Chapter 19

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“Move quickly, I can’t stay here any longer.”

The clamor and noise faded behind him as Wang Banxia, clutching his robe, hurried to the front gate of the residence. The gatekeeper had already gone, and the guards had fastened the gate with a heavy iron bolt and added a brass lock.

Since the incidents involving the malevolent ghost, the servants and guards of the residence had been avoiding the area early every night, retreating to their rooms to sleep.

Wang Banxia looked at the lock, which was bigger than his fist, and stamped his foot in frustration.

“What am I going to do now?”

With the gatekeeper absent, Wang Banxia had no choice but to step out from under the eaves and pace back and forth. The thought of the demonic aura surrounding the person in the gray robe made him shiver uncontrollably.

After a moment, he gritted his teeth and decided to head back.

“Find Landlord Chen and have him send someone to get me out… um… just say there’s an emergency at home.”

He retraced his steps through the front courtyard’s corridor, back to the path through the flower garden. Amidst the murmured and scattered voices, he suddenly stopped, instinctively looking around. In the distance, lanterns swayed gently from the eaves of the corridor.

The swaying light revealed a thin layer of white mist between the flower garden’s fake mountains.

“Bang…”

The mist surged, and a faint sound of a gong could be heard. Wang Banxia’s heart raced, his breathing grew heavy, and he swallowed hard. There seemed to be a human figure twisting in the mist.

Then, a long, eerie “yi yi yi…” sound echoed.

“…I can’t be this unlucky, encountering it here…”

Wang Banxia cautiously moved toward the distant wooden building where voices could still be heard. As he turned, not far away behind a tree, he saw a slender black shadow crouched. Then it slowly revealed half its face, staring directly at him.

“Mother!!”

Unable to hold it in any longer, Wang Banxia let out a scream and turned to run, his legs carrying him away. The noise from the nearby wooden building became clearer, and he felt a bit reassured.

He slammed open the hall door and yelled: “The evil spirit is here—”

However, his voice was drowned out by the loud and boisterous sounds of the drunk crowd. Someone near the door, having heard him, approached with a jug of wine, drunkenly draping an arm over his shoulder.

“Mr. Wang, what’s happened? Why don’t you have a few more drinks with me…”

Landlord Chen, sitting at the center of the hall and chatting with others, noticed Wang Banxia’s pale face and shaking body. An ominous feeling grew in his heart.

The old man asked his son to help Wang Banxia up.

“Mr. Wang, where have you been? Why do you look so pale?”

At the door, Wang Banxia saw that the crowd was not paying him any attention. He stamped his foot and used what was probably the loudest voice he had ever had in his life to yell out.

“The evil spirit is here, it’s outside—”

His frantic voice echoed through the hall, and the noisy room instantly fell silent. Even Landlord Chen and his son, who had been approaching Wang Banxia, stopped in their tracks, their smiles frozen.

Over forty people stood there, looking at each other, exchanging confused glances.

On the other side, Lu Liangsheng rose and pinched the dazed toad. Seeing no response, he instructed Lu Pan and the others to prepare to leave.

“Uncle Pan, are all our people here?”

Lu Pan slapped his face to shake off the effects of the alcohol, glanced to the side, and said: “Lu Qing went drinking with that butcher, I’ll go call him right away…”

From some unknown moment, the hall had become so quiet that the breathing of the crowd could be heard. As soon as he finished saying, “I’ll go call him right away”, he suddenly felt the air in the room drop sharply.

“…It’s so cold…”

“What’s going on? Why is everyone so quiet? Come on, let’s continue drinking…”

“Shh, be quiet. It seems like something’s wrong outside!”

Clang…

A faint gong echoed.

“…Sorrowful and regretful… lamenting that my fair form has not met a true-hearted man…”

A faint opera song began to sound from outside as if circling the wooden building. The wind rustled the branches, casting the lantern’s light onto the paper windows, creating shifting shadows that resembled ghosts.

At this, nearly everyone sobered up in shock, too scared to breathe. The eerie female voice echoed in their ears.

“…Gentlemen Chen… where are you…”

On both sides, rows of paper windows were covered in black shadows as if someone was peering inside. Landlord Chen was visibly trembling, looking around anxiously.

“Everyone, that… that… ghost is outside. Please, any experts here…”

Before he could finish speaking, there was a loud bang.

One of the paper windows was suddenly thrown open.

The next moment, all the remaining windows were pulled open, and the wind howled in. The lanterns on the pillars flickered erratically before going out with a whoosh.

The entire hall was instantly plunged into darkness.

“Ahhh—”

A maid screamed. The hall erupted into chaos as everyone stumbled around in fear, shoving and pushing. Some people cried out in pain from being stepped on. Wang Banxia, at the door, was the first to rush out of the wooden building, with more people following closely behind, scrambling to escape through the hall door.

Outside, a thick mist obscured their view, making it impossible to see the surrounding buildings.

