As soon as I 

laid

 down, someone banged on the door. It was Zhou Tian’s wife. She looked worried. “Master, my mother-in-law just called. She said that 

the

 evil thing has come to trouble her. Please help her!” 

“

Dammit it

.” I patted my thigh

, 

put on my jacket, 

and descended

 the stairs. The otherworldly item was hurt

. It 

was so angry that it attacked the grannie. How 

could I make such a mistake?

I left

 the neighborhood

 and hopped in 

a taxi. 

After giving

 the driver five hundred 

renminbi

, I asked him to 

drive

 at maximum speed to the grannie’s hotel. 

When I entered

 the hostel, I saw the grannie lying on the sofa. She didn’t look hurt at all. I

 exhaled in relief and asked,

 “Auntie, 

are you okay

?” 

She didn’t answer me

. Instead, she asked, 

“How is my son? Is he safe?” 

She wasn’t 

on the

 same page 

as

 me. I suddenly felt that something was wro

ng. I frowned

. “Auntie, after I left, did something happen 

at

 the hostel?” 

“I’m just an old woman. What could happen to me?” Auntie noticed my stern face

 and 

seemed to realize something

. She quickly asked, 

“

Is something the matter

?” 

“

Something

 doesn’t feel right.” I didn’t explain much

 and rushed 

to the single-story house behind the hostel. The box on the

altar table had disappeared

.

The grannie entered the house after me

,

 dropp

ing

 her jaw in shock

 right after.

 “Before you came, I checked once

 and it was still here

. Where did it go?” 

“It seems

 it 

couldn’t stand still…” My face darkened. 

I took out the compass

 and checked 

around the altar. When I 

moved

in

 the Southeast direction, the compass handle shook hard. 

This

 indicated that there was some Yin energy 

there and that t

he box had possibly escaped 

in

 that direction.

I slowly moved forward

 while following 

the handle. I then found a one

-

square

-

meter wide hole 

in

 the Southeast corner of the house. 

The box must have escaped through that hole. When 

the grannie

 saw me frown, she explained, “That’s a

 coal hole. W

e used 

it a

 very long time ago

to throw cinders away.” 

“Auntie, stay home and wait for me.” It was pointless to 

dwell on

 this hole further. I told her to stay and 

entered the hole

. Then, I invited 

a

spirit

 to carry me. 

It 

was

 said that

 one

 shouldn’t open 

their

 eyes when 

they were inviting

 a carrying spirit. However, I needed to use the compass to track the otherworldly item

, so

 I had 

no choice

. 

This time, I had invited a little boy wearing a red dudou

[1]

. His head was giant

and his eyes sparkled with a blue light. 

The boy was shivering. 

Perhaps 

he

 was scared of the compass in my hand

. 

“Don’t worry, kid. This compass of mine is used to deal with evil 

spirits

. Just take me to 

my

 destination

, and

 I will reward you.” 

The boy understood me

 and moved 

faster. I followed the compass handle. Eventually, I confirmed that the box had gone to Zhou Tian’s house. 

When we 

stopped, I 

dropped

 some blood on the ground to reward the little boy. A small ghost 

such as

 him could easily vanish. That

 was

 why he 

had 

agreed to help me 

in

 exchange for some drops of blood to 

preserve

 his soul. 

He was 

a

 self-reliant ghost, which 

was

 much better 

than

 the ghosts that harmed people to strengthen themselves!  

I hurried to return to Zhou Tian’s villa. Before I entered his house, I saw his wife sitting at the entrance with both hands 

placed

 on her knees. 

She lifted her head, h

er blank eyes 

gazing

 at the roof. She looked really strange. 

I wanted to ask her what happened, but 

a

 commotion occurred. Things were

 being

 thrown in the house. I turned and stormed into the house

, catching

 a wisp of a red shadow flying toward Zhou Tian’s bedroom. 

Although it 

moved very quickly

, I had caught 

a

 glimpse o

f it and saw

 that it didn’t have legs. This 

spirit

 didn’t have 

a

 lower body! 

I noticed that all t

he movable items 

were 

on

 the ground, like the chairs, table, small decorations, and even the teapot. 

They were all

 broken into pieces. 

I was surprised

 and thought 

that this 

spirit

 was rather odd. It liked to throw things and was 

so

 strong that it could shatter all of the items. 

I was 

deep in thought when someone suddenly 

screamed in the room. Then, the same throwing commotion resounded. 

All of my defensive tools were left in the grannie’s hostel. As I had just raced against the 

spirit

, I didn’t have time to get them. For now, all I could do was to pick up 

a

 cactus 

from

 the ground

 and dash

 into the bedroom. 

T

he instant I got into the room, 

a

 red mist attacked me. I didn’t have time to chew the cactus

 that t

he attack hurled me 

to

 the ground. 

“Cough…” I felt something sweet in my throat, 

which made me spit

 blood. Then,

 I 

felt a sharp pain in 

my chest. I felt as 

if I was being 

deep-fried

 with hot oil. 

