Chapter 117: Setup
Master Yuan cleared out the room on the right, making it a temporary place for Marcus and his companions.
He then walked around the entire courtyard, placing blessed papers all over it.
He took out two wooden carved tokens from inside the house, with protective prayers written on them in blessed oil, and nailed the wooden tokens to both sides of the gate outside the courtyard.
He then took out four ordinary plastic bottles filled with liquid, intending to bury them in the four corners of the courtyard.
The liquid in the bottles was transparent, slightly cloudy.
"Master Yuan, what's in these bottles?"
Marcus recognized everything else, but he didn't know what was in these bottles.
"Oh, these contain blessed water from four sacred springs representing the cardinal directions. It's used to ward off evil spirits and is very effective."
Master Yuan explained as he dug holes with a shovel.
He was old, and digging slowly was very strenuous; he was already breathing hard after just a few strokes.
"Let me dig."
Marcus took the shovel from Master Yuan, and with a powerful push, the shovel disappeared into the soil, going in completely as easily as cutting butter, creating a deep pit in just a few strokes.
Ronan Chen also eagerly picked up a spade and started digging in another corner.
However, by the time Marcus had dug three, he had only dug halfway through one.
"Marcus, you'd have made one hell of a construction worker."
Ronan Chen watched Marcus finish his work in a few quick movements and admired his robust physique.
He really wanted to say something else, but he held back.
"With training, you can do it too."
"If you want, I can make up a training plan for you."
Marcus helped Master Yuan bury the bottles in the pits while trying to persuade Ronan Chen. With his current physical abilities, he couldn't even reach half of Marcus's level through simple training, even if he trained for years.
After arranging the courtyard, Master Yuan took out a red banner embroidered with protective symbols and hung it above the temple gate. The banner hung down two feet off the ground, fluttering slightly in the wind.
"Marcus, Ronan, for the next seven days, we will not open the gate. Do not let anyone in, and do not give Dodo anything to eat,"
Master Yuan instructed again as he entered the temple and prepared to close the gate.
"Don't worry, Master Yuan," Marcus and Ronan Chen replied simultaneously from the doorway.
Master Yuan's expression suddenly turned serious, and then he said, word by word,
"If anything happens to Dodo within seven days, you must run away quickly."
"Don't take Dodo with you, and don't open our temple gate."
"Because by then, the temple may no longer be ours!"
Hearing this, Marcus recalled the scene in the original story where Mrs. Yuan was killed by the Mother Buddha Deity and turned into an evil spirit.
At that time, Mrs. Yuan always had her back to Li Ronan, constantly scratching her bloodied head, seemingly in great pain.
The entire temple had become a place of evil.
Master Yuan's arrangements were not only aimed at the Mother Buddha Deity outside, but also at himself. If anything went wrong, the courtyard would act as a protective barrier, ensuring he wouldn't go out and harm outsiders.
"We understand. With me guarding her, nothing will happen to Dodo,"
Marcus assured him again.
Ronan Chen nodded in agreement.
Master Yuan trusted Marcus even more. The closer Ronan Chen was to Dodo, the more likely he was to become overly emotional, while Marcus was different. He wasn't as close to Dodo and was clearly a decisive person.
Creak—!
The wooden door of the temple was completely closed.
Through the crack in the door, one could hear footsteps and chanting inside, indicating that Master Yuan had already started the ritual.
Marcus and Ronan Chen returned to the room on the right side of the courtyard.
He had already removed all the water and food from the room and instructed Ronan Chen that no food was allowed to be brought into the room.
Ronan Chen placed Dodo on the bed.
"Daddy..."
Dodo was a little weak at this point. She called out to Ronan Chen, but didn't say anything more.
Her little stomach involuntarily rumbled.
The little girl had been unconscious for a day and hadn't eaten anything. She had heard what Master Yuan said, and although she was still young, she knew that she couldn't eat if she wanted to recover.
"Dodo, be good. Daddy is here with you and won't leave. If you're sleepy, take a nap. You won't be hungry when you're asleep,"
Ronan Chen comforted Dodo, sitting by the bed.
"Daddy, where's Mommy? Without Dodo with her, she's very afraid of the Bad Man!"
Dodo hadn't forgotten Li Ronan yet.
Marcus and Ronan Chen hadn't hidden their conversation from Dodo, so she roughly understood that her mother had sought her out to appease the Bad Man and prevent him from hurting her.
But to her, her mother was her mother; there was no right or wrong.
"Your mother is busy, but she'll come to see you in a few days. Don't worry, the Bad Man isn't scary. Look, Uncle Marcus chased him away the other day."
"Rest for a while, Dodo. A good sleep will make you feel better."
Ronan Chen heard Dodo's stomach rumbling with hunger and could only try to coax his daughter to sleep.
Master Yuan had given such a serious instruction; he wouldn't do anything foolish.
Marcus glanced around the room and took out more blessed papers to place around the room. The power of the Mother Buddha Deity was somewhat all-pervasive and highly penetrating. Even with Master Yuan's protections, it didn't stop him from reinforcing the defenses.
Anyway, he had plenty of these blessed papers.
The process of creating blessed papers wasn't as mystical as some might think.
Although it still required concentration and proper ritual, it wasn't as mysterious as some other methods. However, mass-produced papers seemed to be useless.
This might be because the materials were too basic. For such spiritual things, Marcus would just use what worked.
He went outside and took out a special cell phone.
While at Li Ronan's old house, Marcus had already installed tracking software on her phone.
Through this phone, he could not only monitor Li Ronan's routes and movements but also secretly access her camera to observe her surroundings.
From the tracking map, Marcus could see that Li Ronan had traveled to many places in the past few days, mostly on the outskirts of various towns.
Clearly, she was searching for something.
Li Ronan knew the old site of the Hsu family village. Her wandering around at this time meant she was looking for any remaining members of the Hsu family.
"Go ahead and search, and work hard for me!"
Marcus said with a cold smile, looking at Li Ronan's tracking map.
He discovered that Li Ronan had been standing outside Pine Ridge for a full six hours without moving.
"This woman isn't dead, is she?"
Marcus tried turning on the camera and microphone on Li Ronan's phone.
The camera showed the phone facing upwards, seemingly placed on a table or something similar.
Through the edge of the view, he could see many trees around, like a forest.
"The others are both dead, why do you still come looking for us? Because of you, half of our family has died. Haven't you harmed us enough?"
"Since you signed the contract, why didn't you abide by it? What about the child? Did you hand the child over to the Mother Buddha?"
An aged voice asked angrily.
"I... I... don't... know."
Li Ronan's voice trembled with tears. Because she was missing part of her tongue, speaking was extremely difficult; she could only manage a few unclear words every ten seconds or so.
Even these simple words caused the wound on her tongue to reopen, and blood flowed from the corner of her mouth.
(End of Chapter)
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