It turned out that Master Gu and Dao Lao, hiding outside the building, were not idle either. In order to ensure that there would be no unexpected incidents in Hao Yun's subsequent actions, the two elders immediately shrank the barrier restricting the ghost doll when they saw it being attracted into the living room by Hao Yun. Then, to prevent Mr. and Mrs. Xiao from being disturbed by suddenly waking up and seeing the situation in the living room, and affecting their actions to capture the ghost doll, Master Gu specially cast a mild calming spell on the couple to ensure that they would sleep soundly until dawn.

After confirming that he would not be disturbed by others, Hao Yun took a deep breath, gathered his courage, and turned to the ghost doll, saying, "Liu Erwa, we need to talk."

The ghost doll obviously didn't expect the thief in front of him to speak to him proactively, let alone directly call out his name. So, the ghost doll was first stunned, then asked with a strange expression, "You—, can you see me? Who are you?"

Upon hearing the ghost doll's response, Hao Yun immediately entered a state of readiness. He shrugged and said, "I know where you come from, what you want to do here, and why you're doing it. But you don't need to be nervous. I won't hurt you. I just want to talk to you."

The ghost doll frowned at the response. His hollow eye sockets showed both confusion and wariness, and even a hint of panic.

"Who are you exactly?!" The ghost doll asked in a voice filled with deathly aura.

At the same time as the ghost doll asked again, his body was retreating continuously towards the direction of the room behind him. It seemed that the ghost doll now preferred to run back to Mr. and Mrs. Xiao's bedroom rather than continue to confront Hao Yun, which was somewhat unexpected to Hao Yun.

"Ah!" The ghost doll exclaimed in panic. Because just as he wanted to retreat and float back to Mr. and Mrs. Xiao's bedroom, he was surprised to find that the couple's bedroom had been completely sealed off by an extremely strong barrier.

The ghost doll changed positions and tried several times to float into the bedroom, but failed. At this moment, he realized that he had been completely imprisoned in this living room.

"Who are you?! Let me out!" The ghost doll tried to break through the barrier wall formed by the array with sharp, piercing screams directed at Hao Yun.

The series of reactions from the ghost doll surprised Hao Yun. After all, confronting an unlucky ghost shrouded in moldy spirit energy, Hao Yun had considered various dangers before acting. But now it seemed that his worries were unnecessary. Because after finding himself trapped, the ghost doll was more focused on trying to escape from the array than launching an attack on Hao Yun. In addition, Hao Yun couldn't help but wonder if it was his imagination, but he seemed to hear a hint of anxious tone in the ghost doll's terrifying roar.

"Liu Erwa, calm down. I just want to help you. I don't want to hurt you. And you should know, you don't belong here, you shouldn't have appeared here in the first place." Seeing the ghost doll anxiously hovering in front of the barrier wall leading to Mr. and Mrs. Xiao's bedroom, Hao Yun appeared again to persuade him.

Upon hearing Hao Yun's words, the ghost doll turned back and said with a tone full of resentment, "Help me? Taking me away from my parents is helping me? No, no one can take my parents away from me again! I won't let anyone take my parents away from me again!"

Just as the ghost doll spoke, a powerful force suddenly burst out from his body. Then, the ghost doll's whole body was enveloped in a strong purplish-black mist, his hollow eye sockets seemed to ignite, burning with two faint green flames.

"Ugh—Ah! Kill—!" The ghost doll roared loudly, then raised his hands, which turned into claws, and rushed towards Hao Yun like a soul-devouring beast from the depths of hell.

Since the living room of Mr. and Mrs. Xiao's house was not very large, the sudden attack by the ghost doll at such a close distance caught Hao Yun, who had no combat experience, completely off guard. Hao Yun was so frightened that he stood frozen on the spot, helpless, and could only instinctively bow his head and raise his hands. Hao Yun's mind was blank at this moment, he had no idea what consequences the ghost doll's attack would bring to him.

"Boom!" A heavy muffled sound came from the living room, and the sound quickly spread to the surroundings and was absorbed by the arrays set up around the pit.

