That chilling laughter sent a jolt through Jiang Tao’s entire body. Simultaneously, the taxi lurched forward without warning, accelerating violently to 120 kph. Terrified, Jiang Tao screamed incessantly, stomping his foot down on the brake pedal, but even pressing it to the floor yielded absolutely no effect.

“Ah…” Jiang Tao could only gasp, emitting a string of meaningless cries.

In the back seat, Gu Yi showed no sign of panic whatsoever. He reached out and pressed the window control button. After several attempts, there was no response; it seemed the entire taxi had already been seized by the female specter.

At this moment, the intermittent, cold laughter suddenly escalated into a cascade of “Hahahaha!”—yet this laughter was equally sinister, seemingly saturated with infinite hatred.

Gu Yi waved his hand, extended his index finger, and traced several motions in the air over the window control button, forming a talisman. With a soft click, when he pressed the button again, the window slowly descended.

“Stop stomping the brake for now, and listen to my command. When I tell you to press it, you press it. Do you understand?” Gu Yi shouted loudly from behind.

Jiang Tao, who had nearly lost the capacity for rational thought, surprisingly regained his clarity upon hearing Gu Yi’s voice. He gritted his teeth and nodded.

Gu Yi leaned his entire upper body out of the window. Gusts of chilling wind swirled around him. Not far off, a figure clad in red hovered in the air, yet it seemed fearful of him, maintaining a distance. Gu Yi, calm and composed, traced talismans in the air simultaneously with both hands, chanting: “Earth fire, celestial wind, the Southern Dipper transforms into the Samādhi blaze—Ignite!”

As his incantation completed, several balls of fire materialized out of thin air, transforming into fiery meteors that shot outward in all directions, instantly forming a wall of fire surrounding the front of the taxi, moving forward along with the accelerating vehicle.

The mirthless laughter abruptly ceased, followed by a piercing shriek that echoed from an unknown source, yet both Gu Yi and Jiang Tao inside the car heard it with chilling clarity.

Gu Yi continued tracing talismans, and countless fireballs appeared in the air, merging like shooting stars into the wall of fire ahead. Jiang Tao could only stare, wide-eyed, at the unfolding scene, utterly incapable of expressing his feelings; he felt he had lost the majority of his cognitive function.

Just then, Gu Yi roared: “Hit the brake!”

Responding to the command, Jiang Tao instinctively slammed his foot down hard on the brake. The tires screeched against the pavement, and the immense inertia caused the wheels to stop, but the taxi continued to skid forward a considerable distance. Fortunately, Jiang Tao was wearing his seatbelt; the unlucky one was Jin Qiu beside him. Due to the sudden, violent braking, her head struck the side window with a dull thud.

Unexpectedly, this impact jolted the previously unconscious Jin Qiu awake. With a pained cry of “Aoww,” Jin Qiu instinctively raised a hand to clutch the spot where she’d been hit. She opened her eyes, looking around in a daze, trying to comprehend her current location.

The car finally halted. The wall of fire vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, as if it had never existed. But the instant the fire dissipated, Jiang Tao’s vision blurred. When he could see clearly outside the window again, his mouth dropped open in shock, forgetting even his fear.

A fine drizzle fell outside. Although it was impossible to tell how long it had been raining, the road surface was thoroughly soaked and saturated by the light rain, appearing as if coated in oil—perhaps one reason the car had slid for such a long distance. However, the most terrifying aspect was that the very front of the taxi was pressed right against the massive concrete pier of an overpass, separated from it by barely a hair’s breadth. Had Jiang Tao pressed the brake a fraction later, the outcome would have surely been a scene of shattered metal and death.

Jin Qiu, completely unaware of the situation, clutched her head and asked in a near-moan, “What happened?”

Jiang Tao was speechless, simply staring blankly out the front windshield. Jin Qiu followed his gaze, and her eyes widened in astonishment as well; one hand covering her head, the other covering her mouth in a sharp gasp.

“Ah…”

Gu Yi seemed quite satisfied with his ‘masterpiece.’ He smiled, retracted his body back into the car, reached over, opened the door, and stepped out. Not far from where he disembarked was a newly constructed flower bed, currently filled only with construction debris and dirt, as no flowers had been planted yet. Above the gray soil and bricks, a figure hovered mid-air, feet not touching the ground—clad in red, long hair obscuring its face, exuding an intensely eerie aura.

“Come with me. Let me find a place to send you on your way,” Gu Yi said, fixing his gaze on the motionless, red-clad female ghost.

Although the ghost’s face was obscured, one could feel the towering resentment emanating from it. Gu Yi shook his head slightly and sighed, “Why struggle? Is it for revenge? I suspect you don't even know who murdered you.”

The fine rain still drifted down, but there was no wind. The moment Gu Yi finished speaking, the red skirt of the female ghost seemed to billow up, agitated by an invisible surge of resentment. Almost simultaneously, not only Jin Qiu and Jiang Tao, who had been sneaking glances outside, but even Gu Yi felt a flash before his eyes as the red-clad figure flickered and vanished from their sight.

“Get out!” Gu Yi suddenly barked.

Jiang Tao jumped, hastily pushing the car door open to exit, but realized his seatbelt was still fastened. He fumbled frantically to unbuckle it before scrambling out of the car.

By then, Gu Yi had already rushed to the other side, pulled open Jin Qiu’s door, and dragged her out.

Jiang Tao and Jin Qiu instinctively huddled behind Gu Yi, nervously scanning their surroundings.

Gu Yi raised a hand to touch his nose, adjusted his sunglasses, and addressed the empty air: “While I admit today’s events feel like they were preordained by fate, you must understand that since I am here, I cannot allow these two to be harmed. Come out. Let’s talk.”

“Talk to a ghost?” Jiang Tao nearly thought he had misheard.

Suddenly, an intensely bone-chilling voice resonated. It sounded not as if it were heard through the ears, but rather as if it were booming directly inside their minds.

“You all must die…”

Jiang Tao almost cried out loud, his face etched with undisguised terror. Looking at Jin Qiu beside him, her expression was likely even more horrified than his own.

Gu Yi, however, remained unfazed and even smiled slightly. “Please, try to be more original. Don’t resort to that phrase to scare people every time. By the way, before we die, could you possibly do us a favor? I know Jiang Tao incurred your wrath by driving this car, but I don’t understand why Jin Qiu is getting caught up in this? She couldn't possibly be your killer, could she?”

After a moment of waiting, a gust of icy wind suddenly whipped up around the three of them, raising the hair on Jiang Tao’s and Jin Qiu’s arms. Immediately following, a flash of red appeared, and the female ghost instantly materialized in the mid-air not far from them.