Illusions, Lies, Truth

Side Story: Lu Yang’s Cell Phone Records

Translator: purplezero (proofread by Trespasserby & Arcedemius; C/E edited by lucathia)

[Note from Yu Wo’s blog entry]

Please note that this is a manhua script.

Thus, the details of a few demons, items, and scenes are conveyed with different methods.

In addition to that, some supplementary notes are kept whereas others are deleted. Because of this, reading it may not be as smooth as reading a regular, complete literary work.

Originally, I wasn’t planning to post this. But because the other story, Eliminate, serves as a continuation of this one, it will be difficult to read the other story without this one.

So there was no choice XD, I had to post it all. Hopefully, no one will have too hard a time reading it.

Every so often, a sound could be heard from the hallway outside the door. A child (Lu Yang) was tossing and turning around in his bed. He had buried his entire head under the pillow and was taking great effort to ignore the sounds. Although it wasn’t loud, it was quite penetrating, traveling to every corner, relentlessly burrowing straight into one’s ears.

The child turned a few times before he tossed away his cotton comforter. He was a child about ten years old with brown hair and green eyes. His features were more intense than a typical Asian’s. With one look, you could tell that he was of mixed descent. He was rather beautiful.

He crawled up reluctantly and rubbed his eyes. He looked at the alarm clock near the side of the bed. It was 3 o’clock in the morning.

He then looked at the bed next to him. It was empty.

“Daddy? Mom?”

No one responded. The child’s face soured. He had been left alone in a hotel room again.

He climbed off the bed and tilted his head to listen carefully to where exactly the weird sounds were coming from. He then realized that they did not seem to be inside the room. The young child then found his slippers and walked out of the room with a soft pitter-patter.

It was the middle of the night, and there wasn’t anyone in the hotel’s hallway. The night lights were barely on. It was quite dark. The last light at the far end of the hallway appeared to be broken. It was flashing nonstop, off and on, accompanied by a weird, rustling sound.

Not only was the child not afraid of the dark, perhaps due to the naiveté of his youth, he actually disregarded the darkness of the hallway and strode toward the noises. Just as he turned the corner, he saw a human shadow near the elevator’s door.

It was a human shadow, but it didn’t exactly look like one, either. The other party’s posture was quite strange, the entire body plastered against the ground. The upper half of the body appeared to be quite normal with distinguishable arms and a head. But as for the lower half of the body where the legs should be, there was only a small shadow…

The child stood where he was without making a sound, but the shadow had already taken notice of him. The shadow lifted its head up and used its arms to support the body, slowly crawling toward him out of the darkness. The lower half of the body, which was out of proportion with the rest, wasn’t legs at all but a pile of intestines!

Perhaps the child was frightened silly, as he watched on as the person with only half a body left slowly moved closer, dragging its intestines and leaving a trail of blood.

“Legs… I want legs…

“The elevator took my legs…”

The person with half a body crawled toward the child’s feet. Although the lower half of her body was left with only knots of intestines and organs, the upper half was still a pretty woman. She was even wearing the uniform of an elevator operator. She smiled, as if she were asking a guest what floor they would like, and said, “Little boy, why don’t you give me your legs—ouch!”

The child kicked her right in the face and snarled, “So noisy! Can’t you let people sleep?”

A strange creature was crawling on the Year 1 – Class A sign. Upon first glance, it looked like a mosquito, but it was about the size of a palm with a body that wasn’t an insect’s but a little tiny human’s. The eyes were completely black. It grabbed the classroom sign and opened its mouth filled with tiny sharp teeth to bite and gnaw the plastic sign with a vengeance.

Bang—

With one hand, he smacked the strange creature as if he were smacking a mosquito, transforming it into a splatter of blood. It slowly became translucent and then disappeared without a trace.

While Lu Yang’s mouth was gnawing on bread, one of his hands held his cell phone, and his thumb flew over it, typing the following: 8:00 A.M, Smacked an illusionary familiar to death. Description: a mosquito person.

Looking at the stains from the illusionary familiar on his left hand, he thought about whether or not to go wash his hand in the restroom. But the bell rang, and the thought of washing his hand disappeared. It wasn’t good to be late on the first day of high school.

He shrugged his shoulders. “There won’t be any germs anyway.”

