Kuang Feifan didn't spit the blood toward the monstrous infant but directly onto the prayer beads clutched in his palm. The moment the blood touched them, the beads erupted in a dazzling white light. Using his still-functional forearm, he pressed the beads down onto the grotesque infant's head.

As he pushed, he felt as though he were pressing into a rubber ball. The creature’s head dented inward, and immediately, a miserable shriek tore from its mouth. The indentation on its skull began to hiss, releasing a puff of black mist.

The infant instantly released its grip, tumbling off Kuang Feifan’s thigh to sprawl on the floor, writhing. Kuang Feifan clearly felt the spectral claws gripping his arm trembling violently, as if enduring immense pain. The five claws that held him began to loosen slightly.

Kuang Feifan summoned every ounce of strength and wrenched free one arm. He snatched out the Five Elements Thunder Talisman and slapped it onto the other ghostly claw still clinging to him.

Both dark, shadowy claws snapped back into the doorway in a blink, and almost simultaneously, whatever held his legs vanished. Kuang Feifan dared not relax. Watching the infant still convulsing on the ground, he pulled out several more Thunder Talismans and flung them continuously toward the floor, the doorway, and the struggling infant, uttering an incantation with each throw.

In an instant, several bursts of brilliant electrical fire flowered before him, silver-serpent currents illuminating half the room. Under his relentless assault, even the monstrous infant took two direct hits.

Piercing, excruciating cries continually issued from the creature’s mouth, stabbing directly into Kuang Feifan’s eardrums and even his core. Every shriek felt like a hand clutching his heart.

After a while, the electrical sparks faded, and the room returned to shadow. The brief, intense brightness left Kuang Feifan’s vision swimming. He instinctively closed his eyes and rubbed them hard. When he reopened them, the large-headed infant, which had been twisting on the floor, was gone, though the dreadful screams still echoed faintly within the room.

Kuang Feifan wiped the sweat from his brow. That frantic encounter had drained him more than running five kilometers. If he hadn't thought, in that critical moment, to spray his blood onto the prayer beads, he truly had no idea how he would have dealt with the grotesque infant.

Assuming the stream of talismans had dispatched the creature, Kuang Feifan, after calming his nerves somewhat, walked to the door and picked up his flashlight to examine the area. He found nothing resembling the infant’s remains—only the prayer beads he’d accidentally dropped. However, in the corner by the door, there was now a blood-red cross mark with ten prongs.

Seeing the ten-pronged mark, Kuang Feifan realized the infant had escaped, just as it had when he first entered the haunted building. Clearly, when this thing retreated into a wall, whether intentionally or not, it left behind a ten-pronged mark. He wondered if this was its signature.

Uncertain if his barrage of talismans had truly wounded the creature, Kuang Feifan hesitated before cautiously approaching the door again. This time, he carefully pulled out a jade talisman from his backpack, gripping it in his hand. He had already replaced the prayer beads on his wrist—a gift from Bai Ru—which he certainly didn't want to lose.

The jade talisman was given to him by Gu Yi, who claimed it was superior to paper talismans and could handle ordinary evil spirits without an incantation. Because he had so few, Kuang Feifan had been reluctant to use them, but now it seemed better to deploy them sooner rather than later.

He had considered taking the peach-wood sword, but it was inconvenient to carry while moving, and although he had heard it was specifically for fighting ghosts, its slender, almost flimsy appearance suggested it could break easily. If forced to use it, he felt he wouldn't be able to fight without hesitation.

Facing the firmly sealed door, Kuang Feifan suddenly felt foolish. Perhaps it had only seemed impossible to open before because of illusions. Now that the infant attacking him had been injured, he doubted the door would remain impassable. Why had he insisted on trying to pull it open?

As long as it wasn't a reinforced steel door, Kuang Feifan was confident he could simply smash it open with brute force; he had certainly done so before.

With that thought, he clicked off his flashlight, stuffed it back into his pack, steadied his breathing, gathered his energy, backed up a few paces, centered all his power on his shoulder, slightly crouched, and charged toward the door.

As it turned out, plans never keep pace with reality. Just as he launched himself forward, the closed door suddenly swung open, as if forcefully pushed from the outside. The entire door burst wide, a sudden event that sent the momentum-driven Kuang Feifan rushing straight out of the room, clearly on course to slam into the wall directly opposite the doorway.

But the moment his body made contact with the wall, he managed to stabilize himself. He straightened up, turned back toward the room he had just exited, and curled his lips into a slight, very smug smile.

When he had gathered force for the charge, he had deliberately held back a fraction of his power. Having experienced so many bizarre occurrences, he had developed an extra layer of vigilance, and it had paid off.

All this ghost-playing—he had managed to turn the tables on a ghost, which gave Kuang Feifan a small, gratifying sense of triumph.

Glancing back at the room that had held him captive for an unknown duration, Kuang Feifan let out a long breath, eager to find Xu Hui and leave the small building as quickly as possible.

This sounded simple enough, but only when Kuang Feifan acted did he realize it was far from straightforward. He found himself standing in a corridor, yes, but not the corridor he should have been in—at least, not the one where he belonged.

He saw a staircase leading down not far ahead. Turning around, he saw that the room he had just burst out of had vanished in that brief moment. Apart from the staircase, the hallway stretched endlessly before and behind him, and on both sides, there was nothing but unbroken walls, not a single door in sight.

Kuang Feifan couldn't help a wry smile. He wasn't particularly afraid; it was just a classic 'ghost wall' scenario, something he’d encountered before. But perhaps for someone like him, this trick was effective enough.

"How infuriating," Kuang Feifan muttered.

He couldn't tell when he’d fallen into the trap. Even after injuring the infant, something else could still manipulate his surroundings. How many ghosts were in this building? He wished they would all just come out at once—either he’d deal with them, or they’d deal with him.

Kuang Feifan leaned against the wall. While his mind raced with speculation, he didn't move an inch.

He pulled out a Five Elements Thunder Talisman, hesitated, and put it back. In this situation, he wasn't sure if the talisman would work, and he had already expended quite a few of them.

His only option was to locate Xu Hui's room as quickly as possible. Kuang Feifan sighed in resignation and decided to resort to the most primitive method. He kept one hand on the wall and began to advance, aligning his heel to his toe, carefully counting his steps.

Based on the stride length he had measured in memory, he stopped and looked across the corridor. It still appeared to be a solid wall. After a moment of hesitation, he gritted his teeth and resolutely charged forward with all his might.

At this moment, he could only hope his memory hadn't failed him; otherwise, he would either strike a wall or a staircase leading to the first floor.

PS: This is an extra update for yesterday; there will be another one today...