CHAPTER 43: CHAPTER 43: BACKLASH

"Boss, you’re back from your trip."

When Zhou Haidong walked into the tea house with Sun Yan, a black-haired girl at the front desk immediately stood up to greet him, while curiously eyeing Sun Yan who was following behind Zhou Haidong.

"Xiao Ya, has the altar in Room 3 been tidied up today? I need to use it. Also, please notify the others in the club. If anyone is in Jinshui District, it would be great if they could come to the tea house to lend a hand." Zhou Haidong said with a friendly smile.

"Okay, boss."

With a stone in his mouth, Sun Yan couldn’t speak, so he could only watch the conversation between Zhou Haidong and the staff.

It was clear that this tea house was Zhou Haidong’s base of operations, his place to help clients with exorcisms, much like a graveyard was for Sun Yan. Seeing how reliable Zhou Haidong appeared, Sun Yan couldn’t help but feel much more at ease.

"Come with me."

The two of them went up to the second floor of the tea house and entered a private room.

When Sun Yan stepped inside, he saw a more than three-meter-high bluestone placed in the middle of the room.

This stone was incredibly smooth and had been sculpted into the shape of a sitting fat man. Although it didn’t have very realistic facial features or limbs, it subtly conveyed a sense of natural and artistic formation.

Numerous white ropes hung from the surface of the bluestone, with yellow talismans tied at regular intervals. At a glance, there must have been no less than several hundred.

An altar had already been set up around the bluestone, with clear water, candles, copper coins, scissors...

Zhou Haidong bowed respectfully to the giant stone and turned back to introduce it to Sun Yan: "All things in heaven and earth have spirituality. Trees and stones are embodiments of divine spirits. This is the Cyan Stone God I’ve been sensing for many years. With His presence, he can certainly help you."

Sun Yan suddenly realized and mumbled, "Uncle, so you’re a spirit medium."

Inviting the god is a practice that spiritualists from various cultures have been involved in since ancient times.

The more famous are ’North Exit, South Divination Child.’

This refers to a group of special spiritual individuals who can invite immortals and divine spirits to possess them, helping them accomplish certain tasks.

In Southeast Asia, such individuals are called ’spirit mediums.’

In Southeast Asia, they believe that all things have spirits, and deceased ancestors, flowers, birds, insects, fish, plants, and animals, as long as they receive incense offerings, can turn into divine spirits.

These supernatural divine spirits can possess people, blessing believers with protection and fortune, and such people are the spirit mediums.

However, in the ’Mountain Chasing Manual,’ Sun Yan’s grandfather believed that these Wild Gods, which became deities due to incense offerings, should not be engaged with too much. As Wild Gods are unpredictable, neither harming nor saving people can be controlled, and they are akin to the existence of demolishing temples and cutting mountains.

In ancient rural areas, ignorant villagers would secretly build shrines in the wild, worshiping some spirit monsters and wandering souls. These Wild Gods initially had no mana, but as more incense was offered, naturally, they gained some abilities, either harming or helping people.

The huge bluestone currently before Sun Yan’s eyes was such a Wild God.

Zhou Haidong gestured: "Please sit down."

Sun Yan immediately sat cross-legged on a nearby cushion. As time passed, even though he still had the stone given by Zhou Haidong in his mouth, its effect on resisting black magic seemed to be getting weaker.

He was sweating profusely, his face was ashen as though devoid of blood, and his body was uncontrollably shivering.

Suddenly, Sun Yan opened his mouth and spat out the stone, now its surface had turned pitch black, as if it had been soaked in ink.

"䇣槑咄愙匴斝盦叾䯢鼁..."

Zhou Haidong took out a peach wood branch, and with a serious expression, began to dance around the Cyan Stone God, making various gestures with his arms and legs while continually chanting spells.

In the room, with doors and windows tightly closed, Sun Yan suddenly felt a fierce wind rising, as if countless streams of air were rushing into his body through every orifice, coursing through every blood vessel within him.

The yellow talismans in the room were vibrating incessantly, as if influenced by some invisible force.

A few minutes later, Sun Yan suddenly felt his throat itch terribly, and he hastily grabbed a copper basin nearby, bending over as he began to retch.

"Splash!"

A large amount of thick black liquid spewed out from his mouth, leaving Sun Yan greatly shocked, realizing that the black magic within him must be quite severe.

...

"Ah!!!"

A scream echoed in the apartment, as Sang Tai, originally chanting spells, suddenly clutched his abdomen and collapsed to the ground.

It was as if something inside him was trying to burst out of his stomach, causing fist-sized bulges to rise and fall repeatedly.

"Someone, someone is opposing me again." Sang Tai grimaced, clenching his teeth in fury as he struggled to sit up.

He didn’t have to put himself in danger to come to North America, but Chen Xing’s black magic had been dispelled.

Now he intended to kill his remaining target with black magic, yet encountered resistance again. What kind of a place is North America, where master after master capable of breaking his black magic appears?

"I can’t perform Flying Down without his hair. Now, breaking through this situation depends on you. Go, go find that guy."

Sang Tai picked up a jar on the table and drank the black water inside in huge gulps. As the water level slowly descended, the bottom of the jar revealed a wooden statue resembling an infant.

