Chapter 374

Chapter 374

◎Forging a God◎

The complex was run-down, elevator-less, and only six stories high. Green belts separated the buildings, while a mess of tangled wires strewn between them created a chaotic web. Though it wasn’t yet late at night, the neighborhood was unnaturally quiet.

Personnel from the Bureau had laid down confinement arrays around the perimeter—to prevent any possible escape by the malevolent entity and to suppress sound, so as not to draw a crowd. If that happened, PR would chew them out again.

As the team efficiently set up the arrays, a girl in pajamas came downstairs carrying a trash bag. She looked completely unremarkable—just an ordinary person in an ordinary scene. Mu Chun studied her carefully for several moments but noticed nothing suspicious and turned his gaze away.

She clomped downstairs in slippers, heading toward the large trash bins at the front—a perfectly normal scene with an unremarkable person. But the moment she passed by them, Ji Nanxing suddenly lunged forward.

The girl’s expression instantly changed. She kicked off her slippers and tore off barefoot at an inhuman speed, her movements freakishly unnatural.

Ji Nanxing swiftly pulled out a stack of yellow talismans, flicking through a quick hand seal as he shouted, “Bind!”

Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—the talismans shot out like shields, forming an eight-directional barrier that cut off all escape routes.

Mu Chun reacted immediately, drawing his ghost rod.

The weapon gleamed silver, its hilt engraved with hollowed-out dragon patterns and its shaft carved with incantations. With a flick, the originally palm-sized rod extended into three segments, glowing faintly as he swung it.

Mu Chun chased after the girl and brought the rod down with full force.

Possessed by the malevolent entity, the girl twisted her body in an inhumanly contorted motion, barely avoiding the blow.

And not only did she dodge—it seemed she went for Mu Chun’s throat.

Startled, Mu Chun leaped back to evade.

Ji Nanxing shouted, "She's already dead—don't hold back!"

He could tell that Mu Chun had pulled his strike just now, probably only trying to drive the possessing entity out of the body. Afraid of harming a living person, he hadn’t gone all out.

But Ji Nanxing could see not even a trace of vital energy in this person, proving they were beyond saving. With no hope of reviving them, it was time to unleash full force against the evil spirit.

The team members setting up the formation nearby saw their captain engage the entity and rushed over to help. Dealing with evil spirits might not be easy—their skills weren’t yet refined enough—but powering up the formation with spiritual energy was something they all handled with practiced ease.

Ji Nanxing glanced at Mu Chun, who immediately understood: "Leave it to me!"

Ji Nanxing promptly stepped out of the main formation, handing off his position to secure it. "Hold the line. I'm going upstairs to check."

He dashed up the stairs. Without the entity’s concealment, the building—once seemingly normal—now looked oppressively dark, especially the windows on one side of the sixth floor, which seemed to seep with dark mist from Ji Nanxing’s perspective.

He hurried up, first placing talismans on both sides of the door before giving it a powerful kick. A chilling Yin energy surged toward him but was completely blocked by the talismans at the entrance, unable to escape even slightly.

Ji Nanxing wound two red cords around the doorway to reinforce the barrier against the Yin energy. Otherwise, in this face-to-face apartment layout, once the door opened and the energy burst forth, the household across the hall would likely suffer grave injury or worse.

Inside, Ji Nanxing didn’t act recklessly. He took out several more talismans, recited an incantation, and the talismans flew on their own to stick onto doors, windows, and walls. Only after sealing the entire space did he begin to examine the interior.

It was a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment with a cramped living area. The larger room connected to the balcony, while the smaller one clearly served as a secondary bedroom. The furnishings suggested an elderly resident, and despite the heavy scent of incense filling the space, Ji Nanxing still caught the lingering scent of an elderly occupant.

All the furniture and items in the house carried a sense of age. The only cabinet in the living room was filled with medicine bottles, and neatly stacked cardboard bundles sat in a corner, likely meant for recycling.

It was an ordinary living environment—until the bedroom door swung open, revealing a bizarre scene.

