I'm an antique shop owner, so it's reasonable for me to know some magic

Chapter 384: Truth, Falsehood, and Golden Light
The former did not say anything to try to keep the other person, but just watched him walk away quietly.

Su Fan had watched a very famous movie in his previous life, called "Manchester by the Sea".

The male protagonist Li once had a very happy family.

But after getting drunk at a party, a fire broke out in the house and the two children were killed in the flames.

Li concluded that the fire was caused by him forgetting to put up the fireproof board after adding firewood into the stove before leaving, and that he was fully responsible.

But the police think it was just an accident and no one can be perfect all the time.

Everyone expressed sympathy for the distraught man.

But Li didn't think so. He silently snatched the police's gun and pulled the trigger without hesitation, pointing it at his head.

If the gun's safety had not been on, the bullet would have penetrated his head and taken his life.

The others tried desperately to prevent the tragedy, but they also took away his only chance of escape.

Because since then, he has been living a numb life like a robot with missing parts.

No socializing, no romantic encounters, and stuck in the past.

His wife, who had once suffered as much as he did, finally started a new family and a new life.

After meeting again, seeing Li like this, the ex-wife couldn't help but shed tears.

She knew what kind of hell that was because she had tried her best to escape from there, but she didn't expect Li to stand still and refuse to seek redemption.

As a former lover, she hoped that Li could let him go.

But he couldn't get out of it; he didn't want to, didn't deserve it, and couldn't.

Just like the man who left before him.

The heavy burden of the past was on his back, hunching his strong figure.

but……

Su Fan withdrew his gaze.

The wind blew up the dead leaves on the ground, and when they fell again, the figure standing there had disappeared.
-
After saying goodbye to the young man, James turned and left the woods the same way he came.

After going to the town and roughly determining his location, he went to an inn as his place of residence.

Neither the car nor the credit cards were lost, but I had no idea how I got here.

Time seemed to be cut and pieced together again by something.

This extremely inharmonious confusion made him toss and turn in bed, unable to fall asleep.

Finally, he got up from the bed and fumbled for the cigarette box and lighter in his jacket on the bedside.

The sudden flame lit the cigarette, and as the smoke inhaled and exhaled, the faint spark slowly moved backwards in the darkness.

At this moment, James' body suddenly paused and his muscles tensed.

There was a heavy and slow sound of footsteps outside the door, coming closer and closer, heading directly towards the room where he was.

[On the first day, you will hear his footsteps...]

The legend about the empty man suddenly flashed in James' mind. He turned over and got up from the bed, took out the dagger he carried with him for self-defense, held it upright, approached the door little by little, and slowly lay down.

Through the crack in the door, you can vaguely see the other person's shadow under the moonlight.

That unknown existence seemed like it would break in at any time.

James' heartbeat quickened, adrenaline pumping.

He stood up slowly and then opened the door suddenly.

But the corridor in front of him was empty, there was no one at all.

The man's tense nerves suddenly relaxed and he felt a sense of weakness.

He was sure that there was something standing at the door just now, but now it seemed that it had no intention of approaching immediately.

Combining the content of the legend of Kongren, it is not difficult to guess that the other party should appear completely in front of him on the third day.

A vague sense of oppression loomed in James' heart.

He was no longer sleepy, so he simply put on his clothes and walked out of the hotel.

The front desk staff had disappeared and the entire lobby was empty.

In this environment, James subconsciously slowed down his steps.

At the same time, shouts were heard from not far away. Looking in the direction of the sound, somewhere outside the glass door, flames were shooting into the sky, as if someone was holding a bonfire party.

But unlike any other party filled with laughter and joy, their voices were in unison, as if they were chanting a certain name in unison.

“%￥#@%￥”

James walked out of the hotel and headed towards the direction of the fire.

After crossing a floating bridge and arriving at a small island in the middle of the lake, he finally saw the true face of the bonfire party.

Many dark shadows were walking around the fire in unison.

