A Ghost-Raising Haunted House—You're the Evil Cultivator!

At the brink of death, the Twin Female Ghosts pounced at the same time.

Qian Hao's vision darkened as the rope strangled him, and his consciousness began to fade.

In his haze, he saw the door burst open as a figure rushed inside with a ritual sword in hand.

Bang!

The newcomer raised a hand, sending out a streak of golden light.

The golden light struck the Twin Female Ghosts head-on, first dispersing the yin energy spreading around them, followed immediately by an even more brilliant flash.

This golden light carried an imposing, righteous aura that could not be looked upon directly.

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

Bang!

The Twin Female Ghosts let out shrill screams at once and were violently blasted away by the golden light. They slammed into the wall, making the entire room tremble.

"Edict!"

The newcomer was Huang Bai.

His hand seals changed as he activated the Immobilizing Talisman within the White Crane Boy Death Summons Writ.

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

Ripples spread through the air.

The Twin Female Vicious Ghosts were forcibly frozen in midair, their faces still twisted into those same vicious, resentful expressions.

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

Snap!

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

He lay sprawled on the ground for a long while before recovering slightly, his voice horribly hoarse.

"Why..."

"Why did you save me?"

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

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

Holding a magical set of shackles, it gave them a rattling shake and tightly bound the Twin Female Vicious Ghosts, leaving them unable to struggle any further.

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

"Suicide is a sin too. What you're ending isn't one life, but a karmic debt of eternal damnation."

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

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

He clearly had not taken those words to heart. He was even considering finding another place to kill himself once Huang Bai left.

Hearing this, Huang Bai suddenly frowned, as if remembering something more practical.

"Put aside whether you live or die. Have you considered the housing prices here?"

"The landlord rented this place to you, and you hang yourself inside on your first day. Do you think that's appropriate?"

Qian Hao froze.

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

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

That was true. Dying in the house on the very first day after moving in was rather immoral.

If he really wanted to die, finding some corner in the wilderness would be more considerate. Even if his corpse rotted away, it would not implicate anyone else.

Huang Bai could not be bothered with this man who was bent on dying. Instead, he turned to study the layout of the entire house.

The Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Art flickered through his mind, dismantling the structure of the house layer by layer.

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

A moment later, Huang Bai had reached a conclusion.

"So it really is a setup."

Apartment 2442 was not merely a haunted house.

The person who arranged this setup was highly skilled. They had used the house to raise ghosts, locking the Twin Female Vicious Ghosts firmly within and nourishing them day and night with the haunted house's layout and the surrounding yin energy.

So long as outsiders did not enter and the ghosts did not reveal themselves, no one would spot anything unusual.

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

Even if they were forcibly suppressed, they would soon use the setup to gather again once they left the house.

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

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

After passing through several worlds, this was his first encounter with a true battle of magic 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 inside, he saw the Yaksha holding its shackles and tightly restraining the Twin Female Vicious Ghosts.

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

"Wait!"

Huang Bai immediately stopped him.

"This is my guardian celestial soldier. He's one of us."

"A guardian celestial soldier?"

A-You paused, secretly astonished that Heavenly Dao Temple even had such 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 this, his expression changed.

"You mean... Old Jiu?"

He found it hard to believe.

He had always known Zhong Jiu raised ghosts, and had even seen him secretly release little ghosts at night.

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

Though the two did not share the same master, they still belonged to the same lineage. A-You had turned a blind eye over the years because he had not wanted to assume the worst of someone.

But now, Huang Bai had made it clear that Zhong Jiu was the one who had raised these Twin Female Vicious Ghosts.

The thought A-You had always refused to acknowledge slowly surfaced in his heart at last.

Huang Bai did not waste any more words on him and turned toward the exit.

"We'll know once we ask him."

Just as he reached the door, he suddenly looked back at Qian Hao.

"Ahao, come with us."

Qian Hao was stunned.

"How do you know my name is Ahao?"

He had clearly never mentioned his name.

Had Uncle Yan told him?

Huang Bai walked straight downstairs.

Seeing this, A-You immediately felt that something was wrong and hurried after him.

Qian Hao hesitated where he stood for several seconds. In the end, he gritted his teeth and followed as well.

