Free Web NovelChapter 177: Chapter 169: Something’s Wrong with Him
"Ghk... ghk... ghk..."
The scholar whipped his head around, only to see Lin Qingfeng, who had deliberately positioned himself with backlighting and uplighting.
It would have looked quite terrifying, if not for the cursed spirits outside the light barrier for comparison.
"M-Master! Please... please don’t scare me. I’m not very brave!"
"By the way,"
the scholar said, still shaken as he pointed at the Talisman Cards on the table in confusion,
"Master, these cards we’re playing with... why do they feel a bit different from before?"
He pointed to a character card in his hand.
It depicted a woman named "Gaye."
He then pointed to the card in front of Lin Qingfeng, which showed a female ghost in white crawling out of an old well, and the card in front of "Ji," which showed a floating calligraphy brush.
"You see, yours is ’Sadako,’ this Master’s is the ’Pen Immortal,’ and mine is ’Gaye’... How come all the characters are yin spirits this time?"
"Oh, that,"
Lin Qingfeng explained casually,
"We got tired of that ’Three-X Kill’ game. So, based on the rules of those Talisman Cards, we created our own set, Yin Spirit Kill, for a change of pace."
The scholar nodded, his thoughts drifting back to the previous game.
He still felt a lingering fear.
In that round, he didn’t know what kind of luck he’d stumbled into, but he was on an insanely lucky streak.
His starting hand of five cards was filled with all sorts of Brocade Bags: [Sleight of Hand], [Dismantle], [Acedia].
He watched the two Masters across from him scowl at their terrible hands, but inside, he was as anxious as a cat on a hot tin roof.
’What am I going to do?!’
’If I win and displease the two Masters, they might stop protecting me, and then I’m dead for sure!’
So, he racked his brain and put on a performance.
Even though he could have used [Sleight of Hand] or [Dismantle] to get rid of the Masters’ key equipment, he deliberately used them on insignificant hand cards instead.
When a Master was down to one health point, he "just so happened" to not draw any attack cards. He didn’t dare play anything that would cause damage, terrified that he might accidentally take out one of the Masters.
In the end, he even went so far as to deliberately take damage, absorbing several [Barbarian Invasion] and [Arrow Barrage] attacks, just to painstakingly ensure his character was the first to die.
After that, perhaps feeling that winning was too easy, the Master pulled out this Yin Spirit Kill set, and the three of them began to play.
Meanwhile, outside the barrier of light, the gurgling sounds of "Ghk... ghk..." grew more and more frequent.
Countless ghostly figures, their bodies twisting and walking with joints bent the wrong way, converged from all directions.
They passed silently through the main hall, all moving in the same direction. Although they didn’t spare a single glance at the people inside the light barrier, their unsettling sounds and bizarre movements still made the scholar’s scalp tingle.
Lin Qingfeng frowned.
"Tsk, the way these little ghosts are screeching is too creepy. It’s kind of disgusting and doesn’t really fit the mood for our game. Should we put on some music later to drown them out?"
"Ah? Yes, Master, of course!" the scholar hurriedly nodded in agreement.
Just as he spoke, a passing female ghost in white suddenly stopped. Its pale, bloated face abruptly turned toward the light barrier.
It tilted its head, its hollow, black eyes seemingly filled with confusion.
But it couldn’t quite understand what it was seeing.
In the end, the ghost gave up trying to figure it out and continued on its way, slowly following the main group.
"Phew..."
The scholar broke out in a cold sweat, thinking for a moment he was done for. It took him a long while to finally breathe a sigh of relief and get ready to continue the game with the Master.
Lin Qingfeng, however, just kept playing his cards while pondering what kind of music would be good to play later.
Inside the warm barrier of light, a relaxed card game and idle chatter continued.
Outside the barrier, hundreds of cursed spirits shuffled past with stiff, "CLACK, CLACK, CLACK" footsteps, accompanied by terrifying "Ghk... ghk..." hisses, slowly passing by.
"Ghk... ghk..."
"Ghk... ghk... ghk..."
The small, grinning ghost had appeared silently behind the mother and child at some unknown point. Its pale little hand shot out, grabbing for the child in the woman’s arms!
"Watch out!"
Quick as a flash, Su Ling’er’s Wooden Sword, infused with a sinister aura, transformed into a streak of gray-black light and struck first despite being slower to move!
"MEOW—!"
The small ghost let out a piercing shriek like a black cat. The moment the Wooden Sword hit it, its body instantly dissolved into a puff of black smoke and was absorbed into the sword!
However, before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, on Su Ling’er’s other side, three or four black cats with glowing green eyes darted out from the darkness, letting out the same piercing shriek!
It was a feint!
Just as everyone’s attention was drawn to the black cats and the small ghost, in a corner of the cellar, the surface of the long-forgotten full-length bronze mirror suddenly rippled like water.
In the mirror, the pale, venomous face of Shen Jieye abruptly appeared!
Her pitch-black hair, as if alive, surged out of the mirror with lightning speed, ensnaring two undercover disciples who hadn’t had time to react, along with one panicked mortal!
"AHHH—!!"
Amidst the trio’s bloodcurdling screams, the black hair snapped back, attempting to drag them forcefully into the mirror!
"Don’t even think about it!"
The closest one, Wang Xiedi, his eyes practically splitting with rage, poured all his Spiritual Power into his Wooden Sword and roared as he swung it forward with all his might!
The sword light was sharp and cold, but it was a step too slow.
It only managed to sever a few stray strands of hair before the three figures were completely swallowed by the mirror’s surface and vanished.
Wang Xiedi’s furious strike ultimately landed squarely on the ancient bronze mirror!
"CLANG—!!!!!"
A deafening clang echoed throughout the cellar!
Immediately after—
"CRACK... CRACKLE..."
From the point where the sword had struck, countless cracks instantly spiderwebbed across the mirror’s once-smooth surface!
Finally, with a sharp shattering sound, the entire bronze mirror exploded, its fragments scattering across the floor with a TINKLE and a CLATTER.
Just then.
From the entrance of the secret passage, a familiar figure came stumbling over.
It was the young peddler who had gone missing earlier!
"You look familiar, are you...?"
A disciple started to step forward, but Su Ling’er grabbed him and held him back.
"Don’t go near him! Something’s wrong with him!!!"
Everyone stared intently and saw that the peddler was emanating an aura of corpse energy and death.
He slowly raised his head, revealing to everyone something that could no longer be called a "face."
The lower half of his face, including his chin, had been gnawed away by something, leaving only a mangled cross-section of flesh and bone, covered in thick, viscous saliva.
"Ghk... ghk..."
Suddenly, his body twisted at a bizarre, unnatural angle. He dropped to all fours and lunged with incredible speed toward the mother and child, who were already petrified with fear!
