Taboo Mage - Chapter 147 - A Tough Battle

However, driving the evil spirit out of the Buddha amulet is no easy task.

Not to mention that the evil spirit inside the Buddha amulet is fiercer than any I’ve encountered before, even an ordinary evil spirit has been imprisoned in the amulet for so long, and now it has been subjected to a spell specifically designed to devour Du Jun’s body. The evil spirit is nearly merging with Du Jun’s body.

To exorcise the evil spirit now is almost no different from separating the spirit from Du Jun’s body.

Around ten o’clock at night, Jue Chi sealed Du Jun’s spirit with a talismanic incantation to prevent it from being damaged during the exorcism.

At the same time, I arranged a red string on the ground in the shape of a Bagua¹. In the middle of the two Bagua fish shapes, I placed a Bagua compass each, to accurately locate the evil spirit in the darkness later.

I also made a puppet and a life amulet, placing one in Du Jun’s hand and the other in a glutinous rice basin soaked with black dog blood, connected by a red thread in between.

After making all the preparations, we waited for the arrival of midnight.

The exorcism was set to take place in Jue Chi’s room. Realizing it was going to be a tough battle, a hint of anxiety surfaced in my heart. To calm myself down, I held the little fox and went downstairs, turning on the TV in the living room.

On the TV, a heart-wrenching love story was playing, but I couldn’t focus on it. The little fox lay quietly beside me, its head resting in my palm.

“Um, Mr. Gu, can I come down?”

A voice suddenly came from upstairs. I glanced up and saw Liao Qing leaning on the railing, smiling at me.

Having known him for so long, it was the first time I took a close look at this young man. He seemed to be around my age, with delicate features. Though not as handsome as Du Jun, he could still be considered quite good-looking among ordinary people.

Moreover, his personality was much better than Du Jun’s, being humorous and sensible.

I gestured for him to come down. Liao Qing ran down and finally sat beside me on the sofa.

I asked him, “Why did you initially go looking for Taka?” Forgive my poor memory, especially since back then, I was entirely focused on Taka and didn’t really pay attention to his casual remarks.

But right now, some small talk was just what I needed to lighten the mood.

Liao Qing chuckled and said, “I just wanted to earn more money back then. These days, getting married and having kids requires money. My first girlfriend left me because I was too poor.”

“I remember, you’re a programmer, right? Although the work for programmers is hectic, the pay isn’t low in our country,” I asked doubtfully.

Liao Qing sighed helplessly. “No matter how high the salary, it couldn’t keep up with how much my girlfriend was spending.”

“Why?” I asked him with a smile.

“I couldn’t find a girlfriend for a while, so my family arranged a blind date for me. I thought the girl seemed pretty decent, so I wanted to see where things might lead. But when dating, you have to give gifts at the start. I was afraid she’d think I wasn’t sincere or that I was stingy, so I didn’t hold back and only gave her expensive gifts. I didn’t expect…”

“Didn’t expect that the girl thought she found a rich guy and started asking you for things?”

“Mr. Gu, you’re really sharp!”

I shook my head with a smile. Indeed, he’s a programmer, easily fooled. But really, it wasn’t that she deceived him; he was the one who pretended to be a big spender from the start.

If he hadn’t pretended to be wealthy and been willing to spend money on her, the girl probably wouldn’t have been interested in him.

So, it’s a vicious cycle. But ultimately, he brought it upon himself because it’s what he wanted…

I thought to myself, when I find a wife, I can’t spoil her with bad habits from the start. A wife should be cherished, but that doesn’t mean she should be spoiled to the point of being unreasonable.

That wouldn’t be cherishing a wife; it would simply be being foolish.

As I was daydreaming about my own future happiness, suddenly, the tightly closed front door banged open and then slammed shut.

The little fox, which had been quietly nestled beside me, stood up warily, baring its teeth and staring at the direction of the door.

“Mr. Gu, what’s going on…?” Liao Qing, startled, grabbed my shoulder anxiously.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. I had just complimented how delicate he looked, but now I’m wondering if he might be gay! With that bird-like dependence, could he be marking me as his next target?

Suppressing the sudden discomfort from my own imagination, I patted the little fox on the head. The little fox scurried upstairs quickly. I pulled Liao Qing to his feet and whispered to him to get into his room and not to come out.

Liao Qing, clearly terrified, clung tightly to my arm, trailing closely behind me as we ascended the stairs.

Just as we stepped onto the last stair, the lights in the living room went out, and the whole spacious room was plunged into darkness.

Liao Qing let out a sudden scream, nearly causing me to kick him down the stairs.

I turned and warned him that if he panicked again, I would leave him downstairs alone. That finally got him to quiet down. I led him to his room, opened the door for him to enter, and then turned to head into Jue Chi’s room.

The lights in Jue Chi’s room were fully on, yet as soon as I entered, I felt an unprecedented chill, like running bare into an ice cave, making my whole body uncontrollably shiver.

“How is it? Any movement?” I asked, glancing at Jue Chi.

Jue Chi was holding his Buddhist prayer beads, sweat dripping down his forehead. I then looked at Chi Rui, who had taken out the evil-warding amulet I had given him in Shenyang and hung it around his neck.

“Don’t worry, nothing’s happened yet.”

I nodded, glancing at the time on my wrist-it was already 11:30. It seemed the evil spirit couldn’t wait until midnight. But that’s just as well, since midnight would be when its spiritual energy was at its peak, and I wasn’t confident I could force it out.

After greeting Jue Chi, I sat cross-legged in front of the glutinous rice basin, placing my hands together, and began to silently chant the calming mantra.

At 11:40, the lights above flickered. Even with my eyes closed, I could still feel the increasingly thick chill enveloping my surroundings…

Footnote:

1. Bagua(八卦):Bagua is a fundamental concept in Chinese philosophy and cosmology, consisting of eight trigrams that represent different natural elements and forces.