American Zombie Detective

Chapter 221 The Escaped Words

From the moment Qin Jin unleashed his power to freeze the character "欺" (deceive), to his search of the room, discovery of the medicine, smashing of the jar, finding the wooden plaque, and finally sitting here waiting for Catherine and Constantine's reply—all his actions, even every turning point in his emotional changes, are clearly depicted in the story!

This feeling is like being a puppet on a string, performing diligently on stage, but the content of the performance has already been pre-ordered, or even completely arranged by someone else!

This powerful force is not something Qin and Jin are deliberately fighting against!

He had lived too long and witnessed countless bizarre events, but the situation before him made it extremely easy to doubt the very reality of his own existence.

but!

Qin Jin's eyes widened little by little, the corners of his mouth began to curve slightly, and a certain light began to flash in his eyes. It was not fear or self-doubt, but a certain certainty!

He grasped a key point —

Just then, his phone rang.

The ringing of the bell sounded particularly jarring in the overly quiet house, enveloped by the script.

It's Catherine.

Qin Jin pressed the answer button: "Catherine, is there a result?"

"Qin! The ingredients in the medicine bottle have been preliminarily confirmed!" Catherine spoke rapidly, "One is an anesthetic, the other—is a high concentration of estrogen, and some painkillers, at a very high concentration—"

"What about John?" Qin Jin interjected.

Almost simultaneously, Constantine's voice came from the other end of the phone, as he snatched the phone: "Qin! That wooden plaque! I asked Beman, and he said it's some kind of extremely ancient and obscure demonic contract rune! We couldn't find the contents, but—" Constantine paused, then added, "Beman said the person who wrote the plaque seems a bit unprofessional; there are a few places where the handwriting isn't quite right—"

It seems that while the items on the wooden sign are related to the case, their connection is minimal!

"Alright," Qin Jin calmly interrupted them, beginning his methodical plan: "John, listen up. You bring Alessa here right now, and while you're at it—bring your exorcism tools."

"Exorcism? Qin, did you encounter a demon?" Constantine's voice was full of doubt. He couldn't imagine what kind of demon Qin Jin couldn't handle and needed their support.

"It's not a demon, nothing else," Qin Jin's voice remained calm, "just making some preparations. Come over immediately."

After he finished speaking, he hung up the phone, and the living room fell silent again.

Qin Jin's gaze returned to the open manuscript. The story of "The Visitor (Part Two)" lay there quietly, as if silently mocking the order he had just given.

He knew that the next part of the story might already be being written, and he and his teammates were already characters in it.

However, Qin Jin didn't care. This thing was striving to achieve its goal, trying to create something, but it knew nothing about Qin Jin and didn't realize that the more it did, the bigger the flaws it would reveal.

After all, Qin Jin isn't just one person!

About forty minutes later, a car screeched to a halt on the side of the road outside Lana Winters' house.

Constantine and Alessa appeared almost instantly. Constantine looked anxious, while Alessa's gray-blue eyes showed little emotion. She even had time to take Yuanxiao down first.

"Qin, what happened? What kind of demon is it—" Constantine asked breathlessly, his face still covered in sweat from his journey.

"I'll tell you later. John, first, get the whole yard set up, trap everything in there—whether it's a demon or something else—at least don't let them escape too easily!"

Qin Jin pointed to the surrounding fence and garden area, making a circle with his finger to indicate that the entire area was enclosed.

Since Qin Jin had spoken, Constanze didn't say anything more. He immediately turned around, took a box from the trunk, and opened it to find some items used for exorcism.

He selected dozens of wooden crosses from them, and then took out the Bible.

Constantine busied himself along the wooden fence of the garden, wedging a wooden cross into the soil or nailing it to the fence at intervals, while holding the Bible tightly in his other hand and reciting exorcism verses and forbidden passages in a low and rapid voice.

A sacred aura began to permeate the air with his footsteps and chanting, attempting to isolate this space from the outside world.

Alessa looked up at Qin Jin: "Qin, what's wrong?"

