Chapter 130: Dragon Phoenix Joyful Chan: Teaching Maria

Sophie looked at her daughter, then suddenly hugged both her daughter and son, crying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry—I promised her I would…”

Originally, Diana had been her friend, but she contracted a strange illness that made her unable to tolerate light and turned her violently aggressive; only Sophie could calm her, and the two grew close. But during one treatment, Diana was burned to ashes by an electric chair.

Since then, Diana’s ghost had haunted Sophie, and perhaps due to her illness, Diana developed a unique ability: she could move swiftly through shadows, gaining enhanced power.

But there was one condition: Sophie had to stay alive, acting like an anchor—otherwise Diana would vanish. Perhaps this was the flaw in her shadow-stepping ability.

Out of sympathy for Diana as a friend, Sophie formed a strange, twisted bond with her. But how could any normal person live long-term with a monster?

Sophie’s mind gradually deteriorated. After giving birth, perhaps it was the latent maternal love, she made a pact with Diana: never harm her children, or she would kill herself.

After that, things slowly spiraled out of control.

Diana killed her husband. She could no longer bear her overwhelming possessiveness toward Sophie and tried to become a true member of the family.

After hearing this story, Louis didn’t know how others looked, but he was thoroughly disgusted.

This mother did have maternal love—but toward her husband…

Her husband died far too unfairly.

And this “friendship” with a monster? Pfft. Even a dog wouldn’t believe it.

Watching Rebecca’s tearful, moved expression, Louis felt sick inside and had no more patience to listen—he walked straight downstairs.

“Wait!”

“Can you… can you let…”

Louis didn’t pause at all, as if he hadn’t heard, and walked out.

Emma, Yulencar, and Nancy followed him out.

Emma’s expression was strange. How to describe this operation?

It matched exactly what she imagined for handling a malevolent spirit—glamorous, thrilling, especially the final scene where Louis opened his mouth wide and swallowed the spirit. She loved it.

But in contrast to the excitement, it was too short. Too short.

Just walked in, fought a bit, then swallowed—and done.

The matter was over.

She felt strangely empty.

Excitement and emptiness mixed together, like adding both chili and sugar to tofu pudding.

Weird.

She couldn’t tell if she was satisfied or not.

Beside her, Yulencar shook his head slightly. No wonder Louis agreed to bring Emma along—this scene was probably exactly what he wanted to see?

He glanced at Nancy. “What? Aren’t you going to keep your friend company?”

“I think she’d rather stay with her mother now,” Nancy replied.

“Besides, Yulencar, do you want to be president?”

???

Yulencar and Nancy exchanged glances, and both laughed at the same moment.

Not paying attention to their conversation, Louis sat back in the car, feeling the peculiar malevolent spirit inside his stomach.

This spirit named Diana was no weakling—especially in shadow form, her power was considerable, stronger than Marie Xiao, but still slightly weaker than the unrestricted might of a flesh-eating ogre.

Her shadow-stepping ability gave her a significant boost, pushing her rating close to the upper-tier malevolent spirit category of the flesh-eating ogre. Otherwise, with so many limitations, she’d be on the same level as Marie Xiao.

If she weren’t afraid of light and didn’t have that restriction, she’d actually be stronger than the flesh-eating ogre. Too bad she wasn’t.

And this mediocre level—would it even yield a new inheritance?

By now, Louis’s strength was no longer insignificant, but as his self-preservation improved, the difficulty of obtaining an inheritance grew ever greater.

Half-spirits, low-tier spirits, ordinary spirits no longer granted inheritances. Only upper-tier monsters like the flesh-eating ogre could now provide one—the threshold had risen sharply.

With Louis’s hopeful gaze, the inheritance book turned a page—a slightly pink page appeared before his eyes. Louis smiled.

Though only one page, barely scraping the reward threshold, it was still worth celebrating.

Louis quickly glanced at the page. The moment he saw the name, his expression shifted slightly.

Dragon Phoenix Joyful Chan.

This name… absolutely brilliant.

“Joyful Chan” is a major branch of Buddhist meditation, venerating the Joyful Buddha, emphasizing procreation worship and the union of method and wisdom.

Of course, more plainly put, it’s a dual-cultivation technique.

But this Dragon Phoenix Joyful Chan? Even more extraordinary.

Apparently modified by some ancient Central Plains master, it infused traditional Dragon Phoenix yin-yang concepts, allowing both parties to harmonize as dragon and phoenix, balancing yin and yang, dramatically boosting power—and even breaking through barriers—on their first union.

