Not long afterward, Chuyi smoothed his furrowed brows and glanced at me and Zhou Tian. Then, without saying a word, he closed the window. Afterward, he drew his eight-faced Han sword and stabbed the gold-threaded handkerchief.

He just wanted to force the thing inside to come out, so he withdrew the sword as soon as he touched the cloth.

The gold-threaded handkerchief sizzled. Then, we heard a seductive woman’s voice. “Ouch, why did you have to poke me there…”

This voice was so captivating that my mouth felt dry. Instinctively, I read the sacred text of Daoism to calm down. Zhou Tian covered his crotch and headed to the toilet.

When I pulled myself together, I saw a beautiful woman come out of the handkerchief. She wore a white fox fur upper garment and a skirt made of translucent gauze. Her entire body looked mesmerizing, especially her seductive and charming eyes. She looked a lot like the legendary fox spirit Daji.

When she noticed that I was looking at her, she said sweetly, “A moment of love is worth more than one thousand gold ingots. I can tell you are already tired. How about you rest here with me?”

She then undressed and crossed her legs, putting a finger in her mouth. Her other hand gestured to me to go to her.

I couldn’t resist the temptation and wanted to jump on her. Chuyi drew his sword again. This time, he used all of his strength to stab through the gold-threaded handkerchief.

The woman shrieked painfully. She turned into a mass of mist and dispersed. I noticed that the handkerchief had lost its luster. Moreover, the part that Chuyi had stabbed started to ooze a black liquid.

“What happened?” I asked.

That woman wasn’t Chuyi’s opponent, and when Chuyi dealt with spirits, he always chose to help them ascend. This time, he didn’t even give the woman time to talk. I was puzzled as he had killed her in one strike.

“If she didn’t die, Bianhe would never rest…” Chuyi picked up the handkerchief and handed it to me. He asked me to sniff it. I cocked my head and took a sniff of the strong, foul smell. I couldn’t help but frown.

“Was that woman a fox spirit?”

“Yeah, she was a fox spirit. This sort of spirit always seduces men to suck their essence. I don’t know who trapped this fox spirit inside this gold-threaded handkerchief, but since the handkerchief and the Heshibi were in contact for quite a long time, the two spirits must have felt each other’s existence. I think the fox spirit might have tried to seduce Bianhe.”

“Bianhe was known for being noble and virtuous, so he wouldn’t fall for the fox’s enticement. Left with no choice, he was forced to become an otherworldly spirit,” Chuyi explained to me.

I nodded. We didn’t need to show mercy to this sort of beastly spirit. Even though they had a human form, they didn’t have a human heart. We couldn’t tame them or teach them. However, I felt sorry for losing the gold-threaded handkerchief.

Chuyi unwrapped the bandage on my foot and sprinkled glutinous rice powder on the wound. My soles felt itchy, so I subconsciously wanted to scratch the wound. Chuyi grabbed my hand and said in a serious voice, “Don’t move. I’m going to expel the Yin energy in your wounds.”

As he increased his force, I gradually got used to the feeling of pain in my feet. I could feel the movement of cold currents in my body, which headed to my soles. Soon, the pure white powder turned pitch black.

He then took out a small container from his bag and squeezed out some paste that looked like toothpaste. He applied it to my wounds. The pain was so sharp that I screamed. Zhou Tian and Chuyi held my limbs tightly. They didn’t release me until my feet felt completely numb.

Surprisingly, the pain was gone shortly after. I looked at my feet and saw that the wounds had closed. I tried to walk a few steps. There was no pain at all!

I felt happy and patted Chuyi’s shoulder. “You're incredible. If you have time, can you teach me?”

“Haha.” It was rare for Chuyi to laugh out loud. Then, with a cold face, he asked, “Do you know where that old man’s hiding?”

I pulled myself together. “At that time, he noticed me as I was following him, so I don’t know where he’s staying. However, since he just came here to finish me off, I’m sure he left a trace.”

With that thought, I rushed downstairs with Chuyi. We bribed the guard so that we could check the surveillance cameras. Soon, we saw the old man leaving my ward. He went downstairs, took off his lab coat and mask, and left the hospital.