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

In Zhong Jiu's residence, the lighting was dim.

He reclined in a chair and slowly exhaled a mouthful of Ghostling Smoke. The faint green smoke swirled beneath the ceiling without dispersing.

A new tenant had moved into 2442. With that extra life added in, the timing was about right.

Zhong Jiu narrowed his eyes and began calculating his next step.

"I still need to find a container that can hold evil spirits."

Raise ghosts, refine corpses, then refine even stronger Ghostling Smoke and use more Yin Lifespan to prolong his life. As long as he made it through this hurdle, he could live at least another ten years.

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

"That little Daoist... He would be perfect for corpse refinement."

That man had vigorous blood and qi, a sturdy body, and had practiced the Daoist arts. If Zhong Jiu could truly ambush and kill him, then refine him into a corpse, the effect would likely be better than using an ordinary person's corpse.

"I need to find an excuse to invite him over."

The thought had barely crossed his mind when 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, every hair on Zhong Jiu's body suddenly stood on end.

A bone-chilling sense of danger instantly pressed down on his heart.

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

Zhong Jiu's expression changed on the spot.

"Thunder Arts?!"

"This is bad!"

Bang!

The thought had only just arisen when Palm Thunder came crashing down upon him.

Three feet of electric plasma struck Zhong Jiu squarely in the chest, blasting him through the air as blood sprayed wildly from his mouth.

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

Yet although Zhong Jiu's chest had been charred black by the attack, he had not died.

This was the Substitute Technique.

He had transferred most of the damage to the ghostlings long ago.

The moment Zhong Jiu hit the ground, he scrambled backward and grabbed the ritual sword from the altar, intending to counterattack.

How could Huang Bai possibly give him that chance?

His ritual sword left its sheath, and the Yaksha appeared. Murderous intent bore down on Zhong Jiu, clearly intending to take him down in one stroke.

"A-Bai! Stop!"

A-You's scalp went numb from the rapid chain of events, and he quickly 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 Zhong Jiu's door without wasting a single word, intent on killing him from the start.

That was far too ruthless.

A-You had always been soft-hearted.

Otherwise, despite knowing that something was wrong with the Twin Female Vicious Ghosts, he would not have avoided dealing with them all this time.

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

Huang Bai stepped past him and arrived before the altar.

But when he looked again, only a pile of ashes remained.

Zhong Jiu had escaped.

These Mount Mao Daoist arts really did have some tricks to them.

He slowly turned around, his gaze landing 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 defend himself.

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

Though he said that, his voice had clearly weakened.

Huang Bai felt his anger surge.

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

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

"Have you forgotten every ancestral teaching of Mount Mao?"

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

Those words crashed down upon A-You's head-on, leaving him completely silent.

Looking at A-You and Qian Hao, Huang Bai's anger only rose.

One had lost his drive and drifted through life; the other was a walking corpse with his heart set on death.

Thinking of this, Huang Bai continued.

"No matter what, I will settle this score for Sister Feng's family. Even if Zhong Jiu escapes to the ends of the earth, I'll drag him out."

Buzz!

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

That straightforward fury and chivalrous spirit hit A-You like a heavy blow to the head.

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

He had spent too many years pretending to be deaf and blind.

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

Yet the young man who had come in from outside seemed to have brought a trace of life to this deathly still public housing block.

A-You remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.

"Alright."

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

Seeing that Chen You had taken the bait, Huang Bai's expression finally eased.

Then, in the next moment, his tone abruptly changed.

"It's fine if you don't make a move, 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, as if he wanted to chase someone to the ends of the earth with a sword and hack them apart. How had he suddenly started studying the Mount Mao Arts instead?

That was one hell of a quick change of face.

And Huang Bai said it with such righteous confidence, 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 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.

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

"By my rules, that'll be three million."

Qian Hao was utterly dumbfounded.

"Th-three million?"

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

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

"And don't think about dying to get out of it. If you really die, I can still seize your soul and bring it back."

Qian Hao could not speak for a long while.

On his first day in the public housing block, he had first failed to hang himself, then encountered ghosts, and finally somehow ended up owing three million.

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

Could this Taoist Huang actually be some kind of evil cultivator?

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