Chapter 269

Chapter 269

“Little Mother!”

At the sight of the Ninth Concubine lying on the bed in the secret room, Xiuzhu became even more excited than Seventh Master and me.

Besides her birth mother, the Ninth Concubine had been the only person who treated her kindly.

She ran inside, hurried to the Ninth Concubine’s side, and shook her repeatedly, trying to wake her.

“Little Mother, it’s Xiuzhu.”

“Little Mother, I missed you so much!”

Seventh Master and I entered as well and examined the Ninth Concubine up close.

She lay on the bed with both hands folded flat over her chest. Her complexion was rosy, and she looked exactly as though she were asleep, not dead.

“Seventh Master, why does she look like she’s only sleeping?”

How had Master Luo ever believed she was dead when her false death looked like this?

Could he not tell a corpse from a living person?

But when I placed a hand beneath her nose, no breath emerged. Her chest did not rise or fall either.

“In an age when esoteric arts flourished, techniques for inducing false death were not uncommon.”

Seventh Master said, “Wudang’s Turtle Breathing Skill, the Meishan branch’s Breath-Sealing Art, Daoism’s Soul-Separation Art, and certain folk medicines can all make a person appear dead.”

I could only marvel. Thousands of years of cultural tradition had produced every esoteric art imaginable. If a person could conceive of it, someone in the past had probably studied it.

Xiuzhu was still calling to the Ninth Concubine. I took hold of her and said, “Xiuzhu, the Little Mother you see isn’t real. Everything here is an illusion created by the field. Your Little Mother may never have died.”

At that point, I no longer knew how to explain it. The Ninth Concubine might not have died back then, but a century had passed. She must have died at some later point, or she would now be over a hundred years old.

Xiuzhu clearly did not understand, but she did grasp that the Little Mother before her was not real. Her disappointment was obvious.

Seventh Master and I examined the secret room.

It was small and held very little, but seven lamps stood around the bed, all of them burning.

Electric lights had not existed in that era. These were oil lamps, and no matter what kind of oil they used, it would eventually burn out.

I leaned closer and smelled kerosene.

If the lamps had remained lit continuously, Master Luo must have come at fixed times every day to refill them.

“These are Seven-Star Lamps.”

Seventh Master thought aloud, “Now I know which art she used. It should be the Soul-Separation Art of Northern Mao Daoism. As long as the Seven-Star Lamps remained lit, her soul could keep wandering outside her body. But the lamps had to burn continuously. If her soul didn’t return before they went out, it would never be able to return.”

I could not help sighing. “Master Luo really believed in the Ninth Concubine’s Seven Deaths for Life Exchange. He planned to resurrect her.”

Otherwise, he would not have refilled these lamps with kerosene every day.

I had to admit, he truly was devoted to the Ninth Concubine.

“Bang!”

While Seventh Master and I examined the secret room, a tremendous crash came from outside.

We looked back. The main door had been smashed open, sending tables, chairs, and stools flying everywhere. At some point, Master Luo had gathered everyone in Luo Mansion, including the wretched hag.

People packed the space outside, looking as though they were about to storm the room.

My heart sank. One glance told me we were finished.

Nearly forty people blocked the entrance. How could we possibly break through?

As the thirty-odd creatures that were neither human nor ghost began to move, Seventh Master rushed forward and formed an invocation seal.

“Majestic in sacred virtue, vast in divine power, body merged with nature, form manifested across the Three Mountains, commanding the thirty-six divisions of thunder and rain, wielding the Eight-Nine Transformations of mysterious power. By the Supreme Lord’s Decree, I urgently summon the True Lord of the Pure Source and Wondrous Way!”
When Seventh Master finished the invocation, I saw a halo appear around him again.

He had truly summoned Erlang Shen!

Master Luo swept one hand forward. Every person in Luo Mansion, concubines and servants alike, charged toward us.

Seventh Master thrust out the invocation seal. An invisible force descended like Mount Tai, instantly hurling the attackers into the air.

Half of them vanished on the spot. The other half were flung out of the study, colliding with Master Luo and sending him flying too.

I was still marveling at Seventh Master’s heaven-defying power when he suddenly collapsed.

“Seventh Master!”

Startled, I hurried forward and caught him. His face was deathly pale, and his skin was aging before my eyes.

Within seconds, countless new wrinkles covered his face.

He had always looked more than ten years younger than his true age. Now he looked like an Old Man in his sixties or seventies.

“Seventh Master, how… how did this happen to you?”

“Don’t worry about it… Run… Find the Life Gate…”

Seventh Master’s voice was feeble. Blood seeped from both his eyes and nose.

I hurriedly lifted him onto my back and turned to call Xiuzhu, only to find her gone. The girl had probably fled in fright.

There was no time to worry about anything else. Carrying Seventh Master, I rushed out.

Master Luo and the remaining people continued chasing us.

“Seventh Master, where is the Life Gate? How do we get out?”

“In the direction where you found me… Run that way.”

I followed that direction and sprinted.

But with Seventh Master on my back, there was no way I could outrun the people chasing us.

I fought the urge to use the Hexagram Art.

The mysterious stranger who handed me a note on the train to Lincheng, and the words on that note, made me afraid to use the Hexagram Art carelessly.

But if I did not, the ghosts here would catch me in moments.

My life was truly in danger. The circumstances gave me no choice.

I hurriedly raised my right hand before my chest and formed the Daoist fingers, focusing on the shape of a flame in my mind.

“Zhen Word, Fan Yin!”

I looked back. One servant of Luo Mansion was suddenly launched into the air as though kicked by an invisible foot. Before he could hit the ground, he vanished.

The sight shocked and amazed me.

The Ancestral Master was truly divine to have invented such a useful spell.

The Hexagram Art required neither Fulu nor a long incantation. All I had to do was form the Daoist fingers.

The term Fan Yin came from the Six Yao. It usually referred to a situation in which an Earthly Branch produced by the resultant hexagram turned back to clash with the previous Earthly Branch in the primary hexagram.

Applied here, if a ghost attacked me, it would suffer a backlash and hurl itself away.

After throwing off one ghost, I ran with all my strength and soon reached the place where I had found Seventh Master.

Just then, the center of my chest abruptly became scorching hot. I sucked in breaths through my teeth and looked down, only to discover that the jade pendant from the Ancestral Master was burning me.

I was baffled. Why had it suddenly heated up?

“I can’t use my magical power for now,” Seventh Master said from my back. “Use what you’ve learned to dispel the illusion. Believe with absolute certainty that everything before you is false, then pass through that wall.”

I froze. Pass through the wall?

What if I could not?

I forced every stray thought from my mind, raised my right hand before my chest again, and formed the Daoist fingers.

“Zhen Word, Eight Gates Art!”

Carrying Seventh Master and holding the Daoist fingers, I charged straight at the wall.