Chapter 30

Until he was met with everyone's sharp stares, Xie An still couldn't understand which of his words had been wrong.

However, speaking of part-time jobs, he remembered something else.

"By the way, bro," he turned to Ke Xingzhou, "My parents should be back from their business trip tomorrow. They asked me to check if you're free, they want to visit you."

"Tomorrow?" Ke Xingzhou furrowed his brow, initially wanting to refuse, but his peripheral vision caught the lingering resentment in Lu Deben's eyes, and he paused for a moment.

After thinking for a while, he nodded, "Sure. I'll give you the address later."

"Great!" Xie An cheered, then suddenly remembered something and became serious, "Bro, am I the first one to get your address?"

Ke Xingzhou was puzzled.

But after thinking about it, tomorrow after the stage performance ends, everyone will head back to their own places, and the filming base will close. Since he's no longer part of the Ke family, his place to stay hasn't been decided yet, not to mention telling others.

Thinking about it this way, Xie An would indeed be the first person to know his address.

With that thought, he nodded.

Xie An's eyes immediately brightened, and his smile nearly reached his ears. He looked extremely happy.

He waved his hand grandly, "Everyone has worked hard these days. We still have rehearsal tomorrow, so let's call it a day! Go home and rest well!"

He had initially planned to continue practicing to make the movements smoother and more coordinated, but realizing that everyone was feeling discomfort in their shoulders and necks, he decided to let them relax and go home.

Everyone cheered at once.

"Yay! Long live the captain!"

"Let's go, let's go, back to gaming! The last time I played was when I just entered the show, if I don't play now, I won’t be able to get free skins!" The second team member grabbed his jacket and ran, only remembering to turn around and call out, "Old Lu, can I borrow your account again today... Huh, where's Old Lu?"

Everyone looked around and realized that Lu Deben had disappeared without anyone noticing.

"Probably slipped away early," the third team member shrugged nonchalantly, "He seemed distracted earlier. Maybe his shoulder really hurt, so he asked for leave and went out to see a doctor."

The second team member agreed.

Mostly, he was eager to go back and play games, so he didn’t pay attention to what others were doing. Seeing that Lu Deben was gone, he simply pulled the third team member along, "Drop some stars and come play with me! Please!"

The third team member wanted to punch him, "I just got my stars up!"

"Dad! My dear dad!""Good son, get on the number!"

The two of them left while joking around, leaving Ke Xingzhou and Zhu Chu behind. After Xie An finished his routine check of all the equipment in the practice room, he walked out with him.

Although they had called it an early dismissal, by the time they went outside, it was already almost dawn.

The night was as dark as ink, with only a few scattered stars in the sky and no trace of the moon.

The past few days of intensive training had been incredibly fulfilling, with each day packed with activities. Xie An hadn’t felt this relaxed in a long time, and for a moment, he couldn’t help but feel emotional. "Actually, they’re pretty good people."

Ke Xingzhou raised an eyebrow. "Which 'they'?"

"Just our teammates, Lu Deben and the others," Xie An turned to look at him, his big round cat-like eyes crystal clear. "Don’t you think so, bro?"

Ke Xingzhou: "..."

Not really.

Xie An continued speaking to himself, "I used to be pretty wary of them, worried there’d be some kind of sabotage or something—just like how it’s written in novels, right? But after spending time with them today, I feel like they’re actually pretty nice. We’re all about the same age, have similar hobbies, and there's plenty to talk about."

Zhu Chu: "..."

He had been thinking about Lu Deben's strange behavior, but upon hearing Xie An’s words, he turned to glance at him and then at Ke Xingzhou.

It was Ke Xingzhou who voiced the question in his mind: "How did you figure out that you have common topics to talk about?"

"Well, things like neck pain and part-time jobs!" Xie An said without noticing anything strange, and then, upon hearing Ke Xingzhou's question, he even became concerned for him. "But speaking of which, Lu Deben really doesn't know how to talk."

Ke Xingzhou gave him a glance but didn’t speak.

