Mạnh Ái looked at Hạnh Nhi.
Hạnh Nhi looked at Mạnh Ái.
The two stood facing each other beneath the eaves of the Trần family home while the rain continued to fall.
At last, Mạnh Ái spoke:
“So... starting today, I’m your disciple?”
“No.”
“Your assistant?”
“No.”
“Your traveling companion?”
“Not necessarily.”
Mạnh Ái put her hands on her hips.
“Then what am I?”
Hạnh Nhi calmly tightened the strap of the cloth bag at her side.
“The one who pays.”
Mạnh Ái: “...”
“Tonight’s lodging.”
“Yeah.”
“Food.”
“Yeah.”
“Talismans.”
“Yeah.”
“Repairing the basement door.”
“Wait!”
Mạnh Ái glared.
“I didn’t break that door!”
Hạnh Nhi pointed toward the basement.
“You ran outside and then came back, kicking one of the braces in half.”
“I was scared!”
“I know.”
“Then why are you making me pay for it?”
“Because you have money.”
Mạnh Ái was speechless.
A moment later, she turned to Trần Minh.
“Does your family have a bank?”
Trần Minh stared blankly.
“Why are you asking?”
“It doesn’t.”
Mạnh Ái sighed.
“Then I guess we’ll have to put it on the tab.”
Hạnh Nhi shook her head.
She was beginning to understand why people said the rich and the poor lived in two different worlds.
One person had encountered a ghost and immediately used a dog-beating stick to fight it.
The other had finished an exorcism and was thinking only about the cost of food.
That night, the three of them stayed at the Trần family home.
But no one truly slept.
After the female ghost vanished from the mirror, the yin energy in the house still had not dissipated.
Hạnh Nhi placed seven talismans around the courtyard.
One at the gate.
Two on either side of the living room.
Two in front of the kitchen.
The remaining two at the back of the house.
Mạnh Ái watched her work.
“Do you really need that many?”
“Yes.”
“Is the ghost that strong?”
“No.”
“Then why put up so many?”
“To keep something else out.”
Mạnh Ái fell silent.
“What else?”
Hạnh Nhi gazed out at the curtain of rain.
“I don’t know yet.”
“But it’s nearby.”
Mạnh Ái immediately dragged her chair over until she was sitting close to Hạnh Nhi.
“Then I’m sitting next to you.”
“You’re scared?”
“No.”
“Then why sit so close?”
“I just think you’re more reliable than that man over there.”
She pointed at Trần Minh.
Mr. Trần was sitting in the corner, his face deathly pale.
Hạnh Nhi did not argue.
She placed a bowl of water on the table.
Then she dropped three old coins into it.
“If the water in the bowl turns black tonight, call me.”
Mạnh Ái nodded.
“Okay.”
“Don’t touch it.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t look in the mirror.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t open the door if you hear someone calling.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t—”
“I got it!”
Mạnh Ái frowned.
“Do you think I’m a child?”
Hạnh Nhi looked at her.
“No.”
“Then?”
“I think you’re someone who gets into trouble very easily.”
Mạnh Ái: “...”
She turned her face away.
“Fine.”
The second watch.
Everything remained normal.
The third watch.
The rain began to stop.
Inside the large house, the sound of water dripping from the eaves gradually faded away.
Mạnh Ái sat at the table, her eyes drooping.
Hạnh Nhi sat cross-legged in the corner of the room.
She rested the peachwood sword across her knees, closed her eyes, and regulated her breathing.
Suddenly...
Drip.
Mạnh Ái opened her eyes.
A drop of water fell into the bowl.
She looked over.
The water in the bowl was still clear.
“Must be a leak in the roof.”
Mạnh Ái muttered and continued yawning.
Drip.
Another drop.
This time, she looked carefully.
It wasn’t water.
A drop of bright-red blood fell into the center of the bowl.
Mạnh Ái shot to her feet.
“Hạnh Nhi!”
Hạnh Nhi opened her eyes.
“Don’t touch it.”
“Blood!”
“I see it.”
Hạnh Nhi walked over.
She looked into the bowl.
The three old coins lay at the bottom.
One of them had turned black.
“That’s not right.”
Mạnh Ái asked, “What’s not right?”
“I placed seven talismans.”
“Yeah.”
“Nothing should be able to get in.”
“Then where did this blood come from?”
Hạnh Nhi did not answer.
She looked up at the ceiling.
