Once a person's neck is constricted, their arms lose all strength to even lift, let alone struggle or resist. Bai Ru was paralyzed, able only to kick her legs in vain. She felt as if two arms, possessing an irresistible, immense power, were cinching her throat.

Kuang Feifan, at the front of the vehicle, noticed the situation inside and was startled. He scrambled up and rushed to the car door, but because Bai Ru had locked it from inside on the narrow path, no matter how hard he pulled the handle, the door wouldn't budge.

Kuang Feifan clenched his fists and hammered against the window in desperation, only seeing Bai Ru’s face turn alarmingly pale through the glass, her eyes about to roll back. Just then, Li Jin, in the back seat, suddenly began shaking his body violently. His face, twisted into a strange smile, turned slightly toward Kuang Feifan, his eyes blazing with malice.

The entire vehicle swayed wildly with Li Jin's convulsions.

"Bai Ru!"

Kuang Feifan roared. Gritting his teeth, he stripped off his jacket, wrapped his arm with it, and smashed his elbow against the rear passenger window.

The glass, backed with anti-shatter film, immediately spiderwebbed under his heavy impact. Kuang Feifan ripped the window apart and slammed the hand wearing the prayer beads squarely across Li Jin’s face.

With a sharp crack, as his hand struck Li Jin's face, a faint, ethereal wisp of black energy drifted up from Li Jin’s head. Li Jin immediately slumped onto the back seat with a thud.

Kuang Feifan didn't pause to speak. Seeing this, he fumbled frantically to open the front door from the outside, yanked the unconscious Li Jin out of the car, and then pulled Bai Ru out from the front.

"Ru, how are you?" Kuang Feifan rubbed Bai Ru's back as she coughed violently.

Bai Ru gasped for air, managed to shake her head, and still cast a worried glance at Li Jin, whom Kuang Feifan had tossed onto the ground. Seeing how badly one side of his face was swollen, she knew Kuang Feifan’s blow had been forceful. She surmised that as the Eight Trigrams Formation shield dissolved, some remnant soul must have seized the chance to enter the car. The protective talisman placed near Li Jin might have fallen off during the chaotic driving on the Yin-Yang Road, allowing the remnant soul to seize control.

It was fortunate that it wasn't the main ghost’s true body, and even more fortunate was the timely arrival of Kuang Feifan and the string of "human bone prayer beads" he carried.

"I was pretty clever, wasn't I? Knowing to strike him with the hand wearing the beads," Kuang Feifan said, finally letting out a sigh of relief when he saw Bai Ru was mostly unharmed, trying to sound casual.

"How... how did you get here?" Bai Ru asked, her voice somewhat hoarse.

"You rest a bit first. Don't talk," Kuang Feifan said with concern.

Bai Ru shook her head, signaling she was okay. She struggled to stand, retrieved her backpack from the car, and pulled out some talismans to quickly set up a simple protective array.

Kuang Feifan knew he understood nothing of this. Seeing a vending machine nearby, he ran over, bought two bottles of water, and when Bai Ru finished establishing the formation, he handed her one.

After taking a few sips, Bai Ru's tightly wound nerves finally relaxed slightly. She checked her phone and realized it was nearly four in the morning.

Fortunately, the county streets were deserted at this hour, eerily quiet. Kuang Feifan tried to maneuver the car off the shoulder, but whether due to the sudden braking or something else, the engine kept stalling.

"Well, nothing to be done for now. I'll try again later," Kuang Feifan gave up.

Bai Ru murmured an "Mmm," and decided to sit by the side of the road, leaning against the rear of the car, before asking, "How did you know something happened to me?"

Kuang Feifan spread his hands. "I didn't know. I guessed. After I called you, I remembered something—I wanted to ask you what kind of jade this string of beads you gave me was made of. But when I called, I got a dead line, several times in a row. I started to worry..."

After hanging up again, Kuang Feifan unconsciously pounded the back of the front seat in anxiety.

This subconscious action alerted the driver in front, who couldn't help but turn around and ask, "Sir, are you alright?"

Kuang Feifan startled, "Ah," then suddenly made up his mind and told the driver, "Please turn around and take me back, thank you."

En route back to Qingshui County, Kuang Feifan repeatedly called Bai Ru’s mobile, but he couldn't get through no matter what. In desperation, he called her workplace.

Coincidentally, his good friend Song Ming answered, apparently on duty. After a brief exchange of pleasantries,

"Song Ming, I need a favor," Kuang Feifan phrased carefully.

"What's up?" Song Ming asked with a slight local accent.

"Pull up the last known location of a cell phone number," Kuang Feifan chose to be vague rather than explain the situation fully.

"Official... or personal?" Song Ming hesitated.

"...Official business," Kuang Feifan bit the bullet.

"The number." Song Ming didn't press further.

