Chapter 158: The Web

Resentment is not the exclusive domain of the dead.
The living, too, are capable of holding onto resentment.
At times, the grievance carried by a living person can burn even fiercer than that of a deceased soul.
When someone harboring deep resentment finds themselves in close proximity to the dead, they easily transmit that negative emotion to the lingering spirit.
Simply put, at that exact moment, the father was consumed not only by sorrow, but also by a profound sense of grievance.
Why must such a tragedy befall his own daughter?
Why was he powerless to save her?
Why had he already lost his wife, only for the world to tear away his very last reason to live?
This was entirely normal.
In truth, someone devoid of such emotions would be the abnormal one.
Had the father stared coldly at his daughter's demise with utter indifference, feeling neither grief nor anger, Qiao Qiao might have instinctively reached for the revolver at his hip.
Yet, unlike the dead, the emotions of the living are fluid and subject to change.
Though the grieving father burned with indignation and bitterness at present, time would eventually soften those jagged edges, dilute the pain, and guide him toward acceptance.
Spirits, however, operate differently.
Once touched by lingering resentment, they sink deeper and deeper, enslaved by their own passions until they ultimately lash out to harm others.
And what Qiao Qiao had witnessed just now appeared to be some unseen entity forcibly extracting that father’s resentment.
This was, of course, no random act of charity.
Had Hoshino Sassa, Qiao Qiao, and the others not intervened to relay messages for the young girl’s spirit, that harvested grief might have poisoned her soul, twisting her into a vengeful phantom, or perhaps even a malicious specter.
Qiao Qiao had encountered similar cases in the archives of the Exorcist Association.
Planting the seeds of resentment within a human soul, waiting for the malice to ripen, and then reaping the harvest—decades ago in Wa State, such methods were wildly popular among extremist factions.
The reason that resentment had been successfully pulled away moments ago was undoubtedly because Hoshino Sassa had largely pacified the father's obsession, leaving the seed of malice with no fertile ground to grow within him.
"Something is wrong."
Qiao Qiao cast a glance at Hoshino Sassa.
Naturally, she had noticed the exact same anomaly.
After exchanging a brief nod with Inspector Itoh Ryohei, Qiao Qiao and Hoshino Sassa departed the accident scene.
"Even so, it's been quite a while now. Surely any trace would have vanished by now?"
Hoshino Sassa twitched her delicate nostrils, sniffing the air of the street like an inquisitive puppy.
"No, if we look carefully, the tracks are still visible."
With a sweeping gaze of his Spirit Sight, Qiao Qiao noted that while the street appeared entirely ordinary to the naked eye, he retained the art of communicating with the departed.
As they walked, he performed spirit-summoning on the mailboxes, utility poles, and storefront signs lining the path.
It took little effort to track the flow of Yin energy.
"?"
Hoshino Sassa blinked, watching Qiao Qiao's actions with a hint of bewilderment.
Was spirit-communication always such a convenient exorcism technique?
It seemed rather different from what she had studied in textbooks.
Lugging the oversized metal case behind her, she trailed closely behind Qiao Qiao.

