World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 159 Two Directions
The short-haired woman not far away took off her sunglasses, a rare look of surprise flashing in her eyes.

Doris!
"Mother, do you know her?" Lin An blurted out instinctively.

“Yes, Miss Wood is an elegant lady.” Adria wiped her mouth with a handkerchief. “I have a private lesson with her this afternoon. Anne, is there anything else?”

Lin An's eyes widened; his long-held fears had come true!
The "professor" that Doris called out in the video was indeed his mother!
Why was she clinging to Adria? Lin An frowned. His mother was an ordinary person, seemingly having no connection to the world of the mystics.

"Professor Hughes and Ann... cough, Lin."

At the same time, Doris was also very surprised. Although her guess had already been confirmed, seeing Lin An and Adria standing together, with their rather similar faces, still gave her quite a shock.

And a strange sense of tension.

But she was, after all, the daughter of the chairman of the Wood Group. Her usual confidence quickly dispelled the inexplicable unease in her heart. Doris readily chatted with Adria for a few minutes before turning to Lin An.

"I never expected you to be the son of my beloved Professor Hughes. It seems my taste in people hasn't changed at all."

Doris bent down, leaned close to Lin An's ear, and spoke in a tone that could be misunderstood, as soft as a whispered conversation.

"An'an, keep this private ticket for the first day of your visit to the planetarium safe."

As she spoke, she took out the ticket stub from her purse, pried open Lin An's fingers, and put it into his palm. The latter nodded without saying a word.

I never expected that she would take the promise we made in the video seriously!

What does Doris want to do?
She probably hasn't discovered that I have Hittite rituals yet... but she probably does know I'm a mystic.

Lin An closed his fingers and accepted the ticket.

Is this considered a form of courting?

Lin An wanted to tell his mother not to get close to this woman, but he knew that not only would Adria not listen to his advice, but it would also anger Doris.

Watching the two figures disappear into the distance, Lin An breathed a sigh of relief.

We must find a way to remind my mother that we cannot let Doris get any closer to her.

The whispers around the restaurant grew louder and louder, all discussing who Lin An was, who had not only won over the aloof Professor Hughes, but also gained the favor of the famous socialite Doris.

"I remember now, he's Lin An!"

Suddenly, a loud voice shattered the people's suspicions.

"What!?"

Lin An immediately became alert and left the place of trouble before a crowd rushed towards him.

…………

Because of the chaos in the restaurant, Lin An arrived early at the professor's office door to wait.

Sitting on a chair in the staff corridor, he began to sort through the attachments to his mother's emails, and his great-grandfather's family and image gradually came to mind.

The Hughes family has a long history of rule in this town; the land has belonged to them since around the 15th century.

The townspeople generally speculated that the Hughes family's experience was somewhat similar to that of the Duke of Luxembourg, who once wielded considerable power in the West until he lost all his other territories and had to return to his last remaining territory to retire.

This family has maintained a low profile for over a century, living in a secluded castle.

Once their members reach adulthood, they leave the castle and town to study and work abroad, spreading their influence and starting families all over the world, and from then on, they have no further contact with their original family.

The Hughes family also has a custom that both men and women must change their surname to their spouse's after marriage.

Even so, these members did not escape misfortune during these twenty years. According to the plaintiff's statistics, a total of 56 direct or collateral relatives died in various accidents.

Her mother took her adoptive parents' surname, which just happened to be Hughes' as well. Lin An thought that she herself had earned a doctorate, so she didn't take her father's surname, Lin.

On the contrary, she was spared because she generously kept her surname?
In the Hughes family, only the eldest son of each generation would remain in the castle, but they did not live long, as if cursed, dying in their thirties.

For over a hundred years, the only person who never left the castle was Duke Vasilica, Linan's great-grandfather.

Unlike his short-lived children, the Duke lived to be 147 years old. The townspeople always saw him smiling in the garden or his library, either reading or playing with his cat.

According to statistics, the Duke kept about 3000 cats in his lifetime, most of which died of old age before him.

The old man in town said that when he was a child, he mischievously wandered into the Duke's garden and accidentally fell into the pond. The Duke had his servants pull him out and invite him into the castle.

The duke was elegant and looked to be in his early thirties, except for his exceptionally deep-set eyes.

Later, this townsman left his hometown to work elsewhere, wandering for half his life. Forty years later, he returned to his hometown, and the Duke invited him to be a guest once again.

His skin had become somewhat soft due to aging, but his posture remained upright. He was clearly a centenarian, but he looked more like a middle-aged man in his fifties. Meanwhile, the townspeople had gone from young men to white-haired old men.

