《Xianshi Inn (A contemporary Xianxia novel)》Chapter 50
Advertisement
The next day, when the day was getting late, general set coordinator Robert, and assistant set supervisor Stephanie brought Caroline and Jason with them to the set of "The Haunting Crescent” - the same set to which they delivered food where they were greeted by a very rude person a few days ago. Caroline and Jason now learned that that person is the set supervisor, who is also the one the set staff call "the Reaper” when he is not around, because of his rude attitude and his inclination of credit stealing.
“So, it all happened sometime during the night before the last.” as Robert was opening the door, he described the incident that happened on set: “Bruno is one of our prop guys. That night he went back here. I don’t know why he came back, I just assumed he forgot something, he usually logs his entries so we’ll know what he came back for. But when he came back to the set, he was attacked. By someone who’s clearly out of her mind.”
“At least that’s what we thought, until we checked the security camera.” Stephanie said when the door opened and they walked in and encountered some blood looking stains on the floor: “The police did not take this case seriously at all, they did not even seal the whole set. But Bruno was really traumatized and this is where he was attacked, right at the door. The police told us when they found him, he was covered in blood and some rotten meat. Whoever attacked him scratched him up really bad.”
“What’s on the security camera footage?” Caroline asked.
“It’s hard to explain. ” Stephanie was shaking her head: “At first, some woman appeared out of nowhere in the room - we didn’t see how she came in. Then a shadowy figure appeared in front of her. Then after a while Bruno came in and the woman attacked him.”
“Can you tell what the woman looked like? ” Caroline gently rubbed her scar on the left side of her forehead: “Is she Asian?”
“Looks like it.” Robert and Stephanie both looked at Caroline and Jason, their facial expressions showed that they were a little creeped out: “How’d you know?”
Advertisement
“Oh boy.” Jason took out his wooden stick, and at the same time Caroline took out his wooden shield and tomahawk.
“Wait, what are you doing? Are these … wood weapons?” Roberts asked: “What are you gonna do with those?”
“Shh! Just tell us more about this woman. What did she do after attacking Bruno? Where did she go?” Caroline nervously and impatiently asked.
“We can’t tell, but it looks like she just ran outside the door and bumped Bruno out of her way. ” Robert said: “But somehow, for some reason she had time to spray him with tons of rotten meat? Did you know her? Is she crazy?”
“I don’t think it’s any rotten meat.” Jason lightly gasped and realized something: “It’s her.”
“Umm, what?”
“It’s from her, the woman.” Caroline exchanged looks with Jason and headed slowly towards the inside of the set, “She’s a forensic scientist at SFPD, we’ve been trying to find her for a while. And I think she’s possessed. We found teeth and hair in her bathroom...”
Without Caroline and Jason having to explain much, Stephanie started retching and then vomiting on the side into an empty dustbin.
The light flickered, a breath of cold air blew through them. And then all of a sudden, the door they came in through was slammed shut by some invisible force.
“Crap!” Robert ran to the door and tried to open it: “The door won’t open!”
“Here it comes, stay behind me!” Caroline ran towards the door, then raised her wooden axe and prepared to bash the door with it.
“Behind you! ” Jason grabbed Stephanie by the arm and headed to the door as well, but he suddenly saw a black shadow appearing behind Caroline. Yelling and having his wooden stick in hand, Jason concentrated his will power onto his stick and dish out a serious swing.
A silver droplet flew from the tip of the stick, landed on the black shadow.
“Bang!” the silver droplet hit the black shadow like an explosive bullet, the black shadow got knocked into the air yet it was able to stabilize its position in mid air, after which it manifested its true face: an eyeless tall and slim man in black and white rags, surrounded by black smoke.
Advertisement
“What the fuck is that!?” Robert yelled as he had his back against the door.
“This does not feel that dangerous, kinda smells differently.” Jason said with a frown.
“Whatever, let’s get rid of this one first.” Caroline let out a long exhale, and her wooden shield and axe lit up in orange and red.
“Agreed.” Jason used his wooden stick to wrote a word in the air like a pen - as he finished, the silver ink formed a floating Chinese word “攻”. As the tall and slim man lunged towards them, the word also shot towards the man.
The tall and slim man clashed with the silver word head on, and like a man hit with a truck and flew through the air. But the next moment the light flickered and he just disappeared into the darkness.
“Door is still jammed.” Robert felt relieved and tried again to open the door, but he was still not able to open it.
The lights started flickering again, then all of a sudden, they all got shut off.
