Taboo Mage - Chapter 60 - The Appearance of the Departed Spirit

I was constantly watching Du Qiang’s facial expressions, fearing that he might lose his temper and beat Jue Chi up in a fit of anger. Surprisingly, after Jue Chi finished speaking, Du Qiang just stood there, stunned.

A feeling of relief washed over me, and I quickly grabbed Jue Chi, planning to make a swift exit.

However, in the next moment, Du Qiang suddenly turned around, grabbed Jue Chi by the arm, and demanded to know exactly who he was.

With deep suspicion and curiosity etched across his face, Du Qiang seemed troublesome, and I had no desire to provoke further complications. After all, finding transportation to Shenyang was the priority at this time.

In unfamiliar places, it’s best to keep a low profile and prioritize one’s own life and safety.

Unexpectedly, Jue Chi shook off my hand, opened his backpack, and revealed his Kasaya.

“Jue Chi of Chan Guang Monastery in the Hanging Temple,” Jue Chi said, his hands pressed together in prayer, head slightly bowed. The eight tonsure scars on his head were too conspicuous to ignore.

An auntie nearby, upon seeing Jue Chi’s Kasaya, couldn’t hide the hope in her eyes. Seeing this, my heart skipped a beat, realizing that this time, we might not be able to get away so easily.

True enough, the auntie leapt from her hospital bed, rushed over to Jue Chi, and begged him to save her grandson who had already passed away.

With patience, Jue Chi explained that death is like a lamp going out; her grandson was gone, and bringing him back was impossible. However, since a Resentful Spirit had caused the death of the unborn child, it proved that the child bore a grudge against their family.

If they did not eliminate the Resentful Spirit, any future children might also fall victim to it.

Leaning against the door frame, I watched as the auntie clung to Jue Chi, crying as if she had found her savior, while Du Qiang, after a long hesitation, also decided to believe in Jue Chi’s words.

That night, Jue Chi instructed Du Qiang to gather everyone in the ward to prevent the Departed Spirit from harming anyone else.

I took out the red string I had prepared and set up an exorcism Array around the ward, then had Du Qiang and two others sit at the center of the Array. Jue Chi had already changed into his Kasaya and stood at the door, while I held the peachwood sword at the forefront of the Array.

Hospitals are known to be places of immense resentment, second only to mass burial sites. For this reason, whether private or public, hospitals often embed a Buddha statue consecrated by a high monk during their foundation laying to suppress the Resentful Spirits unwilling to leave.

As the clock slowly struck midnight, the ward area gradually quieted down. It was time to sleep, and my biological clock began reminding my body. Leaning on my peachwood sword, my eyes involuntarily closed.

“Mr. Gu, will that thing really come tonight?”

The sudden voice of Du Qiang in the silent ward startled me. “I don’t know. We’re just taking precautions.”

Stifled by my response, Du Qiang didn’t speak further but held Li Meng tightly, his eyes fixated on the door.

After waiting for over half an hour, I felt that we wouldn’t encounter anything tonight, so I decided to find Jue Chi.

Jue Chi sat still. I yawned and said, “Jue Chi, it looks like there’s no trouble tonight. Shall we sleep? Continuing like this might scare them even more.”

“Wait a bit longer,” Jue Chi opened his eyes and glanced down the corridor, his voice deep.

I nodded, about to say something when out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the dark corridor end, looking like a black hole about to suck someone in. A sudden, inexplicable fear surged in my heart, and I quickly turned back into the ward.

Having waited most of the night with no disturbances and Jue Chi guarding the door, I felt more relaxed than usual when handling things alone. I sat in a chair by the wall and soon dozed off.

In a half-asleep state, I suddenly heard the cry of a child! I bolted awake, only to see that the ward, Du Qiang, and the others sitting at the center of the Array, and Jue Chi holding Buddhist prayer beads at the door, looked the same as before.

But where was that sound coming from?

I stood up and followed the direction of the sound. The double-bed ward wasn’t very large, and the sound was very close. Wielding my peachwood sword, I searched around but found nothing in the ward.

I began to suspect that my nerves were just too tense, which might have caused me to hear things that weren’t there.

After all, Jue Chi was sitting there motionless. My heart relaxed, and I was just about to sit back down to rest when I turned my head and my gaze swept toward the center of the Array.

Suddenly, an enlarged baby’s laughing face burst into my view, startling me into a freeze. When I turned to look again, the face seemed to grow larger.

A departed spirit with a cyan-purple body slowly crawled out from the center of the Array.

“Damn! Monk, come quick!”

I jumped back a good distance, ran over to pull Jue Chi, and then, trembling, pointed at the departed spirit at the center of the Array.

Hearing my shout, Jue Chi hurried over. Upon seeing the departed spirit, his face changed, “Oh no, no wonder we couldn’t find it; it was hiding inside Li Meng’s belly.”

I nodded. This departed spirit was too clever, knowing that we had let our guard down around Li Meng. It must have slipped inside her right after I had finished examining her.

This also proved how intense the resentment of the departed spirit was; otherwise, it wouldn’t have escaped the notice of both me and Jue Chi.

Du Qiang, who had been sitting at the center of the Array, suddenly let go of Li Meng in panic, trying to scramble out of the Array.

But with the red string laid out in the pattern of the Array, finding an exit was not so easy. His random walking only caused the bells on the red string to emit a piercing noise.

“Don’t move!” I yelled in anger, almost wishing I could thrust the peachwood sword in my hand into Du Qiang’s face.

More trouble than help!

The piercing sound of the bell completely enraged the departed spirit. Its dark, hollow eyes emitted thick black smoke, and its round limbs, cyan-purple like lotus roots, flailed about as it crawled over Li Meng’s body.

Li Meng’s eyes were filled with terror as she struggled to throw the spirit off, looking like she was about to collapse.

Jue Chi threw his prayer beads at her, but because Du Qiang suddenly stood up from the ground, the beads went off course, landing on an auntie instead.

The auntie, grasping at them like a lifeline, clutched the prayer beads tightly and blundered around within the red string Array.

With the red string prone to tangling, the scene quickly became a chaotic mess, entangling Du Qiang and the auntie together. Watching the disordered scene, I couldn’t help but curse under my breath.