Chapter 221: The Resentment’s Embrace

Unfortunately, being a printed photograph, the resentment dissipated after a single use.

Jia Cheng gazed at the photograph in his hand. I, too, noticed the swift dissipation of the resentment clinging to it.

The translucent figures vanished rapidly, followed by the entire image on the photo, leaving it a blank sheet.

“To be effective even once is quite powerful. You could always print a few more to carry with you. After all, Junior Sister Ou Zhiqing has already agreed to charge you only a hundred yuan, no matter how many you print at a time.”

Xushan chuckled.

“Photographic paper and ink cost money,” Jia Cheng countered. “Besides, carrying too many supernatural photos would only leave me susceptible to the resentment’s influence.”

As he spoke, flames erupted from his fingertips, incinerating the now-blank photograph.

“Let’s continue our exploration, but carefully,” Mo Qingyan advised. “Those people sealed themselves in their rooms after the fire started spreading. This implies that if they died, their souls would be unable to reincarnate, and are now trapped within these very rooms. It’s quite dangerous.”

“Then I’ll take the lead,” Bai Yue declared, stepping forward into the room the man had just burst out of. We quickly followed suit.

The room retained its basic structure, yet it was thoroughly blackened by soot. It seemed that while the fire hadn’t engulfed the room, the dense smoke had infiltrated it.

He must have been suffocated to death.

Just then, the bathroom door violently slammed open. Three malevolent spirits, wreathed in black smoke, burst through and lunged at us.

Had this happened moments earlier, I might have been startled. However, having braced myself, I wasn’t fazed by such a simple surprise attack.

Instead, I could calmly analyze the trio. These three—two adults and one child—were entirely shrouded in black smoke, though I could faintly discern that they were the male and female servants who had tragically suffocated.

The male servant’s build suggested a woman. Unlike the fiery man from before, they bore no flames, and their malevolence and resentment were far less potent than his.

*Whoosh!* The moment the trio broke through the door, Bai Yue had already unleashed her spider silk.

The shattered door was sliced into five pieces, and four deep gashes were left on the adjacent wall.

Yet, the three ghosts, bisected by the silk threads, remained completely unharmed. Their black smoke merely rippled, as if they lacked any physical form, allowing the silk to pass right through them.

Bai Yue was about to switch to using her Gu worms when Xiao Qing’s jade gecko, perched on her shoulder, opened its mouth once more.

With a deep inhale, it sucked all the dense smoke from the malevolent spirits into its belly, revealing their true forms.

They were an old woman, a middle-aged woman, and a young girl. They were all scorched black, their features barely discernible, their faces contorted in agony and etched with hatred for the living.

However, once the jade gecko dispelled the dense smoke shrouding them, they were essentially defenseless. They were quickly overwhelmed by the Gu worms Bai Yue released.

Amidst the gnawing sounds, their piercing screams gradually faded, swallowed entirely by the ravenous Gu worms.

“Good thing I thought every malevolent spirit would be as powerful as that charred corpse,” Jia Cheng chuckled, relieved. “It seems not every ghost carries such intense resentment. These three are only slightly stronger than the shadow that jumped from the building.”

If every ghost were as formidable as the charred corpse, he wouldn’t have been able to handle it.

“Judging by this, these three must be his mother, wife, and daughter, right?” Mo Qingyan observed, looking at a photo frame. “How pitiful. The entire family perished in the fire. It appears they sought refuge in the bathroom at the end, but were ultimately suffocated by the smoke.”

The photo frame held a picture of six people. However, the figures of four individuals appeared to have been burned away by fire, yet the flames had precisely targeted only them, leaving the surroundings untouched.

Only an elder and a young man remained in the photograph. These must be the fiery man’s father and son. It was unclear whether they had survived the fire or were simply absent from the beginning.

For some inexplicable reason, I felt a faint sense of familiarity with the young man’s face, as if I had seen someone similar, though I couldn’t be certain.

Mo Qingyan also frowned as she looked at him, but after a moment of thought, she couldn’t recall who he was and eventually set the photo frame down.

Finally, we turned our attention to the bathroom, where an extremely dense aura of malevolence lingered. It was the final resting place of four unfortunate souls.

The overwhelming resentment made it difficult for me to even discern the scene within.

Ultimately, Mo Qingyan stepped inside. The magical artifacts on her person automatically activated, their spiritual light dispelling the malevolence.

However, it was clear that their power was being rapidly depleted and wouldn’t last much longer.

Mo Qingyan didn’t linger. She quickly retrieved something from the bathtub and immediately retreated. I saw a damp handkerchief in her hand, adorned with a small bear pattern.

The handkerchief was saturated with malevolence, clearly a cursed object itself. Yet, it was unique, for I didn’t sense a strong resentment or aggression from it.

Instead, there was a profound sense of sorrow—the final, desperate plea of a family yearning to survive, hoping at least one of them could live.

“Minister, what did you see in there? Is this handkerchief all we found?” Jia Cheng asked, noticing Mo Qingyan’s slightly pale complexion.

Mo Qingyan merely shook her head. “What else could there be to see? It’s a common sight, nothing worth dwelling on. Let’s leave quickly and not disturb the deceased’s rest.”

Mo Qingyan placed the handkerchief into a sealed small iron box, similar to a pencil case. After closing it, she took out a red pencil and drew a red talisman symbol on the box, thoroughly sealing the handkerchief inside.

Cursed objects can easily corrupt their holders or bring danger, so they must be properly stored. It’s also best for one person not to possess too many cursed objects simultaneously. Any cursed object whose side effects are not yet understood should be sealed first.

Mo Qingyan had likely seen something, but she chose not to speak of it. None of us could force her to.

Since there was nothing more to see here, we prepared to exit the room.

However, the moment we stepped out, charred corpses emerged from almost every room on the floor, whether their doors were open or closed. Our actions seemed to have enraged them, causing them all to reveal themselves.

Some were shrouded in dense smoke, having been suffocated; others were burned beyond recognition, having been incinerated. Some even had incomplete bodies.

Yet all of them, fueled by hatred for the living, surged towards us.

“I merely came to scavenge some scraps, but it seems we’ve stumbled upon their main lair,” Mo Qingyan shouted, raising her red pencil. “There’s no turning back now. This will be a tough battle. Prepare to fight!”

We immediately plunged into a fierce battle. This floor had only six rooms, yet each room spewed forth three to five charred corpses and smoke wraiths. Their numbers absolutely overwhelmed us, and soon everyone was forced into a desperate struggle.

A charred corpse lunged at me, only to be instantly pierced through the heart by a shot iron-thread Gu worm, then immediately dismembered into several pieces. Simultaneously, I slammed my left fist into the chest of another charred corpse.

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