Chapter 146: Clash of Vengeful Spirits

Chapter 146

The moment Fan Wujiu touched Zhuang Laoqi, he was shocked to find that the man’s body was chillingly cold.

His limbs were stiff, and the joints at his elbows and shoulders felt like rusted iron hinges locked tightly together. When Fan Wujiu tried to bend his arm, he found it surprisingly difficult.

Most importantly, his skin felt somewhat damp, perhaps due to the sweat from the earlier interrogation that had soaked his clothes.

When Fan Wujiu grabbed him, his own palm came away wet.

Such a body hardly felt like that of a living person.

He had experienced the Twin Ghosts Case in Bao County, and now it felt as though he were gripping a ghost rather than a man. Terrified, Fan Wujiu loosened his grip, and the moment Zhuang Laoqi was free, he immediately began to shuffle forward again.

Fortunately, Wu Shaochun, who had turned back from the doorway, intercepted him.

Yet Wu Shaochun struggled to hold him back, so Fan Wujiu snapped out of his trance and hurried forward as well. Together, they pinned Zhuang Laoqi’s arms behind his back.

Zhuang Laoqi kept struggling.

His movements in the struggle were deeply bizarre.

Normally, when a person’s arms are locked behind their back, the natural limitation of the shoulder joints prevents them from thrashing about wildly.

Yet Zhuang Laoqi seemed entirely devoid of pain. He twisted his body with astonishing, terrifying strength.

Cracking sounds echoed from his shoulder joints. It was as though, in order to break free from the restraint of Fan and Wu, he was willing to snap his own arms in half.

Zhuang Laoqi forced his upper body downward while violently wrenching his arms left and right. His bones and flesh could not withstand the force, emitting a hair-raising series of crisp, snapping sounds.

A chill struck Fan Wujiu’s heart, and he looked at Zhao Fusheng with a look of desperate appeal.

"Pin him to the ground," Zhao Fusheng commanded.

Upon hearing this, Fan Wujiu and Wu Shaochun lunged onto Zhuang Laoqi’s back.

With two grown men hanging onto him, his spine bent under the weight, yet he still tried to press forward.

Realizing this tactic was failing, Wu Shaochun reached out a leg and hooked his ankle.

To their surprise, Zhuang Laoqi’s bones were so rigid that it took several attempts before he crashed heavily to the floor with a dull thud.

Even after hitting the ground, he did not halt his forward momentum; instead, he dragged his body along like a crawling insect.

Zhao Fusheng strode forward, drew the Ghost Arm, and smashed it down hard onto his head.

*Clang!*

Amidst the crisp impact, the power of one ghost collided with another.

The Ghost Arm had suffered damage on several occasions and its power was far diminished from before. Under the first strike, it failed to activate as it usually did upon impact. It was only after Zhao Fusheng struck him repeatedly that the Ghost Arm finally unfurled its fingers, attempting to grab Zhuang Laoqi’s hair.

The moment the ghost’s power was provoked, it immediately triggered a chain reaction.

Fan Bisi and Wu Shaochun were standing closest to Zhuang Laoqi, and they witnessed with their own eyes a massive torrent of foul-smelling spring water suddenly gushing out from amid Zhuang Laoqi’s hair.

That dark water resembled the stagnant, ancient mud at the bottom of a dead pond, stirring up a nauseating stench once disturbed.

The water surged out along his hair, quickly soaking the top of Zhuang Laoqi’s head.

Instead of dripping down along the strands, the water flowed in reverse, crawling up the Ghost Arm and rapidly submerging the entire limb.

As the Ghost Arm was eroded by the flowing water, it gradually fell under the suppression of another malevolent entity’s power.

In an instant, the Ghost Arm was soaked by the reeking, bizarre water and went completely still.

However, that chilling aura surged upward along the Ghost Arm, attempting to invade Zhao Fusheng’s body.

At that very moment, the malevolent entity harnessed by Zhao Fusheng seemed to sense the intrusion of another ghost’s presence and began to awaken.

