Jing Jiujiu and Xu Sanyu huddled together, taking quite a while to finally determine that it was likely a hand, not a foot.
When this deity statue was cast, the fingers were curled, leaving an impression that appeared thick and short.
"How exactly did it touch?" Jing Jiujiu couldn't help but ask curiously.
Bai Yuhuai explained: "Very few evil deities possess actual physical bodies. They rely on statues and lack definite forms or gestures. They move according to the will of their worshippers. 'Being touched by an evil deity' is just a colloquial expression. More accurately, the moment the divine consciousness moves, the handprint is left behind. It's a unique kind of mark."
"What does it mark?" Xu Sanyu eagerly asked, even more enthusiastically than Jing Jiujiu.
Mark.
That word didn't sound like anything good.
Bai Yuhuai's expression darkened slightly: "It marks its offerings."
Xu Sanyu angrily exclaimed: "How arrogant! What kind of thing uses people as offerings?"
Jing Jiujiu replied: "An evil deity, we just said that."
Xu Sanyu's long delay in processing finally caught up: "...A deity? It's really a deity?"
Bai Yuhuai lowered his gaze, his cold tone barely concealing his contempt: "Such a vile and base thing, how dare it call itself a deity?"
Xu Sanyu nodded in agreement, but after nodding, he felt a bit uneasy and kept glancing around: "So where is this evil deity lurking right now?"
Just as Xu Sanyu finished speaking, Bai Yuhuai's phone rang.
Jing Jiujiu had already guessed: "Master Zhou?"
"Mm." Bai Yuhuai answered the call, and Master Zhou's frantic voice quickly came through: "Oh my goodness, you've got to save me! Guan Yan brought a deity statue and insisted I consecrate it for him! So I did... but that statue looked really sinister. I hope nothing bad will happen, right?" After asking, Master Zhou cautiously added: "Is this Mr. Bai or the young master speaking now?"
Bai Yuhuai: "It's me."
"Take a photo of the Buddha statue."
Master Zhou quickly complied.
Bai Yuhuai asked further: "How did you consecrate it?"
Master Zhou: "Well, I sprinkled holy water, you know, just paper ash water. Then I chanted a couple of sutras at it, like 'Namo Amitabha Buddha' and such. The others are too hard to remember. This one's more all-purpose."
Jing Jiujiu interjected to ask Bai Yuhuai: "Chanting this sutra for a foreign evil deity, what will happen?"
Master Zhou: "It's foreign?"
Master Zhou: "Oh crap, using our country's sutras to consecrate another country's Buddha. Won't it think I'm being super arrogant and want to kill me?"
"What are you afraid of?" Bai Yuhuai calmly spoke, "An evil deity killing someone is not as fast as a vengeful ghost killing someone. At most, you'll just have an extra mark on your body."
Master Zhou opened his mouth.
Is that supposed to be comforting?
Master Zhou meekly asked: "So, I've taken the photo now, what should I do next?"
"Tell Guan Yan that to truly use this deity statue, he needs to make offerings to enshrine it. Take one tael of glutinous rice, one jin of salt, ten taels of locust tree flowers, and ask him to drip three drops of blood into water. First place these on the offering table. Then buy pork, beef, mutton, chicken, duck, and other poultry, without missing any, and place them outside the offering table. Make offerings like this for three days."
Master Zhou nodded repeatedly as he listened, then hung up the phone to send the photos and instruct Guan Yan to buy the items.
Jing Jiujiu asked: "What is this for?"
Bai Yuhuai: "To trap the deity."
Jing Jiujiu twisted his neck again: "Then this handprint..."
Bai Yuhuai gently brushed Jing Jiujiu's clothes: "Don't be afraid. Once we figure out what kind of thing it is, it'll be easy to deal with."
Jing Jiujiu wasn't actually scared. He hadn't even seen the evil deity yet, right? Even if he did see it, it would just look like a statue. What was there to be afraid of? Was it even half as terrifying as Sadako?
"It's just a shame about the clothes," Jing Jiujiu said, tugging at the drawstring of his hoodie.
Bai Yuhuai paused, his gaze falling back on the hoodie.
This was also one of the items he had bought for Jing Jiujiu.
