Hide in the world of gods and demons

Chapter 109 Entering the Evil Realm
"If we're talking about dreaming of evil spirits, it seems I've had the same nightmare before," Chen Li mused to himself as he left the house.

However, he never did it again after that one time.

"It's probably just a coincidence, something I've been thinking about during the day and dreaming about at night."

The evil spirit encountered during the migration was blocked by the talisman and was scared away by the Yu family patriarch before it could even touch him. He was completely unaffected, unlike Bai Jinwang's situation.

He shook his head, no longer scaring himself.

……

Two days later, Bai Jinwang's health improved slightly, and he began to travel around visiting relatives and friends, arranging his funeral. One by one, he gave away his concubines and maids. Occasionally, weeping could be heard from next door, as scenes of life and death unfolded.

"Oh, this is fate."

At dusk, the afterglow of the setting sun shone on Bai Jinwang's wrinkled old face, giving off an indescribable sense of melancholy and decline.

Watching his beautiful concubine being dragged away by his friend, turning back every few steps with sorrowful, tearful eyes that seemed to hold unspoken words, he was deeply saddened and couldn't help but shed tears.

"If you can't bear to part with it, why give it away?" Chen Li walked out the door and saw this human tragedy, and couldn't help but say.

"I'm sorry to have troubled you, fellow Daoist." Bai Jinwang quickly wiped away his tears, sighed, and said, "I am a dying man with little time left. Why should I delay them? I can find them a better home before I die, and then I can leave in peace."

"Fellow Daoist is truly magnanimous!" Chen Li sincerely admired.

He asked himself if he could do that.

"You'll become just as open-minded when you're about to die," Bai Jinwang said with a smile.

Chen Li felt a tightness in his chest upon hearing this.

That's what I said.

He has a long life ahead of him and has never thought about death.

"When are you planning to leave?" Chen Li asked.

"Are you in such a hurry to get rid of me?" Bai Jinwang looked at Chen Li with a strange smile and said mockingly.

Whether it was psychological or not, Chen Li felt that the other person's aged face seemed to carry a faint sense of sinister madness.

"Hehe, just kidding. I still have some relatives and friends to say my final goodbyes to. It'll be late the day after tomorrow. You don't need to come see me off then. Let me leave quietly by myself!"

After Bai Jinwang finished speaking, he waved his hand, turned around, and staggered into the courtyard.

"Creak" sound.

The door is closed.

Chen Li stood motionless at the door, his brows furrowed.

He recalled the other person's unusual behavior.

He quickly took out the thick stack of exorcism talismans from his chest, examined them, and was surprised to find that the top one was slightly warm.

"This is..." Chen Li's expression changed slightly.

……

Had dinner.

Chen Li handed Zhou Hong a stack of thirty exorcism talismans.

"What's this for?" Zhou Hong asked, puzzled, after taking it.

"I carry it with me at all times. Old Bai next door is getting more and more possessed, and I'm worried something might happen to him in the next few days," Chen Li said with a serious expression.

Zhou Hong's expression changed: "I don't usually notice it; you seem quite normal."

"Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it's better to be safe than sorry," Chen Li said.

He decided to buy another fifty talismans to ward off evil spirits first thing tomorrow morning, just to put his mind at ease.

Talismans have a long shelf life. Even if you don't need them, they won't spoil in a short time. If you resell them at a stall, you can recoup most of your investment. As for the small loss of spirit stones, he can easily afford it with his vast wealth.

But once it's used, it becomes the difference between life and death.

……

The night passed peacefully.

Early the next morning, Chen Li bought fifty exorcism talismans from the talisman shop of the Longevity Sect and then stayed inside. He practiced swordsmanship and magic in the courtyard while keeping an eye on Bai Jinwang's movements.

It wasn't until almost noon that Bai Jinwang's violent coughing could be heard from next door.

Another moment passed.

With a creak, the gate to the neighboring courtyard opened.

Bai Jinwang seems to be heading out.

Chen Li stopped what he was doing and listened intently.

Soon the footsteps faded into the distance until they disappeared, and only then did Chen Li open the courtyard gate.

An old, frail figure was walking unsteadily in the distance. Perhaps he had been looking at it for too long, because a terrifying shadow seemed to be swaying and dancing around him. He quickly blinked and looked again, but everything had returned to normal.

"This shouldn't be a hallucination; the other party's possession has become even more severe... Damn it!" Chen Li cursed inwardly.

Seemingly noticing the gaze, Bai Jinwang turned around and smiled.

This smile...

Chen Li had an indescribable feeling—a sense of wickedness, gloom, and even a hint of malice.