"This is my fault. I didn’t think to bring you in at the start. I just randomly gathered a few people and didn’t think to learn anything in advance. But, bro, I’m definitely on your side! If you don’t like him, after the performance tomorrow, we’ll just ignore him," Xie An gestured to his own height. "I’ll be your bodyguard then, I’ll make sure to block him from you!"

That part wasn’t wrong.

Xie An was tall, and though not as tall as Nie Chen, he had a great body proportion, combined with a youthful look, making him appear just a bit over 1.8 meters.

But in reality, when he stood next to anyone, he looked like a wall.

Lu Deben was only about 1.7 meters tall, so when Xie An stood between him and Ke Xingzhou, he wouldn’t have to do much to separate the two.

After saying this, Xie An’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Ke Xingzhou, his expression resembling a large dog showing loyalty, with an "Am I good?" and "Praise me!" look on his face, unable to hide his desire for praise.

Ke Xingzhou, however, didn’t respond. His expression grew more meaningful as he continued looking at him.

Xie An was confused by his gaze.

He followed Ke Xingzhou’s line of sight and looked behind, but saw nothing.

The photography base at night was eerily quiet. Without the staff and contestants moving around, the surroundings felt unusually empty, as if there were only the three of them.

He looked around in confusion for a moment, still not understanding what Ke Xingzhou was looking at, and turned back to look at him in puzzlement.

Ke Xingzhou’s gaze had now returned to him and Zhu Chu, his eyes filled with something like pity for some reason.

Xie An only heard him speak softly, "Didn’t you guys feel that the way back to the dorm was particularly long today?"Xie An and Zhu Chu were both stunned.

The practice room was near the broadcast hall, and from the broadcast building to the dormitory, Xie An had walked that road no less than ten times, not to mention Zhu Chu, who was an assistant.

But previously, Xie An had been so tired that he couldn’t remember how long the road was; he only knew he had to finish walking quickly to get back to the dorm to wash up and sleep. Zhu Chu was also in a hurry, with a lot on his mind.

Now, hearing Ke Xingzhou’s words, they subconsciously recalled the road they had just walked, and suddenly realized: it really did seem unusually long.

Usually, they would accompany Xie An to pack up before returning. Xie An was not someone who could stay quiet, and Zhu Chu, being from the north, would always chat with him, so even if the walk was tiring, they would talk a little.

But they hadn’t talked much and had already reached the dorm, each heading to their respective rooms to sleep.

Zhu Chu had to take a taxi back to his rental house, so he clearly remembered: "It seems so. Usually, this road would take five or six minutes at most, but we’ve been talking so much just now, maybe we’ve been walking for over ten minutes?"

As he thought about it, he suddenly froze.

Yeah, why hasn’t the road ended today?

Xie An had no sense of time, but when he turned around and looked behind him, he noticed that the broadcast building, which should have been in his sight the whole time, had disappeared without him noticing when.

It was eerily quiet all around, with no sound at all, not even the usual rustling of leaves in the wind or the sounds of small animals passing by.

They had been talking and laughing just now, so they hadn’t noticed the change in their surroundings.

Looking at the obviously unusual scene, Xie An immediately thought back to the incident during the class division rehearsal when they were targeted. His heart immediately sank, and he quickly took out his phone.

It was already after 11 PM, and he found the contact information for the security department of the production team and dialed it.

"Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service. Please try again later."

There was no need for speakerphone, the cold mechanical voice clearly spread to everyone’s ears through the receiver.

Xie An’s heart skipped a beat, and a sense of subtle unease rose within him.

It was only then that he noticed, in the upper right corner of the phone screen, the signal bars had disappeared, and a gray "X" appeared at the top, indicating that the phone signal had been cut off.

Xie An: "..."

He quickly glanced at Ke Xingzhou, whose calm expression gave him great comfort. Xie An barely suppressed the rapid beating of his heart and directly dialed the police.

"How annoying, they even brought a signal jammer this time! We have to make sure the police uncle gives them a good talking-to!" he muttered, but his expression was tense.

