Chapter Twenty-Four: The Dissipation of Spirits

“Auntie, let me do it! Perhaps it really is as you say—this is my mission, my fate! I can't bear to see anyone else lose their life because of my hesitation!” Lin Ran gazed at Guo Ting, who stood at a distance, her eyes fixed on them with a predatory glare, possessed by a vengeful spirit.

“Child, you've grown up! I can see it—the girl likes you; she’s been good to you! I can’t let you take this risk. I promise, I’ll bring her back to you safe and sound,” Auntie said, her face filled with relief and pride as she looked at Lin Ran.

“Auntie, I can’t put personal feelings above the lives of more innocent people! I just can’t!” Lin Ran shook his head, glancing at his colleagues who had been hanged by the female ghost.

“Very well! If you are so resolute, I believe your mother would be comforted to see how you handle yourself,” Auntie replied.

Lin Ran nodded quietly, saying nothing.

“Are you ready?” Auntie asked, looking at him.

“Yes,” Lin Ran replied.

“Ran!” Fan Beixiao looked as if he wanted to speak but held back.

“It’s fine, Beixiao! I know what you want to say. You’re my best brother. I hope you won’t tell Guo Ting about this,” Lin Ran said, turning to his friend.

Fan Beixiao said nothing more. After so many years as Lin Ran’s brother, he understood that once Lin Ran made a decision, no one could easily change his mind.

“Auntie, let’s begin,” Lin Ran said, turning back to her.

“Good! Kid, you’re just my type! Let the two of us—mother and child—face this vengeful ghost tonight!” Suddenly, Auntie’s voice shifted, becoming sharp and high-pitched, like a woman’s.

Lin Ran turned, flustered, to Auntie. The emotion he’d just built up was instantly dispelled by her strange, androgynous voice.

“Hmph! I don’t know what possessed me to become this kid’s guardian spirit in the first place! Always dawdling, worse than a woman! Don’t you dare pick up his bad habits!” Auntie huffed at Lin Ran, cheeks puffed in annoyance.

Lin Ran gave an awkward smile, at a loss for words, and just nodded. He guessed that Auntie’s guardian spirit, the Yellow Immortal Fox, had taken over her.

“Catch this, boy! If you can’t settle that female ghost within the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the yin energy will invade your body, leaving you crippled or dead! And that girl will die with you!” she warned.

Before Lin Ran could reply, he felt a cold hand slap his back. A chill, sharp and familiar, flooded through him.

A frigid energy invaded Lin Ran’s body, rampaging and lingering within him—powerful, unreachable, yet terrifyingly close.

Time ticked by rapidly; the icy aura within him grew stronger, filling every part of his body.

“Here, boy! Your weapon!” Auntie tossed a white, meter-long object toward Lin Ran.

Lin Ran instinctively caught it, feeling a sudden weight in his hand. In an instant, his mind was flooded with sensations: cold, unfamiliar, the presence of death. He felt as if he were no longer himself.

“Summon the living, bind the dead, claim the souls, avenge a hundred wrongs.”

He looked at the so-called weapon in his hand. It was a Mourner’s Staff, but unlike any he’d seen before. Black mist coiled around it, and it was not made of paper, but of some special material.

“Boy! Why are you standing there?” Auntie snapped, annoyed at Lin Ran’s inaction.

Still lost in the strange sensations, Lin Ran was irritated by Auntie’s interruption and turned to glare at her coldly.

“Look, have you forgotten you have only the time it takes for one incense stick to burn?” The Yellow Immortal Fox possessing Auntie had wanted to scold him further, but Lin Ran’s frigid gaze made her uneasy, as if a blade pressed against her back. She swallowed her words.

Lin Ran snorted coldly and ignored her, turning instead to Guo Ting, possessed by the female ghost.

“Leave her body, and I’ll spare your life,” he said icily to the spirit inhabiting Guo Ting.

The ghost was visibly unsettled, even fearful, under Lin Ran’s gaze. His aura made her hesitate, even shudder. But the hatred that consumed her in death quickly overwhelmed her fear.

“Courting death!” Lin Ran said coldly when the ghost made no move to leave, then began to walk toward her with heavy, deliberate steps.

Fan Beixiao’s eyes widened as he watched. The Lin Ran he once knew was gone, replaced by someone cold and unfamiliar, devoid of all emotion.

“Auntie?” Fan Beixiao looked anxiously at her, seeing that she too was stunned.

“It’s all right,” Auntie replied, shaking her head slightly, signaling Fan Beixiao not to act rashly, though she herself was clearly shocked by Lin Ran’s transformation.

With every step Lin Ran took, the air seemed to freeze. His pace was neither fast nor slow, but Auntie felt as if each step landed directly on her heart. By the third step, she found it hard to breathe, her very soul seeming to crack with his advance.

As Lin Ran drew nearer, the female ghost lost her composure and flung herself at him in a frenzy.

Lin Ran showed no fear; instead, his eyes glinted with mockery. He raised the Mourner’s Staff lightly and struck at Guo Ting’s possessed body.

An astonishing scene unfolded: the seemingly weightless staff landed on the ghost and struck with the force of a thousand pounds, wrenching her soul from her body. The ghost let out a horrific scream.

Now, the female ghost looked at Lin Ran with utter terror. The hatred in her eyes diminished, replaced by desperate pleading—for Lin Ran to spare her.

Seeing the terror and pleading in her eyes, Lin Ran’s own icy gaze wavered for a moment. Ghosts have their own sorrows; not every spirit chooses to linger after death. Just as Lin Ran was about to show mercy and let her go, he caught sight of several flickering shadows out of the corner of his eye.