A ghostly shadow rose from behind her, and the prompt from the Investiture of the Gods immediately rang out: *The malevolent entity you harness is about to awaken. Do you wish to spend 100 merits to suppress it?*

Zhao Fusheng ignored the system prompt.

A grim and hostile ghostly aura crept upward along the Ghost Arm, the reeking, foul water staining her palm and spreading to the back of her hand.

The freezing cold instantly numbed the hand she used to grip the Ghost Arm, robbing it of all warmth.

Right then, a force seemed to draw near her back.

Yet the moment the entity’s power drew close to her back, the malevolent spirit she commanded sensed the intrusion of a foreign ghost. A terrifying shadow, resembling flowing pitch, slowly rose from beneath her feet behind her, writhing in an instant to form the silhouette of an evil spirit.

"..."

Fan Wujiu, Prefect Pang, and Zhang Chuanshi all witnessed this scene with their own eyes. Every single one of them was scared out of their wits, losing even the ability to cry out.

Among them, Fan Wujiu was the most terrified.

This malevolent entity—which demanded a life first and paid later—was utterly horrifying. It had once brought a storm of blood and slaughter to the Wan'an County Demon Suppression Bureau, nearly causing the deaths of the Fan brothers.

Now that the entity had manifested, Zhao Fusheng was in mortal danger.

She had already used this ghost’s power twice, losing two-thirds of her life span in the process. If the entity awakened once more, it would spell her certain death.

The fierce-grade entity had not yet fully materialized, but its Ghost Domain had already expanded.

The prompt from the Investiture of the Gods echoed once more in Zhao Fusheng’s mind: *The malevolent entity you harness is about to fully awaken. Do you wish to spend 200 merits to suppress it?*

Zhao Fusheng’s expression remained unchanged, though sweat beaded on her forehead.

She held her breath, her heartbeat surging to an unimaginable speed in that instant.

*Hoo-huff—hoo-huff—*

At this moment, the sound of blood rushing furiously through her brain drowned out all surrounding noises. In a moment of extreme danger, the malevolent entity took shape.

Yet after appearing, it did not immediately rush to take Zhao Fusheng’s life.

The bizarre black water suddenly gushing from the top of Zhuang Laoqi’s head was the first to draw the entity’s attention.

Those unknown, ghostly waters were eager to mark Zhao Fusheng’s body, attempting to contest ownership of her life with the fierce-grade entity.

Possessed by the ghost, Zhao Fusheng’s body rapidly lost its warmth, her skin turning pale and her gaze growing ice-cold.

With a grim expression, she flicked her hand.

As ghost clashed with ghost, the two forces collided, and the bizarre wastewater was swiftly suppressed by the fierce-grade entity.

This was not Kuailiang Village; this was not that entity’s home turf.

Once Zhuang Laoqi’s body was marked by the entity, he was merely a vessel used by the ghost to spread its mark.

Before the fierce-grade entity that took a life first and demanded payment later, this bizarre ghostly water was quickly beaten down. The tainted water dripped onto the ground, and that eerie, bone-chilling sensation instantly vanished.

A fleeting clarity returned to Zhuang Laoqi’s eyes. Yet at that exact moment, the malevolent entity possessing Zhao Fusheng resolved the trouble with the ghostly water, and then abruptly forced Zhao Fusheng to raise her hand, clawing toward her own chest.

The Ghost Domain took form, and an aura of bloodshed, savagery, and bloodlust instantly shrouded the hall of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

The malevolent entity was going to take her life.

At this critical juncture, the Investiture of the Gods in Zhao Fusheng’s sea of consciousness sounded its final warning:

*The malevolent entity has fully awakened. Do you wish to use 1,000 merits to suppress it?*

*Yes!*

Zhao Fusheng could already feel her hand uncontrollably piercing toward her chest cavity. In the nick of time between life and death, she gave her response.

1,000 merits were deducted.

In her sea of consciousness, her remaining merits stood at 2,343.

