"灵火玄光,烈焰昭彰,炎官降炁,邪祟俱亡,Fire Essence Incantation,疾!"
Li Hai chanted the spell, and seven or eight Yellow Talismans in his palm burst into flame out of thin air, transforming into golden-red swallows of fire that spread their wings and flew in every direction.
Only a few breaths later, seven or eight fires had sprung up one after another inside the Zhou Family estate.
These golden-red talisman flames conjured by magic were indiscriminate in what they burned. Apart from rocks and sand, which they couldn't ignite, they could scorch just about anything.
And so, in a matter of moments, houses, trees, corpses... all manner of things were devoured by the talisman flames and began to crackle and burn.
Then Li Hai began casting another spell:
"风符起势,涤荡邪殃,道力所至,魔魇俱亡,Gentle Wind Incantation,疾!"
Whoosh—
As the remaining Yellow Talismans turned to ash, powerful gusts of wind swept in from the southeast, making the talisman flames sway and sending them racing toward even more places.
With the wind fanning the flames, the blazing fire quickly spread throughout every part of the Zhou Family estate.
Seeing this, Li Hai didn't linger. With his back to the raging blaze, he hurried off toward another part of Ox-Horn Town without looking back.
The fire in the Zhou Family estate grew larger and larger after he left, eventually becoming a monstrous blaze that engulfed the entire estate.
Fortunately, the Zhou Family had deliberately left the land around their estate barren and empty, out of contempt for the townspeople. They had cut themselves off from everyone else, so once the fire spread beyond the estate, there was nothing left to burn and it couldn't reach any other places. Otherwise, nearly half of Ox-Horn Town would have been devastated.
One could only say that although the Zhou Family had committed a heap of evil deeds in life, they hadn't caused anyone trouble after their deaths.
Good riddance. They'd died a splendid death.
Meanwhile, Li Hai raced across rooftops and along walls for several miles before finally stopping in front of a freestanding building styled like an ancient temple.
Unlike the bustling shops around it, full of people coming and going, the building's pitch-black wooden walls and tightly shut doors made it look stark and gloomy, like a prison.
But its appearance wasn't important. What mattered was the sign hanging above the entrance.
Three characters were written on it: 茗, 堂, 馆.
That's right. This was the Demon-Slaying Division outpost in Great Jing that Zhang Miaoji had mentioned.
Just as Li Hai glanced at the sign and was about to walk over and knock, an old passerby called out to him:
"Hey, young man, are you planning to go into the Tea Hall?"
Li Hai found the old man rather strange, but politely replied:
"Old sir, is there something you'd like to tell me?"
"Nothing much. Uh, I just wanted to tell you..."
The old man paused, then said in a mysterious voice, "This place... is haunted. Don't go in."
"?"
Li Hai's face filled with question marks.
What did he mean? The outpost of the official department dedicated to slaying ghosts and demons was haunted?
That was a bit of a slap in the face to the Demon-Slaying Division.
"Old sir, tell me more."
Still puzzled, Li Hai asked again, "I just arrived in Ox-Horn Town, so I don't know much about what's going on. This teahouse looks perfectly fine. How did it become haunted?"
"Oh, so you know it's a teahouse. I thought you were some clueless outsider, wandering around at random."
The old man looked around, then spoke in another conspiratorial whisper. "Here's the thing. Apart from the tea being expensive and the place having few customers, this teahouse was perfectly normal until yesterday, when something frightening happened."
Li Hai asked in confusion, "What happened?"
"Last night, the Tea Hall was open as usual, but as soon as the hour of the Pig arrived, all the lights inside went out. It was pitch-black. From outside, you couldn't see or hear a thing."
The old man paused to catch his breath, then continued, "A few people from the Civilian Militia came by this morning, but once they entered the teahouse, they got trapped inside and haven't come back out yet. So now nobody dares go in."
Li Hai furrowed his brow. "Didn't the Civilian Militia follow up?"
The old man shook his head. "Not today, it seems. I expect they'll send people tomorrow."
"Good." Li Hai nodded. "I understand."
With that, he turned and headed toward the Tea Hall.
Seeing him move, the old man realized his warning had fallen on deaf ears, so he immediately shouted after him:
"Young man, you have to listen to me! Don't go in, whatever you do! You'll never make it back out!"
Li Hai merely waved a hand and said nothing more. The old man could only hop about anxiously where he stood, too afraid to take even a single step closer to the Tea Hall.
Standing before the Tea Hall's tightly shut doors, Li Hai gave them a gentle push.
Creak—
With a faint sound, the door opened.
A thick, choking stench of ghostly energy surged out and washed over Li Hai's face.
But what he saw with his naked eyes was an apparently ordinary teahouse.
All the tables, chairs, and stools were neatly arranged.
A teapot and teacups even sat on one of the tables.
It was as if someone had just been sitting there drinking tea.
But when he took a closer look, there wasn't a trace of living human presence in the teahouse...
Only wisps of hazy mist, their source unknown, drifted and swirled through the room.
Looking at it all, Li Hai wore a strange expression.
"An Evil Spirit Land?!"
That was right. The Demon-Slaying Division outpost had somehow turned into a small Evil Spirit Land.
No wonder people outside couldn't see into the teahouse. With this ghostly mist in the way, how could they possibly see anything?
"Strange, strange."
Muttering to himself, Li Hai walked over to a tea table and sat down. "Judging from everything, this Demon-Slaying Division outpost must have turned into an Evil Spirit Land last night at the hour of the Pig, and then all the Demon-Slaying Captains stationed here disappeared.
"Tch, why does this have to happen now? I show up and they're all gone. If only I'd come a little earlier and copied their abilities first... Sigh."
With an annoyed sigh, he stood up and began searching the whole teahouse, hoping to find any clues that might be hidden there.
But he'd barely begun searching when Li Hai slapped his forehead and groaned.
"Almost forgot. I'm a ghost too."
With that, he abruptly changed from human to ghost, shifting into his ghostly form.
In his Ghost Eye Vision, the teahouse instantly became a dim tomb chamber, with more than ten battered coffins haphazardly piled inside.
Other than the coffins, the chamber held only clusters of eerie green phosphorescent flames. The tea tables, chairs, and stools from before had vanished without a trace.
"I can feel it..."
Li Hai's face was deathly pale and livid, like a corpse. He slowly shifted his gaze downward and murmured in a ghostly whisper, "There's another space beneath this layer of the tomb chamber."
As he murmured, he plunged headfirst toward the floor as if diving into water, vanishing in an instant.
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