5
The villagers slowly approached me. I immediately raised both hands and made no attempt to resist.
It would be easy enough to use force to deal with Thần Miếu Thôn, but Đường Hành and Hứa Ngôn Ngôn still hadn't been found. If this demon got angry and killed them both, wouldn't all my efforts have been for nothing?
The quỷ vật sensed that I had no trace of spiritual power and saw that I looked like a child, so it didn't kill me right away.
It must have wanted to keep me for the next sacrifice.
They took me to a mud-brick house and locked me inside. As soon as I entered, I saw Đường Hành mumbling at me.
He was tied up tight, with a rag stuffed in his mouth.
The villagers looked back and forth between us. I pointedly ignored Đường Hành's tearful gaze.
I hid behind one of the villagers. “Don't lock me up with this creepy old man!”
Đường Hành: “?”
Just then, a chorus of shouts rang out from the shrine. Then specks of light shimmered as they fell from the sky.
The villagers beside me also knelt and bowed, raising their hands reverently to catch the specks of light from above.
Taking advantage of the moment, I struck one of them on the back of the neck and knocked him out, then untied Đường Hành.
“Miss Hạ Hầu, you finally made it! Everyone in this village is dead. We were captured as soon as we arrived.”
“I know. Have you found Hứa Ngôn Ngôn?”
Đường Hành nodded. “They’re locked in a cellar. Fourteen children in all.”
Đường Hành went to rescue the other people from the Supernatural Affairs Bureau, but no matter how much he called, they wouldn't wake up.
As I surveyed the place, I said, “Don't waste your effort. This is a spell cast by the evil energy of the Compassionate Face. It can awaken the deepest desires in people's hearts, trapping them in a gentle prison of their own making until they quietly die. Unless someone has an extraordinarily strong will, like you, the only way to wake them is to deal with the quỷ vật.”
“Then, Miss Hạ Hầu, we'd better hurry. They won't be able to hold out much longer.”
With that, Đường Hành started to open the door.
“Don't touch it!”
I was a step too late.
The moment Đường Hành's hand touched the door, the spell covering the entire room activated. The runes swirled around the walls like dragons.
The walls of this room were built from children's skulls. The runes' enchantment had turned the place into a site of great evil. Đường Hành's action just now was tantamount to a provocation, and the runes were trying to trap us here and kill us.
I pulled Đường Hành back. He took a magical artifact from inside his shirt and shielded us with it, blocking the attack for the moment.
He gave me an apologetic look. “Miss Hạ Hầu, I'm holding you back again.”
I smiled. “You've been a huge help.”
“Huh?”
I clasped my hands in a seal. “Wind of Xun, heed my command; thunder of Zhen, follow my lead. Heaven and earth, stand guard; let all evil be destroyed!”
As soon as the words left my mouth, Đường Hành's magical artifact rang out with a deep, resonant chime that echoed throughout the village. Wherever the sound passed, the villagers were subdued and turned back into stone statues. Even the runes on the walls stopped spinning and quietly returned to their places.
Đường Hành stared in amazement. “Amazing! Miss Hạ Hầu, how did you do that?”
I took his magical artifact and handed it back. “This is the Demon-Subduing Bell of the Three Pure Ones Sect. The Three Pure Ones Sect is an orthodox Daoist school. The Compassionate Face brainwashed the villagers into worshipping it as a god, and it wanted to imitate the divine beings of the Three Pure Ones. When the genuine article faces a fake, of course it's powerful.”
Đường Hành was delighted. “I never imagined the little gift my grandfather gave me had such an impressive history!”
I was speechless for a moment.
Another trust-fund kid.
“Let's go. We've stirred up the hornet's nest, so let's pay this ‘Grandma’ a visit.”
When we left the mud-brick house, the village no longer looked bright and cheerful. The sky was gloomy, and cold gusts of wind swept through.
From far away came the sound of chanting and Sanskrit.
6
“Miss Hạ Hầu, the sound is coming from the cellar.”
“This demon's clever, too. It knows it can't beat us, so it's gone to replenish its energy.”
Đường Hành froze. “W-what?”
I didn't answer. I handed him half a bottle of water and pointed southeast. “Run that way. Keep going until you find a huge tree that would take ten people to encircle. Pour this water at its roots, then use the Demon-Subduing Bell to shield yourself. Stay right there and don't go anywhere.”
“Yes, ma'am, Miss Hạ Hầu.”
“Go.”
After Đường Hành had run some distance, I headed for the cellar.
It wasn't the ideal time for a sacrifice, but to increase its power in a short time, the quỷ vật had chosen to absorb the fourteen children first.
The closer I got to the cellar, the louder and denser the chanting became.
I sneered. “Some impostor, putting on such airs.”
“Heavenly Gang of the Big Dipper, Earthly Fiends of the Southern Fire. Summon the Twenty-Eight Mansions to protect me!”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the quỷ vật sensed someone approaching. The windows all around rattled, and something suddenly burst up from beneath the ground.
Vines tore through the earth and attacked me head-on!
I dodged aside and casually picked up a dry branch. “Lend me the divine fire of the Flame Lord—just this once!”
As I spoke, my hand swept over the dry branch. Orange-red flames engulfed it, making it look like a flaming sword.
The demonic vines recoiled in fear when they touched the fire. I brought the sword down, and the flames raced along the vines. A wretched demonic shriek rang out from inside the house.
The quỷ vật, enraged, burst through the window and lunged at me.
Its kindly face was now twisted and weeping, both eerie and ridiculous.
It suddenly opened its eyes wide and let out a piercing shriek that struck at my spirit.
“You caught me off guard once outside. If I really fell into the same trap twice, what kind of cultivator would I be?”
I swept my hand through a seal. “Linh thanh diệu pháp, dispel the haze and confusion—obey!”
Its body was subdued in an instant. Seizing the opportunity, I hurriedly summoned them: “Twenty-Eight Mansions, take your places; Four Symbols, unite and break through the barrier—go!”
Golden cords bound the quỷ vật's limbs. Seeing that it couldn't escape, it suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a stream of black qi. In an instant, the entire village was plunged into darkness.
I managed to dodge, but some black qi still got in my eyes.
Having been caught off guard by it once before, I quickly cleaned the grime from my eyes this time. When I opened them again, everything was still pitch-black, and the quỷ vật's shrieks had vanished.
Borrowing a little fire from the demon god, I slowly felt my way inside.
I kicked the door open. This place looked like the room where Đường Hành had been held, except there were more talismans and spells, and skulls piled high. A terrifying light shone from each pair of eye sockets, as if the skulls’ owners were staring right at you.
A figure darted across the room. Without hesitation, I sent a burst of flame after it.
“Ow!”
The person came tumbling out, and when I got a clear look at him, I froze.
He smothered the flames on his white beard and gave me a reproachful look. “Tiểu Thu, are you trying to kill your master?”
“M-Master?”
That’s right. The person standing before me was my master, Viên Cương.
I stared at him blankly. He reached out and flicked me on the forehead. “We haven’t seen each other in a few hundred years, and you don’t recognize me?”
I felt a little awkward. “But Master, weren’t you dead?”
The old man glared at me. “You unfilial wretch! Who curses their own master to die?”
“If you’re not dead, why haven’t we heard from you all these years?”
He stroked his beard. “Naturally, because your master had important business to attend to. Tiểu Thu, have you collected the ten evil artifacts I told you to gather?”