SK Chapter 66

“Ah hahaha, let me say this in advance. Whatever you’re looking for, I won’t provide you with any help, okay? The three of us came here to do proper business!”

Faced with the enormous workload that looked like looking for a needle in the sea, Huo Wei was eager to distance herself from the matter and kept retreating.

“?”

Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly and looked at her.

Huo Wei saw the strong doubt in his eyes, so she emphasized:

“We’re here to look for Liu Xiaoying! Didn’t I just tell you? The gu demon’s next target is likely her. Didn’t we come all the way to Subei for this? Isn’t this proper business?”

“Did I say anything?”

Fu Sang put away the compass and casually retorted. He picked up a handy iron shovel from the side and began searching for treasures in the pile of discarded items on his own.

‘You’d better not have said anything.’

Huo Wei silently warned herself, warily watching Fu Sang’s back as she retreated all the way to her other two teammates.

“What did he come here for?” Zhuge Buhuo felt guilty and did not dare approach, so he quietly asked when Huo Wei returned.

“He said he was looking for something. I don’t know what.” Huo Wei whispered to him.

“He came to a scrap recycling station in the middle of the night, and in the freezing weather, to look for something?” Zhuge Buhuo clearly did not approve.

“There’s demonic aura on him.”

While the two were speaking quietly, Chen Wuyue narrowed her eyes slightly.

As if confirming something, she paused for a moment before saying:

“It’s the gu demon.”

“How could this…” This development was somewhat beyond Huo Wei’s expectations.

“You mean he encountered the gu demon by himself at the inn and didn’t tell us? That doesn’t make sense.” Zhuge Buhuo stroked his chin.

“Do you two want to speak a little louder? Go find a loudspeaker, wash it clean, and shove it right against my ear while you shout?”

Fu Sang’s cold voice cut in.

Huo Wei and Zhuge Buhuo both shuddered, while Chen Wuyue openly said:

“You’ve already encountered the gu demon?”

“Mm.” Fu Sang made no attempt to hide it.

“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Zhuge Buhuo felt that this person was somewhat suspicious, going off on his own and even trying to conceal it.

“Did anyone ask?”

Hearing this, Chen Wuyue frowned.

“What exactly happened? Did you catch him?”

“I caught him.”

“And then?”

“He escaped again.” Fu Sang answered casually.

“Then don’t you think that if something like this happens next time, you should take the initiative to tell us?”

Chen Wuyue had reason to suspect that if she had not sensed the demonic aura on Fu Sang, they might never have known in this lifetime that, on such a cold and windy night, Zhuge Fusang had already encountered the gu demon alone at the inn.

“If I tell you, what use can you be?” Fu Sang always managed to say a string of infuriating things in such a calm tone.

“Aren’t we teammates?” Chen Wuyue was successfully angered by his attitude.

“But if I remember correctly, our goals aren’t completely the same. What you need to do is stop the demon from continuing to harm humans, but I don’t. But I haven’t gotten in your way. In fact, if my plan had gone as usual, that demon would already be dead and unable to continue causing trouble. Your mission could have been completed ahead of time, and you’d have to thank me, wouldn’t you? We only cooperate when necessary, such as when we can benefit each other and pursue a common interest. There’s no need for us to share information or act together. When we’re out, each of us relies on our own abilities. I thought we had already reached an agreement on this long ago.”

“Forgive me, but I can’t agree.” Chen Wuyue was truly at a loss with this person who existed outside moral standards.

“The gu demon is a major-case suspect. My mission is to stop him from causing trouble and bring him to justice. He is guilty. What we need to do is hand him over to the Spirit Supervision Bureau for disposal. You can’t bypass the law and use private punishment.”

“‘Can’t’?” Fu Sang seemed amused by this.

“I hope you understand one thing. What binds me in this world isn’t the law or morality. It’s karma. If the karma can make itself consistent, I don’t mind killing you along with him.”

