Chapter 25

At the Wu residence, early in the morning.

Wu Zijie had been rushed to the hospital at the crack of dawn. However, after a thorough examination, the doctors found nothing serious—just a common cold and fever. They advised that he simply needed some medication and rest, leaving the couple with no choice but to carry him back home.

On the way back, Mrs. Wu complained incessantly, "I told you he was possessed and that we needed to find a master. You insisted on taking him to the hospital, wasting all that money and time. What if he doesn't recover because we dragged this out? This is all your fault."

The father, driven to his wits' end by her nagging, barked back at her and eventually gave up, grabbing his bag and heading off to work.

The "master" arrived at their home in the afternoon. He was a middle-aged man dressed in a traditional Tang suit, projecting an air of otherworldly refinement. He carried a cloth bag filled with a peach-wood sword, a bagua compass, and various talismans and cinnabar.

Upon entering the house, the master frowned immediately. "The yin energy here is very heavy."

After examining Wu Zijie, the compass in his hand began to spin frantically. The master immediately declared, "This child has been entangled by a ghost."

Wang Hongying was so terrified she nearly fell to her knees before him. "Master, you must save my child! He is the only precious son we have in this family."

The master pulled a talisman from his bag, circling it around the boy while chanting. He then took a porcelain bottle, poured out some water, and dabbed it onto Wu Zijie’s brow, shoulders, and chest. Finally, he suspended the talisman in the air, and it spontaneously burst into flames. The light emitted was not yellow, but an eerie, ghostly green.

Wang Hongying didn't dare to breathe as she watched the scene. Once the master finished, she asked cautiously, "Master, is he cured?"

Looking at Wu Zijie, his complexion had indeed improved, and his forehead didn't feel as scorching as before, though he remained unconscious.

The master shook his head. "I have only cleared the yin energy from his body for now. The underlying damage still requires careful recovery. We must deal with the ghost; otherwise, even if he feels better now, the ghost will return to wreak havoc tonight."

Wang Hongying nodded frantically. "That makes sense, that makes sense. Master, what should we do?"

The master pondered, "When I came here, it was only to check on your son, not to exorcise a ghost. You see, this..." He extended his index finger and waggled it, then rubbed his thumb and forefinger together.

Five thousand had already been spent just for him to show up. Wang Hongying feared this raised finger meant ten thousand. Her heart ached, but looking at her still-unconscious son, she gritted her teeth and nodded. "Fine, ten thousand it is."

The master stroked his beard. "That is an additional ten thousand."

Wang Hongying’s teeth began to chatter, but there was no turning back now. She nodded stiffly.

The master curled his lips in satisfaction. "Good. Before I deal with this ghost, I need to understand the situation. Why did your son encounter a ghost, where did it happen, and what is the history between them?"

This was a difficult story to tell. Wang Hongying downplayed the truth, claiming it was a child who used to play with her son years ago. She alleged that the child had accidentally drowned, but had wrongly blamed her son for pushing him, and had now returned to seek revenge.

The master raised his tone and asked, "Are you sure it was an accidental drowning?"

Wang Hongying insisted, "It was definitely an accident. My son was several years older and didn't like playing with younger children. That child was always following him, and he fell into the water on his own—how could that be my son's fault? Little ghosts are just unreasonable. Now he’s become an evil spirit wanting to harm people. You must destroy him, Master. Once this is settled, there will be plenty of rewards for you."

The master didn't believe that ghosts had any reason, grievances, or true feelings. Once dead, they should be reincarnated or return to the earth; if they came out to harm others, they should be purged.

Therefore, he didn't bother to investigate whether it was truly an accident or if the boy before him was the culprit who had killed the other child. Since the police hadn't made any arrests, he certainly wouldn't concern himself with it.

"So, you know the ghost's date of birth and time of death?"

"I do, I remember it very clearly."

The two families had been neighbors for years; Wang Hongying knew everything about Tang Qianran from her pregnancy to the birth of her child.

She gave the dates to the master. The master rummaged through his bag and pulled out a palm-sized black doll made of black knotted rope, with two hollow holes where the eyes should be. Upon closer inspection, the knots weren't black but a dark, blood-clotted red, emitting a faint scent that was both fragrant, fishy, and foul. Staring at it for too long gave the impression that the doll was moving toward you.

The master produced a small yellow talisman, wrote the ghost's birth date and time of death on it with black ink, and stuck it to the doll's forehead.

He then brought out an ancient-looking bell covered in black patterns. A closer look revealed that the bell had no clapper inside, making it impossible to ring by shaking.

The master stood solemnly by the bedside, holding the doll in one hand and shaking the bell rhythmically with the other. With each rhythmic shake, invisible ripples spread through the air, and the talisman on the doll's forehead fluttered slightly.

As the bell rang, Tongtong in the next room could no longer control himself, his form shifting into the state he was in when he died. Losing his composure, he began to drift toward the bell.

The master felt the doll in his hand twitching; the ghost was being summoned. Simultaneously, he felt a subtle resistance.

