Esteban said this silver medal had been sold to him by an old man. Although he knew its origin, there was hardly any market for it—few people were interested in buying. The old man had been desperate for money to pay his partner's medical bills, so Esteban bought it out of goodwill. Since then, the item had been gathering dust in his shop, unseen by customers, let alone purchased. Eventually, Esteban had tossed it into the warehouse.
Generally speaking, Bagua mirrors could be crafted from either mirrors (creating proper Bagua mirrors) or bronze. But those made of silver were exceedingly rare, and their evil-warding effects were significantly diminished. That explained why nobody wanted this thing. It was called the Eight Trigrams Plate, though it couldn't hold a candle to genuine Bagua mirrors in terms of potency.
Of course, its full name was "The Stone Gander with a Lion Biting a Sword"—as the old man had told him. The silver plate bore an engraving of a lion clamping a sword in its jaws, which probably inspired the name. But it was commonly referred to as the Eight Trigrams Plate. Despite its Taoist origins, very few practitioners actually used it.
Damn it, no wonder it was so cheap. It was practically unwanted garbage. What the hell was I buying it for?
Esteban said if I was interested, he could lower the price a bit. After all, it still technically fell under the Bagua category and should be effective for suppressing evil. Besides, he'd had it consecrated by a specialist—I could rest assured about that.
"It can go lower?" I frowned, then held up my fingers. "How about eight hundred?"
"Deal!" Esteban responded with startling speed. As if afraid I might change my mind, he hastily thrust the silver medal into my hands.
I cursed inwardly. Fucking swindler. He'd quoted an outrageous price—five hundred would probably have been his bottom line. Otherwise, this thing would've kept rotting in his warehouse.
I never expected him to start at two thousand and settle for eight hundred without bargaining. This guy was a damn thief.
No helping it now—my word was given. The Copper Coin Sword plus this Eight Trigrams Plate totaled five thousand eight hundred. Handing over the cash made my face twitch with heartache. I comforted myself: Small money out, big money in. The Nova family business was the real payday—once I solved their problem, the compensation would be substantial.
"You iron rooster," Stella spat, eyeing my purchases with disdain. "Can't even spring for a copy of Yellow Taoist Talisman? So stingy."
Gouge my ass—this just cost me five thousand eight hundred! I'm not like you spoiled rich kids, burning cash every day. I buy practical tools for defense—they just need to work.
Ignoring Stella's contempt, we bid farewell to Esteban and hailed a taxi back.
Stella, still sleep-deprived, headed straight upstairs upon returning—sleeping like a hog. But before dozing off, she reminded me to start early tomorrow since Harper's matter remained unresolved.
Now that the tools were ready, it was straight to the Nova family tomorrow. Antonio wasn't needed for this—I told him to stay at the shop and keep an eye on the little fox.
I handed the Eight Trigrams Plate to Stein and kept the Copper Coin Sword for myself. Stein asked what it was, but I didn't bother explaining. "Just keep it on you," I said. "It might save your life."
Our group got straight into the car and headed to the Nova family's estate. The mansion looked the same as before, but the yin energy had grown thicker, shrouding the place in a hazy gloom.
Just then, a little boy came running out. His face was deathly gray—like a corpse—with slightly blue lips and two sunken, shadowed eyes. This was Zephyr, the last remaining male heir of the Nova family.
Zephyr called out to Nova's sister, then zoomed around Nova in a toy car, acting like any normal kid. Nothing about him seemed out of the ordinary—except his ghastly appearance.
"Sister… why does Zephyr look like this?" Daphne asked, uneasy.
Nova sighed. "Don't ask. After Grandma passed, his face slowly turned like this. We took him to doctors, but they couldn't find anything physically wrong."
Stein muttered, "A face like that belongs to either a dead man or someone about to die."
Nova panicked. She begged me to save Zephyr—he was the family's last hope. If he died, the Nova bloodline would end.
"Don't worry," I said. "We'll find the source of the problem first, then 'treat' it with the right God-and-Ghost Tattoos."
The root of this curse likely lay in the Nova mansion—and that damned jade pendant.
At the mention of the pendant, Nova's expression shifted. She quickly pulled it out and showed it to us.
Strangely, when we first saw it, the jade had been pure white. But now, it had turned a deep, bloody red.
"What the hell?" I frowned. "Is this the same pendant?"
Nova nodded firmly. "Yes. Other than the color, it's identical. But I don't know why it changed." She hesitated. "The day we sent Grandma to the hospital and came back… it was already like this."
Stein's face twisted the moment he saw the pendant. He went pale. "This jade… it's blood jade. And worse—it's turned into a demon."
I'd never heard of blood jade becoming a demon, so I pressed him for details.
Stein explained, "Blood jade—also called cursed jade—isn't like ordinary jade. It feeds on blood. If not properly nourished, it devours its owner. Anyone who wears it will have their life drained away."
He took a shaky breath. "Some blood jade takes centuries, even millennia, to become demons. That's when a Jade Soul awakens inside it."
A Jade Soul is an evil entity with consciousness. It can conceal itself, even reverting its bloody hue to appear as normal jade. Once worn by its owner, it slowly drains their chi, blood, and yang energy until they wither and die.
The jade Nova possessed could very well be blood jade that had turned into a demon—a terrifying thought.
That said, if it were ordinary jade, Old Man Nova wouldn't have specifically entrusted it to her on his deathbed. And Old Lady Nova wouldn't have gone mad the moment she laid eyes on it.
This jade was anything but normal.
"Did you have blood on you when you took your grandmother to the hospital the other day?" Stein asked Nova.
Nova nodded. "Yes. Grandma's intestines were spilling out—she was covered in blood. I held her hand in the ambulance and hugged her after she died, so I got blood on me too."
Stein's expression darkened. "That explains it. Blood jade reveals its true nature when exposed to blood."
A memory flashed through my mind—Old Lady Nova desperately refusing to let Nova near her while covered in blood, cowering under the bed and frantically driving her away. Had she already known this was blood jade?
Was this cursed jade connected to the old woman's feigned madness? And did it have anything to do with the tragedies plaguing the Nova family?
Trembling, Nova threw the blood jade to the ground as if scalded, staring at it in horror.
"Has it...has it already been sucking my blood and yang energy?" Her voice shook.
I reassured her, "You look fine—your complexion is healthy, not like someone harmed by blood jade. But..."
My gaze drifted toward Zephyr.
Rather...
Her little brother's condition told a different story.