Chapter 213
Chapter 213
Immediately afterward, a voice began sounding beside John’s ear, and the people around him started disappearing.
“Yuelang!”
Miss Zhang called out a warning.
John knew the other party had set its sights on him. He had been unable to see the earlier abnormalities, but Miss Zhang had seen them all with perfect clarity.
Miss Zhang’s combat ability was abysmal, but her powers of detection and early warning were exceptionally strong.
From her description, John pieced together the Fiends’ rules.
They seemed to use various methods to draw out the fear in a person’s heart. That fear was apparently impossible to control. Once it accumulated to its peak, the victim would cry out. Then the thing inside one of the coffins would emerge and replace them.
John asked Miss Zhang to investigate the coffins, but she could not sense anything inside them.
“John…”
“John…”
“John…”
As he listened to the voice beside his ear, fear began spreading through John’s heart as well. He could have used one of the protective charms to repel the Fiend. His cousin had already proven that method worked.
But he did no such thing.
“Hello there, Great-Aunt.”
John answered the voice directly. The instant he did, a freezing presence enveloped him, and his vision blurred.
Whoosh!
The next second, he found himself in a space of absolute darkness.
Thump, thump…
John felt around him and shifted his body slightly. He soon determined that he had appeared inside a coffin.
“Hey!”
Miss Zhang emerged in a fury.
“That was far too reckless! What would you have done if it had an instant-death effect?”
“It’s fine. I have Brother Liu’s protective charms. I definitely won’t die.”
John found a comfortable position and lay down. The Zhao family had never lacked money, so they had furnished his great-aunt’s coffin quite comfortably. Aside from a faint moldy smell, everything was rather pleasant.
He had tested the coffin a moment ago and found that the lid could not be pushed open. When he brought a protective charm close to it, however, he could feel the lid loosen slightly.
Using the charm, he opened a small hole for ventilation. Only then did he say slowly, “In a situation like this, survival always means gambling with death. I have protective charms made by Brother Liu. If I’m not even willing to take a gamble with these in hand, I might as well lie down and die now.”
He possessed only seven or eight of Brother Liu’s protective charms in total. He had to use them sparingly, because there was no telling when Brother Liu might make another batch.
John did not believe they could safely reach their destination merely by following the old monk’s instructions. Given the choice, he trusted Liu Ye far more than the monk.
The thought of the half of his charms that Xiaoshuai had extorted from him still made his heart ache.
But there was no helping it. Xiaoshuai had saved his life back on Nine Worlds Mountain.
“Then why did you deliberately come in here?” Miss Zhang asked in confusion.
“It’s simple. Now that I’ve entered this coffin, the Fiend inside has taken my place. I’ve already been marked by this Fiend. According to the information I found at the Fiend Investigation Bureau, Fiends rarely fight among themselves. Humans aren’t some scarce resource, after all. There’s no reason for them to fight another Fiend to the death over a single person.
“As long as I remain inside this coffin, I won’t be the first target if we encounter any more Fiends along the rest of the journey.”
That was precisely why John had insisted on taking the gamble. The Fiend outside could shield him from many dangers. Why would he refuse such a useful opportunity?
Of course, he dared attempt this only because he possessed Liu Ye’s protective charms. Without them, the lack of air alone would be enough to suffocate him to death.
Brother Liu truly was a god among men!
John sighed in admiration to himself. At that very moment, however, the Liu Ye he so admired had run into a problem.
After John vanished, Liu Ye also heard someone calling the name of the child he was substituting for.
He glanced sideways and saw a young boy standing beside him, repeating the name into his ear without pause.
“Zhao He…”
“Zhao He…”
“Zhao He…”
I can’t speak.
Liu Ye silently reminded himself of the rule. This child might not know better, but Liu Ye certainly did.
Still, the children of the Zhao family truly needed some discipline. Playing a prank during such a solemn ritual? Back in his village, a child who behaved like this would have been beaten until his backside split into eight pieces!
“Zhao He…”
“Zhao He…”
“Zhao He…”
A huge throbbing vein appeared on Liu Ye’s forehead. He shot the boy a vicious glare.
The boy was dumbfounded. This was the first time he had encountered someone who not only refused to fear him or answer, but actually dared glare at him.
This fellow had guts.
Nevertheless, he continued calling into Liu Ye’s ear.
“Zhao He! Zhao-”
“I’m warning you, don’t push your luck! My patience has limits.”
Unable to endure any longer, Liu Ye spoke through clenched teeth in a low voice.
The boy was overjoyed. He had finally answered! The boy immediately reached out to snatch the memorial tablet from Liu Ye’s hands, but… it would not move.
“You little brat, I’ve put up with you long enough. I’m warning you one more time: this family is conducting an important ceremony, so stop making trouble. Don’t make me slap you. Understand?”
The boy froze as well. This was not right. Shouldn’t Liu Ye have gone inside by now?
He decided not to worry about it. All he needed was the memorial tablet. He seized it and tugged with all his might.
That made Liu Ye furious. This family was in the middle of an important ritual, yet this little bastard had come running over to cause trouble. Liu Ye might possess the virtue of respecting the old and cherishing the young, but he would show no mercy to a spoiled brat like this.
“I’m counting to three!”
The boy snorted. What difference would it make if Liu Ye counted to a hundred?
“Three!”
Smack!
At that same moment, the old monk at the front of the procession abruptly stopped. An elderly woman had appeared before him. Her face was deathly pale, and she continuously burned joss paper in her hands.
“Return, wandering souls!”
“Return, wandering souls!”
“Return, wandering souls!”
A fortune-telling master beside the old monk heard the voice and began walking toward the woman in a daze.
The old monk immediately shouted, “Offerings of flesh and blood!”
This time, the offerings he meant were not newborn animals. They were human infants who had died moments after birth.
The fear a newborn felt toward an unfamiliar world, combined with the resentment produced by an immediate death, made such infants a delicacy that Fiends greatly enjoyed.
A fortune-telling master in a suit immediately placed the offering on the ground. In the blink of an eye, it appeared before the old woman.
The man who had been entranced came to his senses at once.
The old monk hurriedly warned them in a low voice, “The offering will last for only half an hour. As long as we don’t provoke it during that time, it won’t attack us. Tell everyone to be caref-”
Whoosh!
Before he could finish, a coffin hurtled through the air and slammed the old woman into the ground with a loud smack.
Everyone fell silent.