Chapter 74

Despite Xia Tianqi's timely reaction, they were still a step too late.

A large amount of rainwater suddenly surged in from the window, forming a thick water barrier that completely blocked the open window.

Seeing that escaping through the window was out of the question, Xia Tianqi cursed under his breath and could only consider leaving through the door with Leng Yue. However, the other side of the door was already occupied by a ghost.

In other words, the fierce ghost they deeply feared was now right in front of them.

"It's there!"

At this moment, Xia Tianqi noticed the ghost. It was near the door, completely cutting off their escape route. At first glance, it looked like a puddle of water, but upon closer inspection, a human head was clearly floating in the "bright" puddle!

Its hair, though covering most of its face, revealed two bloodshot eyes filled with malice, which were now focused on their faces.

This was the fourth time they had faced it. The first time was at the edge of the village, the second time at Chen Laoda's house, and the third time at Hu Daniu's house... It had repeatedly warned them not to meddle, but they had repeatedly encountered it. If Xia Tianqi were to describe it, they had really picked a bad day to go out this morning.

They say that things don't go wrong more than three times, and the first three times they had managed to escape with some scares but no serious harm. But would they be as lucky this time?

The answer was clearly unknown and not very optimistic.

Since they took on this case, they hadn't had a smooth moment. They were exhausted just from the journey here, and once they arrived, their investigations were repeatedly preempted by the ghost, constantly putting them in danger.

Xia Tianqi's face darkened as he glanced at the window, which was still blocked by the water barrier. He could clearly feel the resistance when he reached out, as if it were a solid stone wall rather than water.

With their retreat blocked and their path forward cut off, Xia Tianqi and Leng Yue were in a dire situation, seemingly left with only one possible way to survive: to fight the ghost to the death.

"I'll hold it off; you find a chance to escape."

After a moment of silence, Leng Yue slowly stated his plan.

Xia Tianqi felt that Leng Yue had never been more manly than at this moment, but from another perspective, it made him feel quite helpless.

"Do you think you can escape?"

"Let's give it a try."

As he spoke, Leng Yue took out his weapon—a peach wood sword with only a hilt.

Although Xia Tianqi had seen Leng Yue use this sword before at Qihe Women's College, he still found the scene somewhat bizarre.

"Step back!"

Leng Yue spread his arms to shield Xia Tianqi, then took out a paper talisman, bit his tongue, and spat a mouthful of blood onto the wooden sword. He then made a hand sign and said:

"Enchant! Slow!"

As Leng Yue spoke firmly, the paper talisman strangely wrapped around the "transparent" blade and emitted a red glow. Xia Tianqi, watching from behind Leng Yue, was amazed, thinking it must be a new technique Leng Yue had learned, as he had never seen him use it before.

Leng Yue was fully prepared to fight the ghost to the death, but the ghost showed no intention of attacking, remaining as motionless as a block of wood, maintaining its previous "pose."

This left Xia Tianqi and Leng Yue somewhat baffled.

But since the conflict was already inevitable, Leng Yue no longer hesitated and swung his sword at the ghost.

The sword cut through the air, but the ghost remained unharmed. Leng Yue did not pause, turning to slash at the water barrier blocking the window.

The two silent slashes left Xia Tianqi and Leng Yue somewhat embarrassed, as nothing seemed to happen.

The water barrier still existed, and the ghost was still there, as if Leng Yue's two slashes had merely cut through the air.

"What's going on?"

Leng Yue clearly felt something was wrong and muttered:

"It should have been slowed, but why..."

Hearing Leng Yue's mutter, Xia Tianqi glanced at the water barrier by the window and then at the motionless ghost by the door. Suddenly, he had a realization and exclaimed:

"We've been tricked! The ghost isn't here!"

With renewed energy, Xia Tianqi quickly approached the puddle and stomped on the ghost's head, only to find himself stepping into a puddle of water.

"It's just a decoy; it's not here."

This was a situation none of them had anticipated. They never thought a ghost would play such a trick on them.

"We've been fooled!"

Xia Tianqi felt a mix of relief and frustration, unsure whether to be grateful or upset.

As they puzzled over the ghost's motives, a terrifying face suddenly formed on the water barrier by the window, and a voice, nearly indistinguishable, echoed as if coming from the water:

"This is the last time... I'll let you go!"

Xia Tianqi repeated what he heard with difficulty.

"This is its final warning; it still has some reason."

Xia Tianqi thought he would get Leng Yue's agreement, but unexpectedly, Leng Yue disagreed:

"A ghost is a ghost; its existence is for killing. It must be keeping us alive because it's not strong enough.

That's why it keeps getting ahead of us to kill people."

Leng Yue's expertise was far greater, so although Xia Tianqi didn't fully agree, he didn't argue much.

However, this incident made him realize that if they continued their current investigation method, it would be very difficult to stop the ghost before it killed again.

They might need to consider a different approach.

"I think there are still some restrictions on that ghost. It's not that it doesn't want to kill us, but it's not strong enough yet. I believe the coffin is the key. If we burn the coffin, it might lose its place to stay."

"But if you do that, you'll be completely at odds with the ghost, with no chance of reconciliation."

Xia Tianqi was still somewhat worried, as he always felt that the ghost just didn't want them to interfere.

Or perhaps... it didn't want to kill innocents.

Of course, these were just his assumptions, and he had no way to convince Leng Yue.

But for some reason, he felt that Leng Yue's attitude toward the ghost was strange, as if there was some deep-seated enmity. It gave him a very odd feeling.