People were weird

 at times

. Last night, when we were in deadly danger, I hated that I couldn’t just pull Li Mazi and run away from this place. I didn’t want to linger in this church

 for even one second

. As the danger was now 

gone

, I became curious about the female ghost’s identity. 

That ghost must have been dormant in this church for quite a long time. 

If not

, the church 

shouldn’t have

 that much Yin energy! 

Moreover, since it had transformed into th

at

 red ring-shaped 

object

, it was enough to prove that the ghost wasn’t a departed soul. It was a spirit that had taken shelter in 

an

 otherworldly item. 

O

therworldly merchants 

are

 always curious about otherworldly items. It

’s 

like when a farmer 

sees

another

 farmer 

with

 a better crop even though they cultivated on the same land

. Of course, h

e 

would

 want to know the other man’s technique. 

It didn’t matter whether 

I

 could get the item or not.

It was an occupational habit! 

Li Mazi understood my idea. Moreover, he 

was also

interested

 in this otherworldly item. We started to search 

around

 the church. Eventually, we found a violin inside a leather suitcase that was covered 

in

 a thick layer of dust. 

Yesterday, when the female ghost appeared for the first time, she had used the melodic music from a violin to bewitch us. I could feel the Yin energy 

from

 the violin in front of us. 

I

 thought it was the otherworldly item where the ghost was dwelling! 

However, after studying the musical instrument, we

 didn’t find anything 

special about it. The wooden body of the instrument had some cracks

, and t

he only thing I found interesting was that the violin’s four strings were light red, which was similar to the rope Li Mazi had used to hang himself last night. 

Even so, I didn’t see anything strange about those strings. I felt somewhat disappointed. 

Li Mazi pushed me a few times

.

 “Little 

B

rother Zhang, if this stuff can nurture such a powerful

 and

 furious spirit, it should be worth a lot of money. Should we take it?” 

“No. Immortal Lu is right. 

We

 should 

follow the

 rules when in a foreign country.” 

I sighed

 and put 

the violin back 

in

 its suitcase. I wiped off the dust on the leather suitcase and left with Li Mazi. 

On the way back, I noticed that the 

bruises

 on Li Mazi’s neck had almost disappeared

, and only a

 faint gray line remain

ed

. 

This

 was a normal physiological phenomenon. It would disappear completely in a few days. I could now ease my worries.  

When we 

returned

 to the hotel, Ru Xue and Yin Xinyue

’s eyes were teary

. They began to sob loudly as they had thought that they wouldn’t be able to see us again. Li Mazi and I had to exert a lot of effort to comfort them. 

After this incident, we 

weren’t in 

the mood to continue our tour. Since Li Mazi and I needed to rest, we decided to stay in the hotel for another day

. Then, 

we would fly back home. 

Unexpectedly, after a nap, the 

bruise

 reappeared on Li Mazi’s neck

.

Moreover, it looked even 

bigger

. The thumb-sized wide bruise had 

a lot of

 blisters 

that were

 the 

size of a grain of 

rice. 

They would

 burst and ooze bloody pus a

fter just a 

gentle contact. Li Mazi didn’t dare to talk

, drink, or eat

. He had to endure 

the 

horrible pain even when he gulped his saliva. 

When Ru Xue wasn’t watching him, he seized the chance and typed a line of words on his phone

. He showed it to 

me. “Little 

B

rother Zhang, this time, 

I don’t think I’ll make it

. You should give me a quick death!” 

I felt like my heart was bleeding, but I didn’t know what to do. The neck 

was

 different from other body parts. If we were careless, he 

would

 really die! 

Left with no choice

, I had to ask Yin Xinyue and Ru Xue to stay in the hotel while I was going to 

take

 Li Mazi

 back

 to the church. This time, even if Lu Dongbin didn’t agree, I would try to kill that ghost! 

I had given her a chance,

and she didn’t appreciate it. Since 

s

he wanted to kill Li Mazi

, I had to deal with her

! 

When we passed by the lobby, the staff member that had reminded me yesterday saw us and greeted us

. He gave 

us a thumbs-up. 

