Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 162 The Nameless Invitation
Linjiang City, Old Town.

The streets here are much narrower than in the new town, and the utility poles on both sides are tangled with messy cables, like giant spider webs.

Bai Yu's private residence is located in an old apartment building in this area.

This was a property he bought before joining the Bureau of Investigation. It had no smart home system, no cold metal walls, only slightly mottled white walls and wooden floors that creaked when stepped on.

At that moment, a light drizzle was falling outside the window.

Raindrops pattered against the aluminum alloy window frame, producing a monotonous yet highly rhythmic sound.

Bai Yu sat on the old sofa by the window, holding a steaming cup of water in her hand.

His right eye was still wrapped in bandages, and a faint chill could be felt emanating from it. That was a side effect of Hei Yan falling into a deep hibernation; the resonance deep within his soul had broken, replaced by an unsettling emptiness.

Without Hei Yan's elegant and playful comments in her mind, Bai Yu felt that the world had suddenly become a little too quiet.

He looked at the palm of his left hand, where the wound he had made while opening the door had scabbed over, looking like a dark red centipede crawling on his skin.

"Taking a vacation?"

Bai Yu muttered to himself, a bitter smile playing on his lips.

For someone whose soul has already been broken once, this so-called peace is more like a long torment.

He stood up and walked to the bookshelf.

The bookshelf contained some books on folklore and logic, as well as a picture frame that had been turned upside down.

Bai Yu reached out to pick up the photo frame, but pulled back the moment her fingertips touched the cold glass.

That was a group photo of his former team.

After that mission, most of the people in the photo became cold names, engraved on a monument on the hill behind the Bureau of Investigation.

"It's not time yet."

Bai Yu took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the surging thoughts in her heart.

Just then, a soft footstep sound came from outside the door.

The footsteps stopped at the door.

Immediately following was the sound of something heavy being placed on the ground.

Bai Yu's eyes sharpened instantly. Although he had lost Hei Yan's sensory support, his instincts as an ace investigator remained.

He put down his water glass and silently reached under the sofa cushion with his right hand.

There was a specially made tactical short knife hidden there.

He walked to the door, but instead of opening it directly, he looked out through the peephole.

The corridor was deserted.

The dim light flickered on and off, and a rectangular express delivery box wrapped in kraft paper lay on the ground.

The package had no sender information or postmark, only four words written in black pen:

[To Bai Yu]

Bai Yu frowned.

His address was classified in the bureau's files. Apart from An Mu, Mo Fei, and Lan Ce, no one else should have known about it.

He gripped the dagger tightly and yanked open the door.

A cold draft blew in from the corridor, carrying a damp, earthy smell.

Bai Yu carefully observed the surroundings and, after confirming that there were no ambushes, bent down, picked up the delivery box, and retreated back into the house.

The box wasn't heavy, and it seemed to contain paper items.

He placed the package on the dining table and carefully cut open the seal with a short knife.

At times like these, any detail can be fatal.

The kraft paper was peeled back to reveal an elegant black envelope inside.

The envelope is made of a special material that has a skin-like texture, feeling cold and delicate to the touch.

The sealing wax on the envelope was a strange design: a broken scalpel lying under a withered tree.

Bai Yu's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinpoints.

That was the shape of the scalpel he used during his mission at the sanatorium.

He opened the envelope; inside was only a yellowed card.

The front of the card had a line of text written in dark red ink:

[Groom, your wedding is not yet complete. Please proceed to the 'Land of Return' when the red moon rises again.]
On the back of the card was an old photograph.

The background of the photo is a ruin, and in the center of the ruin stands a figure wearing a white research coat.

Bai Yu would never forget that figure, even in death.

That was his former mentor, and also the first person to disappear in that disaster.

"How is this possible..."

Bai Yu's hand holding the card trembled slightly.

After that disaster, the bureau determined that his mentor was "confirmed dead and his soul dissipated."

Why is this photo here?
Why is the term "the land of ruins" mentioned?
Just as Bai Yu was deep in thought, the urgent knocking on the door sounded again.

This time, the knocking was rhythmic, with three long knocks followed by two short ones.

Bai Yu quickly put away the cards and photos and walked to the door.

"Who?"

"Old Bai, it's me, Mo Fei."

Mo Fei's distinctive loud voice came from outside the door. Although he tried to lower his voice, it was still full of energy.

Bai Yu opened the door.

Mo Fei and Lan Ce were standing at the door.

Mo Fei was carrying two huge plastic bags filled with all sorts of medicines and supplements.

Lance carried his tactical backpack and held the familiar detector in his hand.

"Why are you here?"

