The pencil was one of the greatest inventions in the world, because it was versatile, adaptable and served many purposes. Qi Yan was not drawing a talisman, but the shape of this alley. He combined the four directions to infer the source of the spell.
In order to cast a spell, it was important to have high spatial awareness. Otherwise, it might backfire. Those who had low spatial awareness were not suitable to learn this skill.
He took out his phone, opened the map and checked the route. He confirmed that his hypothesis was correct. Qi Yan put the mobile phone and pencil away, got up and walked into the alley.
The bodyguard sitting in the car rubbed his eyes and watched Qi Yan disappear into the alley. He didn’t know if he was hallucinating but he felt that this alley looked extraordinarily dark, like a monster with a mouth wide open, waiting to swallow people up at any time.
Although he didn’t know what Qi Yan was doing, his intuition told him that something was going on here. He turned to look at the fifth master in the back seat.
Fifth Master Cen looked solemn and put his hand on the door handle, but he knew that this was futile. He didn’t know what Master Qi did to this car but he couldn’t open it no matter how hard he tried. It was really strange.
The alley was full of cars parked on the side, and a bunch of flowers stretched bloomed from the anti-theft window, adding a bit of vitality to the quiet alley. At the end of the alley, there was a huge banyan tree. Maybe because of its age, there was a sign put up by the Plant Protection Association. There was a flower bed around the roots of the tree. In the flower bed were several small glass bottles. Each bottle was filled with paper flowers. A small card was hung on the bottleneck, and it said “A gift to the tree.”
The handwriting looked childish.
The leaves were shaking, but Qi Yan didn’t feel any wind. He looked up at the dense leaves on the canopy, and when he turned to leave, the leaves shook more violently.
All living things had a soul, and so did trees. Qi Yan didn’t know if this big tree shook its leaves because of the spell, or if it had a relationship with the life around it. It was shaking its leaves to ask for help. He stopped and bowed to the tree.
The leaves were still shaking, but Qi Yan didn’t look back anymore. He stretched out his fingers, hesitated for two seconds, and decided to dig into his trouser pocket. He took out a small thumb-wide box and a silver needle from it. He shakily pricked his finger and pursed his lips as he watched a drop of blood appear from his finger.
“Turn to the right path. Spirit of the mountain, spirit of the earth…” Qi Yan put blood between his brows, the droplets of blood instantly turned into a shape of diamond, and evil spirits surged around him as he chanted and the bad energy slowly dissipated. They could no longer enter the doors and windows of each household, and the luck and vitality of each household would no longer be sucked out.
He was chanting one of the the eight commonly used Taoist mantras. The main function of this mantra was to invite the Gods to return to their place. No one had actually seen the Gods. From Qi Yan’s understanding, God was the faith of mankind. What he did was to use mankind’s desire for peace and tranquility to suppress the evil spirit and repossess their own luck and vitality.
Even if he couldn’t call the Gods, he had to stop the loss of vitality. At the current rate of loss, there would be a catastrophic accident in this place before dawn, and he dared not calculate how many deaths there would be.
“Spirit of the earth, lend me your power.” According to the rules, Qi Yan should set up an altar. However, the matter was urgent, so he moved the energy around his body and combined it with the vitality in the air, increasing the effect of the spell.
Some of the vitality and luck that flowed out began to return gradually into this quiet and strange alley.
“Brother!” Li Cunxu noticed that the spell was altered, and hurriedly defended it. “Someone altered the spell.”
This was similar to the situation he encountered last time. At that time, he didn’t know the dangers in the Capital City, and brought his two apprentices to help people change their fate. Later on, the spell failed and backfired. If it weren’t for his mate who helped him, he would still be lying in bed to recuperate.
Lin Huaihong also noticed that someone was dismantling the spell and this person was aggressive, so he was not a novice.
The two brothers had no time to think about who was opposing them. They looked at each other and sat cross-legged in front of the altar, defending the spell. It was only a few hours away before their plan was going to succeed. Why was there suddenly a powerful person who wanted to stop them?
Qi Yan noticed that the strength of the spell was increasing, and the vitality that had returned slipped away again. His chest became tight, and cold air rushed into his body. He acted quickly, and took out a few brand new dollar bills. He pinched the bills between his fingers.
His fingers pressed hard and the bills quickly fell into position, and stuck there firmly.
