Knock… knock…

  The sound of knocking echoed in the stillness of the late night. M? Linh jolted, her heart pounding. She hurried to the door. Outside stood Anh Tú and Dì T?, both looking worried.

  Anh Tú frowned.

  – “What happened? I heard Dad yelling like crazy. Dr. Tùng warned us—he has high blood pressure. He needs to avoid strong emotions, or it could be dangerous.”

  Dì T? asked anxiously:

  – “Is the master alright, ma’am?”

  M? Linh forced a smile, trying to hide her pale face.

  – “He’s fine… just a nightmare. He’s awake now, everything’s alright. Go back to your rooms, it’s late.”

  Anh Tú eyed his mother suspiciously, still uneasy.

  – “If anything unusual happens, call me immediately. Don’t let this get out of hand.”

  M? Linh nodded quickly, her voice trembling.

  – “Yes, yes… I’ll call you. Thank you, both of you.”

  The door closed.

  She rushed back to bed, pulling the blanket over her head. Her hands trembled. She whispered to herself, as if to calm her own fear:

  – “It’s just a dream… they’ve been dead for years… just a dream…”

  ---

  Outside the mansion, the sky was a menacing shade of black. The full moon glowed red like fresh blood, its light dimmed by thick clouds, only faint crimson rays seeping through. The wind blew like icy blades, whistling like mournful cries.

  Grotesque bat-faced creatures hung upside down around the estate, their occasional screeches tearing through the silence.

  ---

  In Anh Tú’s private room, the dim bedside lamp cast a warm glow on his sleeping wife’s face. Standing on the balcony, his robe fluttering in the wind, he narrowed his eyes—feeling the intense stirrings of a malevolent force in the air.

  Though his cultivation was still young — only a hundred years of training — his instincts were razor-sharp.

  He murmured to himself:

  – “Tonight… what is prowling out there? This isn’t an ordinary evil spirit… this energy’s frequency is too strong — it feels like multiple dark forces working together…”

  ---

  Meanwhile, at the Qu?n 7 mansion of Mr. ??c and Mrs. Tam, a dim violet light flickered from a floating magical orb above a marble table. The air was thick with mystery and gravity.

  Mr. ??c, head of the spirit clan, paced back and forth, his brow furrowed.

  – “From Brother D?ng’s house, I’m sensing a strange, powerful supernatural surge. This isn’t just one demon… it’s a council of demons acting together.”

  Mrs. Tam sat close by, clutching Anna’s hand in worry.

  – “Do you think… they might harm our son?”

  Anna, the foreign-born housekeeper—secretly a mid-level spirit beast who had cultivated for many years — spoke calmly:

  – “Don’t worry, ma’am. The ancient divine beast, Trúc Di?n, personally invited Tú to the Gothic mansion tomorrow afternoon. There will also be two lord-ranked vampires… and the Black Diamond—Erion. They’re not targeting him.”

  Mr. ??c frowned, still unsettled.

  – “If that’s the case… then is their target Brother D?ng’s family? Demons don’t usually strike at humans for no reason.”

  – “What could they have done… so vile that the demon council would act?”

  Mrs. Tam glanced at the slowly rotating magical orb, the purple glow reflecting her troubled face.

  – “Tomorrow afternoon… everything will be revealed. My instincts tell me, that family isn’t as clean as they look.”

  Mr. ??c thought back to earlier days.

  – “At first, I didn’t even want my son to marry their daughter. I always felt something was off about them.”

  Anna nodded.

  – “I felt the same. But Tú loves Anh ?ào. If we had forbidden it for the sake of family politics, it could have caused greater harm.”

  The blood moon’s light streamed through the window… an omen that the truth was about to come to light.

  The master bedroom on the first floor was steeped in a suffocating cold.

  Though the air conditioner had long been turned off, waves of icy chill still swept through the air like blizzards scraping against bare skin.

  D?ng lay wide awake, unable to close his eyes. His whole body trembled, muttering like a man possessed:

  – “It’s just a dream… just a dream… they’re dead… you can’t scare me…”

  Yet his lips were blue, and cold sweat soaked his forehead.

