Chapter 9: Little Devil

  Ghost? I suddenly came to my senses, everything else was fake. This old man knew that I and the ghost came together, so naturally he had some real skills. At this time when I had no way out, this old man undoubtedly became my last straw. He suddenly crawled up, grabbed the old man: "Old man, tell me what to do? Although I have no money now, but after I go out, I will definitely thank you well——"

  The old man chuckled and patted my shoulder: "Kid, don't worry, come sit down and let's have a good chat. Actually, you don't need to be so worried, come - sit down."

  At this moment, I seemed to have found support and was no longer so flustered. As the old man sat down, he smiled even more radiantly and chuckled: "Tell me your birth date and I'll do a good reading for you -"

  After hearing this, I felt a bit deceived again. However, being with the old man made me feel at ease, so I told him my birth date and time. The old man seemed to be thinking deeply, stretching out his hand to calculate, and looking me up and down. After a while, he nodded: "Your hexagram is Taiji. This hexagram is an unusual combination of yin and yang. Qian represents heaven, which is yang; Kun represents earth, which is yin. Yin and yang interact, and the upper and lower parts communicate with each other. Heaven and earth intersect, and all things are intertwined. It indicates that you are in a state of pure yang energy rising from the ground up, yang energy rising, and yin energy dispersing. According to the natural world, it should be spring, when the yang energy on the ground chases away the yin energy, declines and turns prosperous, and changes with the times - this is Tai."

  I don't understand all this, but listening to it seems pretty good. However, in the current situation, it's really hard to say how good it is. I let out a bitter laugh and was about to speak when the old man suddenly said: "Don't be suspicious, because what's inside is strong, and what's outside is weak; on the surface, it looks weak, but inside, it's actually very powerful. If you have a heart that can tolerate and be broad-minded, even if the external environment is difficult and treacherous, you can still get through it smoothly." He also extended this to the way of being a person: "Being close to gentlemen is like strengthening your yang energy, and staying away from petty people is like avoiding yin energy. After you've escaped this calamity, don't mix with that yin person again when you go out. As for your current situation, it won't last long before there's a turning point. Naturally, there will be a noble person who comes to help you, but I advise you not to get too mixed up with that noble person, or else you'll have many more calamities. Your fate is really quite confusing."

  He nodded vaguely, but I still didn't quite understand. Just as I was about to speak, the prison guard turned around and saw me with the old man, and actually smiled: "Old Miao, you're cheating people again, do you want to get out or not? Kid, don't listen to this old guy's nonsense, he's just a swindler who makes money by deceiving people. If you listen to his nonsense, you'd be better off going to find someone else. Do you want me to pass on a message for you?"

  The prison guard looked at me with a smile that was not a smile, and in that moment I suddenly had an epiphany and understood what the guard meant. I hastily leaned in, lowered my voice and said: "Do you have a pen? I'll write a note, you help me make a phone call, when my family arrives I'll give you money, okay?"

  The prison guard also knew that I didn't have any money on me at the moment, and it wasn't difficult for him to help me out. He responded with a "yes" and went to the duty room to get some paper and pen. I took this opportunity to quickly write a note to my father, and in case he might go to the mountains where there's no signal, I also wrote down Second Uncle's phone number. Thinking that maybe Second Uncle would have some way to help, at this point I didn't care about anything else, so I wrote on the note that I wanted to give the prison guard 5,000 yuan as a reward, believing that my father wouldn't mind either.

  The old man had been watching from the side, and suddenly sighed: "You guys are more ruthless than me. I've been talking for half a day just to get some free drinks worth 300 or 200 yuan, but you guys can make 5,000 yuan with just one phone call. That's impressive!"

  The prison guard's face changed, and he glared at the old man fiercely: "Miao Chunyi, stop spouting nonsense. Otherwise, you won't be allowed in here again, humph!"

  The old man was called Miao Chunyi. Although the prison guard looked intimidating, the old man didn't seem to care and was about to speak with a smile, but suddenly his expression changed drastically, losing interest in talking, becoming vigilant all at once. At the same time, I involuntarily shivered, as if I had fallen into an ice cellar, the temperature dropping instantly, even the prison guard felt it. My heart skipped a beat, every time I saw a ghost it was this feeling, but this time it was more intense. I subconsciously looked around, but couldn't see anything.

  I shuddered, feeling a sense of fear in my heart, as if everything was coming straight for me. The thought had barely occurred to me when I felt the temperature drop again, and a cold air rushed towards me. Suddenly, a great force sent me flying, so fast that I couldn't react in time. I crashed heavily into the wall, my chest feeling like it had been struck by a large hammer. I was left gasping for breath, dizzy and disoriented, with no idea what was happening.

