Chapter 29: The Ghost Master (Part 2)
For several days in a row, nearly a third of the wild ghosts in Rong City had been captured. Yet Shen Hu found no foothold to start an investigation.
Normally, he could use his compass to find the mastermind’s lair based on the yin energy on the ghosts. But this time, he didn’t know what secret technique the Ghost Master used; no traces were left behind.
The ghosts were taken without leaking a single wisp of aura. It truly left him helpless.
Just as he was getting a headache over how to handle this, he saw the distress message from Jiang Si.
Jiang Si: SOS! Master, come to the shop quickly to save a life! Someone is using Teng sorcery.
At this point, Shen Hu’s already uneasy mind sank completely to rock bottom.
Someone actually used Teng sorcery!
…
“What is Teng sorcery?” Luo Yan asked, watching Old Zhao being helped up from the ground by Jiang Si and propped against the corner of a cabinet for support. Beside him was a group of colorful, blushing paper dolls. Above his head were two stacks of paper money from the Hell Bank, and next to the money were dozens of bundles of incense candles.
No matter how you looked at it, the scene resembled Old Zhao lying peacefully in a funeral home surrounded by offerings.
Luo Yan had reason to suspect Jiang Si was using public office to avenge private grudges, but his busy actions didn’t seem like it.
After calling for help, Jiang Si was no longer in a hurry and answered unhurriedly, “Teng sorcery is a type of witchcraft from the Nanling region. It mostly uses insects as a medium, attaching dead souls to them, drifting onto living people, gradually sucking the flesh and blood of the living until they become an empty shell, then moving to the next host.”
“Because dead souls are attached to them, these insects have spiritual consciousness and are very difficult to catch. Along with Jiangtou (Hexes) and Wugu (Voodoo/Gu), they are known as the three great evil arts.”
Just listening gave Luo Yan goosebumps. The thought of insects entering a human body and slowly crawling around was disgusting. Coupled with seeing the black line in Old Zhao’s eyeball actually wiggling slightly, she felt cold sweat all over her body.
“This thing is so scary; is there a solution?” Luo Yan asked.
“I don’t know.” Jiang Si spread his hands. “I’m just an art creator; I don’t know this kind of witchcraft.”
Luo Yan expressed doubt: “Last time you said you were a materialist.”
“Isn’t this materialist? Insects are visible and tangible things.”
“What about the dead souls you mentioned?”
“That was made up to enhance the atmosphere.” Jiang Si was frank. “You know, in our line of work, we can’t help but use our imagination to create something.”
“…Even if it’s just bugs, it’s scary!” Luo Yan was almost led astray by his interruption.
“Ah, yes, yes, yes.” Jiang Si agreed, but there was no fear on his face. He lowered his eyes to look at Old Zhao on the ground from time to time, calculating the time.
Shen Hu arrived very quickly. He rushed into the paper effigy shop with a compass in one hand and a folding fan in the other, followed by his apprentice carrying a bag. Their attire clearly showed they had been out hunting the Ghost Master.
“Is it him?” Shen Hu pointed to Old Zhao sitting paralyzed on the ground, his expression solemn. He approached and pressed two fingers against the side of Old Zhao’s neck.
“He’s already dead…” Not feeling a pulse, Shen Hu said regretfully.
Jiang Si then remembered he forgot to mention the precondition. “He’s not dead. He saw my Door God painting when he entered just now, and his soul was scared away, leading to this.”
“So that’s it.” Shen Hu’s expression softened slightly. He pried open the eyelids and looked up and down before standing up. “Fortunately, the Teng sorcery hasn’t invaded the internal organs yet. There is still hope.”
He signaled his apprentice, who immediately took tools out of the bag.
A bowl, a stack of yellow talismans, cinnabar, and a brush were laid out one by one.
Shen Hu borrowed the restroom from Jiang Si to wash his hands. Facing the row of tools, he concentrated and calmed his Qi. In a moment, he lifted the brush dipped in cinnabar and drew a continuous rune on the talisman paper in one go.