Stephanie started screaming and grabbed Jason’s arm, so tightly so that he could feel her fingernails digging into his skin. Jason struggled to keep Stephanie in check and tried to use his stick to write another word in the air. Caroline felt something from her left side so she swiftly swung her shield to the side. Her shield clashed with something, some bright red sparks flew from the clash, and she heard a man’s whimpering cry.
Right now, the only light sources were Caroline’s glowing shield and axe, though the light was too dim to light up too much, it provided enough visibility in the dark for Stephanie and Robert to find their cell phone and use them to light up the space around them.
“Is that thing still here? Did you kill it?” Stephanie asked Caroline.
“Don’t think so.” Caroline shook her head.
Just this moment, Jason finished his writing in the air, this time, the word he wrote was “亮”, and with a quick poke of the stick, the word started shining in silver white light and lit up more space.
“Jason. Try the detection spell.” Caroline’s axe and shield shined brighter.
“On it.” Jason started writing another word in the air.
“Are you guys… sorcerers?” Stephanie asked.
“Cultivators.” Jason finished the word “顯”, the word exploded into a wave of silver light, scanning through all the corners in the room. And shortly after the explosion of the silver light, a grey figure appeared above Robert and Stephanie - just like throwing paint on an invisible object, or person.
Before the figure had the chance to escape again, Caroline’s axe, while leaving a trail of orange and red afterimage, already cut into the body of the figure, almost splitting it in half. Yet this figure also extended its arms and grabbed onto the handle of the axe and Caroline’s arm, trying to stop Caroline from attacking again. Yet Caroline just started bashing the figure with her shield.
The figure dropped to the ground after the fifth or sixth bash, losing its invisibility and showing its true face in the process.
Caroline gave out a loud and angry roar, her axe almost got embedded in the ground from a furious swing, which removed the slim man’s head from his shoulder. A jet of black smoke gushed out from the figure’s neck, a strong rotten smell instantly filled the air
Another silver word struck the slim man’s headless body, pushing it away and blasting it into ashes and broken rags. At almost the same time, the slim man’s head burned to ashes after a whimper. Yet the black smoke that emerged from the slim man’s neck took a while to dissipate. For some reason, Jason and Caroline had a strange feeling that the smoke was somehow from a different entity, not the slim man.
“Try the door again?” Caroline cautiously looked around, then asked Robert.
With a simple push, the door opened.
Yet the next moment, a bright lightning almost blinded all four of them. Both Caroline and Jason felt an electric current rampaged through their bodies, numbing all of their extremities and burning their blood, flesh and bones. The next thing they felt, was the cold hard touch of the cement sidewalk.
Advertisement
Hiraeth: Promise of the World
On a rainy night, a young woman is transported to the enchanting world of Sol'h'meyr. Thrilled to be freed from the shackles of monetary survival and societal expectations on Earth, she embraces her newfound existence and magical powers bestowed. But the rose-tinted fantasy life she always dreamed of turns out to be a stark reality that poses to kill her if she doesn't adapt and let go of her past. Essairyn battles both cripping nostalgia and imminent danger in her journey from the Spirit and Demon Forest to the human realm of As'pyze. Disillusionment leading to anger has erupted into violence across the deceptively peaceful land. New friends and allies gather by her side, but tragedy and betrayal lurk closer than she realizes. Hiraeth is the idyllic beginning tainted with dark shadows in the epic fantasy series, Singularity Cycle. [ – Now Completed with upcoming minor revisions before second book – ] + complex character relationships and growth + realistic quirky magic system + unique mythical creatures + deeply developed world lore + evocative writing style + cute sassy fox sidekick - Original Book Cover Art by Chryiss Rewritten final version of formerly named Canaan series and first book, My World to Live. After a long wait and major changes, the first book in the series is retitled Hiraeth: Promise of the World. Thank you to all readers that joined me since I began posting this story two years ago. Your support is what motivated me to never give up my dreams. [ Major Tags: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Psychological, Romance, Tragedy, Female Lead, Grimdark, High Fantasy, Magic, Mythos, Portal Fantasy, Isekai, Progression, Reincarnation, Secret Identity, Strong Lead, Epic Fantasy, Spirits, Demons, Monsters, Fairies, Dragons, Kingdom, Parallel Dimension, Mage, Knight, Royalty, Philosophy, Friendship, Slow Burn, Mythical. + Major Tags not in Book 1 but later in Series: Supernatual, Science Fiction, Ruling Class, School Life, Time Travel, War and Military, Vampires, Dimensional Travel. Minor Tags: Comedy, Horror, Artificial Intelligence, Cyberpunk, Dungeon, Dystopia, Loop, Steampunk, Virtual