The boy who would be frightened even by fictional ghosts in movies was now only concerned about ruining his clothes.
"...I'll buy you new ones," Bai Yuhuai said.
Many, many new ones.
"Shall we head back then?" Jing Jiujiu asked.
"Mm."
The two of them were unusually calm in agreement, leaving Xu Sanyu behind still trying to reconstruct his worldview. He had noticed some things before, but Bai had never mentioned anything about the supernatural to them until now. Good grief, now they were even dealing with deities!
Xu Sanyu turned to leave, but after walking a few steps, he realized something.
Oh no, they still hadn't figured out what was inside his stomach!
Master Zhou soon arrived in person with the photos. He cautiously showed his phone to Jing Jiujiu: "Look, isn't it scary?"
Jing Jiujiu: "It's just okay."
Master Zhou: "Not scary? Even the eyeballs are painted with red lacquer."
Bai Yuhuai took the phone and glanced at it, frowning: "These fools."
Master Zhou jumped, thinking Bai Yuhuai was scolding him.
Jing Jiujiu asked: "Are you talking about Guan Yan and the others?" Jing Jiujiu paused, making a guess based on Bai Yuhuai's words: "Did the ghost sellers deliberately let them bring this deity statue in? Is there something special about this statue?"
"This is a replica of the Four-Faced Buddha. Traditionally, the commonly seen Four-Faced Buddha holds a command flag in one hand and a Buddhist scripture in the other... symbolizing magical power, wisdom, fortune, and so on..."
"But this Four-Faced Buddha holds an infant's frontal bone near the fontanelle in one hand and the skull cap, commonly known as the 'heavenly spirit cover,' in the other. That area is believed to connect to the divine above and to a person's soul and vital essence below. In martial arts novels, if someone strikes a person's heavenly spirit cover with their palm, that person is beyond saving..."
"This is a thing that eats everything. The energy of heaven and earth, human vitality, ghost yin energy, the spiritual energy of birds and beasts – it eats it all."
"Such a thing is not easily confined. Those offerings won't be effective for more than a few days. Normally, this kind of entity doesn't move from its location. To make it follow the statue, they would need to use lesser ghosts to lure it."
Jing Jiujiu frowned: "So someone invited this evil deity into our country to eat our things and boost their own fortunes?"
"That seems to be the case. Evil deities are not easily enshrined, requiring a thousand times more resources than enshrining lesser ghosts. Once unable to maintain the offerings, the worshipper will suffer misfortune and family ruin. More seriously, the evil deity will kill people until it has consumed its fill. The statue sellers want the deity's blessings but are unwilling to sacrifice themselves, so they simply lured the deity statue elsewhere."
Jing Jiujiu wanted to say something but held back.
It bore some resemblance to Jing Tinghua's methods.
But he didn't want to bring up these matters in front of others, so he kept quiet.
Master Zhou listened, trembling with fear.
"Such a fierce thing? It will keep killing people? I sprinkled paper ash water on it and chanted Buddhist sutras, doesn't that mean I'm doomed to die?"
Jing Jiujiu had also felt a bit scared at first, but then he thought, how much worse could he die?
Suddenly it didn't seem so frightening anymore, and he even had the composure to comfort Master Zhou: "Don't be afraid, Bai Yuhuai's..."
Bai Yuhuai's heart skipped a beat, wondering if Jing Jiujiu was going to praise his abilities.
Jing Jiujiu: "His family's hired bodyguards are quite impressive. Especially that one with dyed yellow hair from last time."
Bai Yuhuai: "..."
Meanwhile, Guan Yan carefully arranged everything Master Zhou had mentioned in front of the shrine, not daring to miss a single item.
Yes, he had even specially made a shrine for the deity statue.
After placing the last item, Guan Yan clasped his hands and bowed.
With such sincerity, surely my wishes will be granted?
I'm not asking for much, I just hope that in the future, there will be fewer people like Bai Yuhuai in the entertainment industry. People like me should rise higher. For example, I heard that Director Cheng is considering Bai Yuhuai for his next film – why not choose me instead?
Suddenly, the curtains in the hotel room moved.
An eerie wind arose from nowhere.
