Chapter 2

Chapter 2

◎The Start of School◎

A few words summarized Hu Xiaodie's tragic life. Even Ji Nanxing, who wasn't particularly empathetic, could imagine Hu Xiaodie's despair when he briefly recounted her life.

Many people spend their entire lives striving for just a brick or tile to shelter them from the wind and rain, let alone Hu Xiaodie, who had already endured a life filled with hardship.

That small room carried her hope and courage to live on in the future.

With the unfinished building and no way to appeal, Hu Xiaodie joined other homeowners in protests, tears, and pleas, but the construction in the area still came to a halt.

The scaffolding was removed, workers left, weeds gradually grew, and the other homeowners who had once protested and shouted with her slowly fell silent, as if they no longer held any hope.

The unfinished building meant she still had to pay her mortgage, and the sunk cost made it impossible for Hu Xiaodie to walk away, nor did she dare to. Until the economic downturn caused massive layoffs, and she lost her job, which became the final straw.

On that night, the 28-year-old girl climbed up the unfinished building, to the floor where she had almost daily come to look and count where her home would be, and jumped.

Death wasn't the end of everything. Hu Xiaodie, who died with hatred, became a lingering ghost. Her intense resentment allowed her to regain her consciousness after the seventh day of her death, eventually wandering the human world as a vengeful spirit.

Rongsheng Real Estate was the developer of this unfinished building, and there was a reason behind its failure.

Ji Nanxing didn't know much about the specific business details. The information he had was gathered over the past few days by tracking Hu Xiaodie.

The root cause of the unfinished building was a broken capital chain, but this break was divided into force majeure and human factors. The real reason for the unfinished residential area was due to Rongsheng Real Estate's deliberate actions.

Simply put, Rongsheng's boss used a delaying tactic, investing the funds from presales into other projects, causing the construction site's capital chain to break and forcing a halt. They kept delaying, saying they would resolve it soon, but had no intention of doing so.

Their goal was to wait for the unfinished area to be used as collateral to the bank, become a non-performing asset, be auctioned off, and then repurchased at a low price. With a new company and rebranding, the residential area would be sold at a higher price as property values rose over the years.

The delaying tactic allowed Rongsheng to have more liquid funds to invest in other profitable projects, while also repurchasing the unfinished project at a low price and making a huge profit from the increased property values.

As long as one has no conscience, there are plenty of ways to make money.

Upon learning this truth, Hu Xiaodie was filled with resentment. Her ghostly energy surged, clouding her rationality, leaving her with only one thought: revenge.

Unfortunately, Rongsheng's boss had some tricks up his sleeve. Having walked the night path too often, he might have actually encountered ghosts before and carried protective charms, making it impossible for Hu Xiaodie to get close.

So Hu Xiaodie started targeting everyone involved in the matter, killing one after another.

Killing people transformed her ghostly energy into malevolence, and her own power grew stronger, eventually becoming an evil spirit with no way back.

Ji Nanxing typed the last word, submitted the case report, and closed his laptop.

Ji Yuanting, who was driving, glanced at him and asked, "Finished?"

Ji Nanxing nodded, "Finished."

A girl's tragic life, a heartless boss's ruthless pursuit of wealth, and a total of nine lives.

Ji Yuanting held the steering wheel with both hands, watching the traffic lights ahead, and casually asked, "Do you feel sorry for her?"

Ji Nanxing's expression was somewhat indifferent, "The one to pity is Hu Xiaodie." Not the vengeful spirit consumed by hatred.

Vengeful spirits often have tragic pasts. Ji Yuanting, having followed his master since childhood, had seen many such cases. He had also experienced confusion and doubt, even empathizing with the tragic pasts of these spirits to the point of being unable to act, which ultimately led to greater disasters.

So, facing his young junior brother, Ji Yuanting wanted to offer as much guidance as possible, hoping to help him avoid the detours he himself had taken.

