Chapter 127 Something Special

"So... what happened after you dripped your blood?" Feng Bujue asked.

"I heard the sound of water..." Wang Tanzhi replied.

"Don't tell me it was you or someone else pissing their pants from fright..." Jue-ge chimed in.

"Of course not," Xiao Tan said, "What I heard was a sound like flowing river water."

"Sanzu River? Huangquan? Styx?" Bao Qing asked three questions in a row.

"I'm not sure about that," Xiao Tan shrugged. "But I know that in many religions and myths, the passage connecting the human world and the underworld is described as a 'river'; I think... what I heard at the time was the sound of 'that river'."

"So... what happened after you heard the sound?" Feng Bujue asked again.

"I also saw many fragments, many... memory fragments that didn't belong to me..." Xiao Tan frowned slightly as he said this. "Most of them were scenes related to death... such as the memories before being murdered, or the scene of being run over by a train..."

"Didn't cause any mental pollution, did it?" Feng Bujue looked at his expression and asked with concern.

"Uh..." Xiao Tan replied, "Not really... because those fragments were just 'visual' and 'auditory' memories. To me, it was like watching a bunch of unrelated horror film clips; in comparison, some of the scripts in *Thriller Paradise* are much scarier."

"Oh..." Jue-ge responded reassuringly after hearing this.

At this moment, Bao Daren sarcastically remarked from the side, "Yeah... the moment you said 'not really,' I thought the second half of your sentence would be, 'My mind has already been tainted by Jue-ge, this super pollution source, so I've lost all feeling for fragments of this level'."

"Hahaha..." Xiao Tan laughed heartily after hearing this. "You know, that's also possible."

"Hey, hey... what's so happy about that?" Feng Bujue squinted his eyes and retorted. "And also..." He turned to look at Bao Qing, "What do you mean by 'super pollution source'? Did you define that?"

"It was defined by an expert who did psychological counseling for me since I was a child," Bao Qing replied.

"Which expert? Tell me their name," Feng Bujue immediately asked.

"For his or her safety, I think it's better for you to never know their name," Bao Qing said, tilting his head to avoid Jue-ge's gaze and saying to Xiao Tan, "Come, come, let's continue talking about the fragments..."

"There's nothing more to say," Xiao Tan replied. "The test ended after that."

"Ah?" Bao Qing asked doubtfully, "Just like that?"

"Yeah, just like that," Xiao Tan replied.

"Then what's the point of this test?" Feng Bujue also asked.

"The purpose of the test was to find out what would happen when the scale came into contact with my blood," Xiao Tan replied. "They had naturally already completed other tests, such as... what would happen if ordinary people's blood came into contact with the scale, what would happen if the blood of spiritual ability users came into contact with the scale, what would happen if you held the scale in your hand and meditated, what would happen if you stayed with the scale for a long time, and so on." He paused for half a second, then added, "As for me... I'm a special case. Chief Gu felt that my blood had a chance of triggering different changes, so he arranged this test."

"But the result wasn't anything special?" Bao Qing interjected.

"Yeah, at least that's what they told me," Xiao Tan replied.

"That's strange..." Bao Qing stroked his chin and pondered, "If nothing abnormal happened during the test, how did the later accident happen?"

"Oh... that..." Xiao Tan replied calmly, "The thing is... after I finished the test, I returned the way I came with Detective Zhang. What we didn't know at the time was that when I first passed through the fourth containment area, I had already triggered a reaction in a spiritual energy-sensitive object on the upper level of the shelf... Therefore, when I passed through this place for the second time, that thing fell off the shelf due to the 'gravity' I generated; fortunately, the thing itself was harmless, but... when it fell, it happened to brush against the 'prank mirror' placed below that shelf. After the mirror flipped over once, the cloth covering it slipped off... Just as the mirror was about to shine on me, Uncle Zhang Zhiang quickly turned around and pushed me down, preventing me from being exposed to the mirror, but..."

"...But, he himself was illuminated." Hearing this, Bao Qing already understood what the situation was.

"What happens if he's illuminated?" But Feng Bujue didn't understand, so he continued to ask.

"If someone is illuminated... 'that guy' in the mirror will transform into that person's appearance and escape from the mirror," Bao Qing said, "And start 'pranking'."

