The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 4252 Possession by an Evil Spirit (Thirty-Two)

The evil spirit leaned against the wall, panting heavily. Clearly, wielding power far exceeding that of ordinary people came at a price; it had to expend the power of its own soul. But fortunately, the most troublesome reporter had been dealt with; as long as he couldn't escape, he wouldn't be discovered.

He glanced down at the left side of his body. The power of the curse waxed and waned: as he consumed his soul energy, the curse's power increased. The evil spirit's control over this body was weakening.

The good news is that the curse on this body seems to be incompatible with the spikes that the attacker had plunged into him. These dark magic spells are all incompatible and constantly clash with each other.

In other words, if he waits a little longer until the curse on his left arm spreads to his chest, the cursed, evil artifact, the awl, might become ineffective. At that point, he can change bodies.

He wanted that big guy's body; it should make him even stronger. But he had one more thing to do: replenish his soul energy to prevent the curse on his left arm from killing him before it could take down the cone.

That's right, it wasn't that the evil spirit didn't want to guard the corpse, but rather that after using that move, it was already weaker than the greatly enhanced curse on its left arm. If it didn't find a way to strengthen itself, it would be devoured.

The method to replenish soul energy is quite simple: kill. And this person doesn't necessarily have to be a living person; those in the spiritual world will do. He had already summoned them into the real world, so even if the evil spirit can't return now, he can go find those mummies, kill them again, and still draw some power.

The evil spirit controlled the body, searching for the mummified corpses scattered throughout the town. Just as it staggered out of the street, it suddenly saw a somewhat familiar doll walking down the street.

The evil spirit was stunned: Wasn't this the possessing doll he created? He's here, so who's controlling the doll?!

But the moment he looked at the doll, it seemed to instinctively sense something, suddenly turned its head to stare at him, and then ran away.

Would the evil spirit let him escape? He now realized that these outsiders were all incredibly difficult to deal with. One of them was definitely controlling the doll; if he didn't capture him, he'd lose all his dolls!

Besides, he needed a backup plan: what if that big guy turned out to be all show and no substance? He couldn't put all his eggs in one basket. After all, the doll was still the best option.

He rushed over. But the doll was incredibly fast and agile. Using a shop sign as a springboard, it leaped onto the roof in a few quick movements and then began jumping back and forth between the signs.

Even the evil spirit was shocked: Even acrobats don't have this kind of balance, do they? And he knew that although the doll was small and inconspicuous and seemed easy to control, it was fundamentally different from controlling a human body; not just anyone could crawl inside and use it.

The most outrageous thing was that this doll somehow got hold of a grappling hook and wielded it incredibly well. Where it couldn't go, it simply used the hook to grab onto the object and swung across. The evil spirit chased it for the entire street but couldn't catch it.

Landing on a rooftop, Peter put his hands on his hips, looked back at the panting evil spirit, and shook his head: "That's why they say reading more books never hurts! The consequences of opposing modern education are showing, aren't they?"

The first thing Peter did after controlling the doll back to the real world was to get himself a low-end version of a web shooter.

It's not actually a web shooter; it's just a hook that can be launched out and grab something.

If the person being lifted is an adult male, then this grappling hook is quite technically demanding: the shape of the hook needs to be repeatedly adjusted, the rope must be strong enough, and the design of the pop-out mechanism is not so simple either.

But Peter is currently controlling a wooden doll, weighing less than two pounds in total. Lifting this little thing would be a piece of cake. And frankly, this evil spirit's doll is quite sturdy; it wouldn't fall apart even if dropped from several meters high. What more can be said? I've swung back and forth across New York hundreds, even thousands of times; can't I swing across Great Valley?
Having escaped the evil spirit's pursuit, Peter's first act was to raid the house. Aunt Kane's dilapidated house definitely held some undiscovered secrets. For example, where did old Burgh research dark magic? He must have had a base, right?
Although the clues they found earlier included a place that looked like an air-raid shelter, which appeared to be in the mountain near the waterfall, it was a bit far away, so Peter decided to search the house first.

The doll's small size had its advantages. Even though Linda still lived in the house, Peter could freely come in. When Linda came out, he would find a corner to hide in, and the girl, who hadn't received any professional training, didn't sense anything amiss.

And so, Peter sneaked back into the tool shed. With his perspective lowered, he could see more. He noticed, with keen observation, that a brick under the black box seemed to have come loose.

He's too weak to move the box, but he can squeeze through the pile of tools to get to the bottom of it.

