Ji Ran said: "Crazy. You're really crazy. ”

The echo was full of threat, but it was hard to tell if Jiang Xiaoyun had noticed it.

"This is an ideal! It's also a faith!" he looked at Ji Ran contemptuously, "A lazy person like you naturally won't understand!"

"Then go find your Precursor!!"

Jiang Xiaoyun didn't even look at him, and went straight along the circle to point the items placed next to the numbers.

"That's a good point, but what I'm looking for is their knowledge and experience, and the secrets of what to get and leave. He paused and turned his head, as if listening to footsteps in the distance, "I felt their call. ”

His voice came from between his teeth, and his throat was mixed with strange incantation sounds, sometimes sounding like he was speaking to Ji Ran, and sometimes it sounded like he was talking to a third party in the room.

"Great ancestor, your pious descendant Jiang Xiaoyun, is here to summon you now, begging for your gift, please guide me!"

Ji Ran watched him kneel down, looked at the hysterical Jiang Xiaoyun, and a sadness welled up in his heart, he really didn't know what kind of existence that open-minded senior brother had become like this.

"Nine prints, nine doors," the shadow mask shrouded him again, "every door, every painting is actually a trial of the ancestors." ”

He was sweating from his forehead and lips, as if there was a candle burning in his body. He began to slowly walk around the circle with full concentration. Sometimes, he'd stop and bend down to change the direction of something: that rusty knife or that dragon-shaped armband.

"Guide me, O great ancestors, and the descendants will listen to your teachings!"

Ji Ran took a step towards him.

"You're really crazy!"

Jiang Xiaoyun's face still did not change, he turned his back to Ji Ran, pointed to the square drawn in the circle, and said:

"'Nine illustrations, nine trials, I've done it all and become your chosen one. ”

He bent down and bowed down again.

A candle sparked and went out, and Jiang Xiaoyun was still full of thoughts about the forerunner. He watched them closely, arms folded around his chest, chin down, like a player with a strange chessboard, pondering his next move.

"Please show me the order of the illustrations!" he muttered to himself. It seems that speaking loudly seems to keep him focused, "I want to hear your voice!"

Ji Ran does not need to crunch on these numbers to see them as true or false. The proof was on another piece of paper full of numbers on the ground.

Jiang Xiaoyun knelt in the circle, his head bowed, the sweat on his forehead reflecting the candles burning around him. He held another piece of paper in his hand, and followed the instructions of the strange symbol on it:

"In the order in the book, fill in the corresponding number box. What is that order??"

"It's done!" Jiang Xiaoyun wrote down the last word and muttered. His hands trembled, and a drop of sweat slid from his forehead to the tip of his nose, dripping on the chalk words on the floor, "Alright." ”

He knelt in a circle, surrounded by symbols, objects, and words in the squares.

His hands trembled to the point where he had to hold one hand to write, his fingers stained with ink and wax gripping the chalk tightly. He laughed like a madman, arrogant and arrogant. Ji Ran knew that he was not crazy, he knew that he was running out of time, so he took a step forward, but he didn't walk into that circle.

Jiang Xiaoyun glanced at him maliciously and said:

"Come on, Ji Ran. Don't you want to read it with me? Do you not believe it, or are you scared?" Light and shadow quickly shuttled across his face, as if the whole room was circling him, but the room was still, "The great business is about to be done!"

Ji Ran saw the book, it was a manuscript wrapped in lambskin, very old and damaged. He stooped cautiously, lest there be some trap in it, and pulled out of it the first engraving of Book No. 3, which belonged to Madame Winhando.

"Hurry! That Jiang Xiaoyun urged him in a mocking tone, "There will be nothing to lose, look in the mirror!"

Ji Ran stepped on the mirror, and the mirror made a cracking sound under the sole of his shoe.

He crushed it gently, slowly. Jiang Xiaoyun was still kneeling in the circle, with his back to Ji Ran and ignoring him. Ji Ran lowered his body and approached a candle, and burned the first engraving in his hand along with the words on its back. He watched as the painting burned between his fingers until the last ash fell to the ground, rising with the heat in the room. Then, he walked into the circle and approached Jiang Xiaoyun.

"I'm leaving!"

He was indifferent, lost in the darkness that almost completely swallowed him. Suddenly, he had an uneasy look on his face, as if something wasn't in place, and he lowered his head to correct the position of some of the items. Then, after a second of hesitation, he began to recite a series of incantations:

“jklkj huhi uhui huiuh。。。 ”

Ji Ran grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently. But Jiang Xiaoyun was indifferent, not afraid, and not defensive. He continued to move his lips, like a sleepwalker, like a martyr, fearless of the roar of a lion, or the blade of an executioner.

"I'll say it one last time, I'm leaving!"

It was useless at all, the other party's empty eyes, blind to everything in front of him. There was no expression there, just staring into the abyss underground.

Ji Ran watched in amazement as he stayed in that circle, summoning demons, ignoring Ji Ran's presence and his threat.

He only reacted a little when he was hit for the first time. Ji Ran swung his backhand towards his left cheek. This made his eyes wander around, and then he froze at a certain point in the air.

When Ji Ran hit him a second time, a bloodshot came out of the corner of his mouth. Ji Ran retracted his bloodstained hand in disgust, as if it was stuck to something sticky and wet. After taking a few deep breaths and counting ten, he gritted his teeth and continued to hit him. Blood flowed from the bookseller's half-open mouth. He continued to mumble the incantation, an inexplicable smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. Ji Ran grabbed him by the collar and brutally tried to drag him out of the circle.

At this time, Jiang Xiaoyun let out a furious cry like a suffering animal. Ji Ran dragged him out of the circle three times, and he stubbornly sat back again. After the third time, Ji Ran saw blood dripping on the words of those symbols and illustrations.

“jklkj huhi uhui huiuh。。。 ”

What's not quite right. By the flickering candlelight, Ji Ran watched him stop and hesitantly inspect the location of the item. Then he touched the square on the ground and recited the incantation.