Chapter 38: I’m Pretty Smart

Madam Wu often chatted with Li Dafu’s wife and had learned about the geomancy formation at the Li household.

Originally, Madam Wu had intended to extort some lucky money from Shui Miao, but she hadn’t expected that her own husband had been possessed by an evil spirit.

Shui Miao was furious. Madam Wu had seemed so ordinary on the surface, yet dared to threaten him—it was absolutely infuriating. Dealing with someone like her, Shui Miao believed he mustn’t show how seriously he took the matter; otherwise, she would treat it as a big deal and keep trying to blackmail him, which would be a huge hassle.

Shui Miao responded evasively, subtly hinting at Madam Wu the seriousness of the situation. Startled, Madam Wu immediately thought of Xiong Ying for help with the exorcism.

She quickly abandoned Shui Miao and rushed to seek out Xiong Ying.

Afraid of embarrassment, Madam Wu deliberately pulled Xiong Ying aside, away from Li Dafu’s sight.

Li Dafu was puzzled. He had been chatting with Xiong Ying when Madam Wu suddenly interrupted, which immediately annoyed him. He approached Shui Miao, shot a fierce glare at Madam Wu in the distance, and asked, “Little Shui, what does that crazy old woman want with you? She wouldn’t be trying to stir up trouble because you didn’t give her lucky money, would she?”

“It seems like Uncle Wu has been possessed by an evil spirit,” Shui Miao replied, glancing at Li Dafu. The cold, fierce glint in his eyes suggested he really disliked Madam Wu. Shui Miao considered whether he should tell Li Dafu about Wang Yougui’s matter, to show him it had nothing to do with himself and thus eliminate Madam Wu’s leverage. But after thinking it over, he decided against it—Li Dafu’s wife seemed honest and loyal, and if Li Dafu found out she had conspired with outsiders behind his back, she might suffer a beating.

Grandpa seemed to have been convinced by Madam Wu, and he immediately turned to walk toward her house with her.

“Evil spirit possession…”

Upon hearing the term, Li Dafu clearly showed alarm; his fierce expression instantly vanished, replaced by fear.

“Ah, well, you two go ahead. I’ll go wait for you at Limping Li’s place.”

Without hesitation, Li Dafu turned and left.

Watching Li Dafu’s retreating figure, Shui Miao felt puzzled. Normally, people would be shocked upon hearing such news, but their second reaction would usually be curiosity, even if some were too timid to approach, they might still watch from a distance. But Li Dafu had simply turned around and left, showing clear fear of such matters. Despite his tall stature and bold personality, his fear suggested he must have experienced something similar before.

Putting Li Dafu aside for now, Shui Miao quickly made his way to Madam Wu’s house.

Upon entering, he saw a thin old man lying on a wooden bed in the main room. Even though it was a hot day, he was covered with thick quilts, indicating how weak and cold his body had become.

This was Madam Wu’s husband, Li Weimin. He had been frail his whole life, always sickly, and now at fifty, he was bedridden. Interestingly, Li Weimin and Li Dafu were fifth-generation cousins, but they had been at odds when they were younger. It was only after Li Weimin fell ill in recent years that the two families had enjoyed a period of peace.

Li Weimin’s house was a modest three-room tiled house made of grey bricks and tiles.

The area around the house was planted with vegetables, showing Madam Wu was a capable woman who kept both the inside and outside of the house neat and tidy.

After ushering the people inside, Madam Wu kept her distance from Li Weimin and simply announced from afar that she had brought them.

She was afraid of evil spirits, even though she had never seen one.

Li Weimin had been possessed by evil spirits several times in his youth. Two times were cured by Xiong Ying, and five or six times were treated by Limping Li.

Without those past experiences, Madam Wu wouldn’t have had the courage to stand here now.

Xiong Ying silently activated his internal energy, opened his spiritual eyes, and saw a grey aura surrounding Li Weimin.

Again, that grey aura!

Shui Miao also saw the mist and immediately recalled the grey evil energy he had swallowed earlier, which had made him vomit violently.

Could they be the same evil force?

Shui Miao grew nervous, unsure how to respond, and certainly didn’t want to vomit again.