I guessed h

e thought we were awesome 

because

 we

 had returned 

alive after dealing with that ghost

. 

I was worried 

about

 Li Mazi, so I just gave him a polite nod and proceeded to the door. 

Unexpectedly, when the young staffer saw the bruise on Li Mazi’s neck, h

is face turned pale

. He screamed, “Your friend is poisoned. You must help him detoxify it! 

Otherwise,

 he will die soon!”

It 

appeared as though he knew this sickness. I halted

 to listen 

to him. 

It turned out that the church behind the hotel was called 

‘

Ghost Castle.

’

People who visited that place would 

wake up at night

and

 find a 

bruise

 on their neck. Fortunately, a doctor in this neighborhood could treat this sickness

, so a

ll the victims were cured. 

I was bewildered

 and felt

 uncertain. “You 

mean...

The

 place is haunted but no one has died yet

. Is that

 right?”

“Yeah, it’s true

.” T

he staff member nodded. 

We then introduced ourselves. He was a local Italian

 who worked 

as a waiter in this hotel. He was called Mar

co

. 

He was really friendly

. He said,

 “Zhang, I know that doctor’s address. Do you need me to take you there?” 

“Yes

. T

hank you

.

” I felt touched. 

Then, I got into 

Marco

’s car with Li Mazi. On the way, I kept thinking about one issue

. 

If that female ghost had never killed anybody, she wasn’t a malicious spirit

.

 Why did she

pester Li Mazi? 

From 

what

took place

 this morning, she seemed to 

have 

spared Li Mazi. Why did she change her mind all of a sudden? Did something happen that we didn

’t know about

? 

I decided to go back to that church to check after Li Mazi got his neck treated. If possible, I would help that female ghost 

ascend

. 

The doctor was called 

Paolo

. He lived on a ranch in the West of Milan around a dozen miles away from the hotel. There were so many bridges and 

narrow streets

 along the way

, but

Marco

 seemed to know the route well.

Before entering Dr. 

Paolo

’s ranch, I secretly asked

,

 “How do you know this place so well?” 

“Haha

. 

Dr. 

Paolo

’s my father!” 

I was speechless

.

When we met Dr. 

Paolo

, he was playing golf. He was a chubby,

middle-aged man with a

n aquiline nose

.

 His 

eyes were small but bright. 

H

e was the same sort of person as 

Senior Shu

. They both had a humble appearance 

but were incredibly

talented

!  

However, I didn’t expect that 

Paolo

 could speak Chinese fluently. Moreover, 

h

e sounded very professional

, and he only asked 

Li Mazi 

about the disease

. 

He didn’t ask what

 we had encountered 

or

 what we had experienced.  

Dr. 

Paolo

 asked us to wait after Li Mazi told him 

how he felt,

heading

 to the 

ranch-style

 house. We didn’t know what he was up to. After about fifteen minutes, he came back with a bowl of dark paste and a bottle of golden olive oil. 

Paolo

 asked Li Mazi to drink 

a little bit of

 olive oil. Then, he applied the dark paste on 

the

 bruise. 

From the

 confident expression of the father and the son, I thought this treatment would work. However,

 i

t was 

beyond

 my expectation that it 

would work

so quickly

. After smearing the paste on Li Mazi’s neck, 

Paolo

 read something in Italian. Then, the bruise disappeared at a speed the naked eye could observe! 

Li Mazi could speak again in less than ten minutes! 

Of course, I understood it wasn’t 

an

 ordinary medical treatment. 

However,

it was none of my business

. Li Mazi was cured

, and t

hat was all that mattered. I didn’t need to 

pry into their secrets

. 

As I was thinking

 about 

visiting

 the Ghost Castle one more time, I 

mustered my courage

 and asked 

Paolo

 if he knew the story there. 

He lifted his cup of coffe

e and asked

, “Friends from China, do you know Paganini?” 

“Yes, I know him. He was a great violinist!” I nodded.

From what I had heard

, Paganini was the 

creator 

of many violin songs in the world

. I didn’t know anything else about him. However, 

if 

Paolo

 mentioned his name, the violin in the leather suitcase should have something to do with him! 

