Kuang Feifan listened to Feng Tian speak and felt a shift inside him. It was obvious that Feng Tian had laid a trap with his words, yet sometimes people are just like that—the closer they are to the truth, separated by only a thin sheet of paper, the more they want to pierce it and understand. He nodded in agreement.

Feng Tian said hesitantly, "In fact, the notion that willow branches can ward off evil spirits has been around for a long time. As the saying goes, 'Strike a ghost with a willow branch, and it shrinks with every blow,' meaning that if you hit a ghost with a willow branch, it shrinks three inches with each strike. However, I’ve never actually used a willow branch to strike a real ghost. It’s only used occasionally when dealing with possessing spirits, mainly because the method is time-consuming, susceptible to environmental conditions, and depends on whether the willow branch itself is pure."

"Pure?" Kuang Feifan interrupted, leaning forward.

Feng Tian rested a hand on the steering wheel and shrugged. "Yes, whether it’s been bitten by insects, or if it contains chemical fertilizers or pesticides. You have to remember, in the old days, we didn't use chemical fertilizers or spray pesticides. Otherwise, why do you think I don't carry a Peachwood Sword or similar artifacts? Peach trees nowadays, making a sword out of them? Useless."

Hearing Feng Tian's complaint, Kuang Feifan couldn't help but chuckle, urging him to continue.

Feng Tian sighed softly and went on, "Fortunately, the willows by the lake were slightly better. But just in case, I twisted a few branches together and sprinkled some strengthening agent on them."

Kuang Feifan frowned, expressing his dissatisfaction with the strange terminology Feng Tian frequently threw out. He couldn't help but ask, "Speak plain language, will you? What's a strengthening agent? Is it your blood?"

Feng Tian cleared his throat and lowered his voice involuntarily, "Of course not. It’s just some virgin boy's urine..."

Kuang Feifan couldn't help but widen his eyes, staring at Feng Tian for a long moment. Then he turned to look at Ji Ping, only to find Ji Ping rolling his eyes and tilting his head toward the car window, as if admiring the scenery outside.

After a while, Kuang Feifan’s expression suddenly relaxed. He leaned back against the rear seat and said lightly, "That’s it? Nothing else?"

Feng Tian was momentarily stunned. He glanced at Kuang Feifan through the rearview mirror and saw that he didn't seem to have any extreme reaction. Feng Tian felt a bit strange; had he finally become accustomed to these little tricks of his?

In fact, Kuang Feifan had become somewhat used to it. Things like pure Yang blood and virgin boy's urine frequently appeared in the methods Feng Tian employed. He had encountered similar things when dealing with the Mirror Ghost at the villa last time; this was nothing more than that.

However, although his tone sounded light and airy, his hand couldn't help but wipe itself on his clothes.

Seeing that Kuang Feifan didn't show strong aversion, Feng Tian breathed a sigh of relief. But as soon as he looked up and noticed the unconscious gesture, he quickly reassured him: "Don't worry, I actually just sprinkled a little on the tip of the willow whip. Where you held it shouldn't have gotten any. In the tense situation back then, how much urine do you think I could even produce? It was already a lot just to squeeze out a bit."

Indeed, at that moment, he had only managed to force some out; sometimes, it wasn't available just because one wanted it. Thinking back on the subsequent turn of events, Feng Tian felt quite depressed about the measures he had taken then.

The entire affair had unfolded in ways that were largely beyond his expectations. Firstly, the remnant soul that had transferred from Ji Ping into him was wickedly powerful. He believed this remnant soul was not only connected to the Qipao Ghost that later appeared but was likely controlled by her. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to control his body while inside him, even managing to force him to emit sounds uncontrollably, creating a resonance with the Qipao Ghost's cries that confused the minds of Kuang Feifan and Ji Ping—it nearly ruined him too at the hands of that female ghost.

As for why Feng Tian ended up at the bottom of the lake and why Kuang Feifan picked up his phone, the story was not overly complicated.

Feng Tian knew about the presence of Water Monkeys in the artificial lake in front of the theater, but he hadn't seen them with his own eyes. So, when he went to the address to find Ji Ping, not only did he fail to find him, but he also discovered that not far from the house of the man surnamed Lu, there was the rumored haunted artificial lake.

He initially thought that the reason he couldn't find any trace of Ji Ping might be connected to the lake. But before he could decide whether to check the shore, he suddenly saw several dark figures flash by in the distance across the road. Although he couldn't see them clearly, the figures in his line of sight were short and incredibly fast. He just found it highly suspicious, so he instinctively decided to follow them to investigate. By his estimate, he was standing right in front of that roadside flowerbed, and to keep up, he planned to show off a bit of his skill, leaping over the flowerbed and dashing across the road toward where the dark figures had disappeared. It was probably around then that his phone slipped out of his trouser pocket into the flowerbed.

