Tsukamoto said, "Master told us...he foresaw that his life was coming to an end, and his biggest regret in this life was that he couldn't eliminate 'it.'"

"Although Master sealed 'it' on the spot back then, this kind of seal is far from the original seal in the Mawang Shrine..."

"The original seal was made by a great onmyoji (spiritual diviner) in ancient times. It was very stable, and every year the villagers would hold the Three Shrine Festival, using the power of the three bodhisattvas to consolidate the magic power on it."

"However, Master's seal was far from achieving that effect. He knew...that this seal would be broken by 'it' sooner or later, and when that time came, there would be devastation."

"Therefore, Master wanted to entrust the task of eliminating 'it' to us disciples before he passed away, hoping that we would practice diligently and one day completely eliminate 'it.'"

Speaking of this, he shook his head and sighed, "Alas...the day after explaining these things, Master passed away. I never expected that...as soon as the old man died, the senior brothers began to compete for the position and belongings he left behind, and did not take Master's instructions to heart at all..."

"But you are different, right?" Feng Bujue took the opportunity to interject.

Tsukamoto nodded, "After that, I prepared for two months and chose a yang hour on a yang day...and came to Chong Jiu Elementary School." He paused, "That...happened to be six years ago in the summer; because the school had been abandoned for a long time, I entered very easily."

"I remember very clearly...at noon on that midsummer day, as soon as I walked into this school, all the hairs on my body stood on end. Obviously, even in a sealed state, 'it' can still exert influence on the surrounding space."

"Wait a minute..." Ruoyu interrupted at this time, "Since 'it' is already so powerful that 'even the Nara masters in their prime couldn't eliminate it,' then you at that time...weren't you just hitting a stone with an egg?"

"I didn't say I came to eliminate it six years ago," Tsukamoto replied. "I just wanted to confirm how strong 'it' really was...so that I could know what level I had to cultivate to in order to complete Master's instructions."

"Oh~" Feng Bujue smiled easily when he heard this, "So you chose a 'relatively safe' time to come to Chong Jiu Elementary School, and naturally thought that—'it' in a sealed state couldn't do anything to you. Heh...as a result, that reconnaissance mission..." He said, tilting his head at Tsukamoto, "...landed you in this situation."

"Alas..." Tsukamoto sighed again when he heard the words, "Now, I don't care what kind of ending I will have..." He said solemnly, "For six years, my body has undoubtedly rotted, and my soul...has been trapped in this 'yang' illusion, making it difficult to enter reincarnation."

"'It' why just traps you and doesn't do anything else to you?" Feng Bujue's tone was a little subtle when he asked this question, as if saying, "Why haven't you been abused into渣渣(zhā zhā; worthless trash) yet?"

"Before today, I didn't know why this was, but..." Tsukamoto's expression changed slightly, and he replied, "Just now, I understood." He looked at Jue Ge and Ruoyu respectively, "At this moment, your four companions in the 'yin' illusion are being gradually lured into the Tsukamoto Shota, which is actually 'it' in disguise, and they are gradually undoing the seal..."

"Oh...so that's how it is." Hearing this very urgent piece of information, Jue Ge seemed as calm as ever. He didn't rush to ask how to return to the "yin" illusion, but chose to figure out all the information that could be clarified first, "So, 'it' is keeping your soul in order to impersonate you?"

"Yes." Tsukamoto replied, "The soul of an onmyoji is different from that of an ordinary person. If the soul of an ordinary person cannot enter reincarnation, it will be lost, decay, and die, or even become a demon...but no matter how long an onmyoji dies, he will not 'get lost'. Our soul body can not only retain memories, but also not change much in appearance compared to when we were alive; and 'it' is using this...by trapping me on the 'yang' side, 'it' is creating a mirror image of the soul on the 'yin' side and possessing it...to deceive your companions."