Unexpectedly, 

Paolo

 seemed to be stimulated after I said that. “No! He 

doesn’t

 deserve 

praise

. He was a devil. A pure devil from 

head

 to toe!” 

Paolo told me that

 Paganini was just a street artist

, and n

ot many people liked his songs at that time. His violin performances on the street could barely help him make ends meet. Later, a young and beautiful female violinist

 fell in love with 

him

. S

he even imparted him with her unique skills. 

Paganini’s life changed greatly ever since th

en

. However, his violin performance had always been inferior to his teacher, who was also his lover. 

Later on, Paganini cruelly murdered his teacher. He disemboweled the woman

 and used 

her intestines to make the four strings of his violin. 

From that day onward, Paganini’s music seemed to have magic that 

could make

 people infatuated with it. He started to gain fame and glory.

In his later years, Paganini suffered from a serious mental sickness, which eventually took his life. On his deathbed, he 

confessed the truth

. Paganini’s title 

as

 a devil genius was spread from there.  

My heart ached after 

I listened

 to the story. 

That

 woman had loved the wrong man,

and I couldn’t understand what kind of thoughts or state of mind Paganini had when he killed his lover. 

It was no

 wonder the ghost of the female violinist hadn’t left this world

. 

Although her resentful energy was sky-reaching, in the last moment, she would control her 

mind

. She never wanted to kill anybody. 

“You want to help her?” 

Paolo

 asked me with interest. 

We hadn’t said anything, but we both knew what the other party 

wanted to do

. 

There was n

o need to say anything. 

I nodde

d and smiled

. “Shouldn’t I help her?” 

“Good luck to you, my friend. Good luck to her, too!”

 Paolo

 smiled

 and hugged me

. Then, he got on his horse

 and galloped 

around his ranch. 

Before leaving, I gave 

Marco

 a jade that 

I had kept on me 

for many years. My grandpa 

had given

 me this blessed jade when he was alive. It could help avoid bad luck and neutralize the danger. 

Marco

 didn’t refuse it

 and 

graciously 

received

 the item. 

I was happy to

befriend him

 and his father! 

When we returned to the hotel, the sky was dark. To not make Yin Xinyue and Ru Xue worried, Li Mazi and I 

visited them before heading 

toward the church. We wanted to see the female ghost and ask her if she had 

something she needed help with

. 

When we were about to reach the 

entrance

 to the church, we 

smelled

 a horrible stench. It was pretty much the same 

as

 the pungent smell we had 

smelled

 when we first encountered the ghost.

Normally, if no one trespassed the church, 

the ghost

 wouldn’t show up. But if someone 

was

 in there now, who would it be? The locals didn’t dare to visit this church. 

We didn’t turn on the flashlight

 and made 

our way 

into

 the church.  

I vaguely heard someone 

talk

 in Chinese. Moreover, I seemed to 

have 

heard this voice somewhere before. 

Since the distance was far and the voice was low, we could somewhat understand the conversation. That Chinese man was threatening the ghost

. He wanted 

her to pester Li Mazi one more time. Otherwise, he would smash her soul! 

“

Screw it

! I want to see who 

that bastard is

!” 

Li Mazi couldn’t stand still when he heard the voice. He jumped

 and lunged 

toward the shadow. 

I was 

also furious

. 

What the 

heck

 is going on here? Some fellow from my 

country

 was 

plotting against

 me in a foreign country?

It seemed that ever since we had come to Milan, we had stepped into the other party’s trap. 

The other party heard the noise

 and shone 

the flashlight on us. When that person saw us, he was bewildered. He didn’t care about the female ghos

t and rushed 

to the back of the church. When Li Mazi and I 

got there

, he was nowhere to be seen. He 

had run 

faster than a rabbit. 

However, 

as we were about to leave

, Li Mazi stepped on a solid object. He stooped and saw a domestic mobile phone from our country. 

I 

unlocked

 it 

and tried to find some clues

. Unexpectedly, the 

last

 calls 

this person

 had received 

were

 from…