He had never experienced any supernatural events before. The strange occurrences with the production team and contestants over the past few days were things he had only heard about; he hadn’t witnessed any of them firsthand.

For him, this world might be a bit unscientific, but ghostly events were just too far-fetched.

So Xie An didn’t associate it with anything supernatural but instead felt everything must be man-made.

Maybe they were targeting him again.

Thinking back to the horrific scene during the rehearsal accident, Xie An’s heart sank further, and his fingers tightened around the phone.

This time, he would never let his teammates get hurt!Xie An clenched his fist quietly.

Beside him, Zhu Chu was not as carefree.

His first experience with the supernatural involved facing over a dozen vengeful spirits. With his ability to see spirits and his ongoing learning with Ke Xingzhou, he immediately recognized what was causing the abnormalities.

However, before he could speak, Ke Xingzhou raised his hand to stop him.

Their eyes met, and Ke Xingzhou, without changing his expression, handed him a small cow plush and some sheep's milk powder that he didn't know when had been prepared.

Zhu Chu: "..."

At the same time, Xie An had dialed several emergency numbers that could be reached without a signal, but none of them connected, and all the messages he sent failed to deliver.

It was only then that he belatedly realized something was wrong—

Even if the other side was using a signal jammer, it shouldn't be able to block police and fire emergency calls, right?!

In his confusion, he inadvertently glanced at the time displayed on his phone. His eyes froze, and he was struck like a bolt of lightning.

11:01.

He clearly remembered that when he took out his phone earlier, the time displayed was 11:08.

He had been busy for so long, trying various calls, and yet the time hadn’t moved forward but had actually gone back a few minutes!

In that instant, a chill rose from his feet, climbing up his spine to the back of his head. A strong sense of unease made him shiver.

After a couple of seconds of stunned silence, he turned to Ke Xingzhou in disbelief: "Bro, I think... we’ve encountered a supernatural event!"

Ke Xingzhou smiled at him: "Oh?"

Xie An thought he didn't believe him and hurriedly explained: "Really! Bro, look, when I opened my phone earlier, the time was clearly 08 minutes, but now it’s jumped to 01 minutes—00 minutes! What kind of time goes backward?! Bro, we need to run, I’ve read novels, and during times like this, running back gives you a better chance of escaping!"

He said, grabbing Ke Xingzhou’s wrist and trying to run back. However, when he pulled, he couldn’t budge Ke Xingzhou.

Ke Xingzhou’s slender wrist didn’t move an inch, and instead, Xie An himself was pulled off balance, spinning around and ending up back in front of Ke Xingzhou.

He stammered: "Bro?"

"Don’t rush," Ke Xingzhou said, his gaze distant, looking behind him. "The stage isn’t set yet."

As soon as the words left his mouth, footsteps sounded from the direction of the broadcast building.

In the blink of an eye, a few familiar people appeared in front of them. Xie An focused, and it was the second and third team members, who had left much earlier, followed by Lu Deben.

The second and third team members looked frantic, and upon seeing them, they were shocked, quickly looking behind them.

"Xie, Xie An, and Zhu Chu and Ke Xingzhou... How did you three end up ahead of us?!"

Xie An was a little dazed by the question: "I was going to ask you the same thing! Didn’t you guys leave already?"

"Are you really Xie An?" The second team member’s expression was blank.

The third team member was calmer but still pale, his lips trembling as he stared at them for a while. After swallowing nervously, he cautiously said, "We’ve been walking this road for half an hour... Are you... are you people or ghosts?""It's a person." Ke Xingzhou finally spoke at this moment, stepping out from behind Xie An. His gaze swept over the three people opposite them, who were clearly absent-minded, and then he looked at Xie An. "We must have encountered a ghost wall."

"Ghost wall?" Xie An was confused.

The third team member seemed to remember and hesitated before speaking: "I think I've heard of it. It's a saying from my hometown. A ghost wall means that the path has been blocked by something unclean, and people can only keep walking in circles within it. In other words, no matter which way we go, we can’t get out. We can only wait until dawn when the sun comes up to return to the real world."

