Chapter 60 Too Late for Remorse

With a sharp clatter, Qian Dafu started and stood up in sheer panic. The arm he had kept resting on the table accidentally knocked over the room’s only lamp, plunging the place into darkness.

"Who’s there? Who’s playing ghost tricks in the dark?"

In the blackness, Qian Dafu screamed in a shrill voice, trying to bolster his courage. Yet his plump body, trembling like a sieve, thoroughly betrayed the terror within.

The malevolent entities realized with delight that the more cowardly this miser became, the more "delicious" he appeared in their eyes!

Presumably, as his nerve and vital spirit dissolved, his yang energy also scattered and collapsed.

No wonder they always said ghosts loved scaring people—it wasn’t just vastly entertaining; it brought tangible benefits!

Such exquisite pleasure—how could they resist?

At this thought, eight ghostly specters manifested simultaneously beneath the pitch-black eaves.

The room should have been utterly dark, unable to distinguish even one's own fingers.

Yet Qian Dafu saw them with horrifying clarity—a full eight ghastly demons with green faces and protruding fangs were floating right before his eyes!

Beyond terrifying!

"Do you still think we're just playing ghost tricks? Ah—hahaha!"

The shrill, mocking laughter of the spirits echoed back and forth beneath the dim eaves.

Only their hovering, greenish figures stood out with terrifying prominence.

Qian Dafu shook violently, and a sudden wave of heat wet his crotch! His legs could no longer support his hefty frame, and as if his bones and tendons had been instantly ripped away, he collapsed to the ground with a wet thud.

A single fiend was enough to cost a man his life, but why, why had eight of them come here?!

The swarming phantoms practically filled his entire room to the bursting point.

What kind of wicked karma has my Qian family accumulated to bring down this apocalyptic disaster upon me?! Qian Dafu wailed in his heart, tears of pure terror welling up in his eyes, though he was too paralyzed even to weep.

Seeing those eight green-faced, fanged visages slowly approaching with grim smiles, yet not immediately pouncing to tear him to pieces and devour him, Qian Dafu felt as though he had caught a thread of hope. He scrambled up on his hands and knees, turning toward the sea of phantom shadows and kowtowing frantically, shouting in a rush:

"Ghost grandfathers! Have mercy on us, esteemed ghost grandfathers! My Qian family is wealthy! We have mountains of gold and silver! I only beg your exalted hands to spare my life, and I will surely build a grand temple for you all, offering incense and worship every single day, praying for your early ascension to bliss!"

"Hahaha! Did you hear that? This miser says he’s going to build us a temple!" one spirit shrieked in eerie amusement, setting off cackles of laughter among the others.

Realizing that the greater the victim's fear, the more yang energy dispersed—making him all the easier to consume—their sudden greed instantly overpowered their urgent appetite.

Feeling the bone-chilling yin energy slithering against his skin, Qian Dafu trembled like a withered leaf in a gale, kowtowing even faster, his voice laced with tears and despair:

"Ghost grandfathers! I beg of you! What... what on earth will it take for you to spare this lowly one? In my daily life, I’ve always abided by the law and kept to myself, never once offending any of you grandfathers!"

Suppressing their surging hunger and thirst, the spirits intended to torment this "delicacy" just a little longer.

After all, when one can already eat one's fill, striving for even better flavors is hardly contradictory.

"Don't you know?"

An eerie voice sounded.

"K-know what?"

Qian Dafu sweat poured like rain as he raised his head in terror.

Suddenly, his vision blurred, and a green-faced, fanged fiend abruptly closed in right before him, grinning wide:

"You're the one who invited us here!"

Shocked out of his wits by this abrupt twist, Qian Dafu fell backward with a violent jolt!

"Clatter!"

He knocked over tables and chairs, scrambling backward on hands and knees while wailing incessantly:

"Ghost grandfathers! How... how would I ever dare invite you all here? There... there must be some terrible misunderstanding!"