“You…!”

“Hey, hey, alright, alright.” Seeing the two of them becoming more and more heated, Huo Wei hurriedly stepped forward to act as a peacemaker.

“Let’s not argue at someone else’s doorstep. Forget about this for now. Since nothing serious has happened yet, let’s just follow the original plan and each do our own thing, okay? We’ll go find Grandpa Liu and Liu Xiaoying, while Fu Sang continues rummaging through his garbage pile. We’ll deal with what comes later when it comes. Anyway, saving people is the most important thing, right?”

After saying those conciliatory words, Huo Wei pulled Chen Wuyue toward the red-brick house. As they walked, she patted her back and whispered:

“He’s a lunatic. Don’t reason with a lunatic. You can’t reason it out! Let’s just do our own thing, huh! Just pretend we never met him! Let him make his own mess! He cares about karma, so he won’t take things too far. Don’t worry!”

Huo Wei felt that things were really too difficult for her.

After calming Chen Wuyue down, she hurried to move on to the next part so everyone could forget the unpleasantness from the previous part as quickly as possible. She jogged all the way to the little red-brick house at the scrap station and knocked on the door.

Soon, the door was pulled open, and Grandpa Liu appeared behind it, wearing a thick sweater with loose threads.

His back was hunched. Looking at the group of young people at the door, his cloudy eyes widened slightly, as if he were stunned for a moment.

“You are…?”

“We’re here to conduct an investigation, Grandpa.” Huo Wei took the initiative to shoulder the important task of communicating with him.

“Condolences?”

“Uh… no… We’re here to interview you!” Sensing that something was off, Huo Wei hurriedly changed her wording.

“We were passing through here and heard that your life was rather difficult, so we wanted to come over and learn more about your situation and provide you with a little help within our abilities.”

As she spoke, as if trying to prove herself, she lifted the milk and eggs in her hands for Grandpa Liu to see.

Grandpa Liu looked at her, seeming somewhat hesitant, but he did not hesitate for long. After all, cold wind was still blowing outside, and it was not good to leave guests standing outside, so he moved aside and let her into the house.

“Come in first. It’s cold outside.”

Seeing this, Huo Wei hurriedly turned around and waved to Zhuge Buhuo and Chen Wuyue behind her.

The two quickly followed, but before entering the house, an ominous premonition seemed to arise in Chen Wuyue’s heart. Her footsteps stopped, and she frowned slightly as she looked back at Fu Sang, who was still rummaging through the garbage in the distance behind them.

After a moment, she withdrew her gaze, stepped inside, and closed the door.

Seeing that everyone had entered the house from the corner of his eye, Fu Sang looked toward the red-brick house, then casually threw down the iron shovel and dusted the dirt from his hands.

He took out the compass again, rubbed a tiny bit of the paper ash caught in the gaps of the compass’s patterns with his fingertip, crushed it even more between his fingers, and brought it beneath his nose to sniff lightly.

After carefully examining it for a moment, he put away the compass, went around to the left side of the pile of discarded items, and picked up a wooden stick to rummage through it for a while. Finally, he dug out a dented iron box.

He shook it twice. Feeling that the weight and sound were about right, he directly opened the deformed lid of the iron box.

Inside, the bone-white doll lay quietly.

Fu Sang took it out, threw away the box, freed one hand and made a simple hand seal before pressing his palm against the doll’s head. After sensing it for a moment, he raised his eyebrow slightly in surprise.

‘…Empty?’

Where had the ghost inside gone?

With this doubt, Fu Sang used talisman paper to seal the doll and put it away. He raised his eyes and looked once again at the red-brick house not far away.

Tonight was very cold. Outside the house, the cold wind howled, and when it struck the face, it felt prickly all over. Inside, however, was fairly warm.