Xie An had been a bit scared, but hearing that they could leave when the sun came up, he felt relieved.

"So, if that's the case, we just need to stay in place and wait for dawn, right?" He asked, looking at Ke Xingzhou. "Bro, is that right?"

Ke Xingzhou neither confirmed nor denied it. His gaze turned to the back where Lu Deben had been silent all this time.

Unlike the pure fear displayed by the other two, Lu Deben seemed uncertain, his expression more shocked and confused than scared, as though he already knew what was going on.

Ke Xingzhou spoke directly: "Are you scared?"

The others followed his gaze to look at Lu Deben and only then noticed his odd behavior.

But none of them thought too much about it. The second and third team members, still trying to remain calm, went over to pat him.

"You kid, you've been silent all this way, I thought you were brave, turns out you're scared!" The second team member tried to comfort him. "Don’t worry. Didn’t the third one say that the ghost wall will disappear in the daytime? Worst case, we just sleep here tonight."

The third team member echoed: "There are so many of us, dirty things usually don't dare to show up. Plus, we’ve got Ke Xingzhou with us; he knows metaphysics!"

Who would have thought that when he mentioned there being many people, Lu Deben trembled all over. His expression didn’t relax but instead became even more tense.

The team members exchanged glances and couldn't help but laugh.

"You're really scared, huh!"

Jokes aside, the tension in their nerves relaxed a little, and they began talking about the events that had occurred before they encountered Xie An.

Only then did Xie An realize that the second and third team members, along with Lu Deben, hadn't entered the ghost wall together.

The second team member had been in a hurry to play a game and opened a software update on the way. He was talking to the third team member about recent updates until he realized that the progress bar for the update wasn’t moving.

"It was just like now. Old Lu suddenly appeared from behind and called us, that’s when we realized something was wrong." The second team member still had lingering fear. "You don’t know how terrifying it was! I thought I was going to die!"

When Xie An shared his own experience with the second and third team members, Lu Deben stayed silently beside them, staring at the ground without a word. Everyone else had relaxed, but he hadn’t, still nervously watching his surroundings, looking like he was completely terrified.

Zhu Chu looked at Ke Xingzhou, then at Lu Deben, and couldn’t help but seem thoughtful.

He leaned closer to Ke Xingzhou and whispered, "Master, Lu Deben seems off."

Ke Xingzhou didn’t respond, instead, he raised his chin toward Xie An. "You've been following me for a few days now, can you tell what’s wrong with Xie Xiaoan?"

Zhu Chu was momentarily confused, then he looked at Xie An. Uncertain, he said, "He seems... to be tangled up with something unclean?"

His third eye, unlike Ke Xingzhou’s and Nie Chen’s, couldn’t see the spirits but could judge based on the "energy" on someone. In situations like this, if the luck was showing signs of going downhill, it was easy to deduce what was going on.

Actually, it wasn’t just Xie An; he also felt strong Yin energy from the second and third team members, as well as from Lu Deben.

Clearly, they were all being haunted by ghosts.After a pause, Zhu Chu dejectedly denied, "I really haven't learned much; now everyone is stuck in the ghostly wall, so of course, we're entangled by unclean things. I'm so bad at nonsense literature."

Who knew Ke Xingzhou actually gave him a rather approving glance and nodded, "Not bad."

"Huh?"

Before Zhu Chu could respond, Ke Xingzhou had already walked up and patted Xie An's arm.

Xie An immediately stopped talking and, seeing Ke Xingzhou beckoning him, was somewhat confused but still obediently walked over.

"Brother, what's up?"

He lowered his head, just in time to meet Ke Xingzhou's gaze. That gaze seemed almost tangible, staring directly into Xie An's eyes.

Xie An couldn't tell if it was his imagination, but Ke Xingzhou's pure black eyes seemed to flicker with a faint golden light, which made him involuntarily stop in his tracks, a chill creeping up his spine.

"Brother?"

He had just walked to the edge of a streetlamp, in a dim spot, and the golden light in Ke Xingzhou's eyes seemed even more pronounced.