He accelerated the frequency of the bell: *ding-ding-ding, ding-ding-ding.*

The room's temperature plummeted. Wang Hongying rubbed her arms, feeling a strange chill, and backed away. Suddenly, the tightly closed bedroom door sprang open with a loud bang as it hit the wall. She turned to look, but no one was there.

Just as she grew nervous, another loud bang came from the front door. Thinking it was just the wind, she looked over and saw the front door open, with two strangers walking in, carrying a child with an air of nonchalance.

"Who are you! What are you doing!" Wang Hongying scolded. She felt they looked slightly familiar, and quickly realized they were the two people Li Li had brought home earlier. "Li Li's house is over there; you're at the wrong place. Get out!"

The two people ignored her completely and walked straight into the bedroom.

Tongtong had reached the master's side, struggling to keep himself from being pulled into the black doll. He glared at the master, his expression growing increasingly terrifying. Water began to pour from his body, eyes, nose, and mouth. Where the water hit the ground, it turned into wisps of yin energy. To the master, whose "heavenly eye" was open, the entire room was filled with such thick yin energy that he could barely see the little ghost's position.

"You evil thing, you dare to wreak havoc!" The master cast another talisman. It burned in mid-air, instantly consuming most of the yin energy.

Tongtong took advantage of the distraction and lunged at him. But as he approached, the master splashed a bottle of specially prepared talisman water on him. Tongtong let out a miserable shriek and was knocked back against the wall.

Feeling that the ghost wasn't as strong as he had imagined, the master felt relieved. He approached the ghost with the bell, intending to seal him into the doll.

The injured Tongtong was no longer as fierce as before. His strength was mediocre to begin with, and the talisman water had severely wounded him, making his form fade significantly. He struggled, unwilling to give up—he hadn't killed Wu Zijie yet, nor had he seen his mother safely through her labor. He couldn't disappear like this.

"Why!"

Tongtong turned and lunged at Wu Zijie on the bed, intending to possess him. However, the master had already placed a protective barrier around the boy. Before Tongtong could touch him, he was repelled, floating precisely toward the doll in the master's hand.

At that critical moment, a force shot toward the doll. The master's hand shook, and the doll fell to the floor.

He snapped his head around and saw the two strangers standing at the door.

Wang Hongying chased after them into the room. "Get out!" she shouted, reaching out to pull at them.

Hu Yuanfei disgustedly extended a finger and tapped her lightly. With a playful, mocking smile, she said, "Go out. Don't get in the way here."

Wang Hongying's eyes went blank, and she obediently walked into the living room and stood still.

The bell in the master's hand began to ring without being touched after the two entered—it wasn't ghostly energy, but a vast, overwhelming demonic aura. The two demons had stopped hiding their identities.

"You are demons!"

And their cultivation was clearly not low.

The master had some skill, but it was only enough to handle small ghosts like Tongtong or perform simple exorcisms. Dealing with a vengeful spirit was already a struggle, let alone demons.

Sensing disaster, he stepped back, clutching his bag tightly. "We have no quarrel. I ask that you two leave immediately."

Lang Xiao waved a hand, beckoning the collapsed Tongtong to her side. "Who says we have no quarrel? This is my client. You hurt my client, so how are we going to settle this debt?"

The pressure on the master intensified; sweat beaded on his forehead. He cursed his luck. "I didn't know he was associated with you. Since there was damage, I can compensate."

Hu Yuanfei's eyes lit up. "How much?"

"This... will ten thousand do? That's what I charged for this exorcism. It's all yours."

Ten thousand—it would take catching a lot of rats to earn that much, and even finding lost cats and dogs didn't pay well. The two demons realized for the first time that exorcism was a lucrative business; compared to it, their work seemed pathetic.

Lang Xiao asked, "You wanted to destroy this little ghost after catching him?"

The master nodded, whispering, "More or less."

"Do you know why this little ghost is entangling Wu Zijie?"

"I... I sort of know."

"And you'd kill him even if you knew?" Lang Xiao’s tone grew heavier. She glanced at the doll he had been holding. From the moment she entered, the doll had given her a very bad feeling; the aura of malice was even thicker than Tongtong's. "What is this doll?"

The master remained silent, hiding the doll behind his back, his eyes darting around.

Lang Xiao took a step toward him. The master suddenly raised the doll in his palm. Under the fluttering talisman, a dark light ignited in the doll’s hollow eyes. An utterly terrifying sensation filled the bedroom, followed by a shrill, mournful wail as it lunged at Lang Xiao's face.

Before her was a sea of red and black—blood, severed limbs, internal organs, and an unquenchable, twisted resentment.

Lang Xiao was instantly enveloped, yet she was still holding an innocent human child in her arms.

Lang Xiao’s eyes turned fierce. In a flash, her head transformed into that of a giant wolf. With a wide-open jaw, her demonic aura acted like a sonic wave, slamming the flying ghost away. Her hand, now a claw, reached forward, tearing off half of the master's arm, and she snatched the doll from his grip.