Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 431: Water Rushes the Wujiang Dam, Moon Moves Over the Wumeng Mountains

The young female apprentice never expected to meet him so soon.

And the two of them were standing so close together!
She subconsciously took a half step back, nodding repeatedly with a mix of inexplicable guilt and nervousness.

"Yes, that's right, the Dharma assembly is here."

The female apprentice pointed to the large door to the side and said, "My master and the others are all inside."

Seeing the boy shift his gaze from her to the door, the young female apprentice finally calmed down a bit.

She secretly took a couple of breaths to calm her surprise before speaking to the boy in front of her.

"Did you come with your master too?" the young female disciple asked, trying to keep her tone calm.

She didn't know why she suddenly felt so panicked and her heart was pounding.

She had seen handsome men before, and some of the guys who pursued her were incredibly handsome. Her friends were all extremely envious, but she herself didn't care at all.

From childhood to adulthood, boys have always pursued and flattered her, and she has become accustomed to it.

But for some reason, the moment she saw this young man tonight, she instinctively felt flustered and her heart pounded wildly.

That feeling of nervousness and unease was like the fluttering heart of a deer caught in the throes of love at first sight...

But there was also a strange unease, as if I had bumped into something terrifying.

The young female apprentice was momentarily unable to understand what was wrong with her, how she could have fallen for a boy several years younger than herself.

Her thoughts were in disarray, and she could only instinctively remain reserved and polite, answering the boy's questions and giving him directions.

Upon hearing the female apprentice's reply, the boy smiled and thanked her, "Okay, thank you."

After offering a brief thank you, he turned and walked toward the open iron gate.

This abrupt action instantly drew the attention of everyone on both sides of the road.

—The young men present all stood obediently outside, wondering where this kid had come from.

Just as the boy was about to walk through the large iron gate, the young female apprentice's heart skipped a beat, and she felt a sudden, inexplicable sense of dread and crisis.

Her instincts told her that something terrible would happen if the boy went in.

Her master told her from a young age that her sixth sense was very sharp and far beyond that of ordinary people.

Suddenly sensing something amiss, the young female apprentice instinctively stepped forward and grabbed the boy, anxiously offering him instructions.

"Are you crazy?"

The young female apprentice stared wide-eyed at the impetuous local boy in disbelief.

The other person was dressed in a fashionable style, unlike someone from a poor, remote village like Zangke. How could they do something so impolite and abrupt...?

The young female disciple half-forced the boy aside, glared at him and said, "This is a Dharma assembly that only the elders can attend. We junior disciples can only stay outside and guard it. We can't go in and wander around. Didn't you see that everyone is standing obediently outside waiting?"

Seeing the boy looking at her with a surprised expression, the young female apprentice guessed that this young man might be traveling far from home for the first time and had never seen the world.

She glanced warily at the others around her, and only after confirming that they were all far away did she lower her voice and speak to the boy in front of her.

"...Those who came tonight are all prominent Taoist masters from Southeast Asia."

"Those masters are incredibly powerful, and some of them have very eccentric personalities. If you, a junior, trespass and offend someone, even your master might not be able to save you!"

The young female apprentice, with the simple idea of ​​saving him if possible, tried to persuade the seemingly naive boy to stay outside.

But the young boy looked surprised when his female apprentice tried to persuade him.

He looked at the woman in front of him with a surprised expression, his eyes scanning her up and down with a strange look, as if trying to figure out her purpose.

After a few seconds of eye contact, the boy with the clean smile finally revealed his white teeth and said, "...Thank you for your guidance. Sister, is your master inside too?"

"Yes, my master just went in," the young female disciple glanced at the large house inside subconsciously, the uneasy feeling still lingering.

Although she had stopped the boy in front of her, a strange sense of dread and danger lingered in her heart, making her restless and uneasy.

This dangerous, chilling intuition is like being watched by something terrifying.

It's as if some terrifying evil spirit is lurking nearby...

The female apprentice swallowed hard and said, "Something seems off tonight. I feel uneasy."

"Little brother, stand with me and don't run around."

"My master is Mr. Bai Mu, who is quite well-known in Hong Kong."

"If your master doesn't come soon, you'll run with us..."

