Chapter 34: Cleansing the Heart

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My stubbornness was notorious. The more this little ghost tried to keep itself hidden, the more determined I became to find it.

Inside the room, an eerie wind howled.

A chill wrapped tightly around my body, making me tense from head to toe.

The little ghost, hiding somewhere in the room, seemed to have seen through my thoughts. It suddenly began laughing maniacally.

That shrill, grating laughter rang endlessly in my ears, as though it were mocking my lack of ability. It sounded as if it intended to kill me.

Seeing this, I understood that resolving the matter easily would probably be impossible.

Since that was the case, there was no longer any reason for me to hold back.

“Little ghost, don’t get too pleased with yourself. I advise you to show yourself obediently. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”

“Hehehe…”

The little ghost clearly did not take me seriously. It let out another sinister laugh, this one carrying a trace of resentment, as though it and I shared some deep and bloody enmity.

Had I not used Profound Yang Energy to protect my body in time, evil energy would probably already have entered me, leaving me unconscious and unable to wake.

“In that case, I’ll let you see what a disciple of the Qingma School is capable of!”

I stopped wasting words and immediately produced a high-grade Soul-Suppressing Talisman.

This talisman was not drawn on ordinary yellow paper, but on red paper. Its power was far greater than that of the ordinary Soul-Suppressing Talismans used by common feng shui masters.

“True Nine-Thunder Formula, cleanse demons and drive away evil. Beneath the divine talisman’s radiance, let the light shine into the netherworld. Demons and vengeful spirits, reveal your true forms at once. Whoever dares resist shall find no refuge from the thunder!”

The little ghost’s repeated provocations had exhausted the last of my patience.

I truly had no interest in playing around with it any longer.

I immediately used the secret art of the Qingma School—the Nine-Thunder Formula for Breaking Demons.

As soon as I finished chanting, the Soul-Suppressing Talisman in my hand shot away with a whoosh.

It flew back and forth throughout the room, seemingly searching for the little ghost’s hiding place.

A moment later, it suddenly transformed into a ball of radiance and flew beneath the table in my room.

That sight surprised me somewhat.

Could the little ghost really be hiding beneath the table where I slept?

At that thought, my heart gave a jolt, and my expression grew tense.

Apart from Uncle Hu and me, hardly any outsiders had ever entered this room.

Could Uncle Hu be the one who wanted to harm me?

That was utterly impossible.

Even if everyone in the provincial capital wanted me dead, Uncle Hu would never be the one to hurt me.

Then who could it be?

In that fleeting instant, one person came to mind.

Liu Qingqing!

She had come to see me yesterday, and when she entered, she had not woken me.

Could she have brought this little ghost here to harm me?

The thought left me deeply perplexed.

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Since I could not make sense of it, I decided not to dwell on it.

I stepped forward and kicked the table over.

If I could not figure out who wanted me dead, I would deal with the little ghost first.

At least that would stop it from making such an unbearable racket in my room.

The little ghost seemed to realize that I had discovered it. It also understood that my abilities were probably far greater than it had imagined.

It became much more docile. It neither cried nor laughed, and after that, not a sound came from it for a long while.

When the table fell, I saw a gift box stuck to its underside.

I tried tearing it off by hand, but failed.

It seemed the culprit had been determined to put me to death, fastening the gift box with extraordinary strength.

Apparently, I would have to shed a little blood tonight.

With a bitter smile, I bit through the middle finger of my right hand and smeared my blood around the gift box.

What happened next was exactly as I had expected. The gift box instantly dropped free.

Without the slightest hesitation, I tore away the wrapping paper.

I wanted to see just what kind of little ghost had been tormenting me so relentlessly.

When I opened the box, I found a porcelain bottle inside, gleaming like jade.

The bottle was smooth and delicate to the touch. It was difficult to imagine that it could be the vessel used to harbor a ghost intended to harm someone.

I continued peering inside. Sure enough, in the belly of the bottle, I discovered the true form of the little ghost that had been attacking me.

It was tiny, roughly the size of my palm.

Judging from its appearance, its soul had probably been seized before birth and kept inside this white-jade bottle.

It was inhuman—cruel beyond description.

I could hardly imagine whether the person who had seized its soul had felt even the slightest pain in his heart.

Still, I knew that many people in this world made a business of such things, using them to pursue enormous profits.