  Beside him, M? Linh curled into herself under the blanket, the back of her shirt damp with sweat. She repeated her husband’s words, as though trying to plant a false belief deep into her own mind:

  – “Yes… they’re dead… long dead… they can’t come back…”

  Suddenly—

  A man’s voice resonated from the void. Low. Echoing. Unmistakably familiar:

  – “Sister Linh… Sister… Linh”

  M? Linh jolted, her eyes bulging as if she might faint. She sat up, scanning the room in panic. Then her gaze froze on the glass door leading to the balcony.

  Almost without realizing it, she slipped out of bed and stepped toward it.

  Beyond the glass, blurred by condensation, stood the tall figure of a man —half-turned under the crimson moonlight. His once-white shirt was smeared with dirt and blood. A deep gash split his forehead, trickles of blood sliding down a face mottled with bruises. His body was battered, broken. The faint drip… drip… of blood striking the floor echoed in the air.

  It was Qu?c — M? Linh’s brother-in-law.

  A man who had died in a car crash twenty-five years ago.

  Her whole body went numb, frozen stiff. Her lips trembled, each word forced through a constricted throat:

  – “Q… Qu?c… Please… forgive me… I never meant to hurt you… I tried to stop D?ng… I didn’t agree to it… It wasn’t my fault…”

  Qu?c’s face was as expressionless as a corpse, his empty gaze locked on her.

  But his voice came from right beside her ear, like a whisper brushing against her skin:

  – “Weren’t you… the one who ordered D?ng to sabotage my car?”

  – “Weren’t you the one who suggested my wife and I borrow the car whose brakes you had cut?”

  M? Linh burst into sobs, her limbs trembling.

  – “No… I wouldn’t dare… It was all D?ng’s doing, out of greed… for your assets…”

  Qu?c laughed. It was not the laugh of the living—rather, the hollow echo of a cursed soul.

  – “Even now, the two of you still throw blame at each other?”

  – “My daughter was only five at the time… and you didn’t spare her either. You were willing to take her life too.”

  M? Linh’s throat tightened. She could not answer. Her eyes, now red and wet, lifted in desperate plea:

  – “She… she was only adopted… not blood of this family… If she inherited the estate, it’d be like handing everything to an outsider…”

  Qu?c smiled in agony, blood still streaming down from his forehead like water seeping from a crack in stone.

  – “So… you killed us… to take everything for yourselves.”

  Suddenly, from beneath the floorboards, blackened hands clawed their way up—skeletal, withered fingers wrapping tight around M? Linh’s ankles.

  She screamed, staggering:

  – “NOOO!!! Let me go! I don’t want to die! Help me!!”

  Qu?c’s face loomed close, his blood-soaked eyes glaring into hers:

  Stolen story; please report.

  – “Come down… play with us. We’ve missed you.”

  A hideous chorus of laughter erupted—layered with voices of men, women, and children—like a symphony from Hell itself.

  ---

  BANG!

  The door slammed open. Anh Tú and Dì T? burst in.

  Before them, M? Linh writhed on the floor, screaming, her arms wrapped around her legs, body curled like a terrified child.

  Anh Tú rushed to her side, gripping her shoulders.

  – “Mom! What’s wrong? Wake up! It’s me!”

  Her eyes bulged, her breath ragged, her gaze vacant… then a flicker of recognition returned. She broke into sobs, gasping between words:

  – “Help me… it wants to kill me… save me!!”

  Anh Tú froze at her words.

  – “You… you’re saying… someone wants to kill you?”

  On the bed, D?ng still sat motionless, his eyes hollow, fixed on nothing — like his soul had been ripped from his body.

  Dì T?, Anh Th?, and Anh ?ào rushed in, all of them sensing the same thing.

  In this room… there was something not of this world.

  Something only the guilty could see… the vengeful dead from beyond.

  Cold. Oppressive. Heavy.

  As if Hell itself had passed through… leaving behind the fingerprints of forces not of this Earth.

  The room remained bathed in that dim, sickly yellow light. A draft seeped through the gap in the glass door, carrying with it a bone-chilling cold. M? Linh sat trembling on the floor, lips pale, her hand pointing toward the balcony where the curtain still swayed faintly.

  – “S–Someone’s out there… it’s him… he wants to kill me…”

  Tú quickly turned, eyes sharp, scanning in the direction his mother-in-law pointed.

