Chapter 142: Master's Wife

As soon as the drawn-out ritual chant began, the surroundings immediately fell silent.

Immediately after, the Great Divinity began chanting the "Helping Soldiers Incantation." Unlike Li Zhi's shouting-like chant, her incantation was quick and rapid.

"Dong, dong, dong! The sun sets in the west, darkening the sky! Every household bolts its doors! Dong, dong, dong! Travelers rush to inns, birds flee to the forests, tigers return to the mountains..."

Soon after the drumbeats began, Bai Lingmiao's body started to tremble and hiccup. The red veil on her head shook like a flowing waterfall.

Her body gradually hunched over, and something resembling the outline of a beast's skull distended the red veil.

"Today, this disciple invites the Immortal Child; misfortune resides within the house. Inviting doctors from the south yielded no effect; inviting monks and nuns from the north achieved nothing. In utter helplessness, I invite the Old Immortal for help. Yin and Yang seek the slumber of the eight characters, permeating the seven orifices and twelve meridians. Examining all five solid organs and six hollow organs; I trouble the Old Immortal to clarify..."

Accompanied by the rhythmic drumbeats, Bai Lingmiao began to walk into the house.

Sensing someone approaching, the woman's eyes, obscured by white hair, began to show fear.

The next second, that fear transformed into extreme hatred. "Give me back my son!" she shrieked.

She spread her arms, ready to pounce, but her body was bound by chains, preventing her from succeeding. She remained stiff, taut with tension.

A long, slender beast's snout caused Bai Lingmiao's red veil to bulge as it continuously sniffed towards the old woman. Beast-like growls continuously emanated from beneath the veil.

"My son!" the old woman cried, her expression shifting from hatred to pleading. "My son, it's mother's fault, it's mother's fault!"

Everything beneath the red veil quickly retracted and began to tremble again. A tail extended from beneath Bai Lingmiao's skirt, and the Great Divinity outside the house changed her chant once more.

"The human soul returns to the human body, the horse's soul returns to the horse's side. Humans with true souls eat their fill, horses with true souls frolic with joy. The Eight Immortals table is placed on the ground, star banners are set above. Five-colored flags, five-colored banners, five-colored flags and banners in red, white, blue, and green!"

To the beat of the drums, Bai Lingmiao began to pace rhythmically around the old woman, inserting small white flags made of folded yellow paper into the dry straw on the ground.

At this point, the old woman suddenly stopped moving. Her body abruptly fell to the ground, trembling uncontrollably, her face contorted in extreme pain.

Zhao Qin, standing outside the door, watched this scene with great heartache. However, given the current situation, he dared not interrupt rashly.

Immediately after, the drumbeats intensified, and seven lit purple incense sticks appeared in Bai Lingmiao's hand.

The smoking incense tips pointed downwards, and were directly inserted down the old woman's throat.

"Hiss~" Sounds of people gasping in cold air continuously rose from outside the house. While the escorts were all martial artists who wouldn't bat an eye at ordinary injuries, what they had just witnessed was truly difficult to bear.

"Gag~" The old woman tried to vomit, but a red handkerchief covered her face.

Just as everyone was watching Bai Lingmiao, wondering what she would do next, a deep voice sounded from a distance.

"Xiaoman! Bai Lingmiao!" It was Li Huowang's voice.

The drumming suddenly became somewhat unsteady, and the ritual chant changed once more.

"Before you leave, I give you three drumbeats, sending you to ancient caves to cultivate immortality! Sending you from one ridge to the next, from one mountain to the next! Do not let the disciple suffer; if you don't leave, I will drive you out! Dong, dong, dong!"

The three drumbeats ceased, and the strange phenomena occurring to Bai Lingmiao immediately stopped.

Having returned to normal, she clearly heard Li Huowang's voice. She quickly took off the red veil from her head and walked out of the house.

Snatching the drum from the Great Divinity's hand, she put the red veil back on the Great Divinity's head. Bai Lingmiao then quickly went to greet Li Huowang, who was approaching from a distance with a large group of people.

"Senior Brother Li, you're down the mountain? Are things done?" she asked with a smile.

Being observant, she noticed Senior Brother Li was now carrying two swords on his back.

"Hmm, almost. I heard them say you came here to exorcise evil spirits? How is it? Are you done?" Li Huowang said, pulling Bai Lingmiao and looking towards the distant crowd.

"Hmm... no, I thought she had encountered something else, but it turned out to be nothing. I've tried several methods, but I still don't know what's wrong with her."

Just as they returned to the side of the house, Zhao Qin was carefully helping his wife up.

After calling out softly a few times and receiving no response, Zhao Qin immediately looked at Bai Lingmiao with an anxious gaze.

"Madam, what exactly is wrong with my wife now?!"

His tone was clearly angry, but this was natural. Seeing his wife tormented like this, with no change from before, it was understandable that he was upset.

Glancing at the old woman's vacant, dazed expression, Li Huowang, a hint of weariness on his face, said to Bai Lingmiao, "Let's go. If she can't be cured, then don't try. We don't lack those fifty wen coins."

"Wait!" These two words burst from Zhao Qin's mouth, and everyone in the escort agency began to surround them with hostile looks.

Li Huowang calmly watched everything before him, slowly gripping the hilt of the sword behind him with one hand.

"Clang!" The sword blade emerged an inch from its scabbard, and everyone around immediately felt their blood surge, as if they were in the center of a battlefield.

This unusual sensation immediately made Wang Chengxing, who was nearby, turn pale. He knew they had encountered big trouble.

Having spent years on the road, he had heard that there was a group of masters with mysterious and unfathomable supernatural abilities. These individuals were difficult to distinguish between good and evil, requiring extreme vigilance upon encounter. This time, they had likely encountered the real deal.

"Senior Brother Li! Don't do this, it's our fault..." Bai Lingmiao quickly pulled on Li Huowang's sleeve.

The sword blade returned to its scabbard, and the indifferent Li Huowang was about to turn and leave.

"My son... Mother is so sorry..." This voice, however, made Li Huowang suddenly stop in his tracks and look at the old woman again.

Her appearance made him feel a sense of déjà vu.

Seeing her hands, raw and bloody from the chains, an inexplicable anger flared up in his heart.

The old woman's expression changed again, and she fiercely clamped her hands around Zhao Qin's neck. "Give me back my son! Give me back my son!" she shrieked.

Li Huowang pulled Young Yang and walked over.

"I'll return him! I'll return your son!" Li Huowang declared, pushing Zhao Qin away and shoving the dazed Young Yang into the old woman's arms.

The moment she held Young Yang, the old woman immediately quieted down. She leaned her face against him, stroking his hair repeatedly.

Li Huowang surveyed the room, then said with dissatisfaction in his tone, "Why isn't there even a window? Wouldn't she be afraid alone in the dark?"

Zhao Qin was momentarily stunned; everything had happened too quickly.

"My wife is already like this; would she still be afraid of the dark?"

Li Huowang drew another long sword and effortlessly cut through the chains on the old woman's hands.

"Even if she's mad, it doesn't mean she feels nothing! She can still feel fear, she can still feel pain! She can still feel lonely without company! Do you think she wanted to become like this? She didn't! But she truly couldn't help it!"