Ghost Exorciser: Is Loved By All
Chapter 669: Old Taoist Temple

Chapter 669: Chapter 669: Old Taoist Temple

The ghost lingered for a moment, as though savoring its triumph, before dissipating into the darkness.

The vision dissolved, leaving Yu Holea back in the present.

Xin Zhi’s desperation had led her to tamper with forces far beyond her control, and her death was a tragic consequence of her own reckless ambition.

Standing, Yu Holea took a steadying breath. She now understood the chain of events that had led to Xin Zhi’s demise.

However, the question still remained. How did Xin Zhi know about the summoning circle?

Yu Holea could only report all the suspicious points to the special force and left.

News about Xin Zhi’s death spread in the entertainment industry. To the general public, Xin Zhi’s death was announced as a cardiac arrest, however, only the special force knew about the truth.

Yu Holea continued with her daily routine.

Though she felt a bit regretful for not being able to save Xin Zhi, she didn’t delve into it for long.

Instead, she started to find cases that were similar to Xin Zhi.

The database yielded results, though none were recent. Yu Holea leaned closer, scanning the screen.

Most cases dated back several years, and while the details varied, certain elements recurred: summoning rituals, rogue spirits, and, in a few instances, references to water ghosts.

One case, in particular, caught her attention.

It involved a struggling musician who had reportedly sought the help of a water ghost to revive his fading career.

The agreement had resulted in his untimely death, with similar restrictions on water contact and a contractual split of stolen life force.

Yu Holea flagged the case and requested the archived files.

Within hours, a courier delivered a thick manila folder to her desk.

She opened it, spreading the documents out before her.

The photographs, autopsy reports, and notes from the investigating officer painted a grim picture.

Like Xin Zhi, the musician had died under mysterious circumstances, his body contorted unnaturally.

What stood out, however, was a single line in the report: "Introduced to the ritual by an unidentified spiritual practitioner."

Yu Holea frowned.

The presence of an intermediary changed everything.

It meant there was someone actively facilitating these rituals—someone with access to forbidden knowledge and no regard for the consequences.

Determined to find answers, Yu Holea cross-referenced the musician’s case with others involving water ghosts. Patterns began to emerge.

The victims, while from different walks of life, shared a common thread: they were all in desperate situations—financial ruin, terminal illness, or failing careers.

In every instance, the water ghost had been presented as a solution, only for the deal to end in death.

As Yu pieced together the puzzle, her phone buzzed.

It was her colleague, Officer Zhang Wei, from Forensics.

"Yu, you’ll want to hear this," he said without preamble.

"We ran a deeper analysis on the residue left behind at Xin Zhi’s house. It’s old—decades old, to be precise.

Whatever entity she summoned had been dormant for years, possibly bound by a stronger force."

"Bound?" Yu echoed, her brow furrowing. "By what? Or by whom?"

"We’re not sure yet, but it suggests she didn’t summon it on her own. Someone provided her with the means—a practitioner skilled enough to break the entity’s binding."

The confirmation only reinforced Yu’s suspicions. She thanked Officer Zhang and ended the call.

The question of how Xin Zhi had learned to summon the ghost now had a probable answer: someone had guided her.

But who? And why target vulnerable individuals with promises of salvation that only lead to death?

Yu decided to dig deeper into Xin Zhi’s personal life.

She requested phone and email records, hoping to trace her interactions in the weeks leading up to her death.

The data was revealing.

Among Xin Zhi’s correspondences was a series of encrypted messages exchanged with an unidentified party.

The messages, once decrypted, were chillingly direct:

"I can help you escape your fate. Meet me at the old Taoist temple."

"Old Taoist Temple, huh?" Yu Holea’s eyes narrowed.

This same line was found in all the other cases, the only problem was...this location of the Old Taoist temple was still not found.

According to the investigation, the Old Taoist temple may have been hidden in some kind of array.

Even though the special force was a place where all kinds of talents could be found, there were still certain talents that couldn’t be found.

Array master was one of them.

Even Yu Holea only had a basic knowledge of arrays.

