Carefully feeling the amount of spiritual energy inside himself, Su Fan couldn’t help but nod in satisfaction.
Sure enough, the spiritual energy consumption for drawing talismans had also gone down.
From what he could see so far, the Heavenly Talisman skill was basically a full-scale upgrade and optimization of his talisman abilities.
The only thing he hadn’t tried yet was drawing talismans in thin air.
Thinking of this, Su Fan used his hand as a brush.
With the movement of his fingertip, a faint, light blue-green trace appeared in the air.
The mark lingered for a moment before fading away.
Compared to making talismans with paper and brush, the consumption was indeed a bit higher, but not as much as he had imagined.
From now on, keeping his distance and bombarding enemies with talisman techniques would become a viable way to fight.
Satisfied after testing out his new skill, Su Fan casually picked up the piece of paper with the address Luke had left.
The villa was located within the Hollywood area, easily reachable within a single day.
Rehab, start.
Su Fan didn’t bother preparing anything. He just stood up and headed for the door.
“Keep an eye on the shop for me. I’ll be back soon.”
Hearing this, Ron understood that Su Fan was going to deal with the Ouija board incident for Luke.
She wanted to use his injury as a reason to persuade him not to go, but all she saw was his back as he left.
“Phew…”
Ron let out a long breath.
She had stayed behind hoping to look after him a bit, but she never expected this “patient” to have such a strong will of his own.
He didn’t even wait for her to agree or disagree; he just walked right out.
Did this count as a sign of trust in her?
Ron chuckled to herself wryly.
She walked behind the counter and sat down in the rocking chair Su Fan had been using earlier.
The lingering warmth from his body made Ron slowly sink back into the chair.
A faint scent of laundry powder filled her nose.
She was a medical student, so of course she knew that Asian people tend to have a lighter body odor.
But even “lighter” didn’t mean non-existent.
Thinking back, even after such a huge battle, she hadn’t smelled any sweat on Su Fan.
He was always clean, almost as if he didn’t belong to this world.
“What are you? Some kind of elf?”
Ron mumbled unconsciously.
Legend said elves could survive just by drinking dew and eating very little food.
In stories, they often gave people an impression of purity, elegance, and innocence.
But honestly, Su Fan was way better at navigating the scheming and plotting of the human world than she was.
Not only that, but he could also be really sharp-tongued.
As Ron sat there lost in thought, the antique shop’s landline phone on the counter suddenly rang.
She instinctively picked up the receiver and put it to her ear.
“Hello, how can I help you?”
“…Who is this? Where’s the antique shop owner?”
There was a brief silence on the other end, followed by a woman’s voice.
——
After leaving Su Fan’s shop, Luke drove back to his apartment.
As he reached the building, he saw a figure pacing back and forth downstairs.
The creepy scenes from before flashed through his mind again, sending a chill down his spine.
But he mustered his courage, turned off the car, got out, and walked over to check.
As the distance closed, his hesitant steps gradually gained confidence.
When he was about two or three meters away, Luke called out the person’s name.
“Debbie!”
The woman flinched, as if startled.
But she quickly turned her head, and after recognizing who it was, she let out a sigh of relief.
“Luke…”
That’s right, the person visiting Luke was his current girlfriend, Debbie.
Looking at the dark circles under her eyes and how on edge she seemed, Luke felt a little uneasy.
As the one who first suggested using the Ouija board to contact the dead, Debbie hadn’t just grown apart from her boyfriend Luke, but her relationships with their other friends had also developed cracks.
They hadn’t been communicating, silently avoiding each other, as if not seeing one another would make them forget the strange events they’d recently experienced.
Meeting again after so long, the intimacy they once shared, where they could talk about anything, was gone, replaced by a faint awkwardness.
“What made you come over now?”
Luke asked.
“I came because of the Ouija board…”
Debbie took a deep breath and told Luke exactly what she had been thinking about these past few days.
“I know everyone is scared, but Lisa was our friend. She wouldn’t hurt us.”
“I think she’s trying to send us some kind of message. Maybe it’s the truth about why she killed herself.”
“We have to find out what it is…”
“You mean you want to play the Ouija board again?!”
Before Debbie could finish, Luke cut her off.
His eyebrows furrowed, and a hint of anger appeared on his face.
“That’s too dangerous, Debbie.”
“But it’s Lisa!”
“No, it’s not!”
Luke’s voice rose.
“Lisa wouldn’t deliberately terrorize her friends. And she definitely wouldn’t suddenly attack Bill.
He smashed his head into the glass, his face was covered in blood. Didn’t you see that?”
Realizing he was losing control of his emotions, Luke exhaled and brought his voice back to a normal level.
“Remember that fixed phrase we said at the beginning?”
“We did summon *a* spirit, but there’s no guarantee it was Lisa.”
“All the weird things happening lately just prove that our reckless actions invited something evil.”
Seeing the hurt look on Debbie’s face, Luke softened his tone slightly.
“…I’ve hired an exorcist. He can take care of these problems for us.”
“Soon, we’ll be able to get back to our normal, peaceful lives.”
Debbie was silent for a moment after hearing this, then spoke up cautiously.
“If we’re hiring an exorcist anyway, what’s the harm in doing it one last time? Nothing bad will happen.”
Luke opened his mouth, hesitated, and finally sighed.
“No matter what you say, I’m not agreeing to this.”
“Go home.”
With that, Luke turned and walked towards the apartment entrance.
Debbie was left standing there, looking lost.
The street was busy with people. Footsteps, the noise of traffic, and the murmur of conversations all mixed together.
Amidst the clamor, a faint, barely perceptible whisper suddenly cut through.
The whisper was so fast it was impossible to understand what it was saying.
Suddenly, Debbie’s eyes turned completely white, as if her irises and pupils had vanished.
But this strange change lasted only an instant before her eyes returned to normal.
When Debbie came back to her senses, her gaze instinctively drifted towards the apartment door.
There, on the ground less than two meters from the entrance, was an object wrapped in a handkerchief.
She walked over, picked it up, and gently unfolded the cloth.
The small, lens-shaped wooden piece used with the Ouija board was right there in front of her.
Debbie looked up at the apartment building, stood there for a long time, and finally turned and walked away.
