"He's coming, big brother, save me, save me! Dad, Mom, Sis, I'm so scared, I'm so scared..."
The middle-aged couple in the room held each other again and sobbed quietly. What parent could see their child like this without heartbreak?
Tears welled in Ming Xuan's eyes as she looked at her pitiful younger cousin.
"Please, Mr. Gu, if you can save my sister, you can have anything you want, anything we have..."
Gu Zhe now understood the situation.
As long as it did not endanger him, he did not mind helping a little girl.
The little girl named Xiao Fei kept trembling, fearfully repeating that she was scared, so scared, that it was coming, that it was getting closer.
Gu Zhe stepped forward and patted her little head.
"Your name's Xiao Fei, right? Don't be afraid. Hold on a little longer. I already have a plan. I'll summon Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to slay this monster!"
"Really? Big brother, you're so kind. I believe in..."
Before she could finish saying "you,"
the young girl's childish voice suddenly became an overlapping chorus of aged, sinister voices.
A pointed face, somewhere between tangible and intangible, seemed to overlap her tender features.
"Keh keh keh, keh keh keh! This ancestor doesn't believe you! Heh heh heh."
"Ignorant mortals, what expert have you brought this time? Heh heh heh, another Great God Lao Jun? Too bad! Your Ancestor Du Xiao is the king of heaven and earth, the World Master! Heh heh heh, submit to me and enter my maw!"
"Offer up a Spirit Child, offer up blood offerings, offer up faith sacrifices! Otherwise, when this ancestor truly emerges, you will die without a grave!"
"Hm? You brat, you dare show such disrespect..."
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
As it roared, it noticed that Gu Zhe was still staring intently at it, without the fear and terror the previous spirit medium had shown.
Instead, he seemed to be studying and observing it, carefully examining the face that overlapped hers like a phantom.
The ghost seemed to feel provoked.
The possessing ghost roared incessantly, making Xiao Fei's body shake against the bed. The steel cables cut bloody lines into her skin.
Even the steel cables seemed to have developed some kind of rust.
Gu Zhe did not tremble at all.
He had seen plenty of ghosts in the Netherworld. Never mind one with a pointed head and sharp teeth-he had seen many Water Ghosts, Headless Ghosts, Corpse-Splitting Ghosts, and Hanged Ghosts. He had even controlled Mysterious Paper Figures to kill some Netherworld Ghost Beasts that attacked the hotel and the Apartment.
He seemed oblivious to the ghost's roaring.
Through the overlapping phantoms, he saw Xiao Fei's pain and fear.
He spoke softly and gently:
"Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. I'll save you." "Don't worry. All these nightmares will pass."
"Okay!"
Perhaps she had heard his gentle reassurance, for a clear, childish "okay" emerged from amid the ghost's roars.
Influenced by Gu Zhe's composure,
the others also became a little calmer.
"Master Gu, you must save my daughter!"
"Yes, if you drive this evil ghost away, we'll give you anything. We'll give you everything! As long as you save our daughter, I'd even be willing to die!"
"Keh keh keh keh! Mortals, mortals! Ants who don't know their place! You ants have no idea what a great being you face!"
"Heh heh heh, heh heh heh! Only becoming one with me is the highest expression of your faith! All souls shall belong to the great Du Xiao! Sacrifice to me, sacrifice to me! Offer your minds, offer your spiritual wisdom, offer your flesh and blood... keh keh keh keh..."
Those arrogant roars threatened to destroy the courage the middle-aged couple had barely managed to muster.
"Mr. Gu!"
Even Ming Xuan, who had still harbored a little doubt and disbelief about ghosts, could not keep her voice from shaking.
She instinctively moved closer to Gu Zhe.
Gu Zhe shook his head.
He looked at them.
"Don't worry. I won't just drive it away. I'll kill it. When I, Gu Zhe, do something, I either don't do it at all or root it out and slaughter every last one-uh, ahem, poor choice of words. I mean, solve the problem at its source."
"Keh keh keh! Interesting, interesting. Little thing, little ant, I've memorized your scent. I'll remember you. Wait for me, wait for me..."
Gu Zhe slowly lowered his head to examine it again.
Then he straightened.
His tone was calm.
"Wait for you? No need. Du Xiao, right? I don't need to wait for you. I'll find you... I'll come to see you!"
"Ha! You need sacrifices, do you? Then I'll give you sacrifices."
He looked at the middle-aged couple.
"Burn incense and make an offering!"
"But, but wouldn't that give the ghost what it wants?"
"Woman, Master Gu has his own plan. We just need to follow it."
After scolding his wife, the middle-aged man
added worriedly:
"Master Gu, we were afraid it would hurt our daughter, so we actually made offerings before. But it became even more violent and said we weren't sincere."
