Spirit Masters, also known as exorcists, are the natural enemies of evil spirits.
Ding Jie swallowed hard: “In a place like this, it’s possible he was too scared and called the wrong name, but that was clearly Wu Liang’s voice.”
“Precisely because it’s such a place, we must be extra cautious. That’s what Wu Liang told me before he left—he couldn’t possibly forget it himself.” Xue Rong quickly composed herself, gripping the small knife Wu Liang had given her for self-defense before he left, and walked toward the door.
The person outside grew impatient: “Xue Rong, what are you doing? Hurry up and open the door!”
Xue Rong asked, “Wang Peng went out with you. Why are you back alone?”
“He found an axe in the storage room and is sharpening it there. He’ll come back once it’s ready.”
Xue Rong and Ding Jie exchanged glances, both seeing fear in each other’s eyes.
—The boy who went out with Wu Liang wasn’t named Wang Peng at all. Wang Peng had gone missing back on the second floor.
The person outside seemed to realize something, and in the silent space, a strange laughter suddenly echoed, followed by the sound of it banging against the door.
Xue Rong pulled the trembling Ding Jie to her feet, and the two struggled to push a cabinet against the wall over to block the door.
Ding Jie suddenly screamed: “Ah—my hair—”
Xue Rong looked and saw a rotting hand reaching through the door crack, tightly gripping the ends of Ding Jie’s hair.
She had no time to wonder how the hand could fit through such a narrow gap. She immediately stabbed the rotting hand with the small knife in her hand.
The thing outside groaned in pain, crying out in Wu Liang’s voice: “Xue Rong, I’m your boyfriend! How could you do this to me?”
Xue Rong was on the verge of breaking down, shouting, “You’re not! You monster, what have you done to Wu Liang?!”
Xue Rong severed the rotting corpse’s fingers, freeing Ding Jie. The two gasped for breath, clinging to each other, staring in terror at the door.
Outside, the thing began to laugh eerily, its laughter ethereal and chilling, sending shivers down their spines: “I am Wu Liang. If you don’t believe me, look through the crack.”
The Anatomy Building had old-fashioned doors from the last century, not sturdy, with wide gaps. Xue Rong didn’t need to press her face against it; from a distance, she could see something through the crack with the help of her flashlight. It was an eye—she recognized it as Wu Liang’s. Below it were Wu Liang’s lips.
The thing stared at her for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled at her.
Immediately after, Xue Rong saw Wu Liang’s eye pop out of its socket, turning into a blurry mass of flesh and blood that oozed through the door crack.
She let out a horrified scream, grabbing a broken chair from the floor and smashing it against the window, trying to break the wooden boards and glass, but to no avail. The mass of eyes squeezed through the door crack into the room, leaving a trail of foul-smelling liquid on the floor as it crawled toward them.
Ding Jie huddled in the corner, on the verge of losing her mind. Xue Rong suddenly remembered the girl outside.
She definitely didn’t seem like an ordinary student. She had warned them not to go in, and perhaps she hadn’t left yet.
So she began to call for help.
…
Xue Rong: “When I called for help, I heard another set of footsteps in the hallway. It made a strange sound, like clucking.”
Ding Jie said, “I heard it too. It sounded like the thing was speaking. As soon as it spoke, the monster outside the door fell silent.”
Tao Tao frowned: “There’s more than one evil spirit in the building?”
Ding Jie: “Very likely. You just mentioned evil spirits and Spirit Masters. What exactly are evil spirits?”
Tao Tao: “Don’t ask what you shouldn’t.”
Ding Jie fell silent, but Xue Rong didn’t. True to having a wealthy businessman father, she immediately said: “I gave you money and spirit energy, so now I’ve hired you to work for me. I’m your employer. Can’t I even ask a question?”
Tao Tao, using her not-so-abundant mental capacity, thought about it and felt she made a reasonable point, so she softened her attitude: “Of course, it would be my honor to answer your questions. Feel free to ask anything, my employer.”
“What are evil spirits?”
“Demons that harm the world, Demons that devour living souls, ghosts lingering in the human realm, Evil Spirits fallen into Purgatory, and so on—any supernatural beings that commit numerous evils can collectively be called evil spirits.”
“And what are Spirit Masters?”
“Where there is evil, there is also righteousness; where there is wickedness, there is also goodness. Spirit Masters are also called exorcists, the natural enemies of evil spirits. You can think of them as the kind of people who protect the world.”
“If they protect the world, why do they still take others’ spirit energy?” Xue Rong muttered.
Tao Tao glanced at her: “Police officers serve the people, but don’t they still need to be paid?”
Xue Rong was left speechless.
Ding Jie felt goosebumps rising: “Do things like evil spirits really exist in the world?”
Tao Tao calmly replied: “No, I lied to you. You’re just having a nightmare right now. Sleep peacefully, and you’ll wake up back home.”
Ding Jie: “…”
“Tao Tao, I think you should show a bit more respect to your employer and her friend, and not just snap at people,” Xue Rong suggested.