The other person quickly turned the corner and disappeared into the street.

"Damn it, what exactly is this evil thing... Luckily it's leaving tomorrow!"

He withdrew his gaze and was about to turn back to his courtyard when the gate to the neighboring courtyard suddenly opened, and Sun Yu stepped out:

"Fellow Daoist Chen, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing! Are you going out?"

Ever since Zhou Hong learned that the other party was a female cultivator from a brothel, Chen Li found her increasingly convincing. Every word, action, and gesture seemed to carry a hint of seduction.

“Yes!” Sun Yu smiled and closed the courtyard gate. “Otherwise, we won’t have any food to eat.”

The two exchanged a few polite but distant words before parting ways.

……

night.

afterwards!

Zhou Hong was drunk and her face was flushed. It took her a long time to come to her senses. She patted Chen Li lightly, gave him a charmingly coquettish look, and scolded him, "It's all your fault. Don't use those harmful secret techniques anymore. You're driving me crazy!"

Hey!

Chen Li smiled smugly.

The Yellow and Red Technique truly lives up to its reputation; its secrets are simply ingenious.

Every time Zhou Hong tried, she was utterly defeated and had no chance to resist.

"Okay, okay, it's my fault, it's my fault!"

The two had a private conversation.

"I sensed it today too, Old Man Bai was acting strangely!" Zhou Hong nestled in Chen Li's arms and whispered, "He looked sinister, like he was about to devour someone!"

"Don't have any contact with him these next couple of days. Luckily, he's leaving tomorrow!" Chen Li said.

"What if we don't leave?"

“Then we have no choice but to send him away ahead of schedule.” Chen Li said in a deep voice, then sighed, “Alas, it’s not that I’m heartless or unforgiving, but if we drag this out any longer, who knows what will happen? We live right next door, so we’ll be the first to be affected!”

“It’s not your fault, you did the right thing,” Zhou Hong said softly. “I’ve heard that people who are possessed by evil spirits, if left untreated, will eventually become evil spirits themselves. Old Man Bai is a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining. Once he becomes completely possessed, I’m afraid…”

……

late at night.

The bedroom of Bai Jinwang next door.

The bed was empty.

An elderly figure sat motionless in a chair nearby, leaning back like a corpse. Countless shadows danced around him, like ghostly apparitions, filling the entire bedroom with an eerie and terrifying atmosphere.

This figure is Bai Jinwang.

Suddenly, he trembled all over, opened his closed eyes, and his eyes glowed with an eerie red light.

His fingernails quickly turned black and sharp.

Even their faces changed, becoming increasingly ferocious and evil...

After half an hour,

He stood up, and the shadows around him seemed to move with him. He walked out of the courtyard gate silently.

At this moment, he paused slightly, staring intently at the next room, his eyes flashing red.

The place was filled with an incredibly strong aura that he loathed and feared.

He stared for a long while before turning his gaze away, then walked along the street into the distance, his figure light and ethereal, showing no trace of his previous weakness and old age.

Chen Li was completely unaware of this.

Have a good night's sleep.

It was still dark outside when Chen Li woke up on his own.

He lifted the thin blanket, walked out of the bedroom, went to the kitchen to fetch water, and finished washing up.

They went to the talisman-making room and lit the oil lamp.

He took out the talisman skin, blood ink, and talisman-making brush, thought for a moment, and then drew eighteen more talismans to ward off evil.

Since his spiritual energy was purified, his efficiency in casting spells and drawing talismans has increased exponentially.

He took a Qi-replenishing pill to restore his spiritual power, and waited for the blood ink on the talisman to dry completely. He then put the talisman away, left the talisman-making room, and stuffed the talismans into various places around the room again.

There were two or three hundred such talismans throughout the room, filling every corner. These were drawn by Chen Li on occasional whims.

……

Throughout the day, Chen Li kept a close eye on what was happening next door.

As a result, a whole day passed, and it was almost evening, but the other party still hadn't gone out. Not only did they not go out, but they didn't even make a sound; it was completely quiet.

He hesitated for a moment.

He walked out of the courtyard and arrived at the Bai family's house, knocking on the door: "Brother Bai, are you there?"

"Clap clap clap!"

"Brother Bai, open the door!"

"Clap clap clap!"

"If you don't open it, I'm coming in!"

Just as Chen Li was about to go in to take a look, a hoarse, rough voice came from inside: "I... am feeling a little unwell, Fellow Daoist Chen... please go back."

The sound was choppy.

It seems that speaking is quite difficult for him.

Chen Li breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this: "Then take care of yourself, you're leaving tonight, right?"

