Chapter 520

But no one answered him. Francis stood rooted to the spot, a shiver crawling down his spine. He faintly heard a woman’s laughter and quickly turned to see a group of men and women, dressed in 1920s clothing, walking toward him. As they passed, they stopped.

“Francis? What are you doing here?” The woman looked at him in surprise.

Her stare made Francis take a quick half-step backward. Her hair cascaded down, her fair skin seemed delicate, and her eyes were fixed intently on him. This familiar face belonged to none other than his ex-girlfriend.

“Melody, why are you here?” Francis was startled. He kept backing away but bumped into someone. Turning, he saw his agent standing behind him. His whole body trembled with panic. He tried to escape, but his foot was caught by a hand, and he fell to the ground with a thud.

The intense pain brought him back to his senses. “Something’s off. I thought the police arrested you. Why are you here?” he murmured. He tried to retreat, but they closed in.

“Arrested? You should be dead already,” his ex-girlfriend sneered, advancing with his agent. She brandished a fruit knife, stabbing viciously. With a “puff,” the fruit knife sank deep into his flesh.

Francis watched the blood seep from his chest and quickly reached out to cover it. But the blood seeped through his fingers, instantly staining his palm red.

“I let you escape last time. Did you think you could escape this time?” his ex-girlfriend spat.

Francis clutched his chest in agony, staring at the bloody fruit knife in her hand, her eyes ice-cold. Ignoring the pain, he scrambled up and tried to run. But a figure flashed before him, blocking his path. Francis’s eyes widened in horror. Recognizing the man who had appeared on set that morning, still wearing his 1920s clothing, he realized it was him.

“Run! Where do you think you’re running off to?” the man asked. His face was ferocious, frightening Francis.

“Are you human or a ghost? No, I don’t believe it. I believe Odalys will help me. She promised,” Francis said.

As he spoke, he saw a raging fire in the distance and a figure hanging from a tree, hands and feet bound. The wind brushed against her cheeks, lifting her hair and revealing her delicate…

“Odalys? Is that Odalys? How is it possible? She’s so capable.” Francis’s throat felt dry.

The man laughed triumphantly. “She may be clever,” he said, “but she still walked right into my trap. This self-righteous woman is no better than…”

“She made an appointment with you to perform a ritual after nightfall to expel the thing haunting you. Little did she know that you had already walked into my trap. She fell for my trick during the ritual, aha!” The man laughed wildly.

Chapter 520 (continued)

Francis’s pupils dilated, his mind seemingly blank.

“Did you make that phone call! Did you put that talisman outside the Stewart Villa? Are you human or a ghost, and what do you want?” Francis roared.

The man turned around with a smug look and yanked hard on the rope binding Odalys to the tree. With a loud thud, she fell, and the sound of breaking bones was faintly heard.

“What do I want?” the man replied. “I want your lives, of course. Otherwise, am I supposed to let you ruin my plans all day? Your fortune, of all of you, is the worst.” He added, “You are the one with the least fortune here. Even if you were to die, no one would know.”

Francis finally came to his senses. “So, you want my life? But why?” he said in disbelief.

“Because you have the least fortune. Your body is the easiest to control,” the man replied.

Francis froze, staring at the man. “You want my body? Don’t tell me you’re going to give it to someone else. Or are you going to kill me and let someone else possess my body?” His voice trembled with fear.

The man stood with his hands behind his back, staring at him in surprise. “It seems you’ve already guessed it. In that case, I won’t waste my breath on you.” As he spoke, he raised his hand and said to the two people behind him, “Grab him.”

“Okay,” Francis’s ex-girlfriend and his agent strode forward, pinning Francis down and dragging him away. The man turned and strode off.

Francis stared at his retreating figure. Then, he suddenly broke free from his ex-girlfriend and agent’s grip and charged forward. Just when everyone assumed he was seriously injured and immobile, he attacked.

The man sensed his approach and spun around just in time to see Francis whip a talisman from his pocket and try to stick it on him.

“You,” the man stared at Francis in terror. He hadn’t expected this. He stared at the talisman in bewilderment, then at Francis’s smiling face. “You! You’re not under my illusion? No way. How is that possible?” His voice became shrill with fear. Someone under an illusion couldn’t bring in outside items unless prepared.

“How is that impossible?” Odalys’s voice rang out. Odalys, who had fallen earlier, got up, wiped the fake blood off her face, and strode forward.

The man stared at her and backed away repeatedly. “How is that possible? Didn’t you fall and break your bones just now?”

As he spoke, he saw Odalys take something out and break it with two sharp snaps. “You mean this? How many snaps do you want to hear? I’ll show you,” Odalys said with a sneer.

The man’s lips moved, and he tried to back away, but his body was rooted to the spot, uncontrollable. His heart skipped a beat as he realized he had been tricked.

“No way. How could you possibly have tricked me? Francis agreed to cooperate with me, and he opened the package. The moment he opened it, he fell under my illusion spell. When he took my talisman into the Stewart Villa, your minds were all under my control. There’s no way you could have resisted me,” the man murmured under his breath.

Francis clutched the “wound” on his chest and pulled out a blood pack from his pocket. He threw it in the man’s face with a ‘splat.’ Blood splattered across the man’s face.

“Is there a possibility that you walked right into Odalys’s trap the moment I answered your call?” Francis said with a sneer.