Chapter 14: The Science of Misdirection
"Can you be re-employed after you die?" Tan Xiao looked at him with admiration. He had never expected that these days not only can you be re-employed after retirement, but you can also be re-employed after you die. He suddenly had a completely different perception of the world after death.
Why sleep for a long time when you are alive? You can’t sleep for a long time after you die.
"A living person can work part-time as an impermanence worker, and a dead ghost can certainly be rehired after his death." Mu Fei said calmly. In fact, she was scared to death. She was afraid that she would have to write materials after she died!
The thin man was already in front of him. "You must be Tan Xiao, right? I know you. I'm Liu Qingquan, a senior staff member of 404."
Senior, isn't that senior...
Tan Xiao couldn't help but look at him a few more times. This was the second time Tan Xiao had seen a ghost. The first time was earlier today. It was not until Lin Yang's great-uncle disappeared that he realized it was a ghost. It was really amazing. I really want to know what they are made of.
"Haha, this and the library server are just instrumental spirits that have just been cultivated. They have not yet taken human form. Even if they have some tricks, there is no need to worry." Liu Qingquan is indeed a senior staff member, and he looks knowledgeable. "Let's divide our forces into three groups and catch the turtle in the urn."
Generally, spirits and monsters can only be considered successful when they have a human body. When Emperor Liujiang landed, this server was just a spirit that had just come to the Tao and gained consciousness. It had only grown two legs and did not even have a human form yet. It was just born with some means.
Otherwise, how come in those ancient strange stories, the ancients could use various tricks to scare away the old and spirit objects in their homes?
"Comrade Mu Fei will chase from the front door, classmate Tan Xiao will block them from the back door, and I will intercept them in the middle." Liu Qingquan arranged.
Tan Xiao was puzzled: "In the middle?"
Liu Qingquan pointed to the ground: "Yes, I'll go down there."
Tan Xiao: "..."
Tan Xiao was speechless and said dryly: "There is a road below."
"There are more than just roads." Mu Fei said with emotion, "We sometimes have to borrow roads. The roads below are built according to the roads above. So when I first entered our office, the first thing I did was to memorize the main roads in the underworld. I had to remember them by heart."
After all, there are many tasks that don’t even use earthly addresses as coordinates, but use underworld roads.
Tan Xiao and Mu Fei had both looked at the map here, but Liu Qingquan didn't need to look at it because his route was different from everyone else's. After the two of them and the ghost met and agreed on the actions, they went to the cold storage room separately.
The Nanchu Funeral Home has a cold storage room and a freezer for storing bodies. Each of these rooms has individual rooms, but they are always next to each other.
Mu Fei held the key, inserted it into the cold storage door, and turned it open with a click.
The sound was actually not loud, but it was particularly harsh in the empty cold storage room. She pushed the door open, and the heavy iron door creaked again.
A gust of cold air hit me in the face.
In front of me were rows of shelves with bodies placed between them, and a dead person sleeping in each compartment.
Mu Fei, holding the talisman paper in her hand, slowly stepped into the cold storage room and felt goose bumps all over her body.
She glanced around, stepped inward, and her whole body tensed up. Just as Liu Qingquan said, he just had some skills. This was just a spirit that had just transformed. How much could he be capable of?
Could there be a thousand-year-old monster as powerful as the viper? Hahaha.
Mu Fei suppressed her heartbeat. The cold storage room was just around the corner. She took a step forward.
She stepped on the floor with her toes and saw a blue light rising up. She looked closely and saw countless "1"s and "0"s among the blue light.
The blue data stream enveloped Mu Fei, and in the blink of an eye, the space in front of him turned into pure black!
Then, a mechanical and cold male voice sounded: "Dear player, welcome to the [Infinite Survival Game], please look forward to your thrilling journey!"
"The dungeon [Demon Slaying and Divination] is about to begin."
"Three, two, one—"
Mu Fei was dumbfounded, her pupils suddenly dilated, and panic rose up uncontrollably.
…
Tan Xiao came to the back door, unlocked it, and walked in. It was indeed very cold.
There was only dim light in the cold storage room at this time. He could see the outlines of rows of bodies on the shelves under the white cloth, and he couldn't help feeling scared.
Last time he was totally unprepared, but this time he was there to help out. Tan Xiao was really not used to this kind of situation.
Being at a funeral was already his limit, and there were so many people present.