As they shouted, the fire seemed to begin to extend, spreading towards the sky like tentacles, as if to connect the ground beneath their feet with the endless starry sky.

James looked up, and the stars in the sky began to spin. The stars cast white rays of light, and the night sky trembled, as if the sky was about to fall.

Realizing that he was going insane again, he shook his head violently and prepared to leave.

Suddenly, the shouting that had been going on not far away stopped.

Sensing something was wrong, he turned his head and looked behind him, only to see that the bright bonfire had gone out at some point.

Many figures also stopped walking and stared at him not far away.

The collective malice was so obvious that it seemed to be solidifying into substance.

James instinctively took a step back, and the crowd on the opposite side moved closer.

After a brief pause, the former turned around and ran without any hesitation!

And behind him, many figures did the same.

They let out inhuman roars and quickly approached James using their hands and feet!

Suddenly, heavy rain came pouring down and blazing white lightning split the night sky.

At this moment, James turned around hastily and saw those distorted human figures wading quickly across the lake and coming towards him!

Ordinary people would have been terrified after seeing this scene. James had been a policeman after all, so his legs and feet were not so weak that he could not move, but his hair stood on end.

The rain blurred his vision and he could no longer tell the direction. He could only drive his legs frantically to prevent them from stopping.

I don’t know how long it took, but there was light in the darkness.

James didn't have time to think about it. He almost exploded all the potential of his body and rushed towards the light.

"boom!"

The disheveled and wet figure knocked open the glass door and fell to the ground, but not long after, he quickly stood up and looked around vigilantly.

This place looked like a hospital. The air was filled with the smell of disinfectant. Apart from the empty hall, there was only a nurse on duty who was staring at him in surprise.

Heaven and hell seemed to be separated only by a big door. James looked back and saw nothing in the darkness outside, as if the believers who had just chased him were just a dream.

"Are you here to visit the patient as well?"

The nurse at the front desk suddenly spoke up.

James looked confused.

"I'm not here to visit a patient, I'm just..."

"There's no need to open the door so hard when you come to visit a patient. He's been here for almost a year, and he won't be transferred to another hospital suddenly."

The nurse looked at James and spoke again.

"That person has been in a coma for twenty years, and every once in a while young people come to visit him."

"If you want to see him, just go down the corridor and turn right."

James stood up and glanced at the nurse.

There was nothing unusual on her face, but the words she said did not make sense in the conversation.

It's like a pre-set dialogue NPC. No matter what you ask, she will only respond in this way.

The purpose of everything is to direct the target to a specific place.

James did not continue to talk to the nurse, but walked step by step towards the ward she mentioned. There, he saw a familiar figure.

The girl was wearing a backless dress, as if she was preparing to attend a grand dinner party.

But even though she was dressed so gorgeously, she was just helping the man lying on the hospital bed trim his beard.

"Amanda."

James couldn't believe that the girl he had been looking for was now in front of him.

"Aren't you... in the church?"

"Yes, it's just that I'm here now."

Amanda didn't seem surprised by James' arrival. She was calmly trimming the unconscious man's long beard with scissors, focusing and being patient.

"Who is he?"

"do not know."

Amanda replied softly.

"This person is nothing more than a carrier. He can receive modulated signals and then spread them to the believers of the church. And this signal, like a virus, is contagious."

“Everyone he touches will feel the hollow man and become his believer.”

"You're crazy."

James' heart sank.

What he worried about finally happened. The girl had been completely bewitched by the cult.

If Amanda were to be seen by the young man she had met before, her life would be in danger.

He immediately took out his cell phone and called his mother Nora.

"Nora, it's me, James. I've found Amanda, and she's now..."

"Excuse me... sir. What are you talking about? Amanda? James? Do we know each other? You must have the wrong number."

A woman's voice came from the other end of the phone, which made James freeze in place.

But before he could ask further questions, the hang-up notification sound came from his ears.

Amanda turned her back to James and gave him a weird smile.

"What exactly is going on?!"

James questioned, his face full of anger and disbelief.