The power of the Investiture of the Gods timely suppressed the malevolent entity.

The possessing ghost reluctantly detached itself, and her arm transitioned from cold back to warmth.

The entity seemed to be grabbed and peeled away from her body by an invisible pair of giant hands, transforming back into the shape of a malevolent ghost. It glared at her with spite and reluctance, but under the influence of the merits, it shattered silently in the blink of an eye, turning into a mist of shadowy rain that showered the floor before vanishing into nothingness.

The brief clash between the two ghosts lasted only a moment, but that moment had been a crisis hanging by a thread.

The terror it inflicted on Zhao Fusheng was no less than any ghost case she had previously experienced.

She had never expected that a ghost case erupting in Kuailiang Village, dozens of miles away from Wan'an County, would find its way into the Demon Suppression Bureau via a person marked by the entity, erupting right here on the spot and nearly causing a catastrophic disaster.

Not only had the Ghost Arm been entirely suppressed by the vessel carrying the ghost's mark, but even the entity she harnessed had fully awakened.

Had she panicked even slightly, or miscalculated the timing by a fraction, the Demon Suppression Bureau today would have been washed in blood by the malevolent spirit, leaving everyone dead.

At the thought of such a terrifying consequence, even though Zhao Fusheng had completely stripped the entity from her body, her face remained pale, and she felt as though her body could not regain its warmth for a long time.

A chill enveloped her entire being. After a long while, she slowly stood up and retrieved the Ghost Arm, which had been thoroughly bloated and soaked by the wastewater.

"M-My Lord—"

Fan Wujiu, who had dared not make a sound for so long, only now ventured to speak upon seeing Zhao Fusheng move.

He had witnessed the entity manifest with his own eyes and felt that monstrous intent to kill, believing they were bound to die today.

He had never imagined that Zhao Fusheng would use some unknown method to suppress the manifested entity once more, making it vanish into thin air.

Since Zhao Fusheng was moving now, did that mean the crisis had passed?

Fan Wujiu’s heart pounded wildly like a trapped rabbit as he waited for Zhao Fusheng’s response.

At that moment, the frantic and bloodthirsty, sanity-laved expression of Zhao Qiming before his death flashed through his mind.

Brother Qiming, whom he had grown up with, had turned frantic, his eyes bloodshot and swollen, glaring at people as if he wanted to devour them. Later, influenced by the malevolent spirit, he had hollowed out his own chest, tearing out his internal organs in a miserable death.

Before his death, the malevolent spirit had manifested just like this.

Fan Wujiu began to worry that the next second Zhao Fusheng raised her head, she too would reveal a pair of blood-red, crazed eyes.

After finishing his hoarse cry without receiving a response, he couldn't help calling out again:

"Fusheng—"

As soon as he finished calling out this time, Zhao Fusheng moved.

She raised her gaze to look at Fan Wujiu.

Her complexion was as white as snow, and a chilling, lingering aura from the ghost possession remained on her face, but her pupils were not chaotic; they were clear, dark and white, carrying a sense of cold composure.

"I'm fine," she replied.

"Phew—"

The breath that Fan Wujiu had been holding in his chest let out in a long sigh.

He collapsed weakly onto the floor, losing even the strength to restrain Zhuang Laoqi, and trembled as he said:

"Just now, just now—"

Wu Shaochun and the others were also badly frightened.

Although Zhang Chuanshi had seen ghosts during the Ghost Mausoleum case and had been hunted by malevolent spirits due to the existence of ghost coins, seeing the malevolent entity manifest behind Zhao Fusheng terrified him that she might die from its awakening, nearly scaring him to death on the spot.

Dangerous though the Ghost Mausoleum had been, Zhao Fusheng’s presence was like a pillar calming the stormy seas.

As long as she was safe, the ghost case could be solved.

Yet today, inside the Demon Suppression Bureau, the entity she harnessed had emerged, terrifying everyone to the core.

If she died, everyone here would have to forfeit their lives today.

