"On the contrary, you must not kill it! If you kill it, the yang life borrowed from Hao Hao will be lost forever and cannot be retrieved." Lu Fei shook his head.
"Mr. Lu is right, we must not act rashly at this time! The child's yang life is with that ghost. If we kill it, it would be like killing the child," Master Xiang said, visibly relieved that he had not acted impulsively and had invited Lu Fei first.
Otherwise, even if he had captured the ghost in the mirror, but killed the child in the process, how could he bear such a responsibility?
"Then what should we do?"
Luo Xingfa and his wife were completely at a loss.
After some thought, Lu Fei said, "I will first try to talk to it and find out the reason for borrowing the lifespan, and do my best to get it to return what it has borrowed. Since ghosts are already dead, the yang lifespan of the living is actually of no use to them; what they borrow is yin lifespan."
He felt that there was still something amiss.
"Master Xiang, I'm going to take the mirror and negotiate with the ghost. You're in charge of looking after the child, make sure nothing happens to him."
"Rest assured, Mr. Lu. Although I cannot exorcise evil entities, taking care of a child who is possessed is not a problem for me."
Master Xiang solemnly assured, and seeing that Lu Fei had a clear plan, he felt much more at ease.
"Mr. Luo, Mrs. Luo, the child has been deeply influenced by the bronze mirror. When I take the mirror, he is bound to cry and throw a fit. At such times, you must not give in. You need to cooperate with Master Xiang and ensure that the child does not leave the bedroom, understand?"
Lu Fei looked at the couple, Mr. and Mrs. Luo, with a serious expression.
"Understood, understood!"
The couple was very cooperative.
After giving his instructions, Lu Fei took the bronze mirror from Hao Hao's cold little hands.
"Mine, mine! Give it back to me!"
Hao Hao reacted dramatically, his expression immediately turning fierce, with visible veins bulging on his small face as he reached out desperately towards Lu Fei.
His eyes were filled with an exceptionally vicious and terrifying look, one that a child should not possess.
Master Xiang quickly took out a yellow talisman, silently recited an incantation, and pasted it on Hao Hao's forehead.
The bulging veins on Hao Hao's face disappeared, his body went limp, and tears of grievance flowed from his darkened eyes.
"Daddy, Mommy, I want the mirror, my mirror..."
His voice and appearance were extremely pitiful.
The couple, Luo Xingfa and his wife, felt their hearts pierced by pain, but they gritted their teeth and followed Lu Fei's instructions, not making any rash movements.
Lu Fei, holding the mirror, walked out of the bedroom without looking back and closed the door behind him.
In the living room, he was alone.
It was only then that he picked up the small bronze mirror and examined it carefully.
The mirror was quite heavy and had some weight to it. The surface was already hazy, with a faint yellowish hue of bronze, vaguely reflecting the outline of his face but not clearly showing his features.
Staring at it for a while, one could get an eerie illusion.
Is the person in the mirror really me?
With a calm mind, Lu Fei turned the mirror over. The back was engraved with intricate patterns.
Due to the passage of time, much of the pattern had been worn away. Lu Fei squinted for a while before he could recognize what the design was.
Five bats with their wings spread, forming a circle, with the character for longevity in the center.
The Five Bats Holding Longevity Pattern!
This was a widely circulated auspicious pattern in folk culture. The word for bat (蝠) sounds the same as the word for good fortune (福), so five bats represent five blessings, symbolizing abundant fortune and longevity.
There was nothing unusual about this pattern; it had been used on many ancient clothes and decorative items.
But the problem is, the five bats surrounding the '寿' character are not quite right.
The eyes of the bats emit a faint red glow, and their fangs protrude from the corners of their mouths. Upon closer examination, tiny traces of blood can be seen in their mouths.
Bloodthirsty and ferocious, the bats completely destroy the auspicious meaning of the Five Bats Surrounding Longevity.
"This bloodstain should have been deliberately made by someone."
Lu Fei was lost in thought, having a suspicion in his mind, but it still needed to be verified through further actions.
He looked around and found an object to support the bronze mirror, placing it on the dining table, directly facing him.
Then, he took out the black umbrella.
He channeled his magic power, lightly touching the surface of the mirror with the tip of the umbrella.
"Commune with the other world!"
In Lu Fei's mind, an image of a bronze mirror kept expanding.
The blurry and yellowed mirror surface seemed to ripple like water.
In those ripples.
an old man appeared and disappeared faintly.
It seems not to be a ghost?
Lu Fei's spiritual sense struggled to get closer.
The old man, as if sensing something, suddenly turned around, gave a startled glance, and abruptly reached out toward Lu Fei.
The mirror was blocked, and Lu Fei could only see through the gaps that the old man was wearing a very old pair of black cloth shoes.
Behind the old man stood an old tiled house and a dense bamboo forest.
After that.
nothing could be seen, the view turned pitch black.
Lu Fei opened his eyes, looking at the bronze mirror on the dining table, a faint sneer appearing on his face.
"As expected, it's not a ghost in the mirror, but a wisp of divine soul!"
"I said, what would a ghost do with borrowed yang life? It turns out, there's someone else borrowing it!"
That person must have used some kind of magic to cast a wisp of their divine soul into the mirror, and then every day they bowed to Hao Hao, siphoning off his yang life.
This mirror is quite interesting; it can hold a person's divine soul!
Lu Fei found a piece of black cloth to wrap up the mirror.
After finishing, he noticed that Hao Hao's crying in the bedroom was quite pitiful, almost like the wailing of a little ghost.
It was enough to make one's heart race with fear.
While Lu Fei was using his spiritual senses to probe the bronze mirror, Hao Hao, who had been lying weakly, suddenly leaped up and started madly bashing his head against the wall.
Fortunately, the Luo Xingfa couple was always watching their son and managed to catch him in time.
Haohao howled, wildly struggling in the two people's arms, and fiercely bit Lu Xingfa's arm.
Master Xiang hurriedly attached two more yellow talismans to Haohao, barely stopping his frenzied movements.
Lu Xingfa pressed Haohao down onto the bed forcefully, a deep tooth mark left on his arm with blood seeping out.
"Mom, Dad, it hurts so much, give me back the mirror..."
"Please, I feel so terrible..."
Haohao cried hoarsely, pleading continuously with his parents.
Lu Xingfa turned his face away, not daring to look into his son's pitiful eyes. His wife was in tears, her hands showing signs of loosening their grip.
"When will Shopkeeper Lu be ready? The child is suffering too much..."
"Mr. and Mrs. Luo, you must hold on, this is for the good of your child..." Master Xiang urged with all his might.
Fortunately, at that moment, the bedroom door opened.
Lu Fei stood outside the door.
Hao Hao immediately raised his head, staring at Lu Fei with an incredibly resentful gaze, and let out a hoarse roar.
"Give it back to me! Give it back to me!"
The previous pitifulness was gone, replaced by a sinister and ferocious demeanor, not at all like that of a young child.
The sight was bone-chilling.
"Manager Lu, how is it?"
Mr. and Mrs. Luo Xingfa looked at Lu Fei nervously.
"Come out and talk."
Luo Xingfa left his wife to watch over their son and walked to the living room with Lu Fei.
"These words cannot be heard by Hao Hao, or else, the ones on the other side of the mirror will know," Lu Fei said in a low voice.
"Manager Lu, what's the situation? Is that ghost willing to return Haohao's lifespan?" Luo Xingfa became even more anxious.
"It's not a ghost who borrowed the lifespan, but a person!"
Lu Fei looked at him with a calm gaze.
"Mr. Luo, in your hometown, are there any households with bamboo planted outside their courtyards?"