At 12:55 a.m., dark clouds pressed down, blotting out the stars and moon, turning what should have been a bright full moon night pitch black as ink.
Under a streetlamp by the brand-new wide asphalt road on the outskirts of a newly developed suburban area stood a young girl around nineteen years old. She had her hair tied in a high ponytail, wore a short-sleeved T-shirt, jeans, and casual sneakers, with a slightly worn but new-style suitcase at her feet. She looked just like the girl next door who hadn’t yet left school. The girl slightly raised her head, half-narrowed her eyes, and gazed toward the black sedan in the middle of the road—a car longer than a regular sedan by the length of a car body. In front of her, within this fifty-meter stretch of road, the car circled and stopped repeatedly. The four people inside got in and out several times, yet they still spun within those same fifty meters. On a straight road where even someone with eyes closed could drive out, they hadn’t advanced half a meter. From 11:30 p.m. when they rushed out of the Construction Site until now, just five minutes shy of 1 a.m., they had circled for nearly two hours.
Her name was Wang Ya. She had come to this city last week to make her way, but yesterday she accidentally lost her wallet and her ID Card along with it. Staying in a hotel became inconvenient, and she couldn’t even find work. With no place to eat or sleep and no other options, she had no choice but to take temporary labor at the Construction Site to earn some money and find a foothold while waiting for her family to mail her Temporary ID Card so she could seek other paths.
Today, while working as a day laborer at the Construction Site, Wang Ya heard that ghosts haunted the neighboring site and people had died. After work in the evening, she went to check but was stopped by the security guard at the gate and could only peer in from afar. Though she didn’t see clearly, she vaguely made out that someone had indeed died inside, and unclean things lurked there. Just then, she spotted this elongated sedan and two off-road vehicles driving into the Construction Site. Peering through a gap in the wall, she saw two Taoist Priests in Daoist robes get out of this car—likely there to exorcise ghosts—so she sat at the nearby Bus Station bench waiting to see what happened inside.
From 11 p.m., successive screams mixed with cries echoed from within. She thought she would wait until the critical moment inside, when she could best demonstrate her value and skills, to swoop in and save the day. But she hadn’t anticipated whether the people inside were too weak or if she misjudged the timing. Just as she prepared to enter, they had already rushed out in the car, only to start circling in place once outside the gate.
The car held three men and one woman. Two men wore black suits like movie gangsters or bodyguards—one drove, the other sat in the back. They got out twice, looked around, and returned to the car. A Taoist Priest in his fifties sat in the passenger seat, sporting a goatee that gave him an air of an expert. He got out three times, bit his finger, bit his tongue tip, burned Talisman Paper, and even broke his ordinary Peach Wood Sword. Finally, legs trembling, he crawled back into the car. The woman, around twenty-four or twenty-five, sat behind the driver’s seat in silky white Retro Tang Suit. After getting out, she stood by the driver’s side and walked slowly forward as the car crept alongside her. At the fifty-meter mark ahead, she stopped, took a step back, stood for a few seconds, then turned and returned to the car, which stayed put thereafter. It was as if an uncrossable chasm or invisible wall blocked the edge of that fifty-meter road.
Others might not see it, but Wang Ya clearly spotted a thick mass of Yin Qi enveloping this fifty-meter stretch of road, densest where the car was. Wherever the car went, the Yin Qi thickened there. Clearly, the people in the car were manipulated by the Yin Qi and its master, who had temperamentally hidden underground without appearing.
From the Yin Qi so dense it nearly formed mist, Wang Ya determined they faced an Ancient Old Ghost. This Old Ghost didn’t know how many years it had brewed underground before construction disturbed and provoked it. She figured if these people had no other tricks or reinforcements, they would meet their end here tonight—dead or crippled.
Yin Spirits inherently didn’t belong in the Yang Realm; lingering went against heaven’s will. On the first and fifteenth of each month, they endured Yin Wind Cleansing. Over time, they either scattered soul and spirit or accumulated heavier Yin Qi, growing more ferocious, losing humanity until they became Fierce Ghosts devoid of it. In a place that never haunted before suddenly plagued by an Ancient Old Ghost, there must be a Yin Vein or Yin Acupoint underground for it to attach and cultivate. The ghost lurked below to practice, or something on the surface suppressed it until the Construction Site disturbed the Yin Spirit or broke its seal, unleashing this chaos. If the Old Ghost emerged from a broken seal underground, the situation was slightly better—sealed Fierce Ghosts, though vicious, weakened from seal energy consumption, their power discounted upon release. Striking at its weakest was ideal. But a ghost attached to a Yin Acupoint or Yin Vein, drawing earth energy, was impossible to deal with. Against such, unless one had great means, fleeing was wisest.
Seeing the Taoist Priest couldn’t even break a basic Ghost Hitting Wall, Wang Ya knew his skills were mediocre and couldn’t gauge the true power of this Old Ghost yet to reveal itself. But one thing she could tell: the woman among them was rich. Though she knew little about cars, this one was beautiful, bore a small winged emblem upfront, and was much longer than normal. She might not know if it was the Rolls-Royce villagers mentioned, but extended cars weren’t cheap—definitely for the wealthy. When the woman got out earlier, the suited man in back accompanied her, protecting her like a hen guarding chicks—clearly her Bodyguards. The woman was rich, very rich. Wang Ya thought: if she could resolve this and earn some money, it would solve her predicament and spare her the ridicule of losing her wallet right after arriving.
