Histoires de fantômes

Chapitre 282

Part 4: Resurrection Battle

— Chapter 4 — The Illusion Demon Sealed Beneath the Sixth Passage —

Running through this metallic world, all the sensations felt unreal.

"Is that Suren? Is it? Is it not..." My mind was filled with anxiety, fearing that too much hope would lead to excessive disappointment.

Since 1995, the global search for the "Asian Gear" has been surging higher and higher. Among them, the research progress of the school of thought led by Goro Kanan is the fastest. He has published more than 100 articles, adhering to the theory that "adjusting the speed of the Asian Gear can quell the global war."

As a prized student of Master Goro Kanan, Suren had always considered this mission a major goal in his life. Now, standing right next to the gear-like mechanical body, I felt nothing at all; the only strange thing was how eerily those cold, silently spinning gears looked. Aside from that, I felt absolutely no attraction to the mechanical body.

It only took me four minutes to get from the top of the mechanical structure to the cave where the girl had appeared. After calming my excitement slightly, I slowly approached. The cave entrance was two meters above the ground, quiet and utterly silent.

"Suren?" I called softly, afraid of startling her.

No one answered. I grabbed the edge of the opening and jumped in. It was a shallow passage, and after twenty steps, there was nowhere to go. Blocking my way was a huge silver mirror, and a girl was standing in front of it, her back to me, staring at it without moving.

I was reflected in the mirror. She was slightly startled and looked at me from the mirror. Our eyes met and locked for a moment. I wasn't mistaken; it was Su Lun. She looked much more haggard than when we parted in Hokkaido.

"Am I dreaming again? Is it really you?" she asked softly, without turning around.

“It’s me, not a dream, it’s real.” I smiled, took a few steps over, and stood beside her. At that moment, the joy of a long-awaited reunion filled my chest, but neither of us shouted, laughed, or made any celebratory gestures. We simply stared at each other silently in the mirror.

Her hair looked a little messy, and her once delicate lips were chapped in several places, but her eyes were still dark and bright, and every flutter of her eyelashes seemed to tell the secrets in her heart.

"But—you were clearly talking to me from the other side of the mirror! How did you suddenly appear here? Do you have some kind of superpower to pass through obstacles?" She gently stroked the mirror, her brows slowly furrowing.

I was taken aback and examined the mirror closely. The floral and decorative patterns inlaid on its four sides were exactly the same as those on the previous bronze mirror. When I passed through that mirror, the situation was too dangerous, and I didn't have time to look back, so I didn't see what this side of the mirror looked like.

“Suren, what are you trying to say? I did pass through a mirror, but not here, but in another cave.”

I thought I had explained it clearly enough, but her expression became even more bewildered: "Another mirror? Wind, could there be countless such mirrors next to the Asian gears?"

She stopped calling me "Brother Feng," which suddenly made me feel as if a huge chasm had appeared between us. To outsiders, this nickname seemed both corny and pretentious, but every time I heard it, I felt a sweet joy in it.

I shook my head: "No, this is only the second time I've seen it. I was calling you loudly just now, didn't you hear me at all?"

I yelled at least two hundred times while running around the mechanical body, otherwise my voice wouldn't be so hoarse. The tunnel was shallow; she should have definitely been able to hear me.

“No, I only saw you speaking with your lips, but the sound was blocked by the mirror, so I couldn’t hear a single word. Wind, tell me, how did you get to me through the mirror?” Her expression was very serious; she was definitely not joking.

I turned to stare at her profile: "Sulen, perhaps something's not quite right. Have you noticed? I passed through the mirror about half an hour ago, and I found you about four minutes ago. Who were you talking to through the mirror? That person couldn't possibly be me, absolutely not."

She tilted her head back and pondered for a moment, then looked down at her wristwatch, which had long since stopped ticking, and asked in confusion, "Which person? In this world, time has no meaning; we can only express the length of time through our own guesses. Fifteen minutes before this second, I saw you in the mirror, and then we communicated with our lips. Ten minutes later, my body was pressed against the mirror, and it felt too tiring, so I shifted my feet slightly, wanting to change my posture. Suddenly, I felt a strange dizziness, then I stumbled forward, and suddenly, I'm standing here."

The bronze mirror, though unpolished, shone so brightly it reflected the suspicion on our faces, revealing each other clearly.

“Suren, it wasn’t me who went through the mirror, it was you.” I pointed out sharply. In any case, the feeling she described was like someone who had just woken up from a hallucination, their mind still in a dazed and confused state.

"So, have you seen Reese?" She shook her head and changed the subject.

I was taken aback: "Who? Reese? Why would you bring up this person, someone you've never met before—"

There are many girls in the world with the name "Reese," but I instinctively realized that she was asking about the one who went missing in Hokkaido.

