My daughter has been possessed.

Chapter 130 Exorcising Candles

Chapter 130 Exorcising Candles

The scene froze.

Even Guan Jiqian, a veteran of countless battles and with a wealth of experience, had never witnessed such a bizarre scene in the alley.

Looking at the infant's terrifying appearance, Guan Jiqian still did not answer, but quickly retreated and tapped the air with his index finger again.

The baby's forehead suddenly burst open with a popping sound, leaving a bloody hole, and he fell backward to the ground.

Almost at the same moment, the strange mother who had just fallen to the ground suddenly twitched and slowly stood up, supporting herself with her hands.

It was as if the injuries she had suffered before had no effect on her, and after her child was knocked down, it was her turn again.

The mother's eyes were initially glazed over, but then gradually focused on Guan Jiqian.

"Sir, have you seen my son?"

Guan Jiqian had already retreated quickly to the rear. He knew he couldn't be trapped here by this strange mother and son, and it seemed impossible to kill them at the moment.

What exactly are they? Monsters or ghosts? What kind of world is this?

For a moment, he was in a state of utter confusion, not only worrying about his son Guan Guangwei, Ahui, and Xiaoyu who had lost contact, but also about whether this mission could be completed.

However, Guan Jiqian knew that his father was observing nearby at the time and must have discovered that they had been sucked into the space stone.

Father Guan Chuandao will definitely come in. As long as Father is here, it should be relatively easy for them to escape. They just need to get out of their current predicament and see how to kill Li Jiuhe, who has also entered this world.

Guan Jiqian ran very fast, and the mother and son followed closely behind him. Although they looked slow, they were only a hundred meters behind him.

Moreover, if the mother is killed, the son will revive and get up, dragging his motionless mother along, his behavior and expressions are extremely strange.

On the contrary, the mother's behavior seemed more normal when she dragged her son to chase after Guan Jiqian.

After running out of the alley, Guan Jiqian saw a room emitting candlelight in a small courtyard.

The courtyard gate was open. He quickly entered the courtyard, but before he even got close to the room door, it had already been opened.

The candlelight emanating from the room gave Guan Jiqian a sense of security. He saw his younger brother, Guan Jikun, standing inside the door, and he immediately rushed in.

The door closed, and the mother and son who had been following not far behind stood still, staring longingly at the room, no longer moving forward.

Guan Jiqian quickly observed the environment inside the house and found that it was a normal household in ancient times. However, there were two elderly people inside, who should be a couple.

The elderly couple had been controlled by Guan Jikun and stood motionless in the corner, their expressions blank.

Guan Jikun lowered his voice and said almost in a whisper, "Brother, this world is very strange. There are many ghosts wandering the streets outside. If I hadn't controlled these two, they wouldn't have opened the door for me at all."

Guan Jiqian pointed to the burning candle on the table: "This—can it ward off those ghosts and prevent them from entering the house?"

Guan Jikun nodded: "Yes, as long as the candle is burning, those ghosts won't dare to approach. But it doesn't seem to be absolute. You also need to make sure you don't provoke them within the candlelight's range, and then they won't attack."

At this point, Guan Jikun frowned: "Brother, I'm worried that Xiaowei, Ahui, and Xiaoyu are in danger, but my spiritual power has a limited range, so I can't find them. And that Li Jiuhe, I don't know where he's hiding, I haven't found him yet."

Guan Jiqian said, "Dad should have a way to get in. Let's wait for now. Since there are candles lit in the darkness, this world can't be eternally dark. Let's think of something when it's light."

dong dong dong ——

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Guan Jikun immediately released his spiritual power, sensed it briefly, and then shook his head at Guan Jiqian.

He could tell there was no one outside, but there was a knock on the door, which meant that another ghost had come looking for him.

The two immediately stopped talking and became wary of each other.

Time passed second by second.

Twilight.

In that simple room, Li Jiuhe, through a brief sign language exchange with the family of three inside, roughly understood the situation of this world, or more precisely, this city.

As daylight arrived and night faded, the man of the house immediately blew out the candles on the table.

Although the candle was large, less than a third of it remained, and the male homeowner carefully collected all the dripping wax.

