Chapter Sixteen: The Evil Eye in the Great Fire

  "Has your school been having a lot of trouble lately?" Mao Shi Jiu looked at me with a serious face.

  "The last few ghost dolls' corpses were found hanged to death in the dormitory." I replied.

  "This place of hidden evil most fears the color red, red is the color of blood, and blood originally belongs to yin. Absorbing yin energy is extremely harmful, so it's normal for people to die in school. The balance between yin and yang is lost, now that there is little yin, there must be a destruction of yang." Ma Shi Jiu snapped his fingers as he calculated.

  Mao Zedong had just finished speaking.

  Only felt the ground was shaking rapidly, as if it was a distant but approaching earthquake.

  "Fire! Come quickly and put out the fire!"

  "Trouble, come with me quickly, Yang has been eliminated." Mao Shi Jiu quickly ran out.

  We followed Mao Nineteen to the outside of the dissection building, and saw a fire in the distance. The ground was still shaking nonstop, which was caused by students rushing down the stairs. The entire building was filled with shouting and cries for help.

  "That's the boys' dormitory," I said, but it wasn't our dorm building.

  "That's right, Yang is being destroyed. You protect me and I'll cast a spell." Mao Shi Jian said as he took down the package from his back.

  Li Jian Tian secretly dialed 119 on the side.

  Only to see Mao 19 take out a large white cloth from his bundle and spread it on the ground, while he sat cross-legged behind the cloth. Upon closer inspection, there was nothing on the cloth. Mao 19's hands formed a seal, pointing towards the white cloth, then with both hands holding a brush each, crossed over his chest.

  "The left hand is yin, the right hand is yang, approaching." Mao 19 began to chant again.

  With nineteen strokes of his right and left hands holding brushes, the left hand dotted a dish of milky white ink beside him, while the right hand dotted a dish of black ink. Each dipped in water and painted on the white cloth. Before long, a yin-yang diagram appeared, with clear distinction between black and white, and two levels of yin and yang. However, upon closer inspection, it was found that there was more yin than yang, and the milky white ink was seeping into the black ink.

  At this time, the fire in the boys' dormitory was getting bigger and bigger, with flames shooting straight up. Everywhere, people were carrying buckets to fetch water to put out the fire. The person next to us was so tense that his palms were sweating.

  Cao Shi Jiu immediately used his right hand to apply the black ink to the left, and to our surprise, the flames seemed to be subsiding. Li Jian Tian and I exchanged a glance, both of us were amazed beyond words.

  Suddenly, a gust of hot wind blew over, and a human-shaped flame came rushing towards us, apparently heading for Matsumoto Chūzō.

  "The demon has yet to appear." Mao Shi Jiu directly tore off a roll of white cloth, and the fire was extinguished in an instant.

  At this time, the fire in the boys' dormitory had subsided a lot, and suddenly a pair of black eyes appeared in the midst of the big fire.

  "Look, there are two eyes over there." I exclaimed.

  "Is there anywhere? You must be seeing things." Zhang Xinyu said beside him.

  "What you can't see is indeed there." Mao Shi Jiu said in a low voice.

  "Stinky Taoist, let's make a bet. This place has already lost its yin-yang balance and you can't save it. If you can stop me, then you win." His eyes flickered for a moment as he spoke, and it seemed that only I and Mao 19 could hear him.

  "I don't have time to make a bet with you, let's end this." Mao Shi Jiu pulled out a wooden-hilted sword with intricate carvings and prepared to charge forward.

  "Wait, don't be in a hurry, I've already filled this array, even if you put out the fire it won't work, besides this is just one of my substitutes." The evil eye stopped Mao Shi Jiu.

  "By the way, I'll give you a hint before I leave. The ghost hiding is no longer useful, so don't waste your mind on it. And this place is very special, haha! " Xie Yan said and disappeared, and the fire gradually went out.

  At this time, only the distant sound of a fire truck could be heard, heading in this direction, but the entire floor was filled with thick black smoke.

  On the side, Cao Zhan's face was extremely ugly as he clenched his fists and lowered his head, his dignity as a Taoist priest had been challenged to the limit for the second time.

  "This devil......" I wanted to say something but stopped myself.

  "No need to think about it, it's that ghostly creature I fought last time. I think he's also the one in Ghost Street." Cao Jing directly hit the key point.

  "This is the third time I've lost to him, this vendetta won't be settled easily." Mao Shi Jiu gritted his teeth and said fiercely.

  "Come on, let's go take a look at this ghost thing's masterpiece." Mao Shi Jiu said to us after he regained his composure.

  Arriving at the boys' dormitory, the thick smoke filled the entire building and didn't disperse, irritating people's eyes so much that they couldn't open them. We inquired about the location of the fire.

  The place where the fire started was a dormitory on the third floor. It is said that before the big fire, gasoline smell was smelled on the third floor. We approached one of the most burnt places and felt it. This place is just the center of the entire building. The fire can spread quickly when it starts, and today it's even more coincidental that there is wind, and with the help of the wind, it didn't take long to burn the entire building.

  "He said this is a daze." Mao Shi Jiu muttered to himself in contemplation.

  "What does it mean? Is this his formation?" Cao Jingyun was stunned and still couldn't think of an answer.

