Chapter 125
Chapter 125
The Black Cat sprang onto Liu Junyan’s shoulder. A Scripture Barrier instantly appeared around it, shielding Liu Junyan from head to toe.
The Altar Table was shaking, and both the Lingchi Blade and the Qiankun Mandarin Duck Hook atop it trembled incessantly.
At least half the sheets of Talisman Paper on the Black Coffin were gone. Every so often, several of the remaining sheets would burst into flames on their own…
Everything pointed to one conclusion — the Pawnshop was going to descend into chaos tonight!
Could something be happening at the Zhu Pan River?
Thud!
A muffled impact suddenly rang out. Liu Junyan stumbled back two steps, and I hurried over to stand beside him.
He instinctively reached out and took my hand, gripping it tightly.
His palm was large and dry, his fingers long. Being held by him gave me an incredible sense of security.
Bracing its hind legs against Liu Junyan’s shoulder, the Black Cat lunged forward with both front paws and slammed open the door to the West Room.
The door was far heavier than either of us had expected. The instant it swung open, Liu Junyan cupped the back of my head with one hand and turned sideways, holding me securely against his chest.
After the fierce Yin Wind swept past, the entire room fell silent instead.
Eerily silent.
I lifted my head from Liu Junyan’s embrace and peered into the West Room.
Directly opposite the door stood an antique wooden screen. Carved into it was an enormous taiji symbol, with a pair of lifelike Yin-Yang fish within it.
The Black Cat returned to Liu Junyan’s shoulder and lay there obediently, its pointed ears twitching slightly like a pair of tiny radar dishes.
It seemed to like Liu Junyan more than it liked me.
Then again, Liu Junyan was tall and imposing. With the Black Cat perched majestically on his shoulder, they really did look like a better match.
Liu Junyan released me and said softly, “Xiao Jiu, Qingying, wait outside for me.”
Li Qingying immediately tugged me back, and the two of us stood side by side.
Liu Junyan rounded the screen with the Black Cat. I immediately felt his breathing hitch. Frowning, I asked, “What’s wrong?”
“You can come in now,” Liu Junyan replied.
Li Qingying and I hurried over. The moment we stepped around the screen, we both sucked in a sharp breath.
Behind the screen, an enormous built-in Buddhist shrine covered the entire rear wall. Exquisitely carved from nanmu wood and traced in gold lacquer, it was breathtakingly grand. The Song Family’s shrine was utterly insignificant compared to this one.
But it wasn’t the shrine that shocked us.
Seated cross-legged in the place of honor at its very center was a man.
If he stood, he would have been around six foot three, with a powerfully built frame.
He sat cross-legged atop an ornately carved, many-petaled lotus, his feet bare. Symbols I didn’t recognize had been painted on his soles in gold lacquer.
He wore a gray monk’s robe, holding Prayer Beads in one hand while raising the other before his chest in a Buddhist gesture. His head was bowed as though he were devoutly chanting sutras and praying.
Yet the arms exposed beyond his sleeves were densely covered in bloodied Scale.
The robe concealed most of it, but from the glimpses we could see, the Scale appeared to be white. It resembled that of a flood dragon, or perhaps… a Dragon?
Even more unbelievable was the man’s head. It had been fashioned entirely from Copper Coin.
Layer upon layer of Copper Coin had been strung together with Red Rope, making it impossible to tell whether there was flesh underneath.
A sheet of Talisman Paper with a black background and red writing was stuck to his forehead. Just looking at it made my scalp crawl.
Five statues flanked the Copper-Coin Figure, distributed between its left and right sides. Each had a human body dressed in a formal long robe and held a different ritual implement, but not a single one had a human head.
The upper statue on the left was male, with the head of a Black Snake. The one below it was female, with the head of a White Fox.
In the upper position on the right was a male figure with a weasel’s head. In the middle was a female figure with a white hedgehog’s head, and below that was a male figure with a Giant Rat’s head.
Each of them also had a strip of purple Talisman Paper pasted to its forehead.
Extending outward on either side were dozens of smaller divine niches, each enshrining a spirit tablet.
Many of the tablets were cracked, leaving the inscriptions illegible. Yet in the far-right corner, I discovered Bai Xian’er’s spirit tablet.
It was tucked away in the corner, small and inconspicuous, but had been preserved intact.
Did that mean Bai Xian’er had once been worshiped in the Pawnshop’s shrine as well?
While we were examining the shrine, the Black Cat leaped down from Liu Junyan’s shoulder.
It was incredibly agile, landing lightly on all four paws without making a sound.
But the instant it touched the floor, the entire ground lit up.
Golden lines shifted ceaselessly across the floor. A stream of black energy swept beneath the Black Cat’s paws from west to east, like a giant python slithering past. The ground shook violently, and the Talisman Paper on the Copper-Coin Figure and the five statues snapped loudly in the ensuing gale.
The black energy climbed up the Black Cat’s legs, resembling a gaping maw poised to swallow it whole.
Just as the Black Cat summoned its Scripture Barrier, five beams of golden light shot simultaneously from the Talisman Paper on the five statues. Like five enormous nails, they drove firmly into the black energy and pinned it down.
A deafening roar erupted from beneath the ground. The floor shook again, accompanied by the thunderous sound of towering waves.
Without warning, a thunderclap exploded overhead. Sounds of fighting came from outside, along with Bai Xian’er’s shrill, teeth-grating squeaks.
Sure enough, what was coming had finally arrived!
The roars shook the heavens, and the tremors grew more violent. The golden light from the Talisman Paper began to flicker unsteadily.
Liu Junyan immediately formed a hand seal, then thrust both palms forward. Two streams of Light of Merit poured endlessly into the Talisman Paper on the Copper-Coin Figure at the center.
With his intervention, the five beams of golden light instantly stabilized, and the tremors weakened considerably.
Liu Junyan said gravely, “The Black Cat and I will hold things steady here. Xiao Jiu, Qingying, go outside and see what’s happening.”
Li Qingying and I immediately headed out.
“Be careful!” Liu Junyan called after us.
The moment Li Qingying and I stepped out of the Main Courtyard, the sight outside stopped us cold.
Thunderbolts were raining down across Wufu Town. Lightning flashed intermittently through the churning black clouds, illuminating a scene so eerie it was terrifying.
For a moment, I had the illusion that the end of the world had come.
Li Qingying cursed under her breath. “What kind of unforgivable heavenly law did Wufu Town break to deserve this?”
I steadied myself and said, “Sister Qingying, once the front doors open, no matter how chaotic it is outside, our target is the Black Coffin in the Zhu Pan River.”
I might still have been wavering before, but everything I had seen in the West Room today had steeled my resolve.
The Wufu Town Pawnshop was like a needle driven deep into a major artery beneath this land. As long as the Pawnshop held firm, no matter how much chaos raged outside, it could never truly overturn everything.
What Liu Junyan was doing now was keeping that needle firmly in place. Our job was to stabilize the situation outside and minimize its impact on the Pawnshop.
Li Qingying nodded. “All right.”
As another deafening thunderclap crashed down, I placed both hands on the Pawnshop’s front doors, took a deep breath, and slowly pulled them open…