Blood splashed across the floor.
The man died suddenly, and even the wall was stained red.
His eyes were wide open, as if he had seen something terrifying. His eyeballs bulged out, as though they were about to fall from their sockets.
The private room became even more chaotic. People screamed as they ran outside.
The lights flashed, bright one moment and dim the next, creating an indescribably eerie atmosphere.
Qing Sang still held the compass in his hand, but the compass needle was spinning wildly, and it had already lost its accuracy.
Xia Wan’er was frightened by everything happening in the room. She hid beside Qing Sang and asked, “What’s going on? Why did they kill themselves?”
Qing Sang frowned and said, “They fell for that resentful spirit’s trick. My compass is broken. I’m afraid we’re already inside that resentful spirit’s barrier too.”
At that moment, Gu Yi felt a thick chill.
The same chill he had felt in the corridor.
Qing Sang had not been wrong. They really were already inside that resentful spirit’s barrier.
At this point, everyone in the private room had already run off. Only the three of them and a corpse remained. It seemed that the resentful spirit knew who its threat was, so it had decided to strike first.
The room fell quiet for a moment, and the chill grew heavier and heavier.
“Hehe… hehe…”
A mechanical laugh echoed through the room, and the door slowly opened.
The three of them looked toward the door, but they saw no shadow at all.
Xia Wan’er was the first to scream, “Doll! It’s that doll!”
She pointed beneath the door, and only then did Gu Yi and Qing Sang finally see it clearly. Especially Gu Yi, who was extremely shocked.
It really was that doll, its filthy body covered in dust, its lively eyes, and that tattered little red dress. It was clearly just a doll, but unlike before, at this moment, it was alive.
It moved as if it had life, walking in from outside the door.
This realization put all three of them on alert, and the doll’s eyes were no longer as clear as before. They were filled with resentment, becoming ghostly and sinister.
Xia Wan’er shouted, almost jumping up, “It’s it! It’s the doll we just picked up! Damn it, it really is a malevolent spirit! And it even killed two lives! Let this granny see how I deal with it!”
Xia Wan’er took out a talisman. With cinnabar, she quickly drew a pattern on the yellow talisman paper. Although Gu Yi really could not tell what she was drawing, from how serious she looked, it must be some very powerful dao technique. Bo Si had said that exorcists needed to borrow the dao to exorcise evil, and the power they borrowed was the power of the gods, so they all needed to draw talismans and chant incantations. After Xia Wan’er finished chanting, she shouted and forcefully hurled the talisman at the doll. In midair, the talisman paper burst into a deep blue flame, and in an instant it completely surrounded the doll.
“Ah…”
The doll was burned in pain and let out a miserable howl in the flames, but after the flames burned out, it was still the same. Aside from its eyes turning scarlet, its resentment seemed even stronger.
“Not good!” Seeing that things had gone wrong, Xia Wan’er drew back her hand and said, “I’ve angered this doll. It can absorb my dao fire. What kind of thing is this? Dao fire doesn’t even work on it.”
“Resentful spirits formed by children often have extremely strong obsessions. Maybe we interfered with it, so it hates us very much.”
Qing Sang took his puppet doll out of his pocket. Gu Yi had seen that doll before. Qing Sang carried it with him wherever he went.
After sticking on a talisman and finishing the incantation, the doll came alive, turning into a doll the same size as the other one. Once it landed on the floor, it lazily stretched, twisted its neck, twisted its hips, and loosened its joints.
“Wow! It’s Xiaohei!” Xia Wan’er was thrilled. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen Xiaohei fight! Go, Xiaohei! You’re a puppet, and the other side is a doll, so in essence there’s no difference. You absolutely can’t lose. Don’t embarrass your puppet family, you hear me! Go! If you lose, I’ll look down on you for the rest of my life!”
Xiaohei patted its chest and leisurely made an “OK” gesture.
“Hehe… hehe… big brother, take me home, big brother, take me home…”
The doll’s mouth emitted a mechanical voice, and its pair of red eyes were fixed straight on Gu Yi.
Gu Yi froze for a moment, thinking of the little girl in the corridor.
It really was that little girl’s spirit residing in the doll’s body, but what exactly was her obsession? She wanted to go home, but where was her home?
“Big brother… big brother…”
The doll smiled eerily and stepped closer to Gu Yi, one step at a time. Its voice was so clear that it made everyone’s heart prickle.
Qing Sang’s gaze darkened. His fingertips moved, and the puppet doll on the floor suddenly leapt up, its whole body surging with powerful dao energy. It attacked the doll, and wherever it touched the doll, wisps of green smoke rose from its body, as if it had been scalded by something burning hot.
The doll let out repeated cries of pain, almost unable to hold on.
Gu Yi saw Qing Sang’s fingers moving rapidly. At first, he thought he was forming hand seals. Later, he realized that was not the case. Under the dim light, he saw countless silver threads between Qing Sang’s long fingers. If one did not look closely, they were almost indistinguishable from transparent threads, and the other ends of the silver threads were connected to Xiaohei’s body. It seemed that Qing Sang was using these silver threads to continuously pour his dao power into Xiaohei’s body, and only then could Xiaohei come alive and exert its exorcist effect. Those silver threads were probably also something unique to the puppet family, refined through secret methods.
Just like the paper-binding technique of the paper-binding family.
They were all very capable people, but Gu Yi himself, by contrast, did not understand any exorcism techniques at all and could only watch.
He felt a little frustrated.
At that moment, because of Xiaohei’s attack, the doll was completely enraged. It gnawed its teeth in hatred. When Xiaohei attacked again, the doll roared and rammed its head into Xiaohei’s stomach!