Seeing him in such a state of terrified panic, the spirits grew even more triumphant, their taunts ringing out from all sides:

"How could there not be? You miserly wretch, reaping your own karmic ruin was bad enough that the Qian family lacks loyalty and trust. But how could you forget your own ancestors?"

With that, the entities cast satisfied glances around this devoid-of-virtue household. The pent-up grievance and fright accumulated along the way had finally found an outlet.

"Up and down this entire street, we searched far and wide, and found only you—a faithless, disloyal, and unfilial member of the Qian family! Tell us, if we don't look for you, who else are we to find?"

"Now tell us again, did you or did you not 'invite' us here?"

Qian Dafu stammered in frantic defense:

"Esteemed ghost grandfathers, please see the truth! I may be a bit greedy and stingy, and perhaps even utterly tightfisted, but... but where does this lack of filial piety come from? I have been properly providing for my elderly parents at home!"

"Just your living parents? What about the founding ancestors of the Qian family?"

Qian Dafu's heart skipped a heavy beat!

It's over! It matches exactly what Youcai said!

I truly have encountered a supreme master, and my Qian family truly has sinned!

There's no escaping it, there's no escaping it tonight!

Seeing realization and utter remorse flood across his face, the spirits clutched their sides in mocking, high-pitched shrieks of laughter:

"Just figured it out? What a pity—it's too late!"

The laughter cut off abruptly. The sinister, mocking grins vanished from the faces of all the spirits in an instant, replaced by ferocious, malevolent snarls! Baring their claws and fangs amid bone-chilling frost, they lunged fiercely toward the collapsed Qian Dafu!

Knowing that Qian Dafu could be frightened no further and that his vital yang energy had plummeted to rock bottom, they knew this was the exact moment to feast!

"Ah—!"

Qian Dafu let out a heart-rending scream, frantically flailing his plump arms in a purely instinctive attempt to fend off the pouncing fiends.

Yet his hands passed harmlessly through the phantoms' illusory bodies, while the spirits' ice-cold claws and fangs sliced effortlessly through his clothes and flesh like a knife cutting through tofu.

With every casual swipe, strips of bloody flesh were peeled away, sending stabs of agony through Qian Dafu that had him shrieking for his ancestors.

"Save me! Someone save me!"

As Qian Dafu cried out in desperate despair, right when he was about to be torn apart and devoured, a voice resembling a heavenly deity descended as a foot kicked open the tightly shut door.

"Master, we've come to save you!"

Three or four martial guards, alerted by the commotion, charged in brandishing torches and waist-sabers.

Seeing genuine unclean entities inside the room, the guards instinctively recoiled for a split second.

Yet a moment later, the leader shouted out:

"The Daoist priest said it! These filthy things are all afraid of fire!"

This man was clearly one of the few who had met Du Yuan that day!

Naturally, not a single word of Du Yuan's instructions had been forgotten.

With unwavering faith in Du Yuan, the lead guard immediately charged forward, waving his torch and shouting at the top of his lungs.

They were no ordinary household guards; they were elite private soldiers raised and trained since childhood by a prominent clan.

Normally, encountering ghosts would certainly strike fear into their hearts, but now that their master was in peril—and having heard from the Daoist priest about methods to restrain these entities—they dared to step forward and fight.

Emboldened by surging courage, the guards rushed in bearing torches reeking of soot and flame.

The move immediately forced the fragile, mediocre spirits into a panicked retreat.

Every time a torch swung close, the ghosts would shriek and scramble away.

Just like that, the lead guard managed to snatch the battered and bruised Qian Dafu right out from the encirclement of all eight entities.

Seeing the most delicious, pampered morsel they had teased slip away at the last second,

the spirits flew into a furious rage, swiftly licking their blood-stained fingers by instinct.

Now contaminated with living human blood and flesh, a mere sweep of their massive hands conjured a sudden howling gust of yin wind.

The supernatural wind burst the windows open and extinguished the torches.

Seeing their protective charm blown out, the lead guard's expression shifted drastically as he shouted:

"Oh no, run! Quick, to the front courtyard!"

In his panic, the guard suddenly recalled that the Qian family possessed one absolute, fail-safe treasure.