It’s okay. I’ll be responsible for blocking the rear. Maybe Liu Qingquan and Mu Fei have already caught the weapon spirit.
Tan Xiao stood at the back door for a while, but there was no movement, not even a sound. He felt something was wrong, so he closed the door and walked inside.
"Sister Mu? Teacher Liu?" Tan Xiao called out twice, but heard no response, so he quickened his pace.
There was a bend ahead. Tan Xiao rushed over and turned sharply, but there was still nothing in front of him. The light actually flickered a few times and turned dark red, illuminating the entire room as if it was covered in blood.
Tan Xiao stopped walking, and the feeling that something was wrong became stronger.
Tan Xiao turned his gaze back and slid across the bodies that he had previously ignored intentionally or unintentionally. These bodies were all covered up, with only the outlines of human figures faintly visible, and some of them also had their feet exposed.
His eyes slid across rows of bodies, and under the red light, Tan Xiao's gaze fell on a pair of feet wearing leather shoes.
He held his breath and walked over there, trying to be as light as possible, but his feet still made a tapping sound on the floor, which was particularly noticeable in the silent cold storage room.
Sizzle——
Da Da——
Tan Xiao walked up to the pair of feet and took a deep breath.
Suddenly, the whole body slid out and hit Tan Xiao hard. Tan Xiao was pushed back several steps and stopped only when he hit another body.
"Sorry, sorry." Tan Xiao said hurriedly, and looked up. What was in front of him was not a human-shaped body, but clearly a black cabinet. There was no machinery inside, but countless entangled blue data streams. There was a pair of legs growing under the cabinet, and it was wearing trousers and leather shoes.
This cabinet has no eyes, but Tan Xiao clearly felt that it was "looking at" him, and could even feel that the other party was a little dazed.
"It" was indeed stunned, not understanding why its illusion only confused Tan Xiao for a few seconds.
Tan Xiao thought, this is it? What should I do? When I met Xiong Ku before, he had a witch figurine as a sample, and he used the witch figurine's method without thinking twice.
What about now? Logically speaking, torturing ghosts, capturing spirits, and curing illnesses are what spiritualists are good at.
Tan Xiao stepped on Jiuzhou, ready to make a move with his hands.
There are countless hand gestures mastered by spiritual masters, each with its own function. In fact, it is derived from the Chu Wu Dance. It is a kind of gesture language for communicating with ghosts and gods, and can also be used in combination.
The palm is yin and the back of the palm is yang. There is a difference between yin and yang. Yang should be used when performing rituals for the living, and yin should be used when performing rituals for the dead.
The ever-changing hand gestures alone can represent many things. For example, pinching the "golden bridge" or "crane" can be used to invite gods to send off or lead the way. The "shackle" can be used to shackle ghosts. Different ghosts have corresponding hand gestures.
But what should be considered as catching a server?
Tan Xiao's theoretical knowledge includes cat spirits, drowned ghosts, wrongly dead ghosts... and how to deal with each of them, but how to catch this server! My ancestors have never studied it!
The server took a step forward and was about to run.
Tan Xiao was anxious, and without caring about anything else, he directly made a small golden knife gesture. The small golden knife gesture was used to cut off evil, and was naturally yin.
Tan Xiao used his thumbs to press down his bent middle and ring fingers, and raised his index and pinky fingers, much like the gesture made by rock music fans, but with the backs of his hands facing upwards, he pointed directly at the instrument, with a hint of uncertainty: "General, prepare your horses, and close your eyes to return to the palace?"
The server cursed in his heart, are you asking me here?
But the next moment, it flew out completely, with deep knife marks appearing on its back, almost denting the surface of the cabinet, and electric currents were emitting from it with a crackling sound.
Hey, it works.
Tan Xiao planned to perform the Big Golden Knife Technique. As the name suggests, the Big Golden Knife Technique is more ferocious than the Small Golden Knife Technique.
The server rubbed his feet on the floor twice, but didn't get up. When he thought about the man opposite him who looked unsure of himself, he became even more frustrated and shouted in fear and anger: "Gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, I am a gold, and I am an electrical appliance, you can even drown me with water! !
"You just chopped me with a knife! Brother, are you a psychopath?!"
Tan Xiao: "..."
Damn, he really didn’t expect the solution to the problem to be like this, and he felt a little embarrassed.
Tan Xiao continued to make the Golden Knife Seal and decided to give it another try. He had only read theoretical knowledge before that each hand seal could represent a real symbol, but he didn't expect it to be true.
