Otherworldly Desert Dust-Chapter 416 371: Naming Technique

Before, they had scoured the garage for anything useful but never once did they spot a disembodied head hiding inside.

This head was half-bald, and a trace of unsatisfied desire tinged its evil nature. It stared intently at the prison guard, Hu Lu, whose skin and figure were fully exposed. Its eyes resembled those of a creepy old man peering into the bedroom of the neighboring house from behind his curtains, his tongue nearly lolling out.

Hu Lu was petrified by such a terrifying head, turning pale. She dared not move. After all, her limbs were blocking the gaps. If any crack appeared, the life-saving fireflies would escape.

But the depraved head was already floating towards her, mumbling obscenities non-stop.

Wu Hen's hearing was exceptional, and even though the Evil Spirit's enunciation was unclear, he still managed to roughly understand what it was saying.

"He thinks you're the woman next door," Wu Hen said, furrowing his brows. "He's asking why you're dressed so scantily in his garage."

Hu Lu was dumbfounded.

What was she supposed to say?

Having studied Evil Spirits, Hu Lu knew that most remained in a sort of "sleepwalking" state when they first awoke.

This sleepwalking meant the Evil Spirit believed it was still alive, repeating behaviors from when it was alive, or clinging to certain fixations.

When one had neither weapons nor means to deal with an Evil Spirit, the best approach was to avoid startling it out of its sleepwalking state. It meant playing the role of someone the Evil Spirit recognized and conversing with it.

Of course, all responses must make sense and fit the current situation to answer accordingly, avoiding any detection by the Evil Spirit that something was amiss, which would only accelerate its awakening.

"My... My bathroom broke down, and the power went out suddenly. I got a little scared, so I thought I'd come over to your... your place and borrow the bathroom," Hu Lu responded quickly, inventing a reason that fit her awkward predicament.

"But my wife and child are still inside. It wouldn't be proper for you to just come in like this," said the Evil Spirit with increasing clarity in its speech.

"How about this, I'll stay in your garage tonight, and you go back to your bedroom. Don't tell your family, and I'll leave first thing tomorrow morning?" Hu Lu suggested.

"That's not impossible... Then, after they fall asleep, maybe I can bring you some warm milk?" the half-bald Evil Spirit proposed.

"Sure, sure, thank you so much," she replied.

"Don't you even remember my name?" the bald Evil Spirit asked.

"I remember, you're called You Xiu," Hu Lu thought for a moment, then responded.

Mentioning its name seemed to soften the Evil Spirit's demeanor somewhat, and it actually drifted away from the garage.

Unlike other Evil Spirits outside, it could easily pass through the closed walls, unaffected by the fireflies that filled them.

Through the tattered window, Wu Hen saw the bald Evil Spirit return to its living room, then lean against its decrepit sofa.

From this angle, the head was perfectly resting on the sofa, its other body parts obscured, indistinguishable from an old man staying up late to watch TV, except in this oppressive, dim, bizarre environment, such a tranquil, peaceful scene was truly uncomfortable.

"After you called out his name, its hostility seemed to vanish," Wu Hen remarked.

Throughout the event, Wu Hen had been observant.

What Hu Lu said was convincing enough, and it was accepted by the bald Evil Spirit.

But the Evil Spirit always exuded a certain malevolence, agreeing verbally but showing no intention of sparing the lamb before it, like an old fox eyeing fatty meat.

However, when Hu Lu answered about the name, the fierce look on the bald Evil Spirit disappeared, turning into an ordinary sleepwalking spirit, repeating its past actions... And now, as it watched TV in the void, its presence appeared particularly serene. Wu Hen couldn't even feel its evil aura or resentful cold.

"Could there be a possibility that if you call out the names these townsfolk who turned into Evil Spirits used to have, they won't attack you? Could that be one of the twisted laws of Evil Spirit Town?" Cheng Liang suggested.

Wu Hen nodded, feeling this possibility was likely.

"Can you first help glue my clothes back on? My muscles are about to cramp!" Hu Lu said, almost in tears.

"I've found some newspapers; forget about your clothes, get dressed quickly, so that pervert doesn't keep leering," Wu Hen passed the newspapers to Wang Sheng.

There were enough newspapers, they just needed to slowly paste them onto the wall.

After Wang Sheng covered all the gaps with the newspaper, everyone finally liberated their limbs.

"How did you know his name?" Wu Hen inquired.

"I read the lady of the house's diary. I initially wanted to understand how this town fell into decay and how it became Evil Spirit Town," Hu Lu explained.

"Oh, you're really smart, remembering such an easily forgotten detail."

"I might not remember textbooks, but somehow, gossip like this really sticks with me," Hu Lu confessed.

"..."

In any case, Hu Lu's quick wit had averted an Evil Spirit crisis for them.

As for the weird rule that calling out the opponent's name granted a reprieve from death, Wu Hen felt it called for further testing to be sure.

It could just be effective for the perverted spirit in that house.

"Cheng Liang, what are you doing, why do you keep looking into people's houses?"