“Feng, I’m referring to the American girl Reese, she met you on the plane, and you two hit it off, didn’t you?” Suren’s eyelashes fluttered, and a meaningful smile appeared on her lips.

This was the Su Lun I knew best. In an instant, I relaxed. As long as she was alright, everything would be fine.

I only met Resica once on a plane. After that, her disappearance at Fukichi Temple in Hokkaido became an unsolved mystery. Guan Baoling said that she had appeared in a mysterious underwater glass box before disappearing again.

"Suren, did she tell you her true identity? A secret Pentagon spy stationed in the Middle East?" Yan Xun had also mentioned Resica on the phone, and specifically emphasized that she was a key figure whose every move could have far-reaching consequences, and that the Pentagon's spy network was currently searching for her with all its might.

“Yes, she told me, and we talked a lot. As for Feng, we’ll talk about her amazing experiences later. Let’s go find her first.” Suren turned and walked out of the cave. Her movements were quick and agile, and she had completely returned to her original form, which instantly dispelled my worries.

Outside, there was still that silver mechanical body. I had searched it in circles, and it was impossible for anyone to be hiding inside. The remaining suspicious locations were those numerous cave entrances.

Suren seemed slightly taken aback when she saw the mechanical body, but quickly regained her composure.

I followed behind her and asked with concern, "What's wrong? Is something the problem?"

She pointed to the gears on the mechanical body: "I think their rotation speed seems to have changed, it's getting faster and faster. Okay, let's go find Reese first. There's another person, you probably remember him, Sun Gui—a member of the Divine Gun Society, who went on the mountain adventure with you. He fell into a secret tunnel and was scared half to death at first, but actually, this world of the Epang Palace isn't that scary, is it?"

Of course I remember Sun Gui, and I also remember those strange, retractable stone pillars in the tunnel, and I subconsciously looked up. The mountainside is a three-dimensional structure; the place where Sun Gui fell was above this world. So, what about those mysterious stone pillars? Did their foundations emerge from here during their expansion and contraction?

I've pondered this question more than once. When entering the Epang Palace from the cave guarded by Alpha, I often looked up, hoping to discover the connection between the stone pillars and the Epang Palace. After all, at the place where Sun Gui disappeared, I saw glimpses of an ancient underground city. However, there's one thing I can't be sure about: what I saw then was the site of the decisive battle between Alpha and the great god Tu Liehan. In fact, the Epang Palace wasn't a palace at all, but rather a defensive formation set up by Alpha, designed for attack but not for habitation.

"I remember him, but where is he?" Finding Reese and Sun Gui would be two other major gains in the search operation. Now that I've accomplished the main objective of this operation—finding Suren—my mind is at peace, and I can focus on other issues.

“Right here, in the world of ‘Asian Gear,’ didn’t you see him?” Suren was puzzled by my reaction and showed that surprised expression.

“There’s no one here, Suren. Let’s sit down and talk things over, and cross-reference what we each know. I feel like some issues have been sidetracked, and we’re both talking to ourselves.” Ever since I saw her in the mirror, there seemed to be an invisible barrier between us, including the change in how we addressed each other.

At this point, we had jumped out of the hole and were standing in front of the mechanical object.

“Reese—” she called out.

I knew it was futile. If there were other people in this space, they would have jumped out long ago while I was searching for Suren.

"Sun Gui—" she shouted again.

I frowned and looked up at the opening. Now, there was a method that was both the dumbest and the most effective: to search all the openings and see how many mirrors or secret passages were hidden inside.

Suren called out seventeen or eighteen times, and after confirming that no one answered, she walked straight towards the spinning gears. She was wearing a black leather outfit, but with a white belt that clashed terribly with the clothes, tightly cinched at the waist, looking quite odd. She had impeccable taste in clothing and would never make such a disastrous color combination.

“Feng, this place does look… a bit strange. Follow me, there’s a passage that leads back to the Epang Palace. Follow me!” She covered her brows with her hands, made a quick assessment of the direction, and turned to the left.

In the past, she was used to following behind me and would always ask for my opinion in a consultative tone before making any decisions. But now, her behavior has clearly become more autocratic and arrogant.

I couldn't help but shake my head and smile: "Suren has grown up! With her personality, she really shouldn't always be walking in the shadow cast by Scalpel and me." She has excellent qualities such as composure, coolness, wisdom, and decisiveness, which Scalpel had mentioned to me a long time ago, and he was certain that his younger sister would achieve great things in the future.

At that moment, I was still unaware of the seriousness of the situation. I only felt that she had passed through the mirror like me and met up with the mechanical body. This was nothing remarkable; it was merely breaking through one "gateway."