As soon as he walked into the classroom, Lu Yang knitted his brows. The classroom was filled with illusionary familiars. Although illusionary familiars were always numerous, the amount in the classroom was abnormal. With one glance, he saw that there were at least over ten small creatures that were flying, crawling, or climbing. Luckily, there wasn’t anything big.

Why are there so many? Although Lu Yang was puzzled, his puzzlement didn’t appear on his face. At the moment, too many of classmates were taking note of him. It wasn’t the best timing to look around carelessly.

Lu Yang was used to being the center of attention. After all, his mixed blood appearance attracted a lot of attention. He gave each of his new classmates a smile.

He walked over to a desk and looked at the huge, human-faced spider that was on the chair. He smiled slightly and sat his buttocks right down on it. When he lifted his head up, his classmate in the next seat over was staring at him with wide eyes—to be accurate, he was staring at his butt.

Lu Yang touched his lips in thought and wondered if he was a practitioner that could see, or if he was a guy who had an interest in his classmate’s butt.

He smiled and said, “Hello, I’m Lu Yang.”

The other party was startled and hurried to move his eyes. He rushed to say, “Hello.” He then turned his head, but it was as if he felt that that wasn’t right. He turned his head back and rushed to add, “I’m… Jiang Ziya.”

Lu Yang tilted his head and felt that the name was super familiar, but he couldn’t think of where he had heard it before.

“Have we met before? Your name sounds very familiar.”

Jiang Ziya slowly turned around. It was the first time anyone had had such a response upon hearing his name. However, with one look at Lu Yang’s appearance, he understood why.

“Are you a foreigner?”

Lu Yang pursed his lips and said, “Of course not. I’m Taiwanese born and bred, homie! Want me to start speaking in Taiwanese?”

Yet you never heard of Jiang Ziya? “…Have you heard of Grand Duke Jiang?”

“No.”

“Investiture of the Gods?1”

“?”

“Shang Dynasty? Grand Duke is fishing, and all who wish will willingly take the hook?2”

“???”

Jiang Ziya felt defeated. His mouth twitched as he said, “I just have the same name as a historical figure.”

“Oh. My history isn’t good.” Lu Yang admitted straightforwardly. In fact, he wasn’t good in any subject. Luckily, the required grades for public high schools weren’t high.

Not only is your history bad, you don’t even read manga or watch anime, do you? Even if you know nothing, at least watch TV…

Jiang Ziya was a little speechless. He wanted to ridicule the other party a bit but saw that several classmates were showing a lot of interest in Lu Yang. They seemed to want to speak with him. He hesitated and decided against saying anything. He simply smiled and turned around to his own desk to continue to read his borrowed library books.

In response, Lu Yang could only leave it at that. He turned around and chatted with a few of his classmates until the teacher came in late. When he threw a few glances at his classmate, Jiang Ziya, he saw a winged egg on top of the book that he was reading. The other party didn’t react one bit toward it.

Was he really interested in my butt then? Lu Yang was so amused by his own thoughts that he almost laughed out loud. This caused a few of his classmates to look at him weirdly. He then hurried to divert his attention back to the chatter. He didn’t want to mess up relations right on the first day of high school.

Jiang Ziya forcibly flipped the page. The egg flipped over from the force and fell off the desk to the floor. However, it didn’t take long for the small thing with wings to flap its wings and fly right back up. It stubbornly stopped on top of the pages.

He sighed quietly.

After that, there should be a few frames picturing various classroom scenes.

Such as Lu Yang joking around with his classmates, bringing a basketball to play with everyone. He’s absolutely a popular guy.

On the other hand, Jiang Ziya quietly sits in the corner of the classroom as he does his written assignments. He’s a reclusive student who leaves right after class ends.

This should convey the differences between them and the passage of time.

“Lu Yang, want to eat dinner with us? And later go sing karaoke?”

“Since it’s the weekend, and there’s no class tomorrow.”

“Let’s go!”

Inside the classroom, a few classmates really wanted to be able to invite Lu Yang. With his mixed blood hot looks, if Lu Yang came, then it would be a piece of cake to invite a few more girls.

Lu Yang declined with a smile. “No, I need to go home for dinner, or else my grandpa will kill me.”

After saying goodbye to his disappointed classmates, he took out his smartphone. Nowadays, many students had this kind of thing, but there probably weren’t many who used their phones to the fullest like he did. First, he checked his scheduled jobs on his calendar, then his emails for any new jobs, and confirmed that his previous money transfers had already landed in his bank account…

“Tonight’s job requires waiting till midnight. Should I return home for dinner first? Ah, forget it. Home is too far away from the assignment. I’ll find something to eat along the way.”