"Sounds like... 'that guy' is a little sprite or something?" Feng Bujue continued.

"No... it should be described as a 'hysterical and extremely cunning monster'," Judging from Bao Qing's expression when he said this, he clearly had a story to tell, "The monster in the mirror is like the concrete manifestation of the act of 'pranking'. It purely pranks people for the sake of pranking, and from its perspective, nothing is off-limits for pranking. It has no concept of words like 'consequences', 'responsibility', or 'guilt'. Although it doesn't have any destructive power itself, you can imagine... in a place like a 'warehouse,' letting it roam freely would cause a terrifying chain reaction."

"Eh? Daren Bao, have you worked in a warehouse before?" Xiao Tan then asked, "Judging from your tone, it sounds like you've dealt with this mirror before."

"That's because... I participated in the entire process of containing this item a few years ago," Bao Qing explained, "That day, the department received a message: a man who had attempted suicide claimed that someone who looked exactly like him was impersonating him... and ruining his life, and no matter how he explained it, no one around him believed him."

"This case quickly attracted our attention, so I and several detectives went to the police station to investigate; after confirming that this person was not mentally deranged and was not lying, we took him away and conducted a more detailed interrogation."

"Afterward, I joined the action team and went directly to the man's home to investigate... thus discovering the existence of the 'prank mirror'."

"We later learned that he had found this mirror at a thrift store that was clearing out its inventory; he thought the mirror had a unique shape and the frame was old but the mirror was still clear, so he thought it was a valuable antique; after some bargaining, he bought the mirror back home."

"Who would have thought... what he brought home was actually a terrible disaster."

Feng Bujue couldn't help but ask curiously at this point, "Then how did you 'contain' this mirror and the monster hidden inside it?"

"Hmm... that's a good story," Bao Qing said, "It's really hard to 'catch' that monster because it has the ability to teleport instantly over short distances. In addition, it also has a certain 'mind-reading' ability, which means... when you are near it, it can know what you are thinking."

"Heh... these are all very convenient abilities for carrying out pranks..." Jue-ge laughed.

"Fortunately... this guy also has weaknesses," Bao Qing didn't respond to him and continued, "In fact, all kinds of information about this monster... are written on the frame of that mirror; but because it uses an ancient script, ordinary people can't understand it at all."

"But you're not ordinary people," Feng Bujue interjected.

"That's right, we're not," Bao Qing replied, "So, after we took pictures of the words on the mirror frame and sent them back to the department, someone translated them in less than ten minutes." He took a sip of tea, then continued, "As for the conditions for this 'prank monster' to come out of the mirror... the mirror frame only gave a rough outline, but we later obtained more detailed data through experiments; the basic trigger condition is—a 'human' appears in front of the mirror, even for just 0.01 seconds... that's enough. As for what the boundary of this 'appearance' is, we also tested it later... If the head is illuminated, it will trigger immediately; while for parts other than the head... more than 60% of the body area needs to be illuminated by the mirror in a two-dimensional plane to trigger."

"Oh... just like when Detective Zhang pushed me down, only my back flashed in front of the mirror, and he got hit," Xiao Tan replied.

Bao Qing nodded and continued, "And the way to put the monster back is... to have the person who released it appear in the mirror with it. At that moment, the prank monster will reveal its true form and be sucked into the mirror; and for the next six minutes, it will not be able to come out again."

"Wait..." Feng Bujue said, "Doesn't this thing have instant teleportation and mind-reading? How did you achieve the above condition?"

"This is where its 'weakness' comes in," Bao Qing said, revealing an inscrutable expression, "The monster living in the prank mirror has two weaknesses—first, the straight-line distance between it and the mirror cannot exceed six thousand six hundred and sixty-six meters; second, for some reason, if peanut butter gets on the mirror, it must immediately return to lick the mirror clean."

"Huh?" Feng Bujue wanted to complain when he heard the first weakness, but he held back; however, when he heard the second weakness, he felt that the first weakness was quite normal, "Uh... why... the peanut butter part made some strange images float in my mind..."

