DS 06

Chapter – 06

Haunted House Exorcism

On the mountain path of Baiyun Mountain—

Chen Ming flew ahead alone, listening to the occasional silvery laughter of a woman coming from behind him. He clenched his fists, his expression growing darker by the moment.

Li Yu and Jiang Li were going too far. Setting aside the fact that they ganged up on him two against one, they had even stolen away Junior Sister Zhou, the girl he liked. If he didn’t get revenge for this, he wasn’t a real man!

“I never noticed before how interesting Junior Brother Li is.” On the way down the mountain, Senior Sister Zhou covered her mouth with a light laugh, her beautiful eyes shimmering as she glanced at Li Yu.

In her impression, Li Yu had always been quiet and reserved. But over the past half-hour or so, she had seen a completely different side of him—a witty and charming gentleman who had made her laugh out loud and lose her composure more than once.

Li Yu smiled and said, “Well, I wasn’t this familiar with Senior Sister Zhou before…”

Jiang Li shot a glance at Li Yu, feeling that he had changed quite a bit over the past few days. The old Li Yu had been like a closed gourd, able to go an entire day without speaking a single word. But on this short trip down the mountain, he had said more to Senior Sister Zhou than he used to say in half a month.

Could it be that he had taken a liking to Senior Sister Zhou?

Li Yu flew through the air, gazing at the lush forests below, and let out a long, slow breath.

No one truly enjoyed living life on the edge. Perhaps he had been repressed for too long in his previous life. Now that he had been given a second chance, his mindset had shifted somewhat. Teasing a pretty senior sister now and then, watching her blush with a mix of shyness and willingness—it was not without its charm.

An hour later, the four of them arrived at a small city at the foot of the mountain.

This city was called Fengzhou City, located within the territory of the Chen Kingdom. The haunted site was a residence inside the city.

Li Yu was no stranger to everything in the city. In his memories, Jiang Li would bring him down the mountain almost every month to gorge themselves at the largest restaurant in Fengzhou City.

Thinking back now, no wonder two years had passed and he still hadn’t succeeded in gathering qi. While everyone else was diligently cultivating, he was being dragged around by Jiang Li, slacking off every other day and sneaking down the mountain to enjoy life. It would have been a miracle if he had gathered qi…

Over these two years, Jiang Li had been the single greatest obstacle on Li Yu’s path to cultivation.

It was also fortunate that the demonic enchantress didn’t know about this—otherwise, Jiang Li would have definitely suffered for it.

Fengzhou City, at the city gate—

Several figures were waiting eagerly at the entrance. When a portly middle-aged man spotted Li Yu and the others, obvious joy lit up his face. He quickly hurried over and said, “Immortal Masters, you’ve finally arrived! I’ve already prepared a modest banquet at the restaurant. Please, allow me to escort you there…”

The banquet prepared by Squire Ren was quite lavish. During the meal, he also described in detail to Li Yu and the others what had been happening at his home.

A few days earlier, the Ren family had moved into a new residence—a great cause for celebration. But after the family settled into the new mansion, for several consecutive nights, all dozens of members of the Ren family had the same strange nightmares—visions of green-faced, fanged demons haunting them relentlessly…

This threw the entire Ren household into a state of panic. Within days, over ten family members had fallen ill. Left with no choice, Squire Ren personally went up to Baiyun Mountain and paid a hefty sum to invite cultivators to exorcise the ghosts.

“That demon had only half a face—it was terrifying…”
“The one I saw was a pale-faced female ghost with a tongue three feet long!”
“And there was an old ghost who tore off his own arm and chewed on it…”

As they spoke of their nightmares over the past few days, the Ren family members all wore expressions of fear, their legs trembling and their faces pale as paper.

Amid his fear, Squire Ren also felt an immense anger. He gritted his teeth and said, “That damned feng shui master! He said it was a once-in-a-century perfect residence—that moving there would bless future generations—and he charged me a full hundred taels of silver. But now we encounter ghosts every single night! Next time I see him, I’ll break his dog legs!”

Listening to their descriptions, Senior Sister Zhou and Chen Ming remained calm and composed. Jiang Li, however, was clearly a bit frightened—after all, this was his first time dealing with something like this. As for Li Yu, aside from feeling a little uneasy, he also found it oddly thrilling…

He had seen plenty of people in his life, but this was his first time encountering a ghost.

In this world, after people die, it was possible for them to continue existing in spiritual form. But such spirits were fragile—beings of pure yin. Under normal circumstances, they would quickly dissipate on their own, unable to persist for long, and they certainly couldn’t be exposed to sunlight.