Guan Yan felt a chill run through his entire body.
This scene was somewhat similar to when he had first brought the lesser ghost into the room and settled it. Guan Yan immediately felt relieved, thinking that Master Zhou's arrangements were indeed effective. Much more reliable than that ghost seller...
Guan Yan put on an extra layer of clothing and turned back, only to see the deity statue's eyes flash.
Guan Yan held his breath.
Had the statue... come to life?!
This was even more shocking than when he had first seen the lesser ghost with his own eyes!
After all, a ghost was still just a ghost!
But this was a deity!
Shouldn't a deity be stronger than a ghost?
Guan Yan suppressed the excitement in his heart and continued making wishes: "Do you see? All these offerings on the table and floor, I've dedicated them to you. Can you fulfill some of my insignificant wishes?"
Guan Yan rambled on.
The eyes of the idol became even more blood-red.
A red light flared up.
The ominous wind grew stronger.
Rice absorbs the essence of the five grains from heaven and earth. But glutinous rice can ward off evil spirits. The locust tree connects to the netherworld, yet its flowers reach for the sun. Salt has been used to drive away evil since ancient times.
The human blood and the meat of chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep... were all placed outside the circle of glutinous rice, locust flowers, and salt.
The idol's anger rose from within.
This damned devotee, muttering a bunch of incomprehensible words, pointing and gesturing at it, laying out offerings, yet confining it so that it couldn't taste a single bite.
He was deliberately toying with it!
He was mocking a divine spirit!
With a loud "bang," the person-high wardrobe in the hotel room suddenly collapsed. Glasses on the table flew everywhere, shards slapping against Guan Yan's face, shattering his joy.
Guan Yan froze: "Have you manifested your power?"
...
Meanwhile, Bai Yuhuai asked Master Zhou about the photo of the idol that Jing Tinghua had given him.
Master Zhou hurriedly took it out: "Look here."
Jing Jiujiu was startled: "This idol... why doesn't it have a face?"
Master Zhou was taken aback.
Master Zhou: "No, when I first received it, it had a face, just a bit blurry. It looked quite handsome. Looked similar to Mr. Bai, both exceptionally good-looking. Too beautiful to be of this world."
At that moment, a scratching sound suddenly came from inside the bedroom, as if something was clawing at the door.
Master Zhou trembled in fear: "Is... is the evil god coming?"
Jing Jiujiu shook his head, got up and went to open the door: "No, it's just a little ghost."
Master Zhou: "!"
Oh my god!
This little ghost looked far more terrifying than the one in the theater!
Master Zhou rolled his eyes, nearly fainting.
Jing Jiujiu sighed softly: "It must be hungry again."
He didn't want to eat this little ghost.
But he couldn't just let it go either. What if it returned to Guan Yan's side and caused more trouble? Or worse, if it lost control completely like the previous one, what if it started gnawing on people's faces everywhere?
Jing Jiujiu turned his head and asked Bai Yuhuai: "Should I let it gnaw a little bit?"
Bai Yuhuai: "No."
What logic was there in feeding one's own food reserves?
The little ghost, whether it understood their conversation or not, began circling around Jing Jiujiu. It even grew bolder, tugging at Jing Jiujiu's trouser leg as if trying to climb up.
Meanwhile, the sound of nails scratching at the door hadn't ceased.
"Screech... screech..."
This time it sounded more like something scraping against glass.
Master Zhou, who had been cowering on the sofa, turned ashen-faced and stiff as a board: "Young master, Mr. Bai, you... you look, outside the window."
Jing Jiujiu: "Hm?"
He walked towards the window.
Bai Yuhuai had already darkened his expression and plucked the little ghost off him.
The little ghost, frightened, began to "wuwu wawa," without a single coherent word. It seemed that even in life, its intelligence hadn't been very high.
Jing Jiujiu opened the window: "Look at what?"
The night outside was beautiful, except for a faint red light coming from a room not far away?
Master Zhou: ?
Master Zhou: "Look down."
Jing Jiujiu looked down to see countless green-skinned little ghosts stacked one on top of another, like a wall being built. Like dominoes, they all tumbled down onto the lawn below.
Jing Jiujiu: ???