Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

Under the state of Spirit Vision, Du Wei quickened his pace considerably.

Beyond the mansion's interior decorations, what he saw were strands of black particles converging into threads like a spiderweb, disjointed and intermittent.

He felt he had grasped at some crucial clue, but the lack of information prevented him from making an accurate judgment.

If he could just figure out everything that had happened to Mrs. Mina, he would understand why so many strange things had occurred to her.

When he arrived at the door with a pink heart sign hanging on it, Du Wei stopped.

On the sign was written: Kelly's den.

Of course, that wasn't important; what was important was that he seemed to hear some kind of eerie noise.

Thud... Thud...

It sounded like someone pacing back and forth, but something was off.

Because the sound was very muffled, more like objects colliding with each other.

It also resembled the sound of knocking on a table,

After a moment of thought, Du Wei reached out with his right hand, grasped the doorknob, turned it calmly, and slowly pushed open the door.

The next second, his eyes turned extremely cold and his expression exceedingly grim.

He saw that a corpse was hanging from the ceiling, a sturdy rope tied at one end to the chandelier's fixed anchor and at the other tightly bound to the corpse's ankles.

Blood had spread down from the ankles, already showing signs of having partially coagulated, clearly indicating a time of death either shortly before or after Father Tony's phone call.

"It's Kelly..."

In Kelly's bedroom, many dolls were placed around, and right in the center of the room, a Hexagram Array was drawn with blood.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

A candle was burning at each point, creating an extremely sinister atmosphere.

"But what was the sound I just heard?"

Under the state of Spirit Vision, Du Wei had not seen anything abnormal; even the room was devoid of the intermittent black threads he had seen previously.

There wasn't even a trace of wind in the room, the windows closed, the curtains drawn, the candles on the floor burning steadily, Kelly's body not swaying in the slightest, and since the body was hung up, it couldn't possibly collide frontally with any object.

"Something is not right."

Du Wei scanned the room with an unflappable gaze, thought for a moment, and then stepped inside.

After surveying Kelly's body for a few moments, his gaze began to move downward, eventually settling on her face, blackened by candle smoke.

The skin appeared somewhat dry, with fine wounds and peeling layers of skin on the tip of the nose and the lips.

Drops of thick blood converged downward, but due to coagulation, had formed bead-like clots at the tip of her nose and corners of her mouth.

This resulted from the heat of the burning candles.

Next, Du Wei examined the Hexagram pattern drawn in blood and the candles placed at each point.

In the center of the Hexagram pattern lay a puddle of coagulated blood, looking fierce and nauseating.

The candles had burned down by more than half, suggesting that the scene had been arranged around the same time as Kelly's death.

So, Du Wei took out his phone and snapped a photo.

Although he had recently been studying up on Exorcist knowledge, many details, especially the more secretive information, were still unclear to him.

More professional matters should be left to more professional people.

Like Father Tony, for instance.

Beep...

The call connected promptly.

Du Wei spoke calmly, "I'm Du Wei, Kelly is dead, but her death is unnatural, someone has set up a Hexagram pattern in her bedroom. I'm sending you a photo now, if you find anything, please let me know immediately."

On the other side of the phone, Father Tony fell silent for a moment before saying, "What about Mrs. Mina?"

Du Wei said, "Her body has not been found yet, but I suspect she has withheld some information from me, and... the chances of her survival aren't very high."

Father Tony heaved a sigh and replied, "I understand. Do your best to investigate the truth. The church is very concerned about you. As for the hexagram pattern, I need to check the church records; I seem to have seen it somewhere."

"And... could you not hang up the phone? I want to know about Mrs. Mina's fate as soon as possible."

"Why? It will affect me."

"Mr. Du Wei, this is a secret I find extremely difficult to disclose. Please, will you do this for me?"

"...When necessary, I will hang up the phone."

"No problem, I will cooperate with you."

Du Wei pressed the power button to turn off the phone's screen and did not end the call but put it into his pocket.

Although Father Tony did not say what his secret was, Du Wei had a good guess.

After all, during their first encounter, when Du Wei informed him about an incident with the Evil Spirit, his response had been very officious, following church procedures: report first, wait for the church's confirmation...

Even though this was based on the fact there were no exorcists in New York.

However, when he was informed that Mrs. Mina's daughter was possessed by the Evil Spirit, Father Tony practically discarded the so-called procedures and hoped that Du Wei could handle and resolve the situation.

It was probably an old melodrama...

Of course, this was not important to Du Wei.

It was merely a matter of hanging up the phone when necessary.

Thinking this, Du Wei briskly pulled back the curtains. Stay updated with empire

Gloomy light streamed in through the glass windows, which showed no sign of having been opened.

Du Wei frowned and muttered, "Strange."

The sound he had heard had vanished the moment he opened the door.

Spirit Vision in its Third Phase had not revealed any signs of the Evil Spirit's presence; it seemed certain that the thumping sound was unrelated to the Evil Spirit.

"A person?"

Du Wei silently pondered, his gaze sweeping over every possible hiding spot.

Kelly's room had only a very low bed, a wardrobe, a shoe rack, a desk for studying, and a small piano.

If someone were hiding in this bedroom, the wardrobe was the likeliest place.

With this thought, Du Wei approached the wardrobe and gently opened it.

However, his discovery was disappointing.

The wardrobe contained nothing but some children's clothes; there were no secret compartments to hide a person.

"This bedroom has a suffocating and eerie feel to it; perhaps I shouldn't stay here any longer."

At that moment, the phone in his pocket came alive with the sound of pages being turned, and Father Tony reminded him from the other end, "Mr. Du Wei, I just found the church records about the hexagram pattern. Many cults use this pattern, and their worshippers are often extremely evil beings, but they are so well-hidden that the church cannot identify them specifically."

"Can you find out which cult it might be? I seem to have been targeted by these people lately."

"Uh... I'll look further. Oh, and you should be careful. In recent months, there have been strange messages at the church. These cultists appear to be looking for something, conducting sacrificial rituals in various places."

"Understood."

Father Tony's words did not bring much help to Du Wei; they only made him more puzzled.

Could it be the work of cultists?

It did not seem likely; there were indeed signs of the Evil Spirit's presence in this villa, only it seemed to have concealed itself and was not in this bedroom.

Du Wei shook his head and got down on the floor to check under Kelly's bed.

At that moment, his eyes narrowed slightly.

There was also a hexagram under the bed, but it seemed very old and somewhat faded...