Xie An's pupils contracted, feeling a chilling sensation as if something terrifying was watching him.

His intuition was usually accurate, but because the person in front of him was Ke Xingzhou, he felt scared for a moment but soon relaxed and smiled helplessly, "Brother, don't scare me, I'm really afraid of this!"

But Ke Xingzhou did not look away as he had expected. Instead, his gaze was filled with some pity, "Xie Xiaoan, I’ll tell you a secret."

Xie An blinked his clear yet silly eyes, "What secret?"

Ke Xingzhou's gaze slowly moved upward, landing on his thick, small curly hair, then responded with a question, "Haven’t you been feeling your head getting heavier these past few days?"

"Yeah!" Xie An nodded repeatedly, "The bed in the dorm is too hard. Since the second morning, I've felt my head so heavy, and my neck's been sore! I already planned to bring my own bedding next time I come here, and I'll bring a set for you too. You’ve been taking care of the little kitten more than me, after all."

He rubbed his neck, spun his head around, and surprisingly felt his head getting even heavier, almost stumbling backward as if he were about to fall.

Xie An thought it was just because he'd been practicing too long these days and was physically exhausted, feeling guilty for not taking his limits into account earlier and making his teammates practice for such long hours every day.

He felt guilty, but unexpectedly, he heard Ke Xingzhou’s voice answer him softly, "You have an eight-month-old baby on your head, so of course it’s heavy."

Xie An nodded, looking like he had learned something, "Oh, that’s it..."

A moment later, Xie An suddenly looked up, "Huh?!!"

They hadn’t lowered their voices while talking, and everyone else immediately turned to look at him in shock.

After a moment, as if they had just realized it, two teammates stiffly turned their heads to look at the top of Xie An’s head.

There was nothing there.

They were ordinary people and couldn’t directly see ghosts unless their Yang energy was low enough, like when Ke Yuanbai and the others encountered ghosts earlier due to their low Yang energy being invaded by Yin energy.

But that didn’t stop them from being afraid.

The unknown is always the scariest, especially when they looked up and, for some reason, felt their necks crack, followed by a chill rushing up to the top of their heads.They were shocked and quickly took a step back, fleeing from Xie An's side.

When they turned back to look at him, their expressions were filled with anxiety.

Although they hadn't done anything wrong, at this moment, the concept of "ghosts" had become so tangible that it provided a sensory shock, causing them to feel fearful and unable to resist the urge to retreat.

The second one was almost scared to tears by the series of eerie events. His face was pale as he leaned toward the third one, "Didn't something like this happen in your hometown? There must be another way besides waiting for daylight, right? Right?!"

Dealing with the ghostly wall was one thing, but staying the whole night with a ghost baby in such a place? Even if he didn’t freeze to death, he would be scared to death!

The third one was also losing his composure at this point, shaking his head helplessly, "If I knew, wouldn't I have brought you all out already?"

He had only overheard the old people talking about it while warming by the fire during the New Year, and he had pieced together what little he understood from his limited knowledge of the local dialect. Just remembering that such a thing existed was already quite impressive.

Who would have thought he’d actually encounter it in his lifetime?!

Hearing the sobbing sounds, the third one suddenly had a flash of inspiration and quickly turned to Ke Xingzhou, "Ke Xingzhou, you can catch ghosts, right? Can you catch that ghost?"

Ke Xingzhou raised an eyebrow in surprise and gave him a thumbs up, "Courageous."

Courageous?

What courage?

Before the third one could react, Lu Deben beside them suddenly changed his expression.

At the same time, a wild and chaotic gust of cold wind suddenly swept across the road, heading straight for the third one!

The third one felt as if he had been slapped by an enormous hand, stumbling two steps back. Immediately afterward, an unbearable, intense pain shot through his shoulder and neck.

The temperature dropped sharply around them, and from somewhere in the air, a strange, annoyed "yi yi ya ya" sound echoed.

The sound was clearly very childish, like a toothless baby babbling, making people involuntarily think of those chubby little babies in advertisements.