It's clear that none of these life-saving items should be wasted.

The little girl in the woman's arms had long since fallen into a deep sleep, and the woman herself had also closed her eyes after a night of fear and anxiety.

But Li Jiuhe dared not sleep, for he still had to be wary of the Guan family finding him.

Last night, the total duration of this task had already reached its limit, and he redefined it.

He can no longer leave this world directly by resetting the mission. Instead, he needs to achieve a certain goal or requirement based on the operation of this world space before he can leave.

According to the male homeowner, Ye City was one of the cities in the Later Ning Dynasty, and it suddenly started to be haunted at night a year ago.

Various ghosts appear as soon as night falls, and they are ferocious and terrifying. They are almost invincible in the darkness.

In a short period of time, more than half of the people in Yecheng were eaten.

Meanwhile, a ghostly fog shrouded the area outside Ye City. A small number of people who had originally planned to leave the town to escape returned to tell others that there were also a large number of vengeful ghosts in the fog outside, and that many of those who went out had died and could not escape at all.

The people living in Ye City could only barely resist the invasion of ghosts by using "exorcising candles" distributed by the government.

These "evil-expelling candles" are very precious and can only be obtained by those who have made contributions to the government.

For example, the family of three that Li Jiuhe belonged to had their tongues cut off by a tongue-cutting demon while protecting an official. They risked their lives to save him, so they were given two "exorcising candles".

"If no one can leave this city, why does the government have exorcising candles?" Li Jiuhe wondered.

But he couldn't get any more information out of them; communicating with this family of three who couldn't speak was very difficult.

Moreover, he had disturbed the family all night, and seeing that the three of them were already very tired, he told them to go to sleep and rest while it was safe for them, and then he prepared to go out and take a look.

Hiding in this kind-hearted family's house is not a solution, after all, the fate of the Guan family members is unknown, and the living could find him at any time.

Li Jiuhe wanted to take advantage of the daytime and the absence of ghosts to learn more about Ye City and figure out how to leave.

However, there is one thing he knows that is very advantageous to him: the ghosts that appear at night are invincible.

Through conversations with the mute family of three, the male head of the household told him that these ghosts had never been killed; on the contrary, their numbers were increasing and their power was becoming more and more terrifying.

Because there were martial arts masters in the Yecheng County government office, but all of those so-called masters are now dead.

So even if those powerful members of the Guan family encountered a ghost last night, it would have been enough to give them a hard time.

Li Jiuhe hoped that these ghosts would kill a few of them to relieve some of the pressure on him.

Now he was going to the county government office to find out what the "exorcising candle" that could ward off ghosts was all about. If it existed in the city, why were so many people killed? And how did they get this candle?

The only way to survive and find a way to deal with the Guan family is to learn more about this world as soon as possible.

Just to be on the safe side, he asked the male head of the household for a set of coarse linen clothes and cloth shoes to change into, and then covered his head with a headscarf.

Although the male head of the household was shorter than Li Jiuhe, he was burly, so his clothes and shoes fit him perfectly.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, but the ghosts outside had already disappeared.

Li Jiuhe bowed and hunched his shoulders, pretending to be a local as he thanked the host before leaving.

He left his clothes in the house, but he carried the silver-plated dagger with him at all times.

Once on the street, I saw a few pedestrians already there, walking hurriedly and looking around, clearly still on guard.

He followed the example of the others, keeping his head down and hurrying along the street towards the county government office, following the map drawn on the ground with stones by the male head of the house.

Passing by the house where I had seen the pile of paper figures last night, I found it clean and tidy, with not a single paper figure in sight.

Perhaps these strange things will only happen when night falls.

Before long, it was bright daylight, but there were still very few pedestrians on the street.

Many families in Ye City have died out, and most of the rooms are empty. Some rooms still contain the corpses of ordinary people, which have been left unattended. Some of the corpses have even decomposed or turned into bones.

The whole town was filled with an indescribable, strange smell.

There was no order left in Ye City; everyone was struggling to survive, hoping to live just a few more days.

The local people Li Jiuhe encountered on the road all had lifeless eyes and were emaciated. He felt as if they were already dead, with only their bodies left to eke out a living.

