Chapter 123

Chapter 123

Xia Dong’s expression shifted.

Resistance flickered in her eyes as she murmured, “The dead can’t return to life… The dead can’t return to life?”

I nodded. “That’s right. Once someone is dead, they won’t come back. That’s what I believe. What do you think, Aunt Xia Dong?”

I pressed her relentlessly.

Confusion clouded Xia Dong’s gaze. She looked at her husband, Xia Degui, then at Xia Sanjin and the others before answering hesitantly.

“When people die, they don’t come back…”

But before she could finish, she began shaking her head violently.

“No! No! There is a way. The dead can come back! My daughter–my daughter can!”

I frowned as the dark energy around Xia Dong abruptly thickened.

It spread like a dense net, wrapping her entire body.

Ordinary eyes couldn’t see any of it.

Even I was startled. “This dark energy… Is it a mixture of obsession and sinister yin energy?”

No wonder Xia Dong went berserk whenever anyone mentioned her daughter’s death. A power born from the fusion of obsession and evil energy had already corrupted her.

What was obsession?

It was an excessive desire for something one could never obtain, a thought that took root deep within the soul.

Generally speaking, obsession could not be classified as purely good or bad.

Some obsessions made people stronger in a particular way and could be considered beneficial.

Others possessed tremendous destructive power.

Xia Dong’s obsession clearly centered on her daughter’s death.

Her husband worked away from home while she raised their daughter alone, only for the girl to die in an accident. It was inevitable that Xia Dong would place all the blame on herself.

Worse, she had watched her daughter fall to her death right in front of her. Such overwhelming trauma and despair fed the obsession in her heart.

It made her willing to pay any price to bring her daughter back.

But the dead could not return to life. That meant her obsession could only lead her toward darkness.

Sinister yin energy had been born from it.

The mixture of obsession and evil energy corroded Xia Dong’s soul, robbing her of control and making her behave strangely.

Later, when the entity formed from Xia Mi’s corpse began returning every night and coming into contact with Xia Dong, it fed that sinister energy even further.

Xia Degui had only encountered the thing briefly, yet sinister corpse energy had already entered his body.

The corruption within Xia Dong, who had played the central role in all this, was naturally much worse.

“My daughter can live. She was supposed to live. She was supposed to…”

Xia Dong began to break down. Her eyes bulged, filling with terrifying red veins.

Xia Degui looked at me anxiously and asked in a cautious voice, “Young Mr. Wu, my wife seems like she’s…about to have another episode. Could you stop provoking her? We only need to solve the problem.”

I answered calmly, “Uncle Degui, I’m saving your wife. If this continues, your daughter won’t return to life. Instead, your wife will be taken away too.”

What?!

Xia Degui was horrified. He started to speak, but Xia Sanjin grabbed him and forced him down onto the wooden bench beside him.

“Brother Degui, just watch what Young Mr. Wu does. Didn’t you call him a genuine master yourself a moment ago?”

“Yes. I’m only worried…”

Xia Degui knew he shouldn’t have questioned me. He sat obediently and stopped moving.
Meanwhile, I silently circulated my qi and guided it into my throat.

My right hand had already slipped into my pocket and secretly drawn out a talisman.

I roared, “Xia Dong! Your daughter is dead. Her soul returned to the underworld long ago, and the empty shell left behind should have been laid properly to rest. Instead, you denied the body its peace. You’ve failed in your duty as a mother!”

My rebuke burst from my lungs like a gust of wind, echoing faintly through the main room.

“Aaaah!”

Xia Dong shrieked hysterically.

The dark energy coiling around her suddenly surged, radiating menace.

Xia Sanjin and the others couldn’t see it, but they seemed to feel an icy chill. Xia Jianguo, the oldest among them, rose and edged backward, apparently sensing something.

To be honest, children and the elderly were more sensitive to supernatural forces because their vitality wasn’t as abundant as that of adults in their prime.

That was why stories of ghost sightings usually involved children and old people, while healthy young adults encountered them less often.

After screaming, Xia Dong raised both hands and lunged at me.

“You’re lying, you little bastard! How dare you say my daughter is dead? How dare you say she can’t come back? I’ll strangle you! I’ll kill you! Aaaah!”

Just before she crashed into me, I planted one hand against her forehead.

Then I stepped aside and slapped the yellow talisman onto her back.

The dark energy immediately rushed toward the paper as though dragged there by force.

This was a basic Evil-Cleansing Talisman, an art I had only learned recently.

It absorbed and concentrated unclean yin energy and the corrupt thoughts in a person’s mind so they could be destroyed.

Because it was only a basic talisman, it wasn’t very effective against powerful ghosts.

But it was more than enough to deal with the malignant obsession and sinister energy born inside an ordinary person like Xia Dong.

The instant I placed the talisman on her back, it began furiously drawing out the corruption within her.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

A faint breeze seemed to rise inside the room.

Vast amounts of dark energy poured from Xia Dong’s body into the talisman. Her twisted expression gradually softened, and the bluish-black cast of her face returned to normal.

After seven or eight seconds, Xia Dong calmed down.

The Evil-Cleansing Talisman detached itself from her back and floated slowly into the air.

The formerly yellow paper had turned black.

Pitch-black from end to end.

Even the cinnabar markings had vanished beneath the darkness.

Xia Degui and the other two men stared in amazement at the bizarre sight.

“By my qi, evil be banished. Burn!”

I pressed two fingers together and pointed from a distance at the black talisman hanging in midair.

Whoomph!

Flames engulfed it at once. Like a ball of fire suspended in the air, it burned all the sinister energy trapped within the paper into nothingness.

As the talisman finished burning, Xia Dong let out a soft cry and collapsed toward the floor.

“Uncle Degui, catch your wife!”

Only then did he snap out of his daze. He rushed over and caught Xia Dong before she hit the ground.