Tao Tao readily agreed: “Yes, employer. What else would you like to know?”
“What is the thing in the Anatomy Building?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been inside.”
Xue Rong: “If you didn’t know there was a ghost inside, why were you sitting in a tree in the middle of the night with a wooden sword on your back, warning us not to go in?”
“The old man told me to. Any problem with that?”
“Old man?”
Tao Tao hummed in affirmation: “My master.”
“Your master knows about this building? Who is he?”
Tao Tao: “You talk too much.”
“You’re the one who talks too little!” Xue Rong retorted, exasperated. “If you had said there was a ghost here at the entrance, I wouldn’t have dared to come in even with ten times the courage! You just said entering would bring bad luck and threw melon seed shells at my head—who could understand what you meant? Can’t you repeat important things a few more times?!”
“Good advice is hard to give to those destined to die.” Tao Tao was growing impatient. “What’s important to me is fulfilling the old man’s dying wish. Why should I care whether you live or die? Why repeat it multiple times?”
Xue Rong pressed on: “If we were destined to die, then why did you come in later to save us?”
Tao Tao’s patience had run out by now. She shot a cold, stern look: “I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night, and I was bored out of my mind. Satisfied? Employer, I advise you to keep your mouth shut. If you keep asking so many questions, I’ll return your money and spirit energy and leave you here to go home and sleep.”
Xue Rong had no choice but to fall silent.
Tao Tao pulled out a tattered, coarse-paper notebook from her bag. The notebook was thick, its cover aged to a brownish hue, with the words “Spirit Master’s Exorcism Ledger” written in ink.
She flipped to a specific page and studied it carefully under the flashlight’s beam: “About what happened back then, did your aunt say anything else?”
Xue Rong: “Can I speak now? When the building was sealed back then, many students came to watch. My aunt went too, but there were police lines blocking the perimeter, so she couldn’t get close. She only saw a Taoist priest performing rituals in front of the building. Before leaving, the priest told the principal that the thing inside couldn’t be eliminated—it could only be suppressed. If one day the suppression failed, everyone would be done for.”
“However, my aunt thought the priest was just trying to scare people. Like Wu Liang said, he was a fraud.”
“How so?” Tao Tao asked.
“Because my aunt is very pretty. When he saw her standing by the roadside, he whistled at her and asked if she wanted to have dinner with him. Anyway, he seemed quite lecherous and didn’t look like a proper person.”
Tao Tao paused while turning the pages. Xue Rong asked, “What’s wrong? Is this useful to you?”
“That lecherous old man is my master.”
Xue Rong: “…”
No wonder. She recalled how Tao Tao had whistled at Feng Xiaojuan before entering and thought to herself that being a pervert could also be a legacy passed down through generations.
She asked again, “Since your master dealt with the evil spirits here back then, the ledger must have recorded the method, right?”
Tao Tao said, “It wasn’t exactly dealing with them—just suppressing them, and the suppression has a time limit. The notes say that one Ghost-Eating Vine can only suppress them for twenty years. After twenty years, the seal must be reinforced, or the things inside will come out. This was my master’s lingering worry and the reason I’m here.”
Xue Rong felt goosebumps rising. “What are they?”
“Don’t know,” Tao Tao said. “The notes don’t say.”
“What’s a Ghost-Eating Vine?”
“It’s the plant on the outer wall of the building. It looks like ivy but is actually an evil spirit far removed from civilized society. My master planted it here back then to fight poison with poison. This thing specifically counters evil spirits—like a Venus flytrap. Once other evil spirits come into contact with it, they’re devoured without a trace. That’s why the things inside haven’t come out all these years.”
Ding Jie asked, “Will the Ghost-Eating Vine attack humans?”
“No.”
“Then…” Ding Jie pointed at the window. “You broke the window. Can we get out from there? Rongrong, maybe we should stop looking for Wu Liang for now. It’s too dangerous. Let’s go out and find help.”
Tao Tao: “It won’t attack humans, but once you enter this building and get tainted by the evil spirits’ aura, in its eyes, you’re no longer human. If I hadn’t sealed the window with Tao Yao, you’d already be dead. You can try approaching the window and see if the Ghost-Eating Vine attacks you.”
Xue Rong: “How do we deal with the Ghost-Eating Vine? It must have a weakness, right?”
“Don’t know. The notes don’t say.”
“…”
Apart from stating that the things inside the building needed to be suppressed again after twenty years, the notes contained no useful information.
The summary report on the supernatural incident at Chengho Medical College took up a full five pages, but only the first half-page was related to exorcism. The rest was like a diary, recording Li Sanjiu’s two-day, one-night “tour” of the medical college. It emphasized how delicious the salted duck in the cafeteria was, how beautiful the female students were, and how stingy the principal was—paying him less than agreed after the ritual. Useless nonsense like that.
Xue Rong muttered, “Spirit Master’s Exorcism Ledger—the name sounds so professional, but the work is so amateurish…”
Tao Tao said calmly, “Great Way Without Action.”