Reality, Villainous Lead. ] Additional Notes: The series, Singularity Cycle, is a passion project dating back to 2016. The original version of the first book was published on RR in 2019 and has since seen multiple revisions based on reader feedback with this one as the final and official fourth version before the second book. While the entire series story has undergone major changes in the last year, all books have been planned since the beginning of writing. It is also my second wish to eventually make this story into a webcomic, either by myself or with a team if possible. Thank you for taking this journey with me, and enjoy reading! ( You can alternatively read books in the series as standalone fictions, but they connect to one another though a running theme and mystery that evolves and progresses with the main character. ) Alternate Blurb for the Singularity Cycle series: Essairyn had never felt truly alive on Earth. It felt like something was missing ever since she was born, but even after nearly 20 years of mundane living, she could never pinpoint what this or the emptiness in her heart was. Suddenly, she awakens in a grandiose, primordial forest and encounters mythical creatures beyond her restless imagination in a parallel world called Sol'h'meyr. She befriends, in particular, a sassy fox-spirit named Akari who reincarnated after three millennia. Essairyn is gifted with abnormal magic, and Akari is being chased by those of her dark past. Together, they set out on an adventure in a world more dangerous than its beautiful facade could hide. Finding new friends along a path riddled with tragedy, Essairyn must learn who to trust as deceit and betrayal lie behind kindly faces. Life in this deceptively promising world slowly spirals down a path of no return. This is not a game, but cruel reality. Her simple adventure became the modest beginnings in a chain of disruptions that tore even the dimensional fabric of time and space. No one, not even Essairyn, was who she thought they were. And not even the fickle gods could change the time-worn destiny of the universes... A single promise shook eternity’s existence.
8 142The lost entries
through recorded documents, a journey is told. read how someone lived in fear, and then perished soon afterward. watch as they are broken down mentally, physically, and spiritually. you are a witness. and your own sanity will be questioned.
8 129Avatar of Time
Under maintenance.Image is a placeholder from Alexander Mikhalchyk under Creative Commons licenses
8 158Danganronpa: Retirement Plan
Ultimates work hard for their talents. They practice their talent to the point where they're declared the best. That is, until someone better comes along and takes their glory and title.Felix, along with 15 other Ex Ultimates, find themselves playing a game to get their titles back. The catch is it's a killing game and they're all desperate to get their beloved talents back. * * *This story will contain mature topics such as, death, gore, blood, suicide, murder, eating disorders and various other triggering topics. Triggers will be *probably* be tagged, but I'm warning you regardless.I don't own Danganronpa. This is a fan work made for other fans to enjoy. * * *CURRENTLY WORKING ON: [ Chapter 1: Goodbye Life Savings ]
8 165Thog: The barbarian
This is a story about Thog, and his unfortunate paladin, as he rampages throughout the land, kidnaps various creatures, and generally makes life for the paladin very, very, very, difficult.
8 199Destined [YoonKook]
The would be CEO of an international company Jeon Empresa, Jeon Jungkook is a soft friendly and a emotional person as well as confident, smart and handsome. He is a highschool student. He has quite a few friends as well as enemies. Jungkook is an extrovert who is good at almost everything. Hundreds of girls are after him, not for love but his looks and his money. But the heart-throb has a crush for a girl since middle school and she is now his girlfriend. He is head over heels in love with the famous girl from his class Lee Ji-Eun . On the other hand Yoongi, an orphan who's a highschool student as well and Jungkook's junior. He's not an out going person although he works in a cafe. He dosen't have any friends cause he's not that good at studies. He is well aware to his sexuality since he was middle school. He fell for his one and only friend Hyunjin from his class but when he confessed to him he stopped talking to him cause he was straight. Since then he is afraid to talk with other and he dosen't want to do love now after all these happened. He loves being lonly. He hate the fact that everyone abondons him, first his parents, family and then his one and only friend.Both the boys knows eachother just as a senior and juniour. they never talks to eachother cause Yoongi personally hates Jungkook for his show off at everything and Jungkook dosen't like Yoongi's cold aura....But if only they would know that-> The perfect Jungkook will fell out of his so called meant to be love for Yoongi a guy who is nothing in front of him... ...and..> Yoongi will find some one to rely on will love Jungkook unconditionally without even him realizing....Yes....They were dest🌻ned to became the mates of dieties💫
8 84