Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Kuang Zhiming hid behind his wife with flushed ears. His wife, Xu Xiaofeng, seemed quite professional. After entering the elevator, she spun her compass around and found nothing amiss. She then asked Tan Fu, "Are you sure the problem occurred here?"

Still a bit scared, Tan Fu held onto his belt tightly as he recounted the incident. Upon hearing this, Xu Xiaofeng pondered for a moment. "If you hadn't reacted in time or been lured out, you might have already been reduced to dust."

Wei Xi was overjoyed upon hearing this. Luring someone outside to fall to their death—wasn't that equivalent to taking a life?

It had been a long time since he'd come across such a delicious target.

He immediately exchanged a glance with his second disciple. The latter's expression was still a bit complicated. After staring at him for a moment, he solemnly said, "It was likely a substitute ghost."

Upon hearing this, Kuang Zhiming and Xu Xiaofeng exchanged glances. This seemingly unorthodox Taoist temple seemed to possess some skill after all.

Some ghosts who died violently held on to their attachments too strongly, preventing them from reincarnating. Their souls would be trapped near the place of their death, unable to leave. Thus, in order to find release, they could only seek an unconventional solution—finding another living soul to take their place.

The ghost that Tan Fu saw was probably trying to deceive him into replacing its own death.

Unity Justice now possessed some professional knowledge and immediately asked the property manager who accompanied them, "Has there ever been an accident in the elevator shaft before?"

The person in charge trembled and answered with a pale face, "It seems... a long time ago, when the building was still under construction, there were some rumors. It was said that a group of young people snuck up here to shoot an extreme sports video and had an accident... But the developer supposedly compensated them already. And this neighborhood has been incident-free for many years since its opening. Why would something suddenly happen now?"

Tan Fu was scared out of his wits. Could he be the chosen unlucky one?

Seems like the culprit should be this, but regarding the reason the person in charge gave, everyone couldn't explain it at the moment. After the elevator reached the 37th floor, they went out to investigate and found nothing unusual. Kuang Zhiming suggested, "Take us to the basement."

After saying that, he glanced at Wei Xi's group hesitantly, considering suggesting that if they were afraid, they could wait outside. After all, a small and strangely managed Taoist temple didn't seem capable. To his surprise, after hearing him, Wei Xi nodded without hesitation, "Let's go."

Kuang Zhiming froze, only to hear his wife whisper a reminder, "If anything happens, leave your magical artifacts with me and make sure to protect them first."

**********

The bottom of the elevator shaft was filled with a damp coldness.

The person in charge turned on all the light bulbs, but the lighting remained poor. The crude concrete walls stood silently in the basement outside the elevator shaft, casting long shadows from the lights. Tan Fu followed closely around Wei Xi, terrified after hearing their speculations. He kept babbling about his recent misfortunes. Tripping on flat ground or bumping into lampposts were child's play; he was deeply frustrated, "This neighborhood has been fine for seven or eight years, but I'm the one who runs into trouble. I must be going through a bad phase lately. Ever since my business trip to Xin Nan, everything has been going wrong. My eye bags have even grown bigger, and my wife is starting to dislike them..."

Kuang Zhiming, who had been observing the surroundings, couldn't help glancing at Tan Fu's almost cheek-hanging eye bags. They were huge... as if they were stuffed with something...

Shuo Zong interrupted Tan Fu's endless tale, solemnly announcing, "Searching like this won't help. We need to lure them out."

Tan Fu's voice vanished abruptly, only to tremble as he asked after a while, "H-How do we lure it?"

Shuo Zong replied calmly, "Before you encountered the ghost last night, didn't you lose that membership card? Just throw it away."

Tan Fu: "..."

Seeing Tan Fu's uncooperative and non-violent demeanor, Shuo Zong glanced indifferently at his senior brother stuffing tissues up his nose and said, "Unity Yi, go take off his pants."

Unity Yi: "?????"