Hao Yun was so nervous at this moment that cold sweat dripped down his face, his body stiffened and curled up in the middle of the living room. Just as the muffled sound rang out, Hao Yun felt like he had been hit by something. But because the impact was limited, his body only swayed slightly and quickly regained stability.

Hao Yun immediately realized that the impact he had just suffered was due to the ghost doll's attack. Hao Yun didn't have time to think about why the ghost doll's attack hadn't harmed him, but quickly withdrew a few steps with his stiff body, and at the same time, he tried hard to lock onto the ghost doll's trace, so that he could better respond to the ghost doll's second attack. But just as Hao Yun raised his head to prepare to retreat, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

"Wow! What is this thing?!" Hao Yun looked in amazement at the translucent light shield that appeared out of thin air in front of him.

However, Hao Yun soon realized what it was. Because Hao Yun noticed that on the left side of his system interface, there was a prompt — the system defense function had been activated. It turned out that this light shield was a protective barrier formed by the protective power of the Spirit Realm! It was because of the existence of this protective barrier that Hao Yun was able to firmly block the ghost doll's fierce pounce.

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Seeing that his furious blow was easily neutralized by an inexplicably powerful force, the ghost doll was also greatly surprised. However, being thoroughly enraged, the ghost doll did not want to let it go. After making some adjustments, he opened his bloodthirsty mouth and exposed his fangs, then viciously rushed towards Hao Yun again.

Since there was a protective shield to protect him, Hao Yun naturally knew that the ghost doll couldn't do anything to him. So, following the prompt from the system, Hao Yun quickly manipulated the shield, forming a huge light shield in front of himself, while at the same time, he cleverly took out the Yin Envoy token given to him by Master Gu and shouted loudly, "Liu Erwa, calm down! I am an envoy from the Spirit Realm! Stop resisting!"

Hao Yun was actually very clever here. Because he knew the core purpose of this operation was to capture the mold spirit energy attached to the ghost doll. So, he deliberately concealed his title as an assistant priest tasked with chasing the spirit energy, in order to avoid alerting the target and minimize its defensive awareness as much as possible.

Sure enough, the ghost doll immediately stopped attacking upon seeing the token. At the same time, when Hao Yun displayed the Yin Envoy token in front of the ghost doll, it immediately emitted a dazzling holy golden light. Under the radiance of the holy light, not only was the ghost doll suppressed and forced to retreat, but the malevolent aura surrounding its body also began to fade away.

"What are you doing?! Don't take me back! I don't want to go back!" The ghost doll struggled in agony, but no matter how it resisted, it couldn't withstand the demonic aura retracting into its body.

Hao Yun hadn't expected the token to have the power to disperse evil spirits. "Master Gu, why didn't you tell me about this earlier?! If I had known, I would have just entered with the token raised high! How could I have been scared so badly?" Hao Yun thought to himself. "No way! Next time I help Master Gu buy merchandise related to the goddesses, I must deduct some, consider it compensation for the money spent on my underwear!"

Seeing the ghost doll's momentum suppressed by the token, Hao Yun's nervousness finally settled down. Now that the ghost doll had completely lost its previous hostility and Hao Yun had the protection of the shield, his confidence in speaking also increased significantly. "Second Liu, as long as you don't have any ill intentions, I won't harm you. Just calm down and let's talk, okay?"

The ghost doll gasped heavily, speaking with a clear tone of crying, "Wuwuwu! Please don't take me back! Please let me go! I don't want to go back! I don't want to go back to my parents immediately! Wuwuwu!"

Seeing the once fierce and demonic ghost doll suddenly crying like an innocent child, Hao Yun was somewhat at a loss. He hurriedly asked through the system channel, "What's going on? Why is he crying like this? This Second Liu, why does he seem much weaker than I imagined?"

Dao Lao and Master Gu were also somewhat surprised by the situation. Clearly, they were here to capture ghosts, but how did it suddenly feel like adults bullying a child?

