Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 119

Chapter 119

Chapter 119

At 10:15, the door swung open again.

55 ha

Garrett walked in, holding a brown paper bag. He was moving faster than usual, a huge grin plastered on his face, and he called out, louder than ever as he stepped inside.

“Chief Advisor, Ms. Reed, Lyra…”

He lifted the bag and gave it a little shake.

“It’s here! Thirty-seven pages, it’s here.”

Everyone’s eyes snapped to him at once.

Ms. Reed stood up from her chair, and Lyra practically jumped out of hers.

Thirty-seven pages.

Thirty-seven pages, and the very first one was exactly the same as the Vital Flame values panel.

What was written on the other thirty-six pages?

Ms. Reed had already walked around the table, reaching out her hand. “Hurry up!”

Her voice went up an octave. “Let me see it!”

Ms. Reed took the book, set it on the table, opened the brown paper bag, put on her gloves, and pulled out a stack of yellowed pages.

The paper was thin, the corners were fragile, and right on top was the exact diagram from the internet, the Vital Flame

structure.

Lyra leaned in, careful not to touch anything, her eyes scanning the second page.

The vertical brush-written characters were even sloppier than the first page, but still readable,

“…The flame can be gathered, scattered, used to attack, or defend…”

…Focus it in your palm, and it’ll strike down malicious entities…”

“… Let it flow through your whole body, and you’ll keep dark energy at bay…”

Lyra stared at those eight characters: “Focus it in your palm, and it’ll strike down malicious entities.”

“Ms. Reed!” Lyra called out.

“Huh?” Ms. Reed replied.

“It’s showing how to use the Vital Flame values!” Lyra said.

Ms. Reed saw it too. She pinched the edge of the page with her gloved fingers and flipped to the third page.

On the third page, there was a rough outline of a person, with three dots marked on the top of the head, left shoulder, and right shoulder. They were labeled: Upper Flame, Middle Flame, and Lower Flame.

In the palm of the right hand, there was a circle with the word “Gather” written inside.

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Chapter 119

In the palm of the left hand, there was another circle with the word “Release” written inside.

“Wait, so you gather with one hand and release with the other?” Lyra tilted her head, eyeing the diagram.

Ms. Reed didn’t answer. She just flipped to the fourth page.

The fourth page was different. It wasn’t about cultivation techniques anymore. It was a record.

“I saw a faint glow gathering in the soil at the graveyard east of the village at night. I asked the old man, and he said. Those are the souls of the dead watching over the land.”

“The souls of the dead pour their soul fire into the earth’s veins, keeping the land nourished so the plants never wither.”

“But once their soul fire runs out, their souls break apart, and there’s no way for them to reincarnate.”

Lyra’s finger hovered just above the page, not daring to touch it.

The Vital Flame was poured into the earth’s veins.

When the Vital Flame was exhausted, the soul would disperse.

There would be no hope for reincarnation.

Ms. Reed’s guess from yesterday was written right here, in crooked brushstrokes by someone long ago.

The souls trapped in the Ghost Wall really did pour their Vital Flame into the earth.

That’s why they were so lifeless, so empty, and so unmoving.

They weren’t under anyone’s control, their flame was almost gone.

Lyra took a couple of steps back, and the face from her dream last night flashed in her mind again.

A soul that was almost burned out, deep inside the Ghost Wall, still calling out her name.

Lyra wondered, ‘What was she after?’

Lana glanced over the spread-out pages. “Looks like Ms. Reed was right all along.”

Ms. Reed flipped to the fifth page. The ink was darker than before, the stroke’s more hurried, like the writer was in a rush.

“To gather the Vital Flame, close your eyes, center your thoughts in your core, and channel the Vital Flame into your palm…”

“At first, you won’t feel a thing. You have to keep concentrating, let your will direct the flow. Brute force won’t help here…

Lyra leaned in, reading each word out loud. “Ms. Reed, this is the actual step-by-step method!”

“That’s right! There really are instructions!” Ms. Reed said, her excitement obvious.

Ms. Reed turned the pages slowly, her gloved fingers gripping the edges. Pages six, seven, and the next one after that were all packed with cultivation techniques.

How to breathe, how to guide the energy, how to turn the Vital Flame values from just a number on your stat screen into something you could actually feel in your palm.

The pages alternated between records and cultivation techniques, each one written in the same shaky, uneven handwriting, as if the author had spent decades carefully jotting down every bit of their experience.

She’d treated villagers for marks left by dark shadows, and used the Vital Flame to drive out evil spirits that had latched onto

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Chapter 119

their livestock.

She’d taught the method of gathering the Vital Flame to two disciples, one got it, the other just couldn’t, no matter how hard they tried.

“Why couldn’t the second disciple learn it?” Garrett asked.

Ms. Reed flipped back to page thirteen and pointed at a line of text.

The second disciple’s mind was all over the place, and the Vital Flame just wouldn’t come together. When asked him why he said he was too distracted, mostly by fear.”

“Fear,” Lyra read out loud.

“So if you’re scared, you can’t pull it off?” Garrett asked.

Ms. Reed pushed up her glasses. “It’s not that you can’t learn it. If your thoughts are all over the place, the Vital Flamé just won’t come together in your palm.”

She smoothed out page thirteen and pointed to the lines below.

“Check this out: “To gather the Vital Flame, you need a focused mind. Fear makes the flame scatter, anger makes it go wild. only calmness lets it settle.”

“Stillness,” Lana repeated.

“Only with a peaceful mind can you gather the Vital Flame. Fear makes the flame disperse, and anger makes it lose control,” Ms. Reed explained.

Lyra scratched her head. “So what are you supposed to do in a fight? Who can stay calm with a Wraith lunging right at their face?”

“I think it’s not about how you react in the moment, but more about your deep-down feelings toward the Wraiths,” Ms. Reed said.

Everyone breathed a little easier as they flipped through the pages. No matter what, this old manual really laid out everything about the Vital Flame values. If they followed the steps and practiced, maybe they’d finally get it to work.

Ms. Reed kept flipping through the pages, and when she reached page fifteen, the handwriting took a sudden turn.

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