In fact, I should have considered this long ago: "In which world did Suren exist before breaking through the mirror?"

Alpha didn't mention Suren at all; he only talked about Tang Qing and Tang Xin, as if Suren had never entered the Crystal Pit or the Epang Palace Qimen Formation after his disappearance. But now, Suren was going to take me "back to the Epang Palace."

On the metal wall ahead, there was a series of nine holes arranged horizontally and vertically. I wasn't sure if that was where I had come in, because there were no markings on the silver metal wall, and all the holes looked pretty much the same.

“The wind, that’s right there, the very core of the cave, that’s the path to the Epang Palace. Resica and Sun Gui must still be waiting for me there. As for that mirror from earlier—” she frowned, turning her head to look back, “it’s probably just another secret door in this world, it’s meaningless.”

I took a deep breath to clear my head and asked casually, "Who else did you encounter in the Epang Palace? Did you see Alpha? Or perhaps Tang Qing, the Dragon Witch, Tang Xin, Tiger, the Great God Tu Liehan, Youlian, Elder Sahan, or Sen?" If she acknowledged any one of these names, it would completely disprove one of my sudden assumptions. But she stared at me in astonishment and uttered only two words: "What?"

Those names encompassed everyone I encountered after entering the Epang Palace. I didn't mention Situ Qiushi and Lei Aobai because it was impossible for her to know two assassins from the ancient Tang Dynasty.

"Feng, why are you spouting all these random names? Tiger and Tang Xin disappeared in the Egyptian desert, didn't they? As for the Great God Tu Liehan and the others, they went underground; the Witch Longge is a hermit of the mountains and forests, Tang Qing is a Tang Clan assassin from Sichuan, and who is this Alpha?"

She reacted quickly, then shrugged: "I seem to care more about Schiller's life or death than these inexplicable people. And what about Flying Eagle and Flying Moon? Are they still stationed in the mountains?"

My heart sank completely. If she had been to the Epang Palace, she would have certainly met those people there, even if it was just one of them. She said that Resica and Sun Gui were in the Epang Palace, but I hadn't seen them at all. All these seemingly absurd fallacies boil down to one sentence: the "Epang Palace" we are talking about does not refer to the same place.

“Let’s go, let’s see Reese first. Her amazing experiences will probably surprise you.” She bent her knees and leaped up, climbing to the first cave entrance. The straight-line distance between all the adjacent cave entrances was one meter, so she easily climbed up to the very center of the cave combination.

“Wind, come up. Once you pass through the passage ahead, you can enter—” She greeted me first, then turned to look into the cave, but her voice suddenly stopped as she covered her mouth with her hand.

I knew something unexpected had happened, so I leaped up and rushed to her side.

The passageway was shallow, just like any other passageway I'd ever seen in caves. A thick stone wall blocked the way, gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light. Yes, this was a stone wall, not the path to the "Epang Palace" she'd described.

"How could this be? It was a clean and bright passage. Who put this stone door here? What strange thing happened?" she exclaimed, rushing forward and stroking the smooth, flat stone.

I can understand why there are such astonishing changes. Just as we can enter here through the opened secret door, the so-called "secret door" is also rapidly changing, becoming illusory and then real again. It is by no means static or eternally unchanging. Now, it's just that the door of life has become the door of death; there's nothing to be surprised about.

“Reese and Sun Gui are clearly inside. Just walk through this 500-meter-long passageway and you'll see them. Wind, tell me, what happened?” She wasn't asking me for an answer, but rather speaking incoherently in her panic. Before I could reply, she quickly retreated and leaped out of the cave.

I stood in front of the bluestone slab, firmly planted in a horse stance, and pressed my palms firmly against the stone, but I didn't want to move it; I just wanted to get that wonderful feeling I had before.

"What's behind the stone? Is it the Epang Palace that Suren experienced?" My thoughts were slightly confused, but I quickly and calmly discerned a basically clear line of reasoning. "Suren once entered a completely unfamiliar world. Regardless of whether it was the Epang Palace or somewhere else, we must tell you everything we know."

When the theory of a "second Epang Palace" first appeared on Earth, it was met with fierce ridicule from other historians, who hurled all sorts of harsh accusations at it. However, it turns out that the "second Epang Palace" does exist, and I myself have entered it and seen the square-eyed warrior Alpha.

Now, could a "third Epang Palace" appear? In Suren's memory?

The stone remained unmoved, as if it were not a door, but part of the mountain.

I turned back and saw Suren running swiftly along the metal wall, leaping into the openings to search, her movements as elusive as the wind. Although she had been trapped for a long time, she was unharmed, which reassured me.

