Some people in the village started to have the same problem. Their symptoms were like that of Old Hong. After midnight, they would run away from home and vow something. Then, they would start to burn the homes of rich people.

At first, there was only one person affected. Gradually, the number increased. This was the real purpose of the spirit!

This group of people hated evildoers as their archenemies. They even went to the rich houses and robbed them in daylight! It was no use to report to the police because they didn’t remember what had happened to them or what they had done. The police were helpless.

Old Hong’s family members sighed and were worried. Of course, they knew what was causing trouble to the villagers.

“Brother Jiulin, wasn’t that thing destroyed?” asked Hong Tianbao gloomily.

I didn’t know how to answer him. The otherworldly item was imprisoned by my talismans. In theory, such incidents shouldn’t happen.

Li Mazi saw our glum faces and half-joked with us. “Perhaps the ghost of Hong Xiuquan deceived us…”

After listening to Li Mazi, I carefully replayed the incidents in my head. I knew I had underestimated Hong Xiuquan. I had hit him several times and nothing had happened to him, so how could my last attack expel him so easily?

He had fooled me!

He knew I had a way of dealing with him. Even if he’d latched onto Old Hong, he couldn’t do anything. As such, he pretended to be defeated and let me get the red turban.

We would think that the case was solved and let our guard down. This would give him time to replenish his soul, making it easier for him to find a body to possess later!

We could say that he had succeeded. Those people had lost their minds and started to burn houses and rob people. Hong Xiuquan had taken one step back to advance even further!

I suddenly jolted up. Hong Tianbao and Li Mazi were startled. They thought that I was possessed, too.

I didn’t talk to them but entered the house. I started to recall everything that happened in the past half month.

At nightfall, Hong Tianbao suddenly called me and told me that he needed to discuss something with me. He brought me out of the house and went to a deserted area. There was no one else but us here.

There was something wrong with Hong Tianbao. Discreetly, I put up my guard.

“Jiulin, brother!” Hong Tianbao lit up a cigarette and puffed twice.

I nodded and signaled at him to continue. He fumed a ring of smoke. His tone was heavy and worried. “I didn’t want to tell you this but since it has come to this point, I’m afraid that if I don’t tell you, it will become a real disaster…”

Hong Tianbao was keeping a secret from me all this time!

I was a little angry but anger couldn’t help me with anything now. “Do tell me…”

It turned out that Old Hong had a grudge against every family in Jintian Village!

Hong Tianbao was doing jade business in another province, so he didn’t come home very often. Hong Tianjiang was a simple, middle-aged man that hadn’t married. Old Hong worked in their fields all the time. In this village, their family was at a disadvantage.

The other villagers thought that Hong Tianbao was rich due to his business, so they wanted to take advantage of this family. Old Hong was enraged. He quarreled and fought with the others in the fields. Hong Tianjiang came in time to stop them, so no one was harmed.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Old Hong smoothened his anger the next day, he found that all his crops were burned down!

Many people were present at the fight. Old Hong didn’t know who did that to his family. That was why he had kept a grudge against all of them. Old Hong had called Hong Tianbao to tell him about this. However, Hong Tianbao thought that it was just a trivial grudge.

Afterward, Old Hong put on the red turban and the strange incidents started.

I opened my eyes wide in shock. Did Old Hong have a deal with that otherworldly item? Could it be that he let the otherworldly item control his body to help it fulfill something and that the otherworldly item was going to help him take revenge? Was that why some houses were burned?

If so, everything made sense. Old Hong didn’t forget anything, and the video wasn’t deleted unknowingly. He remembered everything!

It was no wonder he had tried his best to protect the red turban. It wasn’t his family heirloom! He was afraid that I would find out!

But then, there was one thing I wasn’t clear about… “If that’s the case, why did he tell me about the origin of the red turban?”

Hong Tianbao shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps, my father felt guilty. He has been an honest farmer for his whole life. He has never harmed anybody proactively.”

That was why they wanted to keep me here in case something horrible happened.

“Oh, there’s one more thing. The red turban you have is a fake one.” Hong Tianbao threw me a heavier bomb.

What the heck? Fake? I had risked my life to get a fake red turban?

Hong Tianbao said, “I’ve seen the red turban my father said was our family heirloom. It’s old, so the color can’t be that bright. Moreover, it has a bloodstain that looks like a flower. The turban you have has a bright color and is pretty clean. That day, I panicked and didn’t pay attention to these details. Until these two past days, when the incidents started to happen again, I recognized that it wasn’t the right red turban.”

I took a deep breath. “If that turban is fake, where is the real one? I didn’t see your father wear red turbans.”

“I don’t know. I decided to tell you this because I can see that things are getting worse. I don’t want to live with this secret as it will trouble me for the rest of my life. Brother Jiulin, we have to count on you now. Whether that red turban is fake or not, a wisp of the real ghost is there! I’ve been with you for a while, and I now know that the incomplete spirit will become weaker without that wisp of soul.” Hong Tianbao was smart and he had the right analysis.

