Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 670 The Contact is Toxic
Fan Zhonghong and Lin Yilin secretly met in the woods deep within the park where Doris had previously played the violin.

"Is it necessary to be so cautious? Haven't you finished dealing with things over there yet?" Zheng Fan couldn't help but feel a little flustered when he saw Fan Zhonghong, who had disguised himself and even put on a disguise ceremony, looking him around and exchanging secret signals like a spy.

Fan Zhonghong sighed, "Better safe than sorry. I can't just expose what I did to Miaosheng's family, or it will implicate them."

"Isn't your family very happy about your wedding? They were even saying they wanted to hold a wedding banquet later," Lin Yilin asked.

"As happy as they are, they probably know that after my wedding with Miaosheng, I haven't been staying at home properly and have been running around outside all day doing what I've been up to. That's why I can't cause them any trouble."

"The Li family has been purged quite severely." Lin Yilin understood what he meant.

"My mother-in-law is willful, reckless, and acts on impulse, which doesn't conform to the basic rules of the central interest group, so it's normal for her to act this way. But who can blame her? She's the mother of Miaosheng and my brother-in-law, and also my mother-in-law. Now that most of the family has been saved, let's not cling to this small piece of land in the central district. Escaping for our lives shouldn't be a problem," Fan Zhonghong said with a sneer.

After finishing his own business, he continued, "Let's not talk about my trivial matters. You called me out to set up a ceremony and check something, right? Tell me the details, let's get on with it."

Lin Yilin told Fan Zhonghong in detail what she had found out, and also asked if he had any additional clues, even if he didn't have high hopes.

“The ‘Grayscale’ project and the Modish family’s laboratory… Miaosheng and I aren’t too clear on that. If these are the only two things we need to investigate, then I’ll begin. Could you assist me? Um, Mr. Illusion, you can come along too.”

"Me?" Zheng Fan had originally planned to stand by and watch.

“While rituals can indeed break through the boundaries of the white world to some extent, it doesn’t mean that the limitations don’t exist. The more inspiration we can draw upon, the better,” Fan Zhonghong said.

So, under Fan Zhonghong's guidance, the three of them stood in a triangle. Zheng Fan just stood there, while Fan Zhonghong and Lin Yilin tinkered with some strange ritual aids.

Lin Yilin helped with the initial work, but the rest was left to Fan Zhonghong. She covered the surrounding land and even the trees with white talismans.

This scene looks very much like someone preparing to perform a shamanistic ritual.

After finishing the preparations, Fan Zhonghong made several hand seals and chanted some incantations before throwing a black talisman towards the center.

A black wind rose from the center of the three, shattering several white talismans around it and carrying them into the air, arranging them into an abstract shape, seemingly conveying some kind of information.

Even Lin Yilin couldn't quite understand it.

Zheng Fan stood there, unsure of exactly what he had helped, but he must have helped in some way, right?

Fan Zhonghong frowned: "That 'Gray Scale' project is directly related to the Modish family's laboratory."

Lin Yilin immediately replied, "Very good, as expected. Can you pinpoint the exact location?"

"I'll continue." Fan Zhonghong made another hand gesture, and the white talisman fragments in the sky began to turn black.

Suddenly, a glint of light flashed in Fan Zhonghong's eyes: "There's interference. The other side has thought of using rituals to investigate and has taken precautions in advance. I can still guarantee that I won't be discovered."

"Can you break through?"

"If we make a breakthrough, there is a risk that we will be immediately reverse-tracked."

"Isn't this risk-free?" Zheng whistled.

Fan Zhonghong's lips twitched slightly, but he subconsciously forgot about this gentleman.

"Then I'll start."

The next moment, the wind picked up, the white talisman turned completely black, and it spun rapidly into a vortex.

"Modish, mansion, otherworld, abyss, nest, new world..."

Boom!
Zheng Fan suddenly made a move, his fingers bending and clenching, instantly severing a mysterious connection and shattering the mental energy rushing towards Fan Zhonghong and Lin Yilin.

Fan Zhonghong promptly dismissed the ceremony, saying, "That's all. The opponent actually managed to launch an attack directly; they've got some skill. Although the attack was ineffective, their position was still exposed."

"It's alright. Even if they don't come looking for me, I'll go looking for them anyway." Lin Yilin, who already knew the location, showed no fear.

