Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

Chapter 167 166, In the dark...

As he was about to reach the street.

Du Wei stopped in his tracks, seeing nothing but pitch darkness before him.

It was deep into the night now.

The skies above Massas City were oppressively gloomy, with not a sliver of moonlight shining down.

Without light, there were no shadows.

But through his Spirit Vision, Du Wei saw something that surprised him...

An Evil Spirit with a Golden Brooch on its chest, leaning on a cane—Mike Stowe.

It stood there in the dark, staring intently at him.

It seemed that the Bone Powder he had burned earlier hadn't affected it much.

But that malevolence was even more terrifying than before...

Hum...

A piercing noise suddenly rang in Du Wei's ears, and with a warmth at the tip of his nose, blood began to trickle slowly down.

In an instant.

Du Wei's expression turned extremely ugly.

When he had been influenced before, he had done many things that didn't fit his logical behavior.

Taking off Mike Stowe's mask was one of them.

The uncertainties left behind at that moment had now erupted.

Now, it seemed his judgment was correct; the mask without features wasn't the medium for this Evil Spirit, but it appeared to have a suppressive effect.

After he removed the mask, the Evil Spirit became even more terrifying.

Yet the Evil Spirit didn't appear before him immediately, which clearly indicated it couldn't move.

Otherwise, with such terrifying malevolence, it wouldn't have merely caused him to bleed a bit without much pain.

There was no longer any talk of light; without light, there were no shadows.

Once he entered the street, it seemed he would be immediately ensnared, unable to escape.

"I can create a shadow."

Du Wei's gaze was a bit strange, but that sentence seemed not to be directed at "himself."

He pulled out a lighter, fiddled with it for a while, then turned his head to look back.

All the Evil Spirits also lifted their heads, with their dead, gloomy eyes fixed on the mask on his face.

Opressed, dark.

But Du Wei didn't pay attention to these Evil Spirits, or rather, it wasn't time to deal with them yet.

He just looked at the thick fog that was gradually creeping in from the back, his dark eyes growing deeper.

In his pocket, the Joker Card grew colder.

Using the connection between the two cards, Du Wei knew that the hunters from the Dusk Bell Church would arrive soon.

When that happened, the first thing he would have to face was him.

However, under such circumstances, it was unlikely he would recklessly enter the street.

Being a hunter with the Third Phase of Spirit Vision as well.

He would surely notice something was amiss here too.

Thinking this, Du Wei suddenly took the mask off, flipped it in his hand, and stared at the two empty holes where the eyes of the mask would be, thinking calmly.

"Highways and streets, it's hard to say which is more terrifying, but streets are easier to notice abnormalities."

"Highways are different; they are conceptual extensions, incredibly easy to step into without understanding their horrors."

"So, what I need to do now is simple, include the nearby area within the highway's range to create an exit for myself that others won't notice, forming a U-shaped loop."

"This highway will give the Dusk Bell Church hunter a surprise, whether or not I can get the information I want from him is no longer important."

"Because I can completely join the Dusk Bell Church to get the information I want."

"But the premise is, he must die, and it can't be discovered that it has anything to do with me."

As he said this, Du Wei glanced at the Evil Spirit wearing the Golden Brooch on the street, internally planning how to rid himself of the Evil Spirit Squad and the problem of the Evil Spirit Du Wei.

While thinking, he turned around and walked away with the Evil Spirit Squad.

Before, Du Wei had been chased relentlessly by the terrifying highway and could only run away passively.

But now, he was going to actively expand the coverage of the highway.

His motivation had completely changed.

Upon realizing that he had been subjected to psychological suggestion,

Du Wei regained his composure, knowing himself better than anyone else in this world.

The main connection between the Evil Spirit Du Wei and himself was, in fact, the mask; every time he made an unwise judgment, it was while wearing the mask.

It was possible that he was observing himself from a third-person perspective,

just like the aberration that occurred that night at the psychology clinic.

The only difference was that now he was in control of his body, the positions merely reversed.

He didn't even mind now if the Evil Spirit Du Wei knew that he had discovered its scheme,

because...

Du Wei had already found the loophole in the Evil Spirit Du Wei's plan.

The Joker Card was the only way to release the Evil Spirit Du Wei, other than death itself.

He must get rid of the Evil Spirit Squad; when that time came, all the Evil Spirits would attack him, and the situation would become extremely dire.

Then, his only recourse would be to release the Evil Spirit Du Wei, letting it deal with the other Evil Spirits, while he took advantage of the rules to swap back into his body.

But, if he were to adopt the thinking mode of the Evil Spirit Du Wei, because it was both affecting and subtly driving him to a dead end, it would definitely have taken the Joker Card into account.

This meant that once he used the Joker Card, it must have a way to prevent him from retaking his body.

Considering another step further, the Evil Spirit Du Wei was another self, and to it, the Joker Card might be ineffective, or to put it another way, it too might be able to use the Joker Card.

So the question arose,

How would he get rid of the Evil Spirit Squad without using the Joker Card?

After pondering, Du Wei came up with an answer.

Simply lead the Evil Spirit Squad into the streets.

Taking the Evil Spirits wearing the Golden Brooch as a reference, he could trap all the Evil Spirits here.

He would create a shadow with a lighter and, using the black umbrella with the method from before, leave through a deliberately left open exit. Find your next read at empire

Of course...

Once the entire Evil Spirit Squad entered the street, those ghosts would surely appear, and then the highway would extend itself to cover the area.

So the only two things he needed to consider were,

First, whether the Evil Spirit Squad would lose control once he left the group while creating the shadow, and whether he could limit the extension of the highway,

Second, how dangerous the street itself was and whether he could withstand it.

Du Wei had already figured out what to do about both points.

The first was to delay—the longer the time, the deeper the Evil Spirits would sink in, and ultimately they would remain here forever, immovable. Those ghosts were anchor points for the highway extension and would be likewise immobile.

To assess the street's danger, a suitable "test subject" was needed.

Fortunately...

The dark shadow was very fitting, as aside from a pair of bloodshot eyes, it only had a shadow. In such a place, it might be able to exert an unexpected effect...

And of course, if it, too, became trapped here, that would be even better...

There was also the Evil Spirit Du Wei, for whom he needed to find a way to kill...

...

After Du Wei led the Evil Spirit Squad away,

at that spot,

a ghost suddenly appeared, followed by the spreading of thick fog, enveloping the former location of the Evil Spirit Squad within it.

But what was strange was,

the fog never encroached upon the street itself.

There was a clear separation.

But one could not see ahead through the fog, and upon exiting its boundary, one would directly enter the street,

A trap within another trap.

If the person from Dusk Bell Church hadn't died on the highway, then he would have only two choices: to move forward or to retreat.

If he chose to move forward, he would fall into another deep pit, and what awaited him would be another 'surprise.'

And if he chose to flee by retreating, he would find that he had already entered the range of the highway and was utterly unable to leave.

Andrew Dowqui had died on the bus in the end,

Could a hunter, much less capable than Andrew, survive and leave the range of the terror highway?

Clearly, that would be absolutely impossible.