“Angered spirits. Urine!” Lu Tianyi raised her voice at Du Bai.
“What?”
“Splash your black dog urine in front of us!”
Du Bai opened his canister and swung it in an arch in front of him, throwing the light yellow liquid onto the wall as well as the ground. All surfaces of the hotel interior began smoking the moment they made contact, and releasing a foul, pungent smell. Not the smell of urine, but of mold, rotten food and - the funk and stench of dead bodies.
The waves of the pale limbs and human heads collided with the temporary barrier formed by the black dog urine. Screams and moans broke out, and the waves of spirits stopped. But it was just for a brief moment, as before long cracks exploded right on the edge of the liquid mark, and the ripples of ghostly figures began pushing forward again. The room doors on both sides went into repeated and violent motions of opening and shutting, the lights in the rooms and in the hallway flashing, and hundreds, if not thousands of voices began echoing in the space.
“Sticky rice!” Lu Tianyi ordered.
Lu Guilin and Erik Lee reached into their own cloth bags, each took out a handful of sticky rice and threw it at the clusters of ghostly figures - heads and limbs. All the grains glowed and some even exploded, causing several of the heads to scream and back down into the liquid. But the other figures were still pushing forward
“These fuckers - the rice is not working!” Erik Lee raised his voice.
“Use golden light and douse with rice wine!” Lu Tianyi ordered with a frown.
Erik Lee and Lu Guilin each took another handful of rice, took out two small bottles of light yellow rice wine and poured over their rice-holding hands. Shortly, their hands holding the rice began glowing in golden light.
“
Boom
!” “
Floom
!” Now the two handfuls of rice exploded and lit some of the ghostly figures on fire. Many of them cried and retreated into the dark liquid between cracks, but a few of them continued their attempts at climbing over the “barrier” of black dog urine, even with the fire on their skin.
Lu Tianyi raised the candle above her head and pressed forward. The candle light formed a warm aura around the group, and the moment any of these ghostly figures got into the aura they began to burn, brighter and fiercer if they were already on fire.
Du Bai swung his canister again, this time focusing particularly on the walls. The bodies of the burning ghostly figures collapsed like sand sculptures sprayed with hose water.
“Great!” Du Bai was about to do it again, but was held back by Lu Tianyi.
“Save it - for now.” Lu Tianyi fixed her eyes on the canister for a brief moment: “Use it on my command.” She then turned to Detective Brian Tracy: “Did you bring your weapon, detective?”
“Yes. But - ”
“Use it when I say so, just not now.” Lu Tianyi nodded, then raised her head and ordered: “Lightning Talismans.”
Lu Guilin and Erik Lee both looked surprised for a brief moment, but they both did as they were told - they each took out a folded talisman from their pocket, and threw it at the walls - where the figures were most clustered.
A bright light blue beam of pure electric energy connected the two talismans, each of which blasted the ghostly figures close to them with dozens of bolts of lightning. The ghostly figures screeched, many of whom turned into dust and ashes in an instant.
As the group regained their vision temporarily disabled by the blinding light, the two walls on their sides were cleared of any of the ghostly figures. But the cracks remained - in fact, there were more of them thanks to the lightning strikes. The black liquid underneath went still, no ripples, no waves, just still as if they were simple decorations put on the wall.
“Go! Let’s get to the suite!” Lu Tianyi patted Lu Guilin and Erik Lee on their backs.
The group rushed forward. The spells casted by the exorcists pushed back the grimness in the hallway and "condensed" it in the space around the remaining two thirds of the entire space. It was not long before they crossed over into the grim area, and temperature dropped instantly.
The urine inside Du Bai’s canister began to sizzle and bubble, letting out the actual unpleasant smell of urine. The jade medallion on Detective Brian Tracy’s neck began to glow and heat up as well.
The facade covering the Queen’s Suite was fully gone - even those parts that were not broken by the previous fight. It seemed that management was trying to tear down all the covers before they would rebuild it, and the rebuilding process had not completed yet.
Before they were able to get close to the door, they were greeted with the sounds of a record scratch, then followed by soft, soothing music, coming from a phonograph standing on the nightstand by the luxury bed.
Things began moving under the wallpaper and the carpet again. More cracks shot out from the frame of the door to the Queen’s Suite. Dark liquid flowing under the surface, fingers poking out from behind the cover, eyes looking out.
Dark smoke began gathering in the suite, in but an instant a human-shaped figure walked out of the smoke. It was a dried corpse.
“It’s him!” Erik Lee raised his voice.
Two handfuls of glowing sticky rice doused with rice wine and three folded talismans shot at the dried corpse at the same time. But all these attacks were stopped by an invisible wall, creating ripples in the empty space.
Pieces of muscles and skins peeled off and crumbled in the air as the dried corpse extended its two hands forward. The ground on which the group of five were standing tore up and fissures glowing in ethereal purple and green light almost swallowed Erik Lee and Lu Guilin whole, if not for the two police officers pulling them back at the last minute.
“Stay away from the gaps! ” Lu Guilin and Lu Tianyi raised their voices at the same time.
The dried corpse took a few steps forward while still remaining in the room, the cracks expanded and crawled towards the ground, forcing them to back off more. Almost out of instinct, Du Bai swung the canister forward. Almost half of the remaining black dog urine was thrown at the corpse from a distance. But all the liquid that made it to the target ended up just like the talisman attacks earlier - an invisible wall prevented anything from getting close to it.
“
Bang bang bang
!” Detective Brian Tracy fired three shots with his gun. The invisible wall rippled again, but nothing changed.
The dried corpse raised its hands up high, as if he was casting some kind of conjuring spell. The walls around them began rumbling and cracked up - those ghostly figures that had been annihilated by the lightning talismans earlier reappeared, many of whom crawled out of the cracks and onto the floor, approaching the group of five like twisted insects.
“That corpse is not doing this - something else is protecting it.” Lu Tianyi looked around: “Guilin, Erik, try to buy me some time as I figure out what it is.”
Erik Lee and Lu Guilin nodded and reached into their cloth bags. Their palms were glowing, as did the sticky rice in their grasp and the rice wine they doused the rice with. They chanted spells under their breaths, then tossed the wine-soaked sticky rice imbued with golden light at the ghostly figures crawling out of the cracks.
“
Crack crack crack
…” It was like two strings of firecrackers were lit up, the rice grains exploded right when they came into contact with those ghostly figures, forcing them back and breaking their exterior - leaving black cracks on their skin like old porcelain dolls. But, that was about the extent of their attacks.
“It’s not working!” Detective Brian Tracy yelled as he opened fire at these figures - his bullets passed through their bodies, leaving only small charred holes on their bodies. “What the hell! ”
Du Bai swung the canister one last time, spilling the last bit of the black dog urine he had left. At least three of those figures were splashed, and their bodies immediately began smoking.
Detective Brian Tracy opened fire again, this time his shot shattered a ghostly figure in whole, like actually shooting a porcelain doll. He opened fire two more times, and shattered both figures. “Do you have some more?!” He asked Du Bai.
“No! That’s all!” Du Bai held the canister upside down, and only a few drops left in the canister flowing down the wall.
While the rest of the group were struggling, Lu Tianyi was chanting a spell with her eyes closed, holding a metal plaque with arcane engravings in her hands. As the chant went on, a faint, golden aura began expanding from her, pushing the grimness and shadows in the hallway away.