The statue had a ferocious face, squinty eyes, and fangs, resembling an evil ghost crawling out of hell. Around its neck, it wore a necklace made of human teeth, adding to its horror.

Lifting the Buddha Pendant hanging on his chest, Sang Tai’s eyes turned vicious as he directly stuffed the pendant into his mouth, muttering spells rapidly.

The inside of the pendant began to seep dark red blood, filling Sang Tai’s entire mouth. His face turned a flaming red, and his eyes became completely murky, as black as ink.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck."

The inexplicable sound of a child’s laughter echoed within the room, and from the wooden statue in the altar, a dark figure slowly crawled out.

Before Sang Tai could see clearly, the shadow swiftly flew out of the room and disappeared.

...

Spitting out the black liquid, Sun Yan noticeably felt a lot better. He wiped away the residue from the corner of his mouth and watched as Zhou Haidong earnestly performed rituals around the Cyan Stone God.

His movements bore a strong resemblance to a shamanic dance, indicating that this Cyan Stone worshipped by Zhou Haidong indeed had some spiritual path.

Sun Yan couldn’t help but ponder in his heart, if he invited General Sun to possess him, wouldn’t his strength surpass that of the Cyan Stone God?

"Vishya Arne Nane!"

Zhou Haidong shouted, took a raw egg, and rolled it around Sun Yan’s face. After a few passes, he cracked it open with one hand, pouring the contents into a bowl.

What flowed from the egg was clear and runny, like water, pitch black and foul-smelling, very bizarre.

"The black magic on you hasn’t been completely lifted." Zhou Haidong frowned deeply, his expression serious.

Despite his ritual, Sun Yan had already expelled everything he needed to and felt no other discomfort, yet the black magic remained.

"Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck!"

Just as Zhou Haidong was contemplating whether to intensify his efforts, a faint laughter suddenly echoed in the room.

The sound seemed to drift in from outside, causing Zhou Haidong to change his expression immediately, scanning his surroundings in shock: "No! That black magic master has even used the Ancient Mantra; he’s ready to go all out against you."

Sun Yan understood the implication behind his words. A powerful black magic master would use children or fetuses to create the Ancient Mantra, commonly referred to as the ’Little Ghost.’

Bringing the Ancient Mantra home for worship could grant the owner good fortune, prosperity, and love, but if it backfired, the outcome could be dire.

In the early years, it was particularly popular among celebrities and businessmen in Hong Kong and Taiwan to invite an Ancient Mantra from Southeast Asia for worship.

However, few knew that in the hands of a black magic master, the Ancient Mantra could also become a tool for harm.

Zhou Haidong dipped the Peach Wood Branch in a bowl of clear water and swept it suddenly, splashing drops of water in all directions.

In the corner of the room appeared the figure of a young child, glaring menacingly at Zhou Haidong with a sneer, disappearing again in an instant, destination unknown.

Zhou Haidong felt somewhat troubled. Although the Cyan Stone God was aiding him, exorcism wasn’t his forte, especially dealing with an Ancient Mantra evil spirit brimming with resentment crafted by a black magic master.

Stealthily, the Golden Scissors resting on the table suddenly floated up, aiming directly at Sun Yan’s chest.

’Celestial Eye’

Sun Yan was already prepared. As the Celestial Eye opened, he saw a malformed baby standing on the table, its limbs not fully formed.

It was bruised and with a grotesque, ugly face, resembling a freak, and it was this baby holding the scissors that lunged at him.

Having been tormented by black magic earlier, Sun Yan was already filled with anger, desperate to unleash it.

His skills in unraveling black magic weren’t particularly advanced; being cursed was simply a case of inferior skills. But now the black magic master dared to send an Ancient Mantra against him, which was a grave mistake, as Sun Yan excelled in exorcism and dealing with ghosts.

"You’re asking for death!"

Sun Yan’s expression turned fierce as he pulled out the Ghost Torturing Stick and struck it violently at the Ancient Mantra.

Bam!

At the instant the Ghost Torturing Stick struck the Ancient Mantra, the feeble evil spirit didn’t even have the chance to react, dissipating on the spot, while the floating Golden Scissors dropped to the ground.

Meanwhile, in Sang Tai’s rented apartment.

At the instant the Ancient Mantra disappeared, Sang Tai, biting the Buddha Pendant and chanting the spell, abruptly widened his eyes, filled with fear as his body began emitting white smoke.

His once taut skin rapidly aged as if experiencing centuries, sagging and wrinkled, his hair losing color.

In just a few seconds, Sang Tai had transformed from looking in his thirties to a white-haired old man, twitching and rolling on the floor, exclaiming continuously, "No! Black Curse Buddha Mother! Please trust me once more; I am your loyal believer."

However, before he could utter another word, his struggling body suddenly went still, his eyes fixed on the ceiling, filled with infinite fear.

Half an hour later.

Bam!

The door to the rented apartment was kicked open from outside, with Raymond personally leading the charge as numerous police officers armed with guns stormed in.

Yet upon seeing the scene inside, even the most seasoned veteran officers couldn’t help but step back in fear.

It was a corpse covered entirely with spiders, the deceased’s eyes wide open in death, with spiders crawling in and out of his open mouth, as if birthed from within, devouring his skin.