Chapter 21: Ghost Infant (6/95)
Although an experienced ghost exorcist, Liu Haoyu did not dare to slack off when facing supernatural events.
The eerie and sudden nature of supernatural events made it fundamentally impossible to judge their danger.
Some supernatural events might seem extremely perilous but are actually just meant to scare people.
Just like… the previous buyers of the haunted house in Jiangliu City who encountered Qin Liu.
But some supernatural events, which appear unremarkable, are as terrifying as an abyss.
Even extremely powerful ghost exorcists have a chance of perishing.
Therefore, Liu Haoyu had to be cautious.
He held the fire axe and carefully probed forward, not daring to make a sound.
The fifth floor was eerily quiet, as if there were no living people in this building.
Even more bizarrely, after Liu Haoyu reached the fifth floor, although there was no one and no sound in the corridor, the voice-activated lights above kept turning on.
The cold air, like a chilling wind, rushed into Liu Haoyu’s lungs. Even though the candle in his hand wasn’t lit, he knew… there was something unclean here.
Furthermore, Liu Haoyu noticed that one of the rooms on the fifth floor, for some reason, had a door completely covered in yellow talismans, with an Eight Trigrams Mirror hanging on it.
Just looking at it, this room gave people an extremely oppressive sense of fear.
It was as if something terrifying was sealed inside.
Liu Haoyu approached the door of this room and examined the talismans on it.
Originally, Liu Haoyu thought these were traces left by a colleague, but after examination, he realized these were just ordinary papers, not possessing any exorcising functions.
The Eight Trigrams Mirror on the door was the same, probably a decorative item bought from a small market in Yiwu.
But even so, this door still felt very wrong to Liu Haoyu.
His intuition told him that this room might be dangerous.
But the candle in his hand didn’t react…
Ultimately, Liu Haoyu chose to trust his intuition and did not rush to open this door. Instead, he decided to check the other rooms first.
This very unsettling room would be checked last.
There were four rooms on the fifth floor.
The first two rooms were unremarkable, just ordinary warehouses.
But when he came to the third room, Liu Haoyu saw a brazier on the floor with half-burned joss paper inside. Looking into the room, he could see a black and white photo of an old woman.
Liu Haoyu walked up to the photo and respectfully bowed to the old person.
Chinese people generally respect the deceased and do not do anything to offend them.
However, in the room, besides the old woman’s photo, there were also photos of a very young couple.
Liu Haoyu leaned closer to take a look.
He had never seen the couple in the photos, and the wife was not Qiao Siyi, but a completely unknown woman.
Who were these two people?
Liu Haoyu frowned. Unable to figure it out, he took out his phone and pointed it at the couple’s photo.
“I apologize for any offense.”
With a click, Liu Haoyu sent the photo to Officer Wang Wenqi in Jiangliu City.
The other party was very surprised to receive a message from Liu Haoyu.
“Xiao Liu, what are you doing sending me a black and white photo in the middle of the night?”
“Officer Wang, please help me find out who these two people are.”
“That’s no problem.”
Wang Wenqi got out of bed. He looked quite energetic now.
Whether it was because the Red Gate was resolved or because “Kebei of Jiangliu City,” Liu Haoyu, had left, Jiangliu City was now very peaceful.
There were no fierce ghosts, no major murder cases, and even more taxi drivers at night, indicating that it was thriving.
“I heard from people in Beiming City that you are purely a workaholic. Has another place become haunted?”
“Where else would a ghost exorcist go if not to a haunted place?”
While waiting, Liu Haoyu had some leisure time to chat with Wang Wenqi.
“That’s true…” Wang Wenqi seemed to sigh on the phone, “I don’t know why, but I suddenly worry if the police officers in Jiangquan City can sleep well now.”
“Why worry about that?”
“It’s nothing, just a casual thought.”
The Special Task Force worked quickly, and a document was sent to Liu Haoyu’s phone shortly after.
“The man in the photo is named Zhao Kaiwen, and the woman is Xue Jingyao. Last month, they disappeared in the mountains in Beiming City for some unknown reason. When people found them, only Xue Jingyao’s body was discovered, covered in what appeared to be bear bite marks. Zhao Kaiwen’s whereabouts are still unknown, with only some torn and blood-stained clothes found.”
As Wang Wenqi spoke, Liu Haoyu’s gaze fell on Zhao Kaiwen’s profession.