  Panting heavily, I opened my eyes wide, but there was nothing in front of me. Unfortunately, the Bagua mirror had been taken away, otherwise it wouldn't have ended like this. But thinking about those things now is useless. Even Miao Chunyi's face turned solemn, his eyes fixed on me. As for the prison guard, he had already opened his mouth wide, staring at me in bewilderment. After all, I couldn't have flown out of there by myself just now...

  I felt a chill run down my spine, like a sharp arrow was coming towards me. Before I could even react, I felt my neck tighten and suddenly I was having trouble breathing. That was not all, I didn't know that my whole body had been pushed against the wall, and then slowly started to rise up. I didn't have the mood to pay attention to all of this, because I was already struggling to breathe. My chest felt like it was going to split open, with a burning sensation like fire. I stretched out my hand in front of me, but it was empty, just like everything else. Damn it, what the hell is going on? I knew it was a ghost, but what could I do? Maybe there would be some way to deal with it written on the note, but at this moment, I couldn't even breathe, let alone think about anything else.

  The time I can hold my breath is very short, I have almost consumed all the oxygen in my lungs, and I'm starting to feel dizzy. But still, I don't want to give up, if I go on like this, I'll die, but I don't want to die, I'm still the only son of the Liu family, damn it, I've never even had a girlfriend, what a pathetic life, and now I'm going to die? But what can I do, my hat is all soggy, I have no strength left, my eyes are already closed, is everything really over?

  But just as I was about to give up, something unexpected happened. In this half-dazed state, my mind suddenly cleared up, and although my eyes were closed, I felt a surge of energy spreading out like mercury. Suddenly, everything in the room became crystal clear, even the people next door, Miao Chunyan and the prison guard, their faces and expressions all clearly visible. Most importantly, I saw a small ghost hovering in front of me, only about one meter tall, with blood-red eyes and a face covered in what looked like maggots, as if it was rotting away. Its teeth were even exposed, making it look incredibly terrifying. But instead of feeling fear, I felt an intense anger rising up from within me, because this thing wanted to kill me. My survival instincts kicked in, and I thought to myself, "I'm not going to die like this." If it wants to kill me, then I'll kill it first. A fierce energy rose up from the depths of my heart, and I tried to let out a loud shout, but no sound came out. Gathering all my strength into one fist, I punched out with all my might. I clearly saw my fist hit the ghost's face, distorting its features, before it flew away. Then, I fell from a great height, landing on the ground like a puddle of mud, gasping for air with my eyes closed. For the first time, I realized how wonderful breathing was, and how important that cheap air was - something I had never appreciated before.

  Oxygen entered my lungs, and my strength returned to my body. My brain started working again. I didn't dare open my eyes, nor did I want to leave that wonderful state, because I needed to see that little ghost. If not, I would be dead for sure. So I kept my eyes closed, desperately maintaining that state, taking a few deep breaths. As soon as my strength was restored, I couldn't wait any longer and opened my eyes to look at the little ghost.

  The little demon was punched out by me, and it didn't seem to be reconciled. After stabilizing its body, it just let out a hissing sound, and its face looked even more ferocious. It took advantage of the situation and pounced on me again. Gradually, its claws seemed to want to tear me apart. I felt a surge of anger in my heart, and with a snort, I gritted my teeth and charged at the little demon with all my might. With one punch, I slammed into the little demon's face, and when my fist hit it, I seemed to hear the sound of bones shattering. The damned little demon was even shorter than my arm, so I clearly had the upper hand.

  The little demon, who was beaten by me and seemed to be a bit dazed, couldn't imagine why I would hit it. However, after being beaten twice, its ferocity was apparently stirred up. With a loud screech, the demon suddenly swung its head, which flew out, and opened its mouth wide to bite me while its body charged at me from another direction, splitting into two simultaneous attacks on me. Which one should I deal with first?

  No time to think, I can only deal with the flying head first, don't care about so much, I often fight and know the key to fighting, grab one and beat it to death, as for the others, don't worry about it for now. At this moment, I couldn't care less about so many things, seeing the head flying over, my left hand flashed out like lightning, grasped the head, didn't bother with the body, then slammed the head to the ground, and then clenched my fist and used all my strength to smash it towards the head.

  My neck was again pinched by the little ghost's double claws, and the claws had already sunk into my flesh, desperately pinching my neck. At this moment, I couldn't care about that much. The situation was either you die or I live. Since I didn't want to die, I had to kill this ghost. At this moment, I really burst out with a killer's intent. One punch, two punches... continuously pounding on the little ghost's skull, just like a machine. Slowly, I felt my strength flowing away, and Hou Kai had that tearing feeling again. However, I didn't dare stop. If I stopped, I would definitely die. No matter what, I wanted to struggle. I wouldn't be willing to die. I couldn't notice what the little ghost's skull looked like anymore. I just kept pounding, slowly feeling my consciousness disappear...