After walking briskly for about twenty minutes, the pair finally halted before a deserted construction site in Suginami Ward.
"Qiao-san, is this the place?"
Hoshino Sassa looked up at the four-story skeletal structure, abandoned midway through its creation for reasons unknown, her expression doubtful.
"Yes, I just checked the spiritual records of that traffic light from the past hour, and that faint thread of Yin energy drifted right into this building."
Qiao Qiao nodded, extracting his phone to report the situation to Miss Sakura before running a quick background check on the property.
Originally slated to be built as an office building for a trading firm, the venture went bankrupt unexpectedly, and the partially finished shell was sold to another company. Lacking the capital to resume development, it had been left to rot ever since.
Therefore, it was likely devoid of any protective wards, right?
Qiao Qiao mused to himself.
He stepped inside the structure.
Local children frequented the place as a makeshift playground, evidenced by the colorful graffiti splashed across the concrete pillars and raw walls.
The clamor of the outside world abruptly vanished, leaving the interior as quiet as a dead zone amidst the bustling city.
Yet, through the lens of Spirit Sight, the reality was starkly different.
From the exterior, the building betrayed no secrets, but standing within its confines revealed a suffocating entanglement of Yin energy.
An ordinary person would remain utterly oblivious, but had the structure been completed according to its original blueprint, it surely would have matured into a nexus of gathered Yin, breeding all sorts of foul phenomena.
"A web?"
Hoshino Sassa blurted out the word upon laying eyes on the intertwined threads of dark energy.
"It is a web."
Understanding dawned on Qiao Qiao.
At this very moment, centered around this dilapidated building, the Yin energy was spinning a vast, invisible net.
This web served to gather human resentment, snaring souls choked with bitterness and turning them into nodes upon the grid to haunt the mortal realm.
Ascending the crude concrete staircase to the fourth floor, Qiao Qiao felt the surrounding Yin energy grow increasingly dense, twisting into a grotesque and terrifying shape.
At last, reaching the uppermost level, Qiao Qiao beheld it.
A cocoon-like entity woven from pitch-black Yin energy rested dead center in the web.
No, that was no cocoon.
Qiao Qiao knew that with absolute certainty.
The very next instant, eyes snapped open across the surface of the black mass.
Not two eyes, but eight.
The cocoon sprouted slender, jagged limbs and massive pincers, its eight malevolent eyes staring in unison directly at Qiao Qiao.
It finally shed its disguise, revealing its true form as a giant spider.
"Onigumo."
Qiao Qiao uttered the creature's name aloud.
The Onigumo was an apparition born from the folklore of Nagano Prefecture.
These entities wove intricate webs of spiritual malice to tightly control humans and other living creatures. Unlike traditional yōkai that absorbed spiritual power and gradually assumed physical forms, an Onigumo's power derived directly from vengeful spirits, rendering its nature far more erratic, unfathomable, and thoroughly deranged.
Judging by the sheer density of this one, it had been brewing for quite some time.

Most likely, the recent surge of vengeful spirit incidents in Suginami Ward was tied directly to this creature.
Had Miss Sakura not summoned Qiao Qiao to assist, and had he not possessed the skill to track its hiding spot via spirit communication, this Onigumo might have continued its reign of terror unchecked for a long while yet.
Hoshino Sassa set down her heavy metallic case.
*Click.*
In a swift motion, she drew her chainsaw.
Simultaneously, Qiao Qiao unholstered his firearm.
"So Qiao-san uses this for exorcisms? Somehow, I think it looks rather cool."
Hoshino Sassa's focus was entirely derailed.
"An Onigumo's true strength lies in concealment; their raw combat power isn't exceptionally high, but we must still remain cautious."
Qiao Qiao cautioned.
"Understood."
Hoshino Sassa pulled the cord, revving the chainsaw to life.
Almost simultaneously, countless strands of Yin energy unfurled across the entire fourth floor, hurtling toward the two exorcists like incoming arrows.
To be ensnared meant not only restricted movement, but also the corrosive erosion of the physical body by the toxic Yin energy.
Yet Hoshino Sassa paid such threats no mind whatsoever.
"Die, hahaha!"
A crimson glint seemed to flash in her eyes as she swung the roaring chainsaw in a wide arc, slicing cleanly through every single web-strand lunging in her direction.
As for Qiao Qiao, he did not waste ammunition trying to shoot the incoming threads.
Instead, reaching into his tactical vest, he produced a fragmentation grenade.
Tugging the pin with his teeth, he lobbed it directly toward the Onigumo while executing a tactical retreat to evade the surrounding web.
*Boom—*
The grenade detonated just shy of the monster, spraying shrapnel directly into its cluster of eyes and wringing a distorted, agonizing screech from the gargantuan entity.
Only then did Qiao Qiao raise his weapon.
*Bang, bang, bang—*
Three consecutive gunshots tore through the remaining webbing and shattered two of the Onigumo's limbs in one fluid motion.
Seizing the opening, Hoshino Sassa charged forward.
She hoisted the shrieking chainsaw high above her head.
"Verdrangen!"
*Bzzzzzzzt—*
The tearing chain bit deep into the Onigumo's skull, the violent collision of spiritual power and Yin energy spraying outward like shredded flesh in a truly gruesome display.
With a surge of improbable strength packed into her petite frame, Hoshino Sassa hoisted the entire Onigumo into the air, the screaming blade spinning furiously to cleave the beast clean in twain.
In an instant, the vast web of Yin energy collapsed, dissolving into nothingness.