"Hmm...I see." Feng Bujue thought for a few seconds, sorted out his thoughts, and then said, "By the way, there's one more thing I haven't figured out...There were seven survivors back then; and six people are here today, so...where did the class monitor Watanabe go?"

…………

At the same time, in the "Yin Illusion".

Xiao Tan and his four companions returned to the second floor under the leadership of "Tsukamoto" and entered the principal's office.

"Jue Ge! Are you guys okay?" As soon as he entered the door, Xiao Tan quickly came to the entrance of the wine cellar and shouted down to the floor below.

However...no one responded to him.

"What's going on?" An Yueqin also came over and muttered nervously, "Did something happen to them?"

"Your companions...are no longer there." At this moment, Tsukamoto suddenly spoke.

"You mean..." Gui Xiao looked at Tsukamoto and said, "They are already..." He didn't say the rest of his words, but waited for Tsukamoto to continue.

Here, Gui Xiao was obviously being careful. His "half sentence" was a good test—from a player's point of view, he could completely confirm the survival status of his two teammates through the team bar, but the NPC monster didn't know this; therefore, if the guy who claimed to be an onmyoji said categorically that the two had been killed by "it", then he was obviously lying on purpose.

In this instant, Xiao Tan, Xiao Ling, and An Yueqin also realized the meaning of Gui Xiao's words, so they all remained silent and waited to see what would happen...

"I only know that their souls haven't been scattered yet, and they are no longer in that wine cellar." Tsukamoto's answer was indeed without any loopholes.

"Then where did they go?" Xiao Ling then asked.

"You're asking me, who am I supposed to ask?" Tsukamoto replied, "I can only sense that their souls are still in this space, but where exactly they were taken...only 'it' knows."

"Then how can we save them?" Xiao Tan continued to ask.

"There's no need for that," Tsukamoto replied coldly, "All six of you are already dead, what's there to save or not...As long as 'it' exists, none of you, or all the ghosts here, can leave this space." He paused, "The only way to get rid of this fate is to eliminate 'it'."

Before he could finish speaking, Xiao Tan suddenly said, "Eh? When did this drawer..."

It turned out that while Tsukamoto was speaking, Xiao Tan's gaze swept over some changes—when the players went downstairs, the large drawer on the inside of the principal's office desk was still closed, but now...the drawer had already moved outward a little, as if it had been unlocked.

"Be careful...it might be a trap." Gui Xiao became very cautious at this moment. For some reason...after separating from Jue Ge and the others, Gui Xiao had a very strange intuition...This intuition repeatedly told him—to be on guard.

"Let me do it." At this time, Tsukamoto stepped forward two steps and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "You must protect yourselves, to complete the final 'formation', at least five people are needed."

As he spoke, he had already opened the drawer.

The situation in the big drawer was the same as in the two classrooms the players had explored before—a total of four items.

Let's talk about them one by one...

First of all, it was still a "plot item that can be taken out of the script".

【Name: Tassel Belt】

【Type: Plot Related】

【Quality: Normal】

【Function: Unknown】

【Can it be brought out of this script: Yes】

【Remarks: Made of linen, the buckle is made of pure silver, and the purple coloring and the length of the tassels are the highlights of the design.】

This is another wearable item, and like the other items, its purpose is unknown...

Next, the second item—

【Name: "It's" Spleen】

【Type: Plot Related】

【Quality: Normal】

【Function: Can be embedded in "It's" torso.】

【Can it be brought out of this script: No】

【Remarks: A miniature organ made of green jade, faintly revealing spiritual energy.】

Um...no explanation needed.

