The Foolish Fish Takes the Bait

Ugudu’s original plan had been to use the teenager before him, a youth whose spiritual energy far surpassed that of an ordinary person, as a lure to draw out the evil spirit.

Normal people were incapable of seeing evil spirits.

Only those with abnormally high or abnormally low spiritual energy could perceive evil spirits and the many eerie phenomena they caused.

Evil spirits themselves were also drawn to such individuals—for, compared to those who couldn’t acknowledge their existence, someone who *could* notice them was naturally more worthy of their attention.

From this perspective, evil spirits were, in essence, no different from children.

‘Hmm.’

Indeed, this very notion existed within the 《Necromancer Training Guide》.

Evil spirits were formed either by the fear of death amplifying one’s malice towards the world, people, or objects, or by an inability to let go of something they simply could not abandon.

In short, compared to ordinary people, the minds of evil spirits were far more extreme and simplistic, leading them to act with reckless disregard for consequences.

‘So…’

‘Would I die now?’

Having followed Chen Ran into the room, Ugudu was now sweating profusely.

The teenager sat calmly opposite him, and beside Chen Ran,

Within Ugudu’s line of sight,

There hovered a terrifying, utterly distorted spectral face, an amorphous mass seemingly composed of countless pale, dark lines, completely devoid of human form—a consequence of Ugudu’s insufficient spiritual energy.

Ugudu couldn’t make out Caihua’s true appearance.

Yet, he was now certain that the evil spirit was right beside Chen Ran, and it seemed incredibly docile.

At this moment,

Ugudu had realized that the teenager before him was no ordinary person.

He had just recently regarded him as mere ‘prey.’

Earlier that evening, while dining out, he had accidentally discovered someone with exceedingly high spiritual energy, and furthermore, noticed that this individual was staying in the same hotel as him—Ugudu had even considered it a blessing from the God of Death.

After his failed search for evil spirits the previous night, he had been granted a perfectly suitable ‘lure’ today.

‘If I could control him,’

‘I could certainly succeed in drawing out the evil spirit residing in this hotel!’

Most people in this world were essentially no different from Muggles (TL Note: A term from the Harry Potter series referring to non-magical people); this teenager was only the second person with abnormally high spiritual energy he had ever encountered.

The first, he recalled,

Was the beautiful national idol who had been filming a movie at the hotel yesterday.

Ugudu didn’t understand what filming a movie entailed, nor did he know what a big star was, but she seemed to have many people protecting her, making her difficult to approach.

Chen Ran, however, was different.

He clearly didn’t know about his own unique qualities; Ugudu merely needed to seek him out, pose as an exorcist, trick him into believing he could help, and then, catching him unawares, either knock him out or drug him directly…

Such had been Ugudu’s initial plan.

But now,

Things seemed distinctly different.

“You can see her, can’t you?”

Chen Ran’s words

Left Ugudu with no choice but to nod stiffly.

He suddenly remembered why, earlier today, he had commanded the burly men he controlled to capture the teenager—Ugudu’s original plan had been even simpler.

It was to have Saburo and his men directly seize Chen Ran, using him as bait to lure out the evil spirit.

But to his utter astonishment,

Immediately after he issued the command, the burly men who had sighted their ‘target’ instantly fled without a backward glance.

Ugudu had initially assumed his sorcery had failed or something similar.

But now, it seemed…

It was clear that the teenager before him was a ruthless individual; Ugudu had, from beginning to end, merely been manipulated in the palm of his hand!

Even more so,

The evil spirit before him was the bait for *his* fishing expedition, and Ugudu himself was the foolish fish that took the bait!

Ugudu sat tensely in his spot.

In his understanding, mutual slaughter among necromancers was commonplace.

For a necromancer, nothing was more important than their controlled ‘army of undead,’ and one way to expand and strengthen it was to kill other necromancers and seize full control of their undead subordinates.

Therefore,

In Ugudu’s eyes, Chen Ran was clearly the type of individual who deliberately released his subordinate evil spirits to lure fellow practitioners into a trap, draw them out, and then kill them!!!

“You can see her, right?”

Chen Ran spoke softly, confirming once more, pointing towards the evil spirit beside him.

“So… hmm…”

Searching for the right words in his mind.

In truth,

Chen Ran wanted to understand exactly what evil spirits were in this world—their lore, their mechanics, or whatever else defined them.

From Chen Ran’s perspective, in this ‘scripted world’ (TL Note: A self-referential term, implying a fictional narrative or story framework) he had traversed into, where evil spirits genuinely existed, were there also so-called ‘exorcists’?

‘Indeed.’

‘The fellow before me probably holds such a role.’

‘So, is there some sort of ‘power system’ at play here?’

Chen Ran was simply curious about these things.

That was why he continued to ask.

“I’m quite curious about you, Mr. Ugudu.”

“!!!”

‘Curious about *me*?!’

Ugudu nearly leaped out of his skin in fright.

‘Was this person planning to use his corpse or ghost for some horrific necromantic research?!!’

‘This, too, was a common occurrence among necromancers!’

‘Or perhaps, he had already seen that my sorcery was different from his?’

‘That’s right, that’s right.’

‘He must have already discovered me last night when I tried to approach the evil spirit!’

“…”

Remaining silent,

Ugudu swiftly pulled a jet-black book from his robes, its cover adorned with what looked like a monstrous, skeletal hand, and placed it on the table.

“Forgive my intrusion; this contains my life’s accumulated knowledge.

I beg your pardon.”

He then immediately stood up.

Without waiting for any reaction from Chen Ran, Ugudu, covered in cold sweat, silently walked out of the room, and then…

Using the fastest speed he had ever achieved in his life, he sprinted to the end of the corridor, smashed through the window, jumped out, and then fled recklessly into the mountain forest.

Surrendering precious magical artifacts and undead contracts from one’s person in exchange for one’s life.

This, too, was an unspoken rule among necromancers.

Ugudu now only hoped Chen Ran wasn’t the type of person who would say, “I want it all,” and without a moment’s delay, he swiftly escaped the hotel.

His speed was unbelievably fast.

By the time Chen Ran, holding the black-bound book, emerged from the hotel room, he could only glimpse the shattered window at the end of the corridor and the distant, dark, silent mountain forest.

“…”

‘What was that guy doing?’

Chen Ran mused.

He then lowered his gaze to the book in his hands.

It felt incredibly cold to the touch, carrying a lingering chill, much like the feeling of the female ghost Caihua now perched on his shoulder.

Upon opening it,

The dark red script resembled writhing, blood-red earthworms; he couldn’t understand what was written inside at all.

“A foreign book, then?”

Chen Ran wondered, and then suddenly remembered where he might have seen this kind of writing before.

“It seems like Miss Ipinas…”

Chen Ran recalled that when he was explaining the new convenience store clerk’s duties, Ipinas, who was unusually tall, had written this very script in a small notebook.

“I’ll take it back and ask her about it.”

Chen Ran thought to himself, rubbing his head, feeling as though he had once again encountered an utterly peculiar individual.