Chapter 45: The Totem of the X Celestial Deity
On the other side, at the Three Gorges Psychiatric Hospital, the inpatient registration office.
“Name?”
“Thirty-six.”
“I asked for your name…”
“Oh, Tan Qiuming, Thirty-six, male. Everything I’ve done so far is unrelated to others; it’s all my own doing. I plead guilty.”
Jiang Li, “…” Why does this have the flavor of Luxianbei?
Within a room filled with spirit energy fluctuation suppression and solidification spell formulas, Tan Qiuming, who had just awakened not long ago, was dressed in a specially made restraint garment, fixed to an alloy chair. He appeared spiritless, his gaze somewhat vacant, looking as if he hadn’t fully awakened.
Jiang Li assessed Tan Qiuming, withdrew her gaze, and continued, “Don’t be so quick to plead guilty. Whether you are guilty or not still depends on how you explain the situation.”
In fact, not all spirit ability users who have caused spirit energy attack incidents will be imprisoned. Oftentimes, they will be made to atone in another way, for instance, by participating in combat in places like Shanhaiguan, where urban legends are rampant, after undergoing strict scrutiny.
“…” Tan Qiuming opened his mouth, then shook his head with a wry smile, saying, “I have nothing to say. You are the professionals; process me however you see fit.”
Long before realizing that a monster was occasionally trying to seize control of his body, committing terrifying acts during those brief moments of control, he had been waiting for the Siye Society… or more accurately, the department responsible for handling urban legend events.
Like the vast majority of ordinary people, he did not know of the Siye Society’s existence. He merely speculated that given the many urban legend events and the existence of people like him, who had “close contact” with such legends, there had to be an organization handling these incidents.
He firmly believed that only those special personnel dealing with urban legend events could truly grant him liberation, rather than through a transient relaxation gained by desperately helping cancer patients, as if seeking atonement.
To prevent the Siye Society from knocking on his door, he completely lost control over his body, becoming a puppet to that monster. Even when he was aware, he left behind three paintings.
Those three paintings recorded the visions he glimpsed while being under the monster’s control, in a semi-conscious state.
It was as if the monster could know his most secret thoughts. He was quite certain that while sharing a body with him, the monster inevitably revealed some deep-seated aspects before him.
And those things he glimpsed were what truly made his soul tremble…
He not only saw the monster committing murders, but he also witnessed it spreading decay to every corner of the city after completely seizing control of his body. He even saw the city ruins, ravaged by total corruption.
As for how he knew that the Siye Society operatives would come knocking today… it was probably because he had helped too many people and had good relationships.
This morning, a fellow patient living near Qixinggang said that a group of strange people had sealed off his studio. He also heard from a fellow patient at the central hospital that two young women had long discussions with an old neighbor of his, which made him realize that the people who could liberate him had finally appeared.
Now, they should have found those three paintings, and they might have learned about his past from He Laoye. What else did he have to say?
Tan Qiuming’s mindset resembled that of a criminal fleeing for years, living in fear every day, sleepless nights. When the police finally came knocking, without a second thought, he admitted to all his crimes.
As an operative still undergoing evaluation, Jiang Li had put in considerable effort to secure the chance to interrogate Tan Qiuming, relying on the uniqueness of spirit pattern authority. Now, faced with Tan Qiuming’s nonviolent and non-cooperative demeanor, she felt a throbbing headache.
What to do to get him to speak?
If he remained silent, once he was locked away in the lower levels of the psychiatric hospital, there would be no opportunity for her to learn about her mother.
“Bang—!”
Just as Jiang Li was thinking, a dull thud suddenly rang out in her ears, causing the table to shake violently.
Zhong Hui had stood up at some point, pointing at Tan Qiuming, his eyes wide with anger.
“Stop that! Do you think that remaining silent will solve your problems?”
“Do you know what we found at your residence and your rented room in Minhe Community?!”
“……” Jiang Li glanced at the towering figure beside her, momentarily at a loss for words.
Clearly, Zhong Hui’s interrogation methods relied entirely on emotion, lacking any finesse.