What he didn't know then was that by turning in the direction the dark figures went, he would truly witness the rumored artificial lake, and also see those same dark figures again. They were gathered by the lakeside, turning to look at him as if sensing his arrival. Feng Tian finally saw them clearly: covered in black fur, with blood-red eyes—they were the legendary Water Monkeys.

At the same time, he also saw a motionless man lying on the ground directly in front of those dark-furred creatures. But before he could clearly make out who the man was, the black-furred Water Monkeys suddenly reached out and shoved hard, pushing the man straight into the lake. Immediately after, they plunged into the lake one after another, seemingly completely ignoring Feng Tian’s presence from beginning to end.

Feng Tian didn't know if the man pushed into the lake was Ji Ping or the gas station manager surnamed Lu. He instinctively tried hard to recall what the man looked like from that brief glimpse, but the more he recalled, the more certain he became that it was Ji Ping. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to dive into the lake himself to investigate.

He rummaged through the simple tool bag he carried, pulling out a few essential items, including several simple inflatable airbags. Then he hid the bag somewhere, and once his preparations were complete, he hung the airbags on the belt at his waist and leaped into the lake.

However, shortly after submerging in the lake water, he regretted it. Not only did he find the man who had been pushed into the water, but he also discovered that it was clearly a dead body. Several dark Water Monkeys were gathered around the corpse, moving their hands and feet in what looked like a surprisingly rhythmic manner, as if they were holding some kind of celebratory ceremony.

But he noted the man was not Ji Ping, so after seeing that he was already dead, he decided it was best to go back. This was the domain of the Water Monkeys; underwater, no one could compete with them.

Just as Feng Tian prepared to float to the surface, he suddenly realized that Water Monkeys were approaching him from above, as well as from all sides—front, back, left, and right. He wasn't sure if they had discovered his presence, but their formation was clearly blocking his route to the surface. In desperation, Feng Tian had no choice but to continue diving deeper, relying on the simple airbags to carefully conceal himself within the dense aquatic grass at the bottom of the lake.

To be honest, this decision was very poor. At the lakebed, he discovered several skeletons. Perhaps he was lucky, but the Water Monkeys seemed not to have noticed him, all congregating in front of the corpses, looking for all the world as if they were having a party.

They wouldn't leave, and he dared not leave, forced to endure underwater. But the situation seemed to grow increasingly serious. The Water Monkeys showed no intention of leaving; in fact, they seemed to be getting more and more enthusiastic, as if they had taken some kind of blue pill and were over-excited.

After much deliberation, Feng Tian decided to attempt to signal for outside help. By then, he had already realized his phone was missing, but this realization made him happy rather than angry. Although he wasn't one hundred percent confident that Kuang Feifan would come looking for him here, he enacted a small trick. He condensed the residual, unconscious spirits generated when various creatures died within the water into a small sphere of light. This minor spell was originally used for locating lost items, and his phone was naturally one of the targets he had set. He figured the best outcome would be for Kuang Feifan to find his phone, and upon seeing the light sphere formed by this spell, he would surely take action. If he was smart enough, he would follow the light sphere to find him.

In reality, Kuang Feifan's reaction was almost exactly what he had hoped for. Feng Tian hoped for Kuang Feifan’s appearance for another reason: he remembered the prayer beads Kuang Feifan wore on his wrist. The spiritual energy within the human-bone beads was the fatal nemesis of these Water Monkeys, who were formed from resentful spirits.

However, Kuang Feifan didn't know any of this at the time. But even if he had known his beads could suppress Water Monkeys, seeing a dense mass of them underwater, he wouldn't have dared to charge forward relying on the beads. The sheer pressure of that scene alone would have been enough to cause a mental breakdown.

Feng Tian had no idea how long he had been underwater. The few airbags he carried were nearing exhaustion, and one by one, he silently cast his minor spells, yet saw no change.

It wasn't until suddenly he saw the Water Monkeys violently scatter that he was momentarily stunned. The event was quite sudden; he didn't know if the party was over, if someone had arrived, or if there was another reason.

As he was pondering whether this was a good time to swim to the surface, who knew that before he could even begin to consider it, he noticed that the Water Monkeys hadn't truly left the area; instead, they were hiding individually, as if setting up an ambush, preparing to strike someone.

This situation immediately gave him a sense of impending disaster. As if to confirm this feeling, shortly after, he saw Ji Ping acting incredibly strangely. To his surprise, he also spotted Kuang Feifan’s figure appearing in the lake. At that moment, there was so much happening to take in that he didn't even notice Kuang Feifan had actually entered the water by following the "Object-Seeking Ball" he had released.

Compared to Kuang Feifan’s appearance, he paid more attention to Ji Ping's bizarre movements. Just as he saw Ji Ping reaching out as if preparing to pull off the corpse's head, something even more shocking occurred.

Feng Tian suddenly saw countless pairs of eyes, as red as fresh blood, light up in the aquatic grass not far from him.