But Amanda did not answer his question, but continued with her previous narration.

"The human body cannot withstand that kind of power for a long time. This body has reached its limit. So we need a brand new carrier to serve as a medium between us and the empty man."

"Before him, the first natural carrier appeared five hundred years ago. We couldn't wait that long, so we decided to make our own carrier."

At this moment, James felt as if a bullet had pierced his chest. His body was out of control and he staggered backwards.

The wall supported his body, but it didn't bring any improvement.

Because at this moment, his ears were filled with tiny and meaningless whispers, sometimes far away, sometimes near.

"It's very uncomfortable, isn't it? But it doesn't matter, it will pass soon."

"What's wrong with me……"

James had never felt so uncomfortable before. It seemed as if he had to concentrate all his will to speak.

"The will of the hollow man is squeezing your consciousness out of your body. Give up resistance."

Amanda walked forward, bent down, and looked down at the poor man in front of her.

“Only by disconnecting from this false reality can we connect with the truly powerful truth.”

James fought hard, banging his head against the wall to keep his sanity.

His mind was filled with maddening whispers that threatened to destroy his sanity.

It was only the obsession in his heart and the memories of the past that were trying to support him.

However, the words coming from above completely shattered all of this.

"Do you think I don't know about the things between you and my mom? Not only do I know, but I made those things happen."

"It was me who wrote that incident into your script, because all your experiences were caused by me."

The girl told all his secrets accurately, and then smiled gently and kindly.

She looked at James, but her eyes were as if she was a mother looking at her child.

"Your actual birthday is not April 1975, 4, but a month ago."

"You are a child created by our church together. We summoned you from nothingness."

"You are our Tupa, our empty man."

“Consciousness + focus + time = physical body.”

Amanda squatted down and gently placed her hand on James's face, which was struggling in pain.

The latter immediately understood everything.

Why did the professor act as if he knew him and said things like "I hope you can stay a little longer this time" when they were in church?

Why does he always have headaches and dizziness after the car accident?

After understanding all this, tears welled up in James' eyes.

Everything is false.

A person in pain still has memories to comfort him, but everything he has is fabricated.

Even the name James does not belong to him.

He was born to be a container for aliens. The actions of his body and the emotions in his heart were all controlled by others.

Like a puppet on a stage.

"We tried this once before, but it failed because the signals He sent could only reach us through the cracks created by sadness, pain and guilt."

"And fear is what we were missing, so we created you."

"The most painful thing in your life is the death of your wife and son, and your deepest fear is what you experienced in the past two days..."

"Now, all conditions are ripe. You, who were born from thought, are no different from normal humans. You are capable of shouldering the destiny of a vessel."

A look of heartache appeared on Amanda's face, which had not yet lost its childishness. She reached out and hugged the stiff and tense man in her arms.

"You look so miserable...it breaks my heart. You're like a child to me."

"Give up. Giving up will be easier."

At this moment, James appeared in a room with only a chair.

The moment his eyes met the chair, the scene of himself sitting on it with a dull expression emerged in his mind.

The next second, he was in the cave where the cold wind was howling.

A faint light came from above, illuminating a corner of the huge skeleton.

It looks like a human, but has twenty fingers, densely intertwined with each other and placed in front of the chest, as if it is playing some kind of long musical instrument.

Suddenly, one of the skeleton's fingers moved, and it peeled off from the rock wall, transforming into a tall figure in a tattered cloak, coming towards James!

He turned around and tried to run away, but he heard the girl's whispers in his ears.

"Give up resistance, give up..."

"It's all fake, isn't it?"

James retracted the step he had taken, closed his eyes and waited for the moment when the black cloaked figure would completely consume him.

But after waiting for a long time, there was no change. In confusion, he opened his eyes.

But he saw the figure in the tattered black cloak stop in his tracks.

And between himself and the other party, a golden light appeared without his knowledge.

A young man chuckled.

"Why should we be sad about losing such a tragic past? Isn't it good to make a fortune?"

(End of this chapter)