The box was quite old and wasn't assembled using any sophisticated methods; it was just a few planks nailed together. Peter used leverage to pry all the nails off, and the box collapsed. The commotion successfully attracted Linda's attention.

Linda looked down and saw that the side planks of the box had fallen off, and the tools were scattered all over the floor, so she had no choice but to clean them up. Since the box was completely broken and unusable, she simply moved it to another corner and put the tools on the table.

After tidying up, she left. Peter successfully returned to where the box had been and carefully examined the bricks. He found that the bricks here were indeed newer than those in other places, but they also looked like they hadn't been used for a long time.

He couldn't dig it up; even if he could, he couldn't move the bricks. Peter thought for a moment: if he were old Borg, he wouldn't just prepare one entrance to his secret chamber, or even two; he would prepare at least three.

Spider-Man Noir was born and lived in an earlier era, so he understands the atmosphere of that time better. Although the witch hunts started even earlier, in many remote rural areas during the last century, people kept black magic a closely guarded secret. Even as late as the 20th century, in the 1990s, there were still similar hunts for so-called "black wizards."

Although old Berg was the leader of the sect, he probably wouldn't dare to do these things openly, much less let others know. The best way was to have multiple burrows to avoid being caught in the act at home one day.

These three entrances should be placed in different locations, and the level of difficulty of entering should vary. Otherwise, if someone is being chased and can't open the door or run in, it would be quite embarrassing.

The entrance to the tool shed should be the most secure, because this is old Berg's own home, and he has plenty of time to slowly open and close the door. This door is not easy to open inwards or outwards.

The entrance outside the city, which is the air-raid shelter, should be the easiest to open from the inside. Since if one is escaping from the base, they will definitely run out of the town, and the most likely exit they will use is the one outside the city. Therefore, the door there should be the easiest to open from the inside out.

The remaining entrance/exit should be located between these two doors, in one of the other houses in the town. This entrance would be easier to access from the outside in, as it would allow for quick access to the other two entrances/exits, serving as a transfer station.

Peter immediately thought of the burned-down warehouse. It contained some circus equipment and was a place no one usually went; old Burgh, a circus performer, wouldn't have aroused suspicion if he were there. And the warehouse was conveniently located between Aunt Kane's house and the waterfall—the three points could be lined up.

This is extremely important because even for an evil spirit, digging a tunnel would be quite difficult. If it can't travel in a straight line, digging would be incredibly troublesome. Even if this evil spirit could live forever, constantly possessing different people and digging endlessly, over all these years, it would probably only have dug through this one tunnel.

Let me repeat myself: this is the disastrous consequence of opposing modern education. If he had attended school for even a few days, he wouldn't have resorted to such a foolish method.

With that thought in mind, Peter hurried towards the warehouse. The warehouse had completely collapsed, but fortunately it was mostly burned, so Peter didn't have to move anything. He walked around for a bit and found a manhole cover.

Although it's a manhole cover, it's included inside the building, which is already a bit strange. The hole on this manhole cover has very obvious wear marks, which are definitely not from regular maintenance. It's more likely that someone frequently pried open the manhole cover over a period of time, leaving these marks.

So Peter found a tree branch and, using leverage, pried open the manhole cover. Once inside, he realized he had overestimated the evil spirit. Finally, let me reiterate: people really need to read more. The underground passage the evil spirit had dug had completely collapsed.

Peter had only been in the town a short time, but after seeing the waterfall, he had already deduced that Great Valley Town had an extremely rich underground water system, with the entire town built on water veins, making the underground conditions incredibly complex. Even if it were a large city, a subway system might not be feasible. And this evil spirit was actually trying to hide its base through underground transportation.

Peter searched the area and, sure enough, found several skeletons. It seemed the evil spirit had used its ability to possess people infinitely to dig through the area: without waterproofing or support. Yet it managed to break through. Superpowers are truly amazing.

However, that was the end of it. The underground passage was indeed connected, but it frequently collapsed and leaked. By the time Peter came down to investigate, the passage had become an underground river.

Although evil spirits don't need to breathe, this place wouldn't drown him, but the collapse caused by the leak made it impossible for him to move around using an adult's body. Otherwise, he would have come here immediately after obtaining the agent's body; the reason he didn't is simply because he couldn't.

But this didn't bother Peter, because the passage wasn't completely blocked; there were still some gaps, enough for the little wooden puppet to pass through. Moreover, he didn't need to pant; he could swim slowly and even make little flippers out of a plank, making him swim even faster.

Peter mentally calculated the direction and swam towards Aunt Kane's house. He soon felt the current, indicating there must be an air chamber above. When he reached the surface, he found himself in a water-filled cellar.