The old man froze for a moment, then as if realizing something, he grinned slyly. “Girl, you’re not scared, are you?”
“…” Yun Jiao frowned, glancing again across the room, but gave no reply.
The old man assumed he’d guessed right. He patted her shoulder with a worldly air. “Don’t worry, don’t worry! With me here, all is well! I’ve seen this kind of thing plenty of times, you’ll get used to it. Just shake the bell, that’s all.” He pounded his chest for emphasis.
“…It’s exactly because of you that I don’t feel reassured.”
“Oh right, where’s that talisman I gave you back at the temple?” he suddenly remembered.
Yun Jiao reached into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled stack of papers he had stuffed at her before they left. “This spirit talisman?” It was practically toilet paper, only missing the bleaching step.
“Yes, that’s the one!” He snatched up the papers, shaking them proudly. “These are spirit talismans I worked hard to draw, they can repel evil and ward off misfortune. I used to sell them for two taels of silver each.” With that, he carefully counted out twenty slips.
“…So that really is forty taels worth of exorcism, huh.”
Seeing her still doubtful, the old man thought a moment, then reluctantly pulled out a single sheet of purple talisman paper. “Here, if you’re really scared, take this.”
Yun Jiao looked down. It was completely different—smooth and neat, painted in bright red cinnabar with a complicated symbol she couldn’t understand. Was it an illusion, or did the markings seem alive, as if something flowed within? She instinctively accepted it. “This is…” Obviously, this wasn’t in the same league as that toilet paper stack.“This is a top-grade demon-suppressing talisman. Only those with the deepest arcane mastery can draw one. In all the world, those who can make purple talismans can be counted on one hand. This particular one was passed down from my grandmaster—only this one remains. I’ve never been willing to use it.” He grew solemn. “With this in hand, no demon or ghost can come near you.”
He sighed as he glanced at the man on the bed, who was barely breathing. “Still, this case is strange, far more severe than any possession I’ve seen before. It’s normal for you to be afraid.” Studying the man’s face as he approached the bed, he murmured, “See how purple his face has turned? It’s like he’s about to… about to…”
“Asphyxiate,” Yun Jiao cut in.
“Exactly, exactly!” The old man nodded vigorously. “Like suffocating. But the key point—he’s still alive, yet his whole body is covered in corpse spots. Clearly, this isn’t some ordinary evil spirit. Fortunately, his mother and brother came to me. Another moment, and he wouldn’t last a…”
“Five minutes,” Yun Jiao corrected. Then after a pause, “Less than half a quarter of an hour.”
“Mm, then we must hurry.” His expression turned grave. He motioned for her to shake the bell while raising the talismans toward the bed. “He won’t last long. He’s breathing, yet his chest barely rises, as though…”
“As though someone is sitting on him.”
“Yes, as though someone… eh?” The old man blinked, startled. “How do you know?”
Only then did Yun Jiao turn to face him, expression as calm as a mountain, voice utterly steady. “Oh, because when I came in, I saw a blood-drenched woman in red lying on him, strangling his neck.” She pointed at the middle of the bed. “And her stomach’s ripped open. The bed’s covered with her intestines. The places where the corpse spots are forming—that’s where her internal organs fell.”
The old man: “…”
The female ghost: “…”
Are you f*ing kidding me?!
Σ(°△°|||)︴
“Oh, and by the way,” Yun Jiao added, “if you take one more step forward, you’ll step on her duodenum lying on the floor.”
The old man’s foot froze. His hand trembled, and the stack of talismans slipped from his grasp.
With a loud whoosh, the talismans fluttered down toward the bed—only to burst into flames the instant they touched something unseen. The dark room was suddenly lit bright as day.
Then came a thunderous crack and a shrill, chilling scream—so sharp, so eerie, so filled with cold malice it pierced the ears and shook the air.
At the same time, a red figure slowly materialized on the bed—a woman, her long hair draped down, dressed in red. A gaping hole the size of a basin tore through her torso, organs spilling out in thick, bloody lumps, staining the floor. The crimson wasn’t clothing—it was her own blood.
The female ghost clutched her face, wailing, the scattered talismans having burned her. Her features were obscured, but through the gaps of her fingers, a bulging eyeball stared out, as if about to pop free—staring directly at Bai Yu, the old man.
The sudden horror hit him like lightning. His face drained white, his eyes bulged, his whole body shook like a leaf in a storm. For a long moment he could only stammer.
“Gh…gho…gh-ghost!” he screamed, all his cultivated airs gone. Reflexively, he hurled the rest of his talismans and even the book in his hand at her. Another shriek erupted from the ghost.
But the old man had already bolted for the door, grabbing Yun Jiao’s arm as he fled.
Ghost… ghost… a real ghost!
w(Д)w
Yun Jiao: “…” What happened to your swagger? Weren’t you supposed to catch ghosts?
“Run! Run!” he shouted in panic. Damn it all, he’d performed so many exorcisms, but this was the first time he’d ever seen a real ghost—an actual vengeful spirit! Finished!
In his panic, he fumbled at the old wooden door, tugging again and again but failing to open it. Meanwhile, the ghost recovered from the earlier talisman strike.
His last throw had been clumsy, without any incantation, weaker than the first. The ghost only stiffened briefly before turning to glare at them.
Now they saw her face clearly—rotting, mangled flesh, one eye socket nothing but a dark hollow, the other still holding a naked eyeball dangling loose, sliding in and out. A grotesque, terrifying sight!
(End of this chapter)