"Keh keh keh! You hypocritical, stupid ants! Worship me with your entire being, with your entire being! Heh heh heh! You know no reverence! Just wait until I get out, wait until I get out! My name is Du Xiao! I am the master of heaven and earth, the king of the world..."
Gu Zhe was beginning to understand.
He was calmer than these ordinary people and knew that, mysterious as Netherworld ghosts were, they were not true gods or immortals.
The ghost before him roared violently like a mad ghost, even claiming to be the World Master.
In Gu Zhe's opinion, a mad ghost like this was actually easier to deal with than a cold, rational one.
Of course, he could not rule out the possibility that it was pretending.
But whether it was pretending or not made no difference to Gu Zhe's plan.
He looked at the middle-aged couple.
His reason remained unaffected, and he was still in the mood to explain calmly.
"That ghost is tormenting Xiao Fei. As her parents, how could you sincerely worship it with your whole hearts? You'd sooner eat its flesh and flay its skin."
"Even if it hadn't harmed anyone, in this society, how many people could worship with the wholehearted devotion of fanatics and let this ghost receive their sacrifices, unless they had a bloodline or inherited tradition supporting them?"
"In fact, this ghost is ignorant too. Perhaps it also lacks any supernatural ability to help gather and guide faith. How could an ordinary ghost easily collect faith sacrifices? If it were that easy, wouldn't every rich and powerful dead person become a god? It isn't some legendary god or demon that devours fear, either. Heh, does it really think it's the World Master?"
"Keh keh keh! What are you saying? What does that mean... tell me, mortal! Offer it up..."
Gu Zhe ignored it.
Instead, he continued speaking to the couple:
"Since you can't sincerely worship it and make offerings, turn your deliberate attempts to please and beg it into hatred, into a pursuit. Tell yourselves to find it, find it. Only by finding it can you save your child..."
"Its name is Du Xiao. It's somewhere in the Void. Find it. Find Du Xiao and save Xiao Fei."
"Repeat Du Xiao's name. Find it, and you can save Xiao Fei. Do you want to save your child? Then repeat its name. Find Du Xiao, and you can get your daughter back."
This was only possible in a Secret Realm attached to the inner surface of the World Crystal Wall.
If they had to cross the Netherworld, ordinary people could not use this method unless they possessed an unimaginable power of thought.
Hearing Gu Zhe's words,
the middle-aged couple lit the incense, their eyes filled with utter hope, longing, reliance, and resolute anger.
They murmured, "Find Du Xiao, find Du Xiao, save our daughter. Where are you, where are you? Du Xiao, Du Xiao, Ancestor Du Xiao, where are you?! Where are you?! Give us back our daughter, give us back our daughter..."
Then Gu Zhe looked at Ming Xuan.
"Burn the Paper Figures!"
Ming Xuan dared not delay and hurried to burn them.
Amid the swirling smoke,
as the Mysterious Paper Figures burned and transformed into some strange state, Gu Zhe's will followed his connection with them. He controlled that strange state, wrapping it around the thought that the burning incense had produced in the unseen, then followed that thought in pursuit of its target.
The incense-borne thought swayed in the air, seeming to split in two.
One half flowed toward the little girl. Through the perspective of the Mysterious Paper Figure in its state of impending manifestation, he could see what appeared to be a faint passage connecting her body to somewhere in the Void.
Gu Zhe immediately understood that once the faint passage dissipated enough, the ghost would leave. That explained the intermittent possession.
The other half sank into the Void and entered a dim world.
That world was about the size of a small town, with a low, barren hill at its center, surrounded by desolate flatlands.
On the hill stood a primitive, ugly, crudely built pavilion. Something seemed to be roaring inside it.
Across the surrounding land, little monsters roughly a meter tall wandered about, with pointed heads, hunched bodies, and pitch-black skin resembling wood grain.
From time to time, they knelt toward the hill and cheered.
Strange, eerie voices drifted through the air.
The moment he heard them, he understood their meaning.
"Ancestor Du Xiao! Du Xiao, Du Xiao! World Master, master of heaven and earth!"
"The great Du Xiao... the great Du Xiao..."
Along with their cheers, an inexplicable, mysterious aura flowed, and the town-sized Secret Realm continued expanding outward, fraction by fraction.
Understanding dawned in Gu Zhe's heart.
So this is a Secret Realm. Perhaps it was even smaller at first. They keep growing, growing stronger as the beings inside them grow stronger, growing as the energy of the world's laws changes...
If I didn't intervene, perhaps this Secret Realm really could grow into a small world someday!
This was how the Void evolved and Secret Realms arose!
This was a world unlike the Material World of the World of the Living, unlike reality. It was mystery, it was the Netherworld, it was darkness, it was spirit void...