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

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

"The original seal was created by a great Onmyōji from ancient times. It was very stable, and every year the villagers hold the Sansha Festival, using the power of the three Bodhisattvas to strengthen the magic on it."

"However, Master's seal was far from achieving such an effect. He knew... that this seal would be broken by 'it' one day, and when that happened, the people would surely suffer."

"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 destroy 'it.'"

Speaking of this, he shook his head and sighed, "Alas... the day after he finished explaining this, Master passed away. I never expected... that as soon as he died, the senior brothers began to compete for the position and relics he left behind, without paying any attention to Master's instructions..."

"But you are different, aren't you?" Feng Bujue interjected.

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

"I remember very clearly... on that summer noon, 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 Dharma Masters at its peak could not eliminate it,' then at that time... weren't you just throwing an egg against a rock?"

"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 how much I needed to cultivate to complete Master's instructions."

"Oh~" Feng Bujue laughed easily when he heard this, "So you chose a 'relatively safe' time to come to Chong Jiu Elementary School, and took it for granted 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, "...left you in this state."

"Alas..." Tsukamoto sighed again upon hearing this, "Now, I don't care what kind of ending I will have..." He said solemnly, "It's been six years, my body has undoubtedly rotted, and my soul... has been trapped in this 'yang' illusion, unable to enter reincarnation."

"'It' why only traps you, instead of doing something else to you?" Feng Bujue's tone when asking this question was a bit subtle, as if saying, "Why haven't you been abused into scum yet?"

"Before today, I didn't know why, but..." Tsukamoto's expression changed slightly, and he replied, "Just now, I understood." He looked at Jue Ge and Ruoyu separately, "At this moment, your four companions in the 'yin' illusion are being gradually guided to unlock the seal by a 'Tsukamoto Shota' disguised by 'it'..."

"Oh... I see." Hearing this very urgent 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' kept your soul in order to impersonate you?"

"Yes." Tsukamoto replied, "The souls of Onmyōji are different from ordinary people. If the souls of ordinary people cannot enter reincarnation, they will be lost, decay, perish, and even become demonized... but no matter how long an Onmyōji dies, he will not be 'lost'. Our soul bodies can not only retain memories, but also do not change much in appearance from when we were alive; and 'it' is using this... by trapping me on the 'yang' side, and creating a mirror image of my soul on the 'yin' side and possessing it... to deceive your companions."

"Hmm... I see." Feng Bujue pondered 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; but there are six people here today, so... where did the class monitor Watanabe go?"

…………

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

Xiao Tan and his three companions, led by "Tsukamoto," returned to the second floor 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 loudly towards the floor below.

However... no one responded to him.

"What's going on?" An Yueqin also came over, reciting 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 have already..." He didn't say the rest, but waited for Tsukamoto to continue.

Here, Gui Xiao was obviously being careful. This "half sentence" of his was a good test—from the perspective of a player, 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 Onmyōji 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 Gui Xiao's intention, so they all remained silent and watched what happened...

"I only know that their souls haven't been scattered yet, and they are no longer in that wine cellar." Tsukamoto's answer didn't seem to have any loopholes either.

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

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

"Then how can we save them?" Xiao Tan asked urgently.

"There's no need for that," Tsukamoto replied coldly, "You six are already dead people, what's there to save or not... as long as 'it' exists, none of you, or any of 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 exclaimed, "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 moved outward a bit, 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 stay vigilant.

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

As he spoke, he had already opened the drawer.

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

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

First, there was still a "plot item that can be brought out of the script."

【Name: Tassel Belt】

【Type: Plot-related】

【Quality: Ordinary】

【Function: Unknown】

【Whether it can be brought out of this script: Yes】

【Remarks: A linen product, the buckle is made of pure silver, and the purple coloring and tassel length are highlights in the design.】

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

Next, the second item—

【Name: "It's" Spleen】

【Type: Plot-related】

【Quality: Ordinary】

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

【Whether it can be brought out of this script: No】

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

Hmm... no explanation needed.

Looking at the third item—a piece of paper, which looked like an unfinished letter; the handwriting showed that the person writing it was very nervous at the time, or that some other physiological reason caused his hand to tremble; however, the content on the paper could still be distinguished—“Sato-kun, I don't know if your mental disorder is temporary or permanent. If it's permanent, then treat this letter as a confession I wrote 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 is my fault, I'm not a qualified principal, and I can't even be said to be a decent man; after my wife died, I wanted to numb myself with alcohol, and as a result, I developed the bad habit of alcoholism. It is this bad habit that has brought me to this point today. Suzuki, Noguchi, you... I don't know how many more people will die because of this, but I can't hold on anymore, please forgive me, forgive me for using death to escape responsibility in the end, because, 'it'”

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

Finally, the fourth item... as you might have guessed—【Warehouse Key】.

…………

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

Tsukamoto didn't take those two mission items; he handed them directly to the players for safekeeping, but he held the key, because... he took the initiative to take on the task of opening the door.

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

Surprisingly, there was light in this room.

A light bulb was hanging from the ceiling of the "warehouse," and this light bulb... was emitting a red light.

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

Contrary to the name "warehouse," this room was empty. Not only was there no furniture or sundries, but there wasn't even a window. Besides the light bulb above, all there was here were walls, and there wasn't even a light switch on the wall.

However, there were still some abnormal places, such as... the six walls of this warehouse were all made of charred wooden planks. In addition, there was a formation drawn on the floor.

This formation was not the kind of "magic circle" in Western mythology, but something with a very oriental style.

Overall, this formation was drawn with a red liquid, but whether it was blood, paint, or some other substance... it was hard to tell, because this formation looked like it had been drawn a long time ago, and those liquids had long since dried up.

In the very center of the formation, within a circular area the size of a washbasin, a pile of ghostly Japanese characters were written. These characters were written in a spiral shape from the inside out, and the system did not translate them; outside this lump of text, a perfect circular ring was drawn, and the circle extended to the vertical and horizontal lines of the four gates and eight trigrams, and in those areas divided by the lines, many incantations were written vertically... of course, they were also texts that the players couldn't understand.

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

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

These two sentences seemed to have triggered some kind of flag... immediately afterward, Tsukamoto, who had stepped into the door, began a narrative.

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

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

"At that time, you naturally had no memory of the '520 Tragedy' at all...

"Because after that incident, government people 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 very distant places under the government's arrangement. In your impression... there was nothing abnormal about your childhood memories, except that everyone transferred schools in the second grade because the school was going to close down.

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

"No one expected... that one summer, during a period when all of you 'happened' to be free, Watanabe, the class monitor in your memory... sent you an invitation letter to a class reunion.

"Perhaps it was destiny, or 'it's' arrangement... you six reunited at the abandoned site of Chong Jiu Elementary School on a yin time on a yin day.

"That day... your class monitor didn't show up because he had already been controlled by 'it'. The letter he sent was just to lure you six over..."