There was no heating in the red-brick bungalow. Several layers of plastic sheeting had been pasted onto the walls to keep the warmth in and block the wind. In the middle of the floor stood a very old-fashioned iron stove, with coal burning inside. A kettle sat on top, heating water while also providing warmth.

Grandpa Liu poured each of them a cup of water. The water was very hot and would certainly warm them up, but white scale floated on the surface. Huo Wei looked at it for a long time and still could not bring herself to drink.

Holding the hot water, she briefly explained their “purpose” to Grandpa Liu. After hearing her out, Grandpa Liu shook his head.

“No need. Although I’m old, I can still earn money myself and raise the child. It’s not like I can’t survive. Your money didn’t come from the wind either. You don’t need to give it to me. There are many people in this world poorer than me. Save it here and go help them instead… Cough…”

As Grandpa Liu spoke, he coughed, his dark skin flushing red from the coughing.

“…Sigh, the main thing is, at your age, it’s definitely not good to work this hard every day. Let’s rest more, take it easy, and enjoy your later years. Wouldn’t that be nice? And your child is still so young. Even if we don’t do it for ourselves, we have to give the child a good life, right?”

Huo Wei was not just making things up. Since they had come all this way and found such a pretext, she genuinely wanted to provide the old man with some help. It was not as if she lacked the ability to do so.

“It’s not that difficult either. There are many state subsidies now. I can receive quite a lot of money every month. I earn some miscellaneous money on top of that, and I can live very well. I can even save a little every month. The child won’t go hungry or cold. If you don’t believe me, look.”

Grandpa Liu bent down and took an iron box from beneath the table. He opened it with his calloused hands, revealing a box full of assorted banknotes.

“I’ve saved quite a lot!”

He emphasized it.

This little old man was not only kind-hearted, but also content with what he had. When he smiled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes gathered together until his eyes could hardly be seen.

“The welfare system is good nowadays. The child doesn’t even have to pay tuition to go to school. Compared with before, I don’t know how much better life is. What is there to be dissatisfied about? People from our county also often come to visit me here, bringing us this and that, asking me what difficulties I have, and giving priority to handling anything that comes up. That’s enough! If we relied entirely on everyone’s help to live, taking a little from here and a little from there, what would that make us? Eating free food means people will look down on you, and the child will be pointed at and talked about for their whole life too. Only by living with our own two hands can we make the child proud. Don’t you agree?”

“…”

This really made Huo Wei unable to refute him.

Holding her cup, she nodded and looked past Grandpa Liu toward Liu Xiaoying on the little bed.

Liu Xiaoying was curled up beneath a floral cotton quilt, completely motionless, like a little hill.

Huo Wei had only looked at her once when entering the room. She had not actually seen her very clearly. She had only seen that she was a chubby little girl with big eyes, rosy cheeks, and two little braids tied on top of her head. She was quite cute.

It was also quite late, and it would not be good to continue disturbing the old man and child’s rest. Seeing that Grandpa Liu insisted on refusing their help, Huo Wei said goodbye and planned to leave.

After all, they had already found Liu Xiaoying. Things would be much easier from here. They could think of another way after returning and fight again tomorrow.

Although Grandpa Liu had said he did not need it, they still insisted on leaving behind the rice, flour, milk, and other things they had brought. Grandpa Liu thanked them repeatedly and saw them out of the house.

Standing outside, the cheeks that had been heated by the charcoal fire quickly turned cold.

Zhuge Buhuo gave a light cough.

“Actually, I noticed it just now, but it wasn’t convenient to say anything… Huo Wei, did you notice that there was yin energy in that house?”

“I saw it, but it was so faint. I couldn’t tell where it came from. Now that we’re out, it’s gone again.”

There had indeed been yin energy in the house, drifting in the corners like thin smoke. Its rank was not high, exactly the same as those they had seen in the Miao village. If they did not look carefully, they would not even notice it.

But as soon as they came outside, it was gone.

