Chapter 5

Chapter 5

After setting everything up, I snapped an ink line onto the floor and laid down a red thread dyed in rooster blood, corralling the crew members into the other half of the room.

Rooster blood possesses the strongest yang energy, the ink fountain represents order, and the ink line embodies righteous qi-making them the ultimate deterrent against evil. Once these two lines were drawn, those ghostly entities wouldn’t dare cross them to harm anyone.

“No matter what you see, do not cross this line and do not run around. If you die, don’t blame me.”

Then, I strode over to the bed in the corner and flipped over the mattress.

Whatever was beneath the bed was instantly exposed to everyone’s sight.

Ye Ran was lying on the floor, two female ghosts pinning her hands down on either side, while a child ghost sat on her neck, reaching out to cover her mouth.

The Director next to her was in an even more ridiculous state. He was lying face down on the floor with two ghosts piled on top of him like a human pyramid.

Amidst a chorus of earth-shattering screams, I raised my hand and flung the two ghosts off him, then plucked the child ghost off Ye Ran. The two of them, faces pale with terror, propped themselves up and gasped for air.

“The bidding starts now. I can only save one person tonight-”

The Director, dazed, stammered, “What… what leave?”

Ye Ran sobbed, “One hundred thousand! Master Qiao, that’s all the money I have left.”

Hearing her voice, I was stunned.

“You’re not Ye Ran?”

The woman brushed her long hair behind her ears and looked up.

“I’m the camera assistant, Yao Mingfang.”

“Xiao Yao, why are you wearing Ye Ran’s clothes?”

I was completely baffled. This white dress was the one Ye Ran had been wearing just a moment ago. In such a short span of time, Yao Mingfang had changed into Ye Ran’s clothes and ended up pinned under the bed by ghosts.

Where was the real Ye Ran, then?

As I was lost in thought, the Director suddenly let out a blood-curdling shriek. The male ghost I had seen earlier was clutching his throat, slowly lifting him into the air.

The Director flailed his arms wildly, looking in my direction.

“Save-save-”

I led Yao Mingfang back behind the ink line and had her stand with the rest of the crew. Only then did I leisurely raise my peachwood sword and walk over to save the Director.

Including the one behind the curtains, there were seven ghosts in the room. Aside from the adult male and the child, the others looked like students. Some had blood streaming from their seven orifices with tongues lolling out, while others were a mangled mess of flesh and blood. The faint-hearted members of the crew had already rolled their eyes back and fainted.

I thrust my sword into the male ghost’s back. With a roar, the ghost threw the Director to the floor.

Screaming, the Director scrambled over on all fours and grabbed onto my leg.

“Qiao Moyu, Master Qiao, save me-”

I pulled the Seven Star Sword from my bag and pointed it at the Director.

“This big one is the Seven Star Sword; it’s twenty thousand per strike. The small peachwood sword is ten thousand per strike. This has always been my price for stepping in. Deal?”

The male ghost roared hideously, his crimson tongue extending two meters long. The Director shrieked and nodded frantically.

“Yes! Money is no object!”

My eyes lit up.

“Wait right there. I’m going to slice him into pieces.”

“Twenty thousand, thirty thousand, fifty thousand… three hundred and eighty thousand!”

Although these ghosts were difficult to deal with, I had come fully equipped, and the rest of the crew cooperated by hiding to the side without causing trouble. With my full concentration, these ordinary malevolent spirits were no match for me.

Just as the male ghost was being beaten into a faint, translucent wisp, a sharp crack echoed from the window.

*Thud-*

A stone was hurled forcefully at the window, and with a loud shatter, the entire glass pane broke into shards.

The copper coins and command flag I had placed on the windowsill were knocked away, creating a gap in the Soul Sealing Array. The ghosts quickly rushed toward the window and vanished.

I lunged to the window and looked out. A dark figure was disappearing into the dense shadows of the trees below.

The Director slumped onto the floor. Realizing the ghosts had left the room, he finally reacted. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with a sob, “Qiao Moyu, where’s Ye Ran? Hurry and find her. She hasn’t been eaten by those vengeful spirits, has she?”

“Her father is the investor for this movie! If anything happens to her, I’m finished!”

Frowning, I looked at Yao Mingfang, who was hiding in the corner.

“Tell me, why are you wearing Ye Ran’s clothes?”

“Master Qiao, I’ve been wearing this dress the whole time. I was wearing a jacket before so you didn’t notice, but I took it off after the power went out.”

The staff member in charge of wardrobe was a good friend of Yao Mingfang’s. The dress was stylish and high-quality, so they had bought several of them together. Yao Mingfang often wore it as part of her daily outfit.

That meant Ye Ran had already gone missing by the time the lights came back on earlier.

She should have been somewhere near this room, but after this delay, there was no telling where she had been taken.

That figure in black just now had clearly thrown the stone to save those ghosts. Was it a staff member hiding within the crew, or someone who had been lurking in this abandoned school all along? And what was their purpose in taking Ye Ran?