A palm-sized YabYum idol stood in the center of the room, surrounded by swirling incense smoke. The walls were plastered with talismans, and countless threads crisscrossed the space. Most were yellow, with a few red, black, and white strands mixed in—nearly all thrumming with prayer energy.

Looking at the dense web of threads, Ji Nanxing let out a low sigh. He took out a talisman, lightly traced his finger over it, and the paper ignited in a flash.

The火星子 fell onto the dense threads in the room, each one burning away and turning into wisps of black mist as they dissipated.

Outside, Mu Chun fought fiercely with the malignant spirit, forcing it into the center of the sealing array. With a powerful strike from his ghost-beating rod aimed directly at the entity's forehead, the creature shrieked in pain.

Strands of black mist were forcibly pulled from the spirit’s body, and the young girl's skin rapidly aged.

By the time the evil spirit was finally expelled, the body it had possessed had transformed into a shriveled old woman.

Fortunately, everything happened within the confines of the array, leaving the outside world undisturbed, without a single unnatural sound.

Mu Chun sealed the spirit into a Yin-wood talisman, affixed a sealing charm, and placed it inside a wooden box. He then examined the old woman on the ground.

Without the malignant spirit’s support, the body began to change, revealing large patches of lividity—she must have been dead for a long time.

After dismantling the array, Mu Chun instructed his team to quickly remove the corpse and cleanse the areas tainted by the spirit below. This was a residential building, bustling with people. If someone with low fortune came into contact with the residual Yin energy, it could lead to another disaster.

Once he had briefed his team on cleanup, Mu Chun hurried upstairs to check on the situation.

As he crossed the threshold, he was startled by the thick black mist filling the room. Noticing the red sealing ropes Ji Nanxing had placed at the entrance, he carefully lifted them and entered.

Ji Nanxing was in the midst of casting a spell. As he chanted, the threads in the room gradually diminished.

Without the second sight, Mu Chun had applied a Heaven’s Eye Charm to avoid missing any traces of the malignant spirit. Now, in his vision, Ji Nanxing was enveloped in a halo of spiritual light, the collision of spiritual energy and Yin energy swirling at his feet, stirring his clothes and hair.

The chanting figure, bathed in light with slightly closed eyes, carried an aura of mercy. Seeing this, Mu Chun’s first thought was that Ji Nanxing seemed better suited to Buddha’s path than the Dao.

Strands of spiritual energy surged into the room under Ji Nanxing’s guidance, dispersing the dark mist-entangled threads with the power of the charm’s flames.

With so many threads coiled around the YabYum statue, Ji Nanxing alone might not have finished even by morning. Mu Chun didn’t stand idly by—he took a few charms from Ji Nanxing and joined in clearing the threads.

These threads were woven from human desires, but not all wishes were pure. People begged for what they didn’t have—like the Jin and Deng families, who wished for their children to fall in love as they desired, leading the malignant spirit to entwine their destinies by force to fulfill the prayers.

Many others sought wealth—the yellow threads of greed in the room. Once the first prayer was answered, they couldn’t resist returning for more.

Hunger bred hunger—one led to two, two to three—and the malignant spirit thrived on this insatiable greed.

As the threads were destroyed, Ji Nanxing glimpsed into their supplications. Every face was contorted by craving, their worship fanatical, their desires growing until they became the spirit’s devoted followers.

When the last thread burned away, Mu Chun slumped to the ground, exhausted. Ji Nanxing, too, was drained, his face pale.

Outside, the pale light of dawn crept across the sky.

Glancing at Mu Chun on the floor and then at the now-cleansed room, Ji Nanxing smiled. “You’ve earned your rest, Mu Chun.”

Mu Chun chuckled. “You did most of the hard part—used up a lot of your charms too. I’ll file a report when we get back and see you’re compensated.”

Ji Nanxing didn’t refuse. He reached out to help Mu Chun up, but Mu Chun waved him off. “I’m fine—just need a moment. Good thing we nipped this in the bud. If that thing had grown stronger, it would’ve been a real problem.”