Huo Wei looked all around, trying hard to find some suspicious substance that might be yin energy, when Chen Wuyue suddenly asked beside her:

“Where’s Fu Sang?”

Huo Wei froze and instinctively looked for Fu Sang, who should have been rummaging through the garbage pile.

Sure enough, he was gone again.

Chen Wuyue was still angry.

She really disapproved of his way of doing things.

“Is he always like this? Doing whatever he wants, acting on his own, and ignoring rules and reason?”

“Uh… not really. Don’t listen to how harshly he talks. He acts like some kind of lawless outlaw, but actually, he really hasn’t done anything particularly outrageous. Every day, he just guards that broken shop, selling paper money and incense and helping people tell fortunes. He only recently started going out to handle cases.”

“He’s not like this when he usually handles cases either. He’s the big thigh. If you don’t believe me, ask Buhuo! This time, he’s especially crazy and irritable probably because something happened to his ghost. He’s in a hurry to make the person who cast the curse remove it and pay with their life. Otherwise, he’d be too lazy to bother with any of this.”

Huo Wei comforted Chen Wuyue. Seeing that Chen Wuyue did not say anything else, she finally secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Who knew that when she turned around, Zhuge Buhuo was also gone? Seeing that he had returned to the little house, Huo Wei hurried over too, curious.

After approaching, she saw that Zhuge Buhuo was hiding behind the only window of the little house, secretly peeking at the situation inside.

“What are you doing? You’re being so creepy.” Huo Wei did not approve of his behavior.

“Hey… don’t you think it’s strange? There’s no yin energy outside, only inside. What does that mean? It means the yin energy is inside the house.”

Zhuge Buhuo tried to share his thoughts with Huo Wei.

“…That makes sense, but there really isn’t any underworld spirit inside the house. Could it be that the two of us suddenly went blind?”

Huo Wei frowned and, imitating Zhuge Buhuo, looked through the glass again to confirm.

Grandpa Liu’s little house was so small that she could see everything at a glance. There was really nothing inside. It was pitch-black, with only the stove glowing.

Grandpa Liu had already gone to sleep.

The grandfather and granddaughter slept on the same small bed, with Grandpa sleeping on the outside and his granddaughter on the inside…

“…Wait.”

Huo Wei seemed to have suddenly realized something.

She asked Zhuge Buhuo, “If there are only two people in a house besides us, and we can smell yin energy but cannot see the underworld spirit, and throughout the whole process, we only had a close face-to-face encounter with one of them, what does that mean?”

“It means… the ghost might have possessed the other person?”

Realizing this possibility, Zhuge Buhuo broke out in a cold sweat.

Children’s minds were immature, so they were easy to control, and indeed, they were easily possessed by underworld spirits. However, underworld spirits generally would not choose to do this, because although young bodies were easier to invade, correspondingly, there was very little they could do, making them useless vessels.   

However, if the gu demon and the ghost’s purpose was not to possess the body but to take a life, then it would be very suitable.

The bookstore owner had died of suffocation, while the university student had died of gu poison. The methods used in the two cases were worlds apart. They had no way of predicting what method the gu demon would use against the next victim, Liu Xiaoying.

In other words, possessing someone to seek their death was indeed within the realm of possibility.

“Then what do we do now? We can’t exactly go in and steal the old man’s granddaughter right in front of him just to confirm whether she’s been possessed by a ghost, can we?” Huo Wei whispered in despair.

“It’s not that serious… No, how the hell did you pass the family examination? You don’t even know the basics?”

“Stop showing off. If you have a way, hurry up and use it!” Huo Wei punched him in the back.

Zhuge Buhuo let out a quiet cry of pain, then turned around and looked Huo Wei up and down.

“Give me the doll hanging on your bag.”

“?” Huo Wei lowered her head and looked at her bag charm. “This is my limited-edition, big hidden treasure. It’s like my own child…”

“Is the big hidden treasure more important or is a human life more important? Hurry up!”

