Those coins had just saved Li Mazi’s life! 

From inside the room, Ru Xue and Yin Xinyue could see that we were in danger. As such, they threw the coins towards the ghost to help us. Since the coins had passed through the hands of thousands of people, strong Yang energy emanated from them. When the coins sensed the ghost’s Yin energy, they turned into a golden light, attacking the spirit. 

However, they were also destroyed in the process. The bronze color of the coins had turned black, with some coins even cracking. That female ghost had formidable strength! 

Those coins were our last resort, and they only served to cause some pain to the ghost. If we chased after her, it wouldn’t be different from seeking death. Fortunately, the ghost was scared of the coins. If she knew that we had used all the coins, we wouldn’t survive long enough to imagine the consequences! 

“Damn, we almost died!” Li Mazi sat down, cursing.

Yet, shortly after, I heard him begin to snore. He had fallen asleep on the floor. 

“Brother Zhang, help me carry him to the bed! He’s too tired.” Ru Xue felt sorry for him. 

I nodded and helped her bring Li Mazi to the bed. After he was settled down, I looked at the bruise on his neck. He was scratching it the whole day, and I felt something was off, so I wanted to check it. 

However, he was exhausted, so I left him be. I sighed, planning to do it tomorrow. 

I later regretted doing this as it almost caused Li Mazi’s death in a foreign land! 

Since Li Mazi was sleeping in my room, I took Yin Xinyue to the other room to sleep. No matter what, the female ghost was wounded, so she wouldn’t be able to come to our room tonight. I washed my face and fell asleep shortly after. However, not long afterward, I felt someone walking in front of me. 

I had yet to fall into a deep sleep as I had just laid down on the bed. I was still conscious, so I instantly knew that some ghost had visited my room. 

Yin Xinyue was asleep, hugging me. She was snoring softly like a purring kitten.

I didn’t lift the blanket immediately since I was afraid of awakening her. My eyes slowly opened, and I saw a big face right in front of me. The face couldn’t have been more than five centimeters away from mine. The two blank eyes bulged as if they would burst out in the next second and hit my face. 

I felt my heart leap, and I almost screamed. 

However, this pair of eyes looked familiar! I opened my eyes entirely to see that it was Li Mazi’s face. 

I exhaled and sat up, barking, “Dude, why aren’t you asleep? It’s midnight. Why did you come into my room? Do you want to scare me with your ghostly face?” 

I took out a cigarette and was about to light it. Unexpectedly, Li Mazi grabbed my arm, his voice low. “You’d better not smoke at night.” 

When Li Mazi spoke, his voice didn’t sound like his own. Moreover, the moment he touched me, his skin felt strangely cold.

I had a bad premonition. Is Li Mazi being controlled by that thing? 

My mind almost went blank when a quick glance brought the door to the room into my eyesight. 

The door was still closed! When we got into the room, we had locked the door carefully, so Li Mazi couldn’t have entered the room!

The man in front of me isn’t Li Mazi! 

It was possible that he was a ghost. Ghosts were afraid of fire. That might be why he didn’t want me to light up my cigarette. 

I didn’t know why it wanted to impersonate Li Mazi and enter my room, but I was sure it was bad news for us! 

Instinctively, I checked my clothes. Luckily, I still had some wheat in my pocket. However, Li Mazi sneered coldly. “No need to waste your strength. Do you think I’m afraid of wheat grains?” 

Then, he bent down and picked up a handful of durum wheat grains, throwing them in the air. 

I remembered that before night arrived, I poured durum wheat grains on the important spots in this room. 

Looking at Li Mazi smiling evilly, I felt fear rising from the bottom of my heart. However, I kept my voice calm, “Who are you?” 

If he were a human, how could he enter my room without making any noise?

Moreover, his body was as cold as ice, and his movements were stiff. He didn’t look like a living person, but he wasn’t afraid of wheat, either. 

Is he so strong that he can ignore the Yang power of the wheat? 