"Just now, I was almost consumed by a ghostly awakening," Zhao Fusheng answered casually.

She spoke lightly, but Prefect Pang felt a sharp ache in his chest.

Clutching his chest, he stumbled about looking for a chair. The string in Zhang Chuanshi’s mind that had only just relaxed tightened once more. Just as everyone was trembling with fear at her words, she continued:

"But it's fine now. The malevolent entity has been suppressed by me again."

"..."

"..."

Everyone stared in astonishment, exchanging glances without daring to utter a sound.

Right at that moment, Zhuang Laoqi—who had previously been pinned to the floor by Fan Bisi and Wu Shaochun—seemed to suddenly wake up.

"Ah—um—"

He let out a painful groan. The intense struggle earlier had torn the tendons and bones in his arms, but back then he had been a vessel for the entity and had lost all sensation, feeling no pain at all.

Now, after Zhao Fusheng used the Ghost Arm and the fierce-grade entity that takes a life first to temporarily beat back the ghost mark on him, his consciousness briefly recovered.

The moment he woke up, the agony in his arms washed over him instantly, reducing him to tears of pain.

"M-My Lord, spare my life—"

Not knowing what had happened, he assumed he had been subjected to some brutal torture again. Terrified that he might lose his small life today, he began begging for mercy the moment he regained his senses.

Zhao Fusheng, however, had no time to waste words with him right now.

She vigorously rubbed her hands and arms.

Her right hand, which had previously grabbed the Ghost Arm, had been eroded by the ghostly water, and at this moment, her palms and the gaps between her fingers emitted an unpleasant odor.

The water dripping onto the floor was pitch black, resembling silt that had rotted for years.

She instructed Fan Wujiu and the others:

"The situation in Kuailiang Village has likely spiraled out of control. This malevolent entity is far more formidable than I imagined. After Zhuang Laoqi was marked by the ghost, it was actually able to use his body to spread the mark."

That foul water was one of the ways the entity’s aura was propagated.

"I failed to hold it down with the Ghost Arm just now," she said with a hint of regret.

The Ghost Arm was originally one of her most reliable and formidable weapons, but after suffering setbacks at the hands of the Ghost Carriage several times, it was now half-destroyed.

When Liu Yizhen had invited her to the Confucian Temple earlier, she had considered piecing the Ghost Arm and the Beggar Ghost back together. At the time, however, considering that her merits were down to 3,343, she worried that some mishap might occur during the stitching process, which could affect her handling of the next ghost case.

Opting for caution, she had decided to postpone it, intending to solve another ghost case and accumulate more merits before piecing the Beggar Ghost together more securely.

She had never anticipated that this case in Kuailiang Village would be so ominous, ultimately triggering the awakening of the entity within her and costing 1,000 merits just to survive the crisis.

Without even officially setting foot in Kuailiang Village, and knowing only a fraction of the ghost case within the village, she had already burned through a portion of her merits.

Such a start was truly ill-omened, casting a shadow over Zhao Fusheng’s heart.

"Fortunately, at the critical moment, my entity awakened and forced this ghost back; otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable."

Even with the plaque in the Demon Suppression Bureau suppressing things, the malevolent entity from Kuailiang Village had managed to awaken through a vessel and kill people dozens of miles away, showing just how terrifying this case was.

With that said, she gave another order to Fan Wujiu:

"Rip open the clothes on Zhuang Laoqi's back."

The only known clue to this ghost case so far was that Fourth Sister Zhuang had been drowned for adultery, and upon death, a ghostly awakening was highly likely.

Every marked person shared a common trait: it felt as though someone had stabbed them in the back, after which they invariably felt compelled to head toward Kuailiang Village.

Before the incident, Zhuang Laoqi had also shown signs of looking around left and right, claiming someone was looking for him before setting off for Kuailiang Village.

Combining this with what he had said regarding the state of Kuailiang’s death, Zhao Fusheng deduced that a mark left by the malevolent spirit's 'stab' should appear on his back.