Having achieved the purpose of the ceremony, Fan Zhonghong hurriedly fled after the meeting, constantly erasing any trace of himself along the way.

Lin Yilin set off immediately, heading straight to the Modish family's manor.

Five minutes after they left, a group of people quickly surrounded the place, only to find nothing there.

“The reaction was quick; she’s a master of rituals. There should be two people left here. The connections extending outwards are very faint, so they must have been deliberately erased. I’ll try to track them down.” A woman with a sinister aura crawled around on the ground like a worm before standing up and speaking under the habitual gazes of those around her.

"Hurry up," someone urged. "Don't rush us. They're obviously going to Modish's lab. Do I have to explain the arrangements?" The woman rolled her eyes at the other person impatiently. "You guys notify the fortune teller and Jackson, who's following up on this. Leave the rest to me."

The woman then began to perform the ritual.

Upon hearing this, the bystanders stopped talking and took out their phones to contact Jian Banxian: "Banxian, someone has found the laboratory using a ritual."

"This rat is quite capable. The prerequisite for using the ritual is to be aware of this thing's existence and grasp the fragmented connections, which means that the other party had already found enough clues on their own." Jian Banxian was not in a hurry, and his tone remained relaxed.

"Half-immortal, stop playing around. If the things in the lab are exposed, Eliadodic won't let us off the hook."

"Hehe, this shows you don't understand this Undying Lighthouse Lord." Jian Banxian said dismissively, "Our plans were never in conflict. We didn't want him to find out before because we were not equals and had no bargaining power. But things are gradually changing now."

"This……"

"No need to worry about it. This person conducting the covert investigation seems cautious, but every step they take is firm and resolute, showing they are very confident in themselves. In that case, let them do it. It will save us the trouble of taking precautions everywhere. We can use a little ritual to counter-surveillance and gather some intelligence, and then..."

As Jian Banxian was speaking, a sharp scream suddenly rang out from the other side.

The person who was talking to Jian Banxian and others at the scene quickly looked at the woman who had just been performing the ritual.

But then she saw her body being bound by black tentacles that mysteriously appeared out of thin air.

"Nanaya!?"

"Don't... come near... me! The contact... is... poison... ah—!" The woman squeezed out these words from her constricted throat, and the tentacles on her body continued to exert force, causing her bones to begin to crack and creak.

The others immediately tried to rescue them, but found that they couldn't touch the black tentacles at all!
For them, they can only see it, but they can't touch it at all!
Why! ?

The clever person immediately recalled what Nanaya had just said, "Contact is poison." Had they tried to trace the other person's footsteps through ritualistic methods, only to have the other person turn the tables and poison them instead?!

Even if they were unfamiliar with rituals, they had never heard of such a thing before!

If this were truly so easy to accomplish, those who practice rituals wouldn't be acting so recklessly. Nanaya only started tracking because of her confidence in herself, never expecting to encounter something like this.

"It's...black..."

Click!

The woman's body was twisted in the opposite direction like a pretzel by the tentacles, accompanied by a series of chilling sounds. She was mysteriously killed in full view of everyone, who were helpless to do anything about it.

A ritual master whom Fan Zhonghong treated with utmost respect died suddenly shortly after his appearance.

"What's wrong?" Jian Banxian asked after hearing the voice on the other end.

"Nanaya...is dead."

"What? How did you die? Was someone lying in ambush? Although we've been monitoring Luo Ye, we can't rule out the possibility that they have other experts assisting them. Didn't we tell you to be careful before?" Jian Banxian subconsciously thought of this possibility and questioned.

"No... Nanaya just wanted to use the ritual to scout, and she died!"

Even the previously confident Jian Banxian fell silent.

……

Lin Yilin obediently rode the shared bicycle.

Feeling unsafe in a taxi that wasn't under her control, and unable to find any other means of transportation in the central district, she opted for the simplest option: a bicycle.

Zheng Fan squatted on the back seat. Although it didn't add any weight to her, the composition was still a bit strange.

It's usually the boys who ride bikes and give girls a ride, right?

However, Lin Yilin is much more reliable than Zheng Fan, so this is normal.

Suddenly, Zheng Fan laughed.

"Mr. Illusion, have you thought of something good?" Lin Yilin asked.

"Yes, that's a good thing."

(End of this chapter)