"This..."
I heard Xu Fangnian's heavy sigh and the sound of stomping.
The sense of being watched from behind still lingered, but I did not turn around. My footsteps quickened instead.
Taking three steps as two, I reached the door of the third room on the left.
Yu Xiu and the Book Grandma were closely following me behind.
I raised my hand and pushed the door open with all my might.
To my surprise, the door seemed to be locked from the inside and wouldn't budge at all!
Yet, through the gap in the door, I could see that there was no lock installed, let alone a latch.
"Heart... good heart..."
"Sigh..."
The sound of Lao Gong Shutan's words reached my ears, and I felt a surge of joy in my heart.
"Lao Gong!" I called out in a low voice, and I tried to push the door again with all my might, but it still wouldn't budge.
Book Grandma moved forward and pushed the door, but it still didn't open.
Her elderly face tensed slightly, and she said in a low voice, "Too much Yin energy, it's pushing the door shut."
"Xiu Xiu." I turned to look at Yu Xiu.
Yu Xiu raised her arm, her delicate and elegant hand touching the door.
She pushed it lightly!
A muffled thud was heard, as if something had broken.
The door suddenly swung inward, striking the wall heavily.
Cold air, like an explosion of gas, swept out from the interior of the room.
The scene before me was extremely terrifying, yet also extremely ambiguous.
Before my eyes was a body that was extremely emaciated, sitting on a lounge chair. The head of this body was even more like that of a mummy, skin and bones, with eye sockets sunken deeply.
Several women with sultry figures were crouched around him, each gently hanging their shoulders and squeezing their legs.
The women's eyes were veiled with a faint bluish hue, and their expressions were very rigid, obviously bewitched by ghosts.
The dry, skeletal head, wasn't that Lao Gong's!?
The body, to my astonishment, was indeed Lao Gong's!
"Good heart... good heart..."
The intermittent voice, filled with joy and longing.
I suddenly raised my head, and saw that Lao Gong's head was staring blankly down at the corpse below in a corner of the ceiling.
"Lao Gong, come back!" My tone grew stern.
This scene before me was extremely strange, and I understood it almost completely.
There was a soul inside the corpse!
At one point, I thought that after Lao Gong's head and body were separated, the soul in the head should have remained conscious while the remaining lifeless soul should have dispersed.
Finding Lao Gong's corpse was to summon the residual soul, which would then be swallowed by Lao Gong to complete himself.
But to my surprise, the soul inside this corpse seemed to have its own consciousness?
Its existence is somewhat similar to that of the Headless Woman?
Lao Gong did not come back to me as I expected. He looked at me and muttered, "Master has come... Master, look, my good heart... this is a good life... this is the kind of life I want..."
At this moment, the corpse sitting in the lounge chair suddenly straightened up.
The several women suddenly stood up, all looking at me with a cold expression.
Lao Gong's dead head looks very much like Lao Gong's ghostly head, but at a glance, it seems not at all like him; rather, it resembles someone else entirely.
He silently gazed at me, with a lifeless face that had a mysterious feeling.
I sensed another unusual aspect.
Inside the room, a series of threads were constantly wrapping around the dried-up corpse.
The source of the threads was Lao Gong's forehead!
Lao Gong had not noticed this change at all and only seemed to have a more intense longing on his face.
I felt like I was starting to understand something, but it was still shrouded in a thin fog, unclear.
"A commoner not even qualified as a gentleman, yet he fed me to a ghost?"
The dried-up corpse suddenly opened its mouth.
That dry voice, similar to Lao Gong's, yet not quite.
My face suddenly changed dramatically.
"Wu Zhongkuan!"
What shocked me was that Wu Zhongkuan, aside from the remaining soul that Lao Gong had swallowed, should have disintegrated into a wandering soul!
How could they congeal together, even in Lao Gong's corpse?
"Oh? You can recognize me? Not too dumb."
The dried-up corpse opened its mouth again and said in a low, sinister voice, "Now, I don't know what all you've done, but soon enough, I will."
The echoing voice, like a rootless tree, was very plain, yet gave one a strong feeling of unease!
He suddenly lifted his finger and gently hooked it.
Lao Gong on the ceiling rolled down.
He landed neatly in the arms of a woman.
The woman gently touched Lao Gong's head, making him even more tormented.
"Good heart... good heart..."
As Lao Gong muttered, he closed his eyes. However, the small face on his forehead, which belonged to Wu Zhongkuan, suddenly widened its eyes!
A series of wisps of breath emerged from the mouth, nose, and eyes of that face.
It only clicked to me that Wu Zhongkuan was actually sucking himself out!
Indeed, I could not understand why the souls that should have dispersed did not do so, but instead became more coherent.
But now, I absolutely cannot let Wu Zhongkuan extract that remaining soul from Lao Gong's body!
Otherwise, the consequences would be endless!
Lao Gong might also have big problems!
Taking a large step forward, I stepped into the room!
My face suddenly changed as everything before me began to change!
Clearly, a moment ago, I had seen a room in the Xu family, but now, it was an extremely dilapidated and filthy house.
The bed on the bed in the room, lying there was an old man who looked weak, wasn't that Lao Gong?
The cold air behind me struck suddenly.
I suddenly turned around and saw a person wearing Tang Dynasty clothing, covered in blood!
I suddenly understood everything.
I have experienced this scene before, it was when Lao Gong died!
He was literally scared to death!
Truly a ghostly dead-end!
Wu Zhongkuan, as a 'Shi Ren' (a qualified scholar), becoming a ghost, his ability to bewitch people's hearts was also extraordinary!
Everything around me seemed to be frozen.
Lao Gong was still lying in bed.
The bloodied Wu Zhongkuan did not disintegrate as I had perceived earlier.
He opened his mouth and spoke in a low, haunting voice, "I entered Qi Jia Village many times, promising me to wake me up, only to break my word."
My face changed again.
Just a moment ago, Wu Zhongkuan was unaware of these events, but in this very instant, he knew all about it?
He had sucked out even more of his own soul!
Taking a sudden step forward, I pulled out the black horse hoof from my pocket and struck at Wu Zhongkuan's soul.
His soul shattered in place, but in the next second, it appeared to my right, cold and expressionless, and his eyes began to widen.
"Destroyed my ghost of retribution?!"
"You, are not human?"
"No, that's not right... I'm almost there..."
Wu Zhongkuan let out a painful moan, and his eyes were filled with excitement!
My heart, however, sank to the bottom of the valley.
This means that Wu Zhongkuan has absorbed more souls, and even... his soul is connected to Lao Gong. He isn't just absorbing souls; he's also absorbing Lao Gong!
Therefore, he knew more things!
If Wu Zhongkuan were to absorb Lao Gong, perhaps not only would Lao Gong be destroyed, but also my secrets would be revealed!
And at this moment, I was starting to grasp a clue.
Wu Zhongkuan's soul, which should have disintegrated, entered Lao Gong's corpse by chance and consumed Lao Gong's headless soul.
Lao Gong seems to be a spirit of the Yellow Pages, but in reality, being able to eat a Yin-Yang master, he is definitely an extraordinary ghost.
Wu Zhongkuan's soul without consciousness became the carrier by chance!
But Wu Zhongkuan did not immediately recover, instead, he was trapped in the corpse until the Xu family dug him out and he regained consciousness!
He did not know what his remaining soul had experienced and was also unaware of my existence.
It was only until now, when he brought Lao Gong's head close and absorbed that strand of soul, that he understood the cause and effect!