Some unscrupulous feng shui masters would deliberately target pregnant women, tampering with their bodies and causing them to miscarry.

They would then imprison the unborn little ghosts and raise them as infant spirits.

These infant spirits possessed an exceptionally powerful aura of malice. Some people raised them to reverse their fortunes, while others kept them for the purpose of committing evil.

The little ghost inside the white-jade bottle knew that I was looking at it. It immediately bared its teeth at me, appearing savage and violent, as though it wanted nothing more than to tear me apart.

Yet after seeing its appearance, I no longer hated it as much as before. Instead, I even felt a trace of sympathy.

This had not been its own choice. The methods of the spellcaster had filled it with that evil consciousness.

“Little ghost, don’t be anxious. I’ll perform a rite for you shortly and send you on to paradise.”

I sighed, then prepared to perform the ritual to release the dead spirit.

But as I moved the white-jade bottle, I unexpectedly saw two familiar names engraved beneath it.

The instant I saw them, my brows drew tightly together.

The truth was entirely different from what I had imagined. The names carved into the bottom of the white-jade bottle were not only mine, but also Liu Qingqing’s.

My name, however, had been smeared with a layer of red substance.

If my guess was correct, it was blood.

The sight left me frozen in place.

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This matter was far more complicated and troublesome than I had imagined. I still had not figured out what the other party truly intended.

At first, I had thought they merely wanted to give me a warning, telling me to keep a lower profile in the provincial capital from then on.

But now it seemed I had underestimated the situation.

Had Liu Qingqing raised this little ghost and then used it against me?

The only explanation I could think of was that she might be the ghost’s mother. By carving her name into the white-jade bottle, she had intended to deepen the little ghost’s resentment and make it even more ferocious.

As for my name, I was naturally the target toward which that resentment was directed.

And smearing it with blood made the spellcaster’s intention perfectly clear: they were determined to kill me.

Damn it. I had fallen into their trap!

I could not help sighing, and my expression grew desolate.

The method used to refine the little ghost inside the white-jade bottle resembled an evil technique recorded in the ancient book The Yin-Yang Register—the Parent-Child Curse.

The Parent-Child Curse required a fetus that had died in the womb, preferably a victim who had suffered a wrongful death along with the mother. That spirit was then refined into an extremely sinister manifestation of yin energy.

From the very first day of the refinement, the name of the intended victim had to be transmitted to it every day. The caster had to chant that person’s name constantly, without pause.

Only then could the infant spirit unleash its full power.

But refining a Parent-Child Curse required at least six months. In other words, from the beginning of the ritual to the moment it could harm someone, no less than half a year had to pass.

That meant whoever wanted me dead had set their sights on me at least six months ago.

At the thought, I shuddered, a chill running through my entire body.

Sure enough, the world of feng shui and occult arts was no easy place to survive.

I shook my head, doing my best not to dwell on those tangled, chaotic thoughts.

My most urgent task was to send this little ghost away as quickly as possible.

Leaving it here made me deeply uneasy.

Once I had made up my mind, I looked at the little ghost again.

It was struggling violently inside the white-jade bottle. Its eyes were blood-red, filled with a ferocious gleam that seemed ready to devour anyone it saw. Dark traces of blood stained its mouth.

This little ghost was truly vicious. Had I not been protected by Profound Yang Energy, I might genuinely have found it difficult to withstand its attacks.

Fortunately, it had not been refined for very long. If the person behind it had continued feeding it blood for several years, I would probably have died here already.

“Little ghost, stop struggling. It’s useless. You’ve been refined into a tool for killing, brought into this world only to harm more people. I’m going to perform a rite of release for you now, so be still!”

I lifted the white-jade bottle in both hands and spoke calmly to the little ghost inside.

Though the ghost was tiny and had died before ever entering the world, its intelligence was not low.

Had it not been continuously refined and indoctrinated with the desire to kill me, my words just now might have been enough to enlighten and redeem it.

But that would probably not work now. To send it on, I first had to use a Purifying Heart Incantation to cleanse the vicious thoughts from its mind.

“The Supreme One steadies the heart; transformation never ceases. Drive away evil and banish malign spirits; preserve life and protect the body. Let wisdom shine clear, let the spirit rest in peace. Let the Great Way pass through the darkness, and let the original heart return to oneness!”

After reciting the spell, I pressed one finger against the center of the little ghost’s brow through the bottle.

Whether it succeeded or failed would be left to fate.