Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

In the room, apart from the small area illuminated by the burning candlelight, the rest was engulfed in thick, oppressive shadows.

Du Wei sat on a chair, closed Mike Stowe's diary, and stared expressionlessly at the white mask.

Aside from the eye holes, the mask was blank at the nose and mouth.

The mask felt dangerous to Du Wei; it seemed to harbor something extremely evil.

According to Mike Stowe's diary, after he wore one of the masks, an Evil Spirit began to haunt him.

That Evil Spirit must be from this mansion, but its condition seemed strange.

As for the remaining mask, Mike Stowe had not touched it again.

That is to say, there should still be an Evil Spirit inside the mask.

At this moment, Du Wei suddenly frowned, as if something had invaded his nostrils, causing him great discomfort.

"It's dust… no, it's the Bone Powder that can counter Evil Spirits."

He looked down at the floor, noticing that the Bone Powder he had scattered around after sitting had been silently brushed away at one corner.

Meanwhile, behind Du Wei, in the midst of the shadows, a pair of hands slowly reached out.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The hands were fair and delicate; besides that, the owner of the hands was hidden in the shadows, with their body and outline completely obscured.

Unfortunately for Du Wei, as he was sitting in the chair, from his tilted perspective, the hands reached out directly towards his neck.

All was silent.

There was not even a wisp of air movement; no one could have reacted in time.

Du Wei was no exception. Upon noticing the unexpected gap in the Bone Powder that encircled him, he immediately grabbed the mask without hesitation.

Then, he placed it directly onto his face.

"In the face of death, you should remain calm."

Du Wei told himself this and, the next second, he stood up, pulled back the chair, and looked behind him.

In an instant.

The fair and delicate hands appeared in front of Du Wei, just ten centimeters from his neck—just a little bit further and they would have touched his skin.

But they stopped.

At that moment, the mask obscured Du Wei's face, completely concealing any emotion, leaving only a sense of chilling, eerie, and oppressive atmosphere.

It was as if, with the mask on, it wasn't Du Wei, but another entity entirely.

Looking at the hands, Du Wei's voice was low and grave, "Evil Spirit? Let's just call you that, even though I still don't know what triggered you. But I've pretty much figured out the secrets of the mansion."

"And now, I want to do an experiment on you."

Having said that, Du Wei took a step forward, entering the third phase of Spirit Vision, and reached out with his Right Hand transformed by the Evil Spirit, attempting to grab hold.

Unfortunately, in the next instant, the arms that protruded from the shadows, as if sensing something, swiftly retracted.

He caught nothing…

"What are you afraid of?"

The eyes of the mask, cold in their gaze, grew even icier.

Unrelenting, Du Wei walked towards the shadows. He even pulled out a lighter from his pocket, one that could be used against Evil Spirits, and flicked it on.

If needed, he was even ready to set the mansion ablaze.

Impacting reality requires a foundation in reality, otherwise, it's just wishful thinking.

Regrettably, as Du Wei operated the lighter, the entire mansion underwent a conspicuous change.

The anomalies detectable in the state of Spirit Vision receded rapidly, like a swiftly ebbing tide.

The red flame of the lighter was also extinguished quickly.

"Was I kicked out of the game?"

Du Wei's voice was filled with surprise; he had not expected such an outcome at all.

"What a pity."

With a sigh, Du Wei looked around the room with a tinge of regret as the candlelight on the table gradually illuminated the surroundings, revealing the room's true appearance.

The setup was of another bedroom, but the walls were adorned with many different masks, each one unique—some without facial features, others with only a singular feature, or not even resembling a human face at all, but more like that of a wild beast.

It was at this moment that Du Wei's phone rang.

After giving it some thought, he took it out and glanced at the screen; the caller was Father Tony. There were about a dozen missed calls from when the phone had lost its signal.

After pressing the answer button, an anxious voice from Father Tony burst forth from the other end of the line.

"Mr. Du Wei, finally the call got through. I'm almost at Mrs. Mina's house. How are you doing now?"

"The situation is very good..."

...

After hanging up the phone.

Du Wei stuffed the lighter into his pocket and stood silent in place, as if frozen.

Meanwhile, in his mind, there was a feeling of nausea that could not be described with words.

It was like the first time he entered the Spirit Vision state, with piercing buzzing in his ears and a faint stabbing pain in his heart. Most distressingly, it felt as though something was forcefully trying to cram itself into his brain, causing excruciating pain as if it were about to split open.

A raging irritability was building up inside him, wanting to burst forth, but after putting on the mask, a cold and gloomy chill crept over his skin, spreading from the mask.

Madness and reason were forcefully twisted together.

Crack...

Du Wei forcibly controlled his Right Hand to grab the mask and harshly threw it to the ground; the hollow area where the eyes should be seemed to eerily gaze back at him.

"Huff... Huff..."

At that moment, Du Wei's face was terrifyingly pale, drained of all color.

"It looks a lot like possession by an Evil Spirit, but it seems not quite the same."

"Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to get rid of it at all."

Just now, Du Wei had vividly felt an unusual discord in his consciousness and he even couldn't control his own emotions.

Moreover, Du Wei felt that after wearing the mask, it was as if he was manipulating a corpse, not his own body.

Like a dead person.

As if turned into an Evil Spirit but without the powers associated with one.

The existence of the mask seemed more like a switch.

With this thought, Du Wei shook his head and, with complex emotions, wrapped the mask in an Exorcism cloth and stuffed it into his backpack.

The diary was treated the same way.

Then, he laboriously lifted his backpack and, with slow steps, left Mike Stowe's bedroom.

On the second floor of the villa, everything had returned to how it was when he'd arrived; the stairway that had been replaced by the floor and walls now reappeared.

"It's as if I was pulled into a strange space,"

Du Wei said with a detached voice as he passed by Kelly's bedroom and glanced inside.

The sky outside was overcast, but the previously oppressive darkness was gone.

The candles were nearly burnt out, and the body was left intact...

It seemed that the scene of lighting Kelly's hair on fire had been nothing but an illusion.

Though the Evil Spirit in the villa had retracted its hands backward while he was trying to connect with it, just this act had given Du Wei a lot of information.

For example, what the shushing gesture signified...