Chapter 69: Spirits

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Hao kicked over a dilapidated wooden barrel, instantly breaking it into pieces.

He was a young lad, around sixteen years old, with long brown hair tied into a ponytail and violet colored eyes, he wasn't too good looking but he wasn't ugly either. He wore a weathered leather jacket that had seen better days, adorned with patches and faded insignias.

Frustration etched across his face, Hao's hands clenched into fists. He would've started destroying the place if it wasn't for the fact that it would alert the new OWNERS of the villa... and that it would probably collapse the wooden floor.

"That stupid old geezer!" He angrily muttered but was helpless.

Hao paced back and forth in the dimly lit room, his frustration boiling over. The creaky floorboards beneath his worn-out sneakers protested each step he took.

His father, the seller, had made a deal that Hao couldn't fathom. Heck selling it in the first place was dumb! Although their own home was nice and a bit better than most of the houses in the village, this old villa, his great-grandfather or whatever left behind is a hundred times better. It's a villa for Gods' sake!

Hao could already picture it, this huge villa, all tidied up and renovated, as he and his friends all day and night. The booze, games and women that the villa promised were now slipping away like sand through his fingers. The reality of losing this grandiose inheritance was infuriating.

He gritted his teeth, 'It's all because ma and pa keep insisting that this place is cursed by some ancient Evil Soul Master, like most old people in the village.'

He was once superstitious like them but when his father decided to sell off the villa, he gathered up all his courage and went into the old property to keep any interested customers from buying it.

Much to his surprise back then, there had been no signs of a curse or any supernatural presence. The only thing haunting the villa was dust and neglect. It seemed like his parents had been caught up in the superstitions of the village, letting go of a treasure trove for a pittance.

His first thought was letting his parents know of the truth but he quickly threw that thought away as he knew how stubborn they could be. Instead, a new plan formed in his mind. If he couldn't convince them with reason, he would have to take matters into his own hands.

It was a very simple plan, every time his father would bring in buyers he'd start haunted house pranks to scare them away. Perhaps, if the potential owners believed the place was truly cursed, they'd reconsider the purchase, and his family would be able to keep the villa.

And it worked, using every trick in the book, he managed to scare off thirteen potential owners without his parents ever figuring out the truth.

Hao thought that his father would finally give up… until on his way home from school, he saw his father walking towards the direction of the villa with a familiar flattering smile on his face.

It was unbelievable. Not only did he not give up but he actually managed to sell off the villa to, to… some freaking kids!!

'They looked to be around my age as well, especially that girl.' Thinking about the pretty girl in gothic lolita clothes made him gulp, crossing his legs. He shook his head.

The most important thing right now was that they had bought the villa, with most of the necessary paperworks signed and the key in their hand, specifically in the boy's hands.

Simple scare tactics aren't going to work this time. Because even if he scared them off, the deal had already been sealed and he no longer has any legal grounds to intervene.

"What should I do, what should I do?! S-Should I… give up?" Hao took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm of emotions within him. Giving up was not in his nature, especially when it came to something he deemed rightfully his.

The thought of surrendering the grand villa to those strangers felt disgusting to him.

This was his, and his only.

"No way," he muttered to himself, clenching his fists again. "I can't just give up. NOT AFTER II WENT THROUGH A LOT FUCKING EFFORT!!"

He paced around the room, his mind racing with ideas. He needed a plan, a strategy that would turn the tide back in his favor.

He looked around and his eyes widened as a shiny light caught his attention.

Before he realized it, he had picked it up.

It was an axe. Just like most of the items in the old villa, it was rusted and covered in dust, but its edged looked sharp and it felt sturdy in Hao's grip.

'Kill them… Kill them all…' A strange old voice sounded in the back of Hao's mind, subconsciously gripping the axe.

Hao's eyes glazed over, a murderous intent simmering beneath the surface. The strange voice echoed louder, urging him to take drastic measures to reclaim what he believed was rightfully his.

He walked up to the door, an eerie wide smile on his dark malevolent face.

Unbeknownst to him however, a dark shadow with two red flaming eyes appeared behind him, muttering,

"Kill them… Kill them all! Soul masters… Every single one of them must die!"

…..

Huo Yuhao looked at the faded picture in his hand, curiosity in his eyes. After a couple hours of searching around the house for the spirits and finding none, even with his Sharingan, he decided to check out the house's history.

All he heard from this villa was about an ancient Evil Soul Master had once occupied it and cursed it when he died. He got it all from the villagers' mouths, which is not truly reliable as rumors or stories passed down through generations tend to get embellished.

"Was this the Evil Soul Master that once lived here?" The picture showed two people, a man and a woman, the latter's face was unfortunately blurred from the passage of time.

The man's face however, was still eligible enough to make out that he was in his thirties, handsome with sharp features and muscular characteristics, and he had a kind smile on his face.

"What had happened that caused you to become an Evil Soul Master?" Huo Yuhao indifferently hummed and continued to study the picture. He wondered what events had transpired in this old villa that led to the man's descent into darkness.

Was out of his own nature/martial soul? Or... did something else drove him into the dark path?

'Eh, old man? I'm not picking up any spirits or any other spiritual wavelengths in the villa.'