He recalled the little girl without a tongue in the room earlier; the little girl was about the same age as Li Yi.

The way her parents looked at her was no different from the way people on the street looked at her; only the little girl's eyes revealed curiosity and exploration.

In this bizarre world, perhaps only the minds of children have not completely died, and they still retain their enthusiasm and desire for life.

This little girl reminded Li Jiuhe of his own daughter, Li Yi. Although she was locked in that wooden house, she was also waiting for him, waiting for the day they could reunite.

She will not give up, and neither will Li Jiuhe!

Upon arriving near the county government office, he did not approach immediately but observed for a long time. He discovered that the county government office was open, but apart from people passing by, no one was going in or out.

He also didn't see any members of the Guan family.

Ye City is quite large; the straight-line distance from east to west is about ten li, so you shouldn't encounter each other in a short time.

When I arrived at the main gate of the county government office and looked inside, I couldn't see a single person.

Li Jiuhe mustered his courage and went inside. Two minutes later, he finally encountered two young constables. One of them was sitting in a daze, holding a stick as tall as a person in his hand, while the other was leaning against the wall and had fallen asleep.

Upon seeing Li Jiuhe, the stunned yamen runner immediately slammed his red stick on the ground, stood up, and shouted, "What are you doing? How dare you trespass on the yamen!"

"With the government office in such a state, is there any point in trying to storm it?"

Li Jiuhe muttered to himself, adjusted his headscarf, took two steps forward, and said, "Lin Feng, a commoner, wishes to see the magistrate on an important matter."

.

He didn't use his own name, but instead took the first two characters of his wife's name, "Lin Fengya".

Otherwise, he was worried that if the Guan family came looking for him, he wouldn't be exposed so quickly.

The sleeping constables had been woken up. The two men exchanged a glance and then waved.

"The master is busy, get out!"

Li Jiuhe calmly replied, "I have a way to bring you more exorcising candles."

"Um?"

'

"What?"

The two constables were startled.

"Who did you just say you were?" one person asked.

My name is Lin Feng.

"Just wait here," the other person said, looking suspicious, but still turned and quickly walked inside.

A few minutes later, a man dressed as a constable with a knife at his waist came quickly, accompanied by the constable.

"This is our Constable Zhao," the yamen runner said.

Li Jiuhe immediately bowed.

The constable, Zhao, frowned and asked, "Can you bring more exorcising candles from outside the city into the city?"

"No," Li Jiuhe shook his head, "I have some knowledge of magic, and I can increase the number of candles from a small number to a large number."

"What?" Constable Zhao and the two constables were stunned.

"If you don't believe me, you can gather all the exorcising candles in the mansion together, and I can demonstrate it on the spot," Li Jiuhe said. "However, I will need to collect a few candles afterward for exorcism and self-defense."

Officer Zhao looked thoughtful as he carefully observed Li Jiuhe's expression, realizing that he didn't seem to be joking.

He then pointed at Li Jiuhe: "If I find out you're deceiving the government, you'll be executed without mercy!"

"Alright, execute without mercy!" Li Jiuhe nodded with a smile.

In Zhao's eyes, his performance not only showed confidence but also gave the impression that he was not an ordinary person at all.

There's no way around it; Li Jiuhe is a modern person. You can't expect him to pretend to be a humble and subservient person like an ordinary person in the old days when facing officials.

"Come with me."

Officer Zhao immediately turned and walked away, signaling Li Jiuhe to follow.

The two constables watched this scene with bewilderment, only staring at their departing backs, without following them or daring to ask any more questions.

After passing through a long corridor, winding and turning, and passing through several courtyards.

Most of the plants in these courtyards have withered because no one cleans them, and there are hardly any servants in the county government office.

Upon arriving at a courtyard, Constable Zhao told Li Jiuhe to wait outside while he went in alone to announce their arrival. Soon after, a burly man with a thick beard and dressed in official robes came out.

Constable Zhao said, "Lin Feng, this is our County Lieutenant, Magistrate Shi."

"Greetings, Lord Shi."

