Nine Chapters of Strange Cases

Chapter 275 The Illusionary Dead End
Zhou Zhao spoke with certainty; if it were anyone else, they would have asked for details.

However, both Su Changying and Liu Huang were extremely vigilant and had no doubt about it.

The heavy rain had just stopped when a strong wind arrived. The Yunjian Mountain was deserted in the early morning, and the irregularly shaped stone steps were extremely slippery, making it easy for someone to slip and fall.

Many trees on the mountain slopes were blown over by the wind and fell to the ground, exposing fresh soil and roots, which looked particularly conspicuous.

The group carefully made their way up the mountain, but all the way to the Taoist temple at the summit, everything was peaceful and there were no accidents whatsoever.

The Taoist temple was small, and the door was tightly closed.

Zhou Zhao gripped the dagger in her hand and walked to the door. Just as her hand was about to knock on the door...

A chilling creaking sound rang out, and the somewhat mottled door suddenly opened by itself.

A fierce wind howled past, blowing her black and white hair ribbons ever closer to the doorway, and making the official's wide robes billow in the wind, as if trying to blow her whole body inside.

Ah Huang's straw hat, however, remained firmly coiled on his head like a protective charm.

Zhou Zhao looked closely and saw four Taoist priests in robes performing an ancient and sacred sacrificial dance in the spacious Taoist temple grounds amidst the raging wind. They were holding four different ritual implements.

In the center of the four stood a young Taoist priest dressed in a red robe with a red cloth covering his eyes, holding a peach wood sword in his hand.

His movements were different from everyone else's; just one glance conveyed a sense of resolute determination and tragic grandeur. He was like a caged bird, its feathers being plucked by countless vengeful spirits, uttering a mournful cry before its death.

Although it was their first meeting, Zhou Zhao was inexplicably certain that it was Gongzi Yu.

His hands and feet moved stiffly, like a marionette with inflexible joints. It didn't seem like he was performing a ritual to exorcise ghosts, but rather like he was summoning a spirit.

It summons ghostly soldiers from the underworld, demons of slaughter, and endless walking corpses.

Besides these five people, there were eight others sitting cross-legged on the ground, arranged in two horizontal rows.

They were dressed in matching blue robes, their eyes closed, chanting incantations and singing strange, incomprehensible tunes.

Standing in front of the door, Zhou Zhao suddenly remembered the phrase "Soul, come back!" which referred to this strange soul-summoning song.

Zhou Zhao thought for a moment and took a deep breath.

Do not break or stand.

As long as she is strong enough, there is no trap she cannot break or obstacle she cannot overcome.

As she thought this, the coffin nail in her hand flew directly towards Gongzi Yu in the center of the crowd.

Gongzi Yu's sword dance continued, but the eight people sitting cross-legged on the ground suddenly formed a sword formation, blocking the coffin nails and attacking towards the door.

Just as the great battle was about to break out, Gongzi Yu's stiff and slow movements suddenly became swift, and his long sword suddenly struck the screen wall that separated the dojo from the main hall.

Zhou Zhao recognized the screen wall; it was built by Chu You at the request of Yun Jian Temple to block out the wailing of the ten thousand ghosts.

With a loud thud, an irregular hole suddenly appeared in the screen wall, followed by a sinister wailing sound.

Zhou Zhao's heart skipped a beat, and he shouted, "Don't let that young master poke the hole, and don't listen to any sounds."

As Zhou Zhao spoke, three more coffin nails flew towards the direction of Gongzi Yu. She gave Su Changying a look, and Su Changying leaped over the heads of the eight people and attacked Gongzi Yu directly inside.

Upon seeing this, the other four people surrounding Gongzi Yu leaped up and immediately engaged in battle.

At this moment, Xu Yuan and Tian Quan, who had been hiding in the shadows, also rushed out.

Zhou Zhao glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and found an opening for Tianquan to break through the first line of eight. He watched as Tianquan went to attack Gongzi Yu before focusing on dealing with the eight people in front of him.

She looked closely and felt a sinking feeling in her heart.

The eight people before them looked quite ordinary, with the kind of appearance you could see anywhere on the street. If they were in a storybook, the author wouldn't bother giving them names; they'd probably just be numbered like A, B, C, D, etc. And their individual skills weren't exactly exceptional.

But the eight of them together formed a sword formation. This sword formation was extremely powerful, as long and round as the ocean, and every strike felt like punching water, making one feel irritable.

It's not very powerful, but its binding technique is unparalleled.

These eight people worked together with incredible coordination, suggesting they had fought side by side for many years.

The people they encountered here today were definitely not ordinary; they must be elites whom their adoptive father could muster.

Zhou Zhao searched for an opening, and then heard several loud thuds.

She sensed something was wrong, and the young master's moves clearly quickened. The whistling sound caused by the draft was like a mournful and strange ghostly melody played on a flute, making people feel dizzy and shaken.

Don't listen to the sound.

Zhou Zhao shouted, and at that moment, a white figure suddenly fell from the sky, crashing straight down on Zhou Zhao's head.

She felt a buzzing in her head, and all she could hear was the wailing of a hundred ghosts, making her want to cover her ears.

Gradually, the sound seemed to subside, the howling wind stopped abruptly, and the eerie wailing transformed into the sound of a xiao (a type of vertical bamboo flute), as if impurities had been removed.

The air was thick with the stench of blood. Zhou Zhao jolted and looked down at his hands.

Her hands were covered in blood, and her tattered clothes were splattered with blood, clearly indicating that more than one person had been slit in the throat.

Her eyes darted around as she cautiously surveyed her surroundings.

This is a dungeon, and she is locked in a cell.

Her toes twitched, revealing a sticky mess underneath, filled with thick, unyielding blood.

She took a deep breath and looked at the four corners of the cage.

Diagonally opposite her, a boy leaned against the wall with his head down. If it weren't for his hands constantly rubbing against the wall, she would have almost thought he was dead. He looked terrible; his body was covered in wounds, and his clothes were so worn that their original color was unrecognizable.

The blood had dried on the robe, making it look somewhat stiff.

As if noticing her gaze, the person suddenly raised their head. Zhou Zhao only glanced at them before feeling a jolt in her heart.

It was an absolutely beautiful face. His face was slashed, and blood was flowing down his cheek. His eyebrows, his nose, even the curl of his eyelashes, seemed to be etched into her heart.

She likes this person.

Although I don’t know him.

If he were to become a corpse, it would surely be the corpse that best suits her taste.

As Zhou Zhao pondered this, he met the deep eyes of the person diagonally opposite him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed two other people standing in the other two corners of the cage. One of them was a strange boy wearing a straw hat whose face was completely obscured. He seemed to want to shrink into the wall, but his head was shaking blankly, like a poorly made puppet.

The person in the other corner, like the person diagonally opposite, was sitting against the wall.

He had a scholarly air about him, wore a tattered white robe, and held a dagger in his hand, expressionlessly stabbing his own leg.

His eyes looked somewhat vacant, and after stabbing himself a few times, he suddenly stopped. "Damn it! Why the hell am I stabbing myself!"

The sound of the flute suddenly changed, and Zhou Zhao's heart skipped a beat.

A thought involuntarily surfaced in her mind, and she gripped the dagger in her hand tighter.

Of the four people locked in this cage, only one can leave alive today.

Dear friends, don't wait for Chapter 2, I'll add it tomorrow morning.