"Spirits aren't just... perpetual creatures that exists only in the mortal realm," The grey ball responded, it's grey flames weakly flickered. "There are many factors that can affect their presence, including the passage of time and the strength of their connection to the physical world. However, this currently isn't the case as I can sense them. Not just their presence, but also their emotions; of their fear, sadness, anger, regrets... Their cries stimulated my spiritual imprint."

"From what I can tell, they could only appear during certain conditions. At midnight, with lightning and thunder cracking the sky, and when one's blood with vengeance flow the statue's eyes."

'... So we can only purify the spirits when it's storming?'

"It looks like the conditions was set when the Evil Soul Master had died. The rumours seemed to be true, and these spirits were the caster's servants, hostages and... experiments."

Huo Yuhao sighed. "Alright, alright. I'm going to help purify them. No need to guilt trip me anymore."

The grey ball weakly chuckled and floated nearer to Huo Yuhao. "Remember, their souls are filled with negative emotions and suffering. It won't be an easy task to purify them, but it–hm? This smell... Disgusting yet so familiar..."

"What is it? Rats? Yeah... I knew that there was going to be some dead animals and feces from strays but, ugh. It's much more disgusting with Spiritual Detection–"

Huo Yuhao blinked, narrowing his eyes as he turned his head towards the door. His three souls rings appeared around him, the first let out soft white glow towards his eyes.

The light in the room disappeared, even though it was still high noon, the shadows seemed to grow darker and more menacing. Huo Yuhao's Sharingan saw everything in the villa, regardless of obstruction like walls, after his cultivation breakthroughs his Spiritual Detection's range had increased from around 100 meters to an incredible 550 meters of range!

It meant he could not only see everything in the villa but also most of the village nearby.

And yet, despite the expanded range of his Spiritual Detection, he hadn't detected the figure walking towards his location, the master bedroom, until he was a few meters away from the door.

What's worse was that he couldn't detect anything outside of the villa, as well as Tang Ya! It was as if a dark void had enveloped the entire area, obscuring his senses.

"NOOO! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"

"Hateful... Hateful...."

"No, no! Milord, have mercy!!"

"Booohoooo... My child, my beloved Andre..."

"The spirits are appearing? This... This spiritual wavelength... So malicious and strong. I can't be wrong, this is the caster, the Evil Soul Master's spirit!"

Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow, despite the temperature around him getting lower and the voices of the vengeful spirits getting louder, he acted nonchalantly.

Compared to surviving three months in the extreme cold, without any of his powers, whilst battling powerful bloodthirsty soul beasts and dealing with the pressure of death at every second, this situation was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

However, that didn't mean he didn't feel any empathy towards the crying spirits.

'Sick bastard. Bad enough you tormented them in life, but to also damned their souls from entering the afterlife or reincarnation. Unforgivable.'

"You wanna come in?" He asked aloud, as the weathered wooden door begun trembling. "Sorry, but you came in a bad time."

Mischievously, he encased the door with ice with a flip of his hand.

"..."

The door went silent for second before it trembled once more, desperately trying to break through the ice barrier. Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the determination of the spiritual presence on the other side.

"Hmm, seems like you really want to come in," he mused, his voice filled with amusement.

"Little Yuhao," The grey ball spoke up, lighting up like a fireball. "there's another way of purifying the spirits. It's the simplest yet hardest method, but with me here helping you, this is going to be easily resolved."

"Let me guess, kick the ghostly apparition that's trying to break down the door's ass?"

The grey ball chuckled. "Basically, yes. Keep it bound, which wouldn't be hard as it seemed to have possessed an ordinary person, and I'll handle the rest."

Huo Yuhao chuckled, "Aight, but I'm gonna have some fun with this guy first."

The wooden door trembled uncontrollably as the presence on the other side grew increasingly frustrated. Huo Yuhao could almost sense the impatience emanating from the spirit.

"Well then, let's see how determined you really are," Huo Yuhao muttered, his eyes flashing with excitement. He performed a series of handseals, his stomach inflated and cheeks bulged like inflated balloons.

"Water Release: Water Bullet Technique"

Just as the ice covering the door broke apart, the wooden door split apart from a rusted yet sharply-edged axe. Hao walked in, a malicious smile on his angered face.

"I'm going to–!!" Hao's eyes widened as he suddenly froze in his tracks, a mixture of surprise, confusion, and fear taking over his features as he was immediately hit and washed away by a powerful torrent of water from Huo Yuhao's Water Bullet Technique.

Huo Yuhao stood in the center of the room, a smirk playing on his lips as he watched Hao struggle against the powerful force of the water. The spirits, sensing the presence of their tormentor, wailed louder, their cries echoing in the room.

"Don't resist," Huo Yuhao said calmly, his voice barely audible over the sound of rushing water. "I'm here to purify you all, to free you from your suffering."

Was it because they heard Huo Yuhao's words or felt their tormentor's vessel being punished, but the spirits soon calmed down.

Huo Yuhao calmly walked forward on the flooded room, a grin spread across his split lips.

"Now then, time to hunt down an Evil Soul Master's spirit. Hehe. This is the first time I'm hunting down one and it's making me excited."

.....

AN: Ah shit, I just realized what chapter we're in and I haven't provided the unofficial/unwritten rule of writing a lemon! Ah, I'll make one soon. Probably.

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