After Waking Up, I Inherited a Bookstore 33

Chapter 33: Exorcism Talisman

Liu Chuxia and Xiao Xu hid not far from them.

“Xiao Xu, are these the only five over here?” Liu Chuxia asked in a low voice, hugging herself from the cold.

“Mhm, I haven’t found any others around for now. Didn’t Big Sister Chuxia bring any clothes?” Xiao Xu asked, looking at Liu Chuxia after explaining the situation.

“How was I supposed to know it would be this cold? None of you reminded me,” Liu Chuxia said, looking at Xiao Xu with a hint of resentment.

“Ahem, I was in a hurry when I came out, so I didn’t remember. I see some thick clothes over there. Let me go get them for you to wear first,” Xiao Xu said, pointing to the left of their position. Then she suddenly disappeared. In a short while, she reappeared and directly put the clothes on Liu Chuxia.

Liu Chuxia was getting a little used to Xiao Xu’s sudden appearances and disappearances. There was no other reason, she was probably just numb to it.

After putting on the clothes, Liu Chuxia felt more comfortable. “What now? Do we just go up and bind them?”

“If we bind them, they’ll wail and howl. Even if we use a Soul-Calming Talisman in time, this place is so spacious, one howl will echo very loudly. It would be bad if we attract the malevolent ghosts from other places. Big Sister Xiao Nian also said it was about 16 of them, not a definite number. If we attract a whole group, I’m afraid I won’t be able to handle it,” Xiao Xu said seriously, looking at Liu Chuxia.

“Aren’t they already screaming? And they’re throwing things around.”

Xiao Xu shook her head. “They have their own language for calling for help, and it has a large range and travels far. And the sound of them throwing things is not that loud. The ones in other places probably can’t hear it. Can you hear anything other than the noise they’re making? No, right?”

“Then what should we do? Use a Soul-Calming Talisman directly?” Liu Chuxia asked with a frown.

Xiao Xu shook her head. “A Soul-Calming Talisman is only effective on the basis of a Soul-Binding Talisman. Using it directly like this probably won’t have much effect.”

She lowered her head and paused for a few seconds before continuing, “I’ll go over there and check the situation first. Don’t worry, they’re not strong enough to detect me.”

Liu Chuxia nodded. “Then be careful.”

Xiao Xu hummed in agreement and disappeared. Then she appeared beside the group of malevolent ghosts, but they acted as if they didn’t see her and continued their rampage.

In a short while, Xiao Xu returned. “Big Sister Chuxia, can you knock them down in one hit? The kind where they can’t even make a sound.”

Liu Chuxia pointed at herself and asked with a very puzzled expression, “Me? You think I, who takes several minutes to deal with one malevolent ghost, can do that?”

“You can. It just depends on whether Big Sister Chuxia can control it well.” Xiao Xu mysteriously took out a few yellow talismans and gave them to Liu Chuxia.

Liu Chuxia took the talismans in a daze, her gaze towards Xiao Xu full of questions.

“It’s the new Exorcism Talisman I developed. It’s a purely offensive talisman. I just haven’t tested its power yet. It seems this is the only way for now. I’m just afraid that Big Sister Chuxia will release too much power and cause the malevolent ghosts’ souls to scatter directly, which would be a pity,” Xiao Xu explained.

“Then I’ll give it a try. If their souls scatter directly, there’s nothing I can do.” Liu Chuxia stood up, bent down, and tiptoed to a spot a little closer to the malevolent ghosts. Then she made a hand seal, burned the five Exorcism Talismans in her hand, and threw them out. The five red lights, as if they had each locked onto an enemy, shot straight towards the five closest malevolent ghosts.

The red light landed on the five malevolent ghosts. In an instant, flames erupted, then quickly dissipated. The sound wasn’t very loud, but the smoke was particularly thick. Liu Chuxia was not far from the ghosts and was choked by a few mouthfuls. She quickly covered her mouth, bent down, and returned to Xiao Xu’s side.