*****

In the end, Tan Fu sobbed as he undid his belt himself. When Kuang Zhiming, Lu Wenqing, and the property staff saw him pull out the membership card from his underwear, their expressions were a mix of words. However, Tan Fu wasn't embarrassed. Once he took the card out of his crotch, he started feeling insecure. After hesitating for a long time, he couldn't bear to hand it over to someone else and carefully placed it by his feet.

The moment the membership card left his possession, he felt a chill that he hadn't experienced before, and something seemed off with his body.

Shuo Zong noticed the change in his expression. "What's wrong?"

Tan Fu sucked in a breath and covered his face. "My eyes are starting to hurt again."

Upon hearing this, Shuo Zong furrowed his brows and exchanged a glance with Wei Xi. Suddenly, he realized a possibility – could Tan Fu's eye pain be related to the troubles he had encountered?

Kuang Zhiming and his wife, who were standing by, also noticed this connection. They quickly stepped forward to examine Tan Fu's complexion and asked, "Have you brought anything home of uncertain origin lately? Antiques, paintings, or perhaps money found on the street?"

"How could I? I'm not into antiques or paintings, and I've been incredibly unlucky recently – more like losing money," Tan Fu replied, twisting the eye drop bottle in frustration as he recalled, "The only thing that comes to mind is when someone gave me an amulet during my last trip to Xin Nan. They claimed it was from Longgong Temple and would bring me good fortune, but I haven't seen any luck yet."

As he finished speaking, everyone's expressions darkened. "Wh-what's wrong?"

Shuo Zong spoke gravely, "Where is that amulet?"

Tan Fu suddenly sensed something was off, and beads of cold sweat formed on his forehead. He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out an object. "Here! Here it is!"

The amulet was golden in color and seemed to be of high quality. In its center was a circular pattern.

Kuang Zhiming recognized it at once. "I've exchanged Daoist practices with Longgong Temple before, and this isn't one of their amulets."

Tan Fu's sweat trickled down even faster. "T-then where did this amulet come from?"

"It's not an amulet," Shuo Zong couldn't tolerate Tan Fu's ignorance anymore and bluntly stated, "This is a proxy talisman."

There are unorthodox practitioners among the folk who, in order to alleviate someone's troubles, would transfer that person's original fortune into various forms and seek a substitute. The most common method is through jewelry and money. After processing these valuables, they would discard them on the roadside, waiting for someone to pick them up. This way, the misfortune of the discarder is transferred onto the finder.

Thus, there were those who, after stumbling upon unexpected wealth, would soon lose even more. However, there was a way to avert this misfortune—by returning the found fortune, one could usually avoid trouble.

However, the impact of such indiscriminate attacks is limited; it can only bring misfortune to others for a period of time and doesn't genuinely resolve substantial issues for the caster.

In comparison, the other type of proxy sacrifice is much more terrifying. The most powerful ones can even transfer their own fatal calamities. However, such a capability comes at a price. The process of casting this spell is much more complicated, and the criteria for finding a substitute are stringent. Generally, the person seeking the transfer must personally hand the substitute over. Furthermore, the proxy has different requirements, such as correctly answering a specific question or being the nth stranger encountered after leaving the cursed area. The common thread is that the exchange must be carried out in person.

Leaving it on the roadside for anyone to pick up indiscriminately would be useless. Hence, those who were knowledgeable, if they happened to come across someone offering them something for no apparent reason while walking on the street, would usually decline the offer.

Kuang Zhiming, well-versed in the field, paled upon hearing this. "You mean you got it from someone? From whom did you acquire this?"

Tan Fu's expression turned awkward, clearly reluctant to disclose the details. After a long while, he replied gloomily, "I... I met this female net friend on WeChat Shake while on a business trip to Xin Nan..."

Everyone: "...."

So in the age of information, the criteria for finding a substitute had escalated to connecting through WeChat Shake, huh...

The property manager also secretly mused that indeed, working here exposed one to many gossip stories about successful entrepreneurs.

"That girl invited me for coffee right after she spun the bottle, and she gave me this during our coffee date. I... I... At that time, I didn't think too much about it... I just thought she was gentle and pretty..." As Tan Fu spoke, his face twisted into a pained expression. "We only had a meal together. We didn't do anything. I only agreed to go out with her that day because I was bored. I really didn't do anything wrong to my wife, please don't tell her!"