  – “Mom, there’s no one there. You must’ve just had a bad dream.”

  Dì T? stepped forward, pulling the curtain aside to peer outside. The balcony was empty—nothing but the dark expanse under a deep blood-red moon that painted the cold tiles in crimson light.

  – “See? No one’s here. It’s the middle of the night—there’s no way anyone could climb up here…”

  By the bed, Anh ?ào gently rubbed C?u D?ng’s back, trying to soothe him.

  – “You and Mom were probably just having sleep paralysis. We ran in with Dì T? and only saw Mom hugging her legs, screaming. There wasn’t anyone else here…”

  Anh Th? checked the windows one more time, shaking her head.

  – “Even if there was a burglar, how could they get up here? The whole villa compound has security patrolling all night—top-level safety.”

  Tú carefully lifted his mother-in-law back onto the bed, tucking the blanket around her before sitting beside her.

  – “Try not to think too much, Mom. It was just a dream. Everything’s going to be fine.”

  C?u D?ng sat at the edge of the bed, his eyes vacant, staring past everyone.

  – “It’s not fine… they… they’ve come back. My God… they’ve come back to life…”

  Anh ?ào frowned, confused.

  – “Who are you talking about, Dad? I don’t understand.”

  Realizing he’d slipped, C?u D?ng quickly forced a weak laugh.

  – “Ah… I meant in my dream. You know how dreams are — nonsense. Nothing serious. You kids should head back to bed…”

  Tú’s eyes narrowed. His instincts screamed that something wasn’t right. His gaze lingered on his in-laws — faces pale, foreheads damp with sweat — and the heavy, suffocating air in the room that hadn’t lifted.

  – “Are you sure you’re okay? You both look… really unwell.”

  C?u D?ng straightened his back, speaking with forced calm.

  – “Really, we’re fine. Just stress and lack of sleep lately. Go on, it’s late.”

  Tú nodded slowly, but the doubt in his eyes remained. He knew this wasn’t just some bad dream—but he held his tongue.

  – “Alright… but if anything happens, call us immediately.”

  – “Yes, yes… I know, son.”

  Once Anh Tú, Dì T?, Anh ?ào, and Anh Th? left the room and closed the door, only two figures remained — two people bound by the same guilt — sitting in the faint glow of the bedside lamp.

  M? Linh whispered, her voice drained of life:

  – “What now? After 25 years… they’ve finally shown themselves…”

  C?u D?ng rested his elbows on his knees, eyes sunken with dread.

  – “They’re not just restless spirits… those things… are demons.”

  M? Linh trembled, eyes wide with near-tears.

  – “Should… should we call Master V?nh? He’s famous for handling the supernatural… an expert in exorcisms…”

  C?u D?ng’s voice hardened instantly.

  – “No. No one can know about this. V?nh is close friends with Vú N?m from Quy’s family. One word, and the truth about what happened will come out — and it won’t just be me who’s finished.”

  M? Linh understood immediately and nodded rapidly.

  – “Right… right… we’ll find another exorcist. Someone with no connection to the past.”

  C?u D?ng clenched his fists, his eyes turning dark.

  – “I’ll take care of it. No one else must know. No one.”

  ---

  Outside on the balcony, monstrous bat-like creatures hung upside down from the eaves, their eyes glowing red like embers. These were no ordinary animals.

  They were lesser demons — elite operatives sent by the Black Diamond Syndicate — and worse, they were recording everything that happened, both image and sound, in perfect clarity.

  These magical data streams were already being transmitted to the royal mafia of Satan’s satellites and the Black Diamond intelligence network, analyzed and stored.

  The crime from 25 years ago was no longer buried in darkness.

  And those who committed it…

  would soon face judgment.

  The only question left was—

  Who will deliver it first?

  The demons…

  The living…

  Or karma itself.

  The grand headquarters in Bình Chánh.

  Inside the great hall, thunderous laughter rolled through the air, echoing off the walls, bouncing beneath the glow of hundreds of suspended crystal chandeliers.

