With his mind made up, the young man feigned sincerity, "Stop crying! I will report this matter truthfully to my master. The dead should find peace, and my master is not an unkind person! Now, pray that we can make it through the night!"
The young man tried to comfort the Liu Family, while Sang Que noticed the young man's demeanor, lowered his gaze, and discreetly hid a fruit knife in his sleeve.
"My Taoist name is Ming Zhang. Thank you for your help earlier, Miss. May I know your name?" Ming Zhang walked out from the inner room and said.
"Mulan."
Sang Que replied casually. When she was in the first year of high school, she once became famous for her bravery outside of school and was nicknamed "Sang Mulan" ever since.
Ming Zhang squinted his eyes slightly and took another look at Sang Que.
Ming Zhang noticed that her clothing was different from the people here, and her accent was peculiar.
Her skin was even fairer and smoother than that of a wealthy young lady, but her hands bore calluses, her stance was stable, and she had considerable strength, clearly a practitioner.
"May I ask where Miss Mulan is from? Why are you in Black Mountain Village at night?"
Ming Zhang continued to probe, silently making some calculations in his mind.
Sang Que's eyes were calm, suppressing all emotions and feigning a cool demeanor.
"Lost."
The less said, the better. It's best to let this young man named Ming Zhang imagine and rationalize everything on his own. Revealing too much information would not benefit her current situation.
Before Ming Zhang could ask more, Sang Que turned her gaze to the talisman on the front door.
"The talisman, it's burning."
Upon hearing this, Ming Zhang's heart skipped a beat. He rushed over to check and was horrified to see the talisman paper on the door and windows burning rapidly.
"Damn, that evil spirit is definitely just outside the yard and hasn't left." Ming Zhang peered outside through the crack in the door.
Sang Que thought to herself, if it's not outside the yard, it's right in front of you, looking up at you.
"At this rate, we won't last until dawn. That evil spirit will break in and kill us all. It's no ordinary evil spirit; it doesn't follow the rule of not entering houses at night."
In folklore, whenever a new house was built, a sacrificial ceremony was held on the day the beams were topped off. Chickens were sacrificed, and gods were worshipped so that the completed house, with doors and windows shut and a lamp lit, could ward off evil spirits.
At night when evil spirits roamed, staying indoors and keeping quiet would generally keep one safe.
But there are exceptions. Some powerful or special evil spirits won't follow this rule and can still enter houses at night to kill.
Ming Zhang spun around suddenly, staring at Sang Que with a hint of greed in his eyes.
"Miss Mulan, do you have something on you that can deal with evil spirits? With its help, plus my talismans, we can definitely break through. As long as we get back to my master, our lives will be safe."
Sang Que immediately thought of the amulet around her neck, which was a Yansheng coin, similar to ancient square hole copper coins.
It was a glossy black, with dark red patterns and characters all over it.
She didn't know which era it was from, but she had worn it since childhood.
She had studied it and learned that Yansheng coins in ancient times were used for blessings, exorcism, ghost-slaying, and had various types and uses.
The copper coin she had bore an Eight Diagrams on one side and a 27-character Taoist Magic Spell on the other.
At Qin Lu's house, when hands were placed on her shoulders, reciting those 27 characters allowed her to escape, but she was sent to this unfamiliar place.
From childhood to now, she often recited that spell, feeling it calmed her mind, but it had no other effect.
Only this time with Qin Lu, something strange happened, perhaps because it involved the kind of evil spirit Ming Zhang mentioned that the Yansheng coin activated.
Of course, Sang Que couldn't hand the Yansheng coin to Ming Zhang since it was her trump card—her ticket back.
After some thought, Sang Que said, "I don't have any special items on me, and there are more than one evil spirits outside; there are two more in the trees."
Sang Que was fishing for information, wanting to know why only she could see them.
"Two?!"
Ming Zhang exclaimed in shock and looked through the door crack at the old locust tree in the courtyard, seeing only Liu Caifeng's corpse through his eyes.
"Could it be that you've already opened the Ghost Gate and entered the Nine Netherworld? If so, how deep have you gone?" Ming Zhang asked excitedly.
Sang Que felt a faint sense of jealousy and aggression in Ming Zhang's eyes, weak but suppressed, yet present.
She is a martial artist, very sensitive to this.
The Ghost Gate and Lower Nine Netherworld that Ming Zhang mentioned, could it be the place she has been falling into in her dreams, is that the Nine Netherworld?
The Nine Netherworld Hell's Nine Netherworld?
