"Hmm?!"
Sun Yan suddenly turned around, and right before his eyes appeared a pale face; through the long hair, he could see the eyes of this woman filled with bloodshot lines.
Facing General Sun Mask head-on, the woman immediately covered her eyes and dashed into a nearby mirror, her figure vanishing instantly before Sun Yan's eyes.
"Are you alright?" Zhou Haidong quickly asked with concern.
With the group so close, such an event still occurred, making Zhou Haidong feel an ominous premonition.
When evil spirits dare to actively attack the living, the severity of the situation is self-evident.
"Her, it's her! She's come, come to claim our lives."
Walking behind, Chen Xijiu suddenly said, with a face full of fear. Sun Yan asked in confusion, "Who is she?"
"The woman who hanged herself in our village a few days ago, I saw her corpse with my own eyes. There's no mistake, that person just now must be her."
Upon hearing Chen Xijiu's words, Sun Yan fell silent.
The soul formed post-death is consistent with the last image of the living; a ghost burnt to death would be charred black, a ghost drowned would be swollen with traces of water.
A ghost hanged would have bloodshot eyes and a long tongue hanging from its mouth, each having distinctive features, easier to identify.
These ghosts are at the level of evil spirits; above them are the evil spirits.
Evil spirits are fierce, their danger several times that of ordinary evil spirits; their most evident feature is wearing red clothes, born from resentment, ordinary people targeted by evil spirits rarely survive.
Just when the evil spirit quietly appeared behind Sun Yan, planning to strangle him.
Sun Yan had thought this evil spirit was formed over many years in the Underworld of Chen Family Village, but hearing Chen Xijiu, this red-clothed evil spirit was born only a few days ago.
Such great resentment in life to achieve this post-death.
"Don't panic, the reason we came here is to find the soul of that woman, now that she's actively appeared, it's just right, it's our chance; you don't want people in Chen Family Village to be plagued by evil spirits, right?"
Sun Yan patted Chen Xijiu's arm, encouraging this guy who'd become fearful internally.
Having dealt with many exorcism events, Sun Yan knew clearly that the more tense one felt, the less one should panic, otherwise it would give the evil spirit a chance.
Sun Yan confidently thought that with himself and Zhou Haidong, even if the red-clothed evil spirit intended to act, it couldn't succeed in a short time.
What he had to do was find a way to seize the opportunity to exorcise the evil spirit.
Sun Yan's reassurance made everyone slightly calmer, the group passed through the placed mirrors, continuing towards the depths of the tunnel.
Soon, the road in front widened, a room appeared before them with a wall covered in flags, and the floor filled with numerous mud figurine divine statues.
If time wasn't spent, it would be difficult to count the number of these mud figurine divine statues in the room.
All these mud figurines were draped with red robes painted with scriptures, whether joyful or smiling, their expressions varied, yet unanimously gazing towards the center of the room—
A headless gilded bronze statue placed atop a Lotus Treasure Pillar sculpted from white rock.
Its left three arms held a trident, butcher's knife, and a blood bowl.
The right three arms carried a red-faced, fang-toothed head, supported a six-legged toad, with the third arm posed like a blooming flower.
It was exactly like the painting that Sun Yan's group had seen earlier atop the shrine.
At this moment, before the Lotus Treasure Pillar, knelt three motionless men.
They wore old leather jackets and jeans, a pair of Nike sneakers on their feet, marking them as outsiders.
"It's them! The Chen Family Village people who initially headed to the shrine."
Seeing the three intact kneeling on the ground, Wang Heqiang exclaimed in surprise.
He had always thought only one person survived escaping the shrine, indicating the others were dead.
Unexpectedly, upon arriving at this place today, he saw such an eerie scene.
"Do you know any of these people?" Sun Yan asked Chen Xijiu.
Chen Xijiu shook his head: "Never seen them, and in our village over the years, there's been no news of anyone missing."
"Then it's strange, there are outsiders in the Underworld like us."
Sun Yan frowned, gesturing to Zhou Haidong and others not to approach the men kneeling and bowing: "Don't disturb them."
In Sun Yan's Celestial Eye, these people were still alive, but their bodies were very strange, with evil energy continuously dissipating from their abdomen.
Combined with the various bizarre events of this shrine, Sun Yan felt an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
"Wah~ wah~ wah~"
Suddenly, the sound of a baby's crying echoed from an unknown direction.
The flashlights held by Sun Yan, Zhou Haidong, and Chen Xijiu simultaneously short-circuited at this moment; no matter how they pressed the switch, they couldn't emit any light.
The atmosphere in the entire room instantly became eerie because of this.
Facing the endless darkness around, even a trace of fear appeared on Zhou Haidong's face.
Darkness is the most primal fear deep within the human heart.
And the unknown brought by darkness will intensify this fear to the extreme.
Suddenly, the flashlight in Zhou Haidong's hand returned to normal, casting a beam of light ahead.
Instantly, everyone saw in the corner of the room, a woman in a red dress with long hair hanging over her shoulders, standing quietly with her back to them.
She stood there motionless, but at that moment, she uttered a gloomy voice: "Why me, why choose me."
Sun Yan and his group stood there, holding their breath, not daring to make a sound, fearing to provoke the Evil Spirit in front of them.