Zhuge Buhuo snatched the doll from Huo Wei, took out talisman paper from his pocket, bit through his finger viciously, smeared the blood all over it, then pulled her along until they found a concealed spot farther away from the house.

“Chen San! Third Sister!” Huo Wei called softly after finding a hiding place.

Chen Wuyue, who had been standing not far away, came back to her senses and walked over to them.

“The gu demon has appeared in the human realm. I sensed his presence.”

“The problem isn’t the gu demon anymore.” Huo Wei quickly laid out their action plan.

“We think things have taken a turn toward an even more terrifying possibility! Anyway, Buhuo is already casting the curse. If we guessed wrong, nothing will happen. If we guessed right, Liu Xiaoying will come out by herself later. You’re good at fighting, so when the time comes, use this sack…”

Huo Wei pulled a dirty urea sack out from the pile of discarded items.

“Use it to bag her, then we’ll take her together to find San You and let him deal with her. Understand?”

“…Huh?” Chen Wuyue actually hadn’t quite understood. Why had they suddenly decided to use a sack to bag a child?

While her mind was blank, something unusual happened in the direction of the little house.

Slightly startled, she looked carefully and saw a small figure squeeze out from behind the thick windproof curtain outside the door, staggering as she walked.

“…Wait!” Seeing the situation developing in a bad direction, Huo Wei seemed to suddenly wake from a dream.

“Didn’t San You say that the gu demon’s ghost mother could suddenly turn into a seventh-rank Crimson Evil?”

“Yes.” Chen Wuyue nodded.

She had no real concept of seventh rank, but she remembered this setting.

“But what if she transforms later? Can we use a sack to bag her…?” Huo Wei asked the crucial question.

“I think that question should be changed to: do we have any possibility of surviving?”

Zhuge Buhuo said coldly, then suddenly changed the subject.

“But if I remember correctly, this ghost herself isn’t a Crimson Evil. She was forcibly raised to the seventh rank by an external force. The version you described to me should have been that the gu demon first called out ‘Mama,’ the doll heard the commotion, and then the ghost became a Crimson Evil. That was the order, right?”

Huo Wei recalled it carefully and confirmed, “That’s right.”

“Then perhaps her ability to become a Crimson Evil is related to these preceding conditions? The gu demon isn’t here now, and the doll isn’t here either. Can she still turn into a Crimson Evil by herself?”

“Hiss… You have a point.”

“Don’t just have a point. What exactly are we saying?! I can’t guarantee that my guess is definitely right. We have to gamble. Anyway, if we’re going to gamble, we do it. If we’re not, we turn around and run… Here she comes, here she comes! Quick, quick! Decide now!”

‘Don’t hand such an important decision over to me! I have never even won a prize from scratching lottery tickets!’

Huo Wei screamed inwardly.

But she still obeyed the voice in her heart.

“…Gamble!”

Huo Wei gritted her teeth and shoved the sack into Chen Wuyue’s hands.

“Do it!”

“???” Chen Wuyue still hadn’t understood what was happening. After listening to their discussion, all she knew was that Huo Wei wanted her to take this sack and bag the child.

On one hand, she wondered if this was really okay. On the other hand, she felt that Huo Wei must have her reasons for making it sound so serious. So she still shook the sack open and got ready.

In front of her was a pile of stacked tables, chairs, and benches. The gaps between the accumulated wood were enough for her to clearly see Liu Xiaoying.

Then Zhuge Buhuo threw something outside.

Liu Xiaoying was originally searching around. When she heard the sound of the doll hitting the ground, she immediately turned her head warily.

Chen Wuyue narrowed her eyes slightly.

The child was dressed quite warmly. Over a floral thermal shirt was a cotton vest, while she wore padded pants and thick socks on her feet. She looked like a small, chubby little thing.