But it seemed his junior brother was much more clear-headed than he had been.

The beginning of the female ghost's revenge was the disappearance of the seven-year-old child of Rongsheng Real Estate's project manager after school. The child's body was later found in the unfinished building several kilometers away, hanging dead among a pile of weeds.

The child's death was eerily bizarre, and the news spread online. Rumors of a ghost killing people gradually spread. The management bureau specifically went to the scene to investigate and detected traces of a bound spirit, but no vengeful ghost was seen, so the case was classified as level C.

Seven days later, the manager and his wife jumped to their deaths at the spot where their child had died.

Then, one of the shareholders involved in the unfinished building project perished in a car crash with his family of four. The cars next to theirs were unscathed, but the shareholder's family crashed into the guardrail, dying tragically.

Within a month, seven people died, all from Rongsheng Group. Those with guilty consciences immediately realized the severity of the situation and used their connections, some to protect themselves, others to find and eradicate the vengeful spirit.

One of them used a dark method to trace Hu Xiaodie. Unfortunately, the Taoist the shareholder hired was not skilled enough, and both he and the shareholder who hired him died horribly in the house, their blood splattered all over the room.

After nine deaths, Ji Nanxing also tracked Hu Xiaodie's traces. By then, Hu Xiaodie had evolved from a bound spirit into a vengeful ghost.

That's why the captured Hu Xiaodie was so unwilling. Her most hated enemy, Rongsheng's boss, was still alive.

But she had also killed many innocents and had long lost her human rationality. If left unchecked, more people would die. Everyone who had ever crossed paths with her—the boss who laid her off, the colleagues who had wronged her, even her mother, stepfather, and sister—would all be killed by her.

Even though Ji Nanxing pitied her past, he couldn't let her live.

The sky slowly brightened. After completing his task, Ji Nanxing held on for a while but eventually couldn't resist sleepiness. He yawned and tried to find a comfortable position to catch some sleep.

Stopping at another traffic light, Ji Yuanting returned Ji Nanxing's prayer beads to him. The string of thirty-six beads had a small bell shaped like a morning glory in the middle. Both the bell and the beads were Ji Nanxing's spiritual tools.

Ji Nanxing took the beads, wrapping them around his hand one loop after another. When he habitually touched the bell, he paused, glanced at his senior brother, and after a moment, smiled.

His usually cold expression softened slightly in the gradually brightening daylight, "Thank you, senior brother."

Ji Yuanting also smiled, saying only, "Sleep. You've been up for days."

Ji Nanxing nodded and finally relaxed, falling asleep.

Ji Yuanting drove as the sun slowly rose, slowly dispelling the night's cold. The young man in the passenger seat slept soundly, the small golden bell gently held in his palm.

Inside the bell lay a fragment of Hu Xiaodie's soul.

Having raised the child himself, Ji Yuanting knew Ji Nanxing well. Ji Nanxing had spent days tirelessly tracking Hu Xiaodie not to exterminate her completely. He knew that if Hu Xiaodie fell into the hands of any other Taoist, regardless of her reasons for killing, her final fate would be complete annihilation.

So he had to deal with her before any other Taoist could.

This girl, who had never been treated fairly in her life, Ji Nanxing wanted to give her one last chance at fairness. Dispelling two of her souls and six of her spirits was the price for killing innocents, but leaving her with one soul and one spirit was her last chance at survival.

Ji Nanxing would not pity a vengeful spirit that killed indiscriminately, but he pitied Hu Xiaodie as a human.

The car slowly stopped near the school. Ji Yuanting unceremoniously flicked the sleeping boy's forehead.

The boy, who had just fallen asleep, woke up startled. Seeing it was his senior brother, he rubbed his forehead with a hint of grievance, "Why did you hit me?"