“Surlen, stop, I have something to say—” I called out to her loudly and slowly sat down at the entrance of the cave.

She didn't pay attention to what I was saying, just kept going in and out of different cave entrances before rushing to the next set. Actually, what she was doing was what I wanted to do too; only after searching all the possible passages could we determine the next course of action.

"Reese? An American female spy who disappeared from a glass box and then reappeared in the southwestern border region of China? What happened in between?"

I remembered Resica's slightly melancholic face, and of course, the black and silver ring on her hand. At the time, I had no idea who she was, nor did I take any precautions. After all, we were just strangers who had met, and who she was was completely irrelevant to me.

When Yan Xun explained Resica's identity over the phone, he gave me a slight shock: "A spy? During the Cold War, that word was becoming increasingly distant from us. Its sudden appearance is really baffling. If she really does appear here, does it mean that the Pentagon's pursuers are about to arrive?"

I tried to analyze the current predicament as follows: "The mirror and the stone door behind it are two passages that connect Alpha's Epang Palace to the place where Suren is trapped, forming a vast underground world, and the mechanical entities exist at the connecting nodes. To the left, one enters the Epang Palace, which was once a small building but is now in ruins; to the right, one returns to Suren's predicament—"

This is probably the only reasonable explanation I can come up with. When all I could see were making me feel irritated, I slowly closed my eyes, lay flat on the metal floor, and took a short rest.

The tiger's ending was brilliant and bizarre, like fireworks bursting in the night sky. I kept recalling the scene of the Saturnians' spacecraft crashing into the sea of fire, and I was terrified by it.

"Is that the end of the earth's veins? Or is that the fate of the tiger and the bearded man? Despite all his scheming, he couldn't change history, even after enduring for a thousand years. When will the Azure Dragon Society arrive? When will they be able to open the sealed gate—" But now that I think about it, the Azure Dragon Society's ambition is to conquer the world. Those who submit to them prosper, and those who oppose them perish. If they rush into this world, they will probably plunder everything, leaving nothing behind. In that case, another fierce battle is inevitable.

The Asian Gear is the core of Earth's energy, and I am now lying right opposite it. For those explorers who have spent their lives searching for this mysterious object, isn't my harvest as lucky as a rain of money falling from the sky?

I heard Suren's rapid breathing and immediately opened my eyes and sat up. She had already returned to the bottom of the cave entrance and was looking up in horror.

"What did you find?" I caught the look of alarm in her eyes.

"There's nothing in those caves, just stone walls, one after another, and all the paths outward are firmly blocked. All we have left is that mirror, but even that mirror is unbreakable." She was holding a large-caliber black military pistol, which she must have used to shoot at the ancient mirror.

I countered, "There isn't a single path? But at least when I entered this place, I broke through an entrance, didn't you see it?"

She slowly shook her head: "There aren't any, only that mirror."

I jumped down and caught her swaying body, realizing the gravity of the situation. Now, it wasn't just her who was trapped, but both of us—the number had increased to two.

The gear closest to us suddenly stopped, and the gears on all four sides around it also stopped.

"They stopped." I couldn't tell if my voice was filled with surprise or fear, unsure of the terrible consequences this change would bring.

It was a metal gear about twenty centimeters in diameter, with a medium density of gear teeth. The distance between two adjacent teeth was one centimeter, and the tips of the teeth appeared slightly blunt. It was fixed to a longitudinal metal rod. Theoretically, when it spun rapidly, the metal rod should also be spinning at a high speed. But where did the resulting power go?

"Yes, it has stopped. According to my master's research theory, the 'Asian Gear' stopping will be the beginning of a huge disaster. When all the gears stop turning and enter a state of instantaneous stillness, the world will then undergo a reverse development, which will lead to the great destruction of the earth and make it impossible to be reborn."

Beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead. She turned around with difficulty and stared at the four identical gears.

Fortunately, only four gears stopped; their companions continued to spin at their original speed.

I walked towards the mechanical object, looked at it closely, slowly reached out and grabbed the gear, and with a gentle pull, the gear landed in my hand. This was even more unexpected than I had anticipated. According to the theory of centrifugal force, once a high-speed rotating gear comes loose, it should be thrown out with great force and fly a long way.

"What are you doing?" Suren exclaimed in horror.

I weighed the heavy metal wheel in my hand and felt that its weight was similar to that of iron, steel, and copper of the same volume, so it was not some special tool forged by extraterrestrials.

"They can be put on, and of course they can be taken off. What's so strange about that?" I looked into the space behind the gears. After the metal rod stopped rotating, about a meter deep, there was another gear, slightly smaller, fitted on top of it, which had also stopped rotating.