"Yes! Let's go, let's... let's go!"

He frowned slightly; the voice sounded strange.

He shook his head and turned to leave.

Zhang Yan came over for a visit right after dinner.

"Have you heard about the strange things that happened last night?"

"What's wrong?" Chen Li asked, puzzled. It didn't make sense at all. He hadn't left the house all day, and Zhou Hong hadn't even let him go out.

“Last night, a family died inexplicably. It is said that no one in the vicinity heard any noise. But that’s not all. What’s strange is that the deaths were extremely bizarre, and their bodies turned into mummies.”

"This is clearly an encounter with evil spirits! But Luanluo City is such a large cultivation city, where would such a thing come from?" Zhang Yan said in a low voice, his face filled with fear.

"Is this rumor true?" Chen Li's expression turned serious.

"It's all over the place, so it must be true."

It's evil again!

Chen Li's heart skipped a beat.

I couldn't help but recall Bai Jinwang's strange behavior from before.

Could it have been 'him' who did it?

"Is it far from here?"

"It's quite far away, several streets away from us," Zhang Yan said. "But you should still prepare a few more talismans, just in case..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

His gaze fell upon the stacks of talismans used to prop up the table legs. These... these were clearly talismans for warding off evil spirits. Each stack probably contained about five talismans. Moreover, he soon saw talismans on the roof beams and in the corners of the walls.

There are probably even more areas that are not visible.

"As for talismans, I've already drawn quite a few!" Chen Li said to himself, oblivious to Zhang Yan's gaze.

That's more than a lot.

"The talisman is still a bit weak. It's best to prepare some exorcism talismans for self-defense, like I do." Chen Li took out a stack of talismans from his chest, each about two inches thick, and waved them in front of Zhang Yan, kindly reminding him.

Zhang Yan suddenly felt a little dazed.

This must be fake!
If this whole stack of talismans were for warding off evil, how much would it cost?
He opened his mouth, but found he had nothing to say.

What does it mean to be cautious?

That's what you call being cautious.

What does it mean to be absolutely foolproof?

That's what you call foolproof.

"Are you alright?" Chen Li asked, seeing Zhang Yan standing motionless with a blank stare.

"Haha, no...it's nothing!" Zhang Yan quickly came to his senses and gave a dry laugh.

"Do you think I bought too many...? Fortunately, high-grade talismans are cheap in Luanluo City. I bought more than a hundred in total, and it only cost me about thirty mid-grade spirit stones."

……

Zhang Yan left quickly.

Just as it came in a hurry.

After seeing Zhang Yan off, Chen Li clicked his tongue and realized what he meant:

"I hope this old man doesn't think I'm showing off my wealth!"

Then, he remembered something and turned to look at the next room.

It was already getting dark, and the next room remained quiet. He hesitated for a moment, then gave up the idea of ​​knocking again to test the waters. Since the other party had said they would leave tonight, he decided not to disturb them.

……

late at night.

A creaking sound came from next door as a door opened.

Chen Li's heart stirred, and he quickly put on his robe, walked out of the bedroom, walked all the way to the courtyard, and then lightly leaped over the courtyard wall.

The streets were quiet.

There wasn't a single person in sight.

The door next door was wide open, and Bai Jinwang was obviously out.

"Moving so fast?"

He stepped inside and tentatively called out:

"Brother Bai, are you there?"

"I'll see you off."

Chen Li held a talisman between his fingers, calling out as he cautiously entered the house. The house was empty; he searched every room but couldn't find a single person.

"Looks like he's really gone!"

"Wait! Why didn't you take this luggage?!" In the bedroom, he saw a neatly packed bundle that was still there.

"Did he forget, or..." Chen Li couldn't help but ponder.

Based on Zhang Yan's account of the strange events and the other party's unusual behavior in the evening, Chen Li had a bad feeling.

"Since you've left, don't come back."

He left a talisman to ward off evil in each room of the house, and after doing all this, he quickly returned.

He tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep at all, and finally drifted off to sleep close to dawn. As soon as it was light, he got up again, got dressed, and went outside. The door next door was still wide open.

Suddenly his pupils contracted.

Several white claw marks were found on the blackened wooden door.

He went up to take a look.

Each of the claw marks was more than a centimeter deep and quite 'fresh'. He could also see some fallen, curled wood fibers on the ground.

This was clearly left over from last night.

Without a doubt, 'Bai Jinwang' came back last night and tried to enter, but was blocked by the exorcism talisman inside the house. Before leaving, he vented his anger at the gate of the yard for a while before finally leaving.

(End of this chapter)