Chapter 77 The Second Stone

Those mysterious knowledge hidden beneath common sense, even defying common sense, is difficult for ordinary people to understand. Even August, who has lived for three centuries and spent a great deal of effort studying witchcraft and forbidden knowledge, would misjudge many things. He didn't know the true form of the Wrathful Spirit, only relying on the voices he constantly heard in his hallucinations to make a judgment, believing that "that dark monster" was divided into two parts by the witch, one of which was suppressed in the frozen depths of Siberia, and the other entangled with him. Based on this judgment, he made the decision to keep his distance from the Andrei family and strictly limited the frequency of his contact with the Andrei family based on witchcraft knowledge he collected from who-knows-where: this is the origin of those strange and obscure letters.

Many of the measures he took seemed ridiculous and useless to real experts, but at least the decision to "stay away from Siberia" was still wise, especially after he took something out of the room, Vivian was even more convinced of this.

August came to Vivian holding a complex black wooden box, offering it with both hands: "The stone is inside."

"What's this box for?" Vivian looked at the wooden box curiously. "Why does it look a little familiar?"

August was surprised: "Have you forgotten? This is also something you gave me back then. You also specifically instructed me and my descendants to keep this box safe, because you said that one day you might come to retrieve it—I originally thought you were here specifically for this box."

"Did I?" Vivian frowned. "Oh, looks like I'm still missing something."

As she spoke, she opened the wooden box and saw the inconspicuous little thing inside: "This is the second piece—there is indeed some of the Wrathful Spirit's power remaining on it. It seems I was too careless due to excessive power consumption back then."

Hao Ren saw an oval object about the size of a palm lying quietly in the box. It was indeed different from the first device preserved by the Andrei family. The surface of this thing had concentric circles, with a small hole in the very center. Other than that, there were no bumps or protrusions.

It was difficult to see any connection between this thing and the first device from its appearance alone.

"Just some inexplicable things, what exactly is the Wrathful Spirit," Hao Ren muttered, casually taking out the triangular gadget from his personal space and tentatively putting the two "stones" together. "No reaction?"

He picked up the two strange-looking "Wrathful Spirit relics" and gestured back and forth, putting them together or gently tapping them against each other, but these two things neither made a beep nor showed any light indicators. Lily watched with interest, eagerly wanting to play with them, Hao Ren hesitated before handing them over: he knew this husky had a hobby of collecting stones, he just hoped the silly girl wouldn't bite them a few times to test the taste...

However, Lily fiddled with them for a long time, and the situation was still the same. They showed no signs of activation or startup: no one present knew how to use them.

The husky had to return the stones to Hao Ren in disappointment, but looking at the reluctant look on her face, it was clear that she really wanted to add this thing to her hoard of treasures…

"It seems... something is still missing," the data terminal floated out, circling around the two "stones." "This unit senses that they are indeed resonating, but this resonance signal should be sent to another device: there is no third device here, so they can't receive feedback, and there is no movement."

"Another device?" Hao Ren frowned, suddenly thinking of the rift in the Wrathful Spirit's space. "Could it really be that gate? Is this stone a key to open the gate?"

While Hao Ren and several half-baked experts were discussing the Wrathful Spirit, August was terrified to see them putting the two "cursed stones" together. His eyes widened and he coughed violently twice: "You can't put them toge..."

"It's okay, the evil spirit has already been eliminated by us," Hao Ren waved his hand dismissively. At the same time, he felt an unpleasant chill in his hand when he held the second "key." The remaining aura of the Wrathful Spirit was still lingering on this thing. "Thirty-eight, help purify this thing."

Nangong Sanba glanced at Hao Ren: "You have a fish whose exorcism skills are better than mine, why don't you let her shout a few times?"

"Oh, that's right," Hao Ren suddenly realized, then patted his chest, "Doudou, come out and show off your voice."

The little mermaid immediately poked most of her body out of Hao Ren's collar happily. She had been paying attention to the movements outside, although she didn't quite understand the principle, she realized that her dad needed her, so she very happily cleared her throat at the second "key stone" in Hao Ren's hand. As a result, before she could even sing the first note, Hao Ren felt the chill in his hand instantly disappear.