Senior electrician.
This was closely related to the yellow electrician uniform described by Qiao Siyi.
But he had disappeared, so even if he wasn’t dead, how did he get from Beiming City to Jiangquan City to commit the crime?
More importantly, what was his motive for killing Qiao Siyi?
According to Zhao Kaiwen’s file, he didn’t know Qiao Siyi, so there was no enmity. As for indiscriminate killing… the file stated that Zhao Kaiwen was a completely honest and simple person, not like a demon who committed indiscriminate dismemberment.
What was even more troublesome was that he didn’t have any of Zhao Kaiwen’s items on hand, otherwise, he could have directly used the Black Book to figure things out.
However, even so, Liu Haoyu decided to give it a try.
He took out the Black Book and wrote on it.
“Do you think Zhao Kaiwen did this?”
“Do you think I’m a wishing well?”
The Black Book seemed very speechless.
“At least give me some medium.”
“I really don’t have anything, but didn’t you say you know everything?”
“Even if I know everything, I still need a medium!”
Seeing that the Black Book was helpless, Liu Haoyu could only scratch his head.
Just as he was at a loss, a line of text slowly appeared on the Black Book.
“However… Zhao Kaiwen is still alive.”
“Oh?”
As for the Black Book’s words, it didn’t surprise Liu Haoyu.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I only noticed that his name is not on the Book of Life and Death.”
” …?”
Liu Haoyu’s mouth twitched. Why did he feel that the Black Book’s origin was also not small?
It could even see the Book of Life and Death?
“Why are you surprised?” the Black Book textlessly wrote, “Your name is still dancing on the Book of Life and Death. King Yama studied it all night and couldn’t figure out what’s going on with you.”
Oh, right, Liu Haoyu remembered that when chasing the Red Gate before, the Black Book had also mentioned that his name was on King Yama’s Book of Life and Death. He thought it was joking back then, but he didn’t expect it to actually have some abilities.
“Don’t think about me changing the Book of Life and Death or anything. I can only look, I can’t do anything.”
“I haven’t said anything yet.”
“Hmph! I can see through your thoughts!”
The Black Book mockingly left a line of bloody text and closed itself.
However, after the book closed, a few drops of blood fell on the ground, transformed and condensed, and finally formed a small line of text.
“Warning, this house is extremely perilous, especially that door… be careful.”
Soon, this line of bloody text began to seep into the ground and then disappeared.
Facing the Black Book’s warning, Liu Haoyu took a deep breath.
His intuition had been warning him to leave, and after reading the Black Book’s words, his expression became even more solemn.
That door, covered in talismans, might indeed contain something extremely malevolent.
Liu Haoyu slowly exhaled the turbid air, then walked out of the room and returned to the corridor.
However, when he reached the corridor, even through the gas mask, he could smell an unusually strong smell of blood.
It was like entering a slaughterhouse.
This viscous, foul odor almost made Liu Haoyu suffocate.
Fortunately, he was a ghost exorcist, and he was also a sports student.
His body control and endurance were beyond ordinary people, which allowed him to suppress the strong urge to vomit.
At this moment, Liu Haoyu looked up and saw the door at the end of the corridor. The talismans on it had fallen off for some reason, and the Eight Trigrams Mirror hanging on the door had also been smashed to pieces.
Liu Haoyu looked at the shattered mirror pieces on the ground. The pieces seemed to be covered with a thick layer of dust, making nothing visible.
Even Liu Haoyu’s own face was not visible.
“Screech…”
As Liu Haoyu looked down, the candle in his hand suddenly burst into flames.
The candle flame was no longer the pale yellow it used to be, but an extremely eerie, ghostly blue!
Moreover, the candle was rapidly melting. In less than a moment, the candle in Liu Haoyu’s hand was completely burned out.
His pupils contracted, his blood accelerated, his heart rate suddenly quickened, and his adrenaline surged.
At this moment, Liu Haoyu’s already haggard face turned ashen white. The fear from his soul directly triggered a physiological reaction.
He knew very well what this ghostly blue flame meant.
A very powerful fierce ghost nearby!
“Creak…”
The wooden door creaked, and Liu Haoyu looked up. Then he saw that the door covered with talismans not far away had been slightly opened a crack.