He put away his cell phone and found a random noodle shop. He entered and sat down.

“Gimme a bowl of beef noodles and slice up some dried tofu and pig’s ears—“

“Didn’t you say you’re going home for dinner?”

“Of course, that was a lie… Ah?” Lu Yang started and when he lifted his head up, he actually saw his classmate, Jiang Ziya. He was holding a menu and wore an apron around his waist. With one look, one could tell that he was a waiter at this shop.

Lu Yang, in deep thought, said, “No wonder you leave right after class. You’re hurrying to your job.”

After class and during lunch breaks, Jiang Ziya was always either reading a book or doing his assignments. After school, he would immediately leave. Lu Yang never had a chance to approach him. It was already the second semester of their first year of high school and yet, he hadn’t confirmed whether the other person was a practitioner.

But, to be working in a noodle shop, he probably isn’t a practitioner…

Lu Yang shook his head. It was hard to tell since there were all kinds of practitioners. There were even those that liked to beg on the streets, so it was completely normal to work at a noodle shop!

Jiang Ziya, minding his own business, said, “This shop’s beef tastes terrible. You should order wonton noodles and instead of dried tofu, have some seaweed. After that, you should add a plate of steamed vegetables.”

“Hey hey! What kind of waiter completely changes their customer’s order? I’m filing a complaint!”

Jiang Ziya waved the menu. “I’m helping your health.”

“At least, leave me the pig’s ears!”

“The shop’s pig’s ears are three days old.”

“…Thank you for looking after my health.”

“Not a problem.”

Jiang Ziya turned to put in the order. However, through the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a little black shadow brazenly scuttling around the table’s edge.

Another cockroach? Perhaps, it was time to change jobs. Working at this kind of shop, he felt sorry for the customers every time they ordered!

With great practice, he grabbed the newspaper from the side and smacked it. With a “slap,” it hit the mark right on. Jiang Ziya felt nauseous as he lifted the newspaper to take a look. He then became stunned.

The newspaper was clean, as if nothing was there, but he had clearly hit the mark.

Had he taken one of “those things” as real again?

Jiang Ziya stiffened but pretended to calmly throw the newspaper into the garbage can like he had actually just taken care of a cockroach.

Did anyone notice? He worriedly turned his head to look.

Lu Yang grinned, his teeth so white he could star in a toothpaste commercial, and purposely used his index and middle fingers to point at his eyes and then at Jiang Ziya. His face, filled with glee, indicated that “he had seen.”

“….”

The two walked down the street.

“I just saw wrong. I thought it was a cockroach, so I tried to smack it. It ended up being nothing.”

Jiang Ziya pretended to be calm as he explained things.

The owner of the white teeth had forcefully stayed until the shop closed, hanging on with his order of a few small dishes and a drink. Jiang Ziya, whose shift had ended, saw the lump of meat that was his classmate blocking the shop’s door. Without anything more he could do, he obediently followed him and attempted to see if he could find a reasonable excuse.

Lu Yang’s expression was one of disbelief as he said, “I’ve actually already taken notice of you. You always look at places with nothing, as if there’s something there.”

Jiang Ziya was petrified. “That’s just me staring blankly.”

“Nonsense, your eyeballs were moving at the time. You were certainly following something that can move! Sometimes, you even use your hand to flick away something that doesn’t exist, or use a book to sweep it away. Am I right?”

Hearing that, Jiang Ziya looked skeptically at Lu Yang. He was beginning to believe that he had really made too many mistakes and drawn the suspicion of his classmate.

But Lu Yang actually hadn’t seen anything. He couldn’t have always stared at Jiang Ziya. It wasn’t like he had a crush on him. Someone could easily notice that he was staring if he did it! He only brought up the actions he would use to take care of those harmless illusionary familiars and was betting to see if Jiang Ziya had done the same before.

Jiang Ziya became silent for a while and then said, “My left eye can see weird things.”

“Only your left eye can see them?” Lu Yang questioned in detail.

Jiang Ziya’s left eye had a patch of blue. Lu Yang had discovered that much earlier. It was probably a mutation and the reason why Jiang Ziya was able to see illusionary familiars.

