Chapter 72: Be Good When You Arrive
Zhou Shiqing: What the hell are you farting! Who is yours?!
Zhou Shiqing: Who the hell are you! Let go! If you don’t let go, I’ll call the police!!
Zhou Shiqing: ???
Zhou Shiqing realized he couldn’t hear his own voice.
He had clearly opened his mouth, so why couldn’t he hear his own voice?
At that moment, Zhou Shiqing heard a clear, crisp voice from beside him reply: “You’re mistaken, he is not yours.”
This voice belonged to Xuan Xia.
Zhou Shiqing’s originally irritable mood was immediately soothed somewhat.
But then he felt something was off again—why did Xuan Xia’s voice have sound?
Zhou Shiqing turned his head, wanting to find Xuan Xia to confirm the situation. But just as he turned halfway, the Ritual Master suddenly went mad for some reason, abruptly increasing the force gripping his shoulder, causing pain so intense that his soul nearly flew out.
Zhou Shiqing, who least wanted to show weakness in front of others, couldn’t hold back a cry of pain.
His legs even went weak.
But because his shoulder was clamped by the Ritual Master, he was now like a marionette, unable to move as he wished.
At the same time, he heard the Ritual Master repeat in that strange voice: “The one I have my eye on is mine!”
Zhou Shiqing couldn’t help cursing inwardly—what do you mean the one you have your eye on is yours!?
If he hadn’t been caught off guard earlier and was now in too much pain to have any strength, he could have smashed his fist into the other’s face.
“The one you have your eye on doesn’t count.” Xuan Xia’s voice came again, her tone slow and leisurely, as if deliberately teasing.
But was it appropriate to tease at a time like this?
Zhou Shiqing clearly felt the Ritual Master abruptly increase the force on his shoulder after Xuan Xia said that.
……Numb.
Painfully numb.
The Ritual Master suddenly acted like a child who couldn’t get candy, emitting a series of “mine mine mine,” the voice changing endlessly, as if dozens of male, female, old, and young voices were mixed together.
At this point, Zhou Shiqing finally sensed something was wrong, his whole body tensing up.
And the hand pulling his wrist suddenly tightened, and at the same time, an arm extended from his side, palm upward, the slender white middle finger rigidly raised.
“I said, he is not yours!”
Zhou Shiqing: ……
Are you tired of living? Giving the middle finger to whatever that thing is?!
The next second, that long, straight raised middle finger jabbed right into the forehead of the Ritual Master’s mask.
The Ritual Master seemed startled by the finger and immediately released Zhou Shiqing, retreating a small distance to confront Xuan Xia.
With this sudden release, Zhou Shiqing knelt straight to the ground.
Just as he knelt, the hand that had been pulling his wrist also let go, followed by a yellow talisman slapped directly onto his forehead, accompanied by Xuan Xia’s voice, “Settle Spirit, Settle Soul, Settle Mind.”
Zhou Shiqing: ……
After saying the three “settles,” Xuan Xia glanced at Zhou Shiqing’s eyes half-covered by the yellow talisman and, seeing signs of anger in them, finally relaxed.
Then it was time for her to let loose.
“Come on, perfect for me to test.” Xuan Xia pulled out a handful of talismans, holding them like a satchel of explosives, and walked straight toward the Ritual Master.
The Ritual Master wearing the Ghost Shell Mask tilted his head slightly, but his true face was hidden under the massive mask, so Xuan Xia couldn’t see his expression or tell if he was afraid of her… or the talismans in her hand.
But she couldn’t worry about that now; when she was still a few steps away, she first flung the talismans in her hand, then formed hand seals and chanted a spell.
This time, she chanted the Thunder Spell.
Newly learned.
She didn’t know how effective it would be, so this Ghost Shell Mask-wearing Ritual Master was perfect for testing.
So when the spell was complete, the talisman papers she had thrown all crackled like they were electrified, flashing with blue-purple lightning, all rushing toward the Ghost Shell Mask at once.
A shrill scream came from under the Ghost Shell Mask.
Zhou Shiqing watched this scene wide-eyed, somewhat stunned.
He deeply suspected he hadn’t slept well the night before and was hallucinating from exhaustion.
While the Ghost Shell Mask was howling, Xuan Xia didn’t idle, continuing to change hand seals and chant spells, throwing yellow talismans like they were free.
After another “Illusion Break,” the noisy human voices were like a pause button being canceled, flooding into his ears like a tide in an instant.
What he saw before him was still the familiar village, but the scene was chaotic.
The first thing Zhou Shiqing saw was the Ritual Master who had grabbed his shoulder.
That Ritual Master was now being pulled back by several Nuoxi Masters, while Hong PD and the others surrounded him, chattering loudly asking if he was okay.
Zhou Shiqing also wanted to check if he was okay, so he looked for Xuan Xia—after all, he had just watched her perform some indescribable feudal superstition.
But as soon as his line of sight moved, darkness greeted him.
“Aaaah Teacher Zhou—” Hong PD saw Zhou Shiqing’s eyes roll back as he fainted, fumbling to support him while screaming in fright.
The other staff joined in the screaming.
Xuan Xia: “……”
Right now, the Nuoxi Altar side was in total chaos.
One group centered on the Ritual Master; the Nuoxi Masters didn’t know what had gone wrong with him, abandoning the Rite of Passage Ceremony subject to grab a visitor, so they hurriedly pulled him away, urgently casting spells and forming hand seals to send off the god, hoping to restore the Ritual Master’s clarity.
But that Ritual Master struggled all the way, so the Nuoxi Masters had to exert some effort.
Another group was Hong PD and the others; with Zhou Shiqing fainting like this, Hong PD and his group were scared out of their wits. A bunch of people hurriedly carried him, intending to take him back to Father Chu’s house.
The final group was the Rite of Passage Ceremony child and his parents.
The child had suddenly been thrown aside by the Ritual Master, scaring his parents badly, and even drawing all the relatives from the child’s family to gather, checking on the child.
Xuan Xia took advantage of the surrounding chaos to squeeze over to the child’s parents.
The child’s mother was holding the child and crying her heart out.
The people around were busy comforting her, and no one noticed Xuan Xia secretly wrapping talisman paper around the bell on the child’s neck while forming hand seals.
***
A Nuoxi Ritual was forced to interrupt due to the sudden incident.
The Program Group’s stomachs were unsettled, plus Zhou Shiqing who had fainted and knew nothing, so Hong PD, fearing something else might happen if they stayed, hurriedly fled Chu Miao Village.
Back to the city, to the hospital!
After the group urgently sought medical attention, the work group members were hospitalized under the name of acute gastroenteritis, while Zhou Shiqing…
After examination, the doctor said there was nothing wrong, and as for why he wouldn’t wake up, after hearing the sequence of events from Hong PD and the others, the doctor thought it was likely syncope caused by shock.
“It’s fine, keep him hospitalized for observation overnight,” the doctor said.
So, the group was all admitted to the hospital.
Except for Xuan Xia and Yang Wanxiu.
After confirming everyone was settled in the hospital, Xuan Xia used some unconventional treatment methods, then bid farewell to Hong PD with peace of mind; she and Yang Wanxiu caught an early flight home.
Hong PD watched them leave, extremely envious.
This was the worst situation Hong PD had encountered in his career.
Who could have thought they’d be fine on the way here, but couldn’t go back.
