Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

The live chat in Xue Tinghe’s streaming room erupted with frantic screams. Yet, Xue Tinghe remained completely oblivious, calmly continuing to draw talismans as if time itself were standing still.

The runes he crafted were exquisitely intricate, evoking a deep, unfathomable mysticism to those who beheld them.

Outside the door, the few ghosts had already arrived before them. Jiang Mingshuang and the others found themselves with no escape. The vagrant raised the kitchen knife in his hand, grinning menacingly as he swung it toward Jiang Mingshuang.

Jiang Mingshuang swiftly dodged; the blade struck the door, slicing a crack into it. In that instant, it was as if an invisible barrier had been slightly breached, finally allowing some sound to seep through.

Xue Tinghe’s expression changed drastically. He grabbed the freshly inscribed talisman on the table, stepped forward, and flung the door open.

Several figures tumbled inside, their faces breaking into tears of joy upon seeing him.

“Master Xue!”

“Brother Xue!”

Xue Tinghe’s face darkened with displeasure. He never imagined that these ghosts would dare to harm people right under his nose while he remained completely unaware. It was a blatant provocation toward him. This thought made his expression even more somber and chilling.

“Everyone, come inside and stay behind me. How dare a few lowly ghosts act so brazenly in my presence!”

The group immediately retreated into the room behind Xue Tinghe.

The viewers in the live chat finally exhaled in relief, flooding the comments with messages like: “Master, you’re mighty!” “Master, so handsome!” “Master, go on! Destroy them!”

Yet the ghosts, far from intimidated, wore mocking grins.

Xue Tinghe’s face grew colder. He swiftly produced a powerful exorcism talisman, determined to slay them all in a single strike. To fail would not only shatter his formidable reputation but also leave his hatred unsated.

A dazzling golden light burst forth from the talisman in his hand. The ghosts’ faces twisted into expressions of terror, ready to flee.

Xue Tinghe sneered inwardly—trying to escape now? Too late.

But what happened next stunned him. The golden light fell upon the ghosts, yet nothing happened. It was as if the light were merely ordinary illumination, devoid of any harmful effect.

Xue Tinghe was dumbfounded. The ghosts, once frightened, now looked equally stunned before breaking into raucous laughter, their faces twisted with savage delight.

The middle-aged male ghost sneered, “Heh heh heh, thought you were some mighty exorcist, turns out you’re just a three-legged cat!”

The child ghost shouted, “Fraud! Charlatan!”

The elderly ghost couple scoffed, “People’s hearts aren’t what they used to be. Nowadays, even ghosts get scammed by fake exorcists!”

The vagrant ghost chuckled, “Heh heh, the flesh of a fake exorcist tastes even better.”

Xue Tinghe’s face flushed a deep purple. Filled with rage, he immediately produced five lightning talismans, hurling them at the ghosts, determined to obliterate their souls.

But the talismans floated midair, igniting without flame. Then, lightning crackled into existence—only to strike Xue Tinghe himself. His body was seared, hair standing on end, smoke rising from his seven orifices.

Everyone was stunned. The ghosts laughed uncontrollably.

“Hahaha! This is hilarious! After all these years as a ghost, it’s my first time seeing an exorcist get struck by his own lightning talismans!”

The other guests and viewers were speechless.

Watching silently, Qi Yue smiled faintly. Using little ghosts to attack him was tantamount to betraying one’s master and ancestors. Now, daring to wield the Qi family’s lightning talisman openly—no wonder he got struck.

Xue Tinghe, humiliated and furious, tried other advanced talismans of the Qi family and even secret, powerful exorcism spells, but each attempt ended in mere dazzling light and thunder without rain—a mere spectacle devoid of effect, like a “magic trick.”

The ghosts laughed uproariously, with the child ghost clutching his belly and rolling on the floor.

Jiang Mingshuang and Xie Yuhua exchanged helpless glances.

Even the live chat fell silent. Xue Tinghe’s impotent rage made him look like a clown putting on a farce.

Many began to doubt silently: Is this all there is to Xue Tinghe’s skill?

Could it be that he was truly an inept fake exorcist, a fraud?

Those who had once praised him now felt as if they had been slapped across the face.

His detractors started shouting loudly, declaring the “Fake Master Xue” had finally been exposed.

Even Jiang Mingshuang and Xie Yuhua could not help but entertain doubts.

“Brother Xue, are you alright?” Only Sun Zhanyuan’s gaze was filled with concern as he instinctively reached out to hold Xue Tinghe’s hand, his tone unconsciously tinged with affection.

To everyone’s surprise, Xue Tinghe did not pull away but instinctively clasped back.

Jiang Mingshuang’s eyes darkened in shock. Since when had Sun Zhanyuan grown so close to Xue Tinghe?

At this moment, Xue Tinghe had no time for such distractions. Feeling the incredulous and doubtful gazes of others, he felt utterly exposed, as if stripped bare without a shred of dignity. It reminded him painfully of the days before he had apprenticed, before inheriting the Qi family’s legacy, when everyone looked at him with disdain and mockery. The shame and frustration weighed heavily on him.

Sun Zhanyuan’s hand steadied him somewhat, helping to restore a fragment of reason. Taking a deep breath, Xue Tinghe forced himself to calm down and began to justify the situation.

“So that’s it. I originally thought there was no sinister energy here, so no real haunting. But it seems a powerful evil ghost has arrived. We’re trapped within the ghostly domain created by its twisted magnetic field.”

“Ghostly domain?”

The term alone implied something formidable.

The others, trembling and shocked, looked back at Xue Tinghe with renewed reliance.

