This old woman who had caught up with them was truly bizarre. Clearly, even with the distance between them originally, plus the hundreds of *li* they had run overnight, she had actually caught up in such a short time.

Her voice no longer sounded human, but like that of a vengeful ghost.

And with her trapping them here, Aunt Zhang was also obviously immediately thinking about how to deal with her. According to the experience of a zou gui ren (ghost walker), she also wanted to first figure out the other party's tricks, and then specifically target them. But she didn't expect that the other party's methods were too mixed and she couldn't figure it out in a hurry.

Seeing that some of their people had already been hit, and the remaining people were becoming more and more nervous, Aunt Zhang could only set up an altar and confront the other party head-on.

Now, Hu Ma could only choose to help Aunt Zhang protect the altar.

He had the skills of a shousui ren (year-guardian), so protecting himself was easy, but if he wanted to protect others, facing this strange, eerie, and elusive old woman, he felt like he didn't know where to exert his strength.

Now, the wailing around them was getting louder and louder, and the old woman's hoarse voice was strange and unpleasant. There was an unimaginable oppressive atmosphere in the air.

The fog that poured in from outside the forest was actually layered, almost making it impossible to see beyond three meters, and the old woman sitting in the paper figure sedan chair flickered here and there, as if her weird laughter was everywhere.

Those black, cavernous eyes stared at everyone present, and the hand holding the handkerchief gently beckoned to them.

The remaining cart drivers and shop assistants had already closed their eyes tightly.

But somehow, the cart driver couldn't keep his eyes closed. When he slightly opened a gap, he immediately saw the old woman grinning at him not far away.

Immediately, with a scream, he fell to the ground.

Hu Ma reacted quickly and turned around abruptly, also catching a glimpse of the old woman pulling something out of the cart driver's body. He hurriedly spat out a mouthful of zhen yang jian (true yang arrow), tearing a hole in the surrounding yin wind.

But it only swayed for a while before being submerged, with no effect at all.

Hu Ma clenched his teeth for a moment, thinking to himself, "What kind of trickery is this?"

Just as he was both surprised and angry, Aunt Zhang had already squatted on the ground and untied the bundle she was carrying on her back. She usually took things out of the bundle, but this time she directly unfolded the bundle and spread it on the ground.

Inside were some bottles and jars, incense sticks, and paper money, all of which were swept to the side, revealing the patterns of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches on the inside of the bundle cloth.

Aunt Zhang looked very nervous, but her hands were very steady.

She quickly lit a small oil lamp and gripped a strange, black bone.

"Whoosh..."

But just as she lit the oil lamp, a gust of yin qi suddenly blew in from outside the forest, as if a vengeful ghost, with a look of mockery, mustered its strength and blew hard at the oil lamp.

"Not good!"

Hu Ma knew how important this oil lamp was to the person performing the ritual, just like the fire in the brazier when he performed his own spells, which must not be extinguished.

Anxiously wanting to step forward to help protect the oil lamp, he heard Aunt Zhang say in a low voice, "Shopkeeper, just protect the people, don't worry about anything else."

Hu Ma was slightly stunned, stopped, and looked intently.

He saw the oil lamp being blown by the yin wind, and the flame swayed for a while, almost going out several times, but it actually didn't go out. It swayed and lit up again, even brighter than before.

"So magical?"

Hu Ma couldn't help but be surprised when he saw this.

At the same time, Hu Ma and the others were surrounded by fog, in a hectic mess. What they didn't know was that outside the forest, no more than a few *li* away from them, on a hillside, there was also an old woman with a head full of pearls and jade.

She knelt on the ground, with a sedan chair carried by two paper figures beside her, and in front of her knelt a memorial tablet that looked full of incense smoke and scorch marks.

Now, sensing that the other party was also casting a spell, she was slightly startled: "Can't blow out her oil lamp?"

Unlike her weird mockery in the forest, she was particularly nervous and serious outside the forest, and immediately kowtowed to the memorial tablet again with force.

She also kept chanting in her mouth, vaguely words like asking her ancestors to protect her, and that she would definitely offer young boys later.

The memorial tablet seemed to shake slightly as she kowtowed.

At the same time, inside the forest, a sudden gust of wind rose, and the fog that had risen together now seemed to be several times thicker all of a sudden. Everyone felt chills, and their eyes blurred as if they saw four or five ghostly shadows emerging from the fog.

One by one, they lay in front of the oil lamp, mustered their strength, and blew hard at the oil lamp in front of Aunt Zhang, almost blowing the oil lamp into a tiny bean.

But Aunt Zhang's eyes were empty, as if she didn't see them at all. She just grabbed a handful of powder, which seemed to be something mixed with cinnabar, and suddenly sprinkled it forward at the oil lamp.

"Whoosh!"

The oil lamp, which only had a tiny flame left, suddenly blazed brightly, and burned outwards along the sprinkling momentum, directly burning the four or five ghostly shadows so that they squeaked, frantically and embarrassedly fleeing back into the fog.

Looking at the oil lamp again, the flame was strong, and there was no sign of it going out at all.

Even the surrounding yin wind seemed to have to blow around the oil lamp, not daring to approach the flame at all.

