Some people in the village started to have the same 

problem

. Their symptoms were like that of Old Hong. After midnight, they would run away from home and 

vow

 something. Then, they 

would start

 to burn the homes of rich people. 

At first, there was only one person affected. Gradually, 

the number increased

. 

This

 was the real purpose of the spirit! 

This group of people hated evil

doers

 as their archenemies. They even went to the rich houses 

and robbed them 

in daylight! 

It

 was no use to report to the police because they didn’t remember what had happened to them or what they had done. The police 

were

 helpless. 

Old Hong’s family members sighed and were worried. Of course, they knew what was 

causing

 trouble to the villagers. 

“Brother Jiulin, 

wasn’t

 that thing destroyed?” asked Hong Tianbao g

loomily.  

I didn’t know how to answer him. The otherworldly item was imprisoned by my talismans. In theory, such incidents shouldn’t happen. 

Li Mazi saw our glum faces

 and

 half

-

joked with us. “Perhaps 

the

 ghost of Hong Xiuquan deceived us…” 

After listening

 to Li Mazi, I carefully replayed the incidents in my head. I knew I had underestimated Hong Xiuquan. I had hit him several times and 

nothing had

 happened to him

, so h

ow could my last attack expel him so easily? 

He had fooled me! 

He knew I had 

a way of dealing 

with him

. E

ven if he

’d

latched

 on

to 

Old Hong, he 

couldn’t

 do anything. As such, 

he

 pretended to be defeated and let me get the red turban. 

We

 would think

 that the case was solved and 

let our guard down

. 

This

 would give him time to replenish his 

soul, making it

 easier for him to find a body to possess later! 

We could say that he had succeeded. Those people had lost their minds and started to burn houses and rob people. Hong Xiuquan had taken one step back to advance even 

further

! 

I suddenly jolted up. Hong Tianbao and Li Mazi were startled

. They thought 

that I was possessed, too. 

I didn’t talk to them but entered the house

. I 

started to recall every

thing

that happened in

 the past half month. 

At nightfall, Hong Tianbao suddenly called me

 and told 

me that he needed to discuss something with me. He brought me out of the house

 and went 

to a deserted area. There was no one else but us here. 

T

here was something wrong with Hong Tianbao. Discreetly, I put up my guard. 

“Jiulin, brother!”

Hong Tianbao lit up a cigarette

 and puffed 

twice. 

I nodded

 and signaled at 

him to continue. He fumed a ring of smoke

. His 

tone was heavy and worried. “I 

didn’t want to tell you 

this

 but since it has come

 to this point, I’m afraid that if I don’t tell you, it will become a real disaster…” 

Hong Tianbao 

was keeping

 a secret from me all 

this

 time! 

I was a little angry but anger couldn’t help me with anything now. “Do tell me…” 

It turned out that 

Old Hong had a grudge against 

every

 family in Jintian Village! 

Hong Tianbao was doing jade business in another province

, so h

e didn’t come home very often. Hong Tianjiang was a simple,

middle-aged man 

that

 hadn’t married. Old Hong worked 

i

n their fields all the time. In this village, their family was at a disadvantage. 

The other villagers thought that Hong Tianbao was rich 

due to

 his business, so they wanted to take advantage 

of

 this family. Old Hong was enraged. He quarreled and fought with the others in the fields. Hong Tianjiang 

came in

 time to stop them

, so n

o one was harmed. 

Unexpectedly, 

as soon as 

Old Hong smoothened his anger the next day, he found t

hat all his 

crops 

were

 burned down! 

Many people were present 

at 

the

 fight. Old Hong didn’t know 

who did that 

to his family. That

 was 

why he had kept a grudge against all of them. Old Hong had called Hong Tianbao to tell him about this. However, Hong Tianbao thought that it was just a trivial grudge. 

Afterward, Old Hong put on the red turban and the strange

incidents started. 

I opened my eyes wide in shock. Did Old Hong have a deal with that otherworldly item? Could it be that he

let the otherworldly item control his body to help it fulfill something and that the otherworldly item 

was going to

 help him take revenge

? Was that why 

some houses 

were 

burned? 

If so

, everything 

made sense

. Old Hong didn’t forget anything, and the video wasn’t deleted unknowingly. He remembered everything! 

It was no

 wonder he had tried his best to protect the red turban. It wasn’t his family heirloom! He was afraid that I 

w

ould find 

out! 

But then, there was one thing I 

wasn’t clear about… 

“If 

that’s the case

, why did he tell me about the origin of the red turban?” 

Hong Tianbao shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps, my father felt guilty. He has been an honest farmer for his whole life. He has never harmed anybody proactively.” 

That

 was

 why they wanted to keep me here in case something horrible happened. 

“Oh, there’s one more thing. The red turban you 

have

 is a fake one.” Hong Tianbao threw me a heavier bomb. 

What the heck? Fake? I had risked my life to get a fake red turban? 

Hong Tianbao 

said,

 “I’ve seen the red turban my father said was our family heirloom. It’s old, so the color can’t be that bright. Moreover, it has a 

bloodstain

 that looks like a flower. The turban you 

have

 has a bright color 

and is pretty

 clean. 

T

hat day, I panicked 

and

 didn’t pay attention to these details. Until these two 

past

 days, when the incidents 

started to happen

 again, I recognized that it 

wasn’t

 the right red turban.” 

I took a deep breath. “If that turban is fake, where is the real one? I didn’t see your father 

wear

 red turbans.” 

“I don’t know. I decided to tell you this because I can see that things are getting worse. I don’t want to live with this secret as it will trouble me for the rest of my life.

 Brother 

Jiulin, we have to count on you now. Whether that red turban is fake or not, 

a

 wisp of the real ghost is there! I’ve been with you for a while, and I now know that the incomplete spirit will become weaker without that wisp of soul.” Hong Tianbao was smart and he 

had

 the right analysis. 

