The driver was so terrified he nearly lost his soul on the spot, but Huo Ning eagerly started her livestream.  

[I’ve been waiting for the streamer to go live! What the hell is this? It’s pitch black—I can’t see anything!]

[Streamer, did you put your phone in your pocket?]

[Are you planning to embarrass yourself again by slandering our Yunfan gege?] 

[Ugh, can Zheng Yunfan’s brain-dead fans just get lost? Polluting the chat like this is so annoying!]

“Driver, could you turn on the headlights, please?”  

Huo Ning’s sweet voice rang out as she handed her phone to the driver.  

“Hold this for me—I’m livestreaming.”  

She adjusted her hair and smoothed out the wrinkles on her clothes.  

What could she say? She had a bit of an idol complex.  

[Tch, what’s this woman up to now?]

[Wait, is this one of Jiangcheng’s tree-lined roads? I think I pass by here often. It’s only 3 PM—where I am, the sun’s blazing, so why is it so dark there?]

[Did the streamer run into another ghost?]

[Such a show-off! Ghosts, my ass. It’s just about to rain heavily—this is totally normal! Typical of Yunfan gege’s haters to have no brains!]

[Zheng Yunfan’s fans, if you wanna eat sh*t, go to the bathroom, okay? The sun’s out in Jiangcheng—where’s the rain? Drain the water from your brains, seriously!]

[What if it’s just raining in that area?]

[And she calls herself a master? LMAO. What kind of master sets up like this before an exorcism? No compass, not even a coin sword—what’s with the posing?]

[Occupational habit from entertaining sugar daddies. Cut her some slack.]

The moment that comment was posted, the netizen inexplicably fell off her bed, a bright red slap mark appearing on her face out of nowhere. The pain was so intense she couldn’t straighten up.  

But she had no time to worry about the pain.  

Her face pale, she stared at her phone screen, teeth chattering uncontrollably.  

“Th-there’s… a ghost!”  

A ghastly pale hand, flesh peeling to reveal bone, pressed against the car window. Then, with a grotesque, twisting motion, the figure crawled up and flashed a sinister grin at the two people inside the car.  

“AHHH!!!”  

The driver screamed in terror, dropping the phone instantly.  

The next second, a beam of golden light shot out—the female ghost instantly dissolved into a wisp of black smoke. But her piercing shriek still reverberated through the car window, making the driver’s scalp tingle.

Huo Ning elegantly flicked her wrist.  

“You killed yourself by drunk driving and left a student who just finished their college entrance exams in a coma—and you still dare to cause trouble as a ghost? Disappear into nothingness!”  

Just then, the trembling driver picked up the phone.  

Huo Ning flashed a sweet smile at the camera. “Hey everyone, livestreaming a ghost hunt for you.”  

She raised her hand, forming a seal, and a faint golden light seemed to envelop the car’s interior.  

With effortless grace, Huo Ning pushed the car door open and stepped outside.  

She turned back to warn the driver, “This barrier keeps ghosts out, but if you leave on your own—”  

Before she could finish, the driver shook his head violently like a rattle-drum.  

“I won’t leave! I won’t!”  

“Even if you beat me to death, I’m not stepping out!”  

Outside, an eerie wind howled, rustling the leaves in unnatural patterns—like the wails of the damned.  

Though it was only 3 PM, the world beyond the car windows was pitch black, as if submerged in ink. Apart from the car’s headlights, not a single glimmer of light pierced the darkness.  

The driver couldn’t see clearly, but the phone’s camera captured everything in stark detail.  

A red-clothed ghostly infant, a male ghost exuding thick black miasma, and a female spirit in tattered white robes—her nails unnaturally elongated, nearly 20 centimeters, and stained an ominous black—stood waiting.  

The three ghosts encircled Huo Ning, their gaping maws dripping with malice, as if ready to devour her whole.  

Despair surged in the driver’s heart.  

It’s over.

No matter how powerful the master is, she can’t take on three ghosts at once!

The Buddha statue inside the car trembled violently, its movements so frantic that the driver’s expression twisted in sympathy.  

Who said true empathy didn’t exist?  

Even the ghost attached to the Buddha statue was sharing his terror!  

Huo Ning lazily stifled a yawn.  

“Even as ghosts, you should know your limits. Trying to possess just anyone will only destroy you.”  

The original owner of this body had endured something in her childhood that twisted her inherently noble fate into a magnet for dark forces.  

