Chapter 177

Chapter 177

“Big Sister, have some candy.”

Xin’er’s voice rang out again, instantly pulling me from my tangled thoughts.

When I looked at her, I saw that she was crying.

She cupped the piece of candy in both hands as bloody tears poured from her eyes.

Blood also seeped from the cracks in her skin.

“Big Sister, have some candy.”

“Big Sister, hurry and eat the candy.”

“…”

She remained standing there, bloody tears streaming down her face as she pleaded earnestly for me to eat the candy.

Over and over again, like a windup porcelain doll turning mechanically in place.

The eerie sight shook my resolve to uncover the secrets hidden within Qilin Temple.

Whatever mysteries lurked inside Qilin Temple were likely far more dangerous than I had anticipated.

“Big Sister, please… eat the candy…”

At Xin’er’s renewed plea, I took a step back and once again drew the Longbow to its limit.

This time, I didn’t nock a Copper Coin. The instant the bow was fully drawn, I abruptly aimed the Longbow at the sky and released the string.

A ball of flame tore through the white smoke and shot unstoppably into the heavens.

Fengwu’s flames could burn away malignant yin energy.

But the moment the fire soared upward, I realized something was wrong.

The sky had changed.

The hazy white sky had suddenly turned black.

It wasn’t the darkness of storm clouds. The area around me was still brightly lit. It felt as if someone had stretched a black curtain across the patch of sky directly above my head.

Fengwu’s flames soared into the air and exploded beneath the black curtain in a brilliant burst of fire, only to be swallowed in an instant.

What was going on?

“Big Sister, eat the candy. Please, I’m begging you. Eat it.”

“Tongtong, save your little brother. One drop of blood. He only needs one drop of your blood to live.”

“Give me one drop of blood. Just one drop.”

“…”

The moment the black curtain appeared, Xin’er seemed to fall apart. Her voice rose sharply, becoming almost hysterical.

Meanwhile, the villagers surged toward me on their knees and surrounded me.

Grandma was the closest. She reached out with the hand that was missing part of its middle finger and seized my leg. Her nails dug deep into my flesh as her mouth opened and closed, ceaselessly begging me for a drop of blood.

Incense ash swirled through the air, and white smoke billowed around me.

I felt as though I could barely breathe, but my mind had never been clearer — these people had died long ago!

Xin’er included.

They were all marionettes now, controlled by someone hiding in the shadows.

I couldn’t give any of them my blood, much less eat Xin’er’s candy.

Once I gave in, the rest of them would tear me apart and devour me alive.

The black curtain descended inch by inch. The light didn’t dim, yet the pressure grew increasingly suffocating.

“Tongtong, give Grandma one drop of blood. Just one drop, and I’ll live. From now on, I’ll slave away for you. I’ll love you properly and make up for all the familial love I’ve denied you over the years. How does that sound?”

“And… and give your little brother another drop. He’s still so young. He’s the root of the Jiang Family. We can’t let that root die.”

“Oh, and give your father a drop too. He’s the backbone of this family…”

Grandma allocated every drop of blood flowing through my veins as if it were hers to distribute.

Every drop had a purpose. Apparently, the only place my blood didn’t belong was inside my own body.

The corner of my mouth twitched into a cold sneer. “Why don’t you just kill me and drink straight from my body? Then you can have as much as you want. How does that sound?”

Grandma, who had been babbling on mechanically, abruptly froze as if she’d glitched.

I gave her no chance to react. I aimed the Longbow directly at the center of her forehead.

I drew the bowstring to its limit and released.

The string thrummed powerfully, and a blossom of flame instantly sank into Grandma’s forehead.
The instant the incense ash touched fire, it flared to life. There was no open flame, only a sinister red glow.

My grandmother’s eyes flew wide with disbelief.

She couldn’t believe that the granddaughter she had once manipulated however she pleased would now stand by and watch her die-would even deal the killing blow herself.

I had never intended to kill anyone. But even at this moment, I remained certain that these people… were no longer human.

They were nothing more than ghostly thralls.

From the spot between my grandmother’s brows, a dark red glow spread beneath her skin, gradually shining through. She looked like a human-skin lantern that had been set alight.

The villagers who had surrounded me with her moments ago, demanding a drop of my blood, now recoiled in horror. They were terrified I would draw my bow again and set them ablaze as well.

Seizing the opportunity, I gripped the Longbow and strode down the mountain.

“Sister Tongtong… Sister… candy…”

Xin’er’s voice kept drifting after me. I didn’t look back, only quickened my pace.

I didn’t know why, but even though I was heading down the mountain and getting farther and farther away from Qilin Temple, the unease in my heart only grew stronger.

Perhaps it was because the dark canopy overhead was pressing lower and lower.

Or perhaps it was because the mountain path beneath my feet seemed endless.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a Yellow Talisman. Before I could even recite the incantation, it burst into flames and instantly crumbled to ash.

I froze, then took out another Yellow Talisman. It, too, burned away in an instant.

Such powerful yin energy!

I looked around, unable to tell where this overwhelming yin energy was coming from.

When I raised my head, the dark canopy was already almost upon me.

At that very moment, flashes of light like electrical currents pierced through it, spreading in all directions like a spiderweb.

My brows drew together. I had seen something like this before.

I remembered the sky above the Zhu Pan River looking just like this when the Black Coffin appeared!

Heavenly Punishment?

The words flashed through my mind and refused to leave.

Wasn’t the Qilin Deity supposed to protect Tafeng Village?

Then where had this Heavenly Punishment come from?

I steadied myself and continued forward.

But before I had gone far, two figures suddenly appeared on the mountain path ahead.

They were two children, kneeling with their heads bowed and the backs of their necks exposed.

One was a boy and the other a girl — a pair of twins.

The boy was Song Xunian, and the girl was Song Mingxuan.

I stumbled two steps backward, my temples throbbing violently.

How could it be them?!

These were the very twins the Song Family had offered up as a Sacrifice on Wangting Mountain.

Later, an identical pair of twins with the exact same names had appeared in Tafeng Village.

That had been what first made me suspicious of Qilin Bestows Children!

No. There was something wrong with this path.

I instinctively turned around, intending to find another way down the mountain.

But the moment I turned, I saw another child kneeling not far behind me.

In the same eerie posture.

I immediately turned in another direction…

I changed directions several times, only to discover that one or two children had appeared on every side of me. Kneeling in those eerie postures of Sacrifice, they had completely surrounded me.

I had no idea when they had appeared.

But I had a vague suspicion that they had come specifically for me. The positions where they knelt had most likely created some kind of Formation.

They had trapped me inside this Formation.

And within it, the yin energy was suffocatingly dense.

More terrifying still, on the back of one little girl’s neck, I saw my grandmother’s name…