The female apprentice felt an increasingly intense sense of dread and crisis.

Her incredibly accurate sixth sense made her as anxious as an ant about to be struck by an earthquake.

But the boy in front of her just smiled and said, "...Mr. Hyakume? Okay, I understand."

After saying that, he completely ignored his young female apprentice's advice and warnings, turned around and stepped back into the open iron gate.

A chilling wind blew in from inside the large iron gate, and the boy who stepped through the gate walked towards the mansion with a clear purpose.

Those leisurely steps were as if they were walking in their own backyard, without the slightest unease or fear.

On both sides of the road outside the gate, the figures standing in the shadows all looked over, their eyes drawn to this reckless and impetuous young man.

The long street fell into a moment of deathly silence.

Almost everyone subconsciously stopped what they were doing and looked at the boy who had stepped through the large iron gate, astonished by the child's behavior.

until……

Jingle Bell--

A clear, strange bell sound drifted through the darkness.

The boy who stepped through the large iron gate now had a small, delicate corpse-driving bell in his hand.

He gently shook the bell, and the clear, ringing sound seemed to possess some strange magic.

Everyone standing on both sides of the dirt road outside the iron gate suddenly froze.

The disciples of Xuanxiu in the shadows all had their pupils constricted and stood frozen in place.

One after another, strange, pale, and eerie paper figures appeared on this dirt road, silently standing beside them.

Next to each person outside the gate stands such a paper figure.

Unlike ordinary paper figure rituals, these paper figures that suddenly appeared in the darkness all wore bamboo hats and coarse hemp raincoats, resembling mourning family members dressed in mourning clothes.

Such a bizarre and ferocious scene filled everyone present with terror.

Among them were some older cultivators who murmured the origins of these paper figures.

"...A paper figure in a straw raincoat?!"

In the darkness, faces showed expressions of terror.

However, some people were so enraged that they jumped up and tried to rush towards the departing figure of the boy inside the gate.

"...walking ghost!"

The paper doll in the straw raincoat... The great chaos in Moonlit City half a month ago has spread the evil Zangke paper doll technique far and wide, making it infamous.

However, before the figures that suddenly sprang from the shadows of the dirt road could offer any effective resistance, the paper figures in straw raincoats standing beside them, like wooden sculptures, stealthily grabbed their necks and silently pressed them to the ground.

The paper figure in the straw raincoat had such thin, fragile hands that it seemed a child could easily kick and crush them.

But when they stretched out their arms with a sinister smile, every living person they pinched would freeze in place, unable to move as if electrocuted.

The cold wind on the dirt road, accompanied by the crisp sound of the bell, drifted even further away.

The figures in the shadows all froze in place, no longer daring to move.

No one dared to make a sound. Only the young female apprentice beside the gate looked on in terror at the scene before her.

Along the entire dark and gloomy dirt road, only she was without the paper figures in straw raincoats standing beside her.

The paper figures in straw raincoats that emerged silently from the darkness seemed to tacitly ignore her.

But the female apprentice felt an even stronger sense of horror and fear.

She stared intently at the retreating figure of the boy, her mind filled with the legends of this ruthless and terrifying Zangke Yin-walker, his deeds, and his sinister spells…

Those terrible things were churning in her mind.

Even though at this moment she instinctively wanted to run away and her legs were trembling with fear.

But as she watched the young man ring the bell and walk up the stairs to the entrance of the mansion, a surge of courage welled up within the young female apprentice from somewhere.

She rushed through the large iron gate, screaming hysterically at the only lit building in the darkness.

"...Master! Run!"

The woman's terrified scream shattered the silence of the darkness.

The young man who stepped into the mansion seemed oblivious to the commotion behind him.

As soon as the woman's screams ended, his figure disappeared into the open stairwell.

But the brightly lit mansion was disturbed by the woman's terrified screams.

A chaotic sound came from a room on the third floor of the mansion.

"...Who's yelling outside?"

"Whose disciple hasn't been properly disciplined?"

"It seems to be my apprentice..."

"Hey! Hyakume, where did you run off to?"

A chaotic sound came from the third floor, from both men and women.

