Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I held my breath and slowly backed away, shrinking behind a stack of wooden crates. I had just gotten into position when a hand suddenly reached out from behind me and clamped over my mouth.

I was just about to drive an elbow backward when Jiang Haoyan’s trembling voice abruptly fell by my ear.

“Qiao Moyu, don’t move.”

“Don’t make a sound. These paper effigies aren’t easy to deal with.”

I let out a breath, the taut string in my heart snapping loose all at once.

“What happened? Where did you guys go just now?”

“I don’t know. Lu Lingzhu kicked me too, and then all of you suddenly disappeared. I wandered around the village by myself for ages and ran into a paper effigy.”

Jiang Haoyan rested a hand on my shoulder and kept his voice as low as he could. His hand was still shaking nonstop.

“I used up all the talismans you left me.”

I was so shocked I practically turned into that Na Ying reaction meme.

“What?”

Those were Li Fire Talisman charms from the Dragon Tiger Sect. Southern Bright Li Fire was one of the legendary Ten Divine Flames of the Celestial Realm. Those old ox-nosed Daoists from the Dragon Tiger Sect had named their fire talismans after it, and while there was definitely some bragging involved, just hearing the name was enough to tell you those things didn’t come cheap.

And I had given Jiang Haoyan three whole talismans!

My heart twisted into a knot.

“You’re trying to kill me!”

Even Jiang Haoyan’s voice was shaking.

“Those talismans didn’t work on them. I threw one out, and it just drifted into the water.”

“I threw three in a row before I realized it. Those spells don’t seem to work here.”

My heart hurt even more.

“Didn’t work? If they didn’t work, why did you still throw three?”

“Couldn’t you have picked them back up, huh?”

Jiang Haoyan lowered his head in shame.

“There wasn’t time. They move really fast. Shh-”

A paper effigy was shuffling slowly toward us.

When it passed the wooden crates we were hiding behind, it didn’t look our way. Instead, with stiff steps, it went up the stairs one by one. Several other paper effigies followed it upstairs, while even more wandered aimlessly beneath the stilted building.

Jiang Haoyan and I pressed ourselves tightly against the wall, not daring to make the slightest sound.

Creak-creak-

All of a sudden, the sound of nails scraping against the wooden crate rang out.

Every paper effigy stopped moving and turned to look this way.

I looked down and saw the lizard claw on my wrist scratching at the crate.

We were done for.

“Run!”

I shoved the wooden crate beside me out of the way, grabbed Jiang Haoyan, and charged forward like my life depended on it.

The place we had been hiding was almost at the very back of the stilted building, with a wall right behind us. As we rushed outward, paper effigies closed in from every direction. Before we could even make it to the path outside, three paper effigies had already blocked my way.

I immediately raised the Thunderstruck Wood Talisman.

“Five Thunders Command-”

Nothing happened.

Three seconds later, the paper effigy in front of me reached out, trying to snatch the talisman from my hand.

“Holy crap, it really doesn’t work.”

Startled, I quickly shoved the talisman back into my pocket. Then I lifted my arm and slammed an elbow strike hard into the face of the paper effigy in front of me.

The thin white paper was instantly smashed open, leaving a hole. The paper effigy’s head was torn, but it didn’t react at all. Instead, it reached out with both hands and went straight for my throat.

It looked slow and sluggish, but in truth, its attack was frighteningly fast. By the time its hands locked around my neck, I had only just managed to react and immediately pulled my arm back to block.

That block barely managed to stop its hands. Right after that, I felt a sharp stab of pain at my waist.

Behind me, another paper effigy had silently raised its hand and raked it viciously across my side.