Kuang Feifan happened to have his back to the sofa, completely missing the moment Zhang Xiaohui opened her eyes, nor did he notice her hand stretching desperately toward him. Just as Zhang Xiaohui’s fingertips were about to brush his back, Kuang Feifan suddenly took a step forward, precisely avoiding the reaching hand. This unexpected movement elicited an involuntary little gasp from Zhang Xiaohui.

Though the sound was extremely faint, Kuang Feifan still heard it. He turned his head to see Zhang Xiaohui’s outstretched arm, and his eyes immediately chilled. Then he noticed that she wasn't trying to harm him; rather, she was trying to warn him. Because right behind the back of the sofa, a ball of black mist was hovering in the air, slowly drifting toward Wang Hai, whom Kuang Feifan had just tossed onto the cushions.

Wang Hai seemed utterly oblivious, staring blankly ahead, his eyes clearly hazy and vacant, as if his soul had departed.

It was then Kuang Feifan realized that since he pulled Wang Hai back and the man had called his name, he had remained in this state. Earlier, noting that his breathing was relatively normal, Kuang Feifan hadn't paid much attention to his mental condition. Now, it seemed, his problems were quite serious.

With Feng Tian absent, he could only rely on himself to resolve these bizarre situations. The only things he had to counter them, besides his prayer beads, were the few tools Feng Tian had given him before they entered.

At this moment, he could only hope the mass of black mist wasn't something powerful, as he had traveled light to get inside, bringing very few tools.

Kuang Feifan retrieved the bottle of “Ghost Repellent Spray” from his trouser pocket, unscrewed the cap immediately, and unceremoniously splashed nearly half the bottle directly onto the black fog.

Fortunately, his gamble paid off this time. The liquid in the bottle indeed managed to suppress the black mist. As the water droplets struck the fog, the black mass writhed violently. The once dense black color visibly began to fade, and the thick vapor started to thin out.

The mist dissipated just before it could reach Wang Hai, prompting Kuang Feifan to finally let out a breath. He walked over to Zhang Xiaohui, bent down, and asked how she was feeling, if she felt any better.

Zhang Xiaohui appeared weak, but her mind was clearly much clearer now. When Kuang Feifan asked, she nodded softly.

Kuang Feifan quietly told her to rest well for a while. Seeing that she seemed fine, he reached out, took back his prayer beads, turned around, laid Wang Hai down, and placed the beads on his forehead, hoping the spiritual energy would help him recover too.

It wasn't all in vain. After settling them, he checked the room again. It seemed that after the black mist vanished, no further abnormalities occurred. Zhang Xiaohui was visibly stabilizing, and shortly after he placed the beads on Wang Hai’s forehead, Wang Hai also let out a few faint moans. It appeared his consciousness had finally returned.

Kuang Feifan found some water and managed to get Zhang Xiaohui to drink a little, carefully helping her sit up. Once Wang Hai also woke up, his eyes regaining some luster, Kuang Feifan pulled him up too and helped him sit on the sofa. Only then did the heavy stone in his heart lift.

Wiping away sweat, he finally smiled with relief. After witnessing Zhao Hongcheng lose his life, he had managed to save these two this time.

Wang Hai drank some water and looked significantly better. After waking, he recovered faster than Zhang Xiaohui. While he had expended considerable energy, his physical training was quite good; being large and sturdy offered some advantage in this regard.

However, the wound on his shoulder was troublesome, and Kuang Feifan hadn't had time to treat it earlier. A large patch of his back was already soaked with blood. After asking Zhang Xiaohui, he found a home first-aid kit in a cabinet in her place and managed to bandage the wound as best he could, though he knew they needed antibiotics and a tetanus shot as soon as possible.

The pain from the wound rapidly cleared Wang Hai’s confusion. He was truly awake now. Zhang Xiaohui was also mostly recovered, though her stamina would take time to return.

“Thank you…” Wang Hai could finally offer Kuang Feifan a proper thanks.

Zhang Xiaohui managed a weak smile for him; her whole body felt too exhausted for her to even bother speaking.

Thinking about how boldly he had descended on a rope from the roof without considering the consequences, Kuang Feifan felt a wave of belated fear. He nodded to Wang Hai and Zhang Xiaohui without ceremony.

Wang Hai had mostly suffered from extreme shock. After some recovery time, he felt much better and asked Kuang Feifan how he thought of using that method to get in, and why Feng Tian hadn't appeared.

Seeing that they were in no condition to get up and go to the Taoist temple together, Kuang Feifan let them rest and adjust. Taking the opportunity, he recounted what happened after his phone call with Feng Tian.

It wasn't complicated, really. When they arrived at Wang Hai’s home, the main door was locked. That metal security door clearly couldn't be forced open easily, and waiting for a locksmith would have been too late—they would have missed their chance entirely.

It was Kuang Feifan who came up with the roof plan: rappelling down with a rope. This was something only he could do; Feng Tian admitted that with his build, it would be too risky.