Bai Yu stepped aside to let them into the house.

Didn't the bureau tell you all to take leave too?

"Take a break my ass."

Mo Fei casually put the plastic bag on the table and sat down in the chair.

"Old Bai, you don't know, although those bastards in the Supervision Department gave us leave orders, the area around the base is full of their spies. I had to take Lan Ce out through the sewers, and we almost suffocated from the stench."

Lan Ce took off his glasses, wiped them with the corner of his clothes, and spoke in a serious tone.

"Bai Yu, something's happened."

Bai Yu's heart skipped a beat.

"Lu Yueqi?"

"Correct."

Lance put his glasses back on and took out a stack of printed papers from his bag.

"Although her physical condition is stable, her mental state is very strange. Just an hour ago, she started sleepwalking in her hospital room."

Sleepwalking?

"It's not just sleepwalking."

Lance spread the papers on the table.

“She had carved something on the wall. When the nurse found her, she was scratching at the wall with her fingernails, and there was blood under her fingernails, but she didn’t react at all.”

Bai Yu looked down at the photos on the papers.

In the photo, the white walls of the ward are covered with dense scratches.

These scratches were not random; instead, they formed some strange characters and patterns.

Bai Yu flipped through the pages one by one, and when he saw the last one, he froze.

In that photo, Lu Yueqi carved a name in her blood on the corner of the wall:
[Chen Mo]

That's the name of the Bai language instructor.

How did she know that name?

Bai Yu's voice became unusually cold.

I'm not sure.

Lan Ce shook his head.

"But when I compared Lu Yueqi's brainwave waveform, I found that when she carved these words, the waveform was highly similar to the active state of the Black Words in your body."

"You mean, she was infected?"

"No, it's more like some kind of 'synchronization'."

Lanze pointed to the pattern in the photo.

"Bai Yu, look at this pattern, doesn't it look familiar?"

Bai Yu carefully observed the messy scratch marks.

It was a pattern resembling a maze, but upon closer inspection, one would discover that the direction of the lines was exactly the same as the shape of the cracks deep within Bai Yu's soul.

"She is painting my soul."

Bai Yu murmured softly.

"That's impossible. No one can see the current state of my soul except for Hei Yan."

That's why we came to find you.

Mo Fei clenched his fists, a fierce glint in his eyes.

"Old Bai, I don't think those Nightmares have given up yet. They didn't kill you at the sanatorium, and now they want to use Lu Yueqi to get you."

"Where's that card?"

Lanze keenly noticed the brown paper box on the table that hadn't been put away yet.

Bai Yu didn't hide anything and handed the card and photo in the envelope to Lan Ce.

Lance took the card and gently ran his fingertips across the wax seal.

"This material... is 'leather'."

Lan Ce's voice trembled slightly.

"And it's 'human skin' that's been treated with the power of nightmares. Bai Yu, this letter wasn't sent by a human."

He flipped the card over, saw the photo on the back, and his pupils contracted sharply.

"Professor Chen Mo? Wasn't he already..."

"I know."

Bai Yu took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

“This photo is new. Look at the building in the background; that was the old clock tower in Linjiang City that was demolished three years ago. But the clock tower in the photo is intact, and the surrounding vegetation is in the current season.”

"So, Professor Chen Mo might still be alive, and somewhere in Linjiang City?"

Mo Fei's eyes widened.

"Or rather, something has taken on his form and is luring me to the 'Land of Ruins'."

Bai Yu walked to the window and looked at the hazy rain outside.

"Lan Ce, check the 'Land of Return to the Ruins'. There should be a record in the bureau's database."

Lan Ce quickly opened his tablet and entered the keywords.

A few seconds later, a red exclamation mark appeared on the screen.

[Insufficient permissions, this entry has been archived].

"Sealed off?"

Lan Ce was stunned.

"I have Level A clearance, and even I can't see this?"

"This means that the 'Land of Ruins' involves the Bureau's top secrets, or... some kind of unspeakable taboo."

Bai Yu turned around and looked at the two of them.

“Mo Fei, Lan Ce, you are also in a dangerous situation right now. If the people from the Supervision Department find out that you came to see me, they will definitely charge you with ‘colluding with the person under investigation’.”

"To hell with the charges."

Mo Fei suddenly stood up.

"Old Bai, what kind of people do you take us for? Back in the 'Silent Ruins,' if it weren't for you, we would have been a pile of bones long ago. Now that you're in trouble, are we just going to stand by and watch?"

"Mo Fei is right."

Lan Ce also stood up and adjusted his glasses.

“Although I cannot access the bureau’s database now, I have seen similar descriptions in some scraps of information when I was working on the ‘Mountain God’ case file.”

