“Thai ghost-raising technique?” Han Si Fan furrowed her brow. The old man gave a cold laugh and said, “Don’t doubt my ability to kill you. I don’t want to increase my karma unnecessarily. Get lost now, and just forget what happened here.”

“What should we do, Brother Xiang?” I whispered to Brother Xiang. He gulped and said, “How would I know? Sis Fan, why don’t we just let it go? It’s not like it concerns us.”

“Can’t you two have some guts?” Han Si Fan shot us a glare, then with a sense of righteousness declared, “Since I’ve studied the Dao, I must have a heart for helping the world. If I hadn’t encountered this, that’d be one thing. But now that I have, I have to eradicate it!”

After she said that, she stomped her foot and charged at the old man. The man, seeing Han Si Fan rushing toward him, got a bit scared. If it came to a fight, his old bones wouldn’t stand a chance against her. He quickly untied the red string wrapped around the dried, meat-like object in his hand.

As soon as he untied it, the sound of a baby crying came from his hand, a terribly haunting wail. And just like that, the dried thing in his hand vanished. By that time, Han Si Fan had reached him and punched him back a few steps.

Seeing how frail the old man was, I was just about to step in to help, but suddenly, a chill ran down my spine, like an ice block had pressed against my back. I turned around, and—holy crap!—there was a baby clinging to my back, its mouth right at the back of my head, sucking relentlessly. I felt my head grow heavier and heavier, like I was about to fall asleep.

Luckily, Brother Xiang wasn’t slacking off. He was right next to me. Just as I was about to pass out, Brother Xiang slapped me hard across the face, jolting me awake with a stinging pain on my left cheek. He said, “Xiao Hui, bite your tongue and spit your tongue blood at it.”

“Bro… can’t you just help me?” I was shivering all over, but I didn’t count on him to help any further. That lazy bum, no point complaining now. I bit down on my tongue hard, the pain shooting through me, making me feel a lot more awake. I turned and spat the blood at the little ghost on my back. It wasn’t some super-powerful ghost, so my tongue blood hit it, and it fell to the ground, green smoke rising from it.

“Crap, it’s not even that strong,” I grumbled.

“You little brats, just you wait!” The old man, who was getting beaten up by Han Si Fan, shouted. Face bruised and swollen, he managed to shake her off and ran down the stairs. The little ghost lay shrunken on the ground, barely clinging to life after my tongue blood hit it.

Han Si Fan sighed and muttered, “Who knows what kind of cult that guy came from. These days, cults are popping up everywhere, with more and more worthless trash.”

Then she wrapped the little ghost in a BaGua cloth, saying, “I’ll find a chance to send this little ghost on its way properly.”

“But didn’t that guy say he’d get revenge on us? What should we do?” I asked Han Si Fan, still feeling a bit uneasy.

Brother Xiang smacked the back of my head and said, “You idiot! What villain doesn’t threaten revenge when they leave? And what happens? Pfft, if he dares show up again, I’ll chop him into pieces and feed him to the fish!”

We didn’t give it much thought and went back to the room to play a bit more. Eventually, we all caught rides back to school. But on the way back to the city, something happened.

Han Si Fan didn’t ride with Jin Xi Shan this time; instead, she called Little Fatty to pick her up. So it was Han Si Fan, me, Brother Xiang, and Tai Long together in one car. Han Si Fan had mentioned having a bad feeling, so she stuck with us.

It was around eleven at night, and there weren’t many cars on the street. When we got to a bridge over the river, Han Si Fan suddenly said, “Xiao Xiang, Xiao Hui, get out with me. Tai Long, you head back alone!”

Even though it was summer, I felt a chill in the car that shouldn’t have been there. I got it—it had to be something nasty!

Brother Xiang and I didn’t hesitate; we jumped out of the car. Tai Long was about to follow, but we stopped him, urging him to go on alone.

We watched the taxi drive off and then noticed a woman in a red dress standing by the bridge’s edge, reading a book as she walked slowly towards us.

“It’s a fierce ghost!” Han Si Fan furrowed her brows. “Be careful. This one’s definitely not easy to handle!”

“A fierce ghost? So what?” I still didn’t really know what that meant. Just as I said it, all the cars around us vanished, and we were suddenly standing in a pitch-black forest.

“Don’t move! We’re trapped in an illusion. If you move around recklessly, you might end up on the road and get hit by a car, or fall into the river and drown!”

I was just processing the whole forest scene when Han Si Fan shouted at us, holding up a compass and checking around. She pointed straight ahead and said, “The ghost hasn’t moved yet. Be cautious. I’ve never dealt with a fierce ghost before, so I don’t know how powerful it’ll be. No matter what you see, don’t panic. And if you feel the ghost approaching, shout out loud! Once it possesses you, it’ll try to make you jump into the river or onto the road to get hit. Whoever gets possessed, remember to yell, so the others can hold you back!”

“Got it!” The three of us stood back-to-back, looking around. To be honest, I couldn’t believe this was an illusion. It all felt way too real, even down to the sound of birds chirping around us.

“Help!” Suddenly, Brother Xiang shouted from behind me. I turned to see him stumbling forward. I reached out to grab him, but his strength was terrifying; he was almost pulling me along. Thankfully, Han Si Fan stepped in and grabbed him tightly.

After pulling him back, Han Si Fan took out a needle and jabbed it into the center of Brother Xiang’s upper lip. I could clearly see the ghost spring out of him.

The ghost was a young woman, maybe in her twenties. She looked quite pretty but had no pupils in her eyes, just like Menma’s eyes—oh right, Menma!

“Sis Fan, why don’t we release Menma to take care of her?” I suggested.

“Are you confident you can control her and keep her from going on a rampage? That thing’s way more dangerous than this ghost here,” Han Si Fan said. She had a point. If Menma went berserk, she’d probably be worse than this fierce ghost.

Thinking it over, I had to drop the idea.

So, the three of us stood back-to-back, bracing ourselves. At that moment, I understood that a fierce ghost was indeed not something we could handle yet.