Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

When Du Wei pressed the lighter, a bizarre flame burst out instantly.

The color was a deep red, completely different from the normal flame which was orange at the top and blue at the bottom.

Kelly's hair ignited in a flash, with the foul smell of burning hair permeating the air.

The rolled-back flame spread along her hair with a boom.

Without expression, Du Wei watched Kelly's body, making eye contact, watching the flame roll upwards.

He had experimented with the lighter a few times when he had first acquired it.

Indeed, as Father Tony had said, it only worked when encountering the Evil Spirit, otherwise, it was completely useless.

"But, where is the Evil Spirit?"

Du Wei asked himself in his heart, staring coldly as Kelly's body was enveloped in flames, making the oppressive feeling grow even stronger during the process.

Yet the anticipated appearance of the Evil Spirit did not happen; it seemed to still conceal itself in the darkness.

Under the Spirit Vision state, he felt nothing out of the ordinary.

This body was not the medium...

Quietly retracting his gaze, Du Wei closed the lighter's wind guard, and the flame went out immediately.

At the same time, the fire burning on Kelly's body also started to shrink as if deprived of fuel and eventually disappeared entirely.

He needed to leave the villa, but the problem was, he was still under the influence of the Evil Spirit, with neither relatively positive contact nor any discovery of mechanisms.

It could be said that among the Evil Spirit events Du Wei had encountered, this one was the most troublesome.

Wait...

Du Wei furrowed his brow; he suddenly felt a chill, as if a breeze had blown into the bedroom.

This inexplicable chill arrived despite him wearing warm clothes due to the rainy weather, carrying a backpack, and having exerted himself quite a bit.

Yet, the unwarranted coldness seemed to penetrate the clothing and seep directly through the skin into his body.

Where his gaze fell, the windows were still tightly shut, as though cut off from the world, with darkness reigning outside.

So...

Was the door opened?

The next second.

Du Wei turned his head, his gaze as calm as if devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

As he expected, unperceived, the bedroom door had indeed been pushed open.

Outside the door was pitch darkness, frighteningly so.

It was like the bared fangs of a giant maw ready to swallow everything in the dark.

After a moment of thought, Du Wei withdrew from the Spirit Vision state and walked straight toward it; the firelight behind him casting his shadow, which appeared extremely elongated, it gradually faded away into the darkness.

He was guessing the intentions of this Evil Spirit.

Clearly, it seemed not to want to confront him directly, preferring a cat and mouse attitude, intending to plunge him into fear before delivering the fatal blow.

Moreover, it was different from other Evil Spirits; no mechanisms had been discovered up to this point and even the trigger medium was unclear.

It was like a gamble.

However, Du Wei no longer intended to continue the game; although a gamble with the Evil Spirit sounded interesting, it was actually meaningless, low-level, and tedious.

It was like navigating a maze, where from start to finish one might take countless wrong turns, but if one knows the destination, it's possible to pick the fastest and most convenient route.

Of course, that would be the ideal situation.

But Du Wei was able to make this ideal situation a reality.

He had seen his own death scene.

As long as he could find that place or create a similar environment, he could get infinitely closer to the outcome.

He was courting death...

But he believed that he, as seen in his death scene, wouldn't act in a way that was out of character.

In other words, death must be built on the premise that he was actively trying to solve the situation.

But clearly, Du Wei had failed.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Compared to other people or things, Du Wei trusted his judgment more, so he decided to take that as a premise and try a different method and angle to confront the Evil Spirit in the villa which had not shown itself until now.

Walking in the darkness.

He pressed the lighter, and a bean-sized flame burst into life.

The dim firelight cast an absurd shadow on Du Wei's face.

He even took out a cigarette and lit it slowly.

...

The second floor of the dark villa.

Only the patter of footsteps echoed; everything else seemed to fall into silence, as if soundproof glass enclosed the space, blocking out the fine sound of rain and noise from the outside world.

Suddenly...

A loud bang.

A burst of firelight flared in the darkness, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground, clattering loudly as it landed.

Expressionless, Du Wei stepped forward, using the light from his lighter to inspect the lock that had fallen to the ground.

"It seems my shooting is pretty good," he remarked.

No longer whispering, he pushed open the door and walked straight in.

In this villa, the room with the greatest suspicion was this locked one, so after leaving Kelly's bedroom, Du Wei had come straight here.

As he had said, his marksmanship was indeed good; he had calculated the angle carefully and, after confirming that the bullet wouldn't ricochet back at him, he hadn't hesitated to shoot the lock.

Though Du Wei knew that doing this might provoke an attack from the Evil Spirit, to some extent, it was also what he wanted.

Two lighters, one could only light cigarettes, while the other could be used against the Evil Spirit.

He never did anything without certainty.

He entered the room.

Almost immediately, he could smell a hint of decay.

Groping in the darkness, Du Wei's fingertips brushed against a switch.

"Should be for the lights," he guessed.

He pressed it gently.

The expected light did not come on.

Du Wei sighed and lit the lighter once more. This time, he saw a table, a chair, and on the table, there was a cylindrical candle.

"It looks like this is where I'm supposed to die," he said mockingly, slowly walking over, he took off his backpack and sat down on the chair he had pulled out.

And he used the lighter to ignite the candle.

At this moment, sitting in front of the chair, the scene almost exactly matched the death scene he had seen under the Spirit Vision.

And now, having emerged from the Spirit Vision, he was virtually defenseless.

He began to examine the table, curious about why in the vision of his death, he had been looking down at it and what he had been looking at.

Given his personality, he definitely would not do something meaningless.

The table had drawers, which were also locked.

Du Wei thought for a moment, then drew out the silver crucifix dagger he had received from Andrew Dowqui.

In his hands, the thing was mostly useless; he had used it more to smash stuff than to fight the Evil Spirit.

After breaking the lock, Du Wei was surprised to find two items inside: a diary and a mask.

The diary seemed quite ordinary, nothing special at a glance.

The mask, however, was a different story. Its style was not much different from the white, featureless one he had seen on the Evil Spirit with the walking stick, wearing the Golden Brooch, who was suspected to be Mrs. Mina's husband, on the bus.

The only difference was that it had holes for the eyes.