I sighed. “It’s no use. We don’t know where that spirit is hiding. From the current incidents in the village, I know the spirit is weakened, but it’s still very powerful.”

I patted Hong Tianbao’s shoulder and asked him not to worry too much. “I’ve accepted this case, so I will try my best. I don’t want to see our good fellows become evil due to a spirit.”

Hong Tianbao heaved a sigh of relief. At this moment, Hong Tianjiang rushed from a far distance. He was looking for me.

I exchanged smiles with Hong Tianbao and thought that Hong Tianjiang had also realized that something was wrong and wanted to tell me the truth. Unexpectedly, Hong Tianjiang didn’t say anything about that. “Bad things have happened to a family in the village. You should go and see yourself.”

Of course, I didn’t refuse. Hong Tianbao went home to take care of Old Hong while I left with Hong Tianjiang to that family.

It was the Li family living at the end of the village. There was a long distance between the Hong family’s house and Li's house. Along the way, I chatted with Hong Tianjiang. I was amazed that Hong Tianjiang, a simple and nice farmer who didn’t talk much, could become so talkative today. However, his story was interesting enough that I wasn’t bored at all.

I didn’t care too much and thought that perhaps it was because Old Hong was all right now. He was probably feeling much better.

We had walked for around ten minutes until we reached the Li family’s house. The sky was completely dark, but there was no light in that house. There was a table set up in the middle of the courtyard with a flickering candle on it. I saw a shadow sitting there by a flickering candle. However, I couldn’t see that person’s face.

“Don’t be scared. Widow Li’s husband passed away a long time ago. Her husband left her with a son. This family is really poor. To support her son to finish his schooling, she incurred big debts. That’s why she doesn’t want to turn on the lights when her son isn’t home. She wants to save money. You see, she only has a candle.”

I understood her story and followed Hong Tianjiang into the courtyard.

Unexpectedly, after we entered the courtyard, Hong Tianjiang told me that he had something urgent to do and that he needed to leave now. I thought it was so strange. Widow Li got up from behind the glow of the candle and thanked Hong Tianjiang. I thought Widow Li’s attitude towards Hong Tianjiang was really strange. He had just helped her invite me here, and now she was bowing deeply to him and thanking him with nice words. I looked at her and had a feeling that she would even want to get on her knees…

When she came to me, I realized that Widow Li was really beautiful. She was around forty years old, had a standard oval face, big eyes, and a small nose. However, her skin wasn’t fair, and her eyes didn’t have a bright spirit. If it weren’t for her living conditions, she would be a very charming woman.

After Hong Tianjiang left, Widow Li suddenly kept silent. I guessed she didn’t know what to say. I took the initiative. “Why did you want to see me?”

Widow Li had hesitated for a long moment. She didn’t tell me the reason. “Please follow me. You’ll see.”

I looked into the house. There was no beam of light around. How could I see anything? Widow Li kept asking me to see. I thought it was no use to stay outside, so I entered the house. It was pitch-black, and I had to take a long moment to adjust. After a while, I could vaguely recognize the things in her house.

Widow Li’s family was really poor, just as Hong Tianjiang had told me. There was a common saying that best described her house – “A house that had nothing except for the four walls.” Her house was almost empty. Her kitchen counter was also in the living room. The house was tiny in general, and I smelled the funny smell of mold. However, I checked around and found nothing special. I didn’t know what she wanted me to see so I turned to ask her.

Widow Li stood by the light of the candle and looked at me with her beautiful eyes. Half of her face looked perfect, while the other half looked like her skin was peeling off. I thought I even saw something wiggling under her skin. This striking contrast scared me. I almost screamed.

I was bewildered. Then, Widow Li stooped and blew out the candle. At the moment the candlelight was gone, she lifted her head and looked at me. Her eyes were maliciously strange and reluctant.

In the next moment, the surroundings changed again. Space began to twist. Incomplete corpses appeared in my eyes. After looking at those withered corpses, I knew they had been dead for a long time.

All the corpses had a red turban on their heads… Were they the Taiping soldiers?

But it wasn’t logical. The Taiping soldiers in Jintian Village were a group of rebellious farmers. They weren’t established on a large scale, and they didn’t receive many casualties. However, right now, there were at least several hundred spirits around me.

Holy moly, did Hong Xiuquan move the ghosts of Taiping soldiers here? Does he want to create a new ghost army?

“Muahaha……” Right as I wanted to move, a figure appeared at the end of the troop line. He leisurely took each step. The red turban was on his head.

He smirked. With the corpses lying around, he looked extremely cold and sinister.

I was stunned that it was Hong Tianjiang. The plain and innocent-looking Hong Tianjiang!

“How do you feel now? This is the army I’m going to control to recover my kingdom.” Hong Tianjiang sounded contended.

“Why is it you?” I couldn’t accept it. From his tone, I knew he was the hand behind all of this right from the beginning.