Chapter 169 Strange Letters

The longer Hao Ren knew this bat spirit, the more he felt that this girl was a miracle condensed from the malice of the great universe. The facts before his eyes made him even more convinced of this:

Vivian herself was penniless, but the bats that fell from her became demons, got rich, and started businesses. The landlord beside her worked as a thug for the gods and earned billions. Even a broken stone she casually gave to her follower contained several tons of gold and gave rise to the Andre family—this girl was simply a walking good-luck charm. If used properly, her bad luck could be exchanged for the peace and prosperity of the people around her.

Of course, this good-luck charm rarely had a positive effect. Most of the time, she was better at making the people around her as unlucky as she was. Anyone who was with her and didn't have high resistance was prone to losing money on the street, getting food stuck in their teeth when drinking water, or even having their molars cramp after sneezing. The Romans and Egyptians of that time had a lot to say about this, and Hao Ren felt that even the Trojans could throw the blame on this auspicious bat spirit: who told her to run back and forth in Troy as a thug back then?

Perhaps the Andre family belonged to that group with subtle resistance: they obtained amazing wealth from the gifts left by Vivian, but they were also tormented by a deadly evil spirit for three hundred years. This three hundred years of torment probably far exceeded the value of the original few tons of gold.

Lily patted Vivian on the shoulder, not missing any opportunity to provoke the bat: "Your alt account is doing better than you. Now even your teammate's alt account is doing better than you. This Mistress Hound is thinking that your greatest value in this life is probably to set off all kinds of alt accounts."

"This is a space storage device?" Hao Ren curiously stepped forward and picked up the triangular gadget, quickly swiping his fingers across its edges, and the space opening closed accordingly: It seemed that even after so long, its operation was still sensitive.

The data terminal floated over to study it: "It should be said that it has a space storage function, but this module only accounts for a third of its volume. The rest is in standby mode, and it seems that it needs to resonate with other devices to function. This unit scans its structure as if it were a wireless device."

"Another stone..." Hao Ren looked up at Vivian, "Where is the other stone now?"

Vivian shrugged: "I don't know. Now I only know that my minion number one became the ancestor of the Andre family, but I don't know if minion number two is alive or dead. The other 'stone' doesn't look the same as the one in your hand. It may not be able to bring wealth to the holder. Minion number two probably didn't have Andre's good luck... He may have died in the icy and snowy Siberia back then."

"Do you know?" Hao Ren turned to look at Igor and roughly told him about the two humans who followed Vivian in Siberia, "There should have been two people following the witch back then. In addition to your ancestor, there was another guy who also got a 'stone'."

Originally, Hao Ren didn't have much hope, but Igor actually nodded: "... A mysterious man, living in St. Petersburg, should be a descendant of the person you mentioned."

Hao Ren was a little surprised: "Mysterious man?"

"For three hundred years, the Andre family has maintained intermittent contact with another hermit family," Igor scratched the buttons on his chest, which seemed to be his habitual movement when thinking about problems or being slightly nervous. "We don't know the other party's actual situation, whether they are poor or rich. This intermittent contact has been passed down from our ancestors. We exchange some sporadic recent situations, such as whether family members are healthy, whether there are any signs of the 'dark force' getting out of control... We don't dare to say more than that. The letters are very obscure, and sometimes even we ourselves are not very sure of the content of the letters—this is to prevent triggering the evil spirit's curse. And no matter what, the other party will only send a representative to communicate letters with the Andre family. Everything we know about that reclusive family is limited to that one person, so I say 'a' mysterious man."

"Why is it so troublesome?" Nangong Wuyue didn't understand. "Why not just have direct contact? Since they are both descendants of the witch's servants, there's no need to be so secretive, right?"

"They are also troubled by another curse, perhaps related to the content of their curse," Igor spread his hands. "This is a habit left by our ancestors. Although our respective ancestors worked together three hundred years ago, after that terrible curse took effect, our ancestors chose to isolate themselves from each other. The descendants after that don't know the reason, but they just carefully followed suit. With an evil spirit hanging over our heads, we have to be careful in everything we do."

Then Igor fetched a large pile of letters from another small room nearby: "This is what we exchanged."

Now that the evil spirit in the ancient castle had been expelled, Igor was finally not afraid that these things would anger any evil forces.

Those letters were carefully kept, some old and some new. From the degree of yellowing and weathering of the paper, it could be seen that they came from many different eras. The oldest letter even had the coat of arms of Catherine's time on it. Hao Ren randomly took out one and found that it was full of obscure ciphers and metaphors: "... Distant friend, the situation on my side is stable. The dark voice has not left, but it has not spread from nightmares to the outside. This year is more difficult than in previous years. The wind in the north carries an ominous aura. Two of the younger generations in the family may not be able to survive this winter: their bodies are gradually becoming empty, and an unspeakable darkness is replacing their souls. Perhaps next month I won't be sure if they are still themselves under their skins..."

Hao Ren took out another letter, which was written more than ten years ago and seemed to have been sent from St. Petersburg: "... To my distant friend, please allow me to introduce myself. I am August, continuing to contact you in place of my father. My father has left this world of suffering, and the nightmare has finally left him. I hope that dark force will not continue to entangle his soul in another world. The situation on my side is a bit bad. That hungry voice has begun to sound during the day, but this may be because I am not skilled enough..."

Hao Ren randomly took out a few letters and found that they were basically such obscure and ambiguous things. These letters mentioned the evil spirits that troubled them in a very cautious way, and tried not to say too much about their own situation. From the lines, one could see the fear deep in the writer's heart. But Hao Ren only felt a sense of incongruity when he looked at them. He asked Vivian, "How many rage spirits are there in total?"

"One," Vivian pointed to her feet, "Just the one we just dealt with."

Nangong Wuyue frowned: "If there is only one rage spirit, then what is this August's family entangled with?"

"Then we can only find him to know," Hao Ren held up the last letter, which was written a few months ago. "At least we have his contact address. Just go find him to get back that stone. Igor, can you help me make a connection?"

Igor rubbed his hands, revealing a slightly embarrassed expression: "Perhaps I can write a letter... But I'm afraid I can't help much more than that. August and I have only relied on these obscure letters for more than ten years. We know very little about each other's families and have no personal friendship. Due to the ban passed down from our ancestors, the people of our two families don't even dare to meet. But if the witch reveals her identity in front of him, it should still be useful."

Vivian didn't think so: "We can't put all our hopes on this. The other party may not be the same as you..."

At this time, Nangong Sanba suddenly interjected: "Wait a minute, let me confirm—Igor, is the August you're talking about living in St. Petersburg? Is his full name August Ftoriyak Lekich?"

Igor nodded in surprise: "That's right, you know him?"

Wuyue looked at him in surprise: "Brother, do you know this person?"

"This world is really not big," Nangong Sanba grinned and smiled. "August, I helped him do a soothing ceremony three years ago. He's a reclusive man in his forties or fifties living in an old house in the suburbs of St. Petersburg."

Everyone on the scene was immediately surprised. Igor felt that this was dramatically unbelievable. He eagerly inquired about the situation of the other family that had once served the witch: "What is the situation of the Lekich family? Their family..."

"Family? They have no family," Nangong Sanba shook his head. "Just as Vivian worried, the other party is not the same as you: August is an old man living alone in the suburbs, with no relatives or friends. I didn't see anything related to the witch in his old house. I'm afraid this family has declined to the last step, and it's hard to say whether he still knows about the witch."

Igor opened his eyes wide, and finally all his emotions turned into a long sigh.