From the name, it seems the Nine Netherworld must have nine levels.
Do people who enter the Nine Netherworld get to see the so-called Evil Spirits?
Why not just call them 'ghosts'?
Why can't Ming Zhang, who knows how to exorcise Evil Spirits and use talismans, see them?
Is it related to the levels of the Lower Nine Netherworld?
Or is there another reason?
Sang Que had many questions, but for the moment she put them aside, maintaining her cold and silent demeanor, and looked again at the talisman paper that was already half-burned.
Ming Zhang followed her gaze, cursed under his breath, "Damn it! There's no time, if we don't think of something, we're all going to die!"
Ming Zhang's breathing was heavy, pacing back and forth, gritting his teeth while thinking, and murmuring.
"I have just entered the first layer of the Nine Netherworld, but can't see the two Evil Spirits outside, which means these two Evil Spirits are more advanced than me, either they are from deeper within the first layer or from the Second Layer."
"If it's the Second Layer, then it's beyond my capacity to fight, one contact and I'll die, my master has to step in to have a chance to suppress it. So, right now, we must figure out a way to get to where my master lives, from here to the end of the village, if we run fast, it would at least take... the time of a short incense stick."
Sang Que thought for a moment, there are three interpretations of an incense stick: five minutes, thirty minutes, one hour.
The short incense stick Ming Zhang mentioned is most likely five minutes.
Ming Zhang pondered for a moment, glanced inside the room, the sound of crying had already weakened, he withdrew his sight and looked at Sang Que, knowing she would not voluntarily take out the item on her body that drives away Evil Spirits.
However, they had no retreat, they must immediately flee outside.
Ming Zhang dashed into the inner room, dragged the Liu Family out, both were terrified, trembling uncontrollably.
Ming Zhang suppressed his anger and shouted, "All this is caused by you indulging Liu Caifeng, if you still want to live, follow me and escape through the back window."
Old Liu and his wife collapsed, their legs went weak, sitting paralyzed on the ground, they knew nothing either, Cai Feng had locked them inside the room, who knew Cai Feng would cause such a disaster.
The old woman wailed, "The outside is full of Evil Spirits seeking lives, how dare we go out."
Ming Zhang gritted his teeth, if Sang Que wasn't watching, he'd want to kill these two venomous old folks with a slash each!
"You do know that all Evil Spirits, especially the lower-level ones, kill following specific rules, as long as you don't trigger these rules, you have a chance to survive."
"The Suicide Rope is easiest to deal with, just don't have suicidal thoughts or look directly at the corpse's face hanging below the rope, and it won't attack you. The toughest now is another unknown Evil Spirit, that one has started producing Evil Mist, Evil Spirits with Mist are hard to deal with."
"Ordinary people will get lost within the Evil Mist and can never walk out, but the Evil Spirit is free to move in and out within the Mist's range, but I still have my last Exorcism Talisman, as long as we run fast enough, reaching my master shouldn't be an issue."
Upon mentioning this, Ming Zhang just wanted to curse, if he had known the Evil Spirit would invade, he wouldn't have wasted the talisman sealing doors and windows.
Although the Exorcism Talisman is limited in power, taking a gamble might still provide a way to escape, earlier he also couldn't find the donkey cart with his ink bucket and iron sword, realizing the ferocity of the Evil Spirits, that's why he retreated.
Unfortunately, it's too late to say anything now!
Ming Zhang paused, "The Evil Spirit with the Mist will temporarily suppress the surrounding weaker Evil Spirits, though I don't know the rules for its killing, but as long as it targets and chases us, other Evil Spirits won't get close, serving as a kind of protection."
Just as Ming Zhang finished his words, before the Liu Family could respond, the talisman paper on the doors and windows, less than a third of it remained, suddenly ignited with bright flames.
An eerie wind appeared out of nowhere, causing the lamp flames indoors to flicker, turning into a ghastly green.
Seeing this, Ming Zhang trembled all over, his face turning pale, quickly backing away from the door and window, while the Liu Family shrank together in fear.
Sang Que saw the two old wooden doors rapidly decay, dark red damp stains appeared, the stench of rot became more intense.
The profound black outside, like mist, surged in through the door crack.
"That Evil Spirit... where is it now?" Ming Zhang asked Sang Que nervously, unable to suppress the trembling in his voice.
The indoor temperature dropped suddenly, fear filled everyone's eyes covered with a layer of frost.
Sang Que gripped the fruit knife hidden in her sleeve, cautiously backed away, her eyes fixed on the door.
"Outside the door... it has entered!"