Ji Nanxing nodded, then turned his gaze to the YabYum statue.

Many associated YabYum with negative connotations, but it was originally a benevolent divinity, embodying law and wisdom. Over time, however, media portrayals and its depiction as a male-female embrace distorted its image, leading to vulgar interpretations.

This particular YabYum had been systematically worshipped by a group who saw it as a symbol of lust, advocating the release of base desires. Over time, it gained sentience—but one tainted by the worshippers’ selfishness, turning it into an evil spirit instead of a divine being.

Ji Nanxing picked up the statue. “This must be from overseas. From the visions I saw, the worshippers weren’t from our country. Probably smuggled in as a curio.”

Mu Chun sighed. “No wonder. Organized worship like this isn’t common here.”

Aside from ancestral worship during Qingming Festival, who would dare organize any kind of private ritual? Any such activity discovered is treated uniformly as a cult.

Ji Nanxing: "This thing developed consciousness from too much worship, but it went off the rails. It wanted followers and faith energy, so it granted every wish, no questions asked. The more devoted the worshipper, the more it gave in—never caring if they could handle it or whether their lifelines would get messed up."

Recalling the jumble of threads inside the room, Mu Chun muttered under his breath, "There must be quite a few people who worshipped this thing. Now that we’ve fixed things, a lot of them are probably going to pay the price."

Ji Nanxing nodded. But they couldn’t just leave it either—things couldn’t be allowed to keep spiraling out of control. People who screwed up their love lives got lucky; their problems could be corrected before anything serious happened. But those who prayed for wealth or even life itself might end up getting something their lives couldn't bear—and then they’d have to pay the cost.

The house still needed time to be fully cleared, and the deceased’s identity had yet to be confirmed. Ideally, they’d trace how this YabYum made its way here from overseas. But these were all matters for the Management Bureau to deal with—Ji Nanxing didn’t need to worry about them.

Walking downstairs behind Mu Chun, the sky was getting lighter. Some early risers were already working out on the fitness equipment in the small courtyard.

Mu Chun sealed the YabYum with talismans and placed it in his car. Glancing at the time, he turned to Ji Nanxing: “Let’s head back together. We can grab some breakfast at the bureau—today there’s five-colored dumplings from Pang Da. I’ll have Cheng Yuan set aside two for you.”

Ji Nanxing was about to agree when he noticed someone standing by a car nearby. He smiled and said to Mu Chun, who was opening the car door: “No need. Someone’s come to pick me up.”

Mu Chun turned and saw Xiao Ye, then waved: “Alright, I’ll go ahead then.”

As Mu Chun drove off, Xiao Ye hit the gas and pulled up beside Ji Nanxing. Once he got in, Xiao Ye handed him a thermos container: “Top layer’s shrimp dumplings, middle’s steamed cakes, and the bottom has herbal duck soup to clear heat. Eat while it’s hot.”

Ji Nanxing opened the lid and asked, “How did you know I was here?”

Xiao Ye: “You said you were busy, but didn’t reply to my messages. I reached out to someone at the Bureau, and they told me you were with Mu Chun. Then after asking around, I found out where you were and came over.”

He patted the bag beside him: “I brought all our talismans in case you needed them. And packed some food in case you hadn’t finished work yet. When I arrived, someone from the Bureau said you and Mu Chun were wrapping things up upstairs, so I waited downstairs. Is everything settled?”

Ji Nanxing nodded, swallowing a bite: “Yes. It was an outside evil spirit trying to gather believers and absorb faith energy to cultivate itself.”

Xiao Ye: “Can you actually cultivate like that?”

Ji Nanxing: “Of course. Any kind of energy can be used—it just depends whether it's righteous or heretical. This creature originally gained consciousness through worship. When it was moved somewhere without worshippers, its power weakened. So it possessed someone and manipulated them, hoping to build a new following to sustain itself.”

Xiao Ye: “So is that like creating a god artificially?”

Ji Nanxing: “In a way, yes. But human nature is greedy—it’s hard to make a real god that way.”