His pride was momentarily restored, reinforcing his belief that they were indeed trapped in a ghostly domain.

Only within such a domain would his advanced talismans fail, and the lightning talisman backfiring was the work of that malevolent spirit.

He explained further: the ghostly domain was a territory forged by a powerful evil ghost’s aura, distorting magnetic fields. Inside, electronic devices like phone cameras lose function, or are controlled by the malevolent spirit. The ghosts within are shielded by the domain and cannot be easily harmed unless the domain is first broken.

Sun Zhanyuan’s recounting of the little ghost that emerged from his phone corroborated this explanation, sending chills through the group.

Comments flooded the live chat:

“Yes, yes, Hu Lijing’s streaming room has become terrifying. I’m certain those commenting aren’t human!”

“This ghostly domain is so scary—the Master’s spells don’t even work. Are they in danger now?”

“But wait! The stream is still going, and the cameras in the villa are working fine. Then what exactly are we watching?”

“I’m definitely human, not a ghost. Could it be…?”

“Me too! I’m human!”

“I am absolutely human!”

...

“Wait, this doesn’t match what Master Xue said. What’s really going on here?”

Qi Yue, who had been observing in secret, was also puzzled. The entire setup was just a combination of a phantom array and a trapping array. The trapping array was designed to confine people; the phantom array disguised a few minor ghosts as fearsome spirits to scare them.

The reason Xue Tinghe’s talisman spells failed to kill the ghosts was because the phantom array blurred their true positions, causing the spells to miss entirely. Yet the residual power of the spells still caused discomfort and even shook the array itself. If prolonged, the array would collapse without needing to find its core.

But with the array shaken, Xue Tinghe should have soon grown suspicious and discovered the array—how could he mistake it for a ghostly domain?

After all, he had perfectly received the inheritance talisman left by Qi, acquiring the entire Qi family legacy. How could he arrive at such an absurd conclusion?

Back then, the battle was critical, the ghost gate on the verge of breaching. In haste, Qi had entrusted his cultivation notes and newly invented inheritance talisman to the Heavenly Master Association to preserve the Qi family’s legacy and their years of research.

The inheritance talisman could directly implant knowledge into the recipient’s mind, like embedding a memory card. The recipient could instantly access the information without rote memorization.

It even included the feelings and insights Qi experienced while practicing the spells, effectively providing a learning simulator—a mentor guiding hand-in-hand, making comprehension far easier, even for those with poor aptitude.

Had it not been for the dire circumstances at the time, Qi’s invention would have shocked the metaphysical world.

Qi had always taken pride in his creation, though now a seed of doubt gnawed at him.

Could it be? Could the inheritance talisman have some flaw, perhaps even reducing intelligence upon use?

While Qi pondered this, the other guests had already taken Xue Tinghe’s words as gospel, seeing him as their only hope.

Qiao Yuanzhong enthusiastically endorsed him: “Master Xue is so powerful; he must have already thought of how to break the ghostly domain.”

Xue Tinghe paused briefly, briefly flashing discomfort on his face, but quickly regained composure and declared confidently:

“We must find and pacify the evil ghost creating the domain. Once it is exorcised, the domain will collapse. The ghost is cunning and has not revealed itself, instead sending these ghost soldiers to wear us down. We must first escape the villa and the domain before confronting them.”

The group rejoiced at this.

To break out, they had to overcome the encircling ghosts.

Xue Tinghe decided to unleash his signature technique at 90% power. The room blazed with light as a golden dragon, thick as a bucket, roared forth.

At last, the move affected the fierce ghosts. They shrank back with pained cries as the golden dragon’s radiance passed over them. Ripples flickered in the space the dragon traversed, as if an invisible dome covered the area—now flickering unstably.

Xue Tinghe’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. This looked like a low-level array unable to withstand the field of a high-level spell, nearing collapse. Yet he quickly dismissed the thought, reasoning the evil ghost wouldn’t employ only a low-grade array against him. This must be a trick.

He soon reaffirmed his earlier belief and shouted, “Now’s the chance! Move!”

The others surged out in a chaotic rush behind him.

Qi Yue, watching Xue Tinghe summon the golden dragon technique, barely concealed a look of disdain.

The golden dragon technique was Qi’s grandfather’s secret skill. When fully unleashed, it summoned a dragon that blotted out the sky, capable of killing a ghost king in a single strike. Compared to that, Xue Tinghe’s dragon was small and flimsy, like a loach, its power severely diminished and stiff—more for show than actual killing.

If Qi were his master, he would have broken Xue Tinghe’s legs for such poor practice. Without real skill, better to avoid making a fool of oneself.

Most tellingly, Qi immediately noticed that Xue Tinghe’s execution was not entirely his own but aided by the simulation function of the inheritance talisman. His hand gestures matched Qi’s grandfather’s exactly, down to every minor motion without deviation.

Clearly, it wasn’t the talisman’s fault but Xue Tinghe’s own. The fool probably treated the inheritance talisman as a mere auxiliary tool. Had he practiced more, he wouldn’t have summoned such a pathetic loach!

Qi’s disdain deepened as he casually traced a few runes where the camera couldn’t see.

Suddenly, the vagrant felt his body lose control, as if mad, recklessly charging toward Xue Tinghe, brandishing his knife wildly.

Xue Tinghe immediately directed the massive golden dragon toward the vagrant’s face.

Then, astonishingly, the golden dragon passed straight through the vagrant’s body and dissipated completely.

The vagrant was unharmed and undeterred, soon standing before Xue Tinghe, swinging the knife directly at his face.

Xue Tinghe was stunned beyond words, never having faced death so close. His mind went blank, his body stiff, frozen without reaction.