The Witch's Taste

Chapter 36
Consciousness, preconsciousness, subconsciousness and collective subconsciousness are collectively referred to as the "dream world".

If everyone's spiritual world is compared to an iceberg, then consciousness is the part of the iceberg above the sea;
The preconscious is the part that is submerged in seawater but can be observed through the seawater; the part of the iceberg that cannot be observed belongs to the category of the subconscious.

As for the collective subconscious layer, it refers to the undercurrents surging under the icebergs, which will run from the bottom of one iceberg to the bottom of another iceberg.

"Hey, in this way, I seem to understand a little bit." Tsukimiya Suzuna clapped her hands and said, "Senior, listen to me, when I was still in high school, I once felt wrong when I walked into the classroom. I didn't speak, but there was a sad atmosphere in the class."

"After asking, I found out that everyone's favorite Akita-sensei is leaving! So this ability to read the air is actually the category of the collective subconscious, right?"

"I think it's just because you are good at observing words and expressions." Chen Zi'ang said with his hands on his forehead, "The real collective subconsciousness should be the kind... For example, after a natural disaster ravages a town, you will feel a sense of sadness and coldness inexplicably." , Many people think that this is a ghost, but in fact it may just be affected by the hidden collective subconscious."

"Let's get down to business, the power I'm going to launch next is called [Dream Walk], which can transform our body into a spiritual form, so that we can freely shuttle between the preconscious, subconscious and collective subconscious."

"Eh? It's amazing!" Tsukimiya Suzuna exclaimed.

It's not a feigned surprise, but a real surprise—because [Dream Walk] is a very rare, very rare special power. As far as she knows, there are no more than three gods who have this power, and it is the only one that humans can touch. He is the Lord of the Great Deep Sea.

So, have seniors seen the Lord of the Great Deep Sea?

"Also, you have to remember." Chen Ziang urged, "Whether it's the public security department or the detective agency, people like us who walk on the mysterious side, the powers they possess or the sealed items they own are almost all personal top-secret information. — don't tell it."

"Understood, I won't say it." Tsukimiya Suzuna said seriously.

"Yeah." Chen Ziang continued, "You may feel a little dizzy at first, but it's okay when you get used to it. Let's go."

He grabbed Tsukimiya Suzuna's arm and activated the power of dream walking.

As if falling suddenly, when Tsukimiya Suzuna came back to her senses, she found that the two were still in the room of the hot spring hotel, but there seemed to be something different around them.

It was not daytime outside the window, but darkness where she could not see anything at all, and Tsukimiya Suzuna could clearly sense that there was something peeping at her in the darkness.

"This is my pre-conscious space." Chen Ziang explained, "The darkness means that I feel strange and unfamiliar with Lingyi Town, and the sense of peeping comes from my own vigilance and anxiety."

He activated the power of dream walking again, and the consciousness of the two continued to fall, falling into the subconscious level.

In the subconscious world, the hotel room has become an old island-style decoration, with tatami floors and paper sliding doors.

"Hey——" Tsukimiya Suzuna said with a smile, "Senior, do you think that hot spring hotels should look like this?"

"Maybe." Chen Ziang waved his hand, "The subconscious mind is uncontrollable and unexplainable. I personally suggest not to delve into it."

As soon as the words fell, Tsukimiya Suzuna saw her phantom.

The phantom knelt down in the middle of the tatami, covered her cheeks tightly with her hands, and tears flowed down from the gap between her fingers.

Tsukimiya Suzuna stared blankly at her weeping phantom, her expression seemed a little overwhelmed and cramped.

"Uh, that's how people's subconscious is. Anything can appear." Chen Ziang said awkwardly, "Actually..."

"It's too bad, senior." Tsukimiya Suzuna said softly, "Is the miserable appearance of me crying really impressing you so much?"

"...Sorry." Chen Ziang could only admit his mistake.

After a moment of silence, Tsukimiya Suzuna said again:
"Then will Senior make me cry next time?"

"No, no more." Chen Ziang subconsciously reassured, but quickly realized, and asked in confusion, "Wait, I didn't seem to cause you to cry last time, did you?"