Kuang Feifan gave Song Ming Bai Ru's number and hung up, knowing Song Ming would need time to check the GPS data.

In the interim, he pulled out his notepad, flipping to the last written page—the correct pronunciation of the Six-Syllable Great Brightness Mantra that Bai Ru had taught him before he left.

With the power contained in this mantra and the prayer beads in his hand, he could protect himself, perhaps even counter some malevolent spells.

As they neared Qingshui County, Song Ming called back.

"That took a while?" Kuang Feifan asked casually.

"I told our superior to take a nap first before I checked," Song Ming’s voice was noticeably lower.

Kuang Feifan felt a warmth in his chest. His buddy understood him after all.

"I'm calling to tell you I've already sent the coordinates and a map screenshot to your phone. Look there. That’s it. If you need anything else, just say the word. None of us guys here are afraid of trouble," Song Ming said earnestly.

"Got it," Kuang Feifan acknowledged.

Following the map route, Kuang Feifan's taxi was stopped on the road directly across from the small alley Bai Ru had turned into. After triple-checking the location, Kuang Feifan politely dismissed the taxi driver. To be honest, the driver had been looking at him strangely and seemed unnerved; those secretive calls in the cab probably made the driver think he was odd.

However, confirming the location didn't help him find any trace of Bai Ru. Song Ming's GPS screenshot only indicated that his current spot was the last place Bai Ru's phone sent a signal. The screenshot offered no clue as to which direction she had proceeded from there.

What Kuang Feifan didn't know was that while the entrance to the small path was directly across the street from where he stood, he couldn't see it at all. When the Yin-Yang Road activated, the entrance to that path had already been concealed by an illusion.

What wasn't a crossroads originally, the small path formed a 'T' intersection with the horizontal road. In Kuang Feifan’s view, there was no side road opposite him.

Still, even though he couldn't spot the alley, Kuang Feifan was cautious. After several encounters with supernatural events, he understood a truth: what the eyes see isn't always reality.

He began a systematic search along the side of the road, paying close attention to any unusual sensation from the prayer beads in his hand. He knew this was a treasure that would definitely react to anything malevolent.

And indeed, it was so. Without the prayer beads, Kuang Feifan would never have detected the anomaly. As he searched across the road, the string of beads reacted to the sinister energy, not only emitting a red glow but also vibrating faintly.

At first, Kuang Feifan didn't realize it, but after pacing back and forth, he confirmed the location of the disturbance. He realized he was standing exactly in the center of the small alley’s entrance.

To his eyes, there was just a vacant lot where demolition had taken place, and he was standing on the curb beside the main road. Visually and tactilely, everything seemed normal, except for the continuous red flashing of the beads on his wrist, which felt as if they wanted to leap off.

He took a deep breath and stepped toward the vacant lot. However, before he even made it halfway across, his vision blurred, his head spun, and when his sight cleared, he was back exactly where he had started.

No matter how he moved forward, even muttering the Six-Syllable Great Brightness Mantra or any other incantation he could think of, he invariably returned to his original spot.

Kuang Feifan was unaware that if the prayer beads on his wrist hadn't contained some measure of spiritual power, he would have been swallowed by the illusion of the Yin-Yang Road and ended up on the true path to the underworld.

Still, these repeated struggles revealed something to him. At least now, whenever he entered the open space, he could faintly hear the ephemeral sounds of ghostly wails.

This confirmed that Bai Ru had indeed met trouble here. Although he couldn't know her condition, Kuang Feifan subconsciously believed Bai Ru was struggling to cope. He didn't know this specific situation was the Yin-Yang Road; he just thought it resembled a 'ghostly wall,' which gave him an idea—not a solution, but a way. If it was a 'ghostly wall,' perhaps he could point out a direction for Bai Ru from the outside.

Kuang Feifan carefully surveyed his surroundings. Seeing no other living soul, only the empty street and streetlights casting a pale bluish glow, he chose to sit cross-legged on the ground and began chanting the Six-Syllable Great Brightness Mantra repeatedly.

It was precisely this action that allowed Bai Ru, at the last possible moment, to break through the Yin-Yang Road and escape to safety. Even more fortunate, Bai Ru ultimately chose to swerve the vehicle, saving Kuang Feifan, who was sitting right at the intersection, from being run over.

After recounting all this, Kuang Feifan couldn't help but strut triumphantly in front of Bai Ru, grinning mischievously. "Well, wasn't I clever?"

Bai Ru broke into a bright smile, stood up, moved close to Kuang Feifan, lightly stood on her toes, and pressed her red lips against his.

Just then, from the distance, a Chery QQ, its headlights blazing, sped toward them. Accompanied by a screech of tires grinding against the asphalt, the small car executed a magnificent drift and settled steadily not far from where they stood on the shoulder.

Both were startled and quickly separated. Bai Ru, her face slightly flushed, turned to see that the car’s wheels were perfectly aligned with the curb.