A child just over a year old still can’t walk steadily. Liu Xiaoying also walked unsteadily, stumbling with every step. After tripping as she walked, she simply began crawling on the ground.

Up to this point, everything looked quite reasonable, except for one thing…she crawled too quickly. As she crawled, she soon changed back to walking, and her walking movements were already much more practiced than before.

This did not fit her age.

The last trace of doubt in Chen Wuyue’s heart immediately disappeared. She tightened her grip on the sack, waiting for Liu Xiaoying to walk step by step toward the bait doll Zhuge Buhuo had thrown out.

But what made their hearts clench was that when Liu Xiaoying was still more than a meter away from the doll, her movements suddenly stopped.

She stopped and stared at the doll, tilting her head.

Then she crouched down and desperately leaned the upper half of her body toward the doll, while her little feet remained completely motionless, as if they had been nailed to the ground.

“…What’s wrong with her?” Huo Wei couldn’t help asking in a breathy voice.

“Did she sense that something was wrong?” Chen Wuyue also frowned.

“She shouldn’t have. This curse simulates the resentment and blood aura of someone on the verge of death. It’s an enormous temptation to underworld spirits. There’s no way she could resist it…”

Zhuge Buhuo hadn’t finished speaking when he suddenly fell silent.

Because they all saw Liu Xiaoying suddenly twist her head toward another direction!

She remained still for two seconds. As if she had sensed something, she turned around and tentatively took a step in the direction opposite the doll.

“…Forget it. Chen San, do it!”

Zhuge Buhuo made the decision immediately and gave the order. He pulled a peach wood sword from behind his waist, smeared the undried blood on his finger over it, and forcefully stabbed the tip of the sword into the ground!

The ground was a layer of compacted snow, with frozen-hard earth underneath. After the wooden sword was driven in, the ground trembled slightly and a thin crack appeared.

The crack grew from the base of the wooden sword and traveled toward Liu Xiaoying like lightning. At the same time, black mist like tentacles drifted out from the crack and shot toward Liu Xiaoying!

Hearing the order, Chen Wuyue immediately flashed out.

The three chicken-blood vine bracelets on her wrist seemed to suddenly come alive. They actively detached themselves from her wrist and stretched their soft waists, locking onto the target together with the black mist like living vines.

“Pa!”

In the blink of an eye, the vines burrowed into the ground beneath Liu Xiaoying’s feet, while the black mist also missed.

Liu Xiaoying reacted extremely quickly. She dodged, then turned around to face them. Veins bulged all over her neck and face, and her eyes were rapidly overtaken by ink-blackness. She opened her mouth, revealing a row of sharp ghost teeth!

The scene suddenly became extremely horrifying. In the air, yin energy so dense that it was difficult to breathe erupted, making Huo Wei and Zhuge Buhuo tremble instinctively.

“…Seventh rank, it’s seventh rank! She turned into a Crimson Evil!!” Huo Wei screamed in shock.

“Go, go go! We lost the gamble, retreat, quick!!!”

Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhuge Buhuo immediately ordered a retreat.

His voice was actually trembling.

In his entire life, at most, he had only seen a fifth-rank Red Wrath from afar when he followed his elders. If he really had to say it, he had seen a seventh-rank Crimson Evil too, the one beside Fu Sang.

But obviously, that one could not be used as a reference. After all, not every ghost had such a good temper that it could kiss and get lovey-dovey with a human like that one.

He also didn’t know what odds the three of them had of winning now that they had encountered a genuine Crimson Evil.

Anyway, just run first and be done with it.

Whether they could run away or not could be discussed later. Having the right attitude was enough.

“…Wait?”

Just as Zhuge Buhuo was in despair and preparing his last words, he heard Chen Wuyue’s voice.

He instinctively turned his head to look and saw Chen Wuyue raise her right hand. The three vines had once again transformed into bracelets and hung around her wrist.

“She seems unwilling to get entangled with us.”

