While walking, I held the talisman in my hand tightly. If Old Hong turned around, I would use it to defend myself. At the same time, I made a hand seal and held it to conceal my Yang energy. Old Hong wouldn’t recognize that I was following him.

Old Hong was running quickly and I was worried about him. I wondered if his body could endure this trip.

The path we were walking on didn’t have lights. The surroundings were frighteningly silent.

I carefully walked behind him. I saw Old Hong finally stop by a big rock by the street. He mumbled something indistinctive.

I didn’t dare to get close to him. While I was worrying about what to do, he suddenly moved. He raised his right fist over his head. All of a sudden, he screamed, “People are one family! Destroy the Qing monsters!”

I was startled when he roared and accidentally loosened the hand seal I was making. Instantaneously, my Yang energy was revealed. Old Hong, who had just boldly roared, shot a dark look at me.

I recognized that it wasn’t a good sign. I quickly retreated. At the same time, my left hand palmed the talisman I was holding at the spot I had just stood a moment ago.

As soon as I retreated, Old Hong appeared. His right hand looked like a claw that aimed at my neck. I was startled. If I didn’t retreat fast enough, even if I didn’t die, I would be hurt badly!

It seemed he was really hard to deal with. I withdrew the Sirius Whip and engaged in a fight with Old Hong. Before I had come to Guangxi, I didn’t think this case would be a big deal. I didn’t prepare too many defensive items besides the Sirius Whip.

Old Hong’s eyes sparkled when he saw the Sirius Whip in my hand. Suddenly, he looked as though he disdained me.

“You shouldn’t put your nose in someone’s business!” He estimated that I wasn’t easy to deal with. Old Hong decided to threaten me to force me back.

I wasn’t scared at all and barked, “What do you want to do?”

The spirit didn’t have a grudge against Old Hong. It seemed the spirit was borrowing the old man’s body to fulfill something.

When an otherworldly item possesses a human body and doesn’t want to take revenge on the person, then that otherworldly item probably needs the living human to fulfill its wish. If I could ask him and help him complete his wish, perhaps we could solve this.

“Muahaha……” He suddenly laughed, but his laughter seemed to come from his belly.

He lifted his head and talked boldly and righteously. “My great career isn’t over. How could an ignorant and low citizen like you understand this?”

I felt so awkward. Was this man from ancient times? But what was his great career? Oh shoot, was becoming an Emperor his great career?

“My advice to you is to give it up. Otherwise, what’s waiting for you is complete destruction!” Although I spoke softly, my strong words were heard.

Old Hong didn’t appreciate that. Since I didn’t yield, he started to attack me one more time.

As long as I had the Sirius Whip in my hand, he wouldn’t come near me. Moreover, I had experience in dealing with otherworldly items. I proactively attacked Old Hong.

The old man was attacking me unceasingly, but he didn't have an advantage over me. I tried to keep calm.

He pulled back and forth with me for a long time and it didn’t look like he wanted to run away. The Sirius Whip had tremendous attacking power over otherworldly items, and most of the spirits would run after only one hit. However, Old Hong was different. He was tough enough to fight me.

Anyway, I could lash the Sirius Whip seven times. Now, I had only two attacks left. My heart sank. It wasn’t easy to deal with this man.

Before Old Hong could take action, I wielded and lashed the Sirius Whip, which tore through the wind and aimed at his head. As long as I could hit him, I would be able to force the spirit to leave Old Hong’s body. If that happened, I would have enough time to recover.

Unexpectedly, Old Hong suddenly took a step back in the middle of our equal fight. He stood still and looked at me coldly, smirking from the corners of his mouth.

I was shocked and couldn’t believe that he had read my mind beforehand. He was showing me that he wouldn’t hesitate to leave Old Hong’s body if necessary.

Old Hong was senile and was being possessed, which resulted in great damage to his soul. If my whip hit his head, even if he didn’t die, he would be greatly injured.

