I stared in puzzlement at the room full of white sticky notes—none of them had anything written on them.
"Why am I here?"
I tried to recall, and suddenly remembered: I came here while traveling for fun, heard there were ghosts in the house, and the Ghost Burial Squad asked me to help. Last night, I dealt with the ghost, was too exhausted, and simply slept here.
But the more I thought about it, the more off it felt. The house seemed familiar, and those sticky notes—I was sure they had writing on them before. I picked up a few at random and looked them over.
At that moment, the phone rang. I hurried to answer it.
"Ethan, do you still remember what happened yesterday?"
Hugh Thompson asked.
"I remember, yesterday..." I started to reply, but the memories of yesterday felt unreal. Even the Deathbane Aura I used to kill the ghost here—I clenched my fist, trying to summon some Deathbane Aura, but after a while, nothing happened. I couldn't summon it at all.
"Ethan, take a good look at what you wrote down yesterday. I woke up this morning and forgot too. Yesterday, you told me to check my own notes—something about a man named Ken Wang."
My mind buzzed, blank for a moment.
"Don't ever forget me. My name is Ken Wang."
I hurriedly pulled out my notebook and flipped through two days' worth of notes. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in through the broken window, sending the sticky notes swirling like snowflakes. I cried out in shock.
On some of the sticky notes, words began to slowly appear.
"Ken Wang, Ken Wang..." I shouted loudly.
As I called out, the image of a thin, faceless man named Ken Wang began to sharpen in my mind.
And on the surrounding walls, the enlarged selfies Ken Wang had taken and hung up slowly came into view. I rushed upstairs to Ken Wang's room and looked inside.
The room was filled with sticky notes, and the writing on them was gradually returning.
Yet, while the words returned, Ken Wang himself was nowhere to be seen.
"Who is it, really?" I shouted, images of gentle figures flashing in my mind, but I could never see their faces. Rachel Lan, too—I kept recalling her in my mind.
With a thunderous crash, the sky outside suddenly darkened. The wind slammed the window open, and sticky notes flew wildly around the room.
A burst of giggling.
I kept looking around as the sticky notes swirled through the room. Suddenly, the laughter grew louder. I clenched my fists.
"Who are you?"
"I've come for you, Ethan Zhang."
A voice came from behind me. I turned around and saw only two pitch-black eyes—a figure made entirely of sticky notes, its hand reaching out and gripping my neck.
I couldn't breathe. I punched at it, but my fist landed weakly on the sticky notes.
"I'm Ken Wang, Ethan Zhang. Why did you forget me? Even in death, I won't let you go. Why did you have to forget me...?"
The sticky note figure screamed, calling itself Ken Wang. I felt an immense force squeezing my neck, and then sticky notes covered my entire body.
I screamed. It felt like something in my mind was fading away, face after face—none of them clear.
My consciousness grew fuzzier and fuzzier.
"The heavens are clear, the earth is bright—Xiao Yuan, close your eyes..." An old voice called out. I immediately shut my eyes. Bang! I heard an explosion, then the sound of paper fluttering. The force gripping my neck disappeared.
I sensed a blinding light just outside my eyelids.
"You can open them now."
I cracked my eyes open and saw a dazzling golden Taoist character right in front of me. A glowing golden talisman circled around me.
"Heh, Xiao Yuan, it's over now."
I turned to see an elderly Taoist with white hair tied up, his face ruddy and voice booming. He wore a faded yellow Taoist robe and held a horsetail whisk, standing on the bed and looking at me kindly.
"Who are you?"
"I'm just an old Taoist. My Taoist name is Wandering Sage Wu, but you can call me Master Zachary Wu, or Uncle Zhang."
I nodded, looking at Master Zachary Wu and the fading Taoist character behind him, as well as the golden talisman flying back. I'd heard from Miles Mao and Li Guohao that Taoists who use golden talismans are the strongest in the Mount Mason Order, but it's said only one appears every few centuries.
"Listen up, evil spirits. I, Wandering Sage Wu, am here today only to rescue my old friend Jack Zhang and his wife. If you know what's good for you, hand them over."
A commanding voice rang out.
"Old Taoist, you'd better stay out of our boss's business, or else—"
"Bah! Evil spirits, bring it on—Heavenly Trigram Array!"
As soon as Master Zachary Wu finished speaking, he flicked his whisk, and suddenly golden light shone outside the house. All around, I saw golden Taiji diagrams, beams of golden light streaming in.
Suddenly, a wailing sound filled the air.
"Demon-Subduing Vajra Chain..." Master Zachary Wu raised his hand, and a golden chain wrapped around me, shooting toward the far corner behind me.
I turned and saw the little ghost—this time my memory was clear. I couldn't recall things about Ken Wang or Rachel Lan, or those gentle figures in my dreams, but I remembered this little ghost.
The chain looped around the little ghost, and instantly it glowed with green light.
"Blue Wraith?"
I cried out in shock.
"Don't worry, Xiao Yuan. This guy may be a Blue Wraith, but I can handle him," Master Zachary Wu said.
With a shout, Master Zachary Wu inhaled and then exhaled a burst of golden light.
"The Taoist has fire—break!"
A miserable scream echoed as the Blue Wraith child was wrapped in golden light, rolling on the ground in pain.
"Let this Demon-Subduing Vajra Chain hold you. Don't even think about opening the Shadow Realm."
I stared blankly as the Blue Wraith child screamed in agony.
"Tell me, where did my old friend Jack Zhang and his wife go? Hand them over, or else—"
"Or else, huh? Old Taoist, stay out of my business. The river doesn't cross the well—hmph, how dare you meddle..." came a dull voice. Suddenly, with a snap, the chain holding the Blue Wraith child broke.
With a swift pull, Master Zachary Wu yanked me behind him. A black space appeared in front of us, and then, suddenly, I saw a book titled 'Horror Stories,' over two meters tall and more than a meter wide, standing before me.
With a loud rustle, a page flipped open. The Blue Wraith child darted into the book, and I saw the first page: 'The Secret of Lower River Village.' Three men and two women endured six terrifying days and seven nights there.
"My horror stories are quite something, Ethan Zhang. If you want to find your parents, lover, or even your new friends, just come inside."
I stared wide-eyed as Master Zachary Wu waved his whisk, sending golden trigrams crashing forward, but they had no effect on the open book.
"Old Taoist, why are you wasting energy on a book? Hahaha! In my horror stories, no one can defeat me. Hmph! I finally got away from those seven guys, and now I'm just one step from success. Ethan Zhang, if you want to reclaim what's most important to you, come to a crossroads at midnight and open this book of horror stories. It's quite a show—horror stories."
With a burst of wild laughter, the book vanished, and the sticky notes scattered on the floor disappeared too.
"Alas, Xiao Yuan, I was too late. More than ten days ago, I sensed something was wrong—my old friend Jack Zhang's soul disappeared, and I felt myself forgetting too. Luckily, I set up an altar and invoked a celestial master just in time to preserve my memory."
"Master, who are you really?"
Master Zachary Wu smiled and patted my head.
"I'm your father Jack Zhang's old friend—more than ten years older than him. When you were a child and gravely ill, I prayed for a golden talisman to save your life. It was a close call—the fierce ghost nearly swallowed you whole, but escaped after using your soul as a threat."
I couldn't remember anything Master Zachary Wu said, but tears streamed down my face. Whenever my parents were mentioned, I cried—even though my memory held no trace of them.
With Master Zachary Wu's comfort, I finally stopped crying. Once I calmed down, I realized that when he used Taoist arts, my Deathbane Aura body didn't react at all, so I asked him about it.