However, no one present found the sound cute. Instead, everyone was filled with horror.

Ke Xingzhou's voice then echoed faintly, "Don't talk about people during the day, and don't talk about ghosts at night. Didn't your local ghost stories mention this?"

The third one felt a chill all over his body, and hearing this, he just felt like crying without tears.

—Couldn’t he have warned him earlier?!

But soon, he no longer had time to think about such things, because right after Ke Xingzhou spoke, a pitch-black figure suddenly appeared in their line of sight.

The shadow was small and appeared out of nowhere above Xie An's head.

Xie An, however, felt nothing. Seeing their strange expressions, he anxiously leaned over, "What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so pale? Are you okay?"

"......"

The second and third one stared in horror at the top of his head—

As Xie An moved, the shadow grew closer and closer to them, until they could clearly see its full form.It was a pitch-black humanoid shadow, barely distinguishable under the streetlight, in the shape of an infant. Just as Ke Xingzhou had said, it looked like a seven- or eight-month-old baby.

But unlike a normal, smooth, and cute baby, this one had skin that was jet black, a shriveled body, and an unusually large head. It lacked the innocence and cuteness a child should have, instead being incredibly eerie, making anyone who looked at it feel as though ants were crawling all over their body.

And just as they looked at it, that dark mass suddenly moved, and its enormous head turned toward them.

The head was so large that one couldn't help but wonder if its soft neck would snap from the weight.

The most terrifying part, however, wasn’t that. After the ghost baby turned its head, a pair of enormous eyes without pupils stared directly at them from its young but wrinkled black face.

Everyone: "……"

Cold sweat instantly covered their bodies.

Especially when their legs went weak and they tried to run, the ghost baby seemed to sense it. Its expression instantly became ferocious, and it opened its massive mouth, letting out a loud "Waaah!" cry.

The sound was sharp and piercing, and in an instant, everyone felt as if their heads were being drilled into, their skulls almost splitting from the sound waves.

Those who had been trying to convince themselves it was a hallucination couldn’t hold it in any longer. The second and third ones immediately cried out: "Aaaaah! Ghost!!"

They were so scared they turned to run, but they hadn’t gotten very far before their steps suddenly stopped.

It felt as though they had slammed into an invisible barrier. Both of them stared wide-eyed, their hands reaching for their necks.

In just a moment, a purple-black mark suddenly appeared around their necks.

The mark spiraled around their necks multiple times, as if an invisible rope had deeply embedded itself into their skin, tightening with every moment.

The second and third ones’ veins bulged, their wide eyes bloodshot, almost bursting. Lack of oxygen made their faces turn purple and black, their eyes rolling back as they were on the verge of losing consciousness.

At the same time, the wind howled, and the streetlights, which had been functioning normally, suddenly went out.

When they lit up again, the flickering lights turned to a strange dark red. The air seemed to be filled with a faint smell of blood, and the ghost baby’s cry made the whole scene even more terrifying.

In the flickering light, a black, finger-thick, blood-dripping line gradually appeared in the others' line of sight, spiraling around their necks.

On the other side, it even reached above their shoulders—

The second and third ones probably realized something, and in their suffocating convulsions, they desperately rolled their eyes, finally catching a glimpse of a dark shadow standing on their shoulders. From their side, a semi-transparent, blood-colored shadow fell.

Amid the howling wind, the others quickly saw it as well.

On their shoulders, two ghost babies, identical to the shadow above Xie An’s head, hung there like tree-dwelling marsupials. They clung to the second and third ones using both their hands and feet, their heads pressed against their ears.

And the circles of "ropes" tightening around their necks were connected to the ghost babies' belly buttons, swaying with every struggle of their physiological pain.

Looking at their swaying umbilical cords, the ghost babies let out a "giggle."

In that instant, an indescribable chill enveloped everyone.

Everyone’s hearts trembled as if all their blood had frozen in place.

The second and third ones had never encountered something so terrifying in their lives. Even without the spiraling umbilical cords around their necks, they were already so terrified that their souls seemed to be leaving their bodies, on the brink of death.

