Remember Her Name

"What the hell is up with that driver?"

Watching the car disappear into the distance, Liu Haoyu scratched his head in confusion.

Since Liu Haoyu had no candles on him, he had no idea a little tail was following behind him.

More importantly, he seemed to have grown somewhat accustomed to that chilling sensation.

As he entered the haunted house and looked at the dilapidated building, he said ruefully,

"This place is seriously rundown. It's practically a ruin. It may only cost five thousand, but if I want to renovate it afterward, it'll take at least a million."

Naturally, the little tail behind Liu Haoyu was unhappy with those words.

The Fierce Ghost muttered indignantly,

"Your house is rundown! Your house is a ruin!"

Once Qin Liu returned to the haunted house, she became much more confident.

She left Red Jade and drifted away.

Meanwhile, Liu Haoyu returned to the maiden's bedroom.

Since he had spent the entire night outside, the incense on the shrine had already burned out.

Yet for some reason, the red Embroidered Shoes were still there.

Logically speaking, once the incense went out, the Fierce Ghost should have taken the shoes back.

If she took the shoes back, he might be able to follow the trail and find her location.

"Come to think of it," Liu Haoyu muttered as he lay on the bed, feeling the faint warmth in the room, "why has that Fierce Ghost been so well-behaved today?"

Even if she had discovered his profession, with her strength, there was no reason for her to hide and refuse to show herself, right?

"Forget it. If she doesn't want to come out, then she doesn't have to."

Liu Haoyu pulled out that black book.

Though the contents of this book were somewhat indecent and left one dry-mouthed,

it truly was an incredibly powerful ghost-catching artifact.

Liu Haoyu did not know its name.

He had found it on the corpse of an exorcist who had been killed by a Fierce Ghost.

Liu Haoyu had asked Elder Deng, but Elder Deng only knew what it did and did not know its name either.

So afterward, Liu Haoyu casually started calling it the Black Book.

A name was hardly something so inconvenient.

But now, two blank pages had appeared in it, which meant he could ask it something else.

Sitting on the bed, Liu Haoyu thought for a moment before biting his finger and writing in it.

"Where is the Fierce Ghost of this haunted house?"

The moment he finished writing, the bloodstains on the page gathered into droplets and sprayed outward.

Clearly, it did not want to answer this question.

Or rather, did it not dare to answer?

This was the first time Liu Haoyu had seen the Black Book react like this.

Even when he had encountered an exceptionally powerful Fierce Ghost before, the Black Book had always answered his questions in an overly refined manner.

Could the Fierce Ghost in this haunted house truly be so powerful that even he had no way to fight her?

Since the Black Book did not want to answer that question, Liu Haoyu could only settle for something less direct and ask,

"What is the origin of the Fierce Ghost in this haunted house?"

Compared to the previous question, this one was not as pointed. After the blood on the Black Book swirled for a while, a page of words appeared.

"What you have encountered is the most ferocious Fierce Ghost of legend. Her origins are strange; even I cannot see through her fate."

"But one thing is certain: her power is unimaginably terrifying. Once she awakens, this entire region will become a land of the underworld, and every living creature that enters will be dragged into hell."

"With your strength, it is simply impossible for you to change any of this. Thus, the only advice I can give you is..."

"Run! Run without looking back!"

"..."

The final two lines of bloody words in the Black Book were trembling slightly.

This book was afraid.

Liu Haoyu looked at the lines of bloody text, then at the remaining blank pages, and began to think.

He vaguely remembered that on the way back, when he had closed his eyes for a brief nap, he had had an incredibly realistic dream.

But it had not been one of those terrifying nightmares.

There had only been a maiden in a red wedding dress, sitting uneasily beside him.

She had clutched his sleeve and looked extremely nervous.

Yet when he woke up, there was nothing there.

Still, the realistic feeling was difficult for Liu Haoyu to forget. He could even seemingly smell the lingering fragrance of that red-clothed maiden on himself.

Thinking back to the maiden in the red wedding dress from his dream, Liu Haoyu wrote in the Black Book.

"Tell me... is the Fierce Ghost of this haunted house pretty?"

The Black Book was clearly stunned by Liu Haoyu's question.

The blood on its pages remained still for a long time before it began moving again.

"The paths of humans and ghosts differ. I advise you not to harbor lustful thoughts toward a Fierce Ghost."

"People need dreams, don't they?"

Liu Haoyu looked at the Black Book with a perfectly serious expression.

After falling silent again for a while, it wrote,

"No one you meet in your entire life will be more beautiful than her."

It could be said that this was the highest praise possible for that Fierce Ghost's appearance, and it stirred great curiosity in Liu Haoyu.

But unfortunately, he was human. Without using some method, it would be difficult for him to see Fierce Ghosts as powerful as these.

Especially since the owner of this haunted house was far stronger than him, making it even harder to see her.

Only through a dream like the one before could he catch a glimpse of her.

But as soon as he thought of that, Liu Haoyu found something strange.

That female ghost in the red wedding dress was so powerful, so why had she not taken back the red Embroidered Shoes?

The shrine's seal should not have been able to stop her.

The Black Book continued to explain.

"Being near the shrine is unpleasant for a Fierce Ghost. It is like dropping your shoe into a cesspit. Would you still pick it up?"

"..."

All right, he really would not dare pick it up.

For some reason, ever since entering this haunted house, the Black Book's way of speaking had become much more down-to-earth.

"I need to communicate with this Fierce Ghost once. Do you have any method?"

In response to Liu Haoyu's question, the bloodstains on the Black Book leaped about for a while before writing,

"If you insist, I will not try to dissuade you any further."

"Given that Fierce Ghost's strength, ordinary Ghost Questioning is already useless. You must use a more dangerous method to invite her out."

"This method is called Ghost Sacrifice."

"You need to light one red candle and one blue candle at the time of day when yin energy is strongest."

"You must prepare offerings that the Fierce Ghost likes, pray devoutly, and use your blood to call her name."

"When the clock strikes midnight, the Fierce Ghost being worshipped will naturally come looking for you."

"If she is satisfied upon seeing the offerings, she will blow out the blue candle and meet with you."

"If she is dissatisfied, she will blow out the red candle and strip your soul from your body."

"Finally, remember her name—Qin Liu."

By this point, only a palm-sized space remained in the Black Book.

Liu Haoyu already understood how Ghost Sacrifice worked, but there was still one thing he needed to know.

That was the most important part of Ghost Sacrifice: the offering.

So Liu Haoyu wrote in it.

"By the way, would this Fierce Ghost like stockings?"

"...?"