The Eldritch Files

”HUFF!”

Tumbling out of the Ancient Castle left him dizzy and disoriented, but Han Su snapped back to his senses.

This time was different from all the others.

There was no time to process the memory fragments that came with returning to the present, nor to savor the joy of having brought someone out with him.

Jerking his head up, he saw the grown-up version of the boy with the side-part haircut, who was now stalking toward him in a rage.

The man’s features were still contorted with venom and a deep-seated fear as he advanced madly. The barrier Han Su had formed with the Crystal Pendant was already riddled with cracks. With a clench of the man’s hand, it shattered into invisible fragments.

”CRACKLE...”

Through the dissipating, formless light of the crystal, a massive white hand shot out, blotting out the sky as it reached for him.

”Give it to me! Give me that thing!”

He had an unusual fear of the Mechanical Fragment, his voice holding an almost imperceptible tremble.

He was attacking so recklessly now because he seemed to fear what Han Su might actually do with the Mechanical Fragment.

But he didn’t know that Han Su had already done what needed to be done.

Facing the grasping hand, Han Su simply snapped the case in his hands shut and retreated with swift steps.

At the same time, he raised his hand, forming it into the shape of a gun.

When the white monster saw Han Su put the case away, he felt a wave of relief. Though puzzled as to why Han Su would stow away such a terrifying weapon, his fear temporarily subsided. But then he saw the gesture Han Su made and let out a vicious, mocking laugh.

”Copycats die fast...”

His hand, having grasped at empty air, swept upward, reaching straight for Han Su’s face. ”You think you can copy my ability? You...”

As he cursed, the white hand stirred up an endless torrent of Spiritual Power, engulfing Han Su completely.

But Han Su took aim with his ”gun” and made a soft ”POP” sound with his mouth.

In that instant, the white monster’s body froze. The venomous expression on his face froze. His features seemed on the verge of splitting apart.

He felt a sudden, sharp pain deep inside him, and for a split second, he lost control of the Spiritual Power enveloping his body.

A bullet, hidden extremely deep and for a very long time, had just detonated inside him.

It was a move he’d learned from Bai Shi, an advanced application of the Zero Sequence Spell: All Things Respond to My Will.

The principle was actually quite simple: turning one’s will into a bullet and firing it into an opponent’s body. It could only be used by someone of a higher level against someone of a lower level, and the greater the difference in levels, the better it worked. The wider the gap, the deeper the bullet penetrated, and the harder it was for the opponent to detect.

The deeper a Spiritual Bullet was hidden and the more unaware the target was of being shot, the more terrifying and sudden its detonation would be.

Because the deeper one went into a person’s consciousness, the more vulnerable it became.

And this particular bullet had been planted deep in Bai Shi’s consciousness back when he was incredibly weak. Over time, as he forgot about it, as he endured countless experiments and transformations, as various mystical powers were layered upon him, the bullet only became more deeply hidden.

So deep that he himself had forgotten about the Spiritual Bullet.

So when the bullet detonated, all the Spiritual Power he had activated instantly dissipated.

For a brief moment, he was like an ordinary person.

”WHOOSH!”

In that exact moment, Han Su lunged. Seizing the opportunity, he closed the distance with extreme speed, weaving like a phantom past the man’s hand. He clenched his left fist and landed a solid Abdominal Liver-Splitting Fist on his opponent’s left side, striking him so hard that Bai Shi’s back arched violently.

His eyes shot wide open, bile rising in his throat. His gaze, filled with disbelief, fell sharply on Han Su’s face.

”A Spiritual Bullet... When did you...?”

But Han Su just spun and delivered an Ear Drum-Piercing Palm, slapping him and sending him flying.

With his Spiritual Activity unactivated, Bai Shi had taken those two hits with what was essentially a human body. He was thrown about like a puppet with its strings cut. The only reason he wasn’t pulp was that he had comprehended the Life Code long ago; even with no Spiritual Activity, his physical constitution was far beyond that of an ordinary person.

Otherwise, those two blows would have beaten him to death.

”HISSSS...”

As countless streams of copper-colored blood sliced through the air with a hiss, this copper pursued Bai Shi’s falling figure.

It twisted into various shapes, attempting to bind him.

”You...”

Bai Shi was incandescent with rage. Before the copper-colored blood could even reach him, the Spiritual Activity inside his body flared up once more.

His body pulsed, and the approaching copper-colored blood was repelled by the shockwave, unable to get near him.

His eyes had turned blood-red, and his killing intent was so strong he looked like he wanted to devour someone.

But the moment he opened his eyes, he saw Han Su raising his hand again, forming the shape of a gun and taking aim.

”POP!”

Another Spiritual Bullet detonated.

Bai Shi had only just reactivated his Spiritual Activity, and now it vanished without a trace again. His eyes widened in stunned confusion.

”You...”

”BANG!”