Looking at the third item—a piece of paper, which looked like an unfinished letter; the handwriting on the letter showed that the person writing it was very nervous at the time, or that his hand was shaking due to other physiological reasons; however, the content on the paper could still be distinguished—"Mr. Sato, I don't know if your mental disorder is temporary or permanent. If it's permanent, then let this letter be my letter of repentance to myself. But if, one day you can regain your sanity and read this letter, I just want to say one thing to you—I'm sorry. All of this, all of this, was caused by me, I am not a competent principal, I can't even say that I am a decent man; after my wife died, I wanted to numb myself with alcohol, and as a result, I became addicted to drinking. It is this bad habit that has brought me to where I am today. Suzuki, Noguchi, you...I don't know how many more people will die because of this, but I can't hold on any longer, please forgive me, forgive me for finally using death to escape responsibility, because, 'it'"

The information on the paper stopped here. After the word "it" (the letter was also written in Japanese, so it is "word" here instead of "character"), there was no other content, no punctuation marks or other traces.

Finally, the fourth item...I believe everyone can guess it—[Warehouse Key].

…………

A few minutes later, the players and Tsukamoto arrived in the corridor outside the principal's office.

Tsukamoto did not take those two quest items, he directly handed them over to the players for safekeeping, but he was holding the key, because...he took the initiative to undertake the task of opening the door.

As mentioned earlier, the warehouse door was also a swing door. Tsukamoto inserted the key, turned it, and pushed it open.

Surprisingly, there was light in this room.

On the ceiling of the "warehouse," there was a light bulb hanging, and this light bulb...emitted a red light.

The light enveloped the space of less than 30 square meters in front of everyone, just like...firelight.

Inconsistent with the name "warehouse" is that this room is empty. Not only is there no furniture or sundries, but there is not even a window. Apart from the light bulb above, all there is here are walls, and there is not even a light switch on the wall.

However, there are still some unusual places, such as...all six walls of this warehouse are made of charred wooden boards, and also, there is a formation drawn on the floor.

This formation is not the "magic circle" in Western mythology, but something very characteristic of the East.

Overall, this magic circle is drawn with a red liquid, but it is no longer easy to distinguish whether it is blood, paint, or some other substance, because this magic circle looks like it has been drawn for a long time, and those liquids have long since dried up.

However, in the very center of the formation, within a circular area the size of a washbasin, a pile of illegible Japanese characters were written. These characters were written spirally from the inside to the outside, and the system did not translate them; outside this pile of characters, a perfect circle was drawn, and the longitudinal and horizontal lines of the four gates and eight trigrams extended from the outside of the circle, and many incantations were written vertically in those areas divided by the lines...of course, they were also words that the players could not understand.

"What's going on with this on the ground...?" Gui Xiao was the first to ask after seeing those things.

"I drew this six years ago," Tsukamoto answered, "Oh...right, you don't remember anymore."

These two sentences seemed to have triggered some flag again...Immediately afterwards, Tsukamoto, who had stepped through the door, began a plot narration.

And this story of "Tsukamoto" is a different version from the one Jue Ge and the others encountered...

"Six years ago, you returned to 'Chong Jiu Elementary School' together at the invitation of the class monitor Watanabe to attend the so-called class reunion.

"At that time, you naturally had no memory of the '520 Massacre'...

"Because after that incident, the government forcibly isolated you seven survivors and conducted so-called 'psychological treatment'; a year later, when you returned to your parents, you had all lost that memory. And after that, your families all went to live in places far away under the government's arrangement. In your impression...there was nothing unusual about your childhood memories, it was just that everyone transferred schools in the second grade because the school was going to be closed.

"Later, you all grew up, and when you reached the age of twenty-eight or twenty-nine, everyone had left home and lived alone. Those around you who knew about your connection to that incident also thought that the nightmarish experience had long since passed.

"No one expected...one summer, on a day when all of you 'happened' to be free, Watanabe, the class monitor in your memories...sent you an invitation letter for a class reunion.

"Perhaps it was destiny in the dark, or 'it's' arrangement...the six of you reunited in the ruins of Chong Jiu Elementary School on a yin day and yin hour.

"That day...your class monitor did not appear, because he had long been controlled by 'it'. The letter he sent was just to lure the six of you here..."