Chapter 182: The Kingpin Of Counterfeiting
As soon as the room door closed, Xuan Xia pointed toward the diagonal corner of the room, and Yan Wentao already understood. He slowly formed hand seals with his hands and stepped with the Gait of the Dipper, moving into the room.
Xuan Xia picked up a glass vase placed on the coffee table nearby and followed toward the direction where the ghost fled.
Yan Wentao was like a large searchlight, gradually illuminating the corner of the room blocked by the display cabinet.
When only a few steps remained, Yan Wentao took a big stride forward and pointed toward the corner with a hand seal, shouting, “Foul malice disperse.”
The result was that there was nothing there.
Yan Wentao was momentarily stunned, but his vigilance did not waver. He quickly exchanged a glance with Xuan Xia and was about to probe other corners when suddenly bright light appeared in the room.
The extra brightness instantly lit up the entire room, accompanied by Daoist Master Qin’s confident voice: “The thing from earlier is no longer in this room.”
Now it was Xuan Xia who was stunned, belatedly realizing that the ghost in this scene could indeed move freely between rooms.
It seemed it really had a bit more intelligence than last time.
She squeezed the vase in her hand, turned to look at Daoist Master Qin, and then discovered that the extra light in the room came from Daoist Master Qin performing the Light Borrowing Technique in the room as well.
Thinking of the Light Borrowing Technique, she remembered something else. “Daoist Master Qin, how do you perform your Light Borrowing Technique?”
As she asked, she walked closer to Daoist Master Qin, her gaze already fixed on the fingertip of his right hand.
Sure enough, the tips of his index and middle fingers were bright red.
No wonder in that critical moment earlier, she saw a blood bead flash past her eyes. It was because of that strike that the ghost was forced back—she really hadn’t been mistaken.
“You…”
Before Xuan Xia could fully say “you,” Daoist Master Qin interrupted with a laughing, nonchalant tone: “Necessary measure.”
After saying that, he rolled up his sleeve until his wrist was exposed.
Watching his actions, Xuan Xia’s eyelids twitched. She suspected he was rolling up his sleeve now to make it convenient for bleeding later.
Daoist Master Qin glanced up, his tone unusually light: “Only losing more than thirty percent of total blood volume rapidly poses a life-threatening risk.”
At this point, he paused, then continued: “Leaving aside the conditions of ‘massive’ and ‘rapid,’ we would surely have escaped before reaching thirty percent of total blood volume.”
Xuan Xia facepalmed: “…”
Even Yan Wentao, who was still carefully checking the room corners, was momentarily speechless upon hearing this. He glanced toward them, also directing the large light bulb on his chest their way.
“You don’t think that’s funny?”
Daoist Master Qin restrained his earlier tone and said seriously: “No. I just mean that drawing a few talismans won’t consume much.”
Xuan Xia: “…” She really couldn’t agree.
Because she disagreed so much, Xuan Xia raised her hand and smashed the vase against the sharp corner of the coffee table. With a loud “clang,” the vase shattered into pieces, leaving her holding the bottleneck.
Now, the two Daoist Masters: “…”
Yan Wentao had finished checking and confirmed there was nothing else in the room. He originally wanted to turn back but now hesitated, not daring to walk back.
However, Xuan Xia called to him: “Daoist Master Yan, come here.”
“…Okay.” Yan Wentao looked helpless but could only walk over to Xuan Xia.
As he approached, Xuan Xia said again: “Daoist Master Yan, maybe back up instead. It’s a bit dazzling.”
Yan Wentao: “…”
To be honest, earlier it was an emergency, and everyone was in darkness, unable to grasp the surroundings. Daoist Master Qin performed the Light Borrowing Technique, so he hadn’t thought much of it.
But now with ample light in the room, Yan Wentao also felt his chest was brightly lit, making him look particularly silly.
However, he didn’t listen to Xuan Xia. Instead, he grabbed the dust cover from the nearby sofa and wrapped it around himself, blocking the light.
Now it felt much better.
Yan Wentao walked to Xuan Xia’s side, and she reached out to pick up a piece of vase shard and hand it to him.
“This…” Yan Wentao hesitated as he took it, unable to resist saying: “Boss, you don’t actually believe Teacher Qin’s words, do you?”
Wanting him to do the bloodletting for drawing talismans?
Yan Wentao looked at Xuan Xia, then at Daoist Master Qin behind, feeling a mix of jealousy and something else.
Xuan Xia facepalmed again. “If you wanted to self-harm, I wouldn’t allow it either! I gave this to you so we can use the shards to draw talismans on the walls, doors, and floor!”
“Ah, true enough.” Yan Wentao realized.
As for Daoist Master Qin, Xuan Xia thought for a moment and handed him a shard too, but with a warning: “No more self-harm!”
Daoist Master Qin curved the corner of his mouth. “Okay.”
After getting the assurance, Xuan Xia remembered to ask Daoist Master Qin why he was so sure the ghost wasn’t in this room.
Daoist Master Qin explained that while performing the technique the first time, he had invoked a bit of the Divine Eye Technique, but it only lasted a short time, about two or three minutes—just enough to enter the room and check its safety.