Kuang Zhiming was at a loss for words. He glanced at his wife's face and then moved away from Tan Fu silently, indicating that he wanted to distance himself from the situation. "You might have attracted these troubles because you accepted the substitute offering. That's why the earth-bound spirits around you chose to haunt you. The calamities that befell you, like your sudden fall and almost running a red light, were probably not coincidences. Other malevolent ghosts saw an opportunity to choose you as their substitute. Once you die, the substitute offering will remove the misfortune from the person who made it."

Tan Fu was devastated upon learning the truth. Damn it, how could this happen? Back then, he was merely momentarily distracted, thinking of sneaking in a fling while on a business trip. But now he realized that no matter how minor, betraying one's family was unforgivable! This was retribution!

The Kuang couple were speechless at his cries of remorse. Just then, they noticed something unusual happening in the elevator shaft that they hadn't paid attention to before.

Wei Xi abruptly turned his head towards a nearby wall, where faint banging sounds could be heard. Simultaneously, the overhead fluorescent lights started flickering on and off.

The eerie combination of intermittent lighting and sudden noises was spine-tingling. Tan Fu immediately stopped crying and lifted his head in terror, only to experience sharp pain in his eyes.

He screamed, "Aaaahhh! I can see them!!! So many!!!"

Lu Wenqing was almost scared to the point of wetting his pants. As the atmosphere grew more oppressive, he too could now see what Tan Fu was seeing. "Aaaahhh!"

As their screams filled the air, Kuang Zhiming pressed his fingers against his temples and recited an eye-opening incantation. Focusing, he saw a shocking sight –

At a concrete archway not far away, countless ghostly figures stood in the shadows. They were of different heights, weights, and appearances; some had clean faces, while others were bloodied. They were densely packed, all with one common focus – staring hungrily and eagerly at Tan Fu!

The number was far greater than what the property manager had mentioned, clearly indicating that a large portion had been drawn by Tan Fu's proxy! Especially the lead ghost in white, whose features were distinct and couldn't be underestimated!

Without the protection of his membership card, Tan Fu saw everything clearly and was terrified to the point of fainting. It was also the first time for Kuang Zhiming, in his career, to see so many ghosts at once, and he was equally shaken. But thinking about the ordinary people and half-hearted adepts following behind him, he immediately broke out in a cold sweat and gripped his paranormal weapon tightly, shouting at his wife, "Take them away first!"

His wife, Xu Xiaofeng, also raised her peach wood sword as if facing a formidable enemy, "You take them away first!"

Kuang Zhiming dared not leave his wife in such a perilous situation, knowing that a tough battle was imminent. He decided to stay, turning nervously to the adepts from an unknown Taoist temple and saying anxiously, "This place is dangerous! You should leave quickly!"

The lights flickered, and he could vaguely make out Wei Xi's face, standing closest to him. His tense emotions paused involuntarily; why did this person seem somewhat delighted?

As the light flickered a few more times, he looked again and realized that the three members of Taicang Sect who had been standing nearby were gone.

Kuang Zhiming panicked, fearing that they might have been captured by the proxy ghosts. However, in the next second, a shrill scream echoed from afar.

Startled, the couple looked over, only to simultaneously exclaim, "..."

Not too far ahead, the three members of Taicang Sect... one was fiercely using the lead male ghost's ankle as a whip to thrash the ghost horde, another stood coldly by his side, catching any ghosts attempting to sneak attack, and the third, clearly terrified, was clumsily causing chaos with punches and kicks everywhere. The whipped lead proxy ghost let out a miserable howl, and the aggressive ghosts were now in disarray, scattering in all directions, wailing loudly. It was unclear whether it was ghosts hunting humans or humans hunting ghosts.

Kuang Zhiming stood in stunned silence for a moment before slowly lowering his paranormal weapon and gently pressing down on his wife's raised peach wood sword.

There's no point in engaging in such intense battles; one might end up becoming mentally impaired instead.