  On a throne carved from a single block of ironwood, adorned with dragons and phoenixes, Satan, the Demon King, lounged with one leg crossed over the other. One hand held a glass of whisky; the other rested lightly upon the Velkhanis Mirror — a cursed artifact capable of reflecting both the past and the darkest sins buried in one’s subconscious.

  – “Hmm! They’re even thinking of hiring an exorcist? Stubborn to the very end… still refusing to confess their crimes?”

  His eyes were sharp as blades, his laughter dripping with mockery.

  Erion, wearing a smoke-gray overcoat draped over his shoulders, stroked the curve of his horns. His ruby eyes glowed as he watched the Black Crystal Mirror replaying the scene of M? Linh clutching her own legs, screaming in terror.

  – “Resilient little pests. Looks like we’ll have to boost the magical frequency even higher… give them a taste they can’t ignore.”

  Din rested his boots on the skull of a traitor, grinning to reveal razor-white fangs. His eyes, deep as the midnight sea, narrowed like a predator in the hunt.

  – “Good thing we came prepared. No matter what exorcist they call, they won’t escape— not when we’ve recorded everything in full HD.”

  Yin licked his lips, his voice a velvet whisper of malice:

  – “If it weren’t for the imps and the satellite feed, they’d keep denying their crimes even in the boiling pits of hell. But now…”

  He snapped his fingers, and frames of crystal-clear footage materialized in midair—angles sharper and cleaner than any security camera could produce.

  Trang, clad in a black leather bodycon dress, leaned against a phoenix-carved rosewood throne, her fingers caressing the Velkhanis Diamond Mirror. Her eyes were as cold as eternal ice.

  – “It seems we’re still missing one family member…”

  Trúc Di?n, deep in thought, recalled Anh Tú’s words:

  – “ Anh Tú mentioned Mr. D?ng still has a youngest daughter… studying abroad in Canada. But… that’s the parents’ sin…”

  Trang cut him off, her tone laced with contempt:

  – “The parents’ crime… yet their children live lavishly on bloodstained wealth. Dressed in silk, dining in gold, off the lives of others.”

  H?ng Nhung, seated beside Arian, spoke with a sharp edge of memory:

  – “Exactly. Those three siblings still look down on the poor, even though their luxury comes from stolen lives.”

  The Elder Matriarch, adjusting the silver hairpin in her bun, eyes dark hollows like twin black holes, turned to Master V?nh:

  – “If that couple stays defiant, we’ll have to strike harder. The Lord’s law is simple— you reap what you sow.”

  Master V?nh, in a traditional black áo Dài, slowly fanned himself, nodding:

  – “You’re right. We’ve been patient… and they still won’t repent. There will be no more mercy.”

  Satan raised his glass high. The liquid inside shifted to a deep, fresh-blood red.

  – “Then… begin Phase Two.”

  ---

  In C?u D?ng’s icy bedroom, the temperature seemed to drain away into the void. The air grew thick, oppressive. Outside, the wind screamed, and now and then came the sound of claws scratching the glass — scraping not only the window but the very layers of their souls.

  On the bed, M? Linh gripped her husband’s hand, shivering violently as if struck with a fever. She whispered, panic lacing every syllable:

  – “Tomorrow morning… I must find an exorcist immediately… I’ve heard of a dark sealing spell — one that can imprison the souls of the dead forever… maybe, if I’m lucky, it’ll keep them from ever coming back…”

  She kept muttering like a sleepwalker. But suddenly… the hand she was holding turned ice-cold.

  Not just cold — its texture was rough, grainy… like fresh earth dug from a grave.

  Her brow furrowed. This… was not her husband’s hand.

  Slowly… she looked up.

  And came face to face with the blood-drenched visage of Qu?c — her brother-in-law, murdered decades ago. His eyes were wide and unblinking, lips pressed tight. Blood streamed from the gash on his forehead, soaking into the pillow, staining the bedsheet crimson.

  – “So… you want to seal our souls, do you…? I dare you.”

  M? Linh screamed — high, raw, almost tearing her throat. Every hair on her body stood on end. She scrambled backward, nearly falling off the bed.

  C?u D?ng shot up, lightly slapping her face:

  – “Wake up! Snap out of it! Why are you gripping my hand like a vise?!”

  Her eyes flew open, her skin slick with sweat, her breath ragged, as though half her soul had slipped away.

