“Clang!”
The cleaver fell to the ground. The little girl, her face flushed with excitement, stretched her hand toward Shui Miao, but immediately picked up the cleaver again, pointing it at Shui Miao and demanding, “Why can you see me? What kind of aura is that around you?”
“That’s not important. What matters is that you haven’t repented or reformed—you’re still doing evil!”
Shui Miao shook his head coldly. He felt deeply disappointed toward Liu Hongmei. It was bad enough that she had failed as a human being, but even as a ghost, she had still failed so miserably.
“Evil? Hmph…”
Liu Hongmei suddenly snorted. “They were the ones spreading rumors about me. I killed them—was that wrong too?”
“Wasn’t it wrong?”
Shui Miao narrowed his eyes. “If you had done right and acted properly, why would others speak ill of you? Don’t you know what kind of person you are yourself? Back then, you stole me from the hospital and sold me to Liao Jifen against your conscience—did you think that was right? Now, when someone says a few bad words about you, you kill them. Is that what you call right? What kind of twisted logic do you have? Do you really think you can keep getting away with this forever?”
Shui Miao’s words didn’t awaken Liu Hongmei; instead, they drove her to madness. She screamed, “I understand now! It was all your plan! That time when I was haunted by evil spirits, it was your conspiracy! You stole my money and you want my house too! You’re no better than me! I’ll kill you today and drag you down to become a ghost with me!”
“Blindly stubborn—you’ve brought this upon yourself!”
Shui Miao had said all he needed to say. Seeing the girl charging at him with the blood-stained cleaver, he focused his mind, quickly forming a hand seal and channeling his immortal energy. He chanted, “Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper, Soul-Sealing Talisman! Divine Sovereign manifests transformation, eliminates evil, seals death, and eradicates all malevolence!” This was the Seven Star Soul-Sealing Talisman taught by Old Limping Li, the same technique Li had used to destroy the evil spirit possessing Li Dafu. Shui Miao now used it against Liu Hongmei, the evil spirit.
However, Shui Miao had no talisman paper, so he traced the talisman in midair with just his finger.
The talisman drawn by Shui Miao, though without paper, was as powerful as one with it. Fueled by his immortal energy, it emitted a strange glow.
“Destroy!”
Seeing the glowing talisman appear on Shui Miao’s chest, Liu Hongmei panicked and tried to flee, but Shui Miao shouted “Destroy!” and the talisman shot a beam of light straight at the girl. The beam struck her body, instantly expelling Liu Hongmei’s soul. Shui Miao shouted “Destroy!” again, and a second beam shot forth, reducing Liu Hongmei’s soul to just a faint wisp.
One more strike, and Liu Hongmei would be completely obliterated.
Thinking of their past connection, Shui Miao stopped and withdrew his immortal energy. “Liu Hongmei, I’m giving you one last chance. If you still refuse to repent, I will destroy your soul forever, erasing you from this world.” Shui Miao himself hadn’t expected the Seven Stars Soul-Sealing Talisman to unleash such incredible power.
Of course, he knew it was the effect of his immortal energy.
The girl regained her senses, realizing she was standing naked in front of a man, holding a knife with blood on her arm. Terrified, she ran home… but she didn’t yet know that she had just been possessed by Liu Hongmei and had already killed her own mother.
Several neighbors had witnessed the scene.
Recently, rumors of ghosts haunting the area had spread, so no one doubted Shui Miao’s account.
Moreover, several surveillance cameras had been installed in the alley, which could prove Shui Miao’s innocence.
However, the police who arrived shortly afterward didn’t seem convinced and took Shui Miao to the station.
Inside the interrogation room
Facing Shui Miao sat three young officers, all in their early twenties. One male officer glared coldly at him while another reached for Shui Miao’s backpack to search it. A female officer beside them mechanically asked, “Name?”
“Can I make a phone call?”
Observing them, Shui Miao realized these three were likely new recruits. Judging by their attitude, they were probably bored from night duty and wanted to play the tough cop routine. These shallow, impulsive youths weren’t worth wasting time on. He wanted to call Uncle Zhang to resolve the matter quickly.
“Name?”
The female officer snapped, raising her head to glare at Shui Miao.
One of the male officers, with a longer face, immediately frowned.
The other officer, who was about to search Shui Miao’s bag, turned on a bright lamp and shone it directly at him.
“You’re not worthy of being police officers!” Under the blinding light, Shui Miao closed his eyes and smirked. Suddenly, the bulb in the lamp exploded with a “Bang!”
“Crack!”
Another sharp sound followed—the fluorescent light in the corner also exploded.
The interrogation room fell into silence.
No one spoke, but Shui Miao could sense their heartbeats quickening.
“What was that?”
After about thirty seconds, the female officer finally asked.
One male officer hesitated, “Maybe it was a voltage fluctuation…”
“There’s no such thing as ghosts in this world!” Another officer said bravely, though fear already gripped his heart.
“Creak!”
Suddenly, the door to the interrogation room slowly creaked open on its own.
All three officers instinctively looked toward the door—but no one was there.
“Who is it? Who’s playing a joke?” The female officer stammered nervously.
A male voice replied, “It must be the wind. It was so quiet just now—I didn’t hear any footsteps.”
“Bang!”
Suddenly, the door slammed shut violently.
“Ahh!”
The female officer screamed in terror. In the darkness, she tried to grab the arm of the officer beside her, only to find no one there.
In fact, the officer had already left his seat in fear, crouching on the floor with his head in his hands.
The female officer turned frantically to grab the other young officer, but found only empty space again. She cried out in panic, “Where are you? Where are you?”
Silence.
The two young male officers, equally frightened, had also left their seats and crouched on the floor.
No response.
The room fell silent again.
Then, Shui Miao’s cold voice broke the silence. “Name?”
The three young officers were startled but remained silent.
Suddenly, Shui Miao slammed the table with a “Bang!” and shouted, “Name!”
“I—I’m Yu Nan!”
The young female officer blurted out her name in fear.
The two male officers remained silent.
In the darkness, they couldn’t see Shui Miao, but Shui Miao could clearly see them.
A faint smile returned to his lips. With a thought, a wave of chilling spiritual energy enveloped the two young male officers. The sudden coldness startled them, and they bolted toward the door. But when they reached for the doorknob, they pulled back in terror—the handle was even colder!
Hearing the noise, Yu Nan also tried to run toward the door, but in her panic, she ran straight to Shui Miao and clung tightly to him.
“Hehe…”
Shui Miao chuckled softly and gently stroked Yu Nan’s face in the darkness. “Yu Nan, don’t worry. As long as I’m here, they won’t dare harm you. If you tell me your name, I can protect your soul.”
Hearing Shui Miao’s voice, Yu Nan realized her mistake and loosened her grip, but upon hearing his words again, she clung to him even tighter, letting him stroke her face.
“Stop pretending to be a ghost! I don’t believe your nonsense!”
Suddenly, one of the male officers lit a lighter, its flame briefly illuminating the room.
But then, the flame transformed into a flaming skull with a ghostly face, scaring the officer into dropping the lighter.
“Name?”
Shui Miao’s voice sounded again, cold and merciless, like a voice from hell.
“I—I’ll tell you! I’m Ji Hongliang…”
One of the younger officers, frightened, crawled toward Shui Miao in the darkness.
“I—I’m sorry, Master, save me! I’m Li Yongsheng…”
The other officer, who had earlier refused to believe Shui Miao, also gave in and revealed his name.
“Age!”
In the darkness, Shui Miao coldly smiled again, his hand slowly sliding down toward Yu Nan’s collar…
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