However...there was indeed a person who had good knowledge of arrays.

Qiao Jun.

Yu Holea called him and told her request. Without hesitation, Qiao Jun agreed. After getting the general location of the Old Taoist temple, Yu Holea forwarded it to Qiao Jun.

Soon both of them reached the location.

The pair ventured into the forest, their steps careful and deliberate.

As they moved deeper, the atmosphere began to shift—subtle at first, like the weight of the air had increased, then more pronounced.

Shadows seemed to stretch unnaturally, and the forest grew eerily quiet, as though the natural world had recoiled from the area.

Qiao Jun paused, pulling a small compass-like device from his satchel. The needle spun wildly, refusing to settle. "We’re close. The array’s distortions are throwing off my tools."

Yu tightened her grip on her spirit-banishing gun.

"Can you pinpoint the exact location?"

"Not yet," Qiao Jun admitted, crouching to inspect the ground.

"But I can break through the outer layer of the array. Stand back—it’s going to get intense."

Yu Holea stepped aside, watching as Qiao Jun started to make some hand gestures. Once finished, he took out some spirit stones from his storage rings and started to place them in different locations.

Slowly the space started to distort.

Suddenly, a pulse of energy surged through the forest, knocking leaves from the trees and causing the ground to tremble.

The distorted space ahead of them shimmered and then dissolved, revealing the Old Taoist temple.

Its crumbling facade was covered in creeping vines, and its roof sagged with age, but it radiated an undeniable aura of malevolence.

Qiao Jun wiped the sweat from his brow, his breath slightly ragged.

"There it is. The array’s broken, but it won’t stay down forever. It will close after 2 hours."

Yu Holea nodded.

Instead of rushing in directly, Yu Holea sent one of her ghosts inside to scout.

The ghost slipped through the temple’s entrance, its form faintly glowing in the dim, oppressive atmosphere.

As it floated forward, the faint sound of its ethereal movement seemed swallowed by the silence, leaving a void of sound that heightened the tension.

Inside, the temple’s interior was shrouded in shadow, the dim glow from faintly pulsing runes on the walls providing the only illumination.

The ghost moved cautiously, gliding over the cracked stone floor when its gaze fell upon an array of statues lining the sides of the central hall.

The statues were carved from dark stone, humanoid in form but unsettlingly distorted. Their features were angular, their eyes closed as though in meditation.

Each held a weapon—a staff, a blade, a bow—poised as though ready to defend. The ghost hesitated, its instincts flaring with a sense of unease, but it pressed on.

As it neared the center of the hall, a faint hum filled the air. It paused, turning back toward the statues, and froze.

One of the statues, larger and more ornately adorned than the others, had begun to move.

Its eyes opened with a mechanical click, revealing an otherworldly light, bright and searing.

The glow intensified, locking onto the ghost with an unerring focus. The ghost recoiled, attempting to retreat, but it was too late.

A beam of pure, concentrated light erupted from the statue’s eyes, cutting through the air with a low, resonant hum. The ghost emitted a soundless scream as the beam struck it.

In an instant, its soul was scattered into oblivion, leaving behind only a faint shimmer in the air where it had once been.

Outside, Yu Holea stood waiting.

Her brows furrowed.

The ghost was taking longer than usual. Normally, it would return within moments to relay what it had seen.

Yet now, there was only silence, the bond between her and the ghost eerily still. A flicker of unease crept into her chest.

Five minutes passed.

Yu’s expression turned grim, and her lips tightened into a thin line.

She extended a hand, her fingers curling in a summoning motion as she whispered an incantation under her breath. She expected the familiar pull of the ghost’s essence, a signal of its return.

Nothing happened.

Her frown deepened, and she repeated the incantation, this time more firmly. Still, the result was the same—silence, emptiness where the connection should have been.

The realization struck her like a cold wave: the ghost was gone. Not just missing or lost, but destroyed.

Ghosts weren’t easy to destroy, especially those under her control. For it to vanish entirely without a trace meant that something—or someone—inside the temple possessed immense power.