This was accompanied by the sound of the chair being suddenly pushed aside and screeching on the tile floor, as if someone had abruptly pushed the chair away and run away.

The young female apprentice, who had mustered her courage to rush through the large iron gate, collapsed to the ground in terror, her eyes fixed on the brightly lit mansion before her, her chest heaving and her breath coming in heavy gasps.

After that burst of courage that I don't know where it came from, I was followed by endless exhaustion.

She lay limp and powerless in the dirty yard, as if all her strength had been drained, unable to even move a finger.

An increasingly chilling wind swept from behind her.

One after another, pale, eerie paper figures drifted slowly past her on either side like wandering ghosts in the night.

Those eerie paper faces were painted with bright colors to depict ugly and terrifying features.

They were wearing straw raincoats and bamboo hats, and as they drifted past the female apprentice, they all seemed to be staring at the young woman with ill intent.

But in the end, not a single paper figure in a straw raincoat touched her.

All the paper figures silently and furtively spared the woman.

They drifted silently toward the three-story mansion in front of them.

In Rongjiang, a remote small county town in the southwestern mountains, a three-story mansion decorated in European style is practically a symbol of great wealth and status.

These paper figures in straw raincoats adhered silently to the outer wall.

They seemed unaffected by gravity, drifting and crawling along the outer wall.

From the stained-glass window on the third floor, which was lit up, came the voices of the masters who had gathered there that evening.

"...Who? Who's outside the door?"

"Anyone else coming tonight? Which fellow traveler?"

Tonight's Dharma assembly is attended by people who were invited and have connections with us in the past. Logically, everyone should have arrived by now.

At this point, the masters on the third floor also realized that something was wrong.

But it's too late.

A young man's clear voice came from behind the window on the third floor.

"...The water rushes against the Wujiang Dam, and the moon travels across the Wumeng Mountains."

"I am Ran Qing, a junior disciple of Mo Baifeng, a wandering Yin person from Zangke."

"That's all for tonight, please leave."

The boy seemed to be smiling politely, his voice carrying a hint of amusement and friendliness.

"...There has been some unrest in Zangke recently, so it is not suitable for you all to come for tourism. I hope you will leave immediately."

The boy's smiling words carried politeness and courtesy, but also... an unquestionable domineering air.

A boy not yet eighteen years old suddenly barged into the Dharma assembly where so many unorthodox and mystical masters had gathered, spouting wild words.

Such provocation clearly angered those masters.

From the window on the third floor came a woman's aged, sinister laugh.

"...What a promising young man! What an arrogant brat!"

The middle-aged man roared angrily, "Even if your master, Mo Baifeng, came here, he might not dare to speak to us like that!"

The old man let out a strange, eerie cry: "...I heard you made quite a name for yourself in Yue Zhao half a month ago. You're truly a brave young man!"

The mocking cries of those veteran martial arts figures rang out.

But he only had time to say a few words.

The next second, screams of anger and pain rang out from the third floor.

A fierce, eerie wind swept outside the three-story mansion.

One by one, the paper figures in straw raincoats crashed through the windows and rushed inside.

As glass shards flew everywhere, the young female apprentice, who was slumped in the courtyard, even saw many strange little red rope figures flying around in the large room on the third floor!

A series of shrill and strange howls echoed within the mansion.

The terrifying commotion was as if hundreds of horrific evil spirits had suddenly flooded into the three-story mansion.

The angry curses of the veteran martial arts figures completely disappeared.

Only the boy's indifferent words echoed in the darkness.

"...If you guys are at a level that even I can't pass, then don't try to fool my master."

In the large room on the third floor, a cold wind howled and evil spirits wailed.

Those veterans of the martial arts world were clearly putting up a fierce fight.

But they didn't even have the energy to open their mouths to refute the boy; they were all silent, as if they were dead.

Amidst a terrifying explosion, accompanied by the shaking of the house, the shattering of tables and chairs, and the cracking of floor tiles, chaos reigned in the third-floor room, resembling a major battle.

Several minutes passed before the mansion finally fell completely quiet.

But the voices of those veteran martial arts figures have completely disappeared.

The only sound that rang out was the boy's calm and indifferent voice.

"...Sending you all on your way."

(End of this chapter)