Ji Yuanting said, "In the future, if you have any thoughts, just say them directly. Back then, I once let a vengeful spirit go out of momentary compassion and caused trouble, but I didn't hold a grudge against all ghosts, nor did I become so vengeful as to exterminate all spirits. If I hadn't known you well, I might have used a thunder charm to obliterate Hu Xiaodie. Then all your hard work these days would have been for nothing."

Ji Nanxing shook his head, "That would have been fate. The evil she sowed deserved complete annihilation."

He had the idea of giving her a chance at survival and worked hard for it, but Ji Nanxing wouldn't force the outcome.

Ji Yuanting asked, "Are you going to handle Rongsheng's aftermath?"

Ji Nanxing looked puzzled, "Handle what?"

Ji Yuanting replied, "Hu Xiaodie's curse."

The person Hu Xiaodie hated the most was the owner of Rongsheng, and the target of the curse she cast before the thunder talisman struck was also the owner of Rongsheng.

Although the owner of Rongsheng had protective talismans, he was still an ordinary person. A Taoist could easily dispel a vengeful ghost's curse with just a wave of the hand, as it was not directly related to the cause and effect. However, for an ordinary person deeply entangled in such karma, it was not so easy to resolve.

Ji Nanxing said, "My task was to deal with the vengeful ghost. The rest has nothing to do with me."

The curse of a vengeful ghost, this kind of karmic retribution, was none of his business. He wasn't the world's policeman, meddling in everything.

Moreover, he had a gut feeling that this wasn't the end of it.

Hu Xiaodie had died two years ago, with too much obsession and hatred, and she had committed suicide, thus becoming a bound spirit.

A bound spirit would be trapped in the place of its death, unable to leave. As long as no one stepped into the bound spirit's domain, it couldn't harm anyone.

But after being a bound spirit for two years, Hu Xiaodie suddenly broke free from her restraints, luring a child from several kilometers away to kill, and then her ghostly energy transformed into malevolent power, significantly boosting her strength.

From a powerless ordinary person to even taking down Taoists, her power grew rapidly. If Ji Nanxing hadn't dealt with her, it wouldn't have been long before Hu Xiaodie could have broken the protective talismans on the owner of Rongsheng and killed him.

Ji Nanxing was curious about how Hu Xiaodie had broken free from the binding force.

Unfortunately, whether it was the unfinished building where Hu Xiaodie died or Hu Xiaodie herself, Ji Nanxing couldn't find any clues.

Ji Nanxing let go of questions that couldn't be answered right away. He wasn't one to sweat the small stuff.

After a short nap, his drowsiness not only didn't ease but got worse. For seven straight days, tracking Hu Xiaodie and battling her, he hadn't gotten a full night's sleep. Now, he really couldn't hold on any longer.

Ji Nanxing unlocked the car door and was about to step out to go home and sleep when he looked up and saw not the familiar greenery of his home but a strange and noisy scene. He couldn't help but turn to look at his senior brother.

The confusion in his striking phoenix eyes was plain to see. Ji Yuanting laughed and said, "You forgot, today is your first day of school. Turn left at the intersection ahead, and that's your school gate. Do you remember which class you're in? Go on, it's time for school."

The most exceptional young Taoist of his generation, able to independently deal with vengeful ghosts at the age of ten, someone who dealt with life and death all the time, on this slightly cool morning, he belatedly remembered that besides being a Taoist maintaining the balance between the yin and yang worlds, he was also a high school freshman.

Ji Nanxing sat back in the car: "Skipping one day shouldn't be a big deal. I haven't slept for days, and if I don't get some sleep soon, I'm afraid I'll collapse from exhaustion."

Ji Yuanting hit a button in the car, and the door slid open. Then he gave Ji Nanxing a look that said 'no arguments.'

Ji Nanxing: "..."

This senior brother was way too strict, showing no mercy at all.

The sleek luxury car sped off, leaving the handsome young man standing alone by the roadside.

Ji Nanxing couldn't stifle another yawn as he trudged towards the school gate, officially starting his high school life.