Mạnh Ái followed her gaze.
The ceiling was empty.
Then...
Drip.
A drop of blood fell onto Mạnh Ái’s forehead.
“Ah!”
She raised a hand to wipe it away.
Hạnh Nhi immediately caught her wrist.
“Don’t wipe it.”
“But it’s blood—”
“It isn’t blood.”
Hạnh Nhi placed a piece of white paper on Mạnh Ái’s forehead.
The paper immediately burned black.
Mạnh Ái swallowed.
“Then what is it?”
“Yin blood.”
“Is it different from normal blood?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Normal blood comes from the living.”
“And this?”
“It doesn’t belong to the living.”
Mạnh Ái fell silent.
“Then... where did it come from?”
Hạnh Nhi no longer looked at the ceiling.
She looked down at the floor.
“It didn’t come from above.”
Mạnh Ái stared at her.
Hạnh Nhi pointed at the drop of blood.
“It came up from below.”
At that exact moment...
A knock rang out.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
From beneath the floor.
Mạnh Ái backed away.
“You hear that too, right?”
“I hear it.”
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Three knocks.
As if someone were tapping on the underside of the floorboards.
Trần Minh ran out of the room.
“Daoist master!”
“Quiet.”
Hạnh Nhi raised a finger to her lips.
Knock.
This time, the sound rang out directly beneath Trần Minh’s feet.
He froze.
“That’s impossible...”
Hạnh Nhi looked at him.
“You know what this is?”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“I truly don’t know!”
Hạnh Nhi looked down at the floor.
Then she took the peachwood sword and lightly tapped the ground with its hilt.
Knock.
Something immediately answered from below.
Knock.
Hạnh Nhi’s expression changed.
“There’s a hollow space.”
“What?”
“There’s a room beneath the house.”
Trần Minh’s face went pale.
“That’s impossible.”
“This house was built on an older foundation.”
“Yes.”
“What was here before the house was built?”
Trần Minh fell silent.
Hạnh Nhi looked at him.
“You don’t know?”
“I bought this land from someone else.”
“Who?”
“The Lưu family.”
“The Lưu family?”
“Yes.”
Hạnh Nhi crouched down.
She took out a handful of white rice and scattered it in a circle around the spot where the sound had come from.
Then she used cinnabar to draw a straight line.
“Step back.”
Mạnh Ái pulled Trần Minh away.
Hạnh Nhi lightly bit her fingertip.
A drop of blood fell onto the cinnabar.
She placed her palm against the ground.
“Earth veins, heed my command.”
“Yin Gate, open.”
“Yang energy, retreat.”
“All evil spirits, reveal your true forms.”
Boom!
The floor trembled.
A crack ran along the floorboards.
Mạnh Ái’s mouth fell open.
“You can really do that?”
“Quiet.”
Crack!
A section of tile popped up.
Beneath it was a stone staircase.
The stench of damp and mildew immediately rose up.
But there was something else, too.
The smell of corpses.
Overpoweringly strong.
Mạnh Ái covered her nose.
“Oh my God...”
Hạnh Nhi picked up an oil lamp.
“Wait here.”
“No.”
“You can’t go down.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No.”
“Then I’ll be even more scared standing here alone.”
Hạnh Nhi looked at her.
Mạnh Ái said seriously, “I may not know exorcism, but I do know how to run.”
Hạnh Nhi paused.
“You know how to run?”
“Yeah.”
“Fast?”
“Very fast.”
“Fine.”
Hạnh Nhi handed her a talisman.
“Stay behind me.”
Mạnh Ái immediately took it.
The two of them descended.
Every footstep echoed through the cramped space.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
They went down about ten steps.
At the bottom of the staircase was a stone chamber.
There was no furniture inside.
Only seven coffins.
Mạnh Ái stood frozen.
“Seven?”
Hạnh Nhi nodded.
“Yeah.”
One coffin sat in the very center.
The other six were arranged in a circle.
A black talisman was pasted onto each coffin lid.
Hạnh Nhi approached.
She studied the talisman.
It was the same handwriting again.
The same kind as the talisman on the mirror.
Mạnh Ái asked, “Do you know who wrote them?”
“No.”
“But you’ve seen the handwriting before?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Hạnh Nhi did not answer.
She was looking at the seventh coffin.
There was a line of writing on it.
TRẦN NGỌC LAN.
Mạnh Ái turned to Trần Minh.
