Gu Lingling's heart skipped a beat. Da Bao!
She took three steps and strode up the steps, but the door wouldn't budge. The couple had locked the door from the inside out of fear, indicating that they hadn't thought of letting Gu Lingling in case of an emergency.
"Open the door! Open the door quickly!!!"
Push as she might, the lock was quite solid, and despite calling out for a while, aside from the screams and various noises inside, no one paid any attention to her.
It wasn't that they didn't want to answer her, but the couple was currently huddled under the table in the main room, trembling with fear, and didn't dare to walk through the messy hall of tables and chairs to let Gu Lingling in.
Meanwhile, Da Bao, who Gu Lingling entrusted them to take care of, was left on the side.
Glancing at the trembling couple, Da Bao disregarded the odd situation and started walking towards the door.
But before he could take a few steps, a screeching chair blocked his path. Da Bao sneered. The evil spirit was not yet at a level that concerned him. He was about to push the chair aside when he realized he didn't want to impede Gu Lingling's purifying experience.
But the door was kicked open with a bang, and the two wooden doors struck the wall due to inertia before bouncing back. Da Bao looked up to see Gu Lingling just putting down her leg.
"Scare my son and seek death!"
Gu Lingling lifted the peach wood sword and slammed it into the ground with a bang. This move was called "Mountain Shocking Tiger" and was meant to intimidate. Generally, when dealing with disturbances of Yin energy or mischievous spirits, a little intimidation would make them obedient. This was different from waving a kitchen knife and peach wood sword. "Mountain Shocking Tiger" had added emotion - anger.
It meant, "I'm really angry now, you better leave."
This move could be used regardless of cultivation level, with the only difference being the effectiveness of the intimidation.
Gu Lingling was angry that the couple hadn't taken care of Da Bao properly, and she was enraged by the obstinate mischievous spirit that dared to provoke her.
The anger made the peach wood sword plunge straight into the wooden floor, causing a significant burst of spiritual energy that spread throughout the entire room, and the noise stopped instantly.
But before anyone could relax, the room filled with billowing black mist, quickly condensing into an irregular shape in the air.
It was clear that it wasn't just a simple disturbance of Yin energy, but a malevolent spirit at work.
The black entity had clearly just formed, seemingly being forced to reveal itself by the recent "Mountain Shocking Tiger". It appeared unstable after the exposure and took advantage of Gu Lingling pulling out her sword to escape through the wide-open door.
But Gu Lingling knew that the black entity wouldn't be easily subdued and that it would surely return after catching its breath.
She had pierced its disguise and hurt it, it wouldn't just give up.
"Have there been any recent unknown items in your home? Such as antiques or stones?"
Gu Lingling specially sensed the Yin and Yang energy in the house and realized that the house was filled with Yang energy, so there shouldn't have been any disturbances of Yin energy. Gu Lingling couldn't help but curse herself in her heart for being careless. If she had checked the Yin and Yang at the beginning, maybe things could have taken a turn, at least she could have returned to the guild honestly and requested other members to help if she couldn't handle it.
There was no turning back now. Since confrontation didn't work, Gu Lingling wanted to find the source of the problem.
When asked about any unknown items in the house, the host indicated that there were no such things. However, the lady of the house looked like she wanted to say something but hesitated.
"Husband, the painting on the wall..."
Before she could finish, the lady was interrupted rudely by the host. "What painting? It was given by the master, how can it be an unknown item!"
As the host scolded the lady, Gu Lingling, holding Da Bao, walked to the scroll that was supposedly a gift from the master.
Although Gu Lingling didn't understand appreciation, she could see that the landscape in the painting was grand and majestic, worthy of being a royal collection.
However, the ink was heavy, making it look very dark.
"Do not touch with your hands!"
Gu Lingling had just touched the painting with her hand when the owner suddenly shouted, and Gu Lingling quickly pulled back her fingers. Not because she was afraid of the owner, but at the moment of touching the painting, Gu Lingling felt a sharp pain in her fingers as if she had been pricked by something.
As she pulled back her fingers, a wisp of black energy quickly escaped from under Gu Lingling's fingernails and returned to the landscape painting.
There was a problem with this painting.
Although the female owner couldn't see the problem with the painting, she couldn't help but ask, "Master, is there a problem with this painting?"
"Have any of you touched the painting?" Gu Lingling asked, without directly answering the female owner's question, but affirming the answer.
"No, when my husband brought it back, it was rolled up and we were too careful to touch it," the female owner replied.
