Bai Nian tossed away the bone in her hand, forcing herself to endure the stench as she walked toward the end of the passage.
This corridor was clearly like a secret tunnel, roughly hewn from earth and stone with no sign of maintenance, as if someone had dug it out in secret.
As Bai Nian moved further from the entrance, the knocking of wooden boards grew louder, but the rhythm remained unchanged, just like before.
This brought her some relief.
Soon, after less than a hundred meters, the passage came to an end.
Bai Nian followed the ramp out and discovered she was in a bedroom.
The furnishings inside were simple: only a bed, and a massive screen splitting the room in two, blocking out the moonlight.
Yet the room was not pitch-black, for there were several curved trenches on the floor, and the liquid within burned with blue flames, driving away the darkness.
The bed was shrouded by a translucent mosquito net.
Looking through it, Bai Nian saw the quilt laid out flat on the bed, bulging as if someone was sleeping beneath it.
Her heartbeat instantly sped up, and her body grew tense and stiff.
She froze for a moment, and only when she saw that the bed remained motionless did she gather her courage to approach the bedside.
Bai Nian came to the foot of the bed and lifted the mosquito net.
She wasn’t foolish enough to pull up the quilt from the head of the bed.
What if something horrifying was inside…
She managed to tug up a corner of the quilt—lying there was a desiccated corpse.
It was a bald man, still dressed in monk’s robes.
The withered features made it clear he was an old man.
The abbot of Nan Yi Temple?!
No, why would there be a dried corpse here?
The conditions for a corpse to mummify are extremely harsh, unless it was specially treated or lay in a place as dry and hot as a desert.
The body before her clearly fit neither case.
Why hadn’t he turned into a skeleton like the construction workers?
Full of questions, Bai Nian examined the corpse closely.
She discovered two wounds at his neck, long since blackened, as if he had been bitten by a snake.
Staring at this, a flash of realization flickered in Bai Nian’s mind, but she couldn’t recall it immediately.
Aside from this, she also found a roster and several sheets of Talisman Paper under the pillow.
“How do I use this? I don’t even know Daoist arts.”
She picked up the yellow Talisman Paper, studying the red cinnabar symbols drawn upon them, which she could not understand.
Should she drip a bit of blood from her fingertip and shout “By law, manifest swiftly!”?
But I’m a girl—would this blood even work?
“Forget it, whatever.”
Bai Nian put the Talisman Paper in her pocket, then picked up the Name Ledger and flipped through it.
All it recorded were people’s names—the temple’s disciples, which incense patrons had donated how much, and so on.
It was the temple’s account book.
Just as Bai Nian thought she would find nothing useful, a few yellowed pages were tucked among the Name Ledger—pages covered in tiny handwriting, torn from a Diary she had seen earlier.
Bai Nian immediately squatted by the ground and began reading by the blue firelight.
“I stepped forward to check his injuries, wanting to ask Senior Brother the reason, but before I could speak, he collapsed in front of me, utterly lifeless.”
“Senior Brother told me not to trust Master. I hesitated. After much thought, I decided to hide Senior Brother’s body and keep the matter quiet for now. But after an entire night, Master never came…”
“In the morning, I discovered Senior Brother’s corpse had become unusually stiff, his fingernails black as ink and grown long. He was turning into a Jiangshi!”
“I can’t hide this any longer—if I do, everyone in the temple will die. I must find Master.”
Dong!
Dong!
The sound of knocking wood came again, interrupting Bai Nian’s reading.
Her heart lurched as realization finally struck—the corpse before her had been drained by a Jiangshi.
And that insistent knocking, so close by, was from a Jiangshi struggling to break free!
For someone as defenseless as Bai Nian, this was nothing short of disastrous.
But… perhaps it wasn’t so hopeless.
If she could use the Jiangshi to deal with the two Yin Spirits in the courtyard, then passing this ordeal would be much easier.
Bai Nian once again pulled out the Talisman Paper from her pocket and, cautiously skirting around the screen, entered the main hall of the house.
Before her stood a red Coffin.
Even though she’d mentally prepared herself, her heart still pounded with fear.
The Coffin was propped high and tightly bound in red Ink Line, crisscrossing every corner of the room like a spiderweb.
The lines and the Coffin were plastered with yellow Talisman Paper, which, under the ghastly moonlight, appeared eerie and horrifying.
By now, there were no more blue flames beneath Bai Nian’s feet, and the Jiangshi inside the Coffin seemed to sense a living presence, reacting ever more violently.
The pounding grew thunderous, and she could clearly see a crack forming on the lid of the Coffin—it was about to burst open.
Bai Nian glanced at the Talisman Paper in her hand, then at those pasted on the Coffin.
They were exactly the same.
These must be the leftovers from sealing the Jiangshi before.
Without hesitation, she gripped the Talisman Paper, ducked under the Ink Line, and came right up to the Coffin, pasting it on without a second thought.
The corners of Bai Nian’s mouth curled up, but before she could feel pleased—
Suddenly, the Coffin lid exploded with a deafening bang, flying up and smashing into the ceiling.
In that instant, every strand of Ink Line snapped, and all the Talisman Paper burst into spontaneous blue flame.
“Damn!”
Bai Nian reacted instantly, turning to run for her life, not daring to look back.
This was no time for joking around.
Dust filled the room as moonlight streamed in.
From within it emerged a dark green-black figure—clothes tattered, face rotten, long black fingernails extending from its hands.
A pungent stench of death filled the air as it let out a guttural roar, moving its stiff body and hunting for its prey.
In a split second, it spotted Bai Nian.
Its legs bent and tensed, shattering the stone tiles underfoot as it leaped straight at her.
Bai Nian felt a gust of cold wind and an overwhelming sense of danger engulfed her heart.
Her heart pounded wildly—she knew she could never outrun a Jiangshi.
She clenched her teeth, steeled her heart, and, clutching the Talisman Paper, turned to face it head-on.
“Let’s do this!”