And in this restless and oppressive atmosphere, the oil lamp's light illuminated Aunt Zhang's face, but she only looked calm. She held a black bone in both hands and began to recite the incantation silently.

"When heaven and earth are dark and ghosts block the door, recite the mantra to invite the Five Fiends."

"The Five Fiends descend to fight the ghosts, soul disappears and spirit dies, life ceases to exist."

"..."

"..."

Watching Aunt Zhang recite the incantation and set up the altar, Hu Ma glanced at it in the midst of his busy schedule and was slightly surprised: "Why isn't she using any talismans?"

He usually used the methods in the Town Year Book to set up the altar, which was simple enough. Aunt Zhang looked even simpler than him?

On the other side, the old woman outside the forest felt that the ghosts who wanted to blow out the other party's oil lamp had been forced back, and her expression suddenly changed in shock: "Where did this zou gui ren (ghost walker) come from, how can she have such deep magic power?"

But she had rushed here in a hurry, afraid that they would escape, and she didn't even have time to gather enough manpower, just to prevent accidents from happening.

Gritting her teeth fiercely, she suddenly bit the tip of her tongue, sprayed a mouthful of blood on the memorial tablet, and then stood up, hopping and jumping, looking eerie and mysterious in the night.

For a time, the fog that was blowing up in the forest became even thicker.

Everyone felt that the fog was like a tangible object, actually making it difficult for them to breathe. Whether it was Hu Ma or Butler Zhou, and the shop assistant next to him who was squatting on the ground, hugging his head and shivering all over, every hair on their bodies was standing on end.

Even with their eyes closed, they could feel countless things walking in the fog.

Paper figures carried the old woman's figure, flashing back and forth in the fog, with blue-faced, fanged ghosts walking around her.

Suddenly, an axe made of bone broke through the fog and slashed straight at the shop assistant on the ground.

Hu Ma waved his knife to block it, but only blocked an empty space, and the axe turned back into fog.

But immediately afterwards, countless ghosts rushed out from all around, each holding weapons, and slashed at them one after another. No matter who was present, they felt as if they were surrounded by countless ghosts. For a moment, they couldn't tell what was real and what was fake, and they only felt extremely terrified.

It was as if another self in their body was about to be forced out.

But just at this moment, Aunt Zhang, who had been reciting the incantation in a low voice, suddenly stopped her voice and slowly raised her head.

The hands she was holding slowly stretched forward, and then spread out.

Immediately afterwards, the bone fragment she was holding in her hand suddenly gushed out an unimaginable cold aura. This aura rushed into the sky all at once.

Because it came too violently, it even formed a gust of wind that swept in all directions, blowing the fog that had spread out in all directions. The shadowy figures in the fog were even subjected to amazing squeezing and tearing.

"Chih", "Chih", "Chih", "Chih"

Even the human ear could hear the sound of thick paper being torn.

Those shadows hidden in the fog were torn into pieces one after another by this newly appeared aura.

The oppressive and cold aura just now was instantly replaced by the fierce and baleful aura that came at them.

"What?"

Sensing this change, Hu Ma's eyeballs were about to fall out for a moment.

Knowing that inviting spirits was a powerful method of the zou gui ren (ghost walker), but what exactly did Aunt Zhang invite that was so fierce?

"Pfft!"

At the same time, the old woman outside the forest, who was worshipping the memorial tablet, suddenly changed her expression drastically.

She raised her head abruptly, and saw that the memorial tablet she was worshipping in front of her had appeared with traces of cracks, and then shattered on the ground. In her ears, she only heard countless struggles, roars, and desperate screams, and countless angry palms were futilely pulling at her.

She was stunned for a long time, her face turned from white to green, and she suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Good skill, good skill..."

She muttered to herself, but her body hurriedly stood up. She didn't pick up the memorial tablet, and didn't care about the paper figures, and fled in a stumbling manner.

"She broke the other party's spell in an instant?"

At this time, Hu Ma was shocked by how fierce the things Aunt Zhang had invited were, but he also knew what was important.

The old woman who had been chasing them all the way was powerful, but Aunt Zhang was even more powerful, and she broke the other party's spell in an instant. Now he had to hurry out, find the old woman who cast the spell, and chop her up with a knife to prevent future troubles.

"Those two are our own people, don't hurt them..."

But just at this moment, he suddenly heard Aunt Zhang's anxious voice, and hurriedly followed her gaze to see that the fog had dissipated, and the surrounding shadows had either disappeared or fled, but there were still two left.

Their faces were semi-transparent, and it seemed that they were the cart driver and the shop assistant. It turned out that their souls had been called out, and they were now in a hurry to return to their bodies.

The fierce things that Aunt Zhang had summoned almost hurt them as well.

But with Aunt Zhang's reminder, the fierce thing she invited suddenly froze.

Vaguely, it seemed to have turned into a tall and blurred figure, standing in front of her, staring for a long time, and then suddenly slapped her on the face, angrily scolding: "You stinky woman, you invited me here, and you're still telling me what to do."

"Don't wait until you're twenty-five years old, prepare to get married after this trip..."

(End of this chapter)