Suddenly, Wang Ya remembered that Zheng Yanxia had seen her ID card and knew her family’s address back home. With Zheng Yanxia’s soul taken by the Dead Old Lady, betrayal would be all too easy—it could happen in a matter of minutes. She wasn’t afraid of the Dead Old Lady, but her grandma was now over seventy years old. Having suffered severe injuries in her youth without properly recovering, she was left with a body full of ailments. Without her cane, she could barely walk a few steps—how could she deal with an old ghost like that? And her dad was even worse; he had an intellectual disability and was utterly useless! If Zheng Yanxia sold her out, her family might face a massacre tomorrow! Wang Ya broke out in a cold sweat on the spot!
She couldn’t rush back to guard her grandma. She was young and at the prime of her life for building her career—how could she hole up in those poor mountains? Besides, only thieves lasted a lifetime; no one guarded against thieves forever. The root of the problem lay with Huang Qi and the Dead Old Lady. Going home to protect her grandma would be seeking the distant while ignoring the near, chasing the branches while neglecting the root.
Wang Ya told Landlord Sir to pull over and let her off at the roadside, instructing them to head back first.
Landlord Sir and Landlord Wife had just been through a scare and didn’t dare leave Wang Ya behind to drive back alone.
Wang Ya pointed at the talisman paper she had given Landlord Wife, which hung from the rearview mirror, and said, “With this, what do you have to fear? Doesn’t Landlord Wife have another one in her pocket? With those two talismans, no evil spirits or ghosts can get near you. Even if you somehow ran into one of those rare century-old Fierce Ghosts or Ferocious Ghosts, the moment the talisman paper breaks, I’ll know immediately. I, Wang Ya, might not have many skills, but when it comes to dealing with ghosts, even if it’s a thousand miles away, I can still take it down! Go home with peace of mind—nothing will happen.”
Landlord Sir had long been utterly convinced by Wang Ya after she casually opened his Heavenly Eye with a single talisman. He nodded repeatedly in agreement. But he was a curious man and still harbored some doubts, so he asked, “Master Wang, it’s the middle of the night—where are you headed if not back with us?”
Wang Ya pointed toward the construction site at Zheng Yanxia’s home and said, “I always keep my word in business. Even though her group isn’t righteous, I can’t neglect after-sales service just because the client has poor character. I’m going to do a follow-up visit. Plus, that fellow exorcist we ran into earlier seems to have stirred up some trouble—I might pick up some business there!”
Landlord Sir suddenly understood and said, “Oh, you’re off to land a deal! Real estate developers are big clients. Go ahead, Master Wang, do what you need to.” He obediently pulled over, let Wang Ya out, and repeatedly begged her that if he ever ran into trouble again, she had to help him. He even got her phone number before driving away.
Wang Ya stood by the roadside and watched Landlord Sir’s car disappear into the distance. Then she bit down on the finger she had previously bitten, which had already scabbed over, and used the blood to draw a “Conceal Qi Talisman” on her forehead before dashing toward Zheng Yanxia’s construction site. The “Conceal Qi Talisman,” as the name implied, was Talismans and Blessings for concealing one’s aura. Dao Sect members had senses far sharper than ordinary people, and those with cultivation had an acutely sensitive sixth sense. Why could Zheng Yanxia, having lost her sight, still “see” things normally with her Heart-Eye Vision? “Heart-Eye Vision” meant having awakened “Heart Awareness,” with extremely sharp perception of the “qi” around her, using Heart Awareness to replace vision. It allowed one to see even more clearly, even things ordinary people couldn’t see. Why could “Heart Awareness” see what “vision” couldn’t? Because “vision” couldn’t detect “qi,” but Heart Awareness could. All things in the world had “qi”—even a stone or a wall emitted its aura. Zheng Yanxia’s Heart-Eye Vision was Xiantian, but she wasn’t the only one; Dao Sect members with true cultivation all trained their Heart Awareness. Only those who awakened it and gained Heart-Eye Vision could be considered to have stepped over the threshold of true experts. Without it, one had no business calling themselves an expert. Of course, not all with Heart-Eye Vision were experts—like Zheng Yanxia, whose innate version gave her an advantage in cultivation, but weak was weak. For a Dao Sect member to have her soul hooked by a heavily injured old ghost—Wang Ya felt embarrassed for her.
Zheng Yanxia’s cultivation was low, but Old Tang and Zhang Beauty from the Yunnan Zhang Family were the real deal. Even without the sharpness of an innate Heart Awareness like Zheng Yanxia’s, they could still sense qi within a certain range. If Wang Ya didn’t apply the Conceal Qi Talisman, they might detect her as soon as she got close.
Wang Ya sneaked back to scout the situation, so she naturally couldn’t let Zhang Beauty from the Yunnan Zhang Family spot her—otherwise, what was the point of scouting?
The construction site was very quiet. Though the floodlights had come on, there wasn’t a single worker around, and all the machinery had stopped. The vast site was devoid of even a ghost shadow. Wang Ya had seen the lights from afar earlier and thought work had resumed with night shifts, but now it seemed not.
Wang Ya huddled in a corner of the site, carefully avoiding the cloth arrays—left by either Old Tang or Zhang Beauty, she wasn’t sure—spread around the perimeter. She hid in the shadows by a pile of building materials, scanned the site, and then fixed her gaze on the row of two-story prefab buildings against the perimeter wall.
