Chapter 104
Chapter 104
The moment those knocks sounded, the entire street fell silent.
Eerily silent.
Li Qingying patted the back of my hand, then crept lightly over to the small window.
When the knocking came again, she opened the little window and leaned out to glance east.
At that one look, her whole spine went rigid.
That confirmed the guess in my heart-it was Old Lady Bai outside the door.
Li Qingying shut the window and looked back at me.
I shook my head at her.
Neither of us made a sound.
The pounding on the door grew louder and more urgent. Fingernails scraped against the wood like a cat clawing at it, accompanied by a teeth-grinding sound that set my own teeth on edge.
She was using too much force. The little door to the Southern Study was on the verge of collapsing.
Li Qingying already had her Long Whip in hand.
I silently took a deep breath and said softly, “Sister Qingying, don’t attack yet. Let me deal with her first.”
Li Qingying could hardly believe what she was hearing. “Xiao Jiu, that’s Old Lady Bai! And she’s a corpse that’s come back to life! Are you sure you can take her on?”
“Sister Qingying, this isn’t as simple as you think,” I said. “Old Lady Bai is only the trigger. Behind her are the Bai Family and the Evil Monk. Tonight, there’s no hiding from this.”
Li Qingying gripped her whip and stood behind me protectively. “Xiao Jiu, I’ll stay with you.”
I nodded, then strode behind the counter.
Li Qingying stood at my side.
The two of us stared fixedly at that door until, with a heavy crash, the little door fell flat, revealing Old Lady Bai outside.
Because the Southern Study did Yin Pawn business, the threshold of this small door was very low.
I’d thought Old Lady Bai would hop in. After all, she was now a reanimated corpse.
Instead, she lifted her feet and walked in step by step.
Her body was hunched, her right hand braced forward as if she were still leaning on a cane the way she had when she was alive.
She walked one step at a time until she reached the counter. Then she raised her ashen, deeply furrowed face, opened her mouth, and said one word at a time, “I want to pawn something.”
I had imagined many possibilities.
I had imagined Old Lady Bai charging in to fight us. I had imagined something else possessing her and breaking into the Pawnshop along with her…
But I had never imagined that she would want to pawn something.
A Yin Pawn could not be refused.
Old Lady Bai was already dead. No matter what she had come to pawn here tonight, according to the rules of the Pawnshop, I could not refuse her.
I forced myself to stay calm and asked, “What do you want to pawn?”
“I want to pawn Yin Lifespan.”
After saying that, she lowered her head again.
Lower and lower, until her head was nearly hanging down to her feet. Then the black long gown on her body suddenly split open down the middle.
Riiip.
The instant the gown tore apart, countless heads stretched out from the opening like maggots, scrambling over one another to force their way through.
There were men and women among them, old and young-even infants only a few months old!
Every one of them looked as if they had been stretched thin. Their heads were long, their features squeezed together, and the moment they burst out, they wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves.
But their necks were still beneath the split in the gown, like strings tethering kites: the heads were pulled upward, while their bodies were pulled down below.
The bizarre sight left me at a loss for words for a moment.
Pawning Yin Lifespan.
So-called Yin Lifespan was also known as Nether Lifespan.
When a person was alive, they had a Yang Lifespan. After death, they had a Yin Lifespan.
Yin Lifespan was the manifestation of a person’s karma.
After a person died and arrived in the underworld, they did not immediately go to Reincarnation. Only after their Yin Lifespan was exhausted could they queue at the Reincarnation Platform for Reincarnation.
And the people on Old Lady Bai’s back… they were probably all the ones whose Yang Lifespan she had borrowed, weren’t they?
Those whose Yang Lifespan had been borrowed counted as wrongful deaths. Once they reached the underworld, they would file grievances.
So Old Lady Bai had gone all in. Not only had she borrowed their living lifespan, she had also imprisoned their Souls within herself.
That long robe she was wearing was probably no ordinary object, either.
Viewed that way, Old Lady Bai’s death had to be connected to Bai Jingmo.
