Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 8 Escape

Before dark, Master Xie returned.

"Shouldn't father be back tomorrow?" asked the third young master during dinner.

"Oh, your sixteenth uncle sent me back on a horse." Xie Deng replied.

The Third Young Master knew something was going to happen when he heard it. "Uncle Sixteen" was Xie Gui, the county lieutenant of this county. He had magical powers and was quite accomplished. But it would be very costly to send someone a hundred miles on a horse. If it wasn't necessary, that kind of person would never bother with that kind of effort.

After dinner, Master Xie called the Third Young Master to the study to talk.

Without the outsiders, the two of them switched places, father and son. The Third Young Master took the seat of honor as a matter of course, and Master Xie was willing to sit at the end, first explaining the whole story, and then opening the wooden box brought back from the county town.

"Father, this is what Xie Gui gave me." Master Xie said solemnly.

"You shouldn't have answered it." The Third Young Master frowned. Needless to say, it must not be a good thing. Good things would not be suppressed by evil-suppressing talismans...

"My son can't do anything about it." Master Xie said helplessly, "He tried to coax and threaten me, and then he turned hostile and wouldn't tolerate me not agreeing."

"Alas..." The third young master sighed in a mature manner, knowing that what his 'son and father' said was the truth.

The two men, who were father and son, looked at each other in melancholy for a long time and fell into a dilemma.

If they did so, it would probably cause the people of Nanxiang to suffer a catastrophic disaster, as they were all their cattle and horses. Moreover, if things got serious, they themselves would be silenced.

If we don't do it, they already know the secret and it will probably be a dead end.

After much thought, the Third Young Master, who was originally the father, came up with an idea: "We can only use a delaying tactic. We can delay it for a day, and then quickly prepare a generous gift and send it to the capital as fast as possible. We will ask the Second Young Master to help us and see if we can transfer this task to someone else."

"Yes, yes, once the Second Master gives the order, Old Sixteen must do as he is told!" Manor Master Xie's eyes lit up.

"But we have to prepare for the worst." The Third Young Master said with a gloomy face: "What if Xie Gui got instructions from the capital? I'm afraid the Second Young Master won't speak for us."

"Yes, that's the only way to do it." Master Xie nodded.

"Well. We don't know what's in this jar, and how dangerous it is. When the time comes, find an excuse and take the whole family back to Beijing to take shelter." The third young master ordered in a deep voice:
"Arrange for Ah Zhi to change his form with that kid as soon as possible, so as to avoid any more trouble."

"Father, have you forgotten? The shape-changing parasitic technique must be level nine." Master Xie reminded him.

"Today is the fourth day of the New Year, and there are still five days left..." The third young master groaned, and he still had to put up with that kid for five days.

~~
In the middle of the night, Xiejiazhuang was completely silent, as if everything had fallen into a deep sleep.

Ren Yuan was also lying on the bed, but with his eyes open, he pricked up his ears to listen to the breathing of the maid on duty outside, which gradually turned into snoring.

He then quietly got up, arranged the mattress and pillows into a human shape, covered them with a quilt, took out a package of valuables from under the pillow and put it in his arms, then pushed open the window and climbed out noiselessly.

Since neither the civet cat nor that damn mountain god can be relied upon, the best strategy is to run away.

Although the civet cat asserted that he could not escape, it was not his character to sit and wait for death. Since he was going to die anyway, he might as well give it a try.

Ren Yuan did not act blindly. During the day, he had planned an escape route while strolling around, so that he could avoid the night patrolling farm guards.

Moreover, he had been here for two years. The dogs in the village knew him and would not bark at him, so he sneaked into the storehouse yard in the southwest corner of the village without anyone noticing.

In order to provide ventilation, the barns in the courtyard were all built very high, and the one closest to the edge was slightly higher than the courtyard wall of the manor. Ren Yuan carefully observed during the day and found that the distance between the two was less than ten feet, so he chose to escape from here.

Using his hands and feet, he quickly climbed to the roof of the warehouse, looked at the high wall a few feet away, and took a deep breath.

In this era, one zhang is about two and a half meters. It is not difficult for an adult man to jump this distance with a running start. The difficulty lies in the control of the landing point. It must be landed steadily on the top of the wall that is only two feet wide and covered with tiles in the dark. Ren Yuan practiced martial arts every day during this period and was very confident in his skills. He took two running steps, jumped up, and flew into the air like a big bird!