The server retreated to the corner, his feet retracted, "Don't chop it, or the data will be lost!"
After it said that, Tan Xiao was unable to move. He took out his cell phone and called Mu Fei.
After a while, Mu Fei finally answered the call: "Hello?"
Tan Xiao could hear her voice not far away: "Sister Mu, where are you? I caught it."
"Hmm?!" Mu Fei looked like she had just woken up, making Tan Xiao wonder if she had taken a nap somewhere.
Soon, Mu Fei ran over, and Liu Qingquan also came out from underground. His gray face became even uglier, and he said with his hands behind his back, "I underestimated this guy. He actually has a very strong illusion. This batch of new monsters is incredible."
The point is that neither he nor Mu Fei are novices, yet they were also mesmerized by this illusion.
This really doesn't seem like an ability that a newly transformed spirit can have.
Mu Fei stepped on his suit pants and said, "You are quite capable."
Shit, she was so scared that she really thought she was dragged into the infinite flow. When Tan Xiao called her, she was still playing the dungeon seriously in the illusion!
So, the one with more ability is... Mu Fei glanced at Tan Xiao, who didn't seem to be affected at all and just pressed the server here.
She suddenly remembered that last time in the Tomb of the King of Chu, other people also said that they had encountered illusions. Xiong Ku was an expert in creating illusions, but she and Tan Xiao had not encountered any dangerous illusions. At that time, she just thought it was good luck. It seemed that her brother was gifted and immune to illusions.
Ugh, she's jealous.
The blue data flow in the cabinet surged. Although the server was aware of the changes, its combat power was only that of a newly-developed weapon. It dared not move, and could only mutter, "It's fine."
Liu Qingquan looked at his data stream and said thoughtfully: "Is it the server of the novel website?"
"Um."
"In the past, spirits and monsters had to transform into a Taoist body and imitate humans before they could become useful. But this server has countless stories stored in its body since birth. It can even be said that it is the data of these stories in the form of a physical form.
"These stories are all-encompassing, and are the various aspects of the world and the seven emotions and six desires depicted by countless authors.
"It has a secular spirituality since birth."
No wonder, he must have some unusual abilities. He was able to escape for so long in this new world he had just met for the first time, despite being chased by 404.
Liu Qingquan's explanation made Tan Xiao and Mu Fei, and even the server itself, feel that it made sense. It didn't know how it was born with so many abilities.
"Don't mention it. This guy has good hacking skills, but he also ruined the human disaster recovery." Mu Fei knew that everyone from the server vendors and technicians to the authors and readers were probably very anxious, so she said to it, "Usually, for new monsters like you, we will give you free guidance on the rules of survival, but it's a pity that you always like to make trouble. Now, you have to work like a slave to make up for the losses - both the living and the dead."
There is no way. New things always want to be tried out to see what they can do and what position they occupy in this world.
This device has cheated the website and server providers, and also caused damage to the funeral home and Uncle Lin. They have to pay compensation.
"Take a picture first..." Mu Fei took out a camera and took pictures of the scene and the criminals one by one, "Do you have a name?" The first step for ordinary people to learn is, of course, to give themselves a name. Even high-class monsters will give themselves a name.
The server subconsciously said coldly: "Just call me Young Master Jin."
Mu Fei put more force on her foot and stepped down hard, "Young Master Jin, huh? You like to pretend to be the main god, right?"
The server humbly shouted: "Ah Jin, just call me Ah Jin!"
"Okay, get their backup back first. Otherwise, I'll take you to Beijing and export your data directly." Mu Fei threatened, "I'm in a hurry to close the case, so hurry up."
This data is now part of the server's main body. Ah Jin shrank back and whispered, "I don't know how to recover. I did it subconsciously at the time. I don't know how to cancel it. Really."
Mu Fei and Liu Qingquan looked at each other.
This is a bit troublesome. There is no need for it to lie now. It is probably telling the truth. Its ability is higher than that of ordinary new monsters. It used its ability unconsciously when it didn't know the rules, but it hasn't figured out how to reverse it yet.
"You really are..." Mu Fei pressed her head. She was good at runes, while Liu Qingquan was good at actual combat. Seeing Tan Xiao standing aside, she asked tentatively, "Your spiritual master can break spells, right?"
"It's possible in theory, but I don't know how to match the server. Let's ask God to give it a try." Tan Xiao showed her his schoolbag. He even took the time to go home and get his stuff.
