The butler at the main entrance and the figure appearing in the corridor stared at each other from afar. Streaks of lightning cast their silhouettes in a terrifying light. "A nuisance." The butler’s brow furrowed slightly. "But it changes nothing."
At that moment, the three people groping through the secret passage finally reached the end of their journey. At the passage’s terminus, after pushing open a sealed iron door, a room suddenly appeared before them! From the cold, damp air, they could tell the room was underground. Beyond that, the air inside was thick with the stale, decayed smell of long-term sealing.
The three quickly pulled out their phones, shining their lights around. Under the faint beams, a horrifying scene was revealed. The walls of the room were densely packed with spike-like iron rods, while the walls themselves were covered in black stains—some looking like dried blood, others like the remnants of something burned.
"C-Could this be..." Those sharp iron spikes immediately sparked a terrifying association in Ye Xiaomei’s mind. She instinctively stepped back, but accidentally kicked something, producing a faint sound. Though it was just a soft noise, it startled her badly. She quickly shifted her flashlight beam downward, illuminating a burned-out candle she had just knocked over.
Not only that, but the surrounding floor was scattered with many similar candles. Between them, black lines seemed to have been drawn with some special substance, forming an eerie circle. At the center of the circle was a burned, human-shaped mark.
The iron spikes that had once held something on the walls, the candles on the floor, the strange pattern—all these elements combined seemed to confirm Xiao Bai’s speculation. In this room, some mysterious and terrifying ritual had indeed taken place. The burned-out candles, the black, scorched human-shaped marks on the floor and walls—these appeared to be the traces left by that horrific ritual.
Could this be the place where the so-called exorcism and soul-summoning rituals were held?
Though there was no breeze, a rustling sound of pages turning suddenly reached Xiao Bai’s ears. She then noticed that, in the center of the circle, atop the human-shaped mark, a black-covered book-like object had appeared out of nowhere, flipping open on its own with a rustle.
Under Ye Xiaomei and Ke Shufan’s horrified gazes, Xiao Bai didn’t hesitate. She reached down, picked up the black-covered thing from the ground, and began reading.
XXXX, December 3rd Everything is ready. I hope this legendary ritual can drive away the possessing evil spirit. Though it comes at a great cost, it’s all worth it. Without pain, there is no rebirth.
XXXX, December 15th At this critical juncture, someone has gotten cold feet—and that someone is my husband. I had always mistakenly believed he loved our child as much as I did, but in truth, he doesn’t. Fortunately, Butler Wei stands firmly with me. No one, no force, can stop the work we must complete.
XXXX, December 21st Another painful day. My husband has threatened to make us abandon everything we’ve prepared, or else he’ll expose it all. I even suspect that the evil force has not only corrupted our child but has also latched onto him! So I was forced to make a choice. Without pain, there is no rebirth. Today’s pain is an indispensable preparation for rebirth.
XXXX, December 15th Final confirmation of the ritual procedure. Correctly draw the magical array for the spell. Bind the possessed person within the array. Burn with fire. Sacrifice with blood. Recite the incantation to summon the soul. Place the prepared vessel at the designated location. Wait for the purified soul to return to the mortal world. ...
The remaining text seemed to have been consumed by fire, leaving only a charred corner. But through reading these words, a scene formed in Xiao Bai’s mind. The mistress, steadfast in her belief in this so-called exorcism and soul-summoning ritual, with the butler’s help, bound the poor child to the ground. Ignoring his struggles, she set the flames ablaze. The human-shaped scorch mark on the floor was evidence of their crime!
In that instant, another terrifying thought surfaced in Xiao Bai’s mind. Perhaps the one truly possessed by evil wasn’t the child named Tongtong at all, but rather the painter couple themselves. It was under the influence of their twisted minds that such a terrifying child was created. Yet they failed to recognize their own issues, instead blaming everything on "evil possession" and devising this horrific, cruel exorcism ritual. The mere idea of wanting to imprison a child’s true soul in a doll was something no normal parent would ever conceive!
If the one initially possessed by evil was the mistress of the manor, then where did that evil come from? Could it be the butler, surnamed Wei? Was he the deepest, most terrifying evil hidden in this story?
Xiao Bai’s mind raced. Assuming Butler Wei was the deepest evil in this story, what was his goal? Was it to facilitate this so-called exorcism and soul-summoning ritual? If so, the ritual’s true purpose likely wasn’t to drive away the evil from the child—perhaps the child wasn’t even possessed at all! Thus, the ritual’s significance might lie in its latter part. It wasn’t meant to summon the child’s true soul, but to call forth something else...
Suddenly realizing this, Xiao Bai’s entire body jolted. If the ritual wasn’t summoning the child’s true soul, then what was it summoning? Perhaps it was the truly terrifying ghost now controlling the entire manor—the evil spirit of this story! And the painter couple...
The deeper she thought about this story, the more chilling it became. Though the black notebook’s account was obscure, as a participant, she could still understand it. The manor’s master had likely been killed before the ritual was carried out. So what were the painter couple they had seen? Or were they manifestations of the manor’s evil?
How many terrifying evil spirits were hidden within this manor? If not for the story’s constraints, they, as participants, would have been killed countless times! Why did the manor’s nanny change every year? Probably to satisfy the evil spirits’ lust for killing. As for those replaced nannies, resigning might have been a facade. The truth was... they had all likely been killed. Their bodies were buried beneath the withered trees in the courtyard.
The hallucination of arms bursting from the ground wasn’t the story’s supernatural attack on them, but a hint: beneath the trees lay the corpses of countless outsiders! They weren’t the first, nor would they be the last.