"Holy crap... that's efficient," Nangong Sanba looked at Hao Ren's demon-hunting fish like he was looking at a monster. "What's the principle behind this fish?"

Hao Ren had been struggling with this question all day, and at this time he said his guess: "I suspect it's related to Doudou's demon-hunting fish power."

Nangong Sanba was stunned: "What the heck is a demon-hunting fish?"

"Not just a demon-hunting fish, she directly received the empowerment of the first generation demon hunter's power. In terms of realm, she can be compared to the ancestor of the demon hunters," Nangong Wuyue couldn't help covering her face when she thought of Doudou's chaotic power acquisition process. "Brother, don't ask, this can't be explained in less than two or three thousand words. I'll tell you slowly when we get back."

Nangong Sanba was stunned, because Hao Ren hadn't had time to explain to him that Doudou had been empowered by an "Origin Holy Artifact" and obtained the power of a demon hunter. August on the side was even more frightened: he had claimed to have seen many extraordinary things in his life, but he had never seen a mermaid: especially this mermaid was only a foot long...

But no matter what, he was a character who had lived for three centuries, and he had also seen the scene of werewolves and vampires fighting back then, so the old man was still calm at this time. Vivian glanced at him, and unsurprisingly found that even though the aura on the "stone" had been cleared, traces of being contaminated by the Wrathful Spirit's obsession still remained on August's body. She patted Doudou's head: "Sing a few more times over here."

The little guy was overjoyed, feeling so powerful for the first time since she was born. She gave the old man a shout, and this time everyone around her increased their attention, and finally sensed that when Doudou made a sound, a magical power accompanied her voice and spread out—the cold and twisted aura entrenched on August's body was like an electromagnetic wave subjected to strong interference, and instantly collapsed into a meaningless jumble of noise and dissipated.

"After going back, we must check what new functions Doudou has," Nangong Wuyue frowned as she looked at Doudou, who was happily babbling. Under the little guy's high-pitched and clear voice, the gloomy atmosphere left by the Wrathful Spirit's obsession in a large area of ​​space around them was rapidly receding. Nangong Wuyue even felt that her spiritual power, which had spread out, was being disturbed by a kind of harmless but real disturbance. "...Also, it's best to teach the little guy a few decent songs in the future. At least we can't always use 'Little Apple' in exorcism rituals..."

At this time, August finally reacted. He realized that the voice that had plagued him for three hundred years had been easily removed in this joking process, and his whole person was greatly shaken. He regained his spirits, stood up, rubbed his hands, and expressed his gratitude to everyone. Vivian waved her hand to stop his overly excited reaction: "To be honest, I'm a little curious, since the 'stone' has caused you so much trouble, why didn't you just throw it away? You don't seem to have been targeted by the evil spirit like the Andrei family, and trapped in Siberia, unable to leave."

"To be honest, I did think about it in my early years," August looked at the two "stones" in Hao Ren's hand with a complex expression. "And I did throw it away a few times, but every time this thing came back to me like a curse—as long as I left it for more than seven days, this thing would come looking for me. I've given up."

"Also seven days?" Hao Ren exchanged a surprised look with Vivian. "The people of the Andrei family can't leave the castle for more than seven days either. Could it be the same reason?"

Compared to the Andrei family, who were directly trapped near the Wrathful Spirit's main body, August suffered much less harm. He was only troubled by nightmares, and the "stone" didn't kill him, but these two curses clearly had many similarities: the victims couldn't leave the cursed object too far, couldn't leave for too long, and the cursed object would try to instill inexplicable information into the victims' memories. These characteristics made people very curious.

The Wrathful Spirit is a creature without reason, so what is the meaning of these "curses" that it creates with obvious purpose and regularity?

"We already have the two stones," Vivian temporarily put these questions aside and turned to look at August. "Paul, will you come with us to the Andrei Castle—is that alright?"