Picking it up with his fingers, the talisman paper ignited out of thin air, ashes falling into the bowl half-filled with water.
“Pry open his mouth and pour the water in.” Seeing the talisman was mostly burned, Shen Hu ordered.
Luo Yan couldn’t watch anymore and shouted, “Stop! No!”
“How can he drink talisman water? This is too superstitious!” Luo Yan had worked in the Propaganda Department for so many years. Her number one KPI every year was anti-fraud, and number two was dispelling feudal superstition.
Seeing this scene now, her DNA reacted directly, and she went up to stop it without thinking.
“…” Jiang Si was stunned. “At a time like this, you still care about that?”
Besides, wasn’t the concept of ‘losing a soul’ more superstitious?
“…”
Luo Yan thought about it seriously. “You’re right. It’s just drinking some talisman water; it’s just plant ash, it won’t kill anyone.”
She convinced herself and made room for the apprentice, watching him unceremoniously pinch Old Zhao’s jaw, force his mouth open, and pour the talisman water in.
Dead people naturally wouldn’t swallow. After the talisman water was poured in, it flowed back out endlessly from the corners of Old Zhao’s unclosed mouth.
Jiang Si handed over a prepared basin in time to catch it.
Shen Hu pressed his middle finger and thumb together, forming a hand seal, chanting something with cadence and rhythm.
Luo Yan listened for a long time without understanding a word and wondered, “What spell is he saying?”
Jiang Si: “This is Taoist scripture; it needs to be chanted.”
“Oh, I see.” Luo Yan gained some knowledge. “Just now I was wondering why the Taoist priest didn’t hold a peach wood sword but a fan instead. Is there a story behind that?”
“That is the Xiaoyao Fan, a proper Taoist magical tool.”
“Is that so? I thought he brought it to fan himself because it was hot outside,” Luo Yan whispered, covering her mouth.
Well, that is one of its functions…
While the two chatted, the water slowly flowing out of Old Zhao’s mouth gradually became black and viscous, as if old phlegm from the throat was sliding out with it. Drop by drop, it pulled long threads of saliva swaying in the air until falling into the basin.
At the same time, a sour stench of meat rotting for months spread from his mouth.
The smell made Jiang Si and Luo Yan cover their noses in unison, finding the odor unbearable.
Jiang Si took a moment to think of Hai Di. With his sensitive sense of smell, it was good he wasn’t in the shop…
“Holy crap, what is this disgusting stuff… Ugh—” Luo Yan couldn’t help but retch as soon as she opened her mouth.
Jiang Si didn’t speak. He watched the viscous liquid in Old Zhao’s mouth turn even blacker until it flowed out as a series of black clumps.
They looked like clumps of hair. Observing carefully, one could discover that every single hair was wriggling.
It was countless slender worms huddled together.
Old Zhao’s condition wasn’t severe. After vomiting for ten minutes, the liquid in his mouth became clear again.
Seeing this, Luo Yan thought it was finally over and couldn’t help looking forward to it. “Is it mostly cleaned up?”
Jiang Si poured a basin of cold water on her expectations directly. “Those are just the offspring. There is still the mother body. If the mother isn’t removed, there can be as many offspring as she wants.”
“Then what do we do?” Luo Yan’s expression changed again.
Shen Hu had actually already given the answer. He moved the paper effigies aside, clearing a space for Old Zhao to lie down.
He took a knife and bent down close.
Perhaps because the offspring had all been vomited out, the mother body in Old Zhao’s dead silent eyeball was moving constantly. Because age had caused fat loss, leaving only a thin layer of eyelid, it was being propped up repeatedly. The amplitude became larger and larger, seeming as if it could drill a hole through the eyelid at any time.
“Master.” The apprentice felt his eyes itching and hurting just watching, as if something was drilling into them too.
“Stand further away,” Shen Hu ordered without looking up.
The apprentice looked moved. “It’s okay, Master, I’m not afraid…”
Shen Hu: “You’re blocking my light.”