The subsequent dual-cultivation boosts wouldn’t be weak either, though they’d emphasize differently: men could increase spiritual power (wisdom), while women could enhance internal qi (magic power).

Beyond that, the text contained many unspeakable details.

Yet Louis’s expression remained calm. Though the illustrations were vivid and the postures elegant, he wasn’t particularly surprised.

After all, the difference between ancient and modern attitudes toward sex was substantial.

Some ancient erotic tales, if shown today, wouldn’t even qualify as educational material.

But the quality of this technique was high—defeating a mediocre spirit like this yielded such a good technique?

Or was this spirit’s value higher than I thought?

As Louis pondered,

Yulencar, having finished talking with Nancy outside, returned to the car. Emma, who had been staring blankly, asked, “What were you two just talking about?”

“Nothing important—just about supporting me as student council president.”

She had already agreed with Nancy: starting next semester, she’d support Nancy for president. There was no choice—the current student council was already ruined.

Christina hadn’t shown up for class yet, and Rebecca probably wouldn’t be coming either for a while. Only she and Patricia remained.

Better to promote new talent than let things stagnate.

“Oh,” Emma replied listlessly.

“Everyone’s here? Let’s go,” Louis said, glancing at them, then picked up his phone and made a call.

“Hello…”

The car slowly started and drove away.

Watching Louis and the others leave, Nancy sighed. So much had changed lately—the student council kept facing disasters, malevolent spirits had appeared… who knew what else might come?

She just hoped she could stay safe.

Shaking her head, she hailed a taxi and left.

As for Rebecca? She didn’t care anymore.

Louis and the others pulled up in front of a Chinese restaurant. As the 1990s progressed, Chinese restaurants here had multiplied.

But the food here had been heavily altered—most dishes were overly sweet. Not unpleasant to eat, but far from delicious. Just one word: weird.

Fortunately, Louis was a reincarnated soul; his taste buds had long adapted to this cuisine. He ate without issue.

After eating, Louis told the driver to take the two girls home, while he himself, accompanied by Gu Yi, walked toward Maria’s house. Yes, Maria’s house—because of Emma, Louis had changed his mind on the spot.

Maria still needed training. He’d come out to summon spirits, and this area was newly explored—likely new malevolent spirits could be attracted. So he’d come to teach her the Spirit-Eating Technique along the way.

Louis walked down the street, Gu Yi shrouded in a black robe, looking bizarre and drawing many glances—but no reckless youths came to pull off the robe.

Since the restaurant was close to Maria’s house, Louis and Gu Yi arrived quickly.

As they approached the street, they saw a black-haired girl wildly waving her arms, trying to catch his attention—it was Maria.

Louis walked over, glanced at her, and frowned. “You’ve been waiting out here already?”

Her meticulous makeup, neatly combed hair, clean clothes, and slightly reddened fingers from the cold—all proved she had been preparing the moment she received his call.

Maria smiled, biting her lip. “Louis, my parents are out of the house.”

???

Had she misunderstood something?

With a strange feeling, Louis and Maria entered her house.

Her father, a plastic surgeon, earned well, so her home was upscale—though slightly cold and empty.

Louis didn’t bother with small talk. After a brief introduction,

he asked, “Do you want to learn? Once you agree, there’s no turning back.”

Maria nodded vigorously, without the slightest hesitation.

“Good.”

Louis pulled out the severed hand and had Gu Yi hold it.

With a muffled response, “I call,” an inexplicable force surged out. Countless malevolent spirits, sensing a signal, surged wildly toward them.

Maria now entered a special state—her aura grew wilder, yet she remained calm.

Clearly, she’d been training alone to control Ailan. The results were impressive—he’d underestimated her.

In this state, Maria saw.

One malevolent spirit after another arriving.

Strange, bizarre, disgusting, intact, terrifying, comical—everything imaginable.

The only thing they all shared: their hungry gaze fixed on the severed hand, and on Gu Yi holding it.

Until one spirit greedily approached Gu Yi, trying to lick his face—then froze, as if seeing something unimaginable. Even the spirit halted.

The spirit tilted its head, staring at this monster with blood-red eyes, black membranes covering its body, and fangs jutting from its mouth. It turned to the other spirits, then silently stepped back.

Then one after another, spirits crowded forward, seeing Gu Yi’s appearance.

And all fell silent.

They were right to sense it had a soul—but why did it look like this? Was it some kind of monster?

Then the question arose.

Who wanted this body?

All the evil spirits looked at each other in silence.

(End of Chapter)