"'The Land of Ruins' seems to refer to a 'logical rift' in Linjiang City. There, the boundary between reality and dreams is blurred, and all physical laws break down."

"What's the exact location?"

“I don’t know. But the document mentioned that whenever the red moon rises, the gate to ‘Guixu’ will open where the bell tolls.”

"The place where the bells toll..."

The photo flashed through Bai Yu's mind.

"The old clock tower".

"But the old clock tower was demolished three years ago, and now it's a construction site."

Mo Fei scratched his head in confusion.

"That's the crux of the problem."

Bai Yu picked up the red umbrella, her eyes hardening.

“Some things may disappear in reality, but they still exist at the level of ‘rules’.”

"Let's go to the ruins of the old bell tower."

"But what about Lu Yueqi?"

Lan Ce was somewhat worried.

"She's still at the resettlement site. If the security there has been infiltrated..."

"The captain is over there," Bai Yu said in a deep voice.

“Although Captain Anmu didn’t tell us, he must have already sensed something was wrong. The reason he didn’t come to me is because he needs to stay there to suppress any potential riots.”

"What we need to do is find the source of all this before he can't hold on any longer."

Without further ado, the three quickly donned their gear and left the apartment.

……

Linjiang City, the site of the old bell tower.

This was originally a landmark building in the city, but with urban planning, the clock tower was demolished and a commercial plaza was planned to be built on the site.

However, for some reason, the project was halted halfway through.

At this time, the ruins were filled with broken walls and rusted steel bars, appearing particularly desolate after being washed by the rain.

Bai Yu and the other two parked their car outside the construction site.

"Lan Ce, is the detector responding?"

Bai Yu asked in a low voice.

"That's strange."

Lan Ce stared at the screen.

"The energy reading here is zero. There is absolutely no indication of any abnormal fluctuations."

"Zero itself is the biggest anomaly."

Bai Yu gripped the red umbrella tightly and walked into the ruins.

“In a place like Linjiang City, even ordinary streets would have some faint remnants of nightmares. This place is so clean, it’s like it has been thoroughly washed.”

The three of them walked through the ruins, their steps uneven.

The surroundings were eerily quiet; even the sound of raindrops seemed to be absorbed by some force.

As he walked, Mo Fei suddenly stopped.

"Old Bai, look over there."

He pointed to a large pit in the center of the ruins.

That was the original foundation of the clock tower.

Bai Yu walked over and looked down.

The pit was filled with rainwater, and the surface of the water was as smooth as a mirror.

But in the reflection on the water, a magnificent, ancient stone clock tower appeared in the originally empty sky.

The spire of the clock tower pierces the sky, and the huge bronze bell sways slightly in the wind.

"This……"

Mo Fei rubbed his eyes.

Am I hallucinating?

"It's not an illusion, it's a 'reflection space'."

Bai Yu looked at the water.

"The real clock tower was not demolished; it was simply pushed to the 'back side' of reality by some force."

Just then, the clouds in the sky slowly dispersed.

A strange, dark red moon quietly appeared in the night sky.

The red moonlight shone on the pool.

hum-

A deep, resonant bell suddenly rang out from the depths of the earth.

The moment the bell rang, Bai Yu felt the Black Words deep within her soul tremble violently.

It was an extreme, almost terrifying warning.

"Step back!"

Bai Yu shouted and pulled the two of them back quickly.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the center of the pool, and black liquid gushed out, quickly turning the surrounding ruins black.

The black liquid twisted and recombine in the air, eventually forming a huge, semi-transparent outline of a clock tower.

At the entrance to the clock tower stood a woman dressed in a red wedding gown.

She wasn't wearing a veil, and the face she revealed was exactly the same as Lu Yueqi's.

But her eyes were as empty as a bottomless dry well.

"Groom...you're late."

The woman's voice echoed through the ruins, carrying a chilling tenderness.

"Lu Yueqi?"

Mo Fei tried to rush over, but Bai Yu held him back tightly.

"She is not Lu Yueqi."

Bai Yu stared at the woman.

"She is the guide to 'Return to the Void'. Lan Ce, is this what you mean by 'logical gap'?"

"No...this is more terrifying than 'logical gaps'."

Lanze's voice trembled.

“This is ‘rule collapse.’ Baiyu, we can’t go in. Once we go in, our very existence will be erased by the rules here.”

"We have no way out."

Bai Yu pointed behind him.

The three turned around and found that the ruins behind them had disappeared.

Instead, there was endless darkness and nothingness.

"It seems the bride is ready."

