Chapter 16 Fierce Maria

Maria's lips curled into a sinister smile. Suddenly, she sprang to her feet and pounced on Xu Yi, the craft knife in her hand flashing with a cold glint.

Since she was already seen through by Xu Yi, there was no need to keep up the pretense.

"So fast!" Xu Yi was slightly startled. Her speed was beyond his expectations, and even he was unable to burst forth with such velocity.

Xu Yi responded in a rush, but after exchanging a few rounds, he relaxed.

Her speed was indeed fast, and her moves appeared fierce, but they were all style and no substance, clearly devoid of any professional training.

Xu Yi deliberately exposed a flaw to lure her into a trap, then suddenly changed his tactic and grabbed her wrist.

Grappling skills were Xu Yi's forte, and just as he was about to subdue Maria, she kicked against the wall, her body soaring into the air, twisting her waist and shaking off Xu Yi's restraint.

"Such a flexible body! Such agile moves!" Xu Yi couldn't help but exclaim.

Her movements would have been showy enough even in a diving competition.

Finding Xu Yi tough to handle, Maria decisively changed her target and charged toward Ailent.

"Ah!" Ailent cried out in alarm.

He had just stepped onto the stairs and hadn't grasped what was happening when he saw a dark shadow lunging toward him.

Luckily, he had an axe for self-defense as he came upstairs and now instinctively swung it out.

The anticipated scene of blood spraying everywhere did not occur; Maria once again displayed impressive body control, bringing her charging form to a sudden stop and dodging the swung axe.

Maria wanted to continue her attack, but her neck was struck hard, and her body collapsed softly.

Xu Yi stealthily appeared behind Maria, maintaining his striking pose.

How dare she divide her attention to deal with others? Was she underestimating him that much?

Seeing Maria fall, Xu Yi breathed a sigh of relief.

Luckily, she had not learned combat techniques; otherwise, with that speed and body control, he wasn't sure he could have handled her!

A heavy blow capable of knocking out an ordinary person for half an hour was just enough to daze Maria for a few seconds before she showed signs of coming to.

Such terrifying resilience to being struck!

Xu Yi clucked his tongue secretly and quickly moved forward to restrain Maria.

"Such skill, worthy indeed of the exorcist!" Ailent, as if waking from a dream, began lavishly praising Xu Yi.

"Bring me a rope, there's one in the hall."

Xu Yi couldn't be bothered with Ailent. To leave this place alive, even if he declared the Earth was flat, the other man would nod without hesitation.

He utilized the innate skill learned from rope-tying lessons and firmly bound Maria.

At this moment, Maria slowly came to, and Xu Yi stared at her, demanding, "Who exactly are you?"

"Who else could I be? Am I not Maria? To think I've been bringing you food these past few days, and you have no consideration for past kindness, tying me up here?" Maria cast a coquettish look at Xu Yi.

For innocent young men, the act of batting eyelashes could be incredibly powerful, but alas, Xu Yi was an old comrade seasoned by countless battles and simply ignored it.

Xu Yi looked at her as if she were a pig unafraid of boiling water and suddenly laughed, "You don't think I don't have a way to deal with you, do you?"

"What do you mean?" Maria suddenly had an ominous premonition.

Xu Yi didn't waste any more words. He pulled a necklace out from under his collar, with a pendant that was a crudely carved wooden bottle.

As the bottle cap was untwisted, Maria's body shuddered violently.

Inside the bottle was what Xu Yi had scavenged on Rose Street—the "ancestral treasure," several pieces of bloodstained glass.

Xu Yi had counted them carefully. There were five shards of glass in total, each about the size of a fingernail, with bloodstains only as big as soybeans.

The blood on them was no ordinary blood; it could drive away evil spirits. Xu Yi, of course, wanted to carry it with him, but carrying the shards would interfere with his psychic entries.

So he began to ponder, was there a way to isolate the magnetic field emitted by the bloodstains?