But the dense clusters of karmic sores that once marred her face had also saturated her body with such heavy resentment that most vengeful spirits dared not approach.  

People feared the wicked—ghosts were no different.  

Since Huo Ning took over, she had purged the lingering grudges that didn’t belong to this body.

Now, this body had become prime prey for hungry ghosts.  

Most spirits with any sense of self-preservation feared the soul residing within her and fled at the sight of her. But just as there were fools among the living, there were fools among the dead.  

The malevolent ghost wreathed in black mist let out a bone-chilling laugh, his gaping maw spewing dark miasma as he lunged at Huo Ning.  

[AHHH! The streamer’s gonna die tonight!]

[Wuwuwu, I’m sending five bottles of red wine as tribute—not for anything else, just for peace of mind. Streamer, if you die, don’t come after me! I didn’t make you livestream this!]

[A joyous celebration! Yunfan-gege’s haters always get their karma. Time to post a giveaway in the fanclub! This bitch deserves to die~]

[Don’t worry, OP. If the streamer dies, you’ll be the first one she visits.]

[Good! My mom knows several real masters—they’ll make sure this trash gets obliterated into nothingness hehe.]

[Still gossiping? Go check Weibo. Your ‘gege’ just got exposed for running a casting couch. Tsk tsk, how dare he drug and assault people!] 

[Your gossip’s outdated. Zheng Yunfan’s already been exposed for bullying peers and raising ghost servants!]

[LMAO, look at these brainless sheep. Worry about your dying streamer first!]

[Why’s everyone assuming she’ll lose? I bet these ghosts are about to get annihilated!]

[Keep dreaming. Not even a real master could—HOLY SHIT!]

With a flick of Huo Ning’s fingers, a streak of golden light shot out—the malevolent ghost disintegrated instantly, leaving only his piercing shriek hanging in the air.  

The remaining white-robed female ghost clutched her spectral infant, trembling as she stared at Huo Ning.  

“P-Please spare us, Master! That evil ghost forced us to come here!”  

Huo Ning studied her with pity.  

How tragic.

Seven months pregnant, yet murdered by someone using dark magic. After death, her soul was trapped on this very road by a binding curse.  

Those whose natural lifespans were cut short by violence could never enter the cycle of reincarnation.  

Huo Ning raised her hand, sending out a talisman. A cloth bundle buried beneath the tree roots flew into the air before crumbling to ashes—the very object that had imprisoned this ghost.  

Curling her lips, Huo Ning asked,  

“Want to know how you really died?”  

Yes. This white-robed ghost had died without ever learning the truth.

She had thought it was just bad luck—that she had been in a car accident on her way to a prenatal checkup.  

The white-robed ghost, clutching her spectral infant, stared blankly at Huo Ning.  

“I… I can’t leave.”  

Huo Ning gently smoothed the wrinkles on her clothes. “You couldn’t before. Now you can.”  

“Come on. Let’s go meet the vengeful ghost who killed you—and ask her who put her up to it.”  

With a flick of her sleeve, the thick black fog instantly dissipated, and the world returned to its earlier clarity.  

Huo Ning opened the car door and lifted the barrier she had set. The white-robed ghost, still dazed, floated inside with her ghost baby in her arms.  

The driver nearly fainted from terror.  

For decades, he had been a staunch atheist.  

But today’s events had thoroughly shattered his forty-plus years of beliefs—and then stomped on them.  

Huo Ning raised her hand, and the wooden gourd hanging as decoration in the car flew straight into her palm.  

She glanced at the ghost. “Get in with the child. Don’t scare people.”  

The ghost obediently nodded and slipped inside with her baby.  

“Driver, give me the phone. We’ll stop the livestream for now and head to our destination first.”  

The driver’s hands shook as he handed it back.  

He looked on the verge of tears. “M-Master… I don’t think I can drive. My limbs—no, my soul—is trembling.”  

Huo Ning studied him, then recited an incantation he couldn’t understand.  

“Supreme Tai Shang, respond without pause,

Expel evil, bind demons, guard life and soul, 

Wisdom bright, heart and mind serene,

Three spirits eternal, no essence unseen!”

The moment the chant ended, the driver felt something settle over him.  

Miraculously, his hands stopped shaking. The suffocating dread that had threatened to tear his soul apart vanished.  

He blinked in awe.  

“Master, you’re amazing! But… why not just slap a talisman on me?”  

Huo Ning smirked faintly.  

“Normally, I would just throw a talisman. But today, I felt like showing off.”