Haunted House of Ghost Rearing, You're the Real Heretic!

At the brink of death, the Twin Female Ghosts lunged at him at once.

Qian Hao's vision darkened as the rope tightened around his neck, and his consciousness began to fade.

In his daze, he saw the door burst open as a figure rushed into the room with a ritual sword in hand.

Bang!

The newcomer raised a hand, releasing a streak of golden light.

The golden light struck the Twin Female Ghosts head-on, first scattering the Yin energy spreading around them. Then came an even brighter flash of gold.

This golden light carried an upright, majestic aura that could not be looked upon directly.

The golden light spun, forming a protective barrier around Qian Hao.

Bang!

The Twin Female Ghosts let out piercing screams as the layer of golden light violently blasted them away. They slammed into the wall, making the entire room tremble.

"Edict!"

The newcomer was none other than Huang Bai.

With a change in his hand seals, he activated the Immobilizing Talisman within the White Crane Boy Death Summons Writ.

A streak of white light shot through the air and struck the Twin Female Ghosts' spirit bodies directly.

Ripples spread through the air.

The two Vicious Ghosts were forcibly frozen in midair, their faces still twisted with vicious resentment.

Huang Bai stepped forward and swung his ritual sword, severing the knot in the rope.

Smack!

Qian Hao crashed heavily onto the floor. Clutching his throat, he coughed desperately and gulped down great breaths of air.

He lay sprawled on the floor for a long while before recovering somewhat, his voice terribly hoarse.

"Why..."

"Why did you save me?"

Huang Bai did not even look at him. His hand seals changed again, and he casually summoned the Yaksha as well.

The moment the Yaksha appeared, ghostly energy filled the entire haunted house.

Holding a shackle-like ritual artifact, it gave it a shake with a clatter and firmly bound the Twin Vicious Ghosts, leaving them unable to struggle any longer.

Only then did Huang Bai turn back to glance at Qian Hao.

"Suicide is a sin too. What you are ending is not merely one life, but a karmic sin that will condemn you to eternal damnation."

Leaning against the wall, Qian Hao coughed until tears streamed from his eyes. Yet after hearing that, he merely tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"I'm about to die anyway. Why should I care about karma?"

He clearly had not taken the words to heart. He was even considering finding another place to die after Huang Bai left.

Hearing this, Huang Bai suddenly frowned, as if recalling a more practical issue.

"Put aside whether you want to die or not. Have you considered the property value here?"

"The landlord rented the place to you, and you hanged yourself inside on the very first day. Do you think that's appropriate?"

Qian Hao froze.

"If you want to die, go somewhere else. Hanging yourself in a house someone else rented out in the middle of the night—how is this place supposed to be rented afterward? Aren't you just causing trouble for others for no reason?"

Qian Hao's expression stiffened at his words, and a rare trace of shame surfaced on his face.

It really was rather immoral to die in the house on the first day after moving in.

If he really wanted to die, finding some corner out in the wilderness, where even his rotting corpse would not implicate anyone else, seemed more considerate.

Huang Bai could not be bothered to pay any more attention to this man whose heart was set on dying. Instead, he examined the layout of the entire house.

The Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art unfolded through his mind piece by piece, and the structure of the house was likewise dismantled layer by layer.

The door, windows, walls, beams, bed placement, Yin corners...

A moment later, Huang Bai had already reached a conclusion.

"As expected, it's a setup."

Unit 2442 was not merely a haunted house.

The person who had arranged this setup was highly skilled. They had used the house to rear ghosts, locking the Twin Vicious Ghosts firmly within it and nourishing them day and night with the haunted-house configuration and the surrounding Yin energy.

So long as outsiders did not enter and the ghosts did not reveal themselves, no one would see through what was going on here.

Moreover, this kind of setup was the most troublesome. Ordinary methods could not take these two ghosts away at all.

Even if they were forcibly suppressed, once they left this house, they would soon re-form with the help of the setup.

"It's somewhat like an Earthbound Spirit, but more troublesome than one."

It seemed that the key to breaking the setup still lay with Zhong Jiu.

Having passed through several worlds, this was his first time encountering a true battle of mystical arts between peers.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The person who arrived was A-You.

The instant A-You rushed in, he saw the Yaksha holding shackles and tightly binding the Twin Vicious Ghosts.