Of course, she couldn’t blame him; after all, outside of some managerial work, he was solely responsible for combat, while interrogation tasks were usually left to Lin Kule.
Although Lin Kule also lacked finesse and relied entirely on intuition, her intuition was spot on!
She always managed, under the guidance of her instincts, to precisely capture essential information from the responses of the interrogated subjects.
However, today, for some reason, Lin Kule had made excuses about feeling unwell and did not come.
Jiang Li felt that Lin Kule was intentionally or unintentionally avoiding her.
“I…” Tan Qiuming shook his head, “I honestly don’t know much, but I can guess that the monster trying to invade my body must have done something terrible.”
“If I disappear from this world, I should be able to stop it from continuing its evil deeds, right?”
“You son of a…” Zhong Hui was about to say something, but Jiang Li gestured for him to stop, then wrote a line on the paper used for recording.
[Senior, could you let me try?]
Zhong Hui looked at the note, then at Jiang Li. After a few seconds of silence, he nodded.
With his permission, Jiang Li looked up at Tan Qiuming and asked solemnly, “If you disappear, it may indeed stop that guy you mentioned from continuing its malevolence. But have you considered what if it doesn’t stop?”
“At that point, we will have no means to obtain information about it and will find ourselves in a highly passive position, unable to do anything while it runs rampant beneath our noses.”
“But…” Tan Qiuming pondered for a moment and replied earnestly, “What I know has already been fully documented in those three paintings. Since you’ve already investigated the studio, you should have seen those three paintings…”
“Three paintings? What three paintings? Which three paintings?” Zhong Hui interrupted.
He had previously seen the inventory list of items confiscated from Han Ye Studio, which listed seventy-four paintings…
How could Tan Qiuming just mention “those three paintings”? No one knew which three he meant!
Before Tan Qiuming could answer the question, Jiang Li wrote another line on the recording paper and handed it to Zhong Hui.
[Senior, the informant who provided intelligence to Lin Kule and me specifically mentioned those three peculiar paintings when informing us about Han Ye Studio.]
After reading the note Jiang Li passed him, Zhong Hui frowned and quietly inquired, “Do you know which three paintings he was referring to? Are they currently in our possession?”
Jiang Li gently shook her head and continued writing on the recording paper.
[No, when we rushed to investigate Han Ye Studio, we found that someone had gotten there first and taken those three paintings away.]
After a pause, she added two more lines.
[I suspect it was the Solar Eclipse Society who did it.]
[However, senior, don’t worry. I will find a way to extract relevant information about those three paintings from Tan Qiuming’s mouth.]
“Those dog bastards…” Zhong Hui muttered under his breath, withdrawing his gaze and sitting back down in his chair.
Though he had other ways to pry open Tan Qiuming’s mouth, those methods were somewhat cruel; he didn’t want to resort to them unless absolutely necessary.
“Indeed, we have seen your paintings.” Jiang Li looked at Tan Qiuming and spoke again, “However, now that you are here in person, wouldn’t it be more straightforward to tell us directly?”
“Additionally, if it’s convenient, we would also like to hear about your detailed experiences over the past thirty-six years, especially regarding your mother?”
Although He Laoye had recounted Tan Qiuming’s past experiences, his perspective had significant limitations. To grasp the full scope of events, Tan Qiuming needed to provide some necessary supplements.
“Mother…” Tan Qiuming asked, “Is that very important?”
His expression was somewhat unusual, brows furrowing, lips turning down as if recalling something he didn’t want to revisit.
Jiang Li did not directly answer Tan Qiuming’s question, replying calmly, “That information may assist our investigation and further analyze the source of the urban legend affecting you.”
From He Laoye’s descriptions, Tan Qiuming’s mother had a profound influence on him, and the “qigong” activities she organized and participated in did not sound very proper. They could very well involve urban legend events, or even be meetings of followers of the X Celestial Deity.
It should be noted that in the 1980s and 90s, followers of the X Celestial Deity were most active in Z Country.
During that period, Z Country’s regulation of factory pollution was not as strict as it is today, and the X Celestial Deity exploited this loophole, luring certain factory operators with benefits to discharge waste recklessly, creating smog.