A few hundred meters away from the hospital was an intersection, so we couldn’t guess which direction he went in.

Chuyi sighed. “If my little Daoist boy was here, he would have been able to track the old man’s Yang energy.”

I now remembered that I had Little Lin. I released him from the paper crane.

Little Lin was excited. But as he was about to roll and jump around, he saw Chuyi. The boy immediately paled and rushed back to me. He hid behind my shoulder. It seemed he felt threatened by Chuyi.

“Don’t be scared. He’s on our side.” I smiled and rubbed the boy’s head. Then, I pouted and said to Chuyi, “What do you think? I adopted him for you.”

Chuyi gave the boy a faint glance and asked, “Why are you afraid of me?”

Little Lin lowered his head.

“Because you’re intimidating,” he answered slowly.

Chuyi nodded. He bit his finger until it bled and brought it to Little Lin’s mouth. I could tell he liked this little ghost. Instinctively, Little Lin moved forward to drink Chuyi’s blood. However, at the last moment, he paused and looked at me with hesitation.

I felt touched and nodded. “Go, boy! He’s stronger than me. He can help you revive faster.”

Little Lin happily drank Chuyi’s blood, becoming his new little footman.

Chuyi asked Little Lin to smell the old man’s Yang energy from the bronze box. The boy followed the smell and roamed around the hospital. In the end, he was able to discover the old man’s whereabouts. All of us immediately rushed after him.

On the way there, I saw that Zhou Tian didn’t look too good. When we were checking the surveillance cameras, I had already noticed his strange look. I was afraid that something had happened to him when we weren’t paying attention. “Hey, are you okay? Is something the matter?”

“No, it’s nothing. I’m okay.” Zhou Tian shook his head and tried to look normal. He walked ahead of us. Now, I was even more sure that there was something wrong with him.

Chuyi quietly reached his hand to stop me. I turned to him and saw him glancing at Zhou Tian. My heart sank, and I became more vigilant.

After following Little Lin for a while, we reached the construction site I was at yesterday. It seemed the old man was heading home. When we reached the iron bar fence, Little Lin stopped. He became flustered and scanned the place.

I was already tense, so I quickly grabbed the Yin and Yang Umbrella and carefully watched the ground under my feet. Chuyi also drew his eight-faced Han sword, pressing his back against mine. We scanned our surroundings, but the place was dead silent. There was nothing strange about it.

A moment later, Chuyi put his sword back in its sheath and looked at Little Lin skeptically. “Did you make a mistake?”

Little Lin shook his head. His face looked restless as he looked around. However, he couldn’t locate the target.

Eventually, Chuyi waved his hand. “Don’t worry. Just take us there with your senses.”

Little Lin was scared but listened to Chuyi.

We continued walking a few more miles. We started to see fewer structures and construction sites, while the number of paddy fields and random wooden lodges increased. From a distance, the lodges looked small and dark. I wondered if people lived there.

Suddenly, I heard Zhou Tian scream from a wooden lodge a few hundred meters away. I was aghast and turned to check. Zhou Tian wasn’t with us!

“What’s going on?!”

Chuyi also noticed that Zhou Tian had disappeared. He frowned and asked, “Who is this Zhou Tian?”

I told Chuyi the truth. “I don’t know if there’s something wrong with him, but the otherworldly item has been targeting him since the beginning.”

Ever since we came to this area, Chuyi and I had paid attention to our surroundings to see if the enemy would attack, forgetting about Zhou Tian. We didn’t even know when he disappeared.

However, I was sure that when Little Lin stopped earlier, Zhou Tian was still with us. At that time, he was holding the bronze box, and his expression was strange. With this sudden memory, I panicked. “Was Little Lin flustered because of Zhou Tian?”

“We have no time to think about that!” Chuyi didn’t linger and sprinted toward the lodge in the far distance. With my feet wounded, I was much slower than him. In the blink of an eye, he was already ten meters ahead of me. As I was about to run after him, a force held me from behind. Instantly, I felt a burning pain.