Thinking an even fiercer evil ghost had arrived, he did not hesitate. He raised his hand, preparing to form a seal and attack.

"Wait!"

Huang Bai immediately called out to stop him.

"This is my Guardian Dharma Soldier. It's one of us."

"A Guardian Dharma Soldier?"

A-You paused, secretly astonished that Heavenly Dao Temple even possessed a guardian.

"What should we do with these two ghosts?"

Huang Bai's tone was calm, but his eyes had turned colder.

"That is something we should ask their master."

The moment A-You heard that, his expression changed.

"You mean... Old Jiu?"

He found it hard to believe.

He had always known that Zhong Jiu reared ghosts, and he had even seen Zhong Jiu secretly let his little ghosts out at night.

But the Mount Mao lineage had methods for rearing ghosts to begin with. So long as one did not incur the karma of killing or harm human lives, it was not truly some outrageous evil.

Though the two did not share the same master, they belonged to the same lineage after all. Over the years, A-You had turned a blind eye because he had been unwilling to think the worst of Zhong Jiu.

Now, however, Huang Bai had made it clear that Zhong Jiu was the one who had reared these Twin Vicious Ghosts.

The thought A-You had always refused to acknowledge finally began to surface in his heart.

Huang Bai did not waste any more words on him. He turned and headed outside.

"We'll know once we ask him."

When he reached the doorway, he suddenly looked back at Qian Hao.

"Ahao, come with us."

Qian Hao was taken aback.

"How did you know my name is Ahao?"

He had clearly never told him his name.

Had Uncle Yan told him?

Huang Bai walked straight downstairs.

Seeing this, A-You immediately felt a bad premonition and hurried after him.

Qian Hao stood there hesitating for a few seconds. In the end, he gritted his teeth and followed as well.

Once Huang Bai withdrew his spell, the Twin Vicious Ghosts vanished back into the void, and the entire haunted house returned to its former deathly silence.

Zhong Jiu's residence was dimly lit.

He leaned back in a chair and slowly exhaled a mouthful of Ghostling Smoke. Greenish ghostly smoke lingered beneath the ceiling.

Another new tenant had moved into 2442. With this additional life, the conditions were nearly ripe.

Zhong Jiu narrowed his eyes and began plotting his next move.

"I still need to find a container capable of holding evil spirits."

Rearing ghosts, refining corpses, then refining stronger Ghostling Smoke to borrow more Yin Lifespan and prolong his own life. As long as he could get through this trial, he would be guaranteed at least another ten years.

At that thought, a figure suddenly surfaced in Zhong Jiu's mind.

"That young priest... he would be perfect for corpse refinement."

That man had vigorous blood energy, a sturdy body, and had cultivated mystical arts. If Zhong Jiu could ambush and kill him, then use him to refine a corpse, the results would likely be even better than with an ordinary person's corpse.

"I need an excuse to invite him over."

The moment the thought arose, knocking sounded outside the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

When Zhong Jiu opened the door, before the smile on his face could fully form, he saw Huang Bai and A-You standing outside.

"What brings you here today..."

Before he could finish speaking, every hair on Zhong Jiu's body stood on end.

A bone-piercing sense of danger instantly weighed down on his heart.

From the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of deep blue lightning light up Huang Bai's palm.

Zhong Jiu's expression changed instantly.

"Thunder Arts?!"

"Not good!"

Bang!

The thought had barely arisen when Palm Thunder crashed down upon him.

A three-foot bolt of lightning struck Zhong Jiu squarely in the chest, blasting him backward as blood sprayed wildly from his mouth.

At the same time, the urn of ashes on the Dharma Altar exploded, and the room immediately filled with the incomparably shrill screams of little ghosts.

Although Zhong Jiu's true body had been struck until his chest was blackened, he had not died.

This was the Substitute Technique.

He had long since transferred most of the damage onto the ghostlings.

The moment Zhong Jiu hit the ground, he scrambled backward, snatched up the ritual sword from the Dharma Altar, and tried to strike back.

How could Huang Bai possibly give him that chance?

His ritual sword left its sheath, and the Yaksha appeared. Killing intent bore straight down on Zhong Jiu; Huang Bai clearly intended to take him down in one go.