“You mean your master is very skilled?”
“Passable.”
“Then you must have inherited his mantle?” Xue Rong grasped at her last lifeline, her eyes lighting up.
But before her excitement could last, she heard Tao Tao say, “But I’m not a Spirit Master. I’m just a half-baked amateur. Most of the time, I can’t even protect myself.”
Xue Rong: “…Then why on earth did you come in here?!”
“You came in—that’s your fate. I came to save you—that’s my fate. Everything in the world follows its own destiny. Don’t ask so many questions. Better think about what to do next.” Tao Tao ate the sunflower seeds Ding Jie had shelled, then crouched by the door to examine the floor tiles. “You said earlier that when you screamed for help, you heard a second evil spirit’s voice?”
“Yes,” Xue Rong said. “But after you came in, they went silent. Maybe you scared them off.”
“Scared them off?” Tao Tao’s expression turned strange.
Xue Rong said, “Even if you’re just a half-baked Spirit Master, you must have some evil-warding items on you, right? It’s not strange that you scared them off.”
Tao Tao didn’t respond. There was a sticky stain on the ceramic tile by the door.
She scooped it up with her pinky finger and sniffed it—a foul stench of rotting flesh assaulted her nostrils. Clearly, Xue Rong wasn’t hallucinating when she said something outside had squeezed its decaying hand and eye through the door crack.
Ding Jie said, “Let’s just wait until dawn. He Wenjian and Xiao Juan went out. When they realize we haven’t returned, they’ll definitely send someone to rescue us.”
Tao Tao: “I’ve been outside the whole time. No one left this building.”
“But they clearly…”
Tao Tao: “That Feng Xiaojuan has Evil Qi on her. Whether she’d leave this place or not, even if she wanted to, she couldn’t get out. After you entered, the Ghost-Eating Vine sealed the exit. They might have already been devoured by something in the building, or maybe, like you, they’re hiding in some room waiting for rescue.”
“You said earlier outside that Xiao Juan has Evil Qi on her. Xiao Juan is my roommate. I can guarantee she’s human. She can’t possibly be an evil spirit.”
“I didn’t say she is. Having Evil Qi doesn’t necessarily mean she’s an evil spirit. She might have been in close contact with one. Generally, strong Evil Qi has form and smell. The Evil Qi on her has no smell, so maybe I’m overthinking it. Perhaps she just visited an unclean place recently and picked it up. It’s so faint that the Ghost-Eating Vine couldn’t smell it when she entered, so it didn’t attack her.”
“Evil Qi has form?” Xue Rong looked at herself. “Why can’t I see it?”
Tao Tao glanced at her: “If you could see it, would you be trapped here waiting for me to rescue you?”
Ding Jie: “Tao Tao, what should we do?”
Tao Tao pulled a white porcelain bottle from her bag and scraped the mucus from the floor into its opening: “Let’s go out and look around. If we can’t get out of this room, we’ll find another way. We’ll also go save her boyfriend. We can’t just sit here waiting to die.”
Ding Jie quickly cried out, “Don’t joke! That thing might not have left at all. It could be right outside the door eavesdropping on us. I’d rather die than go out!”
“Oh, suit yourself.” Tao Tao took down the Peachwood Sword wedged horizontally in the window frame. “Then you stay here.”
Xue Rong couldn’t help but scream internally: Here you go again! Even a damned ghost deserves a half-hearted attempt at persuasion!
Tao Tao kicked open the cabinet they had moved to block the door, then kicked open the room door with another forceful strike.
Xue Rong stared nervously at the door, terrified that the monster outside might truly be lurking nearby as Ding Jie had said, ready to burst in at any moment.
Fortunately, there was nothing outside. The hallway was quiet, and nothing happened.
Tao Tao walked to the doorway and glanced back at the two hesitant girls. “Stay if you want. No one’s forcing you to leave. But let me add this—the wooden boards originally sealing the window were made of Crow’s Claw Peachwood, specifically designed to ward off evil. They not only kept things inside from getting out but also prevented things outside from getting in. After I kicked them apart, that barrier is gone. In other words—”
She raised the Peachwood Sword in her hand. “—Once I take Tao Yao down, the Ghost-Devouring Vine can come in. Following me outside might not guarantee a long life, but staying here means certain death.”
Xue Rong and Ding Jie turned to look and saw the Ghost-Devouring Vine slowly creeping in along the base of the wall.
Tao Tao picked up a piece of the shattered Crow’s Claw Peachwood. “Also, to avoid being killed by the Ghost-Devouring Vine before I find an exit, I plan to use this to bar the door from the outside once I leave. Since you’re doomed anyway, a little sooner won’t make much difference. Remember, grudges have their source and debts their debtor. If you turn into ghosts after you die, don’t come looking for revenge.”
“Even though you’re destined to become ghosts, I did at least try to save you. As humans, the most important thing is to repay kindness with gratitude…”
Ding Jie & Xue Rong: “…”
Without another thought for the dangers outside, they scrambled out of the classroom as if fleeing for their lives.