“?” Hearing this, Zhuge Buhuo boldly looked at Liu Xiaoying again.

Indeed.

Liu Xiaoying merely bared her ghost teeth threateningly at them and did not make any further moves.

Instead, she was slowly retreating with both hands and feet.

The wildly beating heart in his chest finally began to slow down.

The next moment, under the gazes of the three people, Liu Xiaoying seemed to have been attracted by an even greater temptation. She suddenly turned around and ran away at full speed!

Chen Wuyue threw the sack away.

“Chase!”

As soon as she spoke, Chen Wuyue followed in the direction Liu Xiaoying had left.

Seeing this, Huo Wei was about to rush after her, but Zhuge Buhuo grabbed her.

“Wait, are we really going to chase after her? The ignorant are fearless, and newborn calves are not afraid of tigers. She doesn’t know what a Crimson Evil means, but you don’t know either?! We barely kept our lives, and now you’re rushing to give them away?!”

“Then we can’t let her go alone! If we die, we die together!” Huo Wei shook off Zhuge Buhuo’s hand and ran after her too.

“…Can’t we shake that red-eyed kid awake first?!”

Zhuge Buhuo shouted in despair.

He watched the two girls charging ahead. His survival instinct and his soul of loyalty fought each other, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and ran after them.

Liu Xiaoying was really fast. She rushed out of the scrap recycling station and continued westward, leaving the small town far behind.

Beyond the small town was an endless Gobi Desert. The only source of light between heaven and earth was the headlights of cars speeding along the highway.

Liu Xiaoying seemed incapable of getting tired. Her tiny body shot rapidly across the Gobi Desert, and Chen Wuyue had to use every ounce of her strength just to keep up with her.

They did not know how far they had run when a pair of headlights lit up behind her, flashing.

Chen Wuyue turned her head and saw that it was Huo Wei’s beautiful black off-road vehicle.

The off-road vehicle overtook her and stopped after braking. The passenger-side window lowered, and Zhuge Buhuo shouted at her, “Get in!”

The car lock clicked open, but Chen Wuyue did not pull the door open. Instead, she grabbed the roof rack and directly flipped onto the roof.

In this short delay, they had fallen another long distance behind Liu Xiaoying.

After confirming that Chen Wuyue had a firm grip on the roof, Huo Wei stepped on the accelerator all the way down. Gravel splashed beneath the wheels, and the car charged deeper into the pitch-black Gobi with smoke practically coming from its feet.

Zhuge Buhuo gripped the armrest tightly. With his other hand, he held two fingers together in front of his eyes, keeping both eyes tightly shut as he tried his best to distinguish the direction of the yin energy in the darkness.

“Turn right! She went up the mountain!”

“Up the mountain?!!” Huo Wei almost broke her voice.

“It’s a low mountain! Not high or steep. Just go up!”

“Are you sure?!”

“I’m fucking sitting in your car too. Do you think I can lie to you?!”

“Then I’m charging up?!”

“Charge!!”

So she stepped on the accelerator again. With a “boom,” the off-road vehicle rocked violently and charged straight up the low Gobi mountain.

Zhuge Buhuo tried hard to distinguish Liu Xiaoying’s aura in the darkness.

Under the effect of the Vision of the Spirit Curse, in the darkness, the overbearing yin energy belonging to a seventh-rank Crimson Evil became points of light, gathering into a route like a river of stars.

But farther ahead, not far below…

More and more complicated auras converged, and Zhuge Buhuo almost immediately shouted:

“Stop the car!”

“Huh?!”

Huo Wei screamed in shock, but still chose to trust Zhuge Buhuo. Just as the car reached the top of the low mountain and was about to plunge downward, she slammed on the brakes.

“Why are you suddenly braking again??”

Huo Wei asked first, then opened the window and poked her head out to ask the person on the roof:

“Are you okay, Chen San?”

“I’m fine.”

Chen Wuyue jumped down from the roof.