The townspeople were a little frightened and went home without speaking to the duke.

There are countless examples like this, and the townspeople unanimously agree that the Duke is aging far too slowly.

Castles, nobles, ageless faces... a combination of factors has contributed to the legend of vampires.

However, the media in Romania is underdeveloped, and strange and unusual events only spread in small towns and surrounding cities. The Internet, due to language barriers, has not opened the door to information for them.

Based on various pieces of information, Lin An basically confirmed that his great-grandfather was from one of the prominent families, or belonged to a large family in the Western Continent, and that he had left that family more than a hundred years ago to come to this small town and write "The Complete Book of Magic".

These two doubts gave rise to two explanations.

First, my great-grandfather stole a core item from a Western Continent family, similar to the Shroud of Turin from Jericho, and kept it for himself before fleeing. Later, the family came after him, and he lost his life while recovering the stolen item, and his children were also implicated.

Second, my great-grandfather was the heir to an ancient dynasty, but his property was coveted by other forces. So he went into hiding in a small town, waiting for "Comers" to arrive. Unfortunately, his pursuers arrived early, robbed him of everything, and wiped out his bloodline.

Lin An believes that the key item among these items is none other than the "Complete Book of Magic".

To be precise, it is the original text of the "Mysterious Encyclopedia".

The 12-volume "Complete Book of Magic" is a collection of mystical texts written by my great-grandfather based on "first-hand materials," but the original source material for his work has mysteriously disappeared from his estate.

Regardless of whether the process was right or wrong, the Hughes family was undoubtedly persecuted. During this time, they tried to seek refuge by going abroad, changing their surname, and hiding themselves, but they still could not escape their pursuers.

There was one thing that Lin An couldn't understand: why didn't the victors take away the "Complete Book of Magic"? Instead, they let his mother inherit it.
Was it some kind of transaction between powerful families?

Perhaps they simply didn't realize it had a mysterious power that could awaken people?

The most ominous explanation is that someone wanted to use the "Complete Book of Magic" to lure out the last of the Hughes family's bloodline and wipe them out in one fell swoop...

"Lin An! You're Lin An, right?"

Lost in thought, Lin An was startled when he suddenly heard his own name called. He looked towards the person who had spoken.

This man was burly with wheat-colored skin, wearing dreadlocks with blue highlights, a short-sleeved shirt that revealed his tattooed arms and pierced belly button, ripped jeans that tightly hugged his strong thighs, and short studded boots.

"Excuse me, who are you?"

“Sandro Del Pratt, that’s a long name, just call me Sang Sang.” The young man put his arm around Lin An’s shoulder without further ado. “Dude, you’re my idol!”

Since Doris noticed him, Lin An has become a popular figure on campus and has to wear a hoodie every day to avoid being recognized.

However, Sangsang wasn't there for Doris. "What are you standing there for? Didn't we play electric guitar together at art school?" Sangsang made a gun gesture with her index finger. "I never expected to run into you here!"

Damn, this topic is jumping around too much.

Looking up from the ancient and tortuous history of his family, Lin An suddenly felt a sense of time travel when he saw this version of the son who kept up with the times and was covered in labels.

Even in the modernized year of 2038, the differences between cultures are still quite significant.

Sangsang continued to put her arm around his shoulder, gesturing with her other arm.

"Your performance at Bodehui was so exciting! I never imagined that someone in our university had such a great voice!"

"Sorry, buddy, I'm going to find the professor." Lin An ignored him.

"How can you assume my gender?" Sang Sang tossed her thin, dyed dreadlocks and put one hand on her hip. "It's true that I'm biologically female, but I'm actually a man. Also, I'm heterosexual, so don't worry about what might happen between us."

"……ah???"

Lin An's CPU was completely overheated by him, her, and it.

Your Walmart shopping bag is as complicated as the history of the Hughes family.

He got up to leave, but Sangsang called him back.

"Lin Dou!"

"What?"

“Just a shorthand. I’d like to ask you to fill in as our band’s lead singer.” Sang Sang continued, talking to herself, “Two directions, you know? That Caribbean band that’s really popular at university lately, they’re performing next week, and the posts are going viral.”

"bump!"

The office door was opened.

"Delpratt, if you make another sound, I'll throw your paper in the trash." The professor, who was furious, softened his tone when he saw Lin An. "Lin, come in. I'll tell you about the key points from the previous classes."