The cold air pouring into Qi Yan’s body instantly dissipated, Qi Yan staggered and took a deep breath.
Don’t underestimate the power of the hundred-yuan bill. Since many people liked it, combined with the portrait of a great man on it, it had an aura. If one were in a situation where they were paralysed by a spirit, they just had to put a few new hundred yuan bills or a great man’s photo under their pillow to alleviate the situation.
“Prosperity, democracy, civilization, harmony…” As a righteous young man, Qi Yan had memorized the core values of society. He strode while making some hand gestures.
“I am proud to serve the people, and ashamed to betray human lives!” Qi Yan was sweaty, as he held the silver needle, trying to pierce the charm with it, but it resisted strongly and made it difficult for him to even raise his arm.
If one wants to be a skilled sorcerer, one must understand math and chemistry, memorize political history, and learn to draw all kinds of talisman. Otherwise they had no right to call themselves a skilled sorcerer in modern times.
At this time, the sky was covered with dark clouds, the brilliant sun had long disappeared. The wind was strong, and the rainstorm was about to come.
Qi Yan clenched his teeth and persisted, his gums began to bleed. He held his right wrist with his left hand and took a deep breath before he started chanting.
After that, he felt a rush of vitality returning. It was similar to what he felt from the big banyan tree.
Fortunately, Qi Yan felt that he had gained a little more strength, and the silver needle was a little closer to the charm.
“Brother, I can’t hold it any longer.” Li Cunxu spat out a mouthful of blood, his hands trembled, and he could hardly sustain the spell. Who was this skilled person who was ruining their plan?
“Since he wouldn’t let go, then we don’t have to be merciful.” Lin Huaihong took out a few pieces of yellow paper and kept chanting spells. The yellow paper quickly became a paper man, and Lin Huaihong prayed three times in front of the altar. He put the paper man into a bowl that was filled with black blood and an unpleasant stench.
“Brother, you are going to…” Li Cunxu’s expression changed drastically. This spell was lethal, but it would not hurt the caster.
“At this juncture, we have to give it a try,” Lin Huaihong pinched his fingertips and casted the spell.
This time, unless there was a rare noble person there to help him, this person would definitely die!
“Fifth Young Master?!” The bodyguard watched in amazement as the boss kicked the door open. He wanted to do the same, but the door didn’t move at all. It was so embarrassing.
He felt pressured as a professional bodyguard.
Cen Baihe did not care about the bodyguard who was still struggling in the car and strode into the alley. When he saw Qi Yan lying on the ground under the strong wind, he stopped.
He looked around and saw that there were a few bills scattered around him. But he didn’t know why the money didn’t move even though the wind was strong.
“Cough!” Qi Yan felt that the spellcaster had targeted him. He raised his head and glanced at the darkened sky, bit his tongue, and spouted a mouthful of blood.
With his remaining strength, he pushed the silver needle into the ground fiercely. The airflow in the whole alley became chaotic, and the leaves were flying all around in the sky. Even Qi Yan himself was pushed back two or three meters.
He was just about to stand up when he suddenly felt the evil spirits around him attack him. He secretly mumbled in his heart that the people behind this were badly done by him, and they were going to make him pay with his life.
Just as the evil spirit was about to enter him, a person suddenly stood in front of him, bent over and stretched out his hand to him.
The evil spirit crashed into the dense purple mist like a moth rushing into the fire, and it disappeared in an instant.
“Boom!”
Lin Huaihong was lying on the ground, vomiting several mouthfuls of blood. His head was tilted. It was unclear whether he was alive.
“Brother!” Seeing that Lin Huaihong had fainted, Li Cunxu could no longer maintain the spell. He fell back and got up from the ground after a long while. He crawled to Lin Huaihong’s side, stretched out his hand. Lin Huaihong was not breathing.
“Brother!” Li Cunxu sat on the ground sullenly. He couldn’t figure out how his senior’s spell could fail and caused such a serious backlash. This was impossible.
Cen Baihe coughed a few times, his face was a little pale, “It’s going to rain, won’t you get up? “
“Thank you.” Qi Yan held Cen Baihe’s hand and stood up. He looked down to see that his body was covered in dust and blood. He sucked on his bitten tongue, bent over to pick up the hundred-yuan bill and asked, “How did you get out?”
Cen Baihe looked at Qi Yan who was covered in dust, and for the first time, he felt that the world could not be fully explained by science.