Let alone the fact that the air in their chests and lungs was thinning, their heads were about to be twisted off.The two of them rolled their eyes, the world turned pitch black, and their ears were filled with a roaring sound. They could only vaguely hear Xie An's panicked shouts and cries for help, seemingly pleading with Ke Xingzhou to save them.

At that moment, their minds involuntarily flashed with Ke Xingzhou's face, but it was quickly swallowed by deeper despair—such terrifying evil spirits, and not just one, they knew there was no chance of salvation.

Ke Xingzhou claimed to be able to tell fortunes, but it had always been just Xie An's one-sided statement. Even if he did possess some real ability, facing such a situation, it was probably beyond his power.

This time, they were probably really facing death.

As the air in their lungs grew thinner, flashes of their lives from the past twenty years began to appear before their eyes. The sense of impending death was stronger than ever.

They felt their control over their bodies weakening, not even sure when they had let go. They could only let the ghost baby's umbilical cord take away their last traces of consciousness—

However, after a brief moment of blankness, what greeted them was not the soul-binding chains of the black and white impermanence.

The terrifying grip around their necks suddenly vanished, and their bodies instinctively took a deep breath. A rush of cold air flooded their lungs, the tearing sensation spread from their nasal passages to their lungs, and the intense pain almost instantly revived the two who were on the brink of death.

Old Two and Old Three collapsed to the ground, coughing violently as if they were going to cough out their entire lungs.

When they finally gathered themselves and lifted their heads, the first thing they saw was Xie An, who was also lying on the ground, dumbfounded, and beside him, Zhu Chu was in a panic, holding a milk bottle and a cat in one hand, while trying to help him with the other.

The two of them: "..."

Following their gaze, they looked to the other side, and the streetlight's glow had somehow returned to normal.

Under the bright, warm yellow light, Ke Xingzhou stood tall, his clothes billowing in the fierce wind, and his medium-length hair was blown upward, revealing his smooth, full forehead and those pure black eyes filled with indifference.

The three ghost babies had somehow detached from them and appeared in front of Ke Xingzhou. The umbilical cords that had once strangled their necks were now tangled together in a mess, resembling a huge ball of yarn.

But instead of yarn, this "yarn" came from the ghost babies, extending with traces of blood and some unknown liquid.

The ends of the umbilical cords were connected to the wailing ghost babies and a rotten, foul-smelling, spherical mass of flesh.

—These three ghost babies actually shared the same placenta!

None of the people present had ever encountered such a scene. Seeing the squirming mass of flesh, they couldn't tell whether it was moving by itself or being dragged, and their pupils shook uncontrollably.

Xie An was somewhat better, quickly averting his gaze, his face slightly pale.

Old Two and Old Three were not as calm. They looked at this horrifying scene, their throats rapidly swallowing, and eventually, they couldn't hold back and vomited with a loud "wah."

Even Zhu Chu, who could be considered "well-traveled" in comparison, now had a dazed look in his eyes, not daring to directly face those horrifying things, instead focusing on the ghost babies. In this situation, the impact of the three black, shriveled ghost babies, resembling dried corpses, was actually the least.

Only Ke Xingzhou remained calm from start to finish, his expression unchanged, quietly observing everything.

Amid the increasingly violent winds, he stood unwavering, one hand across his side to block the normal people behind him, and the other hand raised, fingers together, holding a blank talisman: "The heavens are round, the earth is square, the nine chapters of the law. The sun rises in the east, mighty Yin and Yang..."

Golden specks of light appeared in the air, slowly gathering as his chanting voice resonated, landing on the talisman in his hand.

It was as if an invisible being, holding a brush, was writing on the talisman. Streams of golden light fell on the yellow talisman, forming a series of cryptic and incomprehensible incantations.

Not sure if it was their illusion, the others seemed to see golden light appearing in Ke Xingzhou's eyes as well.

His voice was steady and powerful as it reached them: "I now write, commanding this talisman. All ghosts shall be hidden, and all misfortunes swept away!"