"A-Bai! Stop!"

A-You's scalp went numb from the string of sudden changes. He hurriedly reached out to stop him.

"At least give A-Jiu a chance to explain himself!"

What terrifying killing intent!

He truly had not expected Huang Bai to come to the door without a word of nonsense and immediately try to kill someone.

That was far too ruthless.

A-You had always been softhearted.

Otherwise, even though he had known something was wrong with the Twin Vicious Ghosts, he would not have kept refusing to step in and deal with them.

Huang Bai's body had long been enhanced by a mutated virus strain, and his explosive strength far surpassed that of an ordinary person. A-You's attempt to stop him did little.

Huang Bai stepped past him and arrived before the Dharma Altar.

But when he looked again, all that remained was a pile of ashes.

Zhong Jiu had escaped.

These Mount Mao Daoist arts truly had some tricks to them.

He slowly turned around, his gaze falling directly on A-You's face.

"Chen You. Do you know what you were doing just now?"

A-You felt guilty under his gaze, but he still tried to force out a response.

"This is a society governed by law now... You tried to kill someone the moment you arrived. That was a little too... overbearing."

Though he said so, his voice had already weakened considerably.

Huang Bai felt anger surge within him.

"The police do not handle Underworld matters. I have already investigated this: Yang Feng's husband underwent a drastic personality change and assaulted students because of Zhong Jiu. Since an evil Daoist is committing wicked acts, shouldn't cultivators like us step in to exterminate demons? What are we waiting for?"

"Have you really started thinking of yourself as nothing more than a restaurant cook?"

"Have you forgotten every ancestral precept passed down through Mount Mao?"

"If Zhong Jiu truly kills someone in the future, you will bear part of the responsibility too."

These words crashed down on him like a storm, leaving A-You completely silent.

Huang Bai looked at A-You and Qian Hao, his anger rising again.

"One has lost all ambition and drifts through life; the other is a walking corpse bent on dying."

Thinking of this, Huang Bai added,

"No matter what, I will reclaim this debt for Sister Feng's family. Even if Zhong Jiu flees to the ends of the earth, I will drag him out."

Hum!

Huang Bai drove his ritual sword heavily into the ground. The blade trembled, letting out a low hum.

That straightforward fury and chivalrous spirit struck A-You's mind like a heavy blow.

In his daze, he actually felt as though he had been cursed awake.

For too many years, he had pretended not to see and not to hear.

So long that he had nearly truly turned himself into a useless man who only knew how to cook and did not want to care about anything else.

Yet the young man who had come in from outside seemed to bring a trace of life to this deathly public housing estate.

A-You was silent for a long while before finally speaking.

"Fine."

"From now on, whatever you say, I'll do. Consider it atonement."

Seeing Chen You take the bait, Huang Bai's expression finally eased.

Then, in the next instant, he abruptly changed the subject.

"It's fine if you won't act, but I need to understand the arts of your lineage first so I know how to deal with them."

A-You froze.

Just moments ago, he had been furious, looking like he wanted to chase someone to the ends of the earth with a sword and hack them to pieces. How had he suddenly started studying the Mount Mao Arts?

That change of expression was far too fast.

And Huang Bai said it with such righteous conviction, as though it were only natural.

After speaking, Huang Bai shifted his gaze to Qian Hao, who had been standing off to the side like a background prop.

"And you."

Qian Hao had already been watching in a daze. When he was suddenly called out, he went completely blank.

"What does this have to do with me?"

Huang Bai looked at him expressionlessly.

"Tonight, I saved your life, conveniently blocked two Vicious Ghosts for you, and even came along on this trip."

"By my rules, the fee is three million."

Qian Hao was utterly dumbfounded.

"Th-three million?"

Huang Bai's tone was calm, as though it were perfectly reasonable.

"You'll owe it for now. Starting today, you'll stay at the Daoist temple and work off your debt."

"And don't think about ending it all. If you really die, I can still drag your soul back."

Qian Hao was speechless for a long time.

On his first day in the public housing estate, he had first failed to hang himself.

Then he ran into ghosts, and in the end somehow found himself saddled with a debt of three million.

Looking at Huang Bai's matter-of-fact face, only one thought remained in his mind.

Was this Daoist Huang actually an evil cultivator?

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