs while discreetly pulling out my Demon-Subduing Staff from my backpack and activating my Yin-Yang Eyes to scan the surroundings.
“Creak~~ Creak~~” The sound grew closer, perhaps thinking I hadn’t noticed, whoever it was became bolder, stepping on the stairs with increasing noise.
“Ah, so that's it!” As I approached the second floor, I finally noticed something strange about the staircase. On the walls hung thirty or so oil paintings, each depicting different scenes, yet they all shared one common feature.
In an inconspicuous corner of each painting was a shadowy figure wearing a yellow straw hat, facing away from the canvas, making it impossible to see their face. If you didn’t look closely, you might not even notice that figure's presence.
“I didn’t expect there to be a cunning spirit here; these oil paintings are certainly not ordinary,” I muttered quietly to myself as I stopped and crouched down to pretend to tie my shoelaces.
The so-called cunning spirits are quite specific entities; they lack souls and only manifest when something reaches its extreme form, gaining intelligence and becoming a spirit.
Back at my hometown, I had dealt with a cunning spirit before. However, this one was entirely different from the one I encountered then. This spirit hid its presence by using the oil paintings on the wall and created sounds of footsteps on the stairs to scare off passing guests; it wasn’t particularly malevolent.
“Creak~~ Creak~~” My sudden stop caught the attention of the spirit on the wall, but it continued to make eerie noises on the stairs.
If it were someone else who heard the sudden sound, especially being alone on the stairs, they would surely be startled. This was precisely why the spirit enjoyed playing tricks in this manner.
The spirit had been eagerly waiting to see my frightened expression, but after a long while of waiting and seeing no reaction from me, its mood shifted to frustration. It stopped its antics and ceased making those strange sounds.
“Hey, kid, look over here! I’m a ghost! Why aren’t you scared of me?” A sharp male voice emerged from a nearby oil painting. The figure within the painting suddenly shifted; its hat was removed, and it slowly turned to face me.
I paid no attention to the spirit's words and remained crouched on the ground. This time, instead of tying my shoelaces, I was secretly drawing a talisman in my palm.
“Kid, I’m talking to you! Are you deaf? I’m right here!” The spirit fully turned around, revealing a set of protruding teeth and a face covered in pockmarks. There was even a finger-length scar at the corner of its eye.
The spirit’s appearance could only be described as menacing, completely different from how it looked from behind. No wonder it always preferred to turn around.
“Ah! You’re driving me crazy! Kid, I’m going to kill you!” The spirit let out an angry roar and lunged out of the painting, clawing towards my neck.
“Who is it! Big White, can’t you keep it down? Let people sleep!” At that moment, a door near the staircase opened, and a middle-aged woman in her forties stepped out. With her hands on her hips, she glared at the staircase as if ready to confront someone.
“Brat, why aren’t you playing in your own room? Why are you making such a racket at my doorstep? Haven’t you ever been to school? Such poor manners!” The woman approached me and began berating me. Since she hadn’t activated her Yin-Yang Eyes, she couldn’t see the spirit; she only saw me standing at the staircase and instinctively thought I was responsible for the noise.
In truth, if she had looked closely, she would have noticed changes in the figure within the painting; at least she would have seen the true appearance of that spirit. Unfortunately, she had no interest in examining the oil paintings on the wall.
“Hehe, I just realized something really funny!” The spirit stopped its attack and crept closer to me with a mischievous grin as it shouted at the woman not far away: “You fat old hag, what are you yelling about? You’re so ugly; just stay inside and stop trying to scare people! If I were you, I would have jumped off a building by now to save some food for the country.”
I heard the words of that evil spirit, and my mind went blank. I was well aware of its intentions. It was clearly trying to frame me, making me the scapegoat.
The woman was obviously enraged by the spirit. I could see her body trembling slightly as she pointed at me and shouted, "You little brat! How can your mouth be so foul? Did you eat something disgusting last night and forget to brush your teeth when you got up?"
Her loud voice drew the attention of other residents on the second floor, who opened their doors out of curiosity and gathered at the staircase to watch the spectacle.
"You fat hag, come and hit me if you dare! What are you yelling for? Do you think you're calling for spring? Come on, hit me! You fat hag!" The evil spirit laughed maniacally, continuing to provoke the woman.
"How dare you! You really think I won't hit you? Let me teach you a lesson on behalf of your parents!" With that, the woman picked up her left shoe and stormed toward me, ready to give me a beating.
"Ultimate Earth, Mystical Arts Have Methods. All laws return to one, Three Pure Decrees. Spirit Binding Seal, command!" At that moment, I quickly cast a spell with both hands, slapping the talisman onto the evil spirit beside me, forcing it to reveal its true form.
"Ah! What is this? A ghost... a ghost! There’s a ghost!"
(End of Chapter)
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