“There’s a light over there, let’s go that way!”

In the direction the butcher indicated, a faint light was visible through the hazy mist. Landlord Chen, squeezed in the middle of the crowd, was being helped by his son as they hurried along.

“Yaoke, that direction seems wrong…”

The scholar named Chen Yaoke suddenly stopped, pulling his father in another direction. “That way is where the stage was set up that day.”

Some people, seeing this, quickly followed the father and son. After all, they were the hosts of the estate and might be safer. However, after running for a while, they found themselves still on the flower garden’s grass. Some noticed that the wooden building they had just left was again appearing in their sight.

At this moment, the eerie female voice turned into a hoarse, dull tone of an old male actor, with the sound of a theatrical gong.

A slender black shadow moved slowly with every step.

“In the misty moonlight, the gloomy wind blows fiercely… Guess, my lord, does that grave harbor any sounds of lamentation and hatred…”

The twenty or so people following Landlord Chen and his son were thoroughly terrified. They had originally thought they could trick some food and drinks under the guise of exorcising evil spirits and defending Taoism, maybe even make some silver. Instead, they had encountered this dreadful situation for real.

“The peddler is missing… He was right next to me a moment ago.” Someone shouted in panic.

Beside the slow-moving black shadow, another figure appeared, seemingly the missing peddler.

“Run—”

The crowd erupted into complete chaos. Lu Liangsheng, caught in the midst, was jostled around and lost sight of Lu Pan and the others. As for the ghosts in the mist, as his master had warned, their Yin Qi was extremely heavy, far beyond his cultivation to handle.

At that moment, he clutched the toad in his arms and kept glancing back, trying to locate Uncle Pan and the others before figuring out his next move. He saw a large decorative rock not far away and, gritting his teeth, climbed up onto it.

Meanwhile, the people who had turned back encountered another group heading towards the light. A man in a cassock with a plump face was crying out in terror.

“Don’t go over, there there’s also…”

The cold wind howled its mournful sound like a woman’s weeping, drifting slowly from the direction of the light. Through the hazy mist, a woman’s figure seemed to drift about.

“Gentleman Chen… come here, I’ve been looking for you…”

Upon hearing this, the young man beside Landlord Chen was so terrified that he collapsed to the ground, and his pants began to darken with a large wet patch.

Not far away, on the large rock.

Lu Liangsheng was searching the crowd for Lu Pan and the others. He didn’t notice that the Toad Daoist he was holding had awakened. It wobbled and climbed up onto his collar, then up his neck.

Feeling a slight chill, Lu Liangsheng glanced at the toad and started to panic.

“Master, what are you doing?”

The crawling toad did not respond.

The cold wind howled.

The mist swirled, and a stage vaguely appeared. A woman in white, with long sleeves and wearing a crown of precious hairpins, walked slowly with delicate steps.

“…If I cannot be reborn, then I will not leave. Burn the yellow paper, and let the ashes fly. The lonely grave has no kin to mourn. The mud is cold and damp, and the maggots turn vile. Gentleman Chen… you killed me.”

The long sleeves fluttered, and the slender, graceful waist stopped. As she turned her face, it revealed a bloodied, grotesque visage.

Landlord Chen’s face turned pale and then greenish. His son, who was sitting beside him, was shaking uncontrollably. The surrounding townspeople, who had pretended to be slay demons, huddled together, their eyes tightly shut in fear.

At that moment, a cold, stern voice suddenly sounded from behind.

“A mere little evil ghost dares to show off in front of this old man…”

The crowd was stunned and quickly turned around. Even Lu Pan and the other eight people in the crowd looked in the direction of the voice. On a large rock, a figure draped in a gray cloak stood there.

The light was dim, making it hard to see who it was, but Lu Pan and the others recognized him.

“Liangsheng…”

A dark wind blew, and between the mist and the distant lights, a figure stood high on the rock. The gray cloak fluttered gently, exuding a mysterious aura.

“This old man has traversed many mountains and seen grand palaces bathed in golden light. Yet today, I see an evil ghost daring to be so audacious in front of me—”

Those below felt an invisible force surge upward, causing their hair to stand on end and making them feel as if they were being pinned down, unable to move. Wang Banxia knew this was the presence of demonic qi.

…With the malevolent ghost blocking the way ahead and demons revealing themselves behind… there was no escape.

Then, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted from fright.

Others were trembling, their legs giving way as they huddled together in fear.

“Your mother, there is something even more terrifying…”

However.

Beneath the cloak was another scene.

The Toad Taoist, using his double-webbed feet, stood on Lu Liangsheng’s shoulders, with a bedsheet draped over him. His eyes were red as he stared intently at the stage in front of him as if he had returned to his former glory.

But this was just the result of his drunken state.

“Master… stop speaking nonsense while drunk.”

Lu Liangsheng felt a pang of distress in his heart.

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