  "Let's go in and take a look," said Mao Shi Jiu to us.

  Li Jian Tian's robust body kicked open the tightly locked dormitory door with one foot.

  The door was kicked open, and a thick smoke came out. I happened to be walking in front, and a wave of hot air rushed towards me, making me cough uncontrollably. I could also smell the lingering gasoline scent mixed in the air. Upon closer inspection inside the house, everything was in disarray. All the items in the bedroom were burned beyond recognition. Among the ruins, four charred bodies were found. These four charred corpses were almost reduced to ashes, with only their skeletal remains left unburned. Fortunately, the fire was extinguished in time; otherwise, we would have arrived to find nothing but a pile of ash.

  "Has the forensic expert arrived?" Li Jian Tian asked Zhang Xin Yu behind him.

  "I've informed the police and they're on their way," Zhang Xinyu replied.

  "No need for forensic medicine, these things can't be explained by science. They're self-immolation." said Mao Shi Jiu directly and decisively.

  "Self-immolation?" We three said in unison.

  "No, it's not wrong, it was self-immolation. Look at the positions of the four charred bodies, they are not scattered all over the place, but rather in a certain shape, indicating that they did not struggle much. According to eyewitnesses, before the big fire, only the sound of gasoline could be heard, and no screams were heard. Can anyone tell me, how can a normal person endure such pain when being burned by fire?" asked Mao Shi Jiu.

  "That's right, since they didn't struggle, it's possible that they were killed by a ghost and then set on fire to burn their bodies." I continued to question.

  "You stupid pig, have you grown a brain?" Mao 19 cursed.

  "The ghost's fire is also yin fire, which burns people's hearts and spirits. This building was almost burned to ashes, and there's still gasoline. Does a ghost need gasoline to burn you? The fire in our human world is called yang fire, which can overcome the evil spirit. Will it set itself on fire?" Ma Shi Jiu gave me a white eye.

  "So there's only one possibility, that is to control the spirit, strip away the soul, and their fleshly pain will not feel painful. This is a common method used by ghosts. After a person has been frightened out of their three souls and six spirits, they are equivalent to a living dead person, at the mercy of the ghost." Ma Shi Jiu continued.

  "What's different from last time?" I asked.

  "The ghost is much more advanced than this, the ghost needs to offer sacrifices and cultivate its soul, this is just a ghost scaring people."

  "Take me to where it happened last time." Mao Shi Jiu said to us.

  Before long, we arrived at the girls' dormitory where they were hanging out together.

  This dormitory has been sealed off and no one lives here. Even the surrounding area is uninhabited, so this floor has become a vacant floor, feeling especially empty and desolate.

  The servant opened the bedroom door.

  A musty smell wafted into my nostrils, the bedroom was very empty, the doors and windows were tightly closed, the seemingly clean room had a musty and rotten smell, I went straight to the balcony and opened the window, a gust of fresh air rushed in.

  "This room has a bad atmosphere, no wonder something happened. Tell me what happened before, in detail." Mao Shi Jiu asked me.

  "Four female students hanged themselves at the same time, and the forensic doctor said it was a collective suicide while sleepwalking. After they died, I saw a black cat circling around their bodies, and the black cat also died." I told him everything that happened that day.

  "Is there anything else crucial that has been missed? Let me think carefully." Ma Shi Jiu asked.

  "By the way, each of the corpses had a string of golden bells on their ankles, those soul-capturing bells you showed me earlier." Li Jian Tian added.

  It seems like Cao Zhi remembered something.

  "Is Jin Lingtang still here?" asked Mao Shi Jiu.

  "There's none left, last time you said it was an evil object I melted them all with Wang Water." Li Jian Tian said.

  "I have a little one." Zhang Xinyu said softly with a red face.

  "Earlier, Director Li asked me to melt it down, but I thought this thing was quite pretty, so I took a small bell and made it into a wristband." Zhang Xinyu pouted her mouth and stretched out her hand, revealing the wristband on her wrist, with a small bell in the middle.

  "You're quite confused, fortunately you only took one, the impact on your spirit is not great. Have you felt like having a lot of dreams and being mentally weak these past few days?" asked Mao Shi Jiu.

  Zhang Xinyu nodded.

  "This soul bell is an evil object, if you take more than half a string, you will definitely be in danger of your life. Maybe, you'll even sleepwalk to death." Mao Shi Jiu said it in a very frightening way, Zhang Xin Yu's face turned white with fear.

  Mao nineteen took down this bell and thought for a moment.

  But still no clue.

  "I'll take care of this bell first."

  "Let's go back, I'm sleepy. It's so late and I've also gotten drunk from accompanying you guys to investigate the case." Suddenly, Mao Shi Jiu said this.

  This attitude change is too fast, wasn't it just energetic and fighting with ghosts? Now it's like a detective investigating the case, saying to accompany us to investigate. The whole time shouldn't be us accompanying you, where is my protagonist halo? I keep complaining in my heart.

  "That ghost tomb, are we not going there? At this time I still keep thinking of Lin Mo."

  "No need to go in, there's nothing inside anymore. Since that ghost said so, this place must have been moved." Mao Shi Jiu replied.

  "What about my friends?" I asked tentatively.

  "I don't know, maybe he's already dead." Mao Shi Jiu said seriously to me.