But it wasn’t that Bai Jingmo had murdered Old Lady Bai. Rather, Old Lady Bai and Bai Jingmo had set this trap together.
Old Lady Bai had borrowed too much living lifespan. The karmic debt on her back had reached its peak-what we usually called being laden with evil beyond redemption.
If she kept living, the moment she could no longer hold back those wronged spirits, she would suffer Heavenly Punishment.
And my Pawnshop had become the perfect shield for her to hide behind and avoid Heavenly Punishment.
She died just before her sins overflowed, then her corpse reanimated before the funeral procession, and she came to the Pawnshop to pawn these wronged spirits’ Yin Lifespan.
According to the Pawnshop’s rules, a Yin Pawn could not be refused. I could only accept this deal.
Once I accepted it, suppressing it would become my problem.
What a brilliant move-diverting disaster onto someone else.
I knew very clearly that I could not take this deal.
But I had no idea what kind of punishment I would face if I refused a Yin Pawn.
It wasn’t written in the Pawnshop operating manual, and no one had ever told me what I was supposed to do.
But at worst, I would suffer Heavenly Punishment, be struck until my soul scattered, and never reincarnate for all eternity.
Rather than accept this deal, take the blame for Old Lady Bai, and help the wicked commit evil, I would rather accept the punishment.
With that thought, I said firmly, “I’m sorry. I won’t take this deal.”
Old Lady Bai’s head snapped up. Her completely white eye sockets were still filled with disbelief. “Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, this is a Yin Pawn! A Yin Pawn cannot be refused!”
I was just about to refuse again when Liu Junyan’s voice suddenly rang out. “Take it!”
As his words fell, Liu Junyan appeared outside the door.
Tonight, he wore an all-black python robe, his hair bound with a jade crown. In his hand was none other than the Hexagonal Palace Lantern.
Old Lady Bai whipped around to face Liu Junyan.
Liu Junyan stepped across the threshold and declared with ringing authority, “Take it! But not by our Pawnshop.”
Li Qingying and I exchanged a glance, neither of us understanding what he meant.
But Old Lady Bai suddenly lunged at the Hexagonal Palace Lantern like a madwoman, her whole body brimming with malice, as if enraged, yet also afraid.
Liu Junyan, however, waved his hand and tossed the Hexagonal Palace Lantern to me. “Xiao Jiu, catch!”
I immediately reached out and caught the Hexagonal Palace Lantern steadily.
Liu Junyan was already exchanging blows with Old Lady Bai.
His attacks were fast, but he wasn’t aiming to kill Old Lady Bai outright. He was merely blocking her inside the Pawnshop, keeping her trapped there.
After a few moves, Old Lady Bai suddenly began to scream.
It was a cry like someone driven to the end of the road. She wanted out!
She was giving up on pawning the Yin Lifespan. She wanted to leave the Pawnshop.
But Liu Junyan gave her no chance at all.
As he fought, Liu Junyan shouted, “Xiao Jiu, drip blood from your middle finger into the Hexagonal Palace Lantern, then repeat after me.”
I immediately did as he said.
The instant I bit open my middle finger, Old Lady Bai abruptly spun around. Her five fingers hooked like claws as she charged straight at my face.
Li Qingying cracked out her Long Whip and shielded me at once.
Liu Junyan’s voice rang out. “The gate of heaven opens, the gate of earth opens…”
I immediately followed. “The gate of heaven opens, the gate of earth opens. Black and White Impermanence, come collect the soul. Come swiftly, heed my command, suffer no delay. As urgent as the law decrees!”
The more I chanted, the less confidence I had.
Was this supposed to summon Black and White Impermanence up here to arrest and judge Old Lady Bai?
But what virtue or ability did I have to summon Black and White Impermanence?
Yet the instant I formed the Sword Finger with my hand and pointed at Old Lady Bai, the sound of iron chains dragging across the ground rang out from beyond the Southern Study’s doors, out of nowhere…