Master Lou woke up and Zhao Xilan was fine. I asked her and found out what had happened.
There is a bell hanging on the window frame. It is called the soul-beating bell. The soul-beating bell has a similar function to the soul-catching bell, both of which can sense the presence of ghosts. If a ghost breaks into the room, the soul-beating bell will make a sound.
When they were sleeping, everything was fine. The soul-beating bell was hanging there without making any sound. But not long after Master Lou and Zhao Xilan fell asleep, the soul-beating bell started to make a "ring, ring, ring!" sound.
Master Lou was the first to wake up. But as soon as she opened her eyes, a black air hit her chest. Because it happened so suddenly, Master Lou had no time to prepare. In addition, her body was still very weak due to the injury, so she fainted directly.
But before he passed out, Master Lou called out, waking up Zhao Xilan, who was fast asleep in the bed next to him. Zhao Xilan woke up quickly, and after discovering a ghost in the room, she threw back the quilt and jumped out of the bed to the ground, then reached into her own cloth bag, took out the talisman, and started fighting the ghost.
But that ghost was an evil ghost, and with Zhao Xilan's strength, she was no match for it.
Soon, Zhao Xilan felt a little defeated, so she screamed.
I also know what happened next.
Afterwards, Zhang Chu and I rushed to Zhao Xilan and Lou Xiaoman’s room first.
Looking at the ghost curled up on the ground with a distorted face and a drooping long neck, I felt a little angry.
I walked up to the ghost, placed the Seven-Star Dragon Abyss Sword on the ghost's body, and asked, "Tell me! Why did you enter the room and attack people?"
The ghost had a long neck. According to the Yin-Yang Soul Crossing Notes, this ghost should be a long-necked ghost.
The long-necked ghost looked at me timidly, then looked at the Seven-Star Dragon Abyss Sword in my hand. It said fearfully, "Master, Master... Please spare me. I am also being controlled by someone. My 'life soul' is in the hands of that Taoist priest, and he asked me to kill Zhao Xilan."
"If I didn't come to kill people, he would have killed me."
"Taoist priest?" I asked suspiciously, "What's the name of that Taoist priest?"
But the long-necked ghost shook his head and said, "Master, I don't know the man's name. But I can describe his appearance. Perhaps you have seen him."
Then the long-necked ghost told us what the man looked like.
Zhao Xilan and Master Lou's faces changed at the same time, and they said in unison: "Zhao Santong!"
Master Lou coughed twice and said, "Ahem... It's Zhao Santong, it must be Zhao Santong! The Zhao family has always wanted to kill Xilan. It must be Zhao Santong!"
I thought about it, and the person described by the long-necked ghost really looks very similar to Zhao Santong.
My eyes turned and I asked the long-necked ghost: "Where is the Taoist priest now?"
But just as the long-necked ghost was about to answer, its mouth suddenly closed again. Then, a dark green will-o'-the-wisp spread out from the long-necked ghost's body. But in an instant, the will-o'-the-wisp spread to the long-necked ghost's entire body.
"Ahh! Help, help. I don't want to die, please save me quickly. I don't want to turn into ashes! ... "
But it's too late! We have no better way.
The boy rescued the long-necked ghost.
Just like that, right before our eyes, the long-necked ghost was burned to ashes by the ghost fire, became transparent, and disappeared completely.
"Despicable, really despicable! They actually killed a ghost directly without even giving it a chance to reincarnate as a human. It's really despicable!"
Fatty Li clenched his fists and said angrily.
I bent down and slowly picked up the soul-binding rope that had fallen to the ground.
That soul-binding rope was something I got from the underworld, as I should have mentioned before.
Zhao Xilan thought about it, then looked at us and asked, "What should we do now? It seems that my uncle, no, Zhao Santong, has planned to kill me, otherwise he would not control the ghost to attack me."
Zhang Chu thought for a moment and said, "There is no better way now. Although we know that Zhao Santong and your two brothers are in Longtan Town, Longtan Town is so big after all, and we still don't know where they are staying."
"Besides, it's night time now. Even if we find Zhao Santong, what can we do to him? We can't kill him! We can't call the police either. After all, it's a ghost haunting us, and the police won't do anything about it."
I continued, "Yes, my master is right. We are indeed in a passive position now, and we can only take one step at a time. I hope that Zhao Santong will not do anything else."
After that, I consoled Zhao Xilan for a few words and asked everyone to go back to their rooms to rest. The noise in our room also alarmed Dachun, the waiter who was on night watch downstairs.
But seeing that we were all fine, Dachun didn't say anything. He already knew who I was and that we were Taoists dealing with ghosts.
Soon we returned to our respective rooms. However, for safety reasons, I used warning and exorcism talismans to set up a magic circle in Zhao Xilan and Master Lou's room. This time, even if a ghost came, it would not be able to enter the room directly.