Qin Jin's gaze followed Constantine's every move as he whispered, "This thing is smarter than any opponent we've ever thought of. It's not a demon or evil spirit in the traditional sense."

"A ghost, or something else, far more intelligent than I imagined."

"Now, this thing seems to be trying to shake my mind, to instill fear in me, to make me question my own existence. I reckon that's the only way it can infiltrate and control me."

"It wants to control you?" Alessa was a little confused.

"Yes, it has created many stories here, just like the tricks it uses on others, creating the feeling that every step is arranged and planned by it, so that the object it is trying to control will doubt itself—that it must have mastered some strange power of rules."

""

"Rules?" Alessa seemed to understand a little: "The rules of the story?"

"The story, or fear, or self-doubt—the specifics are unclear for now," Qin Jin continued, "According to Eastern beliefs, this world operates based on a certain logic. The East calls it the Dao. The supreme Dao is the Heavenly Dao, the universal law governing all things in the universe. Below it, the human world also has its own laws of operation, which can be called the Human Dao. Even every single thing may have its own 'Dao.'"

Qin Jin began to slowly explain his understanding of the world: "This thing seems to have crossed the boundaries of its own existence, stealing and controlling an extremely small part of the human realm, possibly related to 'narrative' or 'story.' It is trying to turn me, and all of us, into people in its story."

"What it's doing now is getting us to accept it. As long as we also believe that we are part of the story, we've entered its rules and can better exert our power —"

"At first, I didn't think of this either, but its continuous writing of my story made me suspicious! Haha, it seems to know nothing about my true situation. Its insight is too weak, completely inconsistent with the way of Heaven!"

The deathly, ethereal aura surrounding Aresa instantly intensified, like a calm lake suddenly churning with undercurrents: "How do you want to kill it?"

"We can't kill it here, Alessa," Qin Jin said confidently, watching Constanze's busy figure. "Right now, I just want to prove something and see if it's as I guessed. So, after John finishes, you go in and erode the entire area. See if you can bring something into your inner world, or see if it will run away."

"Okay." Aresa's answer was simple and direct.

A few minutes later, Constantine finished his setup, stuffing the Bible into the inside pocket of his trench coat as he said, "Qin, all done. I've temporarily enclosed this area with the holy nails and scriptures. I can't say how strong it is, but it won't be so easy for anything inside to slip away silently."

"Alright, now it's Alessa's turn."

Constantine followed his instructions and stepped outside the fence, watching with Qin Jin as Alessa walked step by step toward the front door of the house, disappearing into it.

Soon, an atmosphere deeper than darkness and more silent than death spread out from the house.

Through the windows, one can see the interior of the room rapidly decaying and rusting, with an endless dark force spreading from the center of the house, quickly dragging the entire residence and garden into the source of darkness.

Under that immense power, everything that was alive, or not completely dormant, became her target.

Qin Jin stood quietly in the garden, sensing the full extent of his senses.

He and Aresa inside the house sensed almost simultaneously that, in the area where the corrosive power had passed, extremely subtle, almost imperceptible fluctuations were dissipating—

They didn't escape like living creatures, but rather appeared in other "written" or "similar" places in a distorted way, blended into them, and then became silent.

Some escaped, while others vanished into thin air upon entering the inner world, clearly unable to withstand this dark power.

Qin Jin guessed correctly!

After being partially destroyed by Alessa, this thing realized her power, so it changed its target to itself and even prepared to sacrifice some of its power, which is why the story of "The Visitor" came about.

"Qin, should we arrest them all?" Alessa's voice came from inside the house.

"No, let them go." Qin Jin's smile deepened. "Just as I expected! It went so far as to let me capture a part of its essence just to create this illusion. What a pity, what a pity, it still thought I was too simplistic!"

Alessa maintained the corrosive power, letting the despairing darkness envelop the entire house for a while, until almost all the tiny things escaped or were annihilated.

Finally, she slowly withdrew her power.

The interior of the house gradually returned to normal, but it seemed to have been drained of all life, becoming even more desolate and empty.