Li Jiuhe roughly knew that the position of county lieutenant was equivalent to the third-in-command of the county government. The first was the county magistrate, the second was the county assistant, and the third was the county lieutenant.

The position of county lieutenant is similar to that of police chief and armed forces minister in modern society.

County Magistrate Shi patted his slightly protruding belly and said, "You said you are proficient in the art of increasing numbers, and can increase the number of exorcising candles?"

"That's right." Li Jiuhe nodded.

"No matter how much I provide you, you can make it more?" County Commandant Shi continued to ask.

"That's how it is," Li Jiuhe said. "I just need to take a few candles with me afterwards, and also find out where these candles came from, and why ghosts are so prevalent in the city."

Officer Zhao looked displeased and shouted, "You didn't mention what happened next!"

"It's alright." County Magistrate Shi waved his hand. "What time is it? Many people around the county government already know about this. It won't hurt to tell them."

He was clearly a straightforward man. As he spoke, he casually sat down on the stone steps by the door and ordered Zhao, the constable, "Go and prepare the exorcising candles. I want to see how Lin Feng will conjure up even more candles for me."

Officer Zhao hesitated for a moment, but still walked away quickly.

While waiting, County Magistrate Shi said to Li Jiuhe, "I can see that you, Lin Feng, are also a capable and extraordinary person in the martial arts world. Since you are willing to cooperate with the government, I will not hide it from you. The county magistrate and the county assistant were killed by ghosts last month. At present, I am the only one holding this huge county government office. Half of the yamen runners and other servants have already run away. I don't think we can hold on for much longer."

Li Jiuhe was taken aback, and seized the opportunity to ask, "Does Your Excellency know where this exorcising candle came from?"

Without hesitation, County Magistrate Shi replied, "It was brought in from the outer city by an old peddler after he encountered something strange in Ye City."

"Didn't they say that all entrances and exits were sealed off and no one could get in or out?" Li Jiuhe asked in surprise.

County Magistrate Shi nodded: "Indeed, no one can get in or out except for this old peddler—"

At this point, he lowered his voice and said, "This old peddler told me that he also has a professional spirit medium. He knows some tricks, which is why he was able to enter Ye City and bring us our only hope. Otherwise, this place would probably already be a dead city."

Li Jiuhe frowned and asked, "Is that old peddler still around?"

"Yes, of course I am." County Magistrate Shi picked up a stone from the ground and scraped off the yellow mud that was stuck to the edge of his shoes.

It's clear he went out early this morning and has only just returned.

As he scraped away the mud, he said, "The old peddler can't get out either, because the ghosts in this city are getting more and more powerful, and the fog outside is getting thicker, cutting off everything."

"But why are there so many ghosts attacking Ye City?" Li Jiuhe asked this crucial question.

County Magistrate Shi pondered for a moment, then shook his head: "Even now, I don't know the real reason. When the magistrate was still alive, he ordered me to investigate, but I investigated for a long time, including whether there were any strange items in the city that would attract ghosts, whether anyone had offended these ghosts, and whether there were any tombs under the city. I even asked this old peddler to help investigate, but I found no clues at all."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "However, the old peddler said that everything outside the city is normal, only Ye City is shrouded in ghostly fog, which has alarmed the imperial court, but no one knows why."

At this moment, Constable Zhao returned with another young constable, one of them carrying a bundle of candles wrapped in oil paper.

County Magistrate Shi looked surprised: "Is that all?"

Officer Zhao nodded: "All the exorcism candles are here. I estimate that the young master can last for another half a month, but that is without distributing them to others."

Li Jiuhe also felt that the situation was not optimistic. These candles were relatively large and thick. They looked like a bundle, but in reality, there were only thirty candles in a bundle, and sixty candles in two bundles. This was all the supplies that Ye City had to defend against ghosts.

Otherwise, without these exorcising candles, everyone would once again fall into the same perilous situation as at the beginning, where they could encounter vengeful ghosts at any moment.

County Magistrate Shi stroked his beard: "The old peddler should still have a few more, but asking him for them now will definitely be fruitless. Hmm, can you use your magic now?"

He looked at Li Jiuhe.

Li Jiuhe nodded emphatically: "Okay."