"I think that's because your inner world is too filthy," Bao Qing calmly replied, "In short... later we transported the mirror to a place where there was basically nowhere to hide within a few kilometers, and we blindfolded the victim, brought him to the mirror, and used peanut butter to achieve the sealing conditions, then we covered the mirror and contained it."

"Is it really okay to just cover such a dangerous thing with a piece of cloth?" Feng Bujue immediately raised this question after hearing this.

"Do you think we want to do this?" Bao Qing replied, "Experiments have proven that all coverings exposed to the mirror, except for linen, will be corroded, and the corrosion cycle is unpredictable... the same material can sometimes block it for a week, but sometimes it can only block it for a few minutes; in addition, using ropes, tape, or anything like that to fix the cloth to the mirror, or using a super-large piece of cloth to directly wrap the mirror, will trigger the corrosion effect—even if we use linen."

"Oh... so that's how it is," Feng Bujue continued, "So it's not okay to cover this mirror and put it in a closed space?"

"That's right," Bao Qing replied, "We tried covering it and placing it in a separate room; we also tried covering it and putting it in a large cabinet or box, and even tried putting it in colored ice... but doing this for more than ten seconds would cause the mirror to teleport out of the closed space on its own and appear in a random area nearby." He paused, revealing a helpless expression, "Also, it's not okay to put it in a deserted wasteland; if there are no humans or other things around, it will also teleport, and the teleportation time and distance will depend on the emptiness of the surrounding area..."

"Numerous experiments have proven that only by stacking this thing with other furniture, sundries, and other things, covering it with linen, and ensuring that there is frequent human activity around it can it maintain a relatively stable state."

"I also have a question," At this time, Xiao Tan raised his right hand like a child asking a question in class and asked, "Have you tried destroying this thing? Like smashing the mirror, melting it, or something..."

"Tried it," Bao Qing replied, "In the first destruction experiment, we took a hammer and swung it at the mirror, but it only left a very small crack; and at the same moment, or rather, in the same second... there was a magnitude six earthquake in southern Wales..." He paused for a second, "Then said, the second time, we changed the position and used a chisel to hit it, and then South Africa shook again... Please note that these two things happened on the same day."

"I'll go..." Feng Bujue was shocked to hear this, "This thing is going to defy the heavens."

"After that, we didn't make any similar attempts," Bao Qing said, "If we took the mirror to melt it and caused the volcano under Yellowstone Park in the United States to erupt, then things would not be easy to clean up..."

"Hmm... I see," Jue-ge responded, then looked at Xiao Tan again, "Eh? So... on the day you went to the warehouse, it ended with Detective Zhang putting peanut butter on the mirror?"

"No," Xiao Tan shook his head.

"What?" This time, Bao Qing was shocked, "No?"

"Ah..." Xiao Tan looked at Bao Qing and said, "I heard those detailed characteristics about the mirror that you just said for the first time..."

"Then how did you put the monster back in the mirror?" Bao Qing asked nervously.

"Uh... it's like this," Xiao Tan replied with a calm face, "After the mirror was revealed that day, I was also confused for a long time..."

"I first saw a man who looked exactly like Detective Zhang running out of the mirror, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye; then I heard all kinds of alarms going off in the warehouse, and the staff looked like a mess..."

"In any case... five minutes after the alarm went off, I was taken to a 'safe room', and the detectives told me to wait there and not move, and then they went out."

"As a result, as soon as they left the room, I found that... the other 'Detective Zhang' had appeared beside me at some point; I saw him squatting on the ground... quietly tying the shoelaces of my two shoes together."

Xiao Tan smiled lightly as he said this, "So I said to him... 'Can you stop,' but unexpectedly... he looked at me for two seconds and said, 'Yes,' and immediately stood up, staring at me with a tense and respectful expression. When I saw that he seemed to be listening to me, I tried asking again—'Can you go back to the mirror and not come out for a while,' he said with a sad face, 'Okay,' and then disappeared..."

As he said this, Feng Bujue and Daren Bao both heard it—this situation should be related to Wang Tanzhi's spiritual ability or bloodline.

But Xiao Tan himself still didn't seem to get the point: "Now that I think about it... could it be that you all misunderstood that prank monster? Maybe it's quite easy to talk to?"