Sweat

 rolled 

down

 my forehead

 as I

rolled

 on the ground like a drug addict

 in agony, m

y body

shaking uncontrollably. I knew I just needed to chew on 

the

 piece of cactus to ease this pain, but my hands were shaking too hard. I couldn’t hold anything. 

At this

 moment, someone got out 

of

 the room. From the corner of my eye, I was scared to see that it wa

s 

Zhou Tian’s wife! 

She had a mocking

 face

 as she assessed 

me. With a broken hacksaw blade in her hand, she looked down 

at

 me

 and sneered

. “You

’re c

ourting death!” 

It was the spirit’s voice. Zhou Tian’s wife was possessed.

But then, I realized 

that this made no sense at all

. If she had been possessed, who was the woman sitting at the 

entrance

? 

Before I could analyze the situation, I felt a sharp pain 

in my

 ankle. I stooped and sweated in fright. The woman was sitting on my thighs

. She was using 

the metal hacksaw blade to saw my leg! I didn’t even have 

any 

strength in me to resist! 

At the moment my life was at stake, the door sprang open one more time. A dim shadow flew fast toward the woman

’s hand

. 

As it 

came

 closer, I recognized it was the little boy wearing 

the

 red dudou

; t

he same boy that had 

brought

 me here. He didn’t stop when he entered the room

 and bit 

Zhou Tian’s wif

e’s 

middle finger. 

In the human hand, the m

iddle finger 

contains most of the 

blood

 essence

. 

Whenever the

 middle finger 

is

squeezed

, 

Yang energy

will

 be released. That

 is

 why it 

is

 popular to use chopsticks

 to squeeze the middle finger. It can expel the ghost when people are possessed.

The little boy’s sudden attack 

had

saved

 me! 

The spirit from the box was 

focused

 on sawing my leg, so it couldn’t react in time when the boy attacked it. Zhou Tian’s wife screamed

, and th

e legless red shadow left her body

, turning 

to attack the boy. 

The spirit 

grabbed

 the boy

, making it

 scream in pain. I gritted my teet

h and sat up. I quickly picked

 up a piece of cactus

 and chewed it

. Soon, the heat expanded in my mouth, and the pain in my chest 

subsided

. 

“

Screw

 you!” 

I 

couldn’t think of other ways of attacking

 the 

spirit,

 so 

I bit 

the tip of my tongue and 

spat

 the blood on the 

spirit

. The red shadow sizzled

 and fumed 

smoke. 

It released the boy 

as it felt the danger

. Then, like a tiger watching its 

prey

, the 

spirit

glared at

 me. 

I knew 

the spirit

 was 

frightened

and hesitant,

but af

ter I had 

spat my bloo

d,

I didn’t have any other means to attack it. The ball cactus could keep me safe, but it couldn’t help the boy. 

Neither of us

 ma

d

e 

a

 move

. We just stared 

at each othe

r in a deadlock

. 

I knew it would attack me soon

, so I made 

a be

t.

 I turned and picked up the Sirius Whip. I 

pretended 

to read some spells and 

lashed at

 the spirit

.

The 

spirit

 hesitated for only one second. Then, 

b

efore the whip could hit it, it turned into a red mist

 and fled

. 

When it c

ompletely disappeared

,

 I heaved a sigh of relief

 and slumped

to

 the ground. 

The boy flew to me

 and gave 

me a shy smile. 

At this

 moment, I didn’t 

find him

 as terrifying as before. 

H

is smile was 

rather kind

. I 

said

, “Kid, you want to follow me, right?” 

My grandpa used to tell me that 

lonely 

little ghosts often wanted to stay with otherworldly merchants 

because

 they didn’t want to 

vanish forever

. 

If they were lucky 

and 

followed the right master, they could 

even revive

. The little Daoist boy Chuyi had kept was a good example. 

He, too, had the chance to come back to life. Unfortunately

, he perished to help me. 

I

t was a good 

move

 to adopt a little ghost

. They were

 different from 

the

 evil ghosts 

who

 harmed people

. However, 

I didn’t have the habit of keeping ghosts with me. I just wanted to find a suitable ghost for Chuyi. 

Indeed, the little boy nodded when I asked him. Then, he stooped his head

 and played 

with his fingers

, not

daring

 to look at me. 

I guessed he was afraid that I would 

reject

 him. I smiled at him and found a piece of white paper

. I folded 

a crane

,

 dropped a bit of blood on it,

 and gestured to 

the little ghost to enter the crane. 

The boy jumped in joy. He got on his knees and gave me three kowtows before turning into a wisp of smoke

. Then, he entered 

the paper crane. 

I put the crane 

in

 my wallet and went to the bedroom. Zhou Tian was

 weakly

 breathing, still on his bed. The bronze box was placed next to him. 

It seemed the 

spirit

 was scared and 

hadn’t

 returned to the otherworldly item. 

The situation

 was exactly what I wanted!