Jiang Ziya looked suspiciously at Lu Yang. He felt that the other person’s reaction was a little weird…

Lu Yang rushed to say, “Your left eye has a patch of blue. I thought this may be the reason?”

Jiang Ziya nodded. “I think so too.”

Lu Yang muttered to himself. It looked like he wasn’t a practitioner, just that his eye had mutated and could see. If that was the case, he couldn’t drag the other person into his world.

He immediately helped the other person find an excuse. “Perhaps, this is the legendary ghost-seeing eye!”

Jiang Ziya immediately shook his head. “Most of the things I see aren’t ghosts. A lot of them are unfathomable mysteries. You probably won’t believe me if I tell you.”

You can see that clearly? Lu Yang knitted his brows and felt that the situation that his classmate was in wasn’t good.

Normally, “ghosts” were the most often seen because people usually believed in the existence of ghosts. Thus, it was the easiest to see illusionary familiars or artifact demons that had a ghost’s appearance. On the other hand, it was difficult for people to see small illusionary familiars that had nothing to do with ghosts, yet he said that most of them weren’t ghosts. That wasn’t good.

“What have you seen before? It wouldn’t hurt to tell me, right? I promise I won’t laugh at you.”

Jiang Ziya hesitated for a bit and sneakily pointed out a few spots along the street and talked about what was there.

The more Lu Yang listened, the more he felt that this classmate was in trouble. He saw way too clearly. However, Lu Yang widened his eyes, and he put on an expression of disbelief.

“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.” Jiang Ziya insipidly finished talking. He shut his mouth and returned to being the invisible person in class who did not interact with others.

Lu Yang couldn’t help but blurt, “I believe you!”

It was only when he saw Jiang Ziya’s surprised look that Lu Yang inwardly yelped. He should have said that he didn’t believe him. That way, he would doubt the existence of the illusionary familiars, and as time passed, he might stop being able to see them.

But seeing Jiang Ziya’s surprised yet somewhat hopeful expression, Lu Yang couldn’t say that he didn’t believe him.

“In this vast world, what is impossible? I uphold the belief that this world has gods, ghosts, and aliens!” Lu Yang then warned, “But, it’s best that you don’t tell others that you are able to see those things. Not every person is like me, who has such magnificent acceptance.”

Jiang Ziya laughed. “It’s good if you have such a great acceptance. I think you’re just the perfect fat lamb that scam companies love! Believing in anything!”

Lu Yang wanted to retort, but the phone in his pocket suddenly made a noise. It wasn’t an incoming call but a reminder that he had set.

It was time for work.

Lu Yang purposely looked at his phone and then told Jiang Ziya reluctantly, “I need to return home now. If I don’t, I’m dead meat.”

He offhandedly hailed a cab.

Jiang Ziya knitted his brows. Why does it feel like the taxi stopped beside us before Lu Yang even hailed it?

After getting in the car, Lu Yang rolled the windows down and said, “See you Monday. Tell me more about those things then.”

Jiang Ziya nodded but suddenly turned his head to look at the taxi driver. He then knitted his brows.

“Bye!” Lu Yang hurriedly said and then urged the taxi driver to leave quickly.

Only when the car left was Lu Yang able to breathe a sigh of relief. He took out his phone to jot down: 1st year, second semester. Discovered that Jiang Ziya has the ability to see illusions. Need to assess whether or not his left eye’s ability can be sealed.

At this time, the taxi driver turned his head around without moving his body at all. His entire neck turned 180 degrees. He smiled while asking, “Xiao Yang, are you returning to the temple or going to work?”

“Work.” Lu Yang pulled up the information on the job. He had originally wanted to look at the information while eating, but he had unexpectedly run into Jiang Ziya. Thus, he could only cram it in right now.

“If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have said anything about aliens. I said it and now it’s real!”

Lu Yang looked at the pictures of the scene that the job requester had sent over. Suddenly, his head hurt so much that it might as well be swollen to the point of making him an alien. This really wasn’t his specialty. Why couldn’t he just happily cut down demons?

He really hated Hollywood.

They made a lot of random and strange movies, resulting in a lot of random and strange things.

(In the last frame, please make an atmosphere of “engaging in battle”)

The car stopped. Lu Yang got out of the taxi. In front of him was a dismal, dark building. He then called out Slay (his sword. Please refer to the designs in the novel). The final scene is of the location, with him stepping into the dismal, dark building.

Luckily, no matter how strange something was, he could always take care of it by slaying it.