Tsukimiya Suzuna smiled and changed the subject:
"Let's not talk about this, how to get to the collective subconscious layer?"

"The collective subconscious layer is the collection of all individual subconscious minds." Chen Ziang replied, "For example, if all the residents of a village live next to a river, and everyone has a deep impression of this river, then in everyone's collective subconscious Among them, there is a high probability that this river will appear."

"The more things impress many people, the higher the probability of appearing in the collective subconscious layer. What we have to do now is to search the collective subconscious layer of 'Lingyi Town' to investigate the hidden dangers behind this town. the mysterious truth."

"And the townspeople will be completely kept in the dark." Tsukimiya Suzuna showed a suddenly realized expression, "Because they can't perceive the subconscious level."

"If you can feel it, then it's not called 'subconscious mind'." Chen Ziang said with a smile, "Let's go."

Chen Zi'ang was quite proficient at launching the dream walk for the third time, and quickly visualized "Lingyi Town" in his mind.

Soon, they appeared in a town.

The surroundings seem to be Lingyi Town, but it is obviously much more lively than the real Lingyi Town.Although it was night, the lights were on in every house, and the cries of babies, the barking of dogs, and the scolding of adults could be heard from time to time.

Suddenly, all sounds stopped abruptly.

From the end of the street in the distance, the houses on both sides turned off the lights in all rooms at the same time, whether it was the living room or the bedroom, whether it was the first floor or the second floor.

The lights-off effect was like a domino, and soon spread to the neighbors next door, one after another... Along with the orderly lights-off, the darkness also hit Chen Ziang like a tide.

A certain sense of vigilance arose spontaneously from the bottom of his heart, and Chen Ziang quickly opened his inspiration, confirming that there was a great danger in the dark depths.

He immediately grabbed Yue Gong Suzuna's hand and rushed towards the nearest residential house.

The front door of the residence is locked, and the courtyard wall is more than 2 meters high, making it almost impossible to climb over with bare hands.

Chen Ziang quickly raised his left hand, and directly summoned the Touch of the Abyss from the ground.

Huge tentacles rose from the ground, sending the two of them across the courtyard wall in an instant, and fell into the courtyard.

Chen Ziang quickly rushed to the balcony door and pulled the doorknob hard.

Sure enough, the door was locked.

He quickly stepped back half a step, raised his left hand, and the touch of the abyss emerged from the floor behind the door. The tip of the tentacle held the lock on the inside and twisted it slightly.

The lock is open.

Pulling Yuegong Lingnai into the room, Chen Ziang quickly closed the door and locked it behind him, and then slowly heaved a sigh of relief.

"That's amazing, senior." Tsukimiya Suzuna exclaimed.

"Shhh." Chen Ziang hurriedly signaled her to be silent.

After a while, about ten seconds, strange voices suddenly sounded from the street outside.

Island dialect?

Chen Ziang was stunned for a moment.

Although more than 90% of the people in Jibei City are island people, the official language is the imperial land language, and it is generally believed in the society that "only rural people can use the island dialect", so everyone usually communicates in the land language. As for Chen Zi'ang, although he has lived in Jibei City since he was a child, he can only understand the four dialect words "Kawaii", "Kouxixi", "Suoga" and "Duesinei".

But soon, Tsukimiya Suzuna approached the phone screen intimately.

Chen Ziang leaned over and saw her fingers flicking on the screen keyboard, translating the voice outside into Lu language for him to read.

"...Is that so, the one who passed away was Mr. Sosuke."

"Hurry up and send his body to the mortuary, I hope he can rest in peace in [other realms]."

Tsukimiya Suzuna deliberately added square brackets to the word "other world", expressing that she didn't know how to translate it accurately.

"Should I hand it over directly to the priests at the charnel house? To be honest, every time I see their faces, it scares me."

"Shut up, can you say this casually? You want to die, don't splash blood on me."

The sound outside was so far away that she couldn't hear it, Yuegong Lingna put away her phone and looked at Chen Ziang seriously.

Chen Ziang was silent for a moment, took out his mobile phone and typed:
"Let's go to the cemetery to have a look."

(End of this chapter)