Not having touched it explains why it has been hidden for so long. Gu Lingling looked at the owner, who was looking proud and already assumed that Gu Lingling was talking nonsense and didn't want to be emotional with her.
This painting could not have started causing trouble at the owner's house only; there must have been a sign earlier at the prince's mansion. Perhaps it was given to the owner in order to get rid of the unusual occurrences.
"Bring the kitchen knife," said Gu Lingling, staring at the painting and saying it almost casually.
The owner next to her pointed at her own nose, speaking as if she had heard a joke: "You want me to bring a kitchen knife?"
"Hurry, if that black shadow comes back, we won't be able to leave," Gu Lingling urged, feeling that there was no time to be playing games and acting so pompous.
Although the owner was unhappy, Gu Lingling was right. Just thinking about the horrible scene before made the owner shudder. It was already dark outside and she didn't dare to go to the kitchen alone, so she pulled the female owner with her and went to the kitchen in a hurry.
Gu Lingling dared not touch the painting easily. After some thought, she bit her nail to use her fingertip blood to explore the reality of the painting.
Before she could flick the blood out, Gu Lingling paused and said to her son in her arms, "Darling, hide behind mommy for a while and don't get hurt."
As Gu Lingling pressed her face to her son's, her breath all went onto his face. Her son blushed, not minding the heavy black energy in the painting, but instead tightening his grip on Gu Lingling's neck, showing his position.
"Not going..."
Gu Lingling originally found her son's reaction a bit funny, so she was about to pull his hand down. Unexpectedly, her son not only didn't let go but also squeezed out two babyish words.
Gu Lingling paused, seeing signs of healing on her finger's wound. If she probed again, she would have to bite herself again, and it hurts so much.
Forget it. As long as she is careful, she can definitely protect her son. Gu Lingling looked softly at her son and gave up.
Her son's thoughts were the same as Gu Lingling's. The painting was hidden so well that even her son did not notice anything unusual. But when Gu Lingling touched the painting, he saw something that Gu Lingling didn't see.
The heavily inked landscape in the painting was actually all transformed from the black energy and emitted a strong demonic aura.
Although he did not want to intervene too much in Gu Lingling's affairs, he could not just stand by and watch Gu Lingling put herself in danger.
A drop of fingertip blood merged into the ink.
After a brief calm, the heavy ink suddenly stirred up a commotion. Centered around the blood drop, the ink seemed to be torn apart, separated from the surrounding ink, engulfed by the fingertip blood. As the ink was purified, the fingertip blood also visibly faded, until it disappeared, leaving behind a jarringly empty space on the landscape painting.
Although Gu Lingling's cultivation was not deep, her fingertip blood also had the effect of exorcism. It seemed that if she took a risk, she might still have a chance of success.
The couple also returned with the kitchen knives, but their faces were dark, looking extremely unnatural.
The room had only one candle lit, and outside was pitch black. At first, Gu Lingling didn't see the colors and expressions of the two clearly. She just thought they had brought the knives, but now each of them was holding one, up in front of their chests, making it quite eerie.
Gu Lingling frowned, waiting until they walked into the light of the candle to see their dazed and blackened expressions, and realized it was not good.
The black energy had controlled both of them, knowing that Gu Lingling could not harm them and planning to use them to restrain her. Although Gu Lingling realized that the painting was the hiding place of the black energy and its fundamental existence, without the support of a kitchen knife, even with her peach wood sword and fingertip blood, it wouldn't be enough.
Judging from the size of the painting, if she wanted to purify it using only fingertip blood, Gu Lingling would have died from excessive blood loss.
Unable to help retreating, Gu Lingling finally stepped on a soft object. Looking down, it was the bundle she had brought. Just because she was afraid for her son's safety, she had thrown it aside after kicking the door open.
Pushing the bundle out of the way, with no way to retreat, Gu Lingling placed her son on the tabletop, drew the peach wood sword, infused it with spirit and quickly drew runes according to the teachings of Bai Jin. However, she didn't dare to harm the couple's bodies, just placing the runes in front of them.
With a bang, the power of the runes was released.
This was the first time Gu Lingling had been in combat, but the effect was not very obvious. Although the couple were deterred by the runes, they were far from having the ability to force the black energy out of them, let alone harm the black energy.
Gu Lingling's actions angered the couple. They stood still, teeth bared in a particularly weird and eerie way in the darkness, and the sharp, almost substantial black wind swept toward Gu Lingling's face.
Sitting on the table, her son had been observing the situation at all times, and as soon as he saw Gu Lingling being at a disadvantage, his little hand had already formed the finger seal, emitting a dazzling spiritual light.