They found the rope in the trunk of the car. Kuang Feifan took the descent, while Feng Tian left to find Ji Ping. They had tried calling Ji Ping earlier with no answer, which worried both of them. Given the preceding strangeness, they decided to split up to check on his situation as quickly as possible.

After making the decision, Kuang Feifan headed straight for the roof of Wang Hai's building, while Feng Tian drove off to find Ji Ping. Since they didn't know Ji Ping’s exact location, Feng Tian was heading to the address of the gas station manager Ji Ping had mentioned previously.

In retrospect, Kuang Feifan’s decision was fortuitous. At the time, he had no idea about the situation inside, let alone that Wang Hai would be forced to fall from the window. It was pure luck that led him to save Wang Hai’s life.

Upon hearing the account, Wang Hai felt a profound sense of luck and repeated his thanks profusely.

Kuang Feifan waved his hand, urging him to conserve energy and recover quickly so they could leave. However, now that Wang Hai was conscious, his mind was full of questions. He couldn't help but want to understand the entire sequence of events and why they had endured such horror. Zhang Xiaohui also desperately wanted to know the reason, managing to interject with a weak effort to understand.

Regarding this, Kuang Feifan and Feng Tian had already debated the matter in the car. Kuang Feifan began by asking Wang Hai and Zhang Xiaohui what they had done inside and everything they experienced. When he learned from Zhang Xiaohui about what she had seen in the bathroom, a general outline of the entire incident formed in his mind.

Tracing the matter back to its root, it all came down to the power of the Nine-Turn Soul Suppressing Formation. According to their analysis with Feng Tian, the formation's primary ability was to transform a person’s deepest fears into tangible reality, even manifesting them physically. Everything they, including Kuang Feifan and Feng Tian, had experienced seemed to be a result of this ability.

Just like Zhao Hongcheng he had seen in the hospital stairwell—it was highly likely that he didn't actually look like that; it was entirely due to the formation's influence. However, the uncertainty remained: was Zhao Hongcheng transformed into that state by what he feared most, or was that merely what Kuang Feifan perceived? Did Zhao Hongcheng look normal in reality?

Of course, he had no way of knowing what Zhao Hongcheng saw that terrified him enough to jump from the building.

These were just speculations, much like the scenario Feng Tian had encountered. As for Wang Hai and Zhang Xiaohui, their ordeal probably started with Zhang Xiaohui. She might have been unconsciously influenced from the beginning, leading her to use tears to manipulate Wang Hai into "interacting," possibly even manifesting the white-robed ghost she feared internally into reality.

Kuang Feifan surmised the formation wasn't omnipotent; thus, it couldn't excavate every fear from a person's heart, only choose one target.

Furthermore, he and Feng Tian suspected the formation’s influence varied from person to person. Kuang Feifan strongly suspected that when he first saw Zhao Hongcheng, the formation might have only affected his vision, making him believe Zhao Hongcheng’s face had turned terrifyingly grotesque. Later, on the rooftop, the formation had muddled his thinking, causing the impulse to jump down with the others.

Similarly, Feng Tian’s experience in the elevator stemmed directly from one of his nightmares. Since the dream deeply affected him, he saw himself lying in a morgue bed. However, both he and Kuang Feifan managed to realize the problem in time and resolve their predicaments.

But for ordinary people like Wang Hai and Zhang Xiaohui, escaping the formation’s influence was much harder. Or rather, if Kuang Feifan hadn't arrived, their fate, like Zhao Hongcheng's and Old Hou's, would have been sealed in death.

Clearly, the formation had manifested Zhang Xiaohui’s fear into something real. Zhang Xiaohui herself realized this after hearing Kuang Feifan’s analysis; she had recently watched a horror movie, and the image of the white-robed woman was the ghost from that film—an image that had frightened her for a long time.

Kuang Feifan figured that precisely because they were ordinary people, the formation's influence on them was amplified. The manifested entity—the physical embodiment of Zhang Xiaohui’s fear—was something even Kuang Feifan witnessed upon entering. However, since he only saw the white-robed woman but didn't hear her voice, he strongly believed she wasn't a genuine ghost; the figure was likely just a construct birthed by the Nine-Turn Soul Suppressing Formation from Zhang Xiaohui’s own mind, unable to fully affect him.

Ultimately, these were just theories and deductions, but Kuang Feifan felt the probability of this being close to the final truth was very high.

After hearing his explanation, a look of terror washed over both Wang Hai and Zhang Xiaohui’s faces. Even though Wang Hai had seen video footage, it was just that—like watching a horror film. Experiencing it firsthand was something they might not have endured.

Fortunately, their lives were no longer in immediate danger, and they just needed to regain some strength to leave this place soon.

Kuang Feifan told them to continue resting, then pulled out his phone to call Feng Tian, intending to report the situation here. But after the call connected, there was only silence for a long time, with no one answering.