“Hey, why is there so much smoke?” Liu Chuxia asked after taking down her hand and coughing a few times.

She now felt that the taste in her mouth and even her nose was the smell of the burned talisman paper, which was very uncomfortable.

Xiao Xu patted Liu Chuxia’s back and looked at the spot where the ghosts were with a frown. “I don’t know either. There wasn’t this much smoke when I tested it myself. Maybe there’s some reaction after it comes into contact with ghosts. I’ll have to improve it when I get back. I’ll go and see what the situation is inside.”

Liu Chuxia nodded. She could finally breathe normally again. She had almost suffocated.

Xiao Xu flashed into the middle of the smoke and saw a few bright white figures that were different from the white smoke. She counted them, and there were exactly five. She held two in each hand and carried one on her back. She turned and flashed to a spot near Liu Chuxia, then threw the ghosts aside like trash.

“Big Sister Chuxia, how did you do that? They’re all severely injured,” Xiao Xu said, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Liu Chuxia.

“This… I don’t know either. I just made the hand seal, burned the talisman, and threw it out as usual,” Liu Chuxia said, quite surprised herself. It seemed she was always like this, just right on the mark.

Xiao Xu stroked her chin, thought for a moment, and said, “It might be that Big Sister Chuxia’s current Daoist arts are still a bit low, but your talent has compensated for it very well. However, as Big Sister Chuxia’s Daoist arts get higher and higher, you’ll have to learn how to control the amount you use each time you burn a talisman.”

“It seems I still have a lot to learn,” Liu Chuxia muttered to herself, touching her ear.

“Mhm, Big Sister Chuxia will definitely learn very quickly. Let’s go,” Xiao Xu said, walking ahead and turning back to Liu Chuxia.

Liu Chuxia nodded and followed. The human and the ghost searched and checked each area one by one. By the time they had put the 16th ghost into the bottle, Liu Chuxia was so tired she lay directly on the floor.

“So tired. Why are the simple actions of burning and throwing talismans so tiring? I feel like my whole body is sore,” Liu Chuxia said listlessly on the floor.

“It seems Big Sister Chuxia really needs to exercise. You can’t be like this. Although burning and throwing talismans looks easy, it consumes stamina. The amount consumed depends on your physical fitness and the power of the talisman paper. This means that although Big Sister Chuxia is talented, you also use more stamina than an ordinary Spirit Master. Big Sister Chuxia, you have to work hard at exercising,” Xiao Xu explained with a grin.

“What? Why didn’t you guys tell me earlier? No wonder it got harder and harder to burn talismans towards the end, and I was so tired,” Liu Chuxia questioned Xiao Xu.

“Hehe, I wanted you to discover it yourself. It’s a good opportunity to explain it to you,” Xiao Xu said with a beaming smile, touching her head.

Suddenly, a sharp roar sounded. Liu Chuxia was so scared she quickly got up from the floor. “What’s going on? It sounds like it’s from downstairs.”

Xiao Xu also immediately wiped the grin off her face. “Go! Let’s go down and see. I hope it’s not Big Sister Jiajia and the others being surrounded.”

Liu Chuxia nodded and immediately followed Xiao Xu down to the second floor. In the middle of the open space, she saw Xiao Nian lying on the ground and Jiang Jiajia standing beside her. Opposite them was a female ghost with a completely rotten body, a full head of white hair, and red glowing eyes. She was wearing a white dress that was now black and tattered.

The entire space was extremely cold, and the yin energy was extremely heavy. There was also a very disgusting smell of rot. Mixed with the smell of burning talisman paper, it almost made Liu Chuxia vomit right there. It was a good thing there were lights on this floor. Otherwise, fighting ghosts in the dark would have been quite difficult.

Enduring the smells, Liu Chuxia quickly ran to Jiang Jiajia’s side and glanced at Xiao Nian. Seeing that she had only fainted and had no serious external injuries, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Then she looked up warily at the motionless female ghost not far away. “Jiajia, what’s the situation?”