As soon as I crawled into the tent, Dazhu's babbling suddenly became clear.
"Don't kill my daughter... Please..."
Her voice was choked with sobs and had a heavy nasal tone.
I reached out to wake him, but instead touched a handful of hair.
I pulled open his collar and found a tuft of fluffy white hair on the back of his neck.
No, to be precise, it's not a clump, but rather...
All of them.
All the hair on his body, including his hands and feet, had turned white, except for the hair on the back of his neck, which was longer.
My heart sank.
That wasn't just ordinary hair mutation; it was clearly a cluster formed at the intersection of the three souls and seven spirits, following the direction of their respective yang meridians.
Ancient Taoist texts say, "When the spirit is scattered, it takes the form of a beast; when the soul is disordered, it manifests as a demon."
At this moment, the hair all over his body was spiraling to the left, which was a sign that his three souls were being held captive and his seven spirits were gradually dissipating.
Each white hair spread along the Du meridian, like countless little demons clinging to and gnawing at the lifeline.
When my fingertips traced the old scars on the inside of his wrist, the skin there seemed to writhe as if it were alive.
White fur emerged from the depths of the wound, carrying the stench of rotting flesh, just like the "yin fox possessing a body" phenomenon described in the "Exorcism Chapter" of the Daoist Canon.
The spirits use living souls as bait and greed as a hook to slowly refine living people into walking shells.
"This is……"
My throat tightened, and the records in Taoist classics surged in my mind.
Suddenly, I remembered that when we were setting up the formation, the compass needle briefly pointed to the Mingmen acupoint on the main pillar.
Lifting up his trouser leg, a pale blue fox-shaped birthmark had appeared on his ankle.
Just as he was about to take a closer look, Dazhu suddenly convulsed violently, his body arching into a strange arc.
I hurriedly pressed down on his shoulder, but felt a cracking sound of bones dislocating under his shoulder blade.
"Master Chen..."
He suddenly opened his eyes: "Don't let them..."
Before he could finish speaking, a sharp hiss came from his throat.
Then he shoved me away forcefully and slammed his head against the tent frame, causing droplets of blood to seep out from his white fur.
"The Yin Fox possessed his body, and his seven souls were completely scattered."
I bit my fingertip and drew a soul-suppressing talisman on Dazhu's forehead. The blood, however, was like ink dripping into boiling oil, instantly evaporating into white smoke.
Dazhu suddenly fell silent, staring intently at me, a strange smile slowly spreading across his lips: "Master Chen, do you think I'm the victim?"
His voice became high-pitched, with a familiar female tone at the end, "Without the bait of greed, how can you catch a fish that is willing?"
Before I could react, the turbidity in Dazhu's eyes disappeared, replaced by clarity.
"Master Chen, why aren't you asleep?"
After saying that, he yawned deeply, took out his phone to check the time, and then slapped his forehead: "I almost forgot, the time is wrong, but it should be about right."
He was about to get up when he said that.
Seeing me staring blankly at him, Dazhu looked puzzled: "Master Chen? What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? Why do you look so pale? Did you have a nightmare?"
I snapped out of my daze and stared at him intently.
They discovered that the white hair on his body had disappeared, as if it had never been there at all.
I hesitated for a long time before asking, "Hey, Dazhu, have you noticed anything unusual when you're sleeping?"
"abnormal?"
Dazhu's face flushed slightly, as if he were thinking of something.
Although he didn't say it, I could guess what he was thinking; it was probably something that happened in his dream.
He was looking down and chuckling.
I interrupted him: "It's been recently, um... just now, what did you dream about?"
He scratched his head, his ear tips turning a suspicious red, his fingertips constantly rubbing the patch on his trouser leg: "I dreamt... I dreamt of a girl in a red coat, standing in front of my daughter's sickbed combing her hair."
He suddenly shivered as he spoke: "Her hair is so long, it hangs down to the ground, and my daughter's hair is stuck between the teeth of the comb..."
I pressed down on his trembling shoulders, about to speak, but Dazhu started shaking even more violently.
It was as if he had seen some terrifying scene; his voice was trembling.
"She turned her face, her face was without a nose or eyes, only two bloody holes, and she was smiling at me! She was holding up a medical record, every page of which was dripping water, and it was... my daughter's name."
"When she spoke, it sounded like her throat was filled with shards of glass, 'Brother Dazhu, if you want to save your daughter, bring your friends...'"
"Then I... I looked down and found myself completely naked, lying on the stainless steel bed in the morgue, with a white sheet covering me that read 'Made in the Chenghua period'!"
I took out my compass, and the needle was spinning wildly backwards at the "Sun" position.
Dazhu's fingernails dug deeply into my wrist, his voice trembling with tears: "Master Chen! I'm scared, I'm afraid she'll hurt my daughter."
As they were talking.
Suddenly, Li Jinrong's shouts came from outside the tent.
"Uncle! Brother! Let's go! The fog's clearing up!"
The fat man had a ruddy complexion and had swapped his floral shorts for a pair of flashy pink beach shorts.
A wild chrysanthemum, picked from who-knows-where, was hanging from the gold chain.
Xiao Fei followed behind, dressed in a suit and tie but covered in grass clippings, his eyes revealing undisguised excitement.
"Mr. Li, this is..."
I looked at his bulging wallet at his waist, with half of a small umbrella package sticking out from inside.
"hey-hey!"
Li Jinrong winked at me: "Since we're already here, we should definitely 'spend' as much as possible! Xiao Fei said the girls here can do role-playing, I'm planning to play the 'fisher girl'!"
He suddenly lowered his voice: "Let's do these styles for today. I'll change to something else tomorrow. To be honest, I brought a lot of good stuff. Do you want to share it with me?"
I smiled awkwardly and waved my hand to decline his offer.
He seemed a little disappointed when I refused.
Seeing that he was about to continue, I quickly turned to look at Dazhu.
"Think it through. Your situation is worse than ours. If you go in, you might not be able to come out."
He trembled, but gritted his teeth and broke free from me: "Master Chen, I... I want to earn some more money. I know my own body. If I'm gone, my daughter will probably be gone soon too. I want to earn some money for her."
I sighed softly and advised, "You can think about it some more."
Dazhu didn't speak, but looked at me with bloodshot eyes.
His eyes held both fear and a desperate, mad gamble.
The stone-paved road leading into the village gleamed with a damp light, and most of the wooden doors of the houses on both sides were tightly closed, with only a few ajar.
Warm yellow light shone through the crack in the door.
Xiao Fei walked at the front, and the tip of his leather shoe kicked a pebble, which hit the closed wooden door with a thud.
Li Jinrong followed behind, swaying his gold chain, his floral shirt collar wide open.
"Mr. Li, don't underestimate this place. It may look desolate, but..."
Xiao Fei stopped abruptly, pointing to the mottled brick wall: "I heard that the top courtesan back then, 'Sai Chang'e,' could sing twenty-four verses of 'Jin Ping Mei,' and the guests would feel half their bones melt upon hearing them."
"Enough with the nonsense!"
Li Jinrong slapped him on the back of the head, the gold watch chain leaving red marks on his fat: "Quick, tell me which room has the hottest girl!"
Xiao Fei pushed open the wooden door with a forced smile.
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