“I never said I was a ‘Master’!”
Faced with Boss Ou’s threat, I smiled faintly.
“Scared?”
Boss Ou gave me an amused look.
“I’m not scared!”
I lit the cigarette Boss Ou had just given me, took a drag, then exhaled a smoke ring. “I come from a family of Daoist Physicians. What I’m best at is using Acupuncture to awaken the spirit and Condition the Body, warming and nourishing the kidneys. Catching ghosts and exorcising demons isn’t within my line of work!”
I paused, then added, “That said, I can take someone’s Ghost Pulse and confirm whether they’re possessed by evil. That much I can do—and I can even let you see it for yourselves!”
“I’ve heard of Bai Xue. I’ve even watched the TV dramas she’s acted in. If there really is something on her, I’ll be able to tell!”
“I hope so,” Boss Ou said pointedly.
I smiled without replying. He’d already decided I was a fraud.
“Brother Feng, should we put on Ghost Eye Paste today?” Boss Yang asked excitedly, ignoring Boss Ou’s attitude.
“Boss Yang, we can, but let’s agree on something first. If you see anything later, don’t start shouting like you did that day!” I said.
“No problem!” Boss Yang readily agreed.
I smiled, opened my small medicine case, and took out the porcelain bottle of Ghost Eye Paste. I poured out two drops, rubbed them together, then closed my eyes and spread the paste evenly over them.
Once I was done, I put two drops into Boss Yang’s palm, since he’d been waiting impatiently.
“Old Ou, put some on too. Otherwise, you’ll miss the show later!” Boss Yang said to Boss Ou.
“What’s Ghost Eye Paste?”
Boss Ou looked somewhat disgusted.
“Dharma Water made by mixing ox tears with dew collected during Qingming in a certain ratio,” I explained briefly.
“Come on, Old Ou. I put it on last week. I guarantee it’s more thrilling than sleeping with a woman!”
Boss Yang rubbed his palms together to spread the Ghost Eye Paste. While Boss Ou was still hesitating, he went ahead and applied it himself.
“Don’t…”
It was too late for Boss Ou to dodge, so he resigned himself to closing his eyes and letting Boss Yang spread the Ghost Eye Paste evenly over them.
“Brother Feng, give me two more drops!”
After finishing with Boss Ou, Boss Yang laughed like a child whose little scheme had worked.
I said nothing. I just hadn’t expected Boss Yang, the internet tycoon, to have this side to him.
Boss Yang had only just finished applying the paste when Dacheng came in with some people.
“Boss Yang, Boss Ou, Brother Feng, they’re here!”
After entering, Dacheng stepped aside, revealing two women behind him.
One of the women was young—it was Bai Xue. The other looked about half like Bai Xue, and was probably her mother.
Bai Xue was even prettier than she looked on television. Her face was small, her chin pointed, and the corners of her eyes tilted upward, giving her a seductive air.
As I watched her, a fox’s head suddenly poked out over Bai Xue’s shoulder and smiled seductively at me.
I didn’t even blink. I kept the same expression as before, pretending not to see it.
“What was that?”
Just then, Boss Ou cried out behind me.
The fox’s head smiled at Boss Ou too.
After smiling, it pursed its lips at me, then shrank back and disappeared, as if what we’d just seen had been an illusion.
Boss Ou rubbed his eyes, looked at Bai Xue, then at us, and asked, “Did you two just see that?”
“Did you just see that fox?”
Before we could answer, the middle-aged woman beside Bai Xue grew agitated.
“We saw it!”
Things had come to this, so I sighed and could only admit it.
“You can save Xiaoxue, right?”
The middle-aged woman looked at us expectantly.
“We don’t know if we can save her yet. We’ll have to talk!” I said.
With that, I walked up to Bai Xue and held out my hand. “Let’s meet properly. My name is Feng Shisan!”
Bai Xue blinked, the corners of her mouth curling into a smile—but it wasn’t a normal smile. It was a sly, sinister grin.
As she smiled, her face began to change. Her chin grew sharper, the corners of her eyes lifted, and two little fangs emerged.
The biggest change was in her eyes. When she’d first come in, there had been a hint of seduction in them, but mostly they’d been gloomy.
Now, all the gloom had vanished, replaced by seduction and wantonness.
In just that brief moment, she seemed like a different person.
Or rather, she had changed from a person into a fox.
“Hee hee hee!”
The instant I took her hand, Bai Xue let out a sultry laugh and asked, “Brother, is my hand soft?”
“Didn’t you say you were going to take my Ghost Pulse? Go on, take it!”
Before I could answer, she turned her hand over, the wanton look in her eyes growing even more pronounced.
“Sure!”
I smiled and placed my fingers on her wrist, while my right hand quietly gripped the Beifeng Ghost-Slaying Seal hanging from my waist.
Bai Xue hadn’t come in yet when we talked about taking her Ghost Pulse, so how she knew that was beside the point. The way she was acting now was clearly a provocation.
“Your Chi Pulse is closed. You’ve been possessed by evil!”
Two seconds later, I stared into her eyes and said,
“That’s right! You’re so accurate!”
Bai Xue’s smile deepened. White hairs sprouted across her pale cheeks, making her face look even more like a fox’s.
I felt along her wrist. When I reached the middle section of her middle finger, I smiled and said, “Well, the outer side of the middle section of your middle finger is beating hard. There’s an immortal spirit possessing you!”
“That’s right. Guess what kind of immortal spirit?”
Bai Xue’s voice grew shrill and thin, and her two little fangs grew longer, turning into vicious tusks.
“I don’t think it’s an immortal spirit!”
I stared into her eyes and said calmly.
“Then what is it?” Bai Xue asked.
“A wanton fox!”
I said each word slowly and distinctly.
The instant the word “fox” left my mouth, Bai Xue grabbed the left hand I was using to take her pulse and yanked it toward her. At the same time, she lunged forward, her two sharp tusks going for my carotid artery.
“Seal!”
Watching her fox face rush toward me, I raised my right hand and followed the force of her pull, pressing the Beifeng Ghost-Slaying Seal against her forehead.
“Yip!”
Bai Xue’s eyes flew wide open. She let out a scream that sounded nothing like a human’s, her head snapping back as a fox flew out of her body.
The next moment, the fox hit the ground, flipped upright, and charged at Bai Xue again.
I pulled Bai Xue aside, switching places with her, and struck at the charging fox with the Beifeng Ghost-Slaying Seal in my right hand.
“Yip!”
With a shrill cry, the fox flew backward, its body shifting from solid to insubstantial.
After landing, it didn’t even look back. It turned into a wisp of smoke, slipped through the gap beneath the door, and vanished from sight.
I took a breath and withdrew the Beifeng Ghost-Slaying Seal, forming a Sword Finger as I did. I put on the air of a master, though in truth my heart was aching. Most of the seal’s color had faded; to use it again, I’d have to get Fatty Lin to consecrate it anew.
Knowing Fatty Lin, he’d probably demand all sorts of things in return!
Even so, I kept a straight face. I had to keep up the act and maintain my image.
“Old Ou, see? I told you it was more thrilling than sleeping with a woman. Was I wrong?”
Before I could catch my breath, Boss Yang’s excited voice came from behind me.