  She reached out, feeling his hand again—warm, soft… alive. But the sensation from before… still clung to her fingertips.

  Beyond the glass, a hand — mud-caked and dripping blood — hovered for a heartbeat longer… then slowly withdrew into the night.

  The game of karma had begun.

  And punishment…

  This was only the opening act.

  In the bedroom, cold as an ice vault, M? Linh leaned against the headboard, gasping for breath, eyes wide open. Her face was pale, and the bridge of her nose trembled in terror.

  C?u D?ng looked at his wife, his voice hoarse:

  – “Did you see them again in your dream? Was it… them?”

  M? Linh stammered, clutching the edge of the blanket as if she had just escaped an abyss:

  – “Qu?c… he… he came back again…”

  A chill ran through C?u D?ng’s entire body; every hair on his skin stood on end. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and muttered:

  – “Tomorrow morning… we need to find a sorcerer immediately… if this keeps up, I’ll… I’ll go insane…”

  – “Lie down and rest… it’ll be morning soon.”

  M? Linh shook her head repeatedly, tears welling up:

  – “You sleep… I’m too afraid to see his face… that bloody face…”

  C?u D?ng lay down, forcing himself to close his eyes, forcing his mind to stop thinking. After a while, in a haze of half-sleep, he unconsciously reached out to hold his wife, seeking some warmth.

  But… why was the body in his arms as cold as death?

  The figure wasn’t soft and warm as usual… but thin, bony, like a corpse that had been rotting underground for years.

  C?u D?ng’s eyes snapped open. Before him…

  Was H?nh.

  Her long black hair hung in messy tangles, covering half of her face — a face crushed on one side, with sunken eyes and blood seeping from her mouth. Blood streamed down like the tears of a vengeful spirit.

  – “Brother… you want to seal my soul away?

  I’m your own sister… You killed me… and now you don’t even want me to find peace?”

  C?u D?ng’s jaw locked tight; he couldn’t form words.

  – “I… I didn’t… it was Linh who told me to… I didn’t… I didn’t want to hurt you…”

  A cold, piercing laugh echoed through the room, chilling him to the bone.

  H?nh’s mournful face twisted into a grotesque smile, revealing long, razor-sharp fangs like those of a vampire bat.

  – “I dare you… I dare you to try.”

  C?u D?ng screamed like a madman. He lunged forward, hands locking around the throat of the laughing apparition, squeezing as if he could crush it.

  – “Die! I’ll seal your damned souls!”

  ---

  The scream shook the entire mansion. Anh Tú, Dì T?, Anh ?ào, and Anh Th? rushed in.

  They saw M? Linh struggling on the bed, while C?u D?ng, eyes tightly shut, shouted wildly — his hands locked around his wife’s throat like a man possessed.

  – “Die! I’ll seal you away!”

  Anh Tú was the first to charge forward, slapping his father hard across the face:

  – “Dad! Wake up! What are you doing?!”

  Dì T? and the two daughters quickly sat M? Linh up, rubbing her chest. Sweat poured down her forehead, and her face was ghostly pale.

  – “Madam, are you alright?!”

  – “Mom! Are you okay?!” Anh Th? cried out.

  M? Linh coughed violently, gasping for air, her eyes wide in terror:

  – “He… he tried to kill me… why were you choking me… are you insane…?”

  C?u D?ng finally jolted awake, panting heavily, his eyes wide, sweat pouring down as if he had just emerged from water.

  – “She… she appeared again… she wants to kill me… you can’t scare me… you can’t!”

  Though he spoke defiantly, his body trembled like a reed in the wind. His limbs were ice-cold, his bloodshot eyes darted, and his breath came in ragged bursts.

  Suspicion gnawed at Anh Tú. The things his parents-in-law had said were full of shadows and secrets. The upcoming meeting at the Gothic Mansion tomorrow afternoon weighed heavily on his mind.

  Inside the room, though the windows were shut tight, a cold draft seeped in from somewhere unseen…

  A stench of muddy earth mixed with fresh blood lingered in the air, swirling through the bedroom.

  And outside the mansion, the impish demons hanging upside down continued recording every moment through their lenses… preparing for the next phase.