The lowest-level spirits couldn’t physically harm the living. They could only appear at night when yin energy was at its peak. If a sleeping mortal was infiltrated by yin energy, they would easily have nightmares. Over time, both their mind and body would break down.

From the Ren family’s descriptions, the entity haunting their new residence was merely the lowest level of ghost—something that could only be called a yin spirit.

Such yin spirits had no real combat ability. A simple Fireball Technique could cause their spiritual form to collapse and completely dissipate from the world. Having four Qi Refining cultivators from Baiyun Temple come for this was truly overkill.

After the meal, Li Yu and the others, led by Squire Ren, arrived at the Ren family’s new residence.

The house was far from the bustling part of the city, occupying a vast area with no other buildings around it. It was built against a mountain, with a small lake behind the courtyard. The air was fresh and the scenery beautiful—truly an excellent residence.

Yet, standing before this mansion, Li Yu couldn’t shake an uncomfortable feeling.

Jiang Li also hugged his shoulders and instinctively moved closer to Li Yu.

Chen Ming stood with his hands behind his back, looking around left and right, then turned to Squire Ren and asked, “Are you sure you don’t have a grudge against that feng shui master?”

Squire Ren was stunned. “Immortal Master, why do you ask?”

Chen Ming said flatly, “If you had no grudge, why would he tell you to build a house here?”

Squire Ren seemed to think of something. His expression changed. “You mean… the feng shui here is bad?”

Chen Ming looked around again with a faint smirk. “The feng shui here is actually pretty good. It’s a rare and fine residence—but it’s a yin residence. It’s barely suitable for the living, but perfect for the dead…”

Squire Ren fumed, “That bastard! I have no enmity with him—why would he harm me!”

Zhou Zixuan looked surprised and said, “Senior Brother Chen, you understand geomancy?”

Seeing Junior Sister Zhou’s surprised expression, and Li Yu and Jiang Li also looking at him, Chen Ming finally regained a bit of confidence.

At Baiyun Temple, life was simple and abstinent. Once, he had spent a good amount of money to buy an erotic picture book, intending to enjoy it late at night when all was quiet. He had already taken off his pants, but when he opened the book, he discovered its contents were about feng shui and geomancy. He was so furious he nearly tore it up…

Later, out of sheer boredom, he flipped through it casually to pass the time, and without realizing it, he ended up learning quite a bit.

He puffed out his chest slightly and said, “This place is called the ‘Twin Mountains by Water’ formation. Junior Sister Zhou, look—on both sides of this residence are tall mountains, and in front is a water source. Yin and foul air flows down from between the two mountains and gathers over this water, making this area a yin-gathering ground. It’s exactly the kind of place yin spirits love to congregate…”

Although Li Yu didn’t understand feng shui, Chen Ming sounded convincing enough—he didn’t seem to be making it up.

Geomancy was considered an unorthodox art in the cultivation world. Very few among the righteous path were skilled in it. On the demonic side, however, some would use geomancy to raise ghosts and corpses, a practice despised by orthodox cultivators.

Squire Ren snapped out of his daze and hurriedly asked, “May I ask, Immortal Master, how can this ‘Twin Mountains by Water’ be broken? Is there a solution?”

Chen Ming waved his hand and said, “Simple. Just have the lake filled in and plant trees over it. That will break the yin-gathering formation, and no more ghosts will gather here.”

Squire Ren was overjoyed. He bowed several times to Chen Ming and repeatedly said, “Thank you, Immortal Master! Thank you, Immortal Master!”

Chen Ming’s vanity was greatly satisfied. He wanted to show off a bit more knowledge to catch Junior Sister Zhou’s attention, but he saw that Li Yu and the others had already walked inside.

Due to the nightmares over the past few days, the Ren family members were deeply traumatized, so they didn’t come inside and only dared to peek in from the entrance.

Chen Ming waved at Squire Ren and said, “You can all leave now. Come back tomorrow morning.”

The Ren family members looked relieved and quickly scattered out of sight.

Yin spirits were the weakest type of ghosts and were easily dispersed by yang energy. During the day, they mostly hid underground or in other sunless places, only daring to emerge in the dead of night when yin energy was at its peak.

Li Yu and the four others each found a room to wait for midnight to arrive.

Time slowly passed, and night completely fell.

It was now the hour of Zi (midnight).

Li Yu lay on the bed. The candles in the room had long been extinguished. Pale moonlight streamed in through the window, casting a layer of dark grey shadow across the floor.

At some point, an intangible shadow drifted in through the door, passing straight through the wooden door and slowly floating to the bedside. Gazing at the young man lying on the bed, it couldn’t help but murmur, “Such a handsome man—I can’t bear to scare him…”

The next moment, the young man opened his eyes, looked at her, and asked, “How handsome?”