Bai Yu sneered and suddenly opened the red umbrella in her hand.

A golden light shone in the darkness, creating a small foothold for the three of them.

"Let's go. Since they're being so hospitable, we should at least go in and ask for a drink at their wedding."

The three of them stepped into the black clock tower.

……

at the same time.

Investigation Bureau base, resettlement site ward.

Captain Anmu stood by the window, looking at the eerie red moon outside, his face extremely gloomy.

Behind him, Lu Yueqi was lying on the bed, her body convulsing violently.

Something seemed to be writhing wildly beneath her skin.

"Captain...should we...?"

"A guard asked in a low voice."

"Need not."

An Mu clenched his fist, and the golden "Iron Wall Royal Authority" domain faintly appeared around him.

"Bai Yu and the others have already gone in. All we can do now is hold this place."

He turned his head and looked at Lu Yueqi on the hospital bed.

A line of bloody tears slowly rolled down Lu Yueqi's cheeks.

Beside her pillow, a pale white paper flower had appeared out of nowhere.

Bai Yu's name slowly emerged on the paper flower.

……

Inside the clock tower.

Contrary to expectations, the place was not gloomy at all; on the contrary, it appeared exceptionally magnificent.

The red carpet stretched to the horizon, and wall lamps with blue flames burned on the walls on both sides.

Bai Yu and the other two walked on the carpet, their footsteps absorbed by the thick plush.

"Old Bai, don't you think... it's a little too quiet here?"

Mo Fei gripped his battle axe tightly, cautiously observing his surroundings.

"The silence is because the 'rules' are watching us."

Bai Yu said in a low voice.

"Lan Ce, analyze the logic here."

Lan Ce held the detector in his hand, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"The logic here is... 'uniqueness'."

"Uniqueness?"

"Yes. In this space, there can only be one 'groom,' one 'bride,' and one 'witness.'"

"Then what are we?"

“We are… ‘sacrifices’.”

Lan Ce had barely finished speaking.

The wall lights on both sides of the corridor suddenly went out.

In the darkness, a faint, rustling sound, like paper rubbing together, could be heard.

"careful!"

He shouted in Bai language.

Countless pale white pieces of paper fell from the ceiling, like an eerie snowfall.

These pieces of paper spun rapidly in the air, their edges as sharp as knives.

Mo Fei roared and swung his battle axe with impenetrable force.

"Smash it for me!"

However, the moment those pieces of paper touched the battle axe, they melted like liquid and wrapped around Mo Fei's arm along the axe handle.

"Rule Analysis: Exclusion!"

Bai Yu's red umbrella suddenly stopped, and golden ripples spread out, forcibly scattering the pieces of paper.

“Mo Fei, don’t use brute force! These things are made up of ‘emotions’, and the angrier you are, the stronger they become.”

"Damn, what do we do now?"

Mo Fei gritted his teeth, forcibly suppressing the anger in his heart.

"Follow me."

Bai Yu stared at the large door at the end of the corridor.

There's an exit there.

The three of them struggled to move towards the end, enduring the barrage of paper scraps.

Just as they were about to reach the gate, a figure suddenly blocked the entrance.

He was a man wearing a black suit.

He had his back to the three men, holding a black cane in his hand.

"Professor Chen Mo?"

Bai Yu tentatively called out.

The man slowly turned around.

That face was indeed Chen Mo's.

But his eyes were two dark, empty holes from which black liquid constantly flowed.

"Bai Yu... my good student."

Chen Mo's voice was hoarse and distorted, like two rusty pieces of iron rubbing against each other.

"You've finally arrived."

"why?"

Bai Yu stared at him.

Why did you make that choice back in the 'Silent Ruins'?

"choose?"

Chen Mo let out a piercing laugh.

“I had no choice, Bai Yu. This world itself is a giant lie. The Investigation Bureau, Nightmare, Nightmare... they are all just pawns in the hands of the ‘Mountain God’.”

"And you are the only one who has stepped out of the chessboard."

He raised his cane and pointed at Baiyu.

"Hand over the dark words within you. Only then can you gain true freedom."

"free?"

Bai Yu sneered.

"If the price of freedom is becoming a monster like you, then I'd rather stay on the chessboard forever."

"Then go die."

Chen Mo waved his cane.

The surrounding walls collapsed instantly, and the black liquid transformed into countless giant hands, grabbing at the three of them from all directions.

"Mo Fei, protect Lan Ce!"

Bai Yu shouted and leaped forward to meet Chen Mo.

He knew this was the toughest battle he had faced since becoming an investigator.

Without the blessing of dark words, he could only rely on his own soul and this red umbrella.

(End of this chapter)