Chapter 147: The Blood Array
The reason Yang Haoran didn't want to use the talismans in his box was because Wang Yiming was there.
Wang Yiming belonged to the Talisman Order, and several talismans in Yang Haoran's box were types that had been lost to the Talisman Order. Although he hadn't verified this himself, the notes in the Broken Book indicated as much.
If the Broken Book's records were incorrect, using them in front of Wang Yiming wouldn't matter; he could simply say they were gifts from a friend for protection.
But if the Broken Book's records were true, then the matter couldn't be explained away with just a few words.
It wasn't that Yang Haoran was wary of Wang Yiming, but rather that too many secrets were involved. To keep these secrets safe, it was best not to let Wang Yiming know, so as to avoid trouble.
The floor where Guo Yu's department was located had already been sealed off by the police. The gentleman from before had jumped from this very floor, so it was hardly surprising that the police had cordoned off the area.
Nevertheless, there were still many curious onlookers who were both quite curious and quite terrified. They were all patients or patient family members in this hospital building, and they knew something of the strange occurrences at Tianhe Hospital recently. Thus, regarding the police sealing off the floor, those who didn't believe in ghosts and gods were curious, while those who did were filled with fear.
Yang Haoran naturally wouldn't concern himself with these matters. How the hospital dealt with the aftermath was the hospital's business, and Yang Haoran believed the hospital had the capacity to handle it. What they needed to do now was resolve the issue with this Skin-Borrowing Ghost.
On the entire floor, there were now only the three of them. Chen Ying, worried for Wang Yiming's safety, had originally wanted to come along but was sternly stopped by Wang Yiming.
In such an environment, any normal person would likely feel a chill down their spine. However, none of the three—Yang Haoran included—were normal, so they naturally felt no fear due to the gloomy atmosphere.
"Brother Yang, is he here? " Wang Yiming asked Yang Haoran.
When it came to Sense Yin, Yang Haoran, as a Night Watcher, was naturally the most accurate among the three. Wang Yiming knew this clearly; it was something neither he nor Xiao Tong could compare to.
"He was before, but he isn't now. " Yang Haoran's reply was certain.
When he had first entered this floor, he had indeed sensed the Skin-Borrowing Ghost's presence. But after the three of them stepped onto the floor, the Skin-Borrowing Ghost fled.
Wang Yiming didn't doubt Yang Haoran's answer; he turned his gaze to Xiao Tong, who was standing beside them.
Xiao Tong understood Wang Yiming's meaning. He nodded, wasted no words, pulled a dagger from his pocket, and directly slashed a gash across his palm.
Yang Haoran's eyebrows twitched at this sight. Although he didn't know exactly what Xiao Tong intended to do, it was certainly related to the Skin-Borrowing Ghost.
Fresh blood welled from the wound and dripped from Xiao Tong's palm. From beginning to end, this young Spirit Police officer Xiao Tong remained completely composed; he didn't even frown when he slashed his palm with the dagger, as if the cut wasn't on his own hand, but on someone else's.
"Ever since I witnessed Ma Ling's abilities last time, I suggested to the organization that we should assign an Array Master to our Spirit Police. The organization accepted my suggestion, and that's how Xiao Tong came to join us," Wang Yiming said to Yang Haoran.
Wang Yiming's explanation made Yang Haoran understand Xiao Tong's identity. It was somewhat surprising to him that this seemingly young man was actually an Array Master.
Back at the Wu Family Villa, he still vividly remembered Ma Ling's Nine Syllable Mantra Great Array. Its formidable power had left a deep impression on him. If not for Ma Ling's insufficient strength, that red-skirted Evil Spirit might have suffered Soul Transformation on the spot. This showed just how terrifying the power of a powerful array could be.
"The Nine Syllable Mantra Great Array is a secret technique of the Ma Family, never passed down. Though my current abilities aren't enough to set up such a powerful killing formation, I can still create formations to lure and trap ghosts."
As Xiao Tong's voice faded, he pulled out a strip of cloth he had prepared earlier and wrapped it around his wound. By now, a small puddle of fresh blood had already collected on the ground in front of him.
After bandaging the wound, Xiao Tong formed hand seals with both hands, rapidly chanting incantations that Yang Haoran couldn't understand.