After days of experimentation, he finally found a material that could do just that: sun puppet wood.

But only fresh yang energy wood was useful, and its efficacy could only be maintained for three hours. He carved a small wooden bottle out of the yang energy wood just before school let out, and naturally, the bottle was rough.

Now, as the cap of the yang energy wood bottle was opened, the powerful magnetic field of blood emanated from it.

Maria felt the threat approaching, continually moving backward, but it was to no avail as her body was firmly tied to the railing, unable to dodge.

Seeing Xu Yi with such a solemn expression, Ailent was greatly agitated.

Could this be the exorcism of legend?

The exorcism incidents he had encountered before were limited to newspaper reports; this was his first personal experience.

The bottle containing the mysterious bloodstains pressed against Maria's forehead. She let out a piercing scream, and a gray mist enveloped her from behind.

"No!" Maria cried out in agony.

Some mysterious power acted upon Maria's soul. Her body convulsed, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

Xu Yi quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

He had not been sure whether the exorcism would be successful, as he only had a half-understanding of the mysterious blood himself. Fortunately, the result was still passable.

The unconscious Maria slowly opened her eyes, and looking at Xu Yi, her face filled with regret.

In her eyes, Xu Yi saw no confusion; his heart stirred, thinking of a possibility, "Can you perceive what's happening outside?"

"My soul has been sealed within my body, but I can still sense what's happening outside."

Maria looked at Xu Yi with concern, "Are you hurt? If I had known Ailan would do this, I would never have agreed to let her out!"

"Ailan?" Xu Yi asked, puzzled.

Maria explained her encounter with Ailan.

After understanding the whole story, Xu Yi fell into deep thought.

He suddenly thought of something, and a shock hit him, "You said Martin followed you in, where is he? Take me to him!"

In the secluded study, the door stood wide open. Xu Yi could see clearly inside and gasped in shock.

Ailent trembled uncontrollably.

Xu Yi finally understood why he could no longer see ghosts in the morgue.

In the study, densely packed ghostly figures made out of bandages were gathering, crammed together, all looking towards the center of the room.

At the center stood a pillar, and tied to it was a person—Martin, who had sneaked in.

Martin's palm was pierced through, with crimson blood flowing all over the ground. Xu Yi felt a familiar presence on Martin's body—it was Ailan, the "Mirror Person."

He suddenly understood why Ailan had attacked him; it was in search of a "substitute victim"!

Using Martin's blood as a medium and negative energy as a primer, the bandage-wrapped ghostly figures were made to mistake Martin as their target.

Xu Yi speculated that as soon as Maria entered the place, she must have caught the attention of the Funeral Parlor's ghosts.

It was simple, really. Ghosts, for the most part, acted on instinct and were even more xenophobic than the average person.

And Ailan inside Maria's body, undoubtedly, was an "alien ghost"!

Under normal circumstances, Maria might have faced some harassment, but unfortunately for her, the statue of Jesus in the cemetery was struck down by lightning, causing the ghosts in the Funeral Parlor to erupt with anger. If it weren't for a substitute victim, Maria would probably have been torn to shreds by the bandage-wrapped ghostly figures.

Martin, the substitute victim, wouldn't last much longer. The ghostly figures surrounded him, appearing to do nothing. Yet Xu Yi could sense that Yuan Qi was being drawn out from Martin's body, thread by thread.

This was also the reason why Ailan was in a hurry to find the next substitute victim.

Xu Yi's face turned grim; Ailan's search for a substitute victim was excusable, but this method was a temporary solution at best.

These bandage-wrapped ghostly figures, in his eyes, were not much of a threat. But after feeding on Martin's Yuan Qi, they became different.

Just like wild boars that had tasted human flesh, they were no longer merely a nuisance to crops.

Blood began to coalesce in the crimson pupils of the ghosts... They were evolving from common ghosts into ferocious spirits.