Factory operators benefiting from the X Celestial Deity often found their businesses booming; in no time, they could gather enough funds to expand operations. As factory scales increased, the X Celestial Deity would provide them with more assistance, and so the factories would further expand…
This created a vicious cycle, leading to scenarios where in some villages around certain factories, more than half of the villagers suffered from severe illnesses due to smog and pollution.
After listening to Jiang Li’s statement, Zhong Hui secretly glanced at her in confusion.
Why on earth were we asking about his mother’s affairs?
However, even though he felt some doubts in his heart, he did not voice them.
As the saying goes, professional matters should be left to professionals!
The lead concerning Han Ye Studio and Tan Qiuming was discovered by Jiang Li and Lin Kule; they know more details, and their spirit pattern authority has some peculiarities. If they thought it necessary to inquire, then it was indeed necessary.
“……” After a moment of silence, Tan Qiuming raised both hands to rub his face, calmly stating, “Alright, I can talk if you want to know.”
“My mother’s name is Kang Yumin. I have very few memories of her and no emotional attachment. Of course, she doesn’t have much affection for me either; sometimes I even feel like I’m just a pet she keeps, only accompanied a bit when she feels like it and left aside when she doesn’t…”
“We already know this.” Jiang Li said expressionlessly, “I heard that when you were a child, your mother often brought people home, and they would stay for several days?”
“Do you remember what they did, or what they did to you? Were there any suspicious aspects?”
“I’m not sure what they did…” Tan Qiuming shook his head with a bitter smile. “Every time she brought people home, she’d always give me a strange potion to drink in advance.”
“After drinking it, I would sleep for a long time, and when I woke up, those people would have already left, and the house would be cleaned up very nicely, as if nothing had happened.”
“You might not believe this, but I only found out from neighbors that the woman often brought people home.”
Although there was no important information, it was already quite abnormal for a mother to feed her child strange potions… Jiang Li rubbed her slightly throbbing temple, contemplating whether to change her approach when Tan Qiuming continued.
“I thought carefully, and if I must say, there is one matter that piques my interest…” Tan Qiuming said, his expression serious. “Although they always cleaned the house before I woke up, there would always be occasional oversights.”
“One time, after those people left, I unexpectedly found a torn piece of paper under the sofa, with a strange pattern drawn on it. Shortly after seeing that pattern, I fell into a long period of unconsciousness; I don’t know if there’s any connection between the two.”
“What pattern? Can you draw it for us?” Jiang Li asked.
“I can.” Tan Qiuming nodded.
Jiang Li stood up and handed him some paper and a pen. After receiving them, Tan Qiuming recalled slightly and, possessing decent drawing skills, quickly sketched a fairly complete pattern on the paper.
The pattern was not complete; at first glance, it looked like a chaotic mass of dark clouds. However, upon closer inspection, one could vaguely make out outlines resembling human limbs and wings.
Jiang Li took a glance and instantly changed her expression.
What Tan Qiuming had drawn was the totem pointing to the X Celestial Deity. Had his memory been complete, its manifestation would have immediately summoned the attention of the X Celestial Deity here, and in extreme scenarios, it could even summon the deity directly.
————
Having cut off contact with Lin Nian using the Zhipianxian, Luxianbei did not linger much at the Angel’s Café, stepping out to hail a taxi and hurriedly returning to the Taohua Family Guesthouse.
Next, she might need to read the “diary” of some offspring of an evil god, which could easily attract the attention of dangerous entities. In such times, being near Stinky Sister would be relatively safe.
Even the X Celestial Deity should not dare to act recklessly in front of the esteemed master of the 800-mile Peach Spring.
Of course, it would be even better if Stinky Sister had stopped obsessing over those strange “toys”…
Once in the taxi, navigating through the city, just as they were approaching Jiujie, Luxianbei received a message from Lin Nian.
Opening the message, a screenshot of a log captured her attention.
【2001-04-11
They sing, they call, they offer their flesh, and I am finally able to walk among humans…】
After reading the first screenshot, Luxianbei was somewhat taken aback, her eyebrows slightly raised.
Wow! That guy’s first log entry was actually over twenty years ago?