“…”
The apprentice retreated awkwardly, standing with Jiang Si.
Shen Hu raised the knife and brought it down. The sharp tip made a cut under the brow bone, on the upper eyelid.
Fresh blood flowed down Old Zhao’s face. Seeming attracted by the smell of blood, the mother body in the eyeball became more and more agitated, jumping up and down against his eyelid.
Everyone couldn’t help holding their breath and focusing, staring tightly at Old Zhao’s face.
A few seconds later, the mother body finally drilled out of the wound—a pitch-black nematode. As soon as it came out, it immediately sought the next host.
Shen Hu had various magical tools protecting his body. The mother body didn’t dare provoke this powerful character and flew straight toward the three people behind him.
A black shadow flashed through the air. Luo Yan didn’t even see clearly what it was before it was intercepted by a slender, large hand.
Jiang Si held this black nematode, barely thicker than sewing thread, looking somewhat disgusted but also examining it curiously.
“This is the Teng worm?”
“Ew—too disgusting…” Luo Yan was startled, retreating several steps before feeling safe. Looking again, she felt an indescribable weirdness—clean, fair fingers holding a wriggling, ugly black worm. The contrast was too intense.
“This worm is so gross…” Luo Yan said with disgust.
Looking closely, the Teng worm was still stuck with Old Zhao’s flesh and blood. As its body twisted in the air, drops of fresh blood dripped onto the floor.
Shen Hu’s gaze lingered on Jiang Si’s hand for a moment, nodding. “That’s it.” He told Jiang Si to throw the Teng worm into the white bowl where the talisman paper had just been burned, then ignited another talisman and threw it in.
The slender black nematode made crackling, tiny explosion sounds, like firecrackers during the New Year.
The sound grew louder until it became a clear human scream—”Ahhh—”
A black ghost covered in fire materialized, throwing itself to the ground and begging constantly, “Master, spare my life! Please, Master, let me go!”
In a residential building somewhere in Rong City.
All the curtains were drawn tight, covering the whole room densely. In the center of the dim, lightless room sat a man in black robes, cross-legged. His eyes were closed tight, circulating his Qi in cultivation.
Suddenly, a fishy sweetness surged in his throat, and caught off guard, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
“Pfft—”
“Haa…” The man clutched his chest and opened his eyes. One eyeball was a ghastly grayish-white; only one was normal. The sole normal eye was now full of malice. He gritted his teeth and said viciously, “Someone actually broke my Teng sorcery!”
“Damn it!”
Following his words, the curtains in the room lifted without wind. A shadowy figure quietly appeared behind the man, also dressed in black robes. Its pale blue face had two hanging eyes, staring hollowly at the man.
The man commanded it: “Go find out who it is for me!”
Staring into the endless void, he narrowed his eyes. “I will extract his soul and refine it into a Ghost Gu.”
Back at the shop, the Teng worm temporarily regained consciousness and confessed the location of the Ghost Master’s lair.
Shen Hu immediately led people to go there, leaving Old Zhao, whose soul was still detached, with Jiang Si.
Luo Yan’s heart drummed nervously. She couldn’t help but defend Old Zhao: “Um… Boss Jiang, although my leader is a bit of an old fogey, overall he’s not bad. This time he came specifically to talk to you about follow-up cooperation…”
Please don’t use public office to avenge private wrongs!
“…” Jiang Si said, “Move aside.”
Without the interference of the Teng worm, he directly lit a soul-guiding incense stick. White smoke curled up from the incense burner, drifting automatically toward the center of Old Zhao’s brows as if it had consciousness. As soon as the incense mist touched the skin, it melted immediately.
Before long, Old Zhao’s drooping eyelids trembled violently twice, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Before realizing what had happened, he felt a warm liquid slowly flowing down the corner of his eye. Subconsciously raising his hand to wipe it, he took a closer look.
The fifty-eight-year-old man pointed a trembling finger at Jiang Si, whose face was full of indifference, looking terrified: “Just for that little bit of money, you actually want to kill me!”
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