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As soon as the newcomer entered, he grinned widely at Senior Zhang, then glanced carefully at the second floor before walking up to Senior Zhang and said in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, "Hehe, Senior Brother, it's good to see you."
My heart tightened at his words. Was this really just a simple handling of Ghostly Affairs, or was I being drawn into a conspiracy? It remained to be confirmed whether Senior Zhang practiced Ghost Path techniques, but there was no doubt that the Skinny Man who had just entered was indeed a practitioner of Ghost Path. His calling out "Senior Brother" confirmed that Senior Zhang was indeed involved in Ghost Path matters. Master Xiao and I exchanged glances; he seemed equally unable to accept this sudden turn of events.
Senior Zhang's expression remained unchanged as he said, "You've become too reckless. You've even started using Yang House to nurture Yin spirits. Aren't you afraid of being crushed by karmic retribution?"
The Skinny Man said nothing, merely sizing up Senior Zhang before looking around the hall. His gaze finally settled on the Spirit Flag by the staircase. His expression shifted from joy to anger as he snorted coldly and said, "Since you know I'm borrowing this 'Void' special feng shui for Nourishing the Soul, why did you set up a Soul Banner in that gathering place for Yin? Are you trying to steal from your poor junior brother? You’re doing well for yourself; if you have money, what kind of place can't you get? I spend my days in darkness without any resources to use, so I can only take over someone else's territory."
What was going on? I felt utterly confused. It seemed that Senior Zhang and this junior brother were not on good terms. The Skinny Man looked to be only in his forties. Could it be that the Paper Man who intruded into our room earlier belonged to him? If it were his Paper Man, he should know we had already seen through that trick. Why did he walk into the room so boldly without fearing that we would beat him up? I turned to look at Master Xiao in bewilderment; he shook his head vigorously, clearly just as puzzled as I was.
After speaking, the Skinny Man glanced upstairs. Since the staircase turned a corner, he couldn't see the incense we had lit or the talismans we had drawn at the top of the stairs. Perhaps he sensed something unusual because suddenly he pulled out a dagger from his belt and prepared to head upstairs.
"No need to look or go up there. Those two Little Taoists have some skills; your Paper Man won't work on them. It only scared them a little. I added some medicine to their food earlier; they're currently sound asleep in their room," Senior Zhang said calmly.
The Skinny Man looked at Senior Zhang's face, seemingly trying to read further confirmation from his expression, but Senior Zhang remained impassive, showing no signs of disturbance.
"I know that Paper Man is useless. It seems these two fellows really do have some level of skill; they aren't like that last guy who was scared out of his wits by a dream within a dream. But even if they are skilled, it doesn't matter; they are just two young Little Taoists after all and pose no threat to my Nourishing the Soul," the Skinny Man said disdainfully.
The speaker had intentions behind his words, and they resonated with me. I didn't mind much, but Master Xiao's temper was getting out of control; he shook his shoulder and pulled out a small dagger from his Cosmic Bag, ready to stand up. I pressed him down again and shot him a fierce glare. He angrily pointed downstairs through the wooden board while waving the dagger as if declaring he would go down and kill him. This guy really was single-minded; earlier he had been cautious, but now he seemed ready for a fight. I increasingly found him hard to understand. Fortunately, despite his fiery temper, he still listened somewhat. Under my stern gaze that demanded respect and left no room for disrespect, he calmed down again as we continued peering through the gap in the wooden board.
When we looked down again, we saw that a layer of white empty White Talisman paper had been unevenly spread out beneath the Skinny Man's feet, mixed with colorful paper clothes. He kept moving his hands while scattering them and muttering an indistinct incantation.
Next, he brought over a wooden stool with a backrest and placed it where he had been standing before. He took out a bowl of rice and dumped it upside down onto the chair. Speaking aloud, he said, "Senior Brother, since you've planned so thoroughly and prepared the Soul Banner for me, I won't hold back." As he spoke, he walked over to retrieve the Spirit Flag from under the stairs and slanted it against the backrest of the stool. After securing it in place, he began circling around the chair while continuing to chant an incantation I couldn't understand. Senior Zhang stood silently beside him without saying anything; however, his expression grew slightly more serious, with deeper wrinkles appearing on his forehead than usual.
The incantation was incomprehensible, which was to be expected since everyone has their own area of expertise. However, what surprised me was the exaggerated movements of the practitioner. He wasn’t walking in any specific rhythm; instead, he circled around the stool and the Soul Banner, spinning in an erratic clockwise and counterclockwise manner. His steps were anything but normal—sometimes he jumped, and occasionally he even performed a couple of flips. His actions were quick and light, showing no signs of hesitation, clearly indicating that he had done this many times before. Both I and Master Xiao were taken aback; was he performing acrobatics?
Just as this thought crossed my mind, Master Xiao turned to me and whispered, "Is this skinny monkey doing acrobatics?" After saying that, his expression changed dramatically as he muttered a couple of curses under his breath: "Damn it."
His voice wasn’t loud, but it wasn’t exactly quiet either. If it had been just a bit louder, the people below might have heard him. I turned to look at him, ready to give him a sharp glare when I noticed he was staring wide-eyed at something behind me. My heart skipped a beat as I slowly turned around...
To my shock, I saw a row of Spirit Gods on my left, squatting behind the wooden board in the same position as us, peering down below. I counted—there were six of them, all Female Spirit Gods, seemingly in their thirties.
They were watching intently, each with an expressionless face fixated on the gap in the wooden board. As the incantation below grew faster, they began to tremble slightly as if they had suddenly entered a cold place. I quickly took out my compass to check; they weren’t cold—they were scared...
I glanced back at Master Xiao. He wasn’t looking at the Spirit Gods peeking with us; instead, he continued to peer through the gap at the Skinny Man performing his ritual below. His expression showed no sign of seriousness; rather, he was grinning and quietly said, "What a shame this guy isn’t doing acrobatics." I shook my head; this guy was incredibly carefree.
With a sudden shout of "Hey!" from below, the chanting abruptly stopped and was replaced by a series of ringing sounds—yes, those bells we used to see in Uncle Ying Lin Zhengying's zombie films.
These bells have many uses; those used for hand spells and verbal incantations serve different purposes and can produce various effects depending on their rhythm. Although I don’t use bells myself, I have some understanding of them—there are soul-calling bells, exorcism bells, ghost-catching bells, and soul-stabilizing bells among others. Some classmates might wonder why these bells are so useful yet I don’t learn them; first off, our Qiaoling doesn’t have that tradition; secondly, this method isn’t very suitable for dealing with matters in today’s society due to its loudness. Lastly, I find it somewhat difficult.
As the bell rang out startlingly loud, I noticed that the Spirit Gods on my left began to shake violently before slowly standing up and preparing to move past us downstairs. Turning my gaze back to the Skinny Man and Senior Zhang below, Senior Zhang still wore a frown but had shifted his attention to the ceiling instead of continuing to watch the Skinny Man.
At that moment, two Spirit Gods had already surrounded the Skinny Man—both were women in their thirties who seemed enchanted as they circled around the Soul Banner. The Skinny Man’s large black bag was now open; he pulled out two copper mirrors and then took out two White Talismans, sticking one on each of the Spirit Gods before him. With just a few short incantations and hand gestures, he managed to trap those two circling Spirit Gods inside the mirrors. Afterward, he carelessly tossed them aside and pulled out several more mirrors.
"Hey, why haven’t they come down yet?" The Skinny Man muttered to himself in confusion before turning his gaze toward the stairs. However, he could only see part of what was below; the upper part was blocked from his view.
Here’s the first update; there’s more to come shortly. Please hold on for a moment!
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