Xiaohei was knocked dizzy, its eyes turning into spinning mosquito coils. Before it could recover, the doll kicked hard at its head again!
That still was not enough. The doll remained unsatisfied, grabbed Xiaohei by the arm, and delivered a vicious over-the-shoulder throw!
…One of Xiaohei’s arms came off.
Xia Wan’er let out a shrill scream. “Xiaohei! How dare you bully my Xiaohei! Xiaohei! Get up! Come on! Xiaohei! Get up! Come on!”
Xia Wan’er’s crying was deafening. Gu Yi looked nervously at Qing Sang. The doll’s attack on Xiaohei was probably not only an attack on Xiaohei. It was a resentful spirit, so it must be carrying ghostly energy, and Xiaohei was Qing Sang’s puppet, controlled by Qing Sang. Then that ghostly energy would definitely backfire on Qing Sang through the silver threads. Sure enough, when he saw Qing Sang’s face growing paler and paler, he knew his guess was right.
Qing Sang carefully controlled Xiaohei to attack the evil spirit. His eyes were deep, and his handsome face was blurred by the light.
The fight between Xiaohei and the doll became a drawn-out battle, like a quarrel between children, neither side willing to stop until it achieved its goal. Xiaohei was obviously already nearing exhaustion. It dragged its weakened body over to the doll, and, gritting its teeth, kicked it once.
The doll bristled. It laboriously lifted a leg and kicked back.
…Xiaohei lost its balance and fell.
Xia Wan’er wore a pained expression. “Xiaohei! Damn it, I’m going to kill you!”
Xia Wan’er could no longer bear it. She took out a blank yellow talisman. Turning around, she pressed the talisman paper against the wall and carefully drew a pattern with cinnabar. Gu Yi turned back and looked at the talisman she was drawing. He was first shocked, then his face turned red. “Wan’er, what are you drawing?!”
This was clearly… a certain shameful part of a man’s body… Why was she drawing that!?
Gu Yi’s worldview was shaken, and Xia Wan’er glared at him fiercely and said, “What are you thinking? I’m drawing a big sword, a big sword!”
“…” Gu Yi did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Whose sword looks like that…”
“Shut up. I’m the Hand of the Soul. How would you mortals understand!?”
Xia Wan’er roared. She swept the finished talisman paper upward, quickly formed hand seals, and chanted, “Red powder is sent to beauties, a sword is gifted to heroes, Xia family big sword, please grant me strength!”
The talisman paper flashed. In the next second, a grand, dao-energy-filled great sword appeared in Xia Wan’er’s hand.
The sword was formed from dao energy, and it was not very solid. At a glance, it was even semi-transparent, but when the sword appeared, the doll did indeed freeze for a moment. It dodged Xiaohei, but it was already one step too late. Xia Wan’er shouted, “Evil spirit, be cut down!”
The great sword in her hand flew out, transforming into a powerful burst of spiritual energy, and slashed straight onto the doll’s body!
Taking advantage of that opening, she shouted, “Xiaohei, come back!”
Qing Sang withdrew the silver threads, and the battered Xiaohei quickly jumped back into Qing Sang’s palm. It looked up at Qing Sang pitifully, as if apologizing for not having beaten that doll. Qing Sang smiled gently and stroked its head. “You worked hard. Once we get back, I’ll help you reattach your arm.”
Xiaohei nodded gratefully.
Looking back at the doll, after taking that attack head-on, its resentment deepened even further. It let out a terrifying roar, its voice growing even more bizarre and grating. “Take me home… take me home… I’m going to kill you, kill all of you…”
Blood tears flowed from the doll’s face. Qing Sang was shocked. “How can there be such an evil spirit? The more we deal with it, the stronger it becomes.”
At this moment, Gu Yi suddenly remembered the talismans Bo Si had told him to bring when he came out. Bo Si had said that those talismans were condensed from his own power. He was so strong, surely he would not be unable to deal with a tiny evil spirit, right? Just now the situation had been urgent, and he had actually forgotten it for a moment!
Fortunately, when he changed clothes in the fitting room, he had carefully taken the talismans out and put them into his suit. Otherwise, the consequences would truly have been unimaginable.
Gu Yi took out the pink talisman paper. To be honest, this was his first time exorcising in his life, and he was very uneasy. He did not know whether he could succeed, but seeing how hard Qing Sang and Xia Wan’er were working, and this doll, which might even have come for him because he had said he would take it home, he had to bear half of the responsibility for this matter.
“Mr. Qing, Wan’er, leave this to me!”
Holding the talisman paper, Gu Yi quickly stepped in front of Qing Sang and Xia Wan’er.
Xia Wan’er was shocked and curious. “Yiyi, you know how to exorcise?”
Gu Yi gritted his teeth. “I’ll try!”
“Big brother… big brother… hehe…”
The doll was covered in wounds, yet it still dragged its stiff, broken body forward. With that strange smile on its face, it slowly inched closer to him. Its scarlet eyes flowed with blood, and its whole body emitted thick evil qi.
Gu Yi had prepared himself mentally ten thousand times, but the talisman paper was still in his hand, and he could not bring himself to throw it out.
Qing Sang watched him, and Xia Wan’er was even more anxious. “Yiyi, can you do it or not? If you can’t, don’t force it. Sister won’t blame you. This evil spirit really is very strong!”
Gu Yi hardened his heart. He closed his eyes, then opened them, and threw caution to the wind. Following what Bo Si had taught him, he first decisively hurled out the talisman, then formed a simple hand seal and shouted, “You’ve even dug up your ancestral grave, evil spirit, disperse!”
Gu Yi’s voice rang through the room.
Xia Wan’er: “…”
Qing Sang: “…”