She walked two steps forward and stared intently at the bottom of the mountain.

“I think you two should get down and take a look…”

Huo Wei smelled something unusual from those words.

She immediately unfastened her seat belt and got out of the car. When she looked down the mountain, her eyes immediately went straight.

“I… fuck…”

On the ground beneath the low mountain, a string of enormous blood-red curse runes was glowing.

The curse runes lay in the pitch-black Gobi, their strokes emitting a faint red glow that slightly illuminated the quiet night.

“Ama! Mama!!!”

A shrill cry pierced the sky, making Huo Wei shudder.

“Let’s go down and take a look…” She immediately returned to the car. “Get in!”

This time, the person who repeatedly questioned with extreme unease whether this decision was correct became Zhuge Buhuo.

“Are we really going down? What is that thing down there? What if there’s an even more powerful ghost or human and they blow us up along with it later?”

Huo Wei sneered.

“In this place where birds don’t shit, who else do you think has the ability to draw a curse like this?”

Before she had even finished speaking, she shifted gears and started moving. The car immediately plunged toward the foot of the mountain!

For however long the car rushed downward, Zhuge Buhuo shouted from the passenger seat for that entire time, until, after a beautiful drifting turn, the off-road vehicle came to a steady stop.

Huo Wei immediately opened the door and got out. Just as she steadied herself, a black shadow flew over and rolled several times on the ground not far away before getting back up.

It was Liu Xiaoying.

Huo Wei froze and raised her eyes in the direction the child had rolled from.

She saw red light soaring into the sky. The earth seemed to melt along with the strokes of the curse, while the red light at the bottom appeared like surging, flowing magma.

And outside the curse, a person stood backlit, his right foot stepping on a huge black insect. He stood there leisurely, his hair flying wildly in the fierce wind.

“Three seconds.”

The person raised his chin slightly, his voice extremely cold.

“Three.”

His right foot exerted force, and the black insect let out a piercing insect cry.

“Two.”

Liu Xiaoying suddenly fell to the ground and began struggling in pain.

“One…”

“…Ah!!!”

The cry was so shrill that a chill crawled from the soles of Huo Wei’s feet all the way to the top of her head.

She saw the child curled up on the ground suddenly straighten her body. Clumps of yin energy surged out from her mouth and nose, finally condensing into a complete human form above.

It was a woman dressed in Miao attire.

As the woman left Liu Xiaoying and condensed her form, a long nail flew over from afar.

The long nail was completely black, its head shaped like a snake bone, while its exceptionally long and sharp tail pointed directly at the female ghost’s throat.

Just as the long nail was about to pierce through the female ghost’s body, the black insect’s heart-wrenching cry of “Ama” tore through the night sky, and that second seem to stretch infinitely.

In that instant, the long nail suddenly transformed into wisps of mist, scattering abruptly at the very moment before it pierced through her.

When they focused again, another figure had already appeared beside her.

The red-clothed fierce ghost’s fingers curved into claws, gripping the female ghost’s neck from across the air.

The northern wind and sand mixed with snow particles and howled. The robe that had been scorched by fierce flames was like a broken battle banner on a battlefield, fluttering wildly in the wind.

Two forces of yin energy spun and tangled at the foot of the mountain like a storm, determined to fight for superiority.

In the end, one force gradually grew stronger and the female ghost let out a painful wail. Her yin energy suddenly surged toward the other party, where it was all gathered and absorbed by him.

Huo Wei noticed that during this process, the black curse runes on the red-clothed ghost’s face, layered over the Ten-Thousand-Deaths-Without-Reincarnation, were gradually disappearing.

In a daze, Huo Wei seemed to hear a faint sound of something cracking…

The black chains originally locked around all four wrists of the red-clothed Crimson  Evil shattered into ten million pieces at the same time.

A fierce wind suddenly rose.

Amid the surging yin energy, he opened his eyes.