This also explained why Daoist Master Qin had spilled the blood so timely in the critical moment.
After hearing this, Xuan Xia wanted to invoke this divine ability too, but upon learning from Daoist Master Qin that its duration was short, it could only be invoked once a day, and since she hadn’t specially practiced it, invoking it might cause exhaustion and damage her vital energy, she gave up the idea.
She didn’t want to cause any trouble and burden them.
The three discussed it and finally decided to stick with Xuan Xia’s method from last time: draw all the talismans in the corridor.
This time it wasn’t just Xuan Xia working alone; the three divided the work and cooperated, with surprisingly high efficiency.
While they were busy, the hiding ghost of course didn’t stay hidden the whole time. It occasionally made sounds from nearby rooms behind doors, as if trying to lure them to open the door for another sneak attack.
But Xuan Xia and the others ignored it, focusing on completing their task. Anyway, soon this noisy ghost would get to fully experience the results of their labor.
Among the three working, the first to feel tired was naturally Yan Wentao.
His speed of drawing talismans was originally not as fast as Daoist Master Qin and Xuan Xia. Struggling to keep up with their pace was fine for a short while, but over time, even with his good stamina, he gradually felt overwhelmed.
Finally, he couldn’t help asking: “How many more do we need to draw?”
Xuan Xia and Daoist Master Qin exchanged a glance, then looked at their handiwork along the way. Every segment had the Light Borrowing Technique performed, and now the originally dark corridor looked like a brightly lit street.
Where was there any hint of unknown terror?
Xuan Xia was about to answer Yan Wentao when rustling sounds came from a nearby room again.
It was like something dragging on the ground. Soon, banging knocks came from a door near Xuan Xia.
The three immediately exchanged glances. Xuan Xia was closest and wanted to say she’d grab the ghost, but Yan Wentao spoke first: “I’ll do it.”
Xuan Xia had no choice but to swap positions with him. While making space for Yan Wentao, she gripped her vase shard tightly, ready to provide backup at any time.
Driven by a desire to quickly resolve everything and not waste their earlier efforts by starting over, Yan Wentao opened the door, engaged the ghost hiding in the room, and flung it out in one seamless, fluid sequence.
Once the sneaky ghost was pinned to the corridor floor, none of the three held back. The full power of the talismans along the entire corridor was unleashed on it.
Amid the dazzling thunder light, Xuan Xia even had time to think distractedly that eating the same loss twice meant this ghost had grown some brains, but obviously not much.
The corridor space was limited, and thunderfire enveloped it. Soon, the entire corridor began to tremble, and fragments of dust from the ceiling started falling.
This was different from last time. Xuan Xia instinctively looked up, and at that moment, the entire ceiling collapsed.
Everything happened in an instant.
But the change also occurred in that instant.
Xuan Xia maintained her upward gaze, but the falling ceiling was gone, replaced by the pitch-black night sky.
Suddenly, bright light flashed down. Following it, Xuan Xia saw a long bolt of lightning streak across the horizon, silently illuminating half the night sky.
This was…
Xuan Xia’s mouth opened slightly, going from hesitation to shock in an instant, in the flash of a spiritual light.
Then she said: “Daoist Master Qin, so that fake Mountain Mirage Fiend was also made by Ren Yaozhe!”
Daoist Master Qin furrowed his brow.
He hadn’t entered that fake Mountain Mirage Fiend, but he already knew the inside situation clearly from Xuan Xia and Qu Xingxuan’s descriptions.
Even if Xuan Xia hadn’t realized it, he had already reached this conclusion.
So the so-called Mountain Mirage Fiend was actually Ren Yaozhe’s handiwork!
Daoist Master Qin’s brow furrowed even tighter.
“Mountain Mirage Fiend?” Yan Wentao was startled by the name.
Xuan Xia was still in shock but instinctively corrected: “Fake Mountain Mirage Fiend.”
Fake?
“Fake?” A voice overlapped with Yan Wentao’s inner thought.
Yan Wentao was startled, nearly thinking his mind had been read.
But he quickly realized the voice belonged to Ren Yaozhe.
Ren Yaozhe had appeared at some point, standing a short distance behind the three of them.
Xuan Xia was also startled by the sudden voice, but after quickly turning to lock onto Ren Yaozhe, she showed no sign of being scared.
With a calm expression as she looked at Ren Yaozhe, she shot back: “Obviously fake. You didn’t think what you made was very realistic, did you?”
Ren Yaozhe chuckled meaningfully a few times, not arguing with Xuan Xia, but said in a somewhat wistful tone: “Give me a bit more time, and I could successfully create a Mirage Fiend.”
“Fake is fake. Give you more time, and it’s still fake.”
She retorted quickly, but Xuan Xia was very puzzled inside why Ren Yaozhe was devoted to creating Illusionary Scenery and even wanted to create a Mirage Fiend.
Could it be he wanted to be an inventor or manufacturer in the Mystic Sect world?
No, that was giving him too much credit. At best, he was just a counterfeiter!