“Who is that?”
Mr. Trần stood on the stairs.
His entire body was trembling.
He looked at the coffin.
Then he fell to his knees.
“My wife.”
Mạnh Ái froze.
“But... you said she was buried.”
Trần Minh said nothing.
Hạnh Nhi stepped closer.
“This coffin has never been opened.”
She reached out and touched the lid.
A chill ran up her arm.
Once again, an image appeared in her mind.
A woman in white.
A noose.
A mirror.
A Daoist in black robes.
And something else...
A child standing in the corner of the room.
The child was crying.
In its hands was a red lantern.
Hạnh Nhi suddenly opened her eyes.
“No.”
Mạnh Ái asked, “What’s wrong?”
Hạnh Nhi looked at the six coffins surrounding them.
“This isn’t a burial chamber.”
“Then what is it?”
“A formation.”
“A formation?”
“The seven coffins form one.”
Hạnh Nhi looked toward the center of the room.
“The dead aren’t the objective.”
Mạnh Ái felt a chill run down her spine.
“Then what is?”
Hạnh Nhi slowly turned her head.
“To nurture something.”
At that moment...
A crack rang out.
The lid of the coffin in the center...
Slowly lifted.
Mạnh Ái gripped the talisman tightly.
“Hạnh Nhi.”
“Stand behind me.”
“Hạnh Nhi...”
“I said stand behind me.”
The coffin lid opened a little farther.
A deathly pale hand reached out from inside.
A jade bracelet circled its wrist.
Hạnh Nhi stared at the bracelet.
Her expression changed instantly.
Because she recognized it.
It was the bracelet the woman in the mirror had worn in the memory.
But the dead person in the coffin...
Was not Trần Ngọc Lan.
A voice rang out from the darkness:
“Daoist master...”
Hạnh Nhi tightened her grip on the sword.
The voice was very small.
Very weak.
Like the voice of a child.
“Save me...”
Mạnh Ái asked shakily, “Is there a child in there?”
Hạnh Nhi did not answer.
She stared at the gap in the coffin.
Then she heard laughter.
It did not belong to the child.
It belonged to a man.
“Ha... ha...”
Immediately afterward, the six surrounding coffins began to shake in unison.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The black talismans on the coffin lids began to burn.
Hạnh Nhi immediately shouted, “Mạnh Ái!”
“Yes!”
“Run!”
The two of them turned and raced up the stairs.
Behind them, the coffin lids began popping open one after another.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
When it reached the seventh...
A child’s sob rang out.
“Dad...”
Trần Minh, who was standing on the stairs, suddenly whipped around.
“Ngọc Lan?”
Hạnh Nhi immediately seized him by the collar.
“Don’t look!”
But it was too late.
Trần Minh looked down into the chamber.
In the darkness, a child stood beside the coffin.
It wore an old red outfit.
In its hands was a lantern.
The child slowly raised its head.
Its face had no eyes.
Only a mouth that was smiling.
“Dad...”
“I’m home.”
Trần Minh screamed.
Hạnh Nhi immediately slapped a talisman onto his forehead.
“Close your eyes!”
Boom!
A wave of yin energy swept across the stairs.
Hạnh Nhi was thrown into the wall.
The peachwood sword fell to the ground.
Mạnh Ái screamed, “Hạnh Nhi!”
Hạnh Nhi braced herself against the wall and stood.
A smear of blood marked the corner of her mouth.
She looked down at the six open coffins.
Then at the child holding the lantern.
Finally, her gaze stopped on the black talisman on the seventh coffin.
She understood.
This was no longer an ordinary ghost case.
Someone had used both the living and the dead to construct a formation.
And the woman in the mirror...
Had only been the first victim.
Hạnh Nhi picked up the sword.
Her eyes turned terrifyingly cold.
“Whoever built this formation...”
“They’re not trying to harm one family.”
“They’re trying to open a door.”
At the far end of the chamber, the child slowly raised the red lantern.
Inside the flame...
A gigantic shadow slowly took shape.
It had three heads.
And it was staring straight at Hạnh Nhi.
The voice of the black-robed man rang out from the darkness:
“Three years.”
“At last, seven lives.”
Hạnh Nhi tightened her grip on the sword.
“Who are you?”
Laughter rang out.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“Because...”
“The Âm Giang Gate has begun to open.”
The red lantern suddenly went out.
The entire chamber sank into darkness.