With a snap, his feet landed accurately on the courtyard wall. At the same time, he exerted force on his waist and abdomen, twisting his upper body like a spinning top, dissolving the force of the forward rush.

I just broke two tiles...

After he stood firm, Ren Yuan quickly bent down, held down two broken tiles, and nervously looked around the courtyard. Seeing that no one noticed, he breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed the edge of the wall and slid down to the outside of the courtyard silently.

The next thing was easy. Ren Yuan stripped himself naked, held up his clothes with one hand, and swam across the river outside the village.

After getting ashore, he took shelter under a big tree, put on his clothes again, and looked up at the Big Dipper in the sky.

After figuring out the direction, Ren Yuan did not take the main road, but headed north along the small paths between the fields. It was still three hours before dawn, enough time for him to escape the Jiuqu River and stay away from the influence of Master Xie and the community god.

He was young and strong, and had practiced martial arts, so he walked across the ridges of the fields as if they were flat ground. Judging from his experience during the parade the day before, he should be able to reach the Jiuqu River that ran through the entire township in less than half an hour.

However, he walked and walked for a whole hour, but he was still wandering in circles on the ridge of the field. He felt something was wrong, so he identified the direction again and started running.

He ran and ran, and this time he finally heard the sound of gurgling water. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and quickly quickened his pace to move forward. However, he was stunned - what he saw in front of him was not the Jiuqu River at all, but a behemoth-like manor!
Why did I go back to Xiejiazhuang again? Ren Yuan pinched himself hard, but in front of him was still the familiar courtyard with high walls, suspension bridge and small river.

After running northward for half a night, he returned to the starting point. This made Ren Yuan realize that he was trapped in a "ghost wall".

At this moment, he suddenly heard a creaking sound, which was particularly harsh in the quiet night.

Ren Yuan looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the suspension bridge on the farm was not operated by anyone, and it slowly fell in front of him. The gate of the farm was also open, but it was dark inside and no one was seen.

He immediately felt a huge amount of malice, a cat-playing-with-a-mouse kind of contempt and ridicule. It was clearly telling him to come in on his own initiative, so he should go back to his room and sleep…

"Fuck you!" He spat fiercely at the door, then turned around and ran without hesitation.

He had only one thought in his mind: dying outside and being eaten by monsters was better than being captured and used as a skin for others!
As I was running, fog suddenly rose in the fields. The thick sticky fog enveloped the earth. Dark clouds obscured the crescent moon and stars. Everything in front of me became blurry and I couldn't see my hand in front of me.

Ren Yuan couldn't tell east from west, south from north, and there were ghosts howling in his ears, cold wind blowing, and he kept tripping for no reason. But he never stopped, even if he fell and got bruised and swollen, he still got up and ran again and again!
At this moment, an old female voice suddenly sounded behind him, saying to him: "Don't run, you can't run away."

"If I go back now, I can still pretend nothing happened."

"If you go any further, you will die..."

Ren Yuan felt a chill down his spine, his hair stand on end, but he still ran forward without looking back, only raising his middle finger behind him!

Although the other party didn't know what this meant, he could feel his dissatisfaction, unyielding spirit, and resentment!
Then he sneered: "Good words can't persuade a damned ghost..."

After that, there was no more movement.

Ren Yuan's feeling like thorns on his back finally disappeared, but before he could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard a hair-raising buzzing sound coming from the thick fog in the distance.

He wanted to change direction, but the buzzing sound was everywhere and there was no way to avoid it.

The sound was getting closer and closer, and in a blink of an eye it was right in front of us.

Now Ren Yuan could finally see clearly. Those were hundreds of thousands and millions of giant blood locusts, flapping their transparent wings, rushing out of the fog in overwhelming numbers and surrounding him in an instant!
Ren Yuanmang waved his hands desperately to slap them, but there were too many locusts. In a blink of an eye, they crawled all over his body, covering his eyes so that he could not see the direction; they blocked his mouth and nose, making it difficult for him to breathe!

He was like a drowning man, completely submerged in this terrifying tide of locusts until he was completely unconscious...

(End of this chapter)