"I feel like something catastrophic must have happened in this town, perhaps everyone in town died overnight, otherwise there wouldn't be so many Evil Spirits in the majority of the town," Cheng Liang theorized.

"That makes sense."

"Mhm, if that's the case, then most Evil Spirits, when dream walking, would reenact the scenes of the day they lived before their death, like this lecherous bald man, who must have been watching TV when he was alive," Cheng Liang said.

Cheng Liang's description gave Wu Hen a spark of inspiration.

"A significant disaster resulted in the entire town's demise, and it's highly likely that the cause of this disaster was the Dark Energy Spring Eye we are looking for... Could the Dark Energy Spring Eye have had a leak of harmful substances, or perhaps a sudden surge in radiation, or triggered some unstoppable dark disasters?" Wu Hen wondered aloud.

"It's certain that if Dark Energy becomes too restless, it will cause natural disasters," Cheng Liang confirmed.

"Then, if we can reconstruct their causes of death, we will essentially have found the Dark Energy Spring Eye," Wu Hen said, his face lighting up with hope.

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I really need to use my brain more, he thought; following this line of reasoning, all the problems fell into place.

"Let's get through tonight first, then gather information during the day," Hu Lu suggested.

The others nodded in agreement; with a direction to head in, they were no longer aimlessly floundering like headless flies.

During their conversation, the small town occasionally echoed with screams, their shrill and piercing nature especially chilling under the shroud of night, indicating that the shelters sought by the wanderers weren't entirely safe, and most people didn't know that the Naming Technique could cause the Evil Spirits to retreat.

"How many people will die tonight, I wonder. Hopefully, the Prison Director and his crew are unharmed," Hu Lu expressed with some concern.

"Don't worry, he should be fine," Wu Hen reassured.

The Prison Director had hidden his strength. Back in the Prison Director's office, he had released something akin to Thorny Electricity which exterminated a High-level Evil Spirit. Although it was uncertain whether his ability was restricted or not, this guy would definitely be hard to kill.

"Strange, where's the lecherous bald man's family?" Wang Sheng asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, if the town's original inhabitants all perished in that mysterious disaster, then his family should have also become Evil Spirits, right? What about the mother's head, the two children's heads?" Wu Hen agreed, nodding.

Only the lecherous old man was left in this family of four.

His lone head rested on the sofa, not moving an inch through the entire night.

But the Evil Spirit had mentioned waiting until his family fell asleep... This suggested they were at home.

"Could it be that his family of three didn't die in that mysterious disaster, hence they didn't become Evil Spirits?" Wu Hen suddenly ventured a bold guess, especially considering the cheesy script everyone had joked about earlier.

His words sent a chill through the others.

"So, the lecherous man wanted to have a tryst with the female neighbor, but the lady of the house caught them. She made a scene in the kitchen, and the man accidentally killed her. Their children, hearing the noise, came to the kitchen, saw their mother lying in a pool of blood, and cried out. Enraged, the lecherous man silenced his own children as well," Cheng Liang quickly speculated, analyzing the family's causes of death.

"That could be a possibility, but the female neighbor should be alive..." Wu Hen said.

"The lecherous man killed the female neighbor too, thinking he'd be safe, but then the Dark Energy disaster struck, and he died too."

"Why do I feel like you're even more ruthless than that lecherous man?" Wu Hen said.

"Heh heh, otherwise why haven't we seen the female neighbor turn into an Evil Spirit... or seen her head?" Cheng Liang chuckled awkwardly.

The group let their imaginations run wild with depraved possibilities, trying to clarify the family's causes of death.

By the time it was late night, the effects of the Dark Radiation caused everyone to feel sleepy, so they decided to take turns sleeping.

Taking turns sleeping meant one person slept while the others stayed awake.

This was Wu Hen's suggestion.

Having read so many Mysterious stories, Wu Hen was sure of one thing: when it came to the sleeping part of the story and leaving just one person to keep watch, that person was bound to meet trouble.

So, Wu Hen decided to do the opposite.

Only one person was allowed to sleep at a time, and everyone else stayed awake, ensuring everyone got a little rest and maintaining their clarity of mind for the next day.

Hu Lu went to sleep first.

She was the most shaken by the events.

The four men kept their eyes peeled, fighting the irresistible drowsiness brought on by the Dark Radiation.

Moreover, only sleep can reduce the contamination from the otherworldly; after all, the more exhausted the spirit, the less normal a person becomes. Without the aid of Dark Radiation or otherworldly contamination, anyone would go mad.

Hu Lu slept soundly, snoring softly.

Right when it was time to switch watch, there was suddenly some noise.

The four of them immediately looked towards the living room... only to see the head that had been watching a nonexistent TV all night stand up, then go to the half-open refrigerator in the kitchen and take out an empty carton which probably contained moldy milk!

Wu Hen's eyes bulged!

No way, you old ghost really doing a late-night milk delivery??

Hiding your mistress in the garage, and you haven't forgotten!

"What do we do? Will calling his name work?"

"Shoot it with one bullet!"

"But we don't have any Yuan You Bullets in the gun!"