Although I was terrified, I wore a calm face as I gazed at him, trying to see if I could gather anything from his face. Li Mazi stopped smiling, and his eyes met mine. Right as I was about to look away, he got on his knees, crying, “Little Brother Zhang, h-help me! Please, save me!” 

It was Li Mazi’s voice when he said that. 

My fear had abandoned me at this moment, and I remembered the ring-shaped bruise on Li Mazi’s neck. “Is there something wrong with your neck?” 

He didn’t answer. Or, he couldn’t make a sound. 

His mouth opened and closed as he was trying to say something. I read his lips and guessed that he was repeatedly saying, “Help me!” 

I grew more worried when he did that. I grabbed his arm, screaming, “Brother, what happened to you? You shouldn’t scare me like this!” 

Yet, he couldn’t make a single sound, and his body began to melt. In the end, he turned into a puddle of blood. 

I’d seen plenty of horrible scenes throughout my life. However, this was the first time I saw a man die like this. I couldn’t stop myself as I began screaming. 

Afterward, I jolted up from my bed, my back damp and cold. My sweat had soaked the bed sheet underneath me. Yin Xinyue rubbed my face, her voice worried. “Brother Zhang, did you have a nightmare?” 

“When did you wake up?” I was suspicious. 

She smiled. “I haven’t slept yet! Ru Xue and I slept for the whole day. How could I sleep any longer? I’ve been playing with my phone.” 

“What?” Instinctively, I turned to see the place where Li Mazi had turned into a puddle of blood. There was only the line of durum wheat I had poured on the floor. There was no blood. 

The pack of cigarettes was where I had put it before going to sleep. I checked the time. It had been only half an hour since we entered the room. 

I now realized that I just had a nightmare and sighed deeply. Yin Xinyue wiped my sweaty forehead. “What did you see in your dream?” 

I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about it, and I didn’t bother to tell her about the dream. I hurried to put on my clothes, going to Ru Xue’s room. 

I knocked on the door. Soon, the door opened, and Ru Xue showed up in her nightgown, fuming, “Why aren’t you sleeping? It’s midnight. Are you trying to scare me?” 

“Don’t talk nonsense. Where’s Li Mazi?” 

I saw that their bed was empty. My intuition told me that something terrible was happening. My voice slowly turned hoarse. 

“Squatting on the toilet. What happened?” Ru Xue stopped joking when she saw my tense face.

She reached her hand to knock on the bathroom door. “Mazi, are you done yet?” 

Before she finished talking, the door slid open on its own. I craned my neck to see inside but was left with a horrible feeling. 

There was no one on the toilet! 

“It’s midnight. Where would he go? Why did you come to see him all of a sudden? Did you find something?” Ru Xue took a few seconds to pull herself together. She looked panicked as she also felt that something was wrong. 

I balled my hands into fists, asking Ru Xue, “What time was it when you last saw him?” 

“A few minutes before you got here!” 

Ru Xue almost cried when she said that. After listening to her, I rushed downstairs to search for Li Mazi. I saw Yin Xinyue in the corridor. “Xinyue, go and stay with Ru Xue. You must stay awake until the morning. No matter what, don’t open the door. Just wait until the morning!” 

I didn’t have time to answer their questions, hurrying down to the lobby. I then went to the security office, asking the staff to show me the surveillance cameras. The enthusiastic Italian staff member helped me watch the scene from a few minutes ago. I saw Li Mazi leave and walk on the meandering, narrow path behind the hotel. 

Before I left, the staff member grabbed my arm, using his broken Chinese to advise me, “Friend, you shouldn’t go there at night. People say that the Devil lives there!” 

“Thank you!” 

I was surprised, thanking him before dashing toward the path Li Mazi had taken. 

Every ethnicity had something they worshipped or were scared of. People from the East worshipped the Jade Emperor and feared ghosts. People from the West worshipped God and were afraid of Satan. It sounded superstitious, but who could say for certain that those supernatural beings didn’t exist? 

That Italian staff member was a local. If he said that place was haunted, it had to be true. I was even more anxious now.