"Holy fuck." Wu Xiaoming woke up on his bed, his heartbeat was still elevated, and he had sweated more than usual. It was a bizarre curse, or debuff, and to his surprise and horror it followed him into this physical realm.
But on another thought, this might be another warning to him - that he needed to be careful when exploring in the ethereal realm, that his "status" would not be cleared just by exiting the realm in certain circumstances.
The sky was still gray, though the sun was visible when he looked out the window. He stood up, stretched and took a shower.
It definitely helped quite a lot, he could barely feel the soreness in his muscles and the strain on his lungs and heart when he got out of the bathroom. The time was already 6:03 AM, there was no good reason for checking the ethereal realm at this time, so he just got dressed and ready to head out.
"I'm sorry, Xiaoming, things are taking a bit longer here, so I might not be able to come home today or tomorrow. Hopefully I can go back the day after tomorrow. Are you doing alright? Let me know if you need anything and I can ask some friends to help you. Or ask Douglass if he's not busy."
"I also paid off your balance and raised the limit on your credit card. You've been really cautious with your spending, I am really happy and proud. But still, don't spend too much on those 'anti-evil' items, they're almost always scams. Just make sure you keep up the careful spending, okay? Take care!"
Two messages from his father. And also, apparently the credit card he had been using, which he had assumed was his own, was actually a child card of his father's.
Current currencies: 24992 Spirit Fragments, 130 Vision Slivers.
The fat humanoid creature dropped less than 600 Spirit Fragments, and 3 Vision Slivers. Not bad, but still not really worth it, with all the stench, the instant fattening curse and the disgusting content inside the creature.
For a quick breakfast, he had three boiled eggs and five slices of toast. He was still hungry when he went out the door, but he was not leaving just yet, simply because he wanted to check the egg he buried by the road.
It had been only one night, but the egg was already quite dirty, and noticeably lighter than before.
He stood by the kitchen sink, picked a bowl and knocked the egg against the edge of the bowl.
A foul stench arose the moment he broke the egg in the bowl. The whole egg was contaminated with some kind of black ink-like substance, leaving barely any white or yellow.
A bad sign, very bad sign. Wu Xiaoming mumbled to himself, and dumped the egg down the drain. He then checked all the other eggs in the house, fortunately, none of them showed the same sign of contamination.
Still, he needed to act soon, for nothing and no one could guarantee to him that the Fengshui derived aura could hold against the unclean entities/energy sent his way by the forces inside the Sproutlinger Hotel.
Inside of his backpack, he put his soapberry wood staff, which, just in the ethereal realm, would remain glowing for quite a while after being enchanted by golden light, one canister of black dog urine, one pouch of cinnamon bark, one pouch of dried sage leaves. He intentionally left some room in the backpack, so that he could buy something from Zhuge's Store. Aside from these necessities, he also brought a mobile charger, a flashlight, a pen and a notebook - for him to make talismans if he needed to.
Unfortunately, the store wasn't open when he got there. He checked again on his phone - the place would only open at 11:30 AM, which meant he still had more than four and a half hours to wait.
"Hell - fucking stupid." Wu Xiaoming smacked himself on the forehead as he sipped from his coffee mug. The store was not open, so he could only either wait here idly, or go around town to try his luck at some other stores. Only - all the other stores were closed for now as well, the earliest opening time was 10:30 AM, and it would take him an hour to get there, according to the rideshare software.
Three and a half hours went by relatively fast reading about the history of the Sproutlinger Hotel and all the rumors and stories about what happened. Combined with what he had read and known before, and the fact that he knew Nicolas Sproutlinger had a lot to do with what happened, he assembled one single theory that might be quite close to the truth - at least he thought so.
The Sproutlinger Family had their roots in Europe. And even by then, they had had their connections and affiliates with the underground occult societies. They had escaped to the US during the height of the Second World War. With the sizable fortune they had brought, they laid low at first, then took over the hotel building that was the Sproutlinger Hotel. The hotel had run relatively smoothly for a decade, until they had reignited their old tradition of dealing with the occult. And with Hollywood being what it had been back in the days, they made plenty of connections.
And then one day, while they had been trying some kind of ritual in the Queen's Suite, something had gone horribly wrong. And the original purpose of the ritual? It was highly likely that they had something to do with the ethereal realm, or at even, they had been trying to find a way to tap into the ethereal realm - after all, that could be the source of the projection that made the Oiled Eyes of Illusion.
He checked the time again, 10:37 AM, less than one hour to go, and he already had four mugs of coffee.
He looked out the window at the store - the boss just came over and opened the door.
"Hey, we're not open yet." Zhuge Lishi looked back at Wu Xiaoming as he was tidying up the contents of the drawers on the wall: "But - what do you want?"
"Talisman paper. Some more soapberry wood weapons if possible."
"Nope, just like I told you yesterday, I don't have any spare talisman paper for you." Zhuge Lishi shook his head: "Just before you ask - I don't have ANY in this store, so even if I want to, I can't sell you any."
"Okay." Wu Xiaoming sighed: "And what about the soapberry wood weapons?"
"Oh? What - you tried the staff?" Zhuge Lishi chuckled.
"No - I'm just - " Wu Xiaoming scratched his hair: "Do you have any? And I am open to buying anything that could help me deal with those unclean things - ANYTHING."
"And - don't get me wrong. But I sold you everything you can use right now." Zhuge Lishi shrugged: "Anything else, either you won't be able to use them, or they're not right for what you need."
"But lives are at stake - and you have so many drawers!"
"Those are medicine. If you have a cold, or a minor case of negative energy infection, those could help. But those won't work if you're out there going after these evil spirits." Zhuge Lishi turned around and fixed his eyes on Wu Xiaoming: "I'm sorry, kid, but you are on your own."
"Can you help? " Wu Xiaoming hesitated, "If - if I couldn't handle it - "
"No. " Zhuge Lishi did not hesitate: "I don't do that stuff. But - if you want, you can place a 'help wanted' order with me. And maybe someone can answer. But beware, none of them are cheap. "
"Okay." Wu Xiaoming rubbed his face: "So - here's another question: do you sell manuals and other stuff? Like instructions, or cultivation manuals that I can learn from - "
"That's a really tall order, one you're not ready to send out." Zhuge Lishi chuckled: "Those who have them won't wanna sell easily, and those who want to will have many buyers."
"So - there's no way for me?"
"Like I told you, you are on your own - for now." Zhuge Lishi knelt down and began organizing a lower drawer: "The next batch of quality talisman paper would get here probably - in two weeks, one and a half if they're lucky. I can reserve some for you. But one reservation will be five hundred dollars pre-payment. And the price was two thousand dollars per order for the lowest quality, one hundred pages of yellow talisman paper."
"That's - a lot." Wu Xiaoming frowned. He could afford it, using the same credit card, but with the delay he was wondering if it was worth it.
"Now, if you actually know how to make talismans, you can just use regular paper. It could also work." Zhuge Lishi raised his hand, holding a small notebook: "There's a lot of fakes out there, and they are no different from normal paper. The kinds we sell here - they are actually properly crafted, treated, and should be used with the right cinnabar ink for best results. But it's pretty costly, if you are new to it. The average apprentice wastes around one hundred just by practicing."
"Ooh, what about cinnabar ink? Do you have it?"
"Shipped along with the paper. So - two weeks."