I sighed. “It’s no use. We don’t know where that spirit is hiding. From the current incidents in the village, I know the spirit is weakene

d, b

ut it’s still very powerful.” 

I patted Hong Tianbao’s shoulder

 and asked 

him not to 

worry too much

. “I’ve accepted this case, so I will try my best. I don’t want to see our good fellows become evil 

due to

 a spirit.” 

Hong Tianbao heaved a sigh of relief. 

At this

 moment, Hong Tianjiang rushed from a far 

distance. He was looking 

for me. 

I exchanged smiles with Hong Tianbao

 and thought 

that Hong Tianjiang had also 

realized that

 something

 was

 wrong and wanted to tell me the truth. 

Unexpectedly

, Hong Tianjiang didn’t say anything about that. “Bad things 

have 

happened to a family in the village. You should go and see yourself.” 

Of course, I didn’t 

refuse

. Hong Tianbao went home to take care of Old Hong while I 

left with Hong Tianjiang

to

 that family

. 

It was the Li family living 

at

 the end of the village. There was a long distance between the Hong family’s house 

and Li's

 house. Along the way, I chatted with Hong Tianjiang. I was amazed that Hong Tianjiang, a simple

 and 

nice farmer who didn’t talk much, could become so talkative today. However, his story was 

interesting enough that

 I wasn’t bored at all. 

I didn’t 

care too much and thought 

that perhaps 

it was because 

Old Hong was all right now.

 He was probably feeling 

much better

.

We had walked for around ten minutes 

until we reached

 the Li family’s house. The sky was completely dark, but there was no light in that house. There was a table set up in the middle of the courtyard with a flickering candle on it.

 I saw a shadow 

sitting there by a flickering candle. However, I couldn’t see that person’s face. 

“Don’t be scared. Widow L

i

’s husband passed away a long time ago

. Her husband left 

her 

with

a

 son. This family is really poor. To support her son to finish his schooling, she 

incurred big

 debts. That’s why she doesn’t want to turn on the lights when her son isn’t home. She wants to save money. You see, she 

only

has

 a candle.” 

I understood her story

 and followed 

Hong Tianjiang into the 

courtyard

. 

Unexpectedly, after we entered the courtyard, Hong Tianjiang told me that he 

had

 something urgent to do and that he needed to leave now. I 

thought it was

 so strange. Widow L

i

 got up from behind the glow of the candle

 and thanked 

Hong Tianjiang. I thought 

W

idow Li’s attitude towards Hong Tianjiang was really strange. He had just helped her invite me here, and now she was bowing deeply to him

 and thanking 

him with nice words. I looked at her and had a feeling that she 

would

 even want to get on her knee

s… 

When she came 

to

 me, I realized that 

W

idow Li was really beautiful. She was around forty years old

, had 

a standard oval face, big eyes, and a small nose. 

However, her

 skin wasn

’t fair, and her eyes didn’t have a bright spirit. 

If it weren’t 

for

 her living condition

s, 

she would be a very charming woman. 

After Hong Tianjiang left, 

W

idow Li suddenly kept silent. I guessed she didn’t know what to say. I 

took 

the initiative. “Why d

id

 you want to see me?” 

Widow L

i

 had hesitated for a long moment. She didn’t tell me the 

reason

. “Please follow me. You’ll see.” 

I looked into the house. 

There was

 no beam of light around. How could I see anything? Widow 

Li

 kept asking me to see. I thought it was no use to stay outside, so I entered the house. It was pitch-black

, and

 I had to take a long moment to adjust. After a while, I could vaguely recognize the things in her house. 

Widow 

Li

’s 

family

 was really poor, just 

as

 Hong Tianjiang had told me. There

 was

 a common saying that best described her house – “

A

 house that ha

d

 nothing except for the four walls.” Her house was almost empty. Her kitchen counter was also in the living room. The house was tiny in general, and I smelled the funny smell of mold. However, I checked around and found nothing special. I didn’t know what she wanted me to see so I 

turned to

 ask her. 

Widow 

Li

 stood by the light of the candle

 and looked 

at me with her beautiful eyes. Half of her face looked perfect, 

while

 the other half looked like her skin was peeling off. I thought I even saw something wiggling under her skin. This striking contrast scared me. I almost screamed. 

I was bewildered. 

T

hen, 

W

idow Li stooped and blew out the candle. At the moment the 

candlelight

 was gone, she lifted her head

 and looked 

at me

. Her 

eyes were maliciously strange and reluctant. 

In the next moment, the surroundings changed again. Space began to twist. Incomplete corpses appeared in my eyes. 

After looking

 at those withered corpses, I knew they 

had been

 dead for a long time. 

All the corpses had a red turban on their heads… Were they the Taiping soldiers?

But it wasn’t logical. The Taiping soldiers in Jintian Village were a group of rebellious farmers. They weren’t established 

on a

 large scale, and they didn’t receive many casualties. However, right now, there were at least several hundred spirits around me. 

Holy 

moly

, 

did

 Hong 

Xiuquan move

 the ghosts of Taiping soldiers here? Does he want to create a new ghost army?

“Muahaha……”

 Right as

 I wanted to move, a figure appeared at the end of the troop line. He leisurely took each step. The red turban was on his head. 

He 

smirked. With

 the corpses 

lying

 around, he looked extremely cold and sinister. 

I was stunned that it was Hong Tianjiang

. The 

plain

 and 

innocent-looking Hong Tianjiang! 

“How do you feel now? This is the army I’m going to control to recover my kingdom.” Hong Tianjiang sounded contended. 

“

Why is it you

?” I couldn’t accept it. From his tone, I knew he was the hand behind all of 

this

 right from the beginning.