The girl that Liu Haoyu had chopped to death with his axe was leaning on the door crack, smiling at Liu Haoyu.
Looking at this eerie smile, Liu Haoyu felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
Its strength was very abnormal now!
And in the blink of an eye, this smiling girl rushed out of the room and pounced directly at Liu Haoyu.
“Zhenlei Talisman!”
Liu Haoyu quickly snapped out of his fear, pinched two Zhenlei Talismans in his hand, and blasted them towards the girl’s face.
He knew very well, for some unknown reason, this fierce ghost was very powerful now, and it was trying to drag him into that room covered with talismans.
Liu Haoyu dared not think about what was inside, but he knew that once dragged in, he would surely die!
The Zhenlei Talisman, which had always been effective, had almost no effect on the girl’s face.
She seemed to be incorporeal, directly passing through the lightning and firmly grabbing Liu Haoyu’s shoulder.
At this moment, Liu Haoyu finally understood.
“Ghost infant?!”
A ghost infant is a terrifying monster born from the intercourse of humans and ghosts, but why could this ghost infant be raised so big?
Liu Haoyu’s scalp tingled, but after being grabbed, his body was almost out of control. Although he could still struggle, he could only be dragged little by little by this terrifying girl towards that room covered with talismans.
And as Liu Haoyu struggled, the pulling force became even greater, even causing him to fall to the ground.
After falling, the dragging speed also became faster. The powerful pulling force directly dragged Liu Haoyu’s hand into the darkness inside the door.
The darkness in front of Liu Haoyu seemed to have become tangible, like a wall, and his hand was already sucked behind the wall.
What was even more deadly was that it was still pulling and starting to devour Liu Haoyu’s shoulder.
At this point, Liu Haoyu finally understood his predicament. He couldn’t care about anything else and resisted with all his might.
But even so, the darkness was still devouring Liu Haoyu bit by bit.
Having no other choice, Liu Haoyu could only despairingly close his eyes.
“Qin Liu, save me!”
Boom!!
The Red Jade in Liu Haoyu’s pocket instantly exploded, and a terrifying red shadow appeared in the corridor.
The light from the lantern brightly illuminated the darkness behind the door.
At this moment, Liu Haoyu and the ghost infant’s faces were almost touching.
But the red shadow behind him didn’t care and grabbed the Red Embroidered Shoes directly and swiped them at the ghost infant’s face.
“Slap!”
A not too loud, not too small slap echoed far in the silent corridor.
“Ahhhhhhh!!”
But this seemingly light slap caused the ghost infant, who was grabbing Liu Haoyu’s hand, to let out a shrill scream.
As it let go, Liu Haoyu, who had been resisting with all his might, immediately fell backward.
Fortunately, someone was behind him, and he fell into the red shadow’s embrace, gasping for breath.
“Are you okay?”
That dazed and expressionless voice sounded behind him. Liu Haoyu looked up and saw Qin Liu, with empty eyes, gazing at him.
Hearing this familiar yet seemingly long-unheard voice, Liu Haoyu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
At the same time, he had to admit, these Red Embroidered Shoes were truly incredibly powerful.
Something that the Zhenlei Talisman couldn’t move, these shoes actually smacked it back.
It’s just that, the embroidered shoes were almost glued to Liu Haoyu’s face when they hit the ghost infant’s head.
The closest the embroidered shoes were to Liu Haoyu was less than three centimeters.
At this distance, even if Liu Haoyu wasn’t paying attention, he could smell the scent of the embroidered shoes.
“I’m fine…”
Liu Haoyu calmed himself down and showed a bright smile.
“By the way, Qin Liu, have you ever worn your shoes? They smell quite good.”
Upon hearing Liu Haoyu’s words, the expressionless Qin Liu’s head seemed to have trouble processing. She tilted her head and said.
“You could smell it?”
“At such a close distance, how could I not smell it.”
Seeing Liu Haoyu’s shameless behavior, the expressionless Qin Liu thought for a moment with her dazed eyes, then took off the other embroidered shoe from her foot and placed it in Liu Haoyu’s hand.
“If you like it, you can have it.”
“Ah, no… compared to shoes…”
Liu Haoyu’s gaze slowly fell on Qin Liu’s “ice cream.”
This directly caused the expressionless Qin Liu’s brain to crash. She was as if a video was loading, stuck in place, and did not react for a long time.
