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After spending the entire day fooling around with Little Fatty, I ate my fill, drank my fill, and then went to bed.
No one could have imagined that once I fell asleep, I would not wake up again. And after that, even stranger things happened.
My family did not notice anything unusual about me, but Granny Liu felt extremely uneasy. She could not shake the feeling that something was about to happen.
According to what should have happened, today was supposed to be the day I faced my calamity. There was no way it could have been this peaceful.
Unable to put her mind at ease, Granny Liu hung some specially made bells at both the entrance to the courtyard and the door of the house before going to sleep. These bells were solid inside and would not make a sound even when blown by the wind. However, the moment a ghostly entity approached, they would emit an alarm to warn her.
Although a Ghost-Blocking Wood had already been placed at the entrance, and chicken blood had been sprinkled outside the house, ordinary ghosts should not have been able to enter the courtyard.
Still, Granny Liu felt that something was not right, so she added another layer of protection.
After returning to the house, Granny Liu remained restless. She tossed and turned in the west wing, unable to sleep peacefully. But she was getting old and could not stay awake for long. Before she knew it, she had drifted into a hazy sleep.
In the middle of the night, Granny Liu vaguely heard a voice repeatedly echoing beside her ears.
“He’s here… He’s here…”
At first, she thought she was dreaming. But the temperature inside the room suddenly dropped dramatically. Granny Liu shuddered and abruptly woke up.
After waking, she heard scratching at the door. Outside the window, numerous shadows were jumping back and forth.
There were also the sounds of bells coming from outside the courtyard, ringing incessantly.
The moment she heard this commotion, Granny Liu trembled violently. She did not even put on her shoes before pushing open the door.
As soon as she opened it, she saw that the courtyard had suddenly filled with numerous yellow weasels and foxes. Several of them were even standing at the doorway, continuously pounding on the door.
How could she not have woken up despite such a huge disturbance just now? What was going on?
Granny Liu immediately became uneasy.
That voice that had awakened her just now had come from the Chang Xian she had been worshipping and keeping as a spiritual guardian. It knew that danger had arrived and had deliberately come to warn her.
The bells at both the courtyard entrance and the house door began ringing at the same time. This meant that some unclean entity had arrived.
The first thing Granny Liu did was rush to the entrance of the courtyard to inspect the Ghost-Blocking Wood.
The moment she saw it, Granny Liu's expression changed drastically.
There were two clear footprints on the Ghost-Blocking Wood, and they had already turned black.
The talismans that had previously been drawn onto the Ghost-Blocking Wood with rooster blood all looked as though they had been burned by fire. They had all turned black.
The Ghost-Blocking Wood had been made from ten-year-old peach wood. It was capable of driving away ghosts and warding off evil spirits, and ordinary unclean things would not even dare approach it.
Yet that filthy entity had actually stepped directly across the Ghost-Blocking Wood.
This alone was enough to show how terrifyingly powerful that ghostly entity was. It had absolutely no fear of the Ghost-Blocking Wood.
“Oh no, oh no! Something really has happened.”
Granny Liu panicked and hurried toward the room where I was sleeping.
As she ran, she shouted loudly, “Brother Wu, wake up quickly! Something has happened!”
However, no matter how many times she shouted, neither my grandfather nor my parents woke up.
Granny Liu could no longer worry about anything else and immediately entered the room where I was sleeping.
By then, I was already nine years old. I had long since begun sleeping separately from my parents and had a room of my own.
When Granny Liu entered the room, she saw that my entire body was bright red. In particular, my little face was flushed crimson, looking just like a red apple that had ripened to perfection.
She then reached out and touched my forehead.
It was so hot that it felt scorching to the touch.
Just as Granny Liu pulled her hand back, I suddenly coughed several times while lying on the bed.
The sound was extremely old and hoarse, a voice that only someone seventy or eighty years old could possibly produce.
This frightened Granny Liu badly. Her first thought was that I had been possessed by an unclean entity.
