Free Web NovelChapter 180: Chapter 172: Is Mr. Li Voluntarily Covering Our Retreat?
On the stage, eerie lamps glowed as gongs and drums sounded of their own accord.
There were no actors, not a single living thing—only countless, twisting black shadows.
They warped and twisted in the dim yellow firelight, like a shadow puppet show beginning to reenact the tragedy that occurred here a century ago.
The light and shadows shifted to reveal a magnificent mansion—the very Shen Residence where the group now stood.
The great Shen Family of the eastern city was headed by Shen Gang, a martial man. His wife, Shen Jieye, came from a family of scholars.
The scene shifted. Shen Gang was glaring at an old physician who had just declared that a flaw in his early Cultivation Technique had damaged his foundation, making it nearly impossible for him to ever have children.
But immediately after, the image of a swaddled infant appeared—Shen Junxiong.
It was then that a mysterious Daoist with deep-set eyes came to visit.
He spoke with Shen Gang in secret for a long time. He not only taught Shen Gang a malevolent art and pointed out his unspeakable affliction, but he also mentioned his wife’s past admiration for a certain Mr. Lin.
From that moment on, a seed of suspicion took root and sprouted in Shen Gang’s heart.
Later, while rummaging through his wife’s personal belongings, he discovered *Heartfelt Pages*—a diary detailing her affection for Mr. Lin and her many frustrations with her married life.
What was more damning, one late night, Shen Jieye stumbled upon him and the Daoist slaughtering black cats and extracting the souls of young children to practice their dark arts.
And when Shen Jieye tried to report them to the authorities, it ignited a murderous rage in his heart.
He trapped Shen Jieye in the cellar, forcing her day after day to consume all manner of foul and unholy things. He intended to use her body as a crucible and her hatred as fuel, refining her alive into a vicious ghost he could control.
However, the combination of three things—Shen Jieye’s boundless hatred at the moment of her death, the countless vile objects she had been forced to consume, and the special dark art the mysterious Daoist had taught Shen Gang—caused her to transform after death into a core of pure cursed resentment, one far beyond Shen Gang’s ability to control.
In the end, Shen Gang had succeeded in creating his ultimate curse.
His wife, Shen Jieye.
But the curse had already grown beyond his control. It turned on him, killed him, and absorbed him into itself.
As for their son, Shen Junxiong, he was left to starve to death inside a closet.
The Daoist who taught Shen Gang the dark art looked upon the house, now brimming with resentment. While it was a better result than the Li Residence, where he’d engineered a "family reunion," he was still somewhat disappointed. With that, he drifted away in search of his next target.
From that day forward, the Shen Residence became infamous as a haunted house.
For decades, the house changed hands several times. But all who dared to live there were ensnared by the curse and met with a violent end.
The government sent men to investigate. The Government Officials merely took a walk through the residence, but soon after, their necks were snapped in their own homes by an unseen force. The manner of their death was identical to that of the previous owners.
No one who stepped foot in the house was ever spared.
Helpless, the government invited an Enlightened Monk from an ancient temple outside the city to perform an exorcism.
While performing last rites for the deceased Shen Jieye, the Enlightened Monk found that her eyes would not close and her resentment towered to the heavens. He attempted to use the Buddhist Beads he carried to suppress her hatred.
But the moment the Buddhist Beads touched her corpse, they exploded with a loud BANG!
An eerie light enveloped Shen Jieye’s corpse, and her body began to levitate slowly into the air.
The Enlightened Monk was horrified. He immediately threw off his kasaya robe to cover her as his disciples rushed forward to pin her body to the table.
Just as the Enlightened Monk was about to recite a Subduing Spell, Shen Jieye’s stomach suddenly began to swell!
SQUELCH! With a sickening sound, a hideous demon burst forth from her belly!
The Enlightened Monk cupped the shattered Buddhist Beads in his palm and formed a swastika-shaped Buddhist seal, which flared with brilliant golden light.
Yet the demon showed no fear. It opened its mouth and spat a stream of the very beads it had just swallowed, shattering the holy seal to pieces!
The demon then dissolved into a ghostly shadow, passed through the bodies of the monks, and whipped up a sinister wind before merging back into Shen Jieye.
The Enlightened Monk and his disciples bled from all seven orifices and dropped dead on the spot.
After that, the ill repute of the Shen Residence was sealed. No one dared to go near it ever again.
The government, having exhausted all other options, finally spent a fortune to gather dozens of wandering Cultivators, Daoists, and high-ranking monks. Together, they cast a powerful, layered Array to seal the entire haunted mansion off from the rest of the world.
...
While the shadow play on stage held the attention of every curse in the house, Su Ling’er, positioned below, seized the opportunity to make her final preparations.
’If we can’t escape, then we have to fight to the death!’
She took out all the low-level talismans and Magical Artifacts she had acquired from the Guixi Sect. Around herself and the remaining survivors, she began setting up layer after layer of crude, but better-than-nothing, Defense Arrays.
Beside her, Wang Xiedi watched the reenactment of Shen Jieye’s tragic fate, his eyes filled with sympathy.
But he knew better. To ensure his senior sister survived, to help these two innocent commoners live, a man had to take responsibility and make a stand.
’The odds of winning are slim... actually, they’re nonexistent...’
But he still took out everything he owned, preparing to fight to the death.
Meanwhile, the group attempting a desperate escape had become separated.
The three surviving commoners, being mere mortals, quickly ran out of stamina and fell behind.
As for Li Chunfeng, his constant drawing and sheathing of his sword, combined with his advanced age, had left him even slower than the other two commoners.
Gradually, the distance between Li Chunfeng and the other two, and the group of Cultivators ahead, grew wider and wider.
"Mas... Master Cultivator!"
"Did... did you really volunteer to stay behind?"
The two commoners who had also fallen behind looked back at the gasping Li Chunfeng and asked,
Leaning against a wall, Li Chunfeng gasped for air. "Those... those brats... run... so... damn... fast... I... I’m just a normal person, too..."
"I never... even... thought... about... covering the rear..."
"Useless!"
One of the men’s expression changed in a flash, his reverence instantly replaced by scorn.
They had thought he was a hero, voluntarily staying behind to protect them. But it turned out he was just a burden the other Cultivators had abandoned.
"You can’t even keep up with us! No wonder the other Cultivators ditched you! We can’t expect anything from you! Useless!"
"Forget it, leave him!" the other man said. "Maybe this useless old man can buy us some time! Let’s go!"
"Right! Let’s go! Let the old fool be food for the ghosts!"
With that, the two men started shouting toward the figures in the distance, hoping the others might wait up.
"Master Cultivators! Hey, Master Cultivators up ahead! Wait for us!"
Without a second glance, the two men abandoned Li Chunfeng and took off running in the direction the other Cultivators had gone.
Even though they still couldn’t catch up, they held on to a single belief: as long as you’re not the last one, you still have a chance to live.