Yet, in the blink of an eye, the woman in the red dress suddenly disappeared.
Zhou Haidong scanned around with his flashlight, unable to find any trace of the woman in the red dress, and only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
Sun Yan seemed to recall something, swiftly turned around, and immediately saw in the corridor they came from, the red-clad Evil Spirit standing there with wild hair, already blocking their retreat.
As soon as Sun Yan discovered this, the red-clad Evil Spirit suddenly raised its head and lunged forward with a bizarre posture, directly targeting Wang Heqiang.
"Quick, dodge!"
Sun Yan shouted immediately and quickly pulled out a lighter, intending to light the three incense sticks in his hand.
An Evil Spirit is rare, and only spirits that died with deep resentment can reach this level, but when they appear, they are far more troublesome than an ordinary Evil Spirit.
Sun Yan did not have the Ghost Torturing Stick on him, and now he must rely on General Sun's power to defeat and expel this red-clad Evil Spirit.
"Watch out!"
Zhou Haidong reached out to push Wang Heqiang away, preventing him from being attacked by the red-clad Evil Spirit, but in doing so, he himself became the Evil Spirit's target.
Seeing the Evil Spirit reaching out its hands towards him, Zhou Haidong directly threw the Bluestone he was holding.
At the moment the Bluestone hit the red-clad Evil Spirit, white smoke emerged, and the Evil Spirit let out a shriek as the Bluestone pierced a hole in its chest, which could not heal.
This Bluestone looked ordinary but remarkably affected the Evil Spirit in exorcism.
"Oh no." Zhou Haidong looked at the furious red-clad Evil Spirit, his heart sinking.
As a Spirit Medium, he was good at exorcising spirits and removing curses, but facing an Evil Spirit was his weak point.
Exorcism has always been Zhou Haidong's shortcoming, so upon receiving the request from Chen Family Village, he thought of inviting Sun Yan to join him.
Having seen Sun Yan's exorcism skills firsthand, Zhou Haidong wanted to recruit him as his muscle.
Seeing that even the Cyan Stone Magical Artifact, symbolizing Cyan Stone Divine Power, could not disperse the soul of the red-clad Evil Spirit, Zhou Haidong realized he was no match for it.
To deal with this red-clad Evil Spirit, he had to rely on Sun Yan.
However, before he could turn to Sun Yan for help, a pair of pale woman's hands had already grasped his neck.
Zhou Haidong quickly took out several peace talismans given by Zhao Chuan Yi earlier and slapped them forcefully onto the face of the Evil Spirit.
But at that moment, the peace talismans only emitted a weak golden light, quickly self-combusting into ashes, with no effect whatsoever.
"What?!" Zhou Haidong was instantly shocked, his eyes widening in disbelief, with deep despair rising in his heart.
This self-hanged vengeful spirit is this powerful?
"Let him go!"
Wang Heqiang, who was pushed aside by Zhou Haidong, saw this and quickly raised the Opera Saber used in performances, vigorously slashing towards the red-clad Evil Spirit.
Having sung opera for ghosts in Chen Family Village's Underworld for many years, it was apparent he had a strong heart; otherwise, a timid person would have collapsed long ago.
Seeing Zhou Haidong in trouble, Wang Heqiang, having just received help from him, could not stand by without assisting.
Just as the Guan Gong's Great Saber was about to strike the Evil Spirit, Wang Heqiang suddenly rolled his eyes back, revealing a strange smile, and casually dropped the Saber to the ground, heading straight for the Lotus Treasure Pillar.
Soon, he assumed the same posture as the kneeling worshippers, prostrating motionlessly at the base of the Lotus Treasure Pillar.
Strange events continued to unfold, leaving Chen Xijiu, Fang Nuo, and Liu Anshi speechless with shock.
For ordinary people like them, they couldn't process all this in a short time, their thoughts lingering on Zhou Haidong with his neck pinned, hesitating whether to save him or not.
It seemed if this continued, Zhou Haidong might be strangled to death by the red-clad Evil Spirit.
Chen Xijiu gritted his teeth, throwing a punch towards the face of the red-clad Evil Spirit, but the next second, his fist passed right through the Evil Spirit's head.
Chen Xijiu instantly became dazed, kneeling on the ground, mindlessly started slapping his own cheeks.
After two people fell into possession in quick succession, Fang Nuo and Liu Anshi could no longer bear the bizarre scene, immediately turned and ran, quickly disappearing into the corridor's darkness from where they came.
Sun Yan watched them flee but dared not stop them, as he had lit the three incense sticks and placed them on his head.
With the initiation of the 'Divination Child', his body trembled, and the familiar feeling emerged once again, Sun Yan knew very well that General Sun had possessed him, and to avoid losing the power, he absolutely could not speak.
Looking at the red-clad Evil Spirit clutching Zhou Haidong, a great force seemed to surge within Sun Yan, driving him to step the Three-Step Praise, fearlessly approaching the red-clad Evil Spirit.
With a step forward, Wang Heqiang's Opera Saber abruptly lifted, seized by Sun Yan in his grasp.
His arms swung the Saber handle, striking with a domineering demon-exorcising force—one decisive slash!