Taboo Mage - Chapter 146 - It Was All Fake

However, that’s not the main point. At this moment, I only want Taka to tell me the truth.

Suddenly, someone burst through the door, shouting my name.

I turned to look toward the door, and to my surprise, it was Du Jun, whom I hadn’t seen since he left without a word.

Du Jun rushed in, ignoring everyone around him, and yelled while grabbing my arm, “He’s not Taka! He’s not Taka at all!”

I was stunned by Du Jun’s words.

He’s not Taka? Does that mean the person sitting in front of me isn’t Taka at all?

This revelation left me momentarily bewildered. I looked blankly at Jue Chi and then at Chi Rui. They both seemed equally confused.

Seeing me still frozen, Du Jun stormed over to Taka, shouting, “You liar! You’re not Taka at all! Who are you? Where’s the real Taka?”

Taka sat there calmly. As Du Jun grabbed his collar and shook him, Taka simply kicked him to the ground.

Chi Rui pulled Du Jun up, glaring sharply at the person across from us.

I frowned and asked, “So, you’ve been a stand-in this whole time? Does this mean Taka-no, Zhou Qifang never intended to sincerely talk to me? What’s the point of us being here then?”

The situation took a dramatic turn. Just when we thought we had a bit of control, we were thrown into the depths. From the beginning, we were merely dealing with a stand-in.

The real Zhou Qifang had never even shown his face.

Taka glanced at us, then suddenly smiled and said, “It seems we need to change our method of communication. Please wait here patiently, Mr. Gu and others. I will go back and consult with Mr. Zhou.”

With that, he got up and left.

As the stand-in Taka was about to leave, Du Jun wanted to rush over and grab him, but Chi Rui held onto his arm tightly.

Only after Taka had left did Chi Rui release Du Jun and asked where he had been recently.

Du Jun looked at Chi Rui with a blank expression, as if he had been greatly shocked, and said, “Save me… Please, save me… I dreamt of him again… I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die…”

Seeing that something was off with Du Jun, I gestured for Jue Chi to examine him.

Jue Chi placed his hand on Du Jun’s wrist, touched it briefly, and then his expression darkened dramatically. He said gravely, “It seems that the Resentful Spirit within the Buddha amulet has begun to consume his spirit. It won’t be long before his physical body is possessed by the evil spirit.”

“Didn’t he say before that as long as he lured us to Thailand, Taka would remove the curse from the Buddha amulet for him? Could it be that Taka has broken his promise?” I asked, puzzled.

Chi Rui clenched his teeth, reached over, took the Buddha amulet off Du Jun’s neck, threw it to the ground, and said with a cold laugh, “It’s not about breaking a promise; he probably never intended to keep it in the first place.”

I thought about it. The only reason Taka went to such lengths to lure me to Thailand, yet refused to meet in person, must be that he was still unsure of my abilities.

This also explained why he kidnapped Jue Chi and Chi Rui to force me to agree to make a life amulet for him.

He was merely testing my abilities. Perhaps from the start, he had considered that Jue Chi and Chi Rui were no ordinary people, and whether he could successfully use them to blackmail me was not certain.

Even if the kidnapping was successful, I might not actually agree to make a morally reprehensible life amulet just to save them.

If that situation truly arose, Taka’s fallback plan would be the evil spirit within Du Jun’s Buddha amulet.

This also explained why, when Taka originally made the Buddha amulet for Du Jun, he didn’t choose a common evil spirit, but instead chose a spirit that was just a step away from being an evil deity.

Realizing this, I angrily stomped on the Buddha amulet lying on the ground.

From start to finish, Taka had calculated all the possibilities, and the situation was developing exactly as he had anticipated, without any deviation.

Chi Rui might have also realized this, as there seemed to be a hint of pity in his gaze toward me.

I felt like a fool being manipulated completely, and now I even doubted whether the only clue that Chi Rui and the others had was actually just a smokescreen deliberately released by him!

As I was seething with anger, a knock on the door suddenly interrupted. Jue Chi got up to open the door, and I irritably glanced towards it, surprised to see Liao Qing.

How did he find us?

“What are you doing here?” Chi Rui asked, frowning with the same confusion.

Liao Qing scratched his head and smiled, “I was waiting in the hotel, but you never came back. I thought something happened to you. Then, the hotel manager suddenly told me you were here and that you might be upset, so I rushed over. Did something happen?”

Seeing Liao Qing’s cautious demeanor, I suppressed my anger and said calmly, “Nothing happened. As you can see, we’re fine. You should head back.”

“Head back? I’ve already checked out of my room, and my flight is early tomorrow morning. I have nowhere to go tonight.”

“Fine, fine. There’s a vacant room upstairs in the next building. Stay there for the night and head back to the country as soon as possible,” I said impatiently, signaling him to keep quiet before I lost my temper.

Liao Qing seemed to get the hint, and without saying anything more, he grabbed his suitcase and headed to the second floor.

Du Jun, sitting on the sofa, was still muttering as if possessed. Jue Chi placed a rune on his forehead, but it couldn’t suppress the dark energy creeping up to it.

“If we don’t deal with the evil spirit in the Buddha amulet, I’m afraid he won’t last through the night,” Jue Chi said with a sigh, his voice grave.

I nodded, seeing Du Jun’s cyan-purple face. Part of me wanted to ignore him, but since he paid me for help, I couldn’t just leave him like this, no matter my reasoning.

Considering this, I asked Jue Chi to help move Du Jun to his room and had Chi Rui arrange things.

Chi Rui was to check if anything we brought was missing while I prepared and informed Liao Qing not to come out, no matter what disturbances occurred at night.

In matters of exorcism, Jue Chi was far more skilled than me. Therefore, my task was to drive the evil spirit out of the Buddha amulet, and then Jue Chi would handle the rest.