Although Yang Haoran couldn't understand the incantations Xiao Tong was chanting, he knew what Xiao Tong intended to do by letting out his own fresh blood.
He was going to set up a formation, and he was using his own fresh blood to do it!
Under normal circumstances, formations are divided into three types: living arrays, dead arrays, and Blood Arrays.
A so-called living array uses living creatures to form the array. Ma Ling had set up this type of formation back at Old Master Wu's house; the simple evil-expelling formation she created with black cats, black dogs, and roosters was a type of living array.
A dead array, as the name suggests, uses inanimate objects to form the array. Any non-animal existence, including living plants, are categorized as inanimate objects here. Formations created with them are called dead arrays.
A Blood Array, on the other hand, uses fresh blood as a medium, then combines chanted incantations and specific hand seals to create the formation. This type of formation is known as a Blood Array.
What Xiao Tong was doing now made Yang Haoran feel as though he was setting up a Blood Array.
Besides a Blood Array, he truly couldn't think of any other possibility.
Facts proved Yang Haoran's guess was correct. As Xiao Tong's hands, forming hand seals, moved faster and faster, and the incantations he chanted grew more rapid, the fresh blood on the ground in front of him suddenly began to squirm as if alive.
In just a few breaths, Xiao Tong's hands, forming hand seals, abruptly paused, and he stopped chanting. The squirming blood on the ground suddenly vibrated violently.
"Form the array!"
A low shout issued from Xiao Tong's mouth. The vibrating blood, as if receiving a command, transformed into streaks of blood, then quickly outlined a pattern on the ground, centered around Xiao Tong's body.
The speed of the blood lines was so swift that they created a whooshing sound on the quiet floor!
In the blink of an eye, a complex formation, crafted from fresh blood, materialized beneath Xiao Tong.
The formation wasn't large; it merely encompassed Xiao Tong. Yet, upon this modest formation, Yang Haoran sensed an indescribable, eerie power fluctuation.
Even more surprising to him was that once the formation beneath Xiao Tong took shape, the Yin Qi swirling around him seemed to respond to some call, subtly beginning to converge towards the formation.
"With this formation activated, whether that Skin-Borrowing Ghost likes it or not, I can make him come rolling over!"
At this moment, Xiao Tong seemed like a different person. Not only had his expression become utterly confident, but even his tone of voice had gained a domineering edge it lacked before.
Yang Haoran didn't know what kind of formation this was, and Xiao Tong hadn't explained it in detail. But from the implication of Xiao Tong's words, it seemed this formation could forcibly summon nearby ghostly entities.
This was originally a good thing, saving them the trouble of continuing to search for the Skin-Borrowing Ghost. However, one issue still caused Yang Haoran some concern.
Through his Sense Yin, he hadn't detected the presence of any other ghostly entities in the entire hospital building, or even the whole Tianhe Hospital, apart from this one Skin-Borrowing Ghost.
If it were back when Xu Meijing was still here, Yang Haoran wouldn't have found such a situation at Tianhe Hospital strange at all. With Xu Meijing present, the souls of the deceased would likely have been guided away by her the moment they coalesced into Spirit Bodies.
But that was precisely the problem. Now that Xu Meijing had gone to Ancheng, there had been no Night Watchers at Tianhe Hospital to guide the wangling during this period, which was evident from how long the Skin-Borrowing Ghost had been able to cause trouble.
Following this logic, there should absolutely be more wangling at Tianhe Hospital than just the Skin-Borrowing Ghost. Yet, the reality was precisely the opposite: throughout the entire Tianhe Hospital, he sensed no other ghostly presence apart from the Skin-Borrowing Ghost.
There could only be one explanation for this situation: in all likelihood, all the newly formed ghostly entities at Tianhe Hospital during this period had been devoured by the Skin-Borrowing Ghost!
Yang Haoran himself was prepared, but he was worried that Wang Yiming and Xiao Tong hadn't considered this point yet. If they forcibly summoned the Skin-Borrowing Ghost before they were fully prepared, they would definitely suffer a loss!
He wanted to warn them, but it was already too late. The formation beneath Xiao Tong suddenly erupted with a burst of blood-red light, and that eerie power, which even Yang Haoran couldn't describe, instantly spread outwards in all directions with incredible speed!
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