With a soft click of the lighter, the flame licked at the pitch-black charcoal, which looked as though it had been soaked in grease.
Strangely, the charcoal caught fire at once, without the dampness of ordinary old charcoal. Instead, a plume of ghostly blue smoke instantly rose from it.
The smoke did not drift away with the wind. Instead, like a sentient snake, it coiled beneath the roof and lingered for a long time.
A suffocating smell of burning charcoal, laced with a bizarre cloying sweetness, instantly filled the neighboring yard and even drifted over to Li Dan and the others on the wind.
Uncle Feng abruptly opened his eyes, his gaze shooting toward the neighboring yard like lightning. "Yin energy turns into malevolence, borrowing fire to restore a soul. Those young people are truly courting death!"
"They don't know their own limits, daring to play around like this!"
Li Dan unhurriedly finished the last bite of his chicken wing and elegantly wiped his hands. A dark gleam flickered in his eyes. "This is the classic rule of horror movies: if you don't court death, you won't die. That is resentment, and also... bait. That thing has awakened."
At that moment, Leon, who was wrestling with jellyfish on the beach, suddenly twitched his nose.
"Huh? Is the place next door grilling something special? Why does it smell like... expired designer perfume mixed with a gas leak?"
Leon picked up a plate of freshly grilled chives, adjusted his sunglasses with only one lens, and swaggered toward the neighboring yard, calling it "an academic exchange between friendly neighbors."
As soon as he reached the neighboring villa's floor-to-ceiling window, he saw through the glass a long-haired girl inside with her back to everyone, touching up her makeup in front of a mirror on