What Granny Liu could not understand, however, was that there was an extremely powerful Immortal Entity residing within me, one with more than a thousand years of cultivation. With such a powerful Immortal Entity inside my body, how could some unclean thing possibly possess me?
Deeply puzzled, Granny Liu immediately placed her hand against my spiritual platform.
“Excuse me,” she said softly.
She then began chanting under her breath, her entire body trembling. After a moment, Granny Liu withdrew her hand, and her expression grew increasingly grim.
She had sensed the soul of the Immortal Entity inside my body, and it was extraordinarily weak, so weak that she could barely sense its presence at all.
Yet there was another thing inside my body, and its spiritual energy was astonishingly vigorous.
Sure enough, some unclean entity had possessed me.
Thinking of the elderly voice I had produced when coughing just now, Granny Liu quickly thought of the old man surnamed Wang whom she had seen at the hospital that afternoon.
Could it be him?
Could he be the person destined to bring about Xiao Jie's calamity?
That Old Man Wang had looked completely ordinary. He had only recently died, so how could he possess such profound cultivation? He was not even afraid of the Ghost-Blocking Wood or rooster blood, and had been able to possess someone directly despite having died only recently.
Even if he were a vicious ghost, he would normally have to wait until after the seventh day following his death before he could possess someone with such power.
Granny Liu was also at a loss as to what to do. She immediately rushed over and knocked on my grandfather's door, but even after knocking several times, no one answered.
Desperate, Granny Liu had no choice but to invite the Chang Xian residing within her body to come out and help.
Her eyes suddenly turned a ghostly green. Then, with a fierce charge, she slammed into the door.
At last, she managed to break the door open.
The moment the door opened, a bone-chilling, sinister wind blew toward her.
Granny Liu quickly noticed that a mass of red death aura was swirling around the place where my grandfather was sleeping. The death aura above my grandfather's head was especially obvious.
Only after seeing this did Granny Liu finally understand why she had not heard the enormous commotion outside earlier, despite so many yellow weasels and foxes pounding on the door.
It turned out that she had been affected by this death aura. She had simply been too hurried at the time to notice it.
Granny Liu immediately walked over to my grandfather and shook him forcefully.
Only then did my grandfather finally wake up in a daze.
“Little Sister… what’s wrong?”
My grandfather was extremely surprised to see Granny Liu appearing in his room in the middle of the night.
“Get up quickly! Something has happened to Xiao Jie!” Granny Liu said anxiously.
Upon hearing this, my grandfather immediately sat up.
“What happened to Xiao Jie? Wasn’t he fine earlier?”
“This matter is a little complicated. Get up first and wake Xiao Jie’s parents as well,” Granny Liu said.
After getting out of bed, the very first thing my grandfather did was reach for his knife.
That knife was the source of my grandfather’s courage. As long as he had his broad-bladed sword in his hands, there was nothing he was afraid of.
However, Granny Liu said, “Don’t take the knife. It won’t be of any use right now. Xiao Jie has been possessed by an unclean entity.”
Upon hearing this, my grandfather stopped reaching for the knife.
He immediately rushed into my room and took a look.
When he saw that my entire body was bright red, as though I had been boiled in water, and that my body was so hot it seemed hot enough to boil an egg, he was frightened as well.
He turned to Granny Liu and said, “Wasn’t there Ghost-Blocking Wood at the entrance? And rooster blood was sprinkled there too. How could this happen?”
“I’m not entirely sure yet. But I suspect that the unclean entity possessing Xiao Jie right now is the ghost of that Old Man Wang from the hospital,” Granny Liu replied.
(End of Chapter)
Footnotes:
TN1: Chang Xian (长仙): A traditional Chinese term for a weasel spirit that has attained supernatural powers and is worshiped as an immortal being. In folk belief, the Five Immortals include foxes, weasels, hedgehogs, snakes, and rats.
TN2: Seven Days After Death: In traditional Chinese beliefs and folk practices, the period immediately following death is associated with various stages of the deceased's soul and spirit. The seventh day is traditionally considered especially significant.