"What is that?"
These days, Hu Ma had skills and was daring, but now in the middle of nowhere, in the dead of night, seeing such a bizarre and sinister paper man still sent a shiver down his spine.
It seed to be a natural human instinct, and sotis it didn't have much to do with one's capabilities.
However, capable people recovered quickly as well. He cald his breathing, suppressed the sudden panic, gripped the hilt of his knife, and asked softly.
"It's the evil spirit's ghostly maidservants coming."
Only when the two paper n floated back into the forest did Aunt Zhang lower her voice and reply, "Looks like there might be a Great Evil Spirit nearby. It sensed the scent of humans and sent out the little ghosts to lure us out."
"I set up an incense array, so they can't find us and can only keep wandering around here."
Hu Ma's mind settled slightly, and he understood what she ant.
The first ti he saw the maidservants, they appeared as two people. If ordinary people were present, they might perceive them as two maidservants carrying lanterns. It had just rained, the air was cold and damp, and everyone was weary, their minds muddled. Perhaps they would truly, groggily follow the maidservants for hot soup.
Of course, once you entered the forest, who'd be drinking whom was uncertain.
It was thanks to Aunt Zhang's warning that he initially saw them as people, but with alertness in his heart, they turned back into paper n upon a second look.
Hu Ma asked, "So what do we do now?"
Aunt Zhang looked at the paper maidservants and the light they held disappearing into the forest, then turned around, gently touching Hu Ma's eyes with her fingers.
Hu Ma allowed her fingers to press against his eyes, feeling their roughness. It seed she had done much farm work. But after she wiped his eyelids, sothing remained, slightly damp, and his eyes felt cold.
Just as he was about to ask what it was, Aunt Zhang had already lowered her palm, pressing on his arm.
Hu Ma imdiately understood and looked into the distance again.
This ti, he couldn't even see the paper maidservants anymore, only two ghostly flas floating out of the forest. They bobbed and paused, wandering outside the forest. He could faintly hear a woman's voice in the mountain wind, "Passing... guest..."
It seed that these two ghostly flas were the true form. Everything else he had seen before, be it the two maidservants or the two paper n he saw after calming down, was just the evil spirit's transformation.
Indeed, as Aunt Zhang had said, they kept floating out of the forest and circling back and forth. It was as if they knew humans were present but couldn't find them. They grew increasingly anxious, circling like a whirlwind.
"What I applied was coffin bottom mud, which lets you see the true form of the evil spirit."
Aunt Zhang took advantage of them being slightly further away to say to Hu Ma, "Keep an eye on the people behind us, make sure they don't make any noise."
"Coffin bottom mud?"
Hu Ma carefully touched his eyes, feeling a bit uneasy, and asked, "Does applying this make it visible?"
"Coffin bottom mud, grapefruit leaves, ox tears—all let people see them."
Aunt Zhang, used to Hu Ma's inquisitive nature, explained softly, "The incense array I burned makes the evil spirit unable to see us."
Hu Ma looked forward and saw that in front of Aunt Zhang, four or five bundles of incense were already burning. They were dotted around outside, with incense smoke rising. The glowing red spots were especially conspicuous in the night, yet strangely, the two ghostly flas didn't notice them. They floated back and forth, sotis running into the smoke from the incense, then drifting away again.
"Incense array?"
Hu Ma watched carefully, morizing the number and arrangent of the incense, then turned back to look at the coachman and the laborers behind him.
These people were really lucky, still snoring away, completely unaware of the bizarre and eerie situation they were experiencing.
The donkey, however, was awake, its tail tightly clamped.
Housekeeper Zhou had also woken up and was leaning against the wall. Despite his age, he was sensible; although startled, he didn't make a sound. In the darkness, it was hard to see each other clearly, but he gestured to Hu Ma, indicating he wanted to help.
Who knows what kind of evil spirit this is in the forest; how does it compare to the Red Lantern Lady...
Hu Ma observed the people behind him, prepared to knock them out if they suddenly awoke and made noise, alerting the evil spirit. That would spell disaster.
Yet, his curiosity towards the two ghostly flas grew. According to Aunt Zhang, these were just little ghosts sent out to find humans, aning the one inside the forest was the real Great Evil Spirit that wanted to devour people... But with his judgnt, he couldn't discern how powerful this evil spirit was.
So what to do? Should he seize the opportunity to strike?
Thinking about it, he looked at Aunt Zhang, only to find her continuously tending to the incense array in front of her. Sotis the incense burned slowly, sotis quickly. She was focused entirely, one hand holding a Fire Stick and the other reaching into her bag. Whenever One Incense was about to burn out, she promptly replaced it. This kept the array intact, and the ghostly flas continued to hover.
After enduring for well over an hour, the two ghostly flas grew more anxious, suddenly bursting with a POP.