Sangsang immediately fell silent and walked into the office with Lin An.

The professor pushed up his thick glasses, first listing the key points of the tutoring for Lin An, and then pointing out the problems in Sang Sang's paper.

It turns out that Sangsang is Lin An's senior. This semester, she enrolled in the same Professor Emmett class as Lin An, but she missed some classes a while ago, which caused her to fall behind in the same way as Lin An.

The professor hoped that the two of them would form a study group and supervise and help each other during this period.

Aside from the initial shock, Lin An was not unable to accept it.

After all, when he applied to the University of Ann Arbor, the 42 options that popped up in the gender section had already given him a heads-up.

Moreover, although Sang Sang was a bit "avant-garde," her academic performance was surprisingly good, so the professor did not give up on her like he did with Mike.

The next day, the two arranged to meet in the library's study room.

As soon as the door opened, a strong shadow spread its wings and pounced on Lin An.

"Lin Dou!"

Lin An, having anticipated this, dodged the attack and sat down in his chair with a blank expression, turning on his computer to study.

Undeterred by being turned away, Sangsang pulled out a chair and sat down next to him, eagerly handing him a folder filled with documents.

"Don't worry, rock and roll and bands are just hobbies, they won't affect my university grades. The professor wants us to go to the museum for a field trip in a couple of days. Here, these are my prepared materials, Lin Dou."

"Don't call me Lin Dou, it makes me sound like Lindt chocolate."

"Oh, I've got it all figured out. I'll be adding two directions, and we need a catchy nickname."

Sangsang flicked the paper, revealing wild handwriting.

“I’m Sang Sang, the guitarist and backup singer; A Zhe is the drummer; Luo Ge is the bassist; and you’re the temporary lead singer, so calling you Lin Dou sounds so much better.”

Lin An took the documents and glanced at them briefly. The key points that Sang Sang had summarized were very useful and saved him a lot of effort.

In addition to this, Lin An continued to tolerate Sang Sang for another reason: in the tree diagram provided by the system, he discovered that the branches of the "God of Agriculture" medium on her body were exceptionally long.

The common people have very few mysterious archetypes, so the tree diagram is sparsely branched, and the branches extending from each medium are very short, meaning they can only awaken to the ghost story rating.

However, Sangsang's "Goddess of Agriculture" is far longer than that of ordinary people. In terms of the medium alone, it is even longer than her mother's, which shows that she contains legendary potential.

However, upon getting to know her, Lin An discovered that Sang Sang avoided the occult like the plague, and even showed some disgust.

Whenever Lin An brought up the topic, she would deliberately shift the focus and gloss over it ambiguously.

It's not ignorance, but rather a subconscious rejection and fear.

Has she recently experienced anything related to "Commerx"?
"What happened to your original lead singer?" Lin An asked casually.

"Tsk!" Sangsang fell silent, like a noisy chicken being choked. After a long while, she said, "He, she, he and I had a fight. Hey, can you join us, Lin Dou? I'll give you 50 dollars."

Is it him or her? Can't your band even come up with a complete gender? Lin An was speechless.

"It's not about money."

"$500! That's my bottom line!"

“I recommend a singer to you.” Lin An took out his phone, opened a video, and said, “His name is Sasaki Haruto. He’s using a voice changer to be a virtual singer on MyTube. Look for him.”

"We need cool guys for both directions, and you're the only one I know who's both handsome and can sing. I don't have time to look for other team members!" Sangsang waved her hands repeatedly. "Please, Lin Dou, I'll treat you to a night out... and some barbecue."

Before Lin An could reply, the phone rang. Lin An saw the contact's name, pushed Sang Sang aside with his elbow, and pressed the answer button.

"Lin, a victim of the [Ghost] has appeared."

Simon's deep voice came through.

Lin An is currently still part of his control team and needs to cooperate in carrying out missions.

The second-generation ghost is really dishonest, committing crimes under my guise every day. Lin An licked his lips.

Maybe it's good to just catch it like this, at least we won't have to keep being indirectly criticized by the foundation for being called "the ghost of Dietrich" every day.

"When will we meet up?" Lin An asked cautiously. He didn't want to return to the Foundation's facilities and be affected by the "prophet's" mystical magic again.

No, you stay where you are.

"why?"

"Because the [Ghost] is very likely at the University of Ann Arbor now."

Thank you to Luo Yu Shang Ge, Book Friend 20200205024940599, and Book Friend 20220707075238400 for the monthly tickets, and thank you all for the recommendation tickets and subscriptions.

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(End of this chapter)