"Well, for a three-star unlucky ghost, it's indeed unexpected for him to be easily suppressed by the power of the Yin Envoy token. His strength is indeed weaker than expected. Hao, my boy, don't let your guard down. The ghost doll might be pretending. Observe the situation first," Master Gu cautiously reminded Hao Yun after some thought.

Hao Yun also felt something was amiss, but in order to figure out what the ghost doll was up to, he put away the light shield in his hand to show his sincerity in wanting to talk. After all, as long as he had this layer of protection, the ghost doll couldn't harm him at all. So, Hao Yun boldly approached and looked at the increasingly sad ghost doll, asking, "Hey, why are you still crying? Didn't I say I wouldn't take you back? You don't seem like the kind of evil spirit who harms others for personal gain, so tell me, why did you come here? What do you want to do?"

The ghost doll continued to cry, saying, "Wuwuwu! Please don't look for me! Let me go back!"

Hao Yun persuaded with a tilted head, "Hey, can you stop crying first? You keep saying you want me to let you go and return. So, tell me, where do you want to go?"

Upon hearing Hao Yun's question, the ghost doll immediately choked up and replied, "Wuwu, I-I want to go back. Back to my mom and dad. Please, sir, let me go! I want to go back to the bedroom. I want to find dad, I want to find mom. Wah—! I'm so scared right now! Wuwuwu!"

Okay, now the ghost doll was crying even harder.

"It seems I was right in my analysis. This ghost doll sees Xiao Yong and Xu Fang as its parents. It must have come here to see them, not with any intention to harm others," Hao Yun said to Dao Lao and Master Gu as the crying of the ghost doll grew louder.

"Well, you're lucky you guessed right! I'll give you that," Dao Lao said with a begrudging tone of approval.

"How is this guessing? Clearly, my insight is strong!" Hao Yun retorted, feeling quite displeased.

"However, it seems that the strength of this ghost doll is indeed very weak. Could it be that Second Liu is just an ordinary young soul, not the kind of evil spirit with heavy malevolence, which is why he doesn't possess the full power of the mold spirit energy?" Hao Yun looked at the still crying ghost doll. From the data detected by his system, the malevolent aura on the ghost doll's body had already completely converged, and he now seemed to be just an ordinary little ghost.

The ghost doll continued to cry, seeming like he wouldn't pose any threat to Hao Yun anymore. However, no matter how Hao Yun persuaded, the ghost doll's crying didn't stop. He also kept pleading with a crying tone, "Wuwuwu! Please don't take me, sir! I don't want to leave my mom and dad! Wuwuwu! I'm so scared."

Now the ghost doll was like an ordinary child, crying and making a scene, leaving Hao Yun, who was clueless about how to comfort children, at a loss. But dragging on like this wasn't a solution either. After all, the time limit of the spell that Master Gu had cast was limited. If the spell were to be depleted by the ghost doll's crying, wouldn't it bring the possibility of a change in the current situation?

With this in mind, Hao Yun could only turn to Master Gu and Dao Lao for help. Unexpectedly, dealing with the ghost doll in its normal state was even more difficult than dealing with it fully armed!

Helpless, Master Gu and Dao Lao had no choice but to enter the living room together. Master Gu, as soon as he entered, dispelled his human disguise and revealed his original form, then sternly admonished the ghost doll, "Humph! Bold demon, dare to cause trouble again! Do you—know your crime?"

After all, Master Gu was the chief executive of the underworld, and his aura was much stronger than Hao Yun's. Therefore, with just one reprimand from Master Gu, the ghost doll was immediately scared into trembling and sat paralyzed on the ground. Although the ghost doll didn't recognize Master Gu, it could still sense the imposing aura emanating from him, realizing that this monstrous-looking orc was definitely not someone to mess with.

So, the ghost doll dared not continue crying, but quickly flipped over and knelt on the ground, tremblingly saying, "M-Master, Second doesn't dare to cause trouble. It was Second's fault, Second knows he's wrong. Please, Master, calm down. Wuwuwu.Second just wanted to come here to find my mom and dad, Wuwuwu. Second has no other malicious intent."