Outside Longtan Town, in a dilapidated Taoist temple.
Three figures were sitting in front of the fire.
The fire was blazing, and the firewood thrown in was burning with crackling sounds. The firelight reflected on the faces of three people. These three people were clearly Zhao Zilong, Zhao Zihu, and Zhao Santong, who Zhao Xilan had met during the day.
At this time, Zhao Santong's face was gloomy, and he looked like a piece of ice.
He held a talisman in his right hand.
The talisman is called the soul-collecting talisman, which can collect the souls of ghosts.
The three of them sat there quietly, and the atmosphere was a little weird.
After a while, Zhao Santong, who was sitting in the middle, said, "It's time. The long-necked ghost hasn't returned yet. It seems that it has been captured by Zhao Xilan and Lou Xiaoman."
After hearing this, Zhao Zihu on the side was a little worried and said, "Uncle San, the long-necked ghost has been captured. Could it be that it is bringing Zhao Xilan here to find us?"
Zhao Santong shook his head and said in a deep voice, "No. I have already extracted a soul from the long-necked ghost and injected a ghost fire into its soul. If the long-necked ghost doesn't come back when the time is up, the ghost fire will automatically devour it. I believe that if the long-necked ghost is smart enough, it will come back."
"But now the long-necked ghost has not returned. This means that its soul has been scattered!"
At this point, Zhao Santong looked at the soul-collecting talisman in his hand.
There was a soul that trapped the long-necked ghost, but now that soul had no life and turned into a small ball of dark ghost energy, indicating that the long-necked ghost had been destroyed.
"Look, the spirituality on the long-necked ghost's soul has disappeared in the soul-collecting talisman. This means that my prediction was correct, and the long-necked ghost has been destroyed."
Zhao Zilong looked unhappy. He knew that his father Zhao Santong must be very anxious as well.
You have to know that this trip to look for Zhao Xilan was arranged by Zhao Zilong's grandfather Zhao Xiyuan. After all, before leaving, Zhao Xiyuan also told Zhao Santong to bring Zhao Xilan back to the Zhao family. Even if he couldn't bring Zhao Xilan back, he had to kill Zhao Xilan secretly.
I wonder how Zhao Xilan would feel if she knew that the entire Zhao family was planning to deal with her.
"Dad, since the long-necked ghost failed, why don't I and my brother Zihu go again? I happen to be controlling a few ghosts, and I don't believe that I can't kill Zhao Xilan."
Zhao Zilong didn't regard Zhao Xilan as his sister at all, and there was a chill in his voice when he said these words.
Zhao Zihu also echoed, "Yes, Third Uncle, otherwise, let me and Brother Zilong go again. It's still early in the day, and I don't believe that we can't kill Zhao Xilan."
Zhao Santong shook his head and said in a deep voice, "No need! You two may not have noticed this morning that the fair-faced boy holding Zhao Xilan's hand is quite skilled. He may be even more powerful than me. So you can't go there rashly."
"What should we do? Now that we have found Zhao Xilan, who brought misfortune to the Zhao family, we can't let her go, right?"
Zhao Zilong said this with some resentment, as if Zhao Xilan had some deep hatred against him.
In fact, he was also influenced by the Zhao family. In the Zhao family, Zhao Xilan has been identified as the source of the Zhao family's misfortunes. In the past two years, the Zhao family's real estate business has been getting worse year by year, and even the family has been suppressed by several other major families in Jiangbin City.
So the Zhao family pointed all their criticisms at Zhao Xilan.
Just like what Zhao Xiyuan's father had predicted, they regarded Zhao Xilan as the calamity of the Zhao family, the calamity that brought disaster to the Zhao family. As long as Zhao Xilan was alive, the Zhao family would not be at peace. That's why the Zhao family tried every means to kill Zhao Xilan.
Zhao Santong thought for a moment and said, "Don't worry, Zhao Xilan can't escape. I don't believe that Zhao Xilan and Lou Xiaoman will always be with that kid. I believe that as long as we keep following Zhao Xilan and the others, there will always be a chance to take action."
"Now that we have found Zhao Xilan, we know that Zhao Xilan is staying at Longtan Inn. All we have to do is keep an eye on them."
After looking at the sky, Zhao Santong said, "Zihu, Zilong, you two should go and rest first. I have arranged a little ghost to watch over us outside Longtan Inn. So there is no need to worry that Zhao Xilan will escape. We will not return empty-handed this time when we come to Miaojiang."
After that, Zhao Zilong and Zhao Zihu both went to rest.
Zhao Santong sat alone in front of the fire, staring at it coldly, as if Zhao Xilan was hiding in the fire.
The night wind was not strong, but still a little chilly. The flames swayed in the wind from time to time. In the dark woods in the distance, the chirping of night birds could be heard from time to time. Those night birds had not yet returned to their nests.
(to be continued)
(End of this chapter) (End of this chapter)