After walking around the room, I sat on the sofa, furrowing my brows in quiet contemplation.
As I calmed myself, I faintly sensed a trace of Yin energy lingering in the air!
Following the subtle trail of Yin energy, I soon discovered its source—an old black wooden makeup box.
The box looked like an antique, its surface faintly emanating a 'black aura.'
This was Yin energy!
Once my 'eyes were opened,' I could clearly perceive it.
Xu Xiaoling, having also applied the Cow Tears, obviously saw the box emitting black energy, and she asked in shock, "How could this be?"
"Where did this box come from?"
Xu Xiaoling answered, "I bought it from the antique market a week ago. The box is from the Qing Dynasty... Could it be this box?"
I nodded. "Yes, you must have seen the black energy around the box, right? That's Yin energy, and it's harmful to the human body."
"Here's what I'll do: I'll take the box for now. Tomorrow, when the sun is strongest at noon, I'll use Yang energy to purify the Yin energy. After that, you'll be able to use it normally."
Saying this, I took out a Yang talisman and placed it on the box. Immediately, the box stopped emitting Yin energy.
Xu Xiaoling looked puzzled and asked, "But why would a perfectly fine box emit Yin energy?"
I explained, "According to ancient texts, there are two possible reasons for this.
First, the previous owner of the box was very attached to it, and after their death, their soul lingered inside the box, causing it to radiate Yin energy.
Second, this box may have been dug up from a grave, and having been buried for so long, it naturally absorbed Yin energy."
"Ah? Then I'd rather throw it away! I don't want it anymore," Xu Xiaoling said, her expression turning disgusted when she heard the box might have come from a tomb.
"Even if you want to throw it away, you should wait until tomorrow at noon after I've purified the Yin energy. Otherwise, if someone else finds it, they could end up in trouble," I said. "Now, it's getting late, and I need to go. I have work tomorrow."
I yawned. I had to wake up at three every morning for my training, so my sleep was precious. Since I'd figured out that the makeup box was the cause of the problem, I wanted to get some rest. It was also quite late, and I thought it would be inappropriate to stay in a single woman's apartment too long.
Xu Xiaoling took out a few hundred-yuan bills and said, "Xiaolong(Bruce), thank you so much today. These are for you, just a small token of my gratitude."
Then, she hesitated, adding, "By the way, could I ask for one of your talismans…?"
It turned out she wanted a talisman.
While a Yang talisman was a basic type, it still had great power when activated with energy. However, in the hands of an ordinary person, its effect would be much weaker.
I went back into her bedroom and placed a Yang talisman on both the door and the headboard.
When Xu Xiaoling saw the talismans, she finally relaxed, and her tense demeanor softened. I didn't accept the money from her.
After leaving her apartment, I glanced back at the makeup box and felt something wasn't quite right. With the faint Yin energy it was giving off, it shouldn't have been enough to cause such severe harm to Xu Xiaoling.
But that was the only strange thing in the room. Maybe the box needed to be opened for the Yin energy to fully emerge? I wasn't in the mood to investigate further—I just wanted to get home and sleep.
On the way out, I flagged down a taxi and headed straight home.
To be cautious, I placed ten Yang talismans on the box, then placed my Shadow Sword on top. Only then did I go to bed.
The next day, just like any other, I headed to work. But not long after, around nine o'clock, Cheng Dong barged in, looking frantic.
He grabbed my arm and whispered urgently, "Master, something's wrong! Xu Xiaoling has been hospitalized after a shock! She's still unconscious! What happened last night?"
A shock? I frowned. When we parted ways last night, she seemed fine. And the makeup box was with me. How could this have happened? Xu Xiaoling was clearly not just shocked—she must have been severely affected by Yin energy. It seemed she was suffering from a grave affliction!
Something must have happened after I left.
If not, Xu Xiaoling would have gradually regained her Yang energy, and the Yin energy wouldn't have worsened.
The fault was mine. I hadn't found the true culprit—the ghost that was really behind all of this. Now, Xu Xiaoling was in danger. I had to take responsibility and handle it further!
I asked my boss for a leave of absence, and with Cheng Dong leading the way, we headed to the hospital.
On the way to the hospital, Cheng Dong explained the situation. It turned out that this morning, Xu Xiaoling hadn't shown up for work, and when her colleague called, there was no answer. Concerned, a close colleague of hers, who also had a key to her apartment, went to check on her. As soon as she entered the house, she found Xu Xiaoling unconscious on the floor. No matter how much she called her, Xu Xiaoling didn't wake up. Panicking, her colleague called for help, and a few other coworkers rushed over to take her to the hospital.
Once Cheng Dong received the news, he immediately connected her fainting to last night's events and rushed to find me.
