Taboo Mage - Chapter 79 - Survival is Paramount

Liu Hong, a truck driver who often drove long distances, was under one meter seventy tall, with narrow eyes and thick lips. His prolonged periods cooped up in the cab had caused his body to become hunched.

From his appearance, even if he wasn’t outright sinister, he didn’t seem to have a commendable character.

“When did you last see him?” I asked curiously.

Mr. Cao sighed deeply and said in a grave voice, “About six months ago, there was a severe traffic accident on this road. A truck, driven by a fatigued driver, crashed into a tour bus on the freeway. The bus flipped over into a ditch beside the road. Out of over forty people on the bus, about ten managed to escape, but the truck driver, in his bid to flee the scene, put his truck in reverse. Those who had just climbed up onto the freeway were right in the truck driver’s blind spot, and then… they were all crushed to death…”

Over fifty people died on this road.

Looking at the Resentful Spirits gathered around the entrance of the fast food restaurant, I couldn’t help but link them with the traffic accident Mr. Cao had described.

“If Liu Hong was the driver responsible, with such a major accident, he should have been imprisoned long ago. How is he still wandering free?”

I frowned, sensing that there was more to this story.

Sure enough, Mr. Cao’s expression suddenly darkened, “Guess who’s actually locked up?”

“Who?”

“Liu Hong’s son, just sixteen years old and fresh out of middle school. There was no surveillance on that stretch of road and all the eyewitnesses died in the accident. Liu Hong produced concrete evidence that at the time, it was his son who, out of mischief, took the car onto the freeway, so we couldn’t hold him accountable.”

“Making his own son take the blame? That’s despicable.”

I spat in disgust. Now it was clear why those fifty-plus lives harbored such deep resentment towards Liu Hong.

“What do we do now?”

Thinking about Liu Hong, who deserves to be condemned to the deepest levels of the Netherworld, I can’t help but feel my blood boil, tempted to just walk away and leave him to his fate. However, with over fifty Resentful Spirits gathered there, even if they do not harm others, the sheer force of their resentment alone is enough to ensure that nothing could grow for miles around.

Mr. Cao remained silent.

Both of us turned to look at Jue Chi, who was rotating his Buddhist prayer beads in his hands, his eyes and brows lowered as he softly said, “The Buddha teaches that all beings suffer, and from this suffering, evil arises, the root of all sin.”

“What does that mean?” Mr. Cao asked, looking at me blankly.

I waved my hand dismissively, “It means, your misfortune is decreed by fate, but just because you’re naturally unlucky doesn’t give you the right to do evil. Otherwise, someone will indeed capture you.”

I fully support Jue Chi in his efforts to capture the Resentful Spirits.

At the entrance of the fast food restaurant, the puppet used as a substitute for Liu Hong had been torn to shreds, and the Resentful Spirits let out long howls, seemingly celebrating their revenge.

With a helpless sigh, I gripped my peachwood sword and slowly crouched, walking towards the fast food restaurant entrance.

Jue Chi followed behind me, silently reciting Sutras, the alms bowl in his hand flickering with a dim and then bright light.

As we approached the restaurant entrance, I gave Mr. Cao a signal. He sharply pulled at the red string next to him.

The red string quickly wrapped around, and the yellow talisman paper attached to it spun like a top, soon trapping the Resentful Spirits in the corner.

“Charge from the front, I’ll back you up from behind!”

Seeing the Resentful Spirits trapped, a surge of excitement ran through me. I shouted to Jue Chi, but when I turned back, Jue Chi had already flung his prayer beads, striking the foremost Resentful Spirit.

The Resentful Spirit let out a piercing howl, attempting to break free from the red string’s hold, but my modifications to the string meant that the more it struggled, the tighter the binding became.

Moreover, the yellow talisman paper on the red string, inscribed with Sutras by Jue Chi using black dog blood, was specifically designed to ward off evil.

The fifty plus Resentful Spirits were bundled up like leeks. I tossed aside the peachwood sword in my hand and pulled out the copper coin sword from my backpack, stabbing towards the foremost spirit.

The Resentful Spirit couldn’t dodge; it just opened its bloody maw as if to bite off my head. I chuckled, thrusting the copper coin sword directly into its mouth.

The moment the copper coin sword penetrated, blood-red tears suddenly streamed from the eyes of the spirit. My hand paused, and the sword slipped from my grasp, narrowly missing a red string.

The red string snapped, and the spirits, freed from their bindings, surged towards me and Jue Chi.

“Gu Qingshu!”

This was the first time Jue Chi had called me by my full name in all the time I had known him.

I turned and ran, managing only to shout back to Jue Chi, “Sorry!”

I could never have imagined, had I not seen it with my own eyes, that one day I would truly find myself being chased by dozens of Resentful Spirits. These spirits, bound by red string and yellow talisman paper for half the day, hadn’t yet fully released their resentful energy.

Otherwise, with my once-a-year gym-going ability, in less than three minutes, I would undoubtedly be dead by their hands.

In the current situation, even with all my skills, there was no way to utilize them. As I sprinted ahead, my mind raced for a solution.

Mr. Cao, seeing the two of us running towards him, was about to turn and run himself when an idea struck me-now was the perfect time to use such a solid meat shield.

“Mr. Cao! Call your brothers out now!” I grabbed the back of his collar and shouted into his ear.

Mr. Cao broke into a sprint, pulling a pager from his pocket.

“Hey! Someone! Get dressed and come over quick!”

With a chilling wind at my back, I couldn’t figure out what to do next; my only thought was to run-just run!

Suddenly, a mournful cry came from behind, right by my ear. I swallowed and, on impulse, turned to look.

A Resentful Spirit, half its cheek sliced away, was staring at me with its remaining Eyeball, its torn lips forming a sinister curve.

“Holy shit!”

I exclaimed as the thing’s head came close. I reached for the evil-warding amulet around my neck and stretched out my hand towards the spirit.

The Resentful Spirit screamed pitifully and vanished from my side.

I was still shaken; if another one came, I feared I wouldn’t be able to hold up.