The Sirius Whip was not even ten centimeters away from Old Hong. I panicked and flicked my wrist to diverge the whip. It brushed past his ear.

Before I could heave a sigh of relief, Old Hong hit my waist, his face sinister.

As I had forcefully stopped my attack, my body leaned aside. When he attacked me all of a sudden, I heard a crackle at my waist. Then, I lost my balance and fell.

I spurted blood and watched Old Hong walk toward me. The bottom of his eyes sparkled. My right hand supported me as I moved backward.

I looked like I was crawling backward in fear, but I was secretly making hand seals. At the critical moment, I would use the Big Dipper Sirius Spell to attack him one last time. I had decided to risk my life to fight him!

That spirit was ecstatic about his victory. He didn’t recognize the small movements of my hand. He stopped when he was around one meter away from me.

He looked at me and yelled, “You’re the little thief those Qing monsters sent here. You’ve interfered with my great career. Even if you die, you can’t compensate for that!”

Then, he raised his hand and maliciously aimed at my head. I calculated the distance and swiftly wielded my arm. I was about to attack him. If this hit could reach the target, the spirit’s foundation would be damaged.

“Father!”

Before I could move, a figure stormed toward us and stood in front of me.

It was Hong Tianbao. I didn’t know when he had come here.

Hong Tianbao had red eyes and shouted at the old man. “If you want to kill, just kill your son first!”

Old Hong started to wiggle. His hands clutched his head and he slowly squatted. After a long time, he lifted his head again. His eyes were strangely dull. He looked as though he didn’t know what had just happened.

Hong Tianbao took out his phone. I didn’t know what he was showing to Old Hong, but after Old Hong looked at it, he opened his eyes wide and looked in disbelief.

Hong Tianbao didn’t care much about Old Hong’s reaction. He turned to me and helped me get up. He quickly checked if I was hurt then turned to Old Hong again.

At this moment, Old Hong was shocked, and his eyes looked dispirited. I craned my neck to look at the phone screen. Hong Tianbao had recorded the fight between me and Old Hong.

I had to admire Hong Tianbao for his meticulous character. As long as Old Hong knew what he had done and the condition of his body, I was certain that he would cooperate with us.

However, it was strange that after watching the video, Old Hong didn’t utter a word no matter what Hong Tianbao told him. He stood blankly and looked into the far distance.

Left with no choice, Hong Tianbao had to put Old Hong on his back and walk home. I looked at the sky and recognized that it was almost the break of dawn. We had struggled for a long time.

When we got home, Hong Tianjiang was worriedly waiting for us at the gate. When he saw us back, he heaved a sigh of relief. The two brothers carried the sleeping Old Hong to his room and tucked him in. Then, they found medicinal herbal alcohol for me to clean my wound.

I was a little embarrassed. They had invited a hotshot like me to help them and I got hurt in my first encounter with the spirit. I awkwardly told them that I was alright and excused myself to get some rest.

I woke up at noon. Hong Tianjiang had prepared a table of food for me. As soon as I sat down, Old Hong came out of the room. He stroked his beard and rolled his eyes.

He picked up his chopsticks and knocked them against the bowl, which created a loud clanging sound. At the same time, he looked so angry. He fumed, “You two little kiddos! Why didn’t you lock me until I died in that damn room?”

Hong Tianbao knew his father had changed again. Immediately, he reminded the old man of the video he had shot last night. Unexpectedly, Old Hong became even angrier. “What the heck? Didn’t I sleep in my room the whole night? What’s that damn video you’re talking about? I don’t know about any of that crap.”

I sighed. It was really hard to get to the point and create a way out. Old Hong bluntly denied everything!

Hong Tianbao recognized the seriousness of the situation. He took out his phone and attempted to show the video he had recorded last night to Old Hong. However, it was even stranger that the video was unknowingly deleted… He didn’t know when it was deleted.