Xiong Ying furrowed his brows. Grey symbolized earth, indicating earth-based spiritual energy. However, this was not ordinary earth energy—it was a rare and sinister form of malevolent earth spirit energy. There were several possible sources for such energy; Xiong Ying was aware of five. Earth-based spiritual energy could form naturally and originate from yin spirits, demon spirits, celestial spirits, or魔灵 spirits, or it could transform into this state after cultivation with earth energy. This type of malevolent earth spirit energy was particularly difficult to handle—it was unlike regular yin spirits, for which countermeasures were known. There was no clear method to neutralize this malevolent energy, so Xiong Ying dared not provoke it recklessly.

Previously, Xiong Ying had helped Li Weimin exorcise evil spirits twice, but those had been ancestral yin spirits, which were easy to handle.

“Old man, what are you doing here? I want to talk to Shui Miao!”

Suddenly, Li Weimin opened his eyes, sat up in bed, glared fiercely at Xiong Ying, and spoke in a harsh tone completely unlike that of a sick person.

“I’m his grandfather. Say whatever you need to me,” Xiong Ying, unaware that Shui Miao had mastered the Five Elements Internal Energy technique, naturally dared not let Shui Miao face this fierce evil spirit directly.

Shui Miao stepped forward and stood beside Xiong Ying. “Grandpa, I’m not afraid of it.”

“Heh, you’re right—you don’t scare me. You’re the first one to swallow me whole,” Li Weimin glared at Shui Miao and added, “Kid, you’ve got guts!”

“So it was you that made me vomit like that earlier?” Shui Miao was startled, confirming that this evil force was indeed the same one from before.

Hearing this, Xiong Ying was shaken—this evil spirit meant serious business!

Li Weimin sneered coldly, suddenly turning his gaze to Madam Wu, shouting viciously, “You nosy old hag, if you keep eavesdropping, I’ll kill your husband, possess you, strip you naked, and make you run around the streets stark naked…”

…

Hearing this, Madam Wu turned pale with fear and quickly ran out.

Li Weimin turned back to Xiong Ying, glaring again. “Old man, you get out too, or I’ll possess Li Dafu and kill you one slice at a time.”

“Hmph! You think you can?” Xiong Ying responded defiantly, though his heart was uneasy. A powerful earth-based evil spirit could easily possess a living person. If it really did possess Li Dafu and came after him with a knife, it would be a huge problem.

Li Weimin raised his eyebrows, sneering, “Why don’t we try? I guarantee that within five minutes, Li Dafu will come after you with the butcher knife hidden under his table.”

…

Li Dafu indeed had a knife hidden on his table. Xiong Ying had already discovered this secret when he opened his spiritual eyes.

“Grandpa, you should go out. I’ll be fine. If it really wanted to harm me, it would have done so when I was vomiting,” Shui Miao wasn’t particularly afraid. Intuitively, this evil spirit didn’t seem to want to harm him.

Xiong Ying frowned, somewhat speechless, but eventually allowed himself to be pushed out by Shui Miao.

“Heh, people… are just afraid of death!” Seeing Shui Miao return, Li Weimin stroked his chin, smiling mockingly while shaking his head. “But you’re an exception. You act without caring about the consequences. You and I are somewhat alike.”

“Cut the crap. What do you want with me? Now can you talk?”

Shui Miao had no interest in chatting with an evil spirit. He preferred to get straight to the point.

“Got personality! I like that!” Li Weimin threw off the quilt, revealing that he was naked below the waist. He quickly looked up, wrinkled his nose, and pulled the quilt back over himself. “This old sickly body is so disgusting. Anyway, I’ll tell you. I have a grudge with Li Dafu and plan to kill him today. You helped me once by having that fishmonger disrupt his geomancy formation, but later you ruined my plan and made me miss the timing for revenge, so I’m very unhappy. I want to cause you trouble.”

This evil spirit was straightforward enough…

From the evil spirit’s words, gestures, and expressions, Shui Miao sensed something and, upon careful thought, made a significant realization. From its tone, actions, and demeanor, he deduced that this evil spirit had previously been a yin spirit—what people commonly called a ghost. When it was alive, it had been a woman—bold and decisive, the kind of woman who acted like a man.

To further verify his deduction, Shui Miao decided to test it.

“You yourself said I helped you once and ruined your plan once. Now we’re even, right? So why are you still after me?” Shui Miao licked his lips slightly, smiling faintly. “If I’m not mistaken, you were a woman in life—a bold, decisive city woman. The reason you didn’t want my grandfather here was because you were afraid he would uncover your true identity and find a way to defeat you.”

“You… you…”

Li Weimin froze, stuttering twice before failing to say anything else.

Seeing this, Shui Miao was secretly delighted—he wasn’t so dumb after all!