Tan Xiao pulled out a wooden mask from inside. It had patterns outlined in gold and red, and was decorated with many colorful tassels.
"It's a full face this time, no peacock needed?" Mu Fei asked. She could tell at a glance that this was the mask that had been placed in the middle of the wall in Tan Xiao's house.
Tan Xiao: "Yeah, I thought if Peacock is so powerful, then Qing Yuanfeng must be even more powerful."
This is Yuan Feng's mask.
Liu Qingquan glanced at Tan Xiao and asked with a little doubt: "Can you really invite Yuan Feng?"
No matter which faction you belong to, the higher the level of the person you hire, the more powerful you are.
Liu Qingquan knew that Yuan Feng was equivalent to the first echelon of wizards. How could they be able to communicate with the spirits at will?
Mu Fei had no doubts, but it was Liu Qingquan's first time meeting Tan Xiao after all.
"I don't know, let's give it a try." Tan Xiao said indifferently. It's not shameful if he can't be invited. His main business is traveling performances, and they are not in the same field.
Liu Qingquan shouted and saw that Tan Xiao had already set up a simple altar.
Because the conditions were insufficient and there was no time to prepare food offerings, Tan Xiao chose to burn wood incense. That is, he used a clay pot, stuffed it with sandalwood firewood, and simmered it.
There was no open flame, only the scent of firewood and a little bit of smoke.
This can be said to be a trick of the spiritual master, using this to simulate the fireworks of cooking - but the spiritual master also has times when he cannot eat enough, and he himself cannot even eat enough, so when offering sacrifices to the gods he has to use firewood, incense and hand gestures instead.
Tan Xiao was seen wearing a Yuan Feng mask, and he made a few gestures to represent the items for offering, and finally he knocked on the edge of the jar with the "strike greed" technique.
Ding, ding, ding——
After seven beats, Tan Xiao chanted: "Spring comes before the birds sing, and incense is burned before the gods are invited. Incense smoke lingers in the misty hall, and the gate of heaven opens to form dark clouds..."
Inside the mask, Tan Xiao closed his eyes.
In a flash, he saw another pair of eyes.
Afterwards, the pair of eyes gradually became clearer, and then expanded, revealing an entire face, which was a male.
When Tan Xiao was in a daze, he felt his collar being grabbed. He opened his eyes and found that the face really appeared in front of him!
A ghost that seemed to be real or not grabbed him. It was wearing a turquoise robe embroidered with gold thread, with half-long hair tied up and feathers and gold pendants as ornaments. It was extraordinarily luxurious and looked down upon all living things. Its feet were slightly suspended from the ground. Coupled with its intangible figure, it was immediately clear that it was unlikely to be a human, at least not a living person.
The "Yuan Feng" descended, with a look of superiority that looked down upon the human world, gorgeous and cold, and an ethereal voice with obvious reverberation, and also contained a terrifying anger: "You summoned me to the altar, and you dared to use firewood and incense?!"
A Jin who was standing by had just become a spirit, and the mere presence of the great god was enough to make him tremble all over and unable to move.
Liu Qingquan is also a Yin creature, which is slightly better than Ah Jin, but he dare not look directly at the pressure of the divine light, and said in fear: "You have invited the true body of Yuan Feng?!"
He imagined that even if he could invite Yuan Feng, it would be a response from the unknown spirit, and there would be no such scene of her appearing in person.
Unexpectedly, the great god became even angrier after hearing this, "I am the son of Yuan Feng."
Huh, peacock?
Why call Yuanfeng? Here comes the peacock.
Tan Xiao was as surprised as everyone else, but compared to the pure surprise of others, Tan Xiao was a little more happy.
He had asked Peacock for help twice before, and the other party was very respectful, so even if the wrong person came, Tan Xiao was surprised and confused, but he immediately asked kindly: "Is it the Peacock God? Why is it you?"
The surprise in Tan Xiao's tone was not difficult to discern, which slightly eased Kong Xuan's anger.
However, it's still too outrageous.
Kong Xuan leaned closer and stared at Tan Xiao. For a moment, Tan Xiao felt a strange feeling in his heart, as if his pulse was resonating with it. Could it be because the god and the witch had been together for thousands of years? He looked at the peacock in confusion.
Kong Xuan narrowed his eyes and said, "Chu Wu and Yuan Feng have a thousand-year incense oath. I will take over the mother's position... You have been inherited to me."