Han Su advanced, weaving left and right, and smashed a straight punch into his face. He followed with a leg sweep that knocked him to the ground, then finished with a soccer kick that sent the man flying four or five meters.

The successive painful blows left Bai Shi unable to recover. The bigger problem was that he just didn’t understand.

The two consecutive Spiritual Bullet detonations made him feel like a lamb to the slaughter, or maybe a human punching bag. He was being hammered into an inhuman shape by this lowly Investigator, unable to even ask a complete question.

”Want to ask when I planted a Spiritual Bullet in you?”

”That’s not important.”

As Bai Shi staggered to his feet, Han Su closed in with a fierce expression.

”I could beat you when we were kids, and I can still beat you now!”

”I told you to calm down and you didn’t listen. So I’ll beat you until you do!”

”...”

”Damn it, damn it!”

Bai Shi scrambled up, wiping a hand slick with his own blood. He looked completely unhinged, his head still spinning from the blows.

At first, he would laugh when he was hit. He’d even shout for more when Han Su cut him. But now, this beating just filled him with rage and indignation. It was as if he were back in the Ancient Castle, being brutally beaten by this unreasonable brute.

’The first thing he did was give me a huge slap. Does he have any idea how much damage that single slap did to someone who had never been hit in my entire life...?’

’Even later, when I was living with the monsters, I would always remember that slap, and the baffling words that guy said to me as he delivered it.’

’Over and over, I thought about it...’

’As a child, I hadn’t understood. It was only when I got older that I realized I had angered that incomprehensible guy by mentioning the servants buried in the back garden. The hatred was still there, but I could never feel fully justified in it.’

’Without that feeling of justification, I couldn’t muster true venom—only the obsession to return that slap.’

’But I never expected to be met with another beating.’

”Come on, come on...”

This feeling of rage piled on top of rage pushed his sanity to the breaking point. All he could do was roar.

It was almost comical. The slap from his childhood echoed in the brutal beating of today, creating a feeling of inescapable destiny.

His attacks lost all form; he was just swinging his fists wildly to vent his anger.

But amid his roars, Han Su swiftly closed in, locking eyes with him and forcibly suppressing the fury within them. The instant he was in range, he gathered Spiritual Power into his left hand. The Cross Copper Scar appeared, and he thrust his hand ruthlessly into Bai Shi’s chest.

”SCHLICK!”

Flesh and blood, completely unprotected by Spiritual Activity, was no match for Han Su’s strike.

His left hand, filled with Copper Power, closed directly around the still-beating heart inside Bai Shi’s body.

Han Su stared into Bai Shi’s eyes. ”Now, can you calm down?”

”You...”

The crazed expression on Bai Shi’s face quickly faded.

The slap from ten years ago and the helpless beating now intertwined to create an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.

If the person who bullied you as a child grows up and you still can’t beat them, they basically become a traumatic shadow looming over you.

His instinct to submit was kicking in.

Especially after three consecutive Spiritual Bullets, he was suddenly forced to recognize the gap between them.

The power of copper had been taken from him. The Spiritual Bullets had negated all his Spiritual Power at the most fundamental level. This meant that in front of Han Su, he was just an ordinary person.

It was just like with those people in the laboratory. It didn’t matter what level of power they had; what mattered was...

...that he was powerless to resist.

He struggled to look up at Han Su, and his mind flashed back to the most terrifying figure in that Ancient Castle. While all the other children were dazed in the cellar, this guy had come and gone as he pleased, even easily dispatching the hunchback on the first floor before mysteriously disappearing.

After he got out, he saw the Qinggang media all reporting that this guy was the only child to have escaped the Ancient Castle.

’Bullshit!’

’Only I knew—how could you call what he did ”escaping”?’

’He treated that Ancient Castle like a vacation home, coming and going whenever he wanted.’

’He even took someone with him when he left.’

’No matter how ordinary a person like that pretended to be on the surface, how could I ever hope to fight him?’

”Haha...”

He laughed, opening a mouth that was missing a tooth and full of blood. His voice was filled with a self-deprecating mockery.

”You’re so powerful, and you’re the Heir of copper. What more could you possibly want to know from me?”

Han Su stared into his eyes. ”Of course I want to know why you’re in Qinggang, who tortured you, things like that...”

He actually had countless questions he wanted to ask, and he wished he could just communicate directly using Spiritual Power. But exchanging information that way with a hostile person was far too dangerous.

What he didn’t expect was that, in response to his question, Bai Shi suddenly burst into manic laughter.

”Are you playing dumb, or are you just messing with me?”

”Who tortured me? You don’t know?”

”That woman... she’s always kept a picture of you as a child on her desk...”

”If she wasn’t protecting you, do you think I would have waited until now to come for you?”

”...”

”What?”

Hearing this, Han Su felt a prickling sensation crawl up his scalp. An image of the woman who had taken care of him when he was a child flashed through his mind.