Imdiately, a strange wind started howling from within the forest. The wind blew so hard the trees swayed violently, grass and stones rustling, and the incense in front of them flared brightly.
Soon, sothing seed to be slowly flowing out from the forest.
In the darkness, Hu Ma stared wide-eyed. He was unable to discern what it was or if there was anything tangible at all. However, he could feel sothing erging from the forest, squeezing through the trees, its sinister gaze scanning them.
Could it be the Great Evil Spirit from the forest getting impatient and coming out to look for itself?
No explanation was needed from Aunt Zhang; Hu Ma understood what was happening and quickly looked back.
The snoring coachman and the two laborers were visibly uncomfortable from the gust of eerie wind, even as they lay still in their sleep. Two of them turned, shifting from cramped sleeping positions to curling their limbs together. The third, however, swayed slightly, appearing as if he was about to wake up. Hu Ma hurriedly raised the hilt of his knife, ready to knock the man on his forehead.
But Housekeeper Zhou gestured urgently, reached out, and appeared to press so point on the man's neck. The man on the verge of waking up drifted back to sleep.
Hu Ma gave Housekeeper Zhou an approving glance. This Housekeeper Zhou, originating from the Trick Door, indeed had a few tricks up his sleeve.
But, turning back, his heart sank. He saw sothing erge from the forest, and the incense array in front of Aunt Zhang was burning through rapidly. So many incense sticks burning so quickly couldn't possibly be refilled in ti.
He hurriedly released the grip on his knife, picking up the Wooden Sword, ready to act.
Yet Aunt Zhang, seeing the incense array about to run out, didn't add more incense. Instead, she sat silently, gripping sothing with both hands and pressing it to her forehead, silently chanting sothing.
Hu Ma felt a sudden surge of cold, eerie energy around them.
The smoke from the incense that was about to burn out didn't scatter in the night wind but gathered in one place, enveloping their front. It was like an ethereal, semi-transparent curtain, shielding them from the evil spirit in the forest.
Hu Ma didn't dare make a sound, fearing he would interrupt Aunt Zhang's casting.
He watched as the evil spirit erging from the forest road around them, observing for so ti before quietly retreating back into the forest. The surrounding temperature gradually rose, and the chilling cold that seeped into one's bones dissipated.
Aunt Zhang, too, slowly released her grip and packed away her item, replenishing the incense array.
Hu Ma's expected fierce battle never materialized. Aunt Zhang remained vigilant throughout the night, watching the happenings within the forest, while the entity in the forest seed to give up after failing to locate them.
Ti slipped by gradually, and as the darkest hours faded, a hint of dawn appeared in the east, bringing a collective sigh of relief.
"Is it over?"
It was only then that Hu Ma finally used a normal tone to ask Aunt Zhang.
"Yes," Aunt Zhang replied, "It couldn't find us, so it went back. We were quite lucky to escape this ordeal with the help of the incense array."
"So this is what a Ghost Walker's journey in the jianghu looks like?"
Hu Ma's curiosity was piqued. If it were a Shousui man facing such a situation, they might have to fight with real weapons. Of course, a Shousui man could refine life into death, avoiding such scenarios.
"Such evil spirits that can control little ghosts and transform to lure in humans are generally very formidable."
Aunt Zhang, a bit embarrassed, explained, "Especially in the deep of night, if we were to engage it, we might not stand a chance."
"Besides, with so many people around, if any of them got hurt, it wouldn't be worth it."
Hu Ma thought about it and agreed that Aunt Zhang's approach was truly prudent and reliable.
He patiently waited a while longer, enduring until daylight arrived. The laborers and the coachman also woke up, stretching with a yawn, complaining, "Sleeping in this mountain cave was uncomfortable, and on a rainy day, my rheumatism is going to flare up."
"But it's fortunate to have such a skilled Aunt Zhang with us; otherwise, spending the night in the wild might cost us half our lives. Now we managed a safe night's sleep."
"We can brag about this to the old folks back ho."
While you all slept soundly through the night, Aunt Zhang stayed up all night on watch...
Hu Ma found it amusing but saw no need to scare them with the truth.
He also hadn't slept a wink but could manage, so he got up to gather firewood, building a fire to heat their dry rations. Watching his surroundings attentively, he noticed Aunt Zhang wasn't resting. Instead, she was taking red cloth strips from her bag and tying them to conspicuous spots on the surrounding trees.
Hu Ma brought her so heated dry rations and asked, "Aunt Zhang, what's this for?"
"To warn passersby..."
Aunt Zhang replied, "There's a powerful, man-eating evil spirit here; no one should linger.
"Alas, these troubled tis keep busy beyond asure.
"My mother said, back in the day, encountering such circumstances ant probing the spirit's depths, either making it behave or getting rid of it."
Reviews
All reviews (0)