We arrived at the hospital, and Xu Xiaoling was in a deluxe ward with six other people—two men and four women.
Xu Xiaoling lay unconscious on the bed, her face pale with a dark bruise between her eyebrows. Her Yin energy had grown even stronger than it had been last night.
The others looked at me and Cheng Dong with confused expressions when we entered.
Cheng Dong pointed to me and said, "This is... Xu Xiaoling's distant cousin!"
"Oh? Xiaoling has family here? She never mentioned it before."
"That's right, she's always been mysterious. None of us know where her parents are. The only contacts she has in her phone are us, her colleagues. At least she has a cousin nearby."
One of the women turned to me and said, "Cousin, you should contact Xiaoling's family and pay the deposit for her hospitalization. We've already chipped in a thousand yuan, but the medical expenses are piling up after all the tests."
From what they were saying, it seemed Xu Xiaoling's parents couldn't be reached, and she didn't have much money herself. She had just started working over a month ago, and her colleagues didn't want to contribute too much either. Given that I felt responsible for her hospitalization, I knew I'd have to cover the costs.
Fortunately, I still had a little over 20,000 yuan left from the old scam artist's inheritance.
Cheng Dong had initially not wanted to reveal my identity, but his casual remark had now become an issue. He was about to clarify things, but I stopped him.
"Alright, I'll go get the money now," I said. "In the meantime, please look after my cousin here."
With that, I grabbed Cheng Dong and led him out. "I'll cover the costs. Just don't mention my identity. I'll be back shortly."
Once I rushed back home, my mom asked, "Son, why are you back?"
While I packed my black bag, I said, "I took the day off to accompany Miss Xu to the museum."
"Son, that girl is quite pretty—her face like a melon seed, delicate, with a nice figure. What's more, she's got a big behind. That's a sign she'll have boys..."
As I listened to my mom ramble, I nearly had the urge to bang my head against the wall!
What was she even talking about? She was five or six years older than me, and now Mom was discussing her "big behind"? It didn't make sense!
I stuffed two thousand yuan into my bag, along with 124 Yang talismans (my stock, though my success rate at drawing them wasn't great), ten Clear Mind talismans, a piece of ginseng, my Shadow Sword, and the Cow Tears.
When I had everything, I quickly left the house. Mom was still shouting after me, "Make sure to take care of that girl!"
I almost tripped over my feet while heading downstairs.
At the hospital, I paid a deposit of 10,000 yuan at the reception. The hospital had become a business, with no tests being able to identify her condition, yet the costs kept piling up.
Once back in the ward, I handed over another 1,000 yuan to the group of colleagues who had helped pay for her hospitalization earlier. "Here's the money I owe you all. Thank you for helping out. It's getting late, so why don't you all go grab lunch? I'll stay here with her."
Cheng Dong clearly didn't want to leave—he still had feelings for Xu Xiaoling. But he would be in the way of my actions, so I whispered in his ear, "Hospitals are full of spirits. If you don't want to attract any unwanted attention from ghosts, you should leave now."
The moment he heard "ghost," Cheng Dong quickly ushered his colleagues out.
Soon, the room was quiet, with only me and Xu Xiaoling.
I pulled a Yin talisman from my pocket, extinguished the Yang energy on my shoulders, and immediately noticed something strange. Apart from myself, there were four ghosts in the room!
An old man ghost, an old woman ghost, a middle-aged man ghost with a large belly, and a young child ghost, about twelve or thirteen years old.
They were all average ghosts—nothing too special. But they seemed to be very curious about Xu Xiaoling, and all of them were fixated on my every move.
I ignored them and focused on Xu Xiaoling.
Her Yang energy had completely dissipated from her shoulders, and the Yang energy on her head was incredibly faint, with signs that it might extinguish soon.
If that happened, we'd be in trouble!
Xu Xiaoling's soul would leave her body, and I wasn't skilled enough in soul-recalling techniques to bring her back.
I looked at the four ghosts and asked, "Are you waiting for her soul to leave the body? Planning to possess her and have some fun?"
As I spoke, I took out a Yang talisman, activated the Yang energy, and set it ablaze. The intense Yang energy made the four ghosts uneasy, and they fled in fear.
In reality, I wasn't trying to scare them; I needed to reignite Xu Xiaoling's Yang energy.
I tried several times, but no matter what I did, the Yang fire wouldn't reignite!
This had me seriously worried. With Xu Xiaoling's Yin energy overpowering her, if I couldn't reignite her Yang energy, she wouldn't wake up. And if she didn't wake up... how was I supposed to feed her the ginseng?
Should I chew it and force-feed it to her? The idea flashed through my mind for just a moment...