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

Chapter 469

The air inside the car suddenly became incredibly cold.

The car stereo, which was playing soothing classical music, suddenly emitted a static sound, followed by a dark and eerie nursery rhyme.

"Mommy, please tell me something... something that little kids should know... it's a story about the devil..."

The monotonous, almost arrhythmic singing made the already chilly environment even colder.

Moreover, William and Harry suddenly found that it was as if a strange filter had been added to their surroundings.

"What the hell is this..."

Harry's voice had lost its previous strength; this was the first time the pampered prince had encountered such a bizarre and terrifying situation.

"It's normal to be afraid."

Compared to his brother, Prince William was much calmer after experiencing the building attack.

He took a deep breath and continued.

"Can the communication radio be used?"

"No, no, no... I don't know..."

The driver stammered as he spoke.

The eerie singing coming from the car stereo proves that the strange entity ahead has the ability to interfere with electromagnetic waves, making it unlikely that the phone will be usable under these circumstances.

"Don't get off the bus."

William pressed down on his brother's trembling shoulders.

"These things aren't as scary as you think..."

…………

"These things are not as terrible as they seem."

"But it seems like my ribs were... broken!"

Benjamin, enduring excruciating pain, slowly backed away, facing the strange object that had suddenly appeared.

He knew very well that Jamie, who had survived countless paranormal events, was his last hope for survival. Even though he was in so much pain that his mind was blurred, he had to convey the message accurately.

"This could be a smokescreen!"

Jamie's tone on the other end of the phone was very calm, seemingly unaffected by his friend's cries of pain, but in reality, he spoke extremely fast, so fast that you couldn't even hear him taking a breath between sentences.

"You must listen carefully to what I am about to say."

"Listen carefully, no matter what the situation, you must suppress your inner fear. Once your will wavers drastically, you will truly become a lamb to the slaughter."

"If the other party really had the ability to kill you directly, they could have done it right away, and you would have lost your life in that instant."

"But you're still alive, do you understand what I mean!"

"……clear."

Benjamin naturally trusted his friend Jamie completely, but that was all too real.

Each breath, tinged with the smell of blood, was accompanied by a tearing pain in his chest and lungs.

"Now keep your pace and keep walking forward, taking a lighter out of your pocket as you go. Burn your fingertips."

"This is the best way for ordinary people to break free from illusions. Not only because of the real pain, but also because the presence of fire itself can dispel darkness and cold."

Benjamin immediately did as Jamie said.

The moment the lighter's flame touched his fingertips, he felt the pain in his chest suddenly subside, and even the sticky, bloody taste in his mouth dissipated somewhat.

"Wow..."

The once quiet world suddenly erupted into noise; the wind, falling leaves, and distant car horns all rushed toward Benjamin.

Benjamin suddenly gasped for breath, like someone who had nearly drowned at the bottom of the sea finally surfacing.

Looking ahead, there was no sign of the female corpse.

"What exactly is going on? How did you know it was a smokescreen?"

After the phantom pain disappeared, Benjamin spoke fluently again, but he couldn't care less about that; he only wanted to know the underlying principles. "Evil spirits are different from demons. Most of them are not powerful enough to directly interfere with reality. All they can do is constantly use illusions to interfere with the victim's cognition, driving them to self-destruction in madness."

"And if you really break a bone, I can hear the sound of the bone breaking."

Sound travels extremely fast through solids, the ribs are very close to the head, and the phone is in contact with the head the entire time during a call.

In a completely silent environment, it is possible for someone with a sensitive hearing to hear a sound.

But the problem is...

"Just how enhanced is your hearing to the point that you can do something like this?"

"I don't know. To be honest, I'm a little uneasy about the changes in me. I don't know if it's good or bad."

Jamie was silent for a moment on the other end of the phone before finally speaking again.

"That's a bit of a tangent. Are there any strange signs around you now?"

Benjamin looked up and saw the faint headlights of cars in the distance, as well as a couple walking towards him from the opposite direction, feeling the cool evening breeze.

"No."

"It seems the other party has realized you are no ordinary person and cannot bring about your own destruction through illusions. They have retreated for now."

"However, the question is, why were you suddenly attacked? Did you pick up any lingering curses from the deceased while investigating the scene?"

"Impossible, I dodged it and made sure I wasn't hit."

"Think again……"

Benjamin was taken aback.

He was attacked almost simultaneously after leaving the crime scene.

That means you might have been locked out much earlier.

Could it be the police station?

wrong……

Benjamin suddenly remembered what had happened to Prince William and his group that afternoon.

This should be the biggest unexpected event of the day.

But the royal family would never harm its own citizens, much less use curses as a means.

Besides them, there was only one other school bus at the scene that had rear-ended them.

School bus.

"The murders all occurred near relatively busy streets, so the object carrying the curse is very likely to be constantly moving on nearby roads."

"Old John is a school bus driver in the neighborhood, responsible for picking up and dropping off the children at school."

"His relatives recently died in a large fire..."

Benjamin's eyes glazed over, and he blankly asked the question on the other end of the phone.

"Jamie, have there been any major fires in London recently?"

"Fire? I only know of one, at a spiritual retreat in London, where a group of believers gathered, an organization called the Bridge Builders Church. I suspect Su Fan started this fire. Because this so-called Bridge Builders Church is a branch of the cult."

After a brief pause, Jamie realized something was wrong.

"Have you noticed something?"

"Yes. I think I know exactly how the vessel of the curse moved through the city."

Benjamin took a deep breath and recounted all his experiences and speculations.

"Perhaps we were wrong from the very beginning."

"Before evildoers commit evil, no one can discover their true nature. The followers of the cult are not ugly monsters, but ordinary people who look no different from you and me, and who you might even pass by on the street."

"Perhaps today, perhaps yesterday, or perhaps tomorrow... People, whether familiar or strangers, may suddenly become fanatical believers at some point in time..."

(End of this chapter)