Old Hong became bold and scolded his sons again. “It was useless to raise a son like you! You didn’t take care of me when I was old, and now you’ve marked my name with a ghost!”

Hong Tianbao became restless. He came to me and lifted the hem of my shirt. Then, he pointed at my bruised waist. “Father, you see? Last night, you hit this brother of mine.”

I felt a little shy and tried to pull my shirt down. Old Hong snarled again. “What a load of bull! Look at his skin. It’s as white and smooth as a little girl’s skin. Where’s the bruise?!”

What? Yesterday, I did get hurt. But when he said that, I remembered my waist wasn’t hurting when I woke up. I hurried to find a mirror to check. The bruise on my waist was gone. No mark was left behind!

It was like nothing had ever happened after a night of rest…

Old Hong was still reprimanding his sons. I exchanged looks with Hong Tianbao and felt scared.

The situation had come to an awkward point and we had no evidence. How could we make Old Hong cooperate with us to solve this?

We finished the tasteless meal in puzzlement. I took the chance to carefully assess Old Hong. He looked older than seventy years old. At first glance, he appeared extremely bold and stubborn. He was wearing a short and rough fabric shirt and a pair of trousers. He also had a red turban on his head. It was the typical clothing of a farmer.

However, that red turban felt familiar. I thought I had seen it somewhere before. I searched through my memory for a long time and concluded that no one around me had worn this sort of turban.

Unfortunately, Old Hong seemed to know that I was assessing him the entire time. He wasn’t pleased and shot me a glance. “Hong Tianbao, you should kick this money-cheating hoaxer away!”

Oh well, it turned out that I was not the only one studying someone during the meal. He had observed me, too. Moreover, when he learned what I was doing for a living, he looked offended, as if I owed him a lot of money.

I turned my head to the side. I was still thinking about studying that red turban. It gave me a strange feeling that I couldn’t describe. Anyway, that thing felt odd to me.

As I was connecting Old Hong talking about the Qing monsters and that red turban he was wearing, I suddenly made a bold assumption.

However, I needed to take that red turban to verify my assumption.

“Mr. Hong, sir…” I tried my best to soften my voice and made myself look nice. “Sir, your red turban looks nice. Could I ask where you bought it?”

“What do you want? Don’t you dare take it away from me!” Unexpectedly, Old Hong became extremely stirred up. His anger arose. He threw the bowls to the ground and then the food. Then, he proceeded to his room. I didn’t even have the time to react.

Hong Tianbao recognized that I had started to suspect the red turban his father was wearing. He decided to tell me the history of that red turban.

It turned out this red turban was the Hong family heirloom. It had been passed down for a few generations. However, Hong Tianbao didn’t believe it. He thought it was just a tattered turban. How could it be a precious family heirloom?

Still, Old Hong treasured this red turban a lot. He usually kept it safe in the lowest drawer of his closet. Whenever he was drunk with the other fellows in the village, he would start to brag about this family heirloom.

However, these days, he had started to take it out and wear it around his forehead without a known reason. Anyway, in this area, when it was hot in the summertime, people would use a towel to protect their heads from the heat. Hong Tianbao and Hong Tianjiang didn’t see anything wrong with their father’s clothing.

“So he just started to wear it these days?” When I heard that, I felt more certain that the red turban was wreaking havoc here.

However, Hong Tianbao wasn’t convinced.

I just smiled and said, “Well, it’s easy to check if the red turban is creating the mess in your family. We just need to take it away from your father’s head. If Old Hong turns crazy, it’ll be pretty clear, right?’

Unfortunately, Hong Tianbao shook his head repeatedly. “It’s difficult. You see, my father loves that red turban a lot. Taking his turban away is no different from taking